Although the economy has been growing lately, fallout from the recent recession continued to negatively impact commercial real estate sectors in the fourth quarter, but there is hope for some improvement next year, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said commercial real estate almost always lags the economy. “Because of [...]

Daily Real Estate News | February 25, 2010 | Share
Fed: Interest Rates to Remain Low
Investors breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday when Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke told Congress that interest rates are likely to remain low for an extended period. The economy, he said, “still requires support [...]

WASHINGTON – Sales of new homes plunged to a record low in January, underscoring the formidable challenges facing the housing industry as it tries to recover from the worst slump in decades.
The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that new home sales dropped 11.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 309,000 units, [...]

At the end of 2009, foreclosures were definitely “in the news.” And for good reason. The number of foreclosures rose from 1.8 million at the end of 2008 to about 2.5 million at the end of 2009. According to RealtyTrac, at the end of 2009, there was a total of 2,824,674 properties involved in foreclosure [...]

California, Florida and Arizona posted the three highest state totals in terms of properties receiving foreclosure filings in January, and together those states accounted for more than 44 percent of the national total.
Illinois posted the nation’s fourth highest total in January, with 18,120 properties receiving a foreclosure filing during the month — a nearly 2 [...]

Overall Activity Up 15 Percent From January 2009, REOs Up 31 Percent From January 2009
More Than 300,000 Properties Receive Foreclosure Filings for 11th Straight Month
IRVINE, Calif. – Feb. 11, 2010 – RealtyTrac® (www.realtytrac.com), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its January 2010 U.S. [...]

Getting a home loan or refinancing your existing home will require a better FICO
score than before. The Federal Housing Administration is trying to limit its
exposure, and our nation’s, to bad mortgage debt and therefore, implementing
tighter controls for lender approval. Below are the 4 major highlights of the new
FHA rules.
It’s anticipated that these rules will go [...]

The new credit card reform laws were created to protect consumers. The majority
of these reforms prohibit credit card issuers from changing the terms of a
consumer’s credit card. Below is a summary of the changes you can expect as a
result of the credit card reform.
The majority of new regulations go into effect Feb. 22, 2010.
Significant changes [...]

For the first time ever the Trends In California Real Estate Newsletter is now FREE for Members of THE CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.
Members can download the latest issue of Trends by clicking here.
Success in today’s Real Estate Market depends on people, technology, and a competitive edge! TRENDS Newsletter provides you the competitive edge with the [...]

Accountants at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are auditing mortgage files to uncover loans with improper documentation about a borrower’s income, and then forcing banks and savings and loans to buy the loans back.
Freddie required lenders to buy back $2.7 billion of loans in the first nine months of 2009. Fannie Mae won’t disclose its [...]

Beginning Feb. 1, the Federal Housing Administration will provide mortgage insurance for some purchases in which the seller bought the property and held it for fewer than 90 days.
The agency is changing what is known as the “anti-flipping rule” to speed up sales of renovated homes in communities with too many bank-owned and foreclosed homes, [...]

Forbes housing reporter and analyst Francesca Levy makes some thought-provoking predictions in the latest issue of the magazine.
She predicts:
Real estate will be an attractive investment strategy in 2010 with wealthy investors devoting an increasing segment of their portfolios to it.
Loan modifications will result in more people who should probably be facing foreclosure slipping deeper into [...]