Foreclosure starts surge in Western states

ForeclosureRadar: BofA ramping up filings against delinquent homeowners

BY INMAN NEWS, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2011.

Inman News™

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Foreclosure starts jumped by double digits from July to August in four out of five Western states tracked by ForeclosureRadar, reversing what had been a declining trend over the past several months, the company said.

The increase in foreclosure starts seen in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington appeared to be driven primarily by Bank of America and related companies, which boosted notice of default and notice of trustee sale filings by 116 percent from July to August.

Wells Fargo and US Bank also ramped up foreclosure start filings, ForeclosureRadar said, while filings by JP Morgan Chase and Citibank were essentially flat, ForeclosureRadar said.

In California, foreclosure starts jumped nearly 70 percent from July to August, totaling 31,965 -- the highest level in a year. The average time to foreclose in California increased to 333 days in August, 49 days longer than a year ago.

Notice of trustee sale filings were up more moderately, rising 6 percent from July to August but still down nearly 24 percent from a year ago at 24,020.

Colorado's Economy In A Nutshell

DENVER - The data that has been gathered from the Colorado economy is sending mixed signals.

The state's economy is normally similar to the rest of the country, but today it varies in some aspects.

"Jobs still remain stagnant," 9NEWS anchor Gregg Moss said. "There are about 230,000 people in our state looking for work right now."

Though that number seems large, in comparison to the rest of the country, it's relatively low.

Nonetheless, job growth is still moving along slowly, with the construction industry being the slowest to recover, according to economists. However, it differentiates when it comes to manufacturing, which is making a comeback.

Read More: http://www.9news.com/news/article/211935/188/Colorados-economy-in-a-nutshell

Denver Metro Area Luxury Home Sales Soar in June

Denver Metro Area Luxury Home Sales Soar in June, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Reports

Denver, CO, July 17, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Luxury home sales in the Denver Metro Area soared in June from the previous month and were also up from a year ago as high-end buyers took advantage of attractive property values in many areas, according to Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Colorado’s leading provider of luxury real estate services.

A total of 71 homes changed hands for more than $1 million last month, up sharply from May’s total of 47 sales. June’s transactions also outpaced June 2010 when 67 luxury homes were sold. Additionally, the ultra luxury market gained momentum with 11 multi-million-dollar homes selling last month, up from seven in May.

The median sale price of million-dollar homes moved higher in June, reaching $1.3 million from $1.25 million in May. However, the median was off from last June’s $1.34 million price.

Other indicators also provided encouragement for the high-end market in the Denver Metro Area: Homes also sold at a faster rate on average at 164 days vs. 215 for those closing the previous month. And sellers received an average of 92.6 percent of their asking price, up from 91.3 percent in May and 90.4 percent last June.

The figures were derived from Multiple Listing Service data of all homes sold for more than $1 million last month in the Denver Metro Area.

Read More: http://www.pr.com/press-release/339367

This real-estate scam can land you in jail

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Rarely has a topic elicited as much response as my column about the scam known as flopping, which is the “art” of intentionally misrepresenting the value of a financially strapped borrower’s house in order to buy it at a discounted price from the lender and resell it at its true market value.

Under a flopping scam, the owner seeks permission from the lender for a short sale at a price that is below what he owes on the property. The lender hires a real- estate agent to provide what’s known in the trade as a “broker price opinion,” which is the agent’s informed estimate of the property’s worth. But instead of providing honest evaluations, some agents are low-balling the number. And then, if the lender accepts the figure, they or an accomplice buy the house in question at that price and flip it, or resell it quickly at the true market value and pocket the difference.

Crime and punishment

Some readers asked what’s the big deal? After all, no crime is committed. “I don’t really get the objection to this,” wrote Bill, a Colorado attorney. “If I buy a short-sale property from a bank and sell it a year later for a profit, there’s no issue. If I do it a month later, no problem. Why is it fraud if I resell it a day later? Lenders are not losing money on the marked-up price because they cannot sell the property; they are not the owners yet.”

Read More Here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-real-estate-scam-can-land-you-in-jail-2011-07-01

Real-Estate Disclosure: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You

Real-Estate Disclosure: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You

When a bulldozer began to to clear away dirt for an in-ground pool in Brian Dyer's back yard, the Lakeland, Fla., homeowner got the surprise of his life: mountains of trash emerged from the hole. "It's just a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach to see what they're bringing up with each scoop," he told Tampa Bay's 10News.

Dyer said that contractors tried to dig into three different areas in the backyard and each time, came up with more trash. "We found several tires, what appears to be washing machine tubs, trash, debris, metal parts, we found a lawnmower in the deep hole over there," he said, pointing to an 11-foot-deep hole. "You name it, it seems to be coming up out of the hole."
Dyer has no idea how much more trash is under his property, how far it goes--or, even worse, if it's under his house.

"We're very fearful at this point," he told 10News.

It's anybody's guess as to whether anyone but the person who dumped the stuff illegally knew it was there. Builders dug down the required 12 inches for the foundation when the house was built in 2006. The debris was hidden three feet deep.

Read More: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/06/20/real-estate-disclosure-what-you-dont-know-can-hurt-you/

Mortgage Assistance Relief Services Act

Frascona on MARS

Prominent real estate attorney Oliver Frascona doesn't think the MARS rule regarding short sale transactions is as onerous as many think.

Prominent real estate attorney Oliver Frascona has heard all of the wailing from real estate brokers regarding the six-month-old rule known as MARS, but he doesn’t buy it.

Any real estate broker who does short sales, in which a lender accepts less then the mortgage amount, is surely familiar with MARS.

MARS, an acronym for Mortgage Assistance Relief Services Act, went into effect on Jan. 1. A 54-page, single-spaced document such as the Federal Trade Commission’s MARS, addresses a number of topics, of course. But the most significant change is that it makes it illegal for real estate brokers to charge sellers an upfront fee or to pass along a short sale coordinator’s fee on any short sale prior to receiving a written offer from a lender or servicer that the homeowner decides is acceptable.

This is what FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz had to say about this portion of MARS in February: “Banning the collection of up-front fees will protect homeowners from being victimized. This is especially important at a time when so many people are behind on their mortgages or facing foreclosure.”

Penalties for breaking the rules are stiff – up to fine of $11,000 a day.

But Frascona, a shareholder of the Boulder-based firm Frascona, Joiner, Goodman and Greenstein, PC, said that he does not believe the intent of MARS is to go after brokers who pay small upfront fees to reputable short-sale assistant firms. Studies have shown that brokers who use these short-sale facilitators have a much greater likelihood of completing a short-sale quickly.

Culprits: Out-of-state firms that charge upfront fees

“They’re not going to go after the broker who pays a couple of hundred bucks upfront to a short-sale company that needs the money to cover its overhead,” Frascona told me. “They’re going after the out-of-state guys who charges a bunch of money and didn’t do anything. And they should be going after those guys.” He also said that the FTC rule would apply to real estate brokers who are giving short-sale work to unqualified family members, who are not helping the distressed homeowners.

“They’re not going after Joe Broker who has got a short-sale listing and says I’ll pay a reputable firm to get the process started,” Frascona said. “Unless, I’m missing something, I just don’t see it. The public is not being harmed. The consumer is actually being helped. There is no kickback involved.”

The reality, even if the FTC decided to go after real estate brokers who are paying legitimate firms upfront fees, they couldn’t, he said. “The FTC has the same budget constraints as everybody else,” Frascona said. “There is no way they have the financial resources to go after a reputable broker working with a reputable company, especially when they are helping people at a reasonable cost.”

Not that he is a fan of MARS.

“i don’t think the FTC knew what it was doing,” Frascona said. “It’s like it’s left hand didn’t know what it’s right hand was doing. MARS is a mess.”

To contact or learn more about Oliver Frascona’s law firm, please visit this link to his law firm.

Good news for the Denver housing market

DENVER - There is some good news on the housing front. Sales of single-family homes and condos in the Denver-metro area were up in May from April, but down from a year ago, according to Metrolist Inc. Data.

The sale of 3,700 properties in May is 9 percent higher than April, but off 15 percent from 2010.

The median sales price for a single-family was more than 3.5 percent higher from April - coming in at $230,000.

Real estate analyst Gary Bauer is encourage by these numbers, saying we're getting back to a more normal market with numbers not skewed by 2010's homebuyer tax credit.

(KUSA-TV © 2011 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)