Alison Moss - Cincinnati Real Estate

Dateline White Plains, NY – Bank Lost a Mortgage!

When banks decided to pool mortgages, slice them and dice them, and sell them off in pieces (mortgage backed securities) they generate a substantial chain of ownership that became more complex with each security sale. The process was so complex that buyers of these securities had little knowledge of what was inside, and more importantly they may lack the documentation to prove they actually own the title to the homes that are backing up these securities.

In White Plains, NY a home owner going through a chapter 13 bankruptcy may have gotten some good news courtesy of these complex securities. PHH Mortgage Bank filed a claim for $461,000 against the home owner, and asked for a foreclosure so they could reposes the home and sell it to recover the money. The judge in the case ask PHH to prove they actually owned the Title and mortgage lien, but PHH could not furnish enough proof.

WHY?!? Because PHH purchased the Mortgage lien in the form of a Mortgage Backed Security and it was not able to show a clean paper trail proving their clear ownership of the debt and rights to reposes the property.

HOWEVER!

The ruling says that PHH dose not have the ownership of the debt or rights to the property … but it also did not say that the homeowner has those rights either. In short the house is in limbo. No bank can legaly take the home away from her, but at the same time she does not have clear title and rights to SELL the property to anyone else. To settle the title dispute there are bound to be more court dates and law suits. The real question is how many more cases like this will we see in the coming moonths and years.

Case-Shiller Market report and our Cincinnati Real Estate Market

Yesterday the Case-Shiller home price index came out, and it had some positive numbers. The C-S index looks at 20 major metropolitan real estate markets and watches the change in home sale prices on a monthly basis. The index provides numbers that are normalized for the home prices in the first quarter of 2000.

Because Cincinnati is not one of the markets observed by the index, we have o draw some conclusions from our closest neighbor, which is Cleveland. The below chart shows the decline and slow rebound of the housing market over the last 12 months in Cleveland.

Case Shiller Home Price index July 2009 - Cleveland

What we see in the numbers is that in February, March, and April of this year home values in Cleveland fell below the their 2000 value levels for the same months. But we also see an increase in home values as the spring and summer months arrive. In Cincinnati we saw a similar trend, driven by a number of factors including the season, first time home buyer credit, and improving macro-economic conditions.

If you have been thinking about moving up into a large home this may be the time to make the move. As prices begin to rise proportionately more expensive homes will gain in price faster than lower priced homes. A $500,000 home will cost $550,000 if it gains 10% in value, while a $200,000 home will cost $220,000. That is a $30,000 difference. call me today if you are interested in deeper local market analysis! 513-518-1140

Selling a Home In Cincinnati: August Report

The Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors recently issued their monthly report. The news is pretty much what we all in the real estate field expected. Prices are still slightly depressed, but home sale volume is slightly better than last year. August 2009 was slightly better than August 2008 in terms of the number of homes sold. The average cost of real estate sold is lower this year, due in part to the volume of short sales and foreclosures being purchased.

There is wide belief that the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit has helped increase sales volumes and help avert further decline in our area’s home prices. The below graph shows the steady seasonal increase in sales that we see in our market during the warmer months of spring and summer. I am trying to impress on my clients that although the tax credit ends on November 1st, they truly need to have contracts written and the financing process started no later than the middle of October, and even that is cutting it close.