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2009 Tax Credit can be used for FHA downpayment!

Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, on Tuesday said that the Federal Housing Administration is going to permit its lenders to allow home buyers to use the $8,000 tax credit as a down payment.Previously, most buyers wouldn't receive the funds until after they filed their tax return, and that deterred some people from using the credit. The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® has been calling for the change.

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Fix Up Foreclosures, or else!

Nightline did a report on a California city that has passed an ordinance requiring banks to maintain their foreclosed properties, which helps keep home values up in the area. This is something that all cities should pass - including Milwaukee!

Look, they can pass laws requiring tv stations broadcasting in digital (really, who passed this law and why???) so let's do something REALLY important and help stop neighborhoods from wasting away!

See Nightline Video

Are Banks Making Short Sales a Long Process?

A timely article from RisMedia. Look for my notes on Milwaukee County short sale and foreclosure numbers....

RISMEDIA, May 11, 2009-(MCT)-

Short sales are making up a larger percentage of distressed home listings in several of the more harder hit markets around the country, such as Las Vegas, for example. And local real estate agents there say banks continue to drag their feet on approval. Although short-sale listings, or homes offered for less than the mortgage owed, have climbed steadily since January, short-sale closings declined to 7 percent of all resales in March from about 10 percent in August, Frank Nason of Residential Resources said.

During that same time, foreclosures increased to 80 percent of all sales from 70 percent.

The median price of a short sale in the first quarter was $184,250, compared with $139,900 for a foreclosure, Nason reported. On a per-square-foot basis, short-sale prices were 18.4 percent higher than foreclosures.

Kristin's Note: There were approx. 24 short sales, in Milwaukee County, in the first quarter at a median sale price of $134,300 vs. 119 foreclosure sales at a median price of $39,900. *

“Why aren’t the banks and the Feds trying to expedite and enhance the number of successful short-sale transactions instead of losing more than one-fifth the value of the property?” Nason asked. “That’s not even taking into account the continued financial beating they take while the foreclosure process transpires.”

There were 246 short sales completed in Las Vegas in April, a 27.5 percent increase from the previous month, Rob Jenson of The Jenson Group reported. Short sales on the market increased 4.3 percent to 8,119 units.

Kristin's Note: There were approx. 13 single family short sales closed in Milwaukee County in April, an increase from 10 in March. There are currently about 247 single family properties listed as possible short sales on MLS, in Milwaukee County.

Distress sales, which include foreclosures and short sales, accounted for 86 percent of all sales in April and has been in the 80 percent to 90 percent range for the last seven months, Jenson said.

Kristin's Note: Distressed sales (those listed in MLS comments as foreclosure or short sale) only made up about 14% of single family propertiessolds in Milwaukee County in the first quarter.

Nason said he usually encounters mass confusion and exhaustive delays at a bank’s loss-mitigation department. Most real estate agents generally avoid short sales because of the “brain damage” sustained from dealing with financial institutions, he said. “More often than not, the transaction falls apart because of the extremely long period of time it takes to get any meaningful response from these institutions,” Nason said. “Or they decide to change the agreed-upon terms at the last minute.” Read Article


*Kristin's Note: It's difficult to seperate short sales and foreclosures from regular listings in the Metro Milwaukee MLS. The only way is to search by keyword. If the listing agent didn't use "short sale" or "foreclosure" in the remarks, the property would not be included in these numbers. So, the amounts used are approxomite, but deemed to be pretty close to accurate.

State foreclosure filings fell 5% in April

By Paul Gores of the Journal Sentinel

New foreclosure filings in Wisconsin fell 5% in April from the previous month, and dropped about 10% in the southeastern part of the state.

But professionals who track foreclosures said Monday not to read too much into the decline. Although many of the subprime and riskier mortgages already are in the foreclosure process, filings will continue to pile up as the poor economy leads to more job losses for people with standard mortgages, they said.

"Now the foreclosures are happening because of economics - people losing their jobs," said Philip Crawford, founder of ForeclosureAlarm.com.

Russell Kashian, a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater economics professor who is monitoring foreclosures in the state, said the more important number to watch for April is the national jobless figure, which is set to be released by the U.S. Labor Department on Friday....READ MORE