Posts from — July 2010

Forbes just listed their “Riskiest Cities for Homeowners” and interestingly Phoenix was nowhere on their top 10 list.

The top 5, in order:

1. Las Vegas, NV
2. Riverside, CA
3. Stockton, CA
4. Modesto, CA
5. Bakersfield, CA

4 out of top 5 in California. Other cities in the top 10 included Memphis, TN & Miami, FL

More can be read here: http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/riskiest-cities-for-homeowners

Az Short sales continue to dominate the market as we have seen a 5% increase in short sale closings over the last two months.

However Fannie Mae foreclosures are also on the rise and many of those are people who are trying to do short sales and Fannie Mae isn’t letting them. They are requiring sellers to be at least 30 days behind on their mortgage yet the property MUST close before the foreclosure date as there will be no extension.

So there is basically a very small window of opportunity to get these done in that time frame. Unfortunately many people are unaware of this information as publicly Fannie Mae continues to tell everyone that they are trying to help out the American public when in reality they are forcing the average American into foreclosure.

93% of the home sales in the Phoenix/Scottsdale market last month were under $400,000. 2/3 of these were lender owned or short sales.

The luxury market has been hit hard and the fallout will last for the next few years. As luxury sellers become forced to sell they will begin dropping their prices in an effort to generate activity and this in turn will lower the luxury home prices across the Valley.

This will be great news for luxury home buyers as properties can be bought for a fraction of what they sold for 4-5 years ago.

The tax credit is now officially extended!!

The new closing deadline is now September 30, 2010. You had to have a fully executed contract in place before May 1 and it must close by September 30 in order to qualify for the credit.

Although this is great news before everyone gets too excited lets also wonder how many of those 180,000 executed contracts are short sales backed by fannie mae? Because if they are, and the foreclosure date is on or before Sept 30, there’s a HUGE chunk of properties that buyers may never get once Fannie forecloses on them.

Remember, even with a fully executed contract, qualified buyer with cash in hand and the need for a place to live, an APPROVED, ACCEPTABLE PRICE FROM THE LENDER, if it’s Fannie Mae then they’re taking the house out from under those people in foreclosure!

It’s so interesting how the government comes out at the last minute to “save the day” for everyone on this tax credit thing and be the big hero when the whole time they are behind tens of thousands of unnecessary foreclosures of people who have made tremendous sacrifices in order to AVOID foreclosure.