Baltimore Short Sale

HAMP Changes May Broaden Eligability For Military

sssnadmin — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:41:10 +0000

Military Members Displaced May Be Considered for HAMP

Beginning on June 1^st, Military homeowners who are displaced by a job related moved, for good, can still be considered owner occupants when applying for the Home Affordable Modification Program. The change means that more military members may become eligible for the governments modification program to help struggling borrowers by cutting down monthly mortgage payments.

The update was reported in an online post on Thursday by Tima Massad, who is the Treasury assistant secretary and Holly Petraeus, who is assistant director for Servicemember Affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The announcement stated that homeowners could now qualify if they are displaced due to an out of area job transfer and plan to return home at some point in the future as well as do not own any other single family real estate. Hope Now, the voluntary, private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, mortgage insurers and nonprofit counselors, gave praise to the initiative. Military members may be able to avoid a foreclosure.

“The issue of Permanent Change of Station creates a unique set of circumstances for military homeowners who are required to move to a new location. Recognizing many of these homeowners as owner-occupants allows them to qualify for a HAMP modification and creates a mortgage option that was not available before under the current rules,” said Faith Schwartz, executive director of HOPE NOW.

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Are y ou searching for a Baltimore Maryland short sale specialist who is familair with the Equator short sale platform or Bank of America Equator short sale process? Our short sale Realtors are distressed property experts certified in short sales and can offer no cost assistance for your Baltimore MD short sale! Contact one of our experienced Maryland Equator Realtors today!

New America Discusses HARP 2.0 for Homeowners

sssnadmin — Sun, 06 May 2012 23:32:50 +0000

New America Works with Struggling Homeowners

New American Funding is working to assist homeowners who may be able to qualify for refinancing under HARP in the state of Maryland. The thirds party lender allows struggling homeowners to stop broker fees through their mortgage banking services, if the homeowner should meet the HARP 2.0 guidelines.

Recent statistics are showing that 23% of homeowners in the state of Maryland are being considered “underwater”, which means owing more on their home than it is worth. Because of Maryland’s high number of underwater homeowners, it makes the state the seventh ranked nationally, based on the percentage of struggling homeowners.

In a company statement, New American showed data that was made to believe many buyers in Maryland bought their homes right before the country’s collapse in the real estate market pricing during the fall of 2007. New America stated that qualifying homeowners must meet the following requirements: Homeowner must be current with payments on their mortgage during the past 12 months, Must have been sold to Fannie Mae before May 31, 2009, and their current loan to value ratio must exceed 80%.

New American went on to explain their A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, as well as the large amount of refinancing customers the company has serviced. A Fannie Mae servicer and seller, New American is a Federal Housing Administration Direct Endorsement and government approved direct mortgage lender.

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Another Round of Foreclosure Review Outreach for OCC

sssnadmin — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:22:48 +0000

OCC Reaches Out Once Again In Foreclosures

An another round of advertising and outreach later this month related to the foreclosure reviews under way with large mortgage servicers will be released by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The reviews come under consent orders the OCC and the Federal Reserve signed with the 14 largest mortgage servicers last April.

An estimates 4.3 million borrowers may be eligible for a review if they were in the foreclosure process at any point during 2009-2010. Servicers, as well as their independent consultants, gathered about 121,000 review request forms through March, according to the OCC. Borrowers have a deadline of July 31 to request a review.

Thomas Curry, a new Comptroller of the Currency asked a group of housing experts at the Greenlining Institute to spread the word last Thursday. Bank of America recently paid several housing counselor nonprofits to usher borrowers to the review process.

“If they don’t like the results, they don’t have to take it and they can choose to pursue whatever other legal remedies may be available,” Curry said. “But if they believe they truly did suffer financial harm as a result of flawed mortgage servicing practices, I encourage them to explore this process.”

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Citigroup Reports $2.93 Billion In 1Q Earnings

sssnadmin — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 04:36:13 +0000

Citigroup Profits $2.93 Billion in First Quarter

Citigroup reported their first quarter earnings of $2.93 billion, which is down 2% from the previous year when it saw $2.99 billion. According to Zack’s Investment Research, analysts expect to see the bank earn $1.01 a share.

Citigroup reported $19.1 billion in the revenue for the quarter which is also down 2% from the same time just a year ago when the total revenue was at $19.73 billion. First quarter loans rose 12% to $514 billion from $457 billion in the previous year, with growth throughout all regions.

Consumer loans increased by 6% to $286 billion and corporate loans grew 23% to $228 billion, both from the first quarter of 2011. “Global consumer banking, our largest business, produced another quarter of good growth in revenues, net income and key drivers like loans and deposits,” Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said.

Global consumer banking revenue rose 5% in the quarter. The banks total allowance for loan losses was $29 billion at the quarter’s end, or 4.5% of total loans, down from $36,6 billion, or 5.8% just last year. “We continued to wind down our Citi Holdings legacy portfolio, which now stands at 11% of our total assets, while further building capital,” Pandit said.

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If you are looking for a Baltimore Maryland short sale specialist who is familair with the Equator short sale platform or Bank of America Equator short sale process then look no further! Our short sale Realtors are distressed property experts certified in short sales and can offer no cost assistance for your Baltimore MD short sale! Contact one of our experienced Maryland Equator Realtors today!

$20,000 Average Mortgage Loan Increase

sssnadmin — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:52:30 +0000

Average Mortgage Amount increases by $20,000

Capital Economics said on Wednesday that the average loan size lenders issued to borrowers in the last three months grew by $20,000. The report was released by Capital Economics analysts Paul Dales, Paul Diggie and Amna Asaf, stopped short of calling the news a full lending recovery, Dale said, “It may be an early sign that buyer confidence is improving.”

In 2012, the estimated amount of a mortgage went from nearly $215,000 to $235,000. Capital Economics reported a 20% decrease in visible home inventory over the past 18 months, resulting in a situation where a months’ supply of unsold homes is not at a place where existing home sales can support current prices.

“We are not too alarmed by the 120,000 rise in payroll employment in March, which was exactly half the 240,000 gain in February,” Dales wrote. “Just as the unusually mild weather meant that employment grew at a faster rate than the underlying trend in the previous few months, it may now be growing at a slower rate than the underlying trend.”

However, even though mortgage rates saw a slight increase in the month of March, Capital Economics said the uptick will have a small effect on the housing market activity since prices are still affordable and undervalued.

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877-737-4903

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If you are behind on your mortgage payments and would like to stop foreclosure on your Baltimore Maryland home, Our Maryland short sale Realtors offer no cost assistance for you in your short sale! Our Baltimore MD area Distressed Property Expert real estate agents are here to help, and are Certified or trained in the Maryland Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives, or HAFA Government short sale program. Our services are 100% FREE to you!

Freddie, Fannie and FHA Increase In Multifamily Growth

sssnadmin — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:02:38 +0000

New Records of MultiFamily Growth for Fannie, Freddie and FHA

New records of commercial loan origination volumes which were recorded by Mortgage Bankers Association for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration hit new spots last year, with the multifamily segment leading the growth.

In total, these three government related loan financiers made up $57.6 billion of all the activity in the segment, which is by far the largest chunk of the market. Multifamily and commercial origination volumes increased by 55% in 2011 with mortgage bankers closing $184.3 billion in commercial and multifamily loans in 2011, the MBA said in its Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Finance report.

However, life insurance companies and pension funds recorded the second highest volume of $49.3 billion in CRE/MF originations. Multifamily loans took over the market, with newer originations in that category reaching $77.4 billion.

“Commercial mortgage lending continues to rebound from its 2009 lows,” said Jamie Woodwell, the MBA’s vice president of commercial real estate research. “Originations for life companies, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA were all strong, and banks, commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) issuers and others also saw strong growth. With interest rates still low and stability returning to real estate fundamentals, the rebound is expected to continue in 2012.”

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Wells Fargo Mortgage Modification Helps Homeowners

sssnadmin — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:40:21 +0000

740,359 Homeowners helped through Mortgage Modification

Wells Fargo saw an increase of active and completed mortgage modifications which ranged from 733,180 at the end of January to 740,359 in late February. These numbers include all active and completed modifications which were reported at the bank within the time period of January 2009 through February of 2012.

Wells Fargo stated that 84% of the modification efforts were done through the banks proprietary program, while 116,622 were finished through the governments Home Affordable Modification Program. Wells Fargo was able to urge 80% of its majorly delinquent customers to seek out assistance.

An estimated seven out of ten of those customers avoided foreclosure, the bank reported. In addition to this, the firm helped 5.6 million customers get low rate loans for purchases and refinancing over the past three years.

“As a result of that success and the fact that more than 92% of Wells Fargo’s home loan customers remained current on their mortgage payments as of the fourth quarter of 2011, fewer than 2% of the loans on owner-occupied properties in its mortgage servicing portfolio have resulted in a foreclosure sale over the past 12 months,” Wells Fargo wrote in a statement. “Wells Fargo also has helped nearly 5.6 million customer’s secure new low-rate loans for home purchases or to refinance existing mortgages between January 2009 and February 2012.”

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Bank of America Equator Short Sale Realtor

sssnadmin — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 02:50:33 +0000

Baltimore MD Bank of America Short Sale Process

Although other banks are using the Equator short sale system, Bank of America has found itself to be the most unique. The Equator short sale process is a basic self service portal that will start off the short sale process. The purpose of this program is to improve the experience of the short sale for the homeowner and the Realtor. A few examples of the many advantages to the Baltimore Equator short sale process is:

Status tracking

24/7 access to the short sale system

Direct communication with the short sale negotiator

Documents are uploaded directly to Equator instead of faxing

Streamlined approval process

Historical view of offers and counter offers

The Bank of America Equator short sale platform is most intriguing to the buyer. In the beginning of the process, the Baltimore Equator short sale specialist will get a request for the first five digits of the buyer’s social security number along with other information such as birth date, phone number and loan information.

The Bank of America Equator platform is a system that has its own computer base database, with the primary goal of decreasing the waiting time related to short sales and helping to avoid foreclosure all together. The Baltimore Equator system will allow you to not worry about the banks unavailability to process your short sale request, so instead the situation is passed on to short sale specialists. The Equator system is always available and helps to ensure all documents are delivered and received on time. The making of the Equator platform is supposed to help encourage the closure rate of more short sale transactions in a more cost and time effective manner.

The system allows the individual to upload documents from the computer to the bank. There is a procedure that will typically need to be handled, such as a 3^rd party authorization which gives permission for your Realtor to work on your behalf. The next phase is called the offer worksheet which is like your HUD 1. All of this information will better help Bank of America see their net on the short sale. Following the HUD 1 will be the task of uploading the MLS sheet, purchase contract, HUD 1, property photo and MLS number. This will typically be done within the first 3-5 days.

Once those particular documents have been released, a Broker Price Opinion will be brought about. While the BPO process is moving forward, it may be advisable to upload documents like pay stubs, bank statements, tax returns, hardship letter and a financial worksheet. The BPO will usually move rather quickly. Bank of America has saved a great amount of time for homeowners and their short sale agents by introducing the Equator short sale process. An offer may typically be approved within 27 days, however, times may vary.

Make sure to find the right Baltimore short sale specialist who is experienced in the Bank of America Equator short sale platform to be sure the closing of your short sale, is a successful one!

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877-737-4903

Ask a local short sale specialist!

Foreclosure Timelines Increasing

sssnadmin — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:40:04 +0000

Moodys: Foreclosure Timelines on the Rise

Moody’s Investor Services Server Dashboard said in the fourth quarter that foreclosure timelines are at a high, and in turn resulting in bigger losses to residential mortgage back securities. The average loan is known to be in the process for 571 days, however judicial states have prolonged an average of 654 days, while foreclosure in non judicial states have aged and average 297 days.

The two year timelines in those of the judicial states are leading to an increasing average age of loans in the foreclosure process. This results in increased losses for RMBS. “Because loans that have yet to complete foreclosure are already much older than those that have already completed the process, they will incur greater costs, which will lead to higher loss severities to the RMBS trusts upon liquidation,” Moody’s stated in its report.

Of the six large banks that Moody’s has observed, Citi is seeing the lowest rate of aging in both judicial and non judicial states, roughly 56` days and 230 days. However, GMAC loans are aging the most in judicial states by 691 days, while JPMorgan Chase shows records of the highest average aging in non judicial states by 409 days. Chase has seen the greatest discrepancy between timelines of completed foreclosures and current foreclosure inventory with completed foreclosures estimating around 264 days and current foreclosure inventory averaging about 604 days.

As a result, Moody’s predicts Chase “may see the greatest impact to loss severities relative to the loans it has already liquidates.” GMAC presently holds the longest foreclosure timelines for ALT-A and subprime loans, and Bank of America holds the longest timeline for jumbo loans. Total cure and cash flowing rates decreased at GMAC, Citi and Wells Fargo over the last quarter for all loan types. Ocwen also saw a decrease from a 44.1% total cure and cash flowing rate for its subprime loans to a 33% rate in the fourth quarter.

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Home Prices Expected to Decrease

sssnadmin — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 18:00:28 +0000

Home Prices To See Decline

Home prices have the potential to decrease another 0.7% by the end of 2012, according to a Zillow analysis of more than 100 economists and real estate experts. “Looking at the longer history of these forecasts by top economists, the bottom in home prices always seems just around the corner but never quite here,” said Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries.

Home prices concluded in 2011 at 4%, which is a sharper drop than expected. In a previous survey, prices were expected to remain in limbo or drop by 0.2% at the most by the end of 2012. It was believed by economists and banking analysts that the housing market would bottom in either spring or at some point in 2012 before climbing back up.

Mark Calabria, who is the director of financial regulation studies at Cato institute, told a Senate subcommittee just recently that he foresees prices to bottom out in 2012 but not before another 3% reduction. “We continue to expect home prices to stabilize in the spring/summer with improving housing and economic data,” said JPMorgan Chase analysts in a research note this month.

“Demand rose while inventory fell. Builder confidence jumped, and job growth over the last six months was strongest since 2006.” “Some markets have already hit bottom and are experiencing tight inventory and multiple offers, while foreclosures and negative equity continue to pull down the housing market in many other parts of the country,” he said.

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