From CoreLogic: CoreLogic Home Price Index Shows Year-Over-Year Decline for Seventh Straight Month
According to the CoreLogic HPI, national home prices, including distressed sales, declined by 6.7 percent in February 2011 compared to February 2010 after declining by 5.5 percent in January 2011 compared to January 2010. Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices declined by 0.1 percent in February 2011 compared to February 2010 and by 1.4 percent in January 2011 compared to January 2010. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.
Despite the continued overall decline, home prices excluding distressed properties are showing signs of stability according to Mark Fleming, chief economist with CoreLogic. “When you remove distressed properties from the equation, we’re seeing a significantly reduced pace of depreciation and greater stability in many markets. Price declines are increasingly isolated to the distressed segment of the market, mostly in the form of REO sales, as the stock of foreclosures is slowly cleared.” he said.
And the recovery CONtinues…
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Yeah…but we got green shoots everywhere.
I got your Green Shoots Right here
Warning! Graphic Language Alert.
Just wondering how CoreLogic can get access to my ownership interest information in MERS, yet I cannot get that same access?
http://www.dsnews.com/articles/corelogic-credco-product-helps-lenders-avert-loan-repurchases-2010-12-02
CoreLogic is another questionable company in bed with MERS and the ABA, and any statistics they offer should be taken with a grain of salt.
There is another factor that I started to notice a new trend, many people don;t want to own or buy a house anymore, either because the already suffered the transformation from the dream to the nightmare, because they know someone that has suffer a nightmare dealing with the banks, because they heard horrific stories of homeowners with banks, or because they see every day how people get cheated by banks, That is why I believe that until people can have some certainty that you are dealing with an honest bank, (clear title etc), and that your are sure that your paying the right people and the right amount, (in other words until people can trust again,) less and less people will be willing to buy a house, making it harder and harder for he housing market to improve This cheating will have stop or homes will cost $100
Appraisals for purchases or refinancing are typically based on normal arms-length sales, not REO or distressed sales, seldom even cash sales. It is a misconception that a decline in value is because the appraisal is based on bank salea. Normal sales pricing declines because the REO down the street competes unfairly. It is preferable to go outside the subdivision and expand the search to nearby similar subdivisions to obtain normal sales rather than use REO/distressed sales on which to base an appraisal.
There are two distinct market conditions now where the predominant sales activity was once normal arms length sales with few REO sales, the reverse is often true with REOs eclipsing the market in some areas. In other areas, there are simply no sales except investor purchases. These tend to be formerly sub-prime areas.
It is not totally accurate that the recent sales decline compares unfavorably with Februrary-March-April 2010. The market was artificially stimulated by tax rebates on purchases through the first quarter of 2010. What we see now is not unusual.. Credit is harder to get, fewer buyers, people are fearful to buy, sellers can’t sell and recoup what they owe so they can’t move up or down.
The main issue with REO competing sales is that banks are liquidating them pennies on the dollar, trying to sell in shortened windows of 30 days. These liquidation sales typically turn into bidding wars between investors who purchase often 1/3 to 1/2 of the normal value in some areas, below cost to reproduce. This situation in effect is a double blow to the housing market because it stops new construction too. Builders can’t make a profit when the REO down the street from a busted builder is selling for less than the cost to build?
So the lender/banks who defrauded and destroyed the housing market are doing it a second time through the REO process. What is sad is that they are foreclosing and selling houses, writing down principal as they sell with no consideration for the homeowner trying to stay in his home. If they wrote down principal for homeowners, many could continue to stay in their homes and pay. Banks refuse to write down principal for the homeowner yet will mark down drastically for liquidation REO sales.
At the base of the problem is greed, making money on the foreclosure, for the servicer for the attorney mills, for those few agents allowed to market the REOs. Mortgage products are divided so now that those owning a piece of them have little to say about what happens to an individual loan. There is a disconnect between the loan owner and borrower.
Until there is mandatory modification, or principal write down for underwater loans, there will be no bottom to the market any time soon. It will take years to recover because underwater mortgages can’t sell in the current climate. Despite the fact an owner continues to pay his mortgage, he loses equity forcing him to keep the house or walk away as value continues to erode. There are not enough buyers out there that can qualify to buy the glut on the market now. Pocket sales in high demand areas are about all that is selling except for liquidated bargain sales. Buyers aren’t motivated to buy overpriced housing that the seller can’t cover his loan to sell. Banks prefer to liquidate rather than short sale, another travesty. First time buyers seldom can pay cash and compete with investor purchasers. I tried to help a friend buy a REO. She bid on three houses and was outbid each time with the bank selecting the buyer, not even knowing if she lost on terms, total price, who handled the mortgage or why she was not selected. If you bid high and need a mortgage, you must get it backed with an appraisal. If you bid low, and need a mortgage, a cash buyer will snap it up as the sellers take the easy way out.
Many investors buying houses for cash are turning back to the old ‘rent to own’ process of managing their investments. When the renter/buyer defaults, the owner does not need to foreclose, he just evicts. Greed is destroying the American Dream of homeownership. Foreign investors buying much of the real estate now. Try getting someone from another country to be responsible for keeping up these houses in a few years.
Long haul people, a very long haul, not very promising. In this country our government is reactionary. They will not recognize strong action could have altered this and stopped the bleeding until it is no longer retrievable.
Frankly, i suspect even the banks will eventually suffer from the destruction of the housing market, as they should.
No need to bail them out in the future is there?
Now if we can just get the government to cooperate there!
The “stock of foreclosures” is not clearing. The Census Bureau reports that 11 percent of all U.S. residences are now empty, that’s an astounding 18.4 million homes, and projections show another seven million more in the foreclosure pipeline between now and Dec. 2012. This huge inventory of unsold properties will take years to unload. The glut of empty units drives down the value of all homes, pushes more homeowners underwater, keeps homebuilders from starting new projects, and qualified buyers waiting until values “hit bottom.” Residential home sales in California dropped 9 percent in 2010 (41,588 units fewer than 2009) and will continue to slide as mortgage interest rates climb.
The only answer is to force the lenders to modify upside-down mortgages back to current market values — allowing homeowners to remain in their homes making payments they can afford while rebuilding their equity. This will slow the overwhelming onslaught of foreclosures, reduce the flood of empty homes onto the market, keep neighborhoods from deteriorating any further, and offer some hope that real estate will one day recover. Without this approach the downward death spiral will continue and the nation won’t see an economic turnaround any time soon.
How can you determine the value of homes when nobody is buying them?
Values will continue to decline as foreclosures increase. There will continue to be wave after wave of casualties. This will ultimately start affecting the commercial market also very seriously. This wil be like a big giant snowball rolling down a now covered hill picking up more speed and snow as it goes. What I am not hearing conversation about is the fact that as more people loose jobs or get reductions in pay and everything else continues to rise in price, more folks will not have the ability to pay their mortgage and other bills. People are using credit cards and maxing out to make up their living expense shortages. Our out of pocket health insurance has been increased by 30%, our pay has been decreased by 10%, fuel costs for our home have tripled in 4 years, that is water, gas, electric. The “deadbeat” rollcall will continue to grow and so will the glut of empty homes sitting there rotting if something is not done to stop it. This will be long term and we have the “three stooges” , Larry, Moe and Curly running the country. India boasts a 30% increase in their income and economy. I just read an article where one of our big corporations employees 80% of their workers in India. Meanwhile, Larry, Moe and Curley run around scratching their heads wondering what to do what to do.
The problem is that values are determined by sales. As long as it is a cash sale the value can somewhat be manipulated; however, whenever financing is involved the appraisal is the determining factor. That value is derived from REO and foreclosures and distressed sales. Each time the sale of a property involves a financing transaction that value does indeed affect the overal devaluation of property. These figues here quoted by Corelogic just are not realistic and purport to give the general public misconception.