The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) last week extended its temporary “anti-flipping” waiver an additional two years to Dec. 31, 2014, enabling investors to purchase and renovate foreclosed and abandoned homes and resell the rehabbed property within 90 days. Previously, the… Continue Reading
Many people who file for bankruptcy think that it will be many years before they can obtain a mortgage or refinance an existing home loan, if they ever can – perhaps because notice of a bankruptcy filing typically stays on… Continue Reading
The Census Bureau said housing starts and permits rose substantially in August. Separately, sales of previously occupied homes climbed 7.8 percent from a year ago, according to the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Read the full story
After years of having too many homes and not enough buyers, real estate agents in California now have the opposite problem – too many buyers and not enough homes for sale. The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) reported Monday that… Continue Reading
The California Composite Index of Consumer Confidence increased to 94.2 in the third quarter of 2012 compared with the second quarter revised reading of 89, according to Chapman University. Consumer confidence has been increasing steadily since hitting a low of… Continue Reading
With rates for 30-year mortgages hovering below 4 percent since last October, all kinds of homeowners are trying to get their monthly mortgages reduced, say lenders and mortgage experts. Along with months of record-breaking low interest rates, other factors are… Continue Reading
Unless Congress and the California State legislature take action, a break for mortgage principal forgiven in loan modifications or short sales will expire at year’s end. The mortgage debt forgiveness issue is only one of approximately 60 expiring tax provisions… Continue Reading
When the housing market began declining, many people claimed that adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) were the cause. However, recently they’ve been making a comeback, especially among affluent borrowers. An ARM offers an introductory period in which the borrower pays a lower… Continue Reading
Investors have the cash and the manpower working in their favor. They’re buying up parts of neighborhoods in hopes of turning quick profits, and in their own words, moving a once-stagnant market forward. For first-time home buyers, they’re seen as… Continue Reading
California home sale prices came close to a 4-year high in July, with the pace of sales year-over-year growing for the fourth month in a row, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® reported. The median home price in July for an… Continue Reading