Research

Here you can find articles & video with the latest news that's important to real estate investors, charts to make the information clear and papers from the best minds in the industry. Click on the headlines to open the full story.

Banks see a housing rebound

Posted: October 13th, 2012



JPMorgan, Wells Fargo post big profit gains as home lending booms
America’s long-suffering housing market may be on the mend, two major banks said as they reported big jumps in profits.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co., the nation’s largest home lenders, each reported double-digit quarterly earnings growth Friday. The big jump in profit was thanks largely to a surge in their mortgage businesses, fueled by low interest rates and waves of refinancing.

Interest rates are low, but it’s still hard to get a mortgage

Posted: October 10th, 2012


WASHINGTON — With 30-year mortgage rates hitting new lows and recent borrowers’ payment performance the best by far in decades, you’d think that banks and other lenders might be loosening up on their hyper-strict underwriting standards.

But new national data from inside the industry suggest this is not happening. In fact, in some key areas, standards appear to be tightening even further, and the time needed to close a loan is getting longer.

Q&A: What Homeowners Need to Know on the Deal

Posted: February 10th, 2012



The $25 billion foreclosure settlement unveiled Thursday is expected to help many borrowers who are struggling to make their loan payments, owe more than their homes are worth or have lost their homes to foreclosure.
But the rules of the deal are complicated and banks have three years to meet their obligations.
The questions and answers below should help borrowers figure out if they qualify for help and what to expect from the process.
Who does the settlement cover?

Mortgage deal could bring billions in relief

Posted: February 10th, 2012


In the largest deal to date aimed at addressing the housing meltdown, federal and state officials on Thursday announced a $26 billion foreclosure settlement with five of the largest home lenders.
The deal settles potential state charges about allegations of improper foreclosures based on robosigning, seizures made without proper paperwork.

California foreclosures set to surge

Posted: September 26th, 2011



ARTICLE, HOUSINGWIRE
California default notices spiked 55% in August, and the number may keep rising in the coming months as mortgage servicers shake off the robo-signing freeze, according to RealtyTrac Senior Vice President Rick Sharga.

Southland home sale report

Posted: September 19th, 2011



PRESS RELEASE, DATAQUICK
Southland August Home Sales Climb, Median Price Falls Again

Shadow inventory improves but still threatens housing recovery

Posted: August 24th, 2011


ARTICLE, CNN/MONEY

“It’s good news that things are starting to slow down and we’re getting closer to the end of the problem,” said Diane Westerback, Managing Director of Global Surveillance Analytics for S&P. “It could mean a gradual recovery for the market.”

Foreclosure reforms may be coming to a head

Posted: August 18th, 2011



ARTICLE, LA TIMES

Getting banks, investors and borrowers together to work out a solution that benefits them all is the most promising idea to emerge since the housing market first crashed.

Freddie Mac sells record number of REO in 1Q

Posted: May 10th, 2011


ARTICLE, HOUSINGWIRE
Freddie Mac sold roughly 31,000 previously foreclosed and repossessed homes in the first quarter, a new record for the company as both government-sponsored enterprises shed inventory from the end of last year.

Fortune: It’s time to buy again

Posted: March 29th, 2011


ARTICLE, FORTUNE
…Eventually reality set in, and prices plummeted. Our current view focuses on those same fundamentals — only now they’re pointing in the opposite direction.
So let’s state it simply and forcibly: Housing is back.

Home values are falling at an accelerating rate in many cities across the U.S.

Posted: January 31st, 2011


ARTICLE, WALL ST JOURNAL
The Wall Street Journal’s latest quarterly survey of housing-market conditions found that prices declined in all of the 28 major metropolitan areas tracked during the fourth quarter when compared to a year earlier.

The size of the year-to-year price declines was greater than the previous quarter’s in all but three of the markets, the latest indication that the housing market faces considerable challenges.

Inventory levels, meanwhile, are rising in many markets as the number of unsold homes piles up.

Foreclosure Filings in U.S. May Jump 20% From Record 2010 as Crisis Peaks

Posted: January 18th, 2011


ARTICLE, BLOOMBERG
The number of U.S. homes receiving a foreclosure filing will climb about 20 percent in 2011, reaching a peak for the housing crisis, as unemployment remains high and banks resume seizures after a slowdown, RealtyTrac Inc. said.

U.S. Housing Market Double-Dip Unlikely Next Year, Wharton’s Wachter Says

Posted: December 31st, 2010


ARTICLE, BLOOMBERG, 12.31.2010
The U.S. housing market probably will avoid a “double-dip” next year as a recovery depends on job growth, said Susan Wachter, a real estate professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

“Nationally, we’ll see a bumpy ride instead of a double- dip,” Wachter said in an interview from Philadelphia today on Bloomberg Television. “Jobs are key.”

Luxury home prices are still heading down

Posted: December 14th, 2010



While Southland housing values overall have rebounded from recent lows, those in the upper end of the market may not yet have hit bottom. Some experts don’t see a turnaround for at least another year.

Bank of America ramps up foreclosure restarts

Posted: December 13th, 2010


ARTICLE, HOUSING WIRE, 12.13.2010
Bank of America (BAC [1]: 12.79 -0.08%) cleared attorneys to proceed with 16,000 foreclosure cases in December as it completes a revamp of its procedures.

Foreclosure activity up across most US metro areas

Posted: October 29th, 2010


ARTICLE, LA TIMES, 10.28.2010
The foreclosure crisis intensified across a majority of large U.S. metropolitan areas this summer, with Chicago and Seattle — cities outside of the states that have shouldered the worst of the housing downturn — seeing a sharp increase in foreclosure warnings.

FDIC sells another $760 million in REO

Posted: September 3rd, 2010


ARTICLE, REO INSIDER, 09.03.2010
Mariner Real Estate Management (MREM), a real estate investment and management firm based in Kansas, closed a deal to acquire a $760 million portfolio of residential and commercial loans and REO properties from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC).

Mortgage defaults in California at 3-year low

Posted: July 23rd, 2010


ARTICLE, LA TIMES, 07.23.2010
Banks are pushing alternatives such as loan modification programs and short sales ….. “The most important thing is the housing market has stabilized, that house prices are up and not down anymore,” said Kenneth Rosen, a professor at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.
Banks stepped up their seizure of homes from people already ensnared in the repossession process in the second quarter, reflecting an effort by economically resurgent financial institutions to clear troubled loans off their books after having survived the depths of the banking crisis. Many of those loans went into default months ago, taking an average of 9.1 months to get through the process, DataQuick said.

JPMorgan Chase Warns Investors About Underwater Homeowners Walking Away

Posted: May 17th, 2010


ARTICLE, HUFFINGTON POST, 05.17.2010
About one in eight defaults in February were strategic, according to an April 29 research note by a team of Morgan Stanley analysts led by Vishwanath Tirupattur. Strategic defaults are those in which the homeowner could have continued to make payments but chose not to.

Watchdog panel says Obama plan to ease foreclosure crisis does too little, comes too late

Posted: April 16th, 2010

ARTICLE, AP, 4.14.2010
A watchdog panel overseeing the financial bailouts says the Obama administration’s flagship mortgage aid program lags well behind the foreclosure crisis and leaves too many families out.