Recent Real Estate Reports
What Is Going On At The VA?
Comedy Skills Can Help You Improve Your Appraisal Practice
Appraiser Help’s 2014 Directory of AMCs and National Appraisal Companies is Now Available!
5 Random Tweets Guaranteed To Make You Smie
Rates & Dates
Ask Angie
Tell us what you think!
Closing Remarks
Recent Real Estate Reports
Last Thursday, CoreLogic reported that April foreclosure inventory was down nationally by 35% from one year ago to approximately 694,000 homes (1.8% of all homes with a mortgage) from 1.1 million homes (2.7% of all homes with a mortgage). This represented the 30th consecutive month of declines in the inventory of foreclosed homes with the past 16 months showing declines of 20% or more. Pre-foreclosure filings also decreased by 28.6% in April from one year ago, declining from 100,000 to 71,000. This represented a 69% drop from the peak of 229,000 in March of 2009. CoreLogic noted that this was still substantially higher than the average monthly figure of 13,000 from the 2000 to 2005 period.
Arizona posted the largest year-over-year decline (-55.6%) followed by Utah (-53%), Minnesota (-51.3%), Georgia (-50.1%) and Nevada (-49.0%). Declines in foreclosure inventory occurred in all 50 states and in Washington D.C. and 45 states had decreases of more than 25%. A link to the CoreLogic report is found here: Foreclosure Inventory Down 35% Nationally From a Year Ago
One week earlier, CoreLogic reported a general decline in institutional investor activity in the markets they have been following with notable exceptions such as Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis and Miami. The share of sales attributed to institutional investor in Miami jumped from 6.8% in March of 2013 to 17.2% in March of this year, a spike attributed to the acquisition of entire condominium developments by investors. On the other hand, institutional investor activity in Phoenix fell to 3.6% in March from a high of 13.2% in July 2012 due to rising home prices and declining inventory, a scenario found in many California and Florida markets (Miami notwithstanding).
One day before that report, CoreLogic released another which showed declines in sales from April 2013 to April 2014, particularly with distressed sales which declined by 50%. Overall, sales declined by 2%. Short sales fell by 88% to just 0.9% of all transfers with REO sales falling by 25% to 8.9% of all sales. The largest share of distressed transactions were found in Michigan (28.5%) followed by Illinois (24.8%), Florida (23.2%), Nevada (23.0%) and Georgia (21.3%) and constituted just 1% of all transfers.
Last week, the FHFA reported that home prices rose by 1.3% nationally in the first quarter despite weak overall activity with the Pacific Division showing the greatest increase (2.1%) and the Middle Atlantic Division the least (0.1%). A link to the entire report which includes detailed breakdowns is found here: Federal Housing Finance Agency News Release (Opens a PDF File)
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What Is Going On At The VA?
With the recent attention given to the problems in the Veterans Administration, it is probably a good time to point out that only 6% of appraisers nationally are on the VA appraisal roster. The VA is in need of appraisers in many parts of the country and by preparing VA appraisals, appraisers can diversify their practices while performing a service to their country. Interested appraisers should contact their VA Regional Loan Center.
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Superior E&O insurance from the Landy Insurance Agency- click here to apply and receive your policy in about two hours!
Comedy Skills Can Help You Improve Your Appraisal Practice
Steve Cody, co-founder and CEO of Peppercomm, a New York strategic communications and marketing firm appears to have had appraiser relations with AMCs in mind with this blog post from last week titled “3 Comedy Techniques that can improve your leadership skills”: 3 Comedy Techniques That Can Improve Your Leadership Skills
Appraiser Help has Released its 2014 Directory of AMC’s and National Appraisal Companies. Click the link above to learn more and to download your copy today!
Appraiser Help’s 2014 Directory of AMCs and National Appraisal Companies is Now Available!
To help appraisers evaluate how AMCs will work for their appraisal practices, we have compiled this expanded directory of AMCs and National Appraisal Companies, listing complete, contact information and other details for each listing.
If you’re looking to maintain or expand your mortgage appraisal practice, our Directory of Appraisal Management and National Appraisal Companies is a great place to start. Order it today for $69.99 and download it immediately!
Please visit our website now to make your purchase securely or contact us at (877) 434-2825 for more information on this comprehensive directory!
5 Random Tweets Guaranteed To Make You Smile
1 ) Weather forecast for tonight: dark.
2 ) The reason there are two senators for each state is so that one can be the designated driver.
3 ) When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
4 ) If it’s the Psychic Network, why do they need a phone number?
5 ) If you believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.
Rates & Dates
Freddie Mac, the Mortgage Brokers Association (MBA) and HSH Market Trends reported that mortgage interest rates generally declined in their most recent surveys.
On May 29th, Freddie Mac reported that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 4.12% from 4.14% the previous week. They also noted that last year at this time the 30-year rate was at 3.81%. Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist of Freddie Mac noted that: "Fixed mortgage rates eased a bit for the fifth consecutive week as reports that existing home sales are up 1.3 percent but not as much as expected. However, new home sales rose 6.4 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 433,000, which followed an upward revision of 11,000 units for the prior two months.
Also, as the spring home buying season continues, we see stronger consumer confidence as house prices remain on the rise. The Conference Board reported that confidence among consumers rose in May after dipping in April. Meanwhile, the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite index rose 0.9 percent in March, above the consensus forecast."
One day earlier, Freddie Mac released their Multi-Indicator Housing Index for March which showed “…the U.S. housing market overall largely flat compared to the prior month and especially since last year at this time”. A link to their news release and this report is found here: Housing Markets Selling
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported on May 28th (for the week ending May 23rd) that 30-year rates with conforming loan balances ($417,500 or less) fell to 4.31% from 4.33%. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with jumbo loan balances (greater than $417,500) declined from 4.24% to 4.23%. Rates for FHA backed mortgages also fell, from 4.06% to 4.04%. These declines brought the rates for all three products to their lowest levels since June of 2013.
Mortgage applications dropped by 1.2% from the previous week with the share of refinance applications as a percentage of all applications remaining at 52%.
On May 30th, HSH Market Trends reported that 30-year mortgage rates dropped to 4.18% (the lowest point since the spring of 2013) from 4.20% the previous week. Rates for FHA-backed mortgages also fell, from 3.95% to 3.91%, the lowest level in approximately six months.
Additional information from Freddie Mac can be found by going to: Primary Mortgage Market Survey PMMS – Freddie Mac
Additional information from the Mortgage Bankers Association can be found by going to their site at: Research and Forecasts – Mortgage Bankers Association
Additional information from HSH can be found by going to: HSH.Com
Ask Angie
We would first like to congratulate our most recent winner: El Granada, California appraiser James Manning. Jim appraises properties in San Mateo County in the Silicon Valley area. He is also the author of a book (Public Trust Betrayed: The Truth about the Real Estate Appraisal Industry) and recently finished a “pilot” for a drama series appropriately called “Hypothetical Assumptions”. The logline: “After establishing himself as an honest and ethical appraiser, a man whose only interest is doing the right thing must learn to exist in a world of corruption and not succumb to the greed around him.”
Jim was the first to answer correctly that Andrew Lang was responsible for the quote "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses a lamp post, for support rather than illumination"; Leo Tolstoy (in Anna Karenina) wrote "Spring is the time of plans and projects”; and William Shakespeare (in All’s Well That Ends Well) wrote "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none".
Today’s Questions:
1. Who wrote: "When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.”
a) Mitt Romney
b) Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
c) Olivia de Havilland
d) F. Scott Fitzgerald
e) None of the above
2. Who said: "There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness and truth."
a) Ivanna Trump
b) Leo Tolstoy
c) Donald Trump
d) Leona Helmsley
e) None of the above
3. Who said: “From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it.”
a) Harpo Marx
b) Groucho Marx
c) Chico Marx
d) Karl Marx
e) None of the above
The first person to respond with the correct answers wins a choice of one of the following:
One Free Regular Listing on AppraiserHelp.com
A Free Copy of the Newly Released 2014 Directory of Appraisal Management Companies (Available to Members of AppraiserHelp.com and FHAAppraisers.com FREE!)
Tell us what you think!
We invite your responses to any of the issues raised in this newsletter. Please e-mail us at: bill@appraiserhelp.com with your thoughts!
We really hope you find our newsletter to be informative! If you have any input on future topics for discussion, please email me your questions and I will do my best to address them in the next issue. If you want to look back at past issues you can see our archive at www.appraisernews.com
Regards,
Bill Collins, Appraiser Help Inc.
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