Landlord Must Disclose Notice of Default to Prospective Tenants

Starting January 1, 2013, every landlord who offers for rent a residential property containing one-to-four units must disclose in writing to any prospective tenant the receipt of a notice of default that has not been rescinded. This disclosure must be made before executing a lease agreement. If a landlord violates this law, the tenant can elect to void the lease and recover one month’s rent or twice the amount of actual damages, whichever is greater, plus all prepaid rent. If the lease is not voided and the foreclosure sale has not occurred, the tenant may deduct one month’s rent from future amounts owed. The written disclosure notice as provided by statute must be in English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Korean. A property manager will not be held liable for failing to provide the written disclosure notice unless the landlord has given the property manager written instructions to deliver the written disclosure to the tenant. This law will expire on January 1, 2018. Senate Bill 1191.

Mortgage rates at record low again

Freddie Mac's weekly survey of mortgage rates showed the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 3.49 percent from 3.55 percent the previous week. That matched the previous record low set in July. The fixed-rate 15-year mortgage reached a new record low of 2.77 percent, down from 2.85 percent a week earlier.

Full Story:  http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/20/real_estate/mortgage-rates/index.html?source=cnn_bin

Tax relief on forgiven debt set to expire Dec. 31, 2012

Unless Congress and the California State legislature take action, a break for mortgage principal forgiven in loan modifications or short sales will expire at year’s end.

The mortgage debt forgiveness issue is only one of approximately 60 expiring tax provisions that Congress appears unable to extend prior to its recess for the November elections.  Congress is pushing the extension of any expiring tax provision to the lame duck session, along with any increase in the debt ceiling, and any serious attempts to prevent the mandatory budget cuts agreed to during last year’s debt ceiling deal.

Full Story: https://www.ftb.ca.gov/aboutFTB/newsroom/Mortgage_Debt_Relief_Law.shtml

U.S. home prices make biggest jump in six years

Nationwide home prices shot up 3.8 percent in July, making their largest year-over-year leap since 2006, according to real estate data provider CoreLogic.

Read Full Story:  http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-home-prices-20120904,0,1983417.story

California home prices near 4-year high

California home sale prices came close to a 4-year high in July, with the pace of sales year-over-year growing for the fourth month in a row, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® reported.

The median home price in July for an existing single-family home was up 4.2 percent in June and nearly 13 percent from a year ago.

July’s median home price was the highest since August 2008.  July also marked the fifth consecutive month that the median price increased month-over-month and year-over-year.
 
Sales in July rose to an annualized pace of 529,230 homes, an increase of 15.3 percent compared with last July.

Full Story: http://lansner.ocregister.com/2012/08/20/california-home-sales-near-4-year-high/165628/

Asking prices rise for sixth consecutive month

Asking prices on for-sale homes – which lead sales prices by approximately two or more months – increased 0.5 percent in July compared with June, according to Trulia’s Price Monitor.  This marked the sixth consecutive monthly gain.  For the first time, a majority (62 out of 100) of large metros had year-over-year price increases.

Full Story:  http://info.trulia.com/trulia-price-and-rent-monitor-july-2012

Home Prices Rise in June

CoreLogic recently reported that home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased on a year-over-year basis by 2.5 percent in June 2012 compared to June 2011, according to its June Home Price Index report. On a month-over-month basis, including distressed sales, home prices increased 1.3 percent in June 2012 compared with May 2012. The June 2012 figures mark the fourth consecutive increase in home prices nationally on both a year-over-year and month-over-month basis.
Excluding distressed sales, home prices nationwide increased 3.2 percent on a year-over-year basis in June 2012. On a month-over-month basis excluding distressed sales, home prices increased 2 percent, the fifth consecutive month-over-month increase. Distressed sales include short sales and REO transactions.

Full Story: http://www.corelogic.com/about-us/news/corelogic-june-home-price-index-rises-2.5-percentrepresenting-fourth-consecutive-year-over-year-increase.aspx

For renters, buying a home pays off after three years on average

A new analysis by real estate website Zillow shows that, on average, a renter thinking about buying a home will reach what it calls the “break-even horizon,” after just three years.  The break-even horizon compares what it would cost to buy or rent the same home in a number of U.S. markets over time.
Full Story: http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-rent-or-own-20120802,0,6114437.story

Headlines abound: The Housing Bust is over… In June, a survey of economists concluded that housing has hit bottom. Realtors®, homeowners and renters, Americans, and citizens of the world all are sighing with collective relief. The economy and housing values both have cycles. It has been more than eighty years since the difference between the top and the bottom was so great.  So we are cautiously engaging the new reality, but first we need to pause. If we do not learn from history, we are bound to repeat it. We do not want to repeat the last ten years. So what are the lessons we should learn?
Read full story at: http://voicesofrealestate.blogs.realtor.org/2012/07/18/10-lessons-to-learn-as-the-housing-market-recovers/?om_rid=AAB0GY&om_mid=_BQEerkB8r8btu7&om_ntype=NARWeekly

Home values rise for first time in 5 years

Nationwide, home values rose 0.2% year-over-year to a median $149,300 during the second quarter, the first annual increase since 2007, real estate listing site Zillow reported. Prices were up 2.1% from the first quarter.
"[I]t seems clear that the country has hit a bottom in home values," said Zillow's chief economist Stan Humphries. "The housing recovery is holding together despite lower-than-expected job growth, indicating that it has some organic strength of its own."
Other home price indexes have also recorded gains lately, including the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index. In it latest release, it reported that home prices in 20 major markets rose 1.3% in April, the first monthly increase in seven months.

Full Story: http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/24/real_estate/home-values/index.htm?hpt=hp_t2

New Anti-Deficiency Protection for Refinance Loans

Starting January 1, 2013, a new California law will protect homeowners who default on their refinance loans from personal liability for any deficiency following foreclosure. Existing anti-deficiency law protects a borrower from personal liability for the difference between the principal balance and what the lender receives at foreclosure if the loan is a purchase money loan secured by an owner-occupied property with one-to-four residential units. The new law, Senate Bill 1069, extends that anti-deficiency protection to include any loan used to refinance the purchase money loan, plus any loan fees, costs, and related expenses for the refinance. The anti-deficiency protection, however, does not extend to any "cash out" in a refinance.

Either Modify or Foreclose...not BOTH

SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers have passed legislation that would provide homeowners with some of the nation's strongest protections from foreclosure and such aggressive bank practices as seizing a home while the owner is negotiating to lower mortgage payments.  The legislation would make California the first state to prohibit lenders from "dual tracking," the practice of negotiating with clients to modify a mortgage so that payments become more affordable while simultaneously pursuing foreclosure. In such cases, homeowners can wind up being evicted even though they had been working with the bank to modify their loans.

Full Story:http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-homeowner-rights-20120703,0,5215367.story

Year over Year Gains

June 22 - Pending home sales in California were flat from April but posted double-digit gains from the previous year for the fourth straight month, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) reported today. Additionally, the share of distressed sales continued to decline from year-ago levels, signaling a return of non-investors to the housing market.

 “Despite a slowdown in economic growth ...in recent months, sales in California remain strong as record low mortgage rates and favorable home prices continue to fuel demand in the housing market,” said C.A.R. President LeFrancis Arnold. “The strong results in pending sales – double-digit year-over-year gains in the last nine out of 10 months – suggest solid housing market performance for the state in the upcoming months.”
Full Story: http://www.car.org/newsstand/newsreleases/2012releases/mayphsi

Interesting Housing Recovery Timeline

Home Prices Increase Month over Month in April

Home prices, including distressed sales, rose 2.2 percent in April on a month-over-month basis, marking the second consecutive month-over-month increase this year, according to a report by CoreLogic.Excluding distressed sales, prices increased 2.6 percent compared with March.  The CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI) also shows that year-over-year prices, excluding distressed sales, rose 1.9 percent in April compared with the prior year. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.

Full Story: http://www.corelogic.com/about-us/researchtrends/home-price-index.aspx?WT.mc_id=MarHPIJanData_crlg_1e_hpr_1_120307