Pending U.S. home sales rose in June for the fifth straight month, another encouraging sign of life for the embattled U.S. housing market, the National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday.
For June, the Realtors group said its pending home sales index rose 3.6 percent to 94.6, from an upwardly revised reading of 91.3 in May. The last time there were five consecutive monthly gains was July 2003.
The results were far better than analysts expected. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the index to come in at 91.2.
The report tracks signed contracts to purchase previously owned homes and is considered a barometer for future home sales. Typically there is a one- to two- month lag between a sales contract and a completed deal.
The jump in pending home sales coincides with other positive trends in the residential real estate market.
"The housing market is healing and the patient is getting healthier at an accelerating pace," said economist Joel L. Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors Inc.
For the first time in five years, home resales have risen for three months in a row, increasing almost 4 percent in June. Low prices, attractive mortgage rates and a first-time homebuyers tax credit of up to $8,000 have kick-started sales.
"Because housing is so affordable in today's market, job security and the first-time buyer tax credit are bigger factors in influencing home sales," said Lawrence Yun, the Realtors group's chief economist, in a statement.
Also Tuesday, homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc. said its fiscal third-quarter losses shrank from the year-ago period, as it took smaller charges against the falling values of its land and unsold homes.
D.R. Horton's results followed similar numbers from Pulte Homes Inc. and Centex Corp., which reported quarterly earnings Monday that showed new-home orders picked up during the first half of the year.
Yun said he expects existing home sales to gradually rise over the balance of the year, with conditions varying around the country.
"It appears home sales are on a sounder footing and inventory is gradually being absorbed," he said.
Regionally, the pending home sales index jumped 7.1 percent to 100.7 in the South and 2.9 percent to 100.4 in the West. The index inched up 0.4 percent to 81.2 in the Northeast, and up 0.8 percent to 89.9 in the Midwest.
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Associated Press
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Internal Revenue Code changes have averaged one--per--day over the past eight years ---- with 500 revisions in 2008 alone. Who's counting? Nina Olson, the National Taxpayer Advocate, announced the statistics in her annual report to Congress. An independent organization within the IRS, the Taxpayer Advocate Service helps taxpayers resolve complaints with the agency when problems cannot be resolved through normal channels.
Will Advocate Olson's reports convince our lawmakers to draw back from their drawing board? Not during these troubled times. Expect them to enact even more alterations to an already confusing code in the immediate future.
How do individuals who need to focus on tax planning all year long keep on top of all those major and minor modifications? Most decide to become clients of tax professionals -- advice -- givers adept at assuaging affluent angst and able to avoid pitfalls adroitly while capitalizing on opportunities to diminish, delay or deep--six amounts that otherwise would swell IRS coffers. And that kind of advice does not come cheap. In locales like my neck of the woods near New York City, such clients should expect to pay hourly fees of several hundred dollars and up for guidance.
Help is available from lawyers, CPAs, financial planners, or Enrolled Agents -- persons licensed to practice before the IRS, who are neither attorneys nor CPAs, but who are former IRS employees or have passed rigorous tax examinations administered by the IRS.
Fortunately, pricey professionals are not the only source of succor for Americans apprehensive about their financial futures and their retirement prospects. There are alternatives that are easier on the pocket. One option is to sign up at places like high schools and community colleges for inexpensive adult education courses on various aspects of personal finance -- for instance, tactics that trim taxes or methods for investment selection.
But people who need financial advice should be wary of free lunch seminars that are actually showcases for hucksters. Seminar sponsors usually promote their programs as educational events, with free meals thrown in. But the seminars generally feature hard -- sell pitches for substandard investments designed to enrich the sponsors -- many may be Uncle Bernie wannabes -- and impoverish investors, especially unwitting seniors.
It is also possible to obtain advice at no cost from knowledgeable, disinterested professionals. This resource is available to an ever--increasing number of individuals who belong to affinity groups or work for companies that offer such advice. Individuals eligible for assistance can call centers staffed primarily by financial planners who offer advice only -- untainted by compensation linked to commissions on product sales.
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REALTY TIMES
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It's not a very common question, but one that is being asked more often than not as homeowners navigate their way through today's market. The question is simple: How do you get a lender to speed up the foreclosure process, but the answer is oftentimes hard to put a finger on.
But when you think about it, prolonging the process can be costly for a homeowner, who likely does not have the money to pay for maintenance and utilities.
This is the situation in which Clark Engle, a resident of Wayne, Pennsylvania finds himself, and I discovered, after simply scraping a thin layer from the surface, that it is a problem homeowners in high-foreclosure areas increasingly are facing.
Engle owns a couple of condos in Florida that he bought as investments when he lived there, but when he relocated to Pennsylvania in 2006, he tried to sell and then rent the condos, not finding any luck.
To say the Florida market is glutted is an understatement. Homes, especially condos, began plummeting in value about three years ago, and today, for example, a unit in the St. Petersburg/Tampa area purchased for $350,000 in 2005 is selling for $90,000, according to Pinellas County records.
"I can't keep them, rent them, or sell them," Engle said.
About 14 months ago, Engle was served with foreclosure papers by his lender, but nothing has happened since. Because there are so many homes in foreclosure, he assumes that "the bank obviously does not want to take them over because then they become responsible for the back taxes, condo fees, and maintenance until there is a market."
So, on his lawyer's advice, Engle continues to pay the liability insurance and the utilities-more than $1,000 a year.
"I didn't want to ask (the lawyer) to write a letter unless it's really going to make the bank move faster," Engle said. "If he could cite some law or legal precedent that the bank can't leave these in limbo, perhaps that might do something."
Bankrate.com columnist Holden Lewis, who is based in South Florida, said he's not sure the process can be pushed along. "Florida has judicial foreclosures," Lewis said. "Courts have backlogs, law firms are probably overwhelmed, too. Tax receipts are down. I doubt anyone is spending stimulus money to hire more court personnel to speed up foreclosures."
According to Florida law, the foreclosure process typically should take only five months; thanks to the backlog, it is taking 10 months or more. That may be good news for people trying to avoid foreclosure, but it's bad news for people like Engle who have been caught in the real estate squeeze and want out.
Rick Sharga, chief economist at RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosures nationally, said Engle's assumption that the bank wants to avoid more costs is right on the money. "I don't believe there's any way to compel them to conduct the (process) faster than they want to." Engle "could try discussing a deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure arrangement with the lender, suggesting that it would save the bank thousands of dollars compared to a formal foreclosure and maybe allow them to come out ahead," said Sharga. "If that doesn't work, Engle will just have to wait it out."
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RISMEDIA, July 23, 2009
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As unemployment and home foreclosures continue to rise and threaten the economic recovery, the mortgage insurance industry is stepping up its ongoing efforts to keep families in their homes. The industry has been at the forefront in developing systems and procedures to support the U.S. Treasury's Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) and Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Since the release of the details of the HARP and HAMP programs earlier this year, mortgage insurers, lenders and servicers have been working together to implement this important initiative. While these programs are in their early stages, initial results have been encouraging.
In partnership with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSEs), the mortgage insurance industry is working alongside servicers to modify or refinance troubled loans under the HARP and HAMP programs. In addition, mortgage insurers have developed back-up underwriting capabilities and standardized reporting systems to provide distressed homeowners a "second look" if they have been turned down for a loan modification on a non-GSE loan.
"It is more vital than ever for the housing finance industry to do its part to create stability in the marketplace," said Kevin D. Schneider, president of Mortgage Insurance Companies of America (MICA). "MICA's members are working closely with borrowers, lenders, investors, credit counselors and government agencies to modify or refinance existing loans to make them more affordable," he noted. "In 2008 alone, mortgage insurers, working with servicers, were able to save almost 100,000 people from losing their homes. The total sum of those mortgage workouts was nearly $18 billion."
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RISMEDIA, July 24, 2009
For more information about foreclosures and short sales in Dallas, please visit the website at www.DFWForeclosureGroup.com or call 214-365-6500 or email Info@DFWForeclosureGroup.com.
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| Recent Data released this week....the market is turning.....while we are not out of the woods yet, and we will bump along the bottom for the remainder of 2009, the days of the 'buyer's market' are numbered...... |
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For more information about foreclosures and short sales in Dallas, please visit the website at www.DFWForeclosureGroup.com or call 214-365-6500 or email Info@DFWForeclosureGroup.com.
Dallas TX Real Estate Guide www.dallasnative.com
Dallas TX Blog www.dallastexasrealestatenow.com
Are you facing foreclosure? www.dfwforeclosuregroup.com Email Us info@dallasnative.com
Mary Beth has a knowledge of the Dallas real estate market that only a Dallas native can.
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