NAR Says Families Will Suffer if Foreclosure Freeze Continues

Thousands of first-time and move-up buyers who hoped to make a foreclosed property their new home now face uncertainty, anxiety and possibly remorse as they worry that closing on their desired property could be in jeopardy.


For many, the dream of homeownership could turn into agony if their home purchase is indefinitely delayed by a moratorium on foreclosures declared by some banks, the National Association of Realtors® said today. The moratoriums are needed, banks say, to review all of the foreclosures in their portfolios to make sure they’re in compliance with the law and that titles are clear.

NAR warned that a prolonged review process would have a damaging impact on many communities and hinder the nation’s economic recovery.

“As the leading advocate for homeownership issues, we understand that many lenders need a time-out to review their actions to ensure that homeowners are not improperly foreclosed on and that the lenders are following regulations and state laws. After that, the foreclosure process must resume quickly to return stability to families, the housing market and the economy,” said NAR President Vicki Cox Golder, owner of Vicki L. Cox & Associates, Tucson, Ariz.

Over the past few months NAR has met with officials of top banks to discuss market issues. NAR urged banking leaders to seek resolution quickly through loan modifications and the short-sale process rather than through foreclosure. “We stand ready to help lenders develop better short-sale procedures,” Golder said.

“There are valid foreclosures that should move ahead quickly, and we shouldn’t lump them in with mortgages that are suspect. That would cause deep problems in an already fragile market and throw many families into uncertainty,” Golder said.

Golder said that she is receiving reports from Realtors® that the moratorium is already creating some anxiety among purchasers as transactions are being delayed and that some foreclosure listings are being removed from the market.
Compounding the problem is that the requirements for foreclosure vary by state, and practices to meet these requirements vary by firm. NAR is working with regulators, such as the Federal Housing Finance Agency; and encouraging them to identify and quickly address process problems.

In a letter today to the U.S Treasury Department, the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, NAR stated the hope that banks would complete their foreclosure review expeditiously to assure that the rights of borrowers are protected and remove doubt that buyers will receive clear title to their purchase.

“NAR has long urged the lending industry to take every feasible action to keep families in their homes with a loan modification and, if that is not possible, to give them a ‘graceful exit’ through a short sale. These options are far better than a foreclosure, and nothing has driven this point home more clearly than the questions being raised about foreclosures. Lenders should place additional resources into processing loan modifications and short sales,” NAR wrote.

A year ago, NAR instituted a special short sale training program for its Realtor® members to work more closely with banks in expediting mortgages at risk by resolving them through short sales and loan modifications.

September Home Sales in Alameda Start Slow

Alameda September home sales are tracking for a big decline in both month-over-month and year-over year sales. With just 11 sales recorded so far this month the Island is pacing at 23 sales for the month, this would be a huge decline over the 55 sale in September 2009.


At the current pace, Alameda is looking at a decline of 48-percent in two of its three most productive sales months. The months of August, September and October was Alameda's best sales period in 2009. During that three month span 186 properties were sold. Given that August 2010 had 20 fewer sales than '09 and September is pacing to have the same reduction the final totals for 2010 could be very dismal.


There are some positives in the recent sales both median and average sale price are up over September 2009 and five of the 11 homes that sold went for above the list price. September 2009 median sales prices was $517,000 and the average was $558,335 compared to $589,301 and $571,500 respectively.


September Sales to date:

Sale Date	Address	City	Zip	Type	Beds	Baths	SQ Feet	List Price	Sale Price	%
01-Sep-10	2610 OTIS DR	Alameda	94501	SFR	3	1	2023	$325,000	$350,000	107.69%
02-Sep-10	1944 OTIS DR	Alameda	94501	SFR	4	2	2029	$649,000	$657,500	101.31%
02-Sep-10	118 PURCELL DR	Alameda	94502	SFR	2	2	1526	$659,000	$655,000	99.39%
03-Sep-10	1325 SAINT CHARLES	Alameda	94501	SFR	3	2	1842	$724,000	$704,000	97.24%
03-Sep-10	2625 JANIS CIRCLE	Alameda	94501	MFR	0	0		$698,000	$660,000	94.56%
07-Sep-10	202 CHINABERRY LN	Alameda	94502	TNHS	4	2	2018	$516,900	$515,000	99.63%
08-Sep-10	447 SANTA CLARA	Alameda	94501	MFR	0	0		$419,000	$435,000	103.82%
09-Sep-10	630 TARRYTON ISLE	Alameda	94501	SFR	4	2	1841	$699,000	$710,000	101.57%
09-Sep-10	2931 WINDSOR DRIVE	Alameda	94501	SFR	2	1	1198	$576,000	$585,000	101.56%
10-Sep-10	2722 BAYVIEW DRIVE	Alameda	94501	SFR	3	2	1716	$629,500	$615,000	97.70%
10-Sep-10	1033 TAYLOR AVE	Alameda	94501	MFR	0	0		$499,000	$400,000	80.16%

Alameda Home Inventory Grows 7-Percent

In just seven days, Alameda Home Inventory grew 7-percent and is closing in on 200 units for the first time since I started tracking the data in 2008. The total number of units is just 13 new properties for sale, but the trend is showing that sales on the Island are not matching the rate of sale.

The more concerning number is the growth of foreclosures. Alameda saw four more foreclosed homes come to the market: 73 Sand Harbor, 1005 Verdemar Dr, 1139 Pacific Ave and 2133 Clinton Ave. There was a net gain of three foreclosed units week-over-week.

The foreclosure pipeline looks to be very full and the trend appears to be rising. According to RealtyTrac, Alameda has 282 homes in the foreclosure process;  215 in the 94501 and 67 in the 94502. Of those the bulk, 144 units, are still in the pre-foreclosure process, 99 are at the auction stage and 39 are banked owned.

If the RealtyTrac numbers are accurate, then the banks are still sitting on inventory. If you add in the additional distressed properties then the Alameda Inventory is roughly 316 units, nearly 10-percent of all the Alameda's housing stock.

The positive is Alameda is in better shape than most of the country. The Island had just one in every 423 housing units received a foreclosure filing in July 2010. That is on the low end of the spectrum. Some parts of the country and the Bay Area are seeing nearly, twice as many filings, 1-244 is the higher ends. The Nation's number one foreclosure market Las Vegas, NV had one filing for every 71 households and the state of Nevada one filing for every 82 households.

The housing market looks like it is going to be very bumpy over the next several months and the distressed properties is good indicator to monitor as we head towards 2011.

Inventory

Date: September 13, 2010	9/13/10	9/6/10	Weekly Change
Total Inventory	198	185	13
94501	148	140	8
94502	50	45	5
Single Family	109	99	10
Condos	60	55	5
Multi-Family	27	29	(2)
Foreclosure	20	17	3
Short Sale	21	22	(1)
Price Reduced	79	72	7
% of Price Reduced	39.90%	38.92%	0.98%
High List	$1,835,000	$1,835,000
Low List	$149,888	$149,888

Check out the new Bulletin Board feature: If you have a local Alameda announcement or something to sell in Alameda. Posting is at the sole discretion of the editor of 94501 Real Estate. Posting will be done nightly, so it may take up to 24 hours to appear on the bulletin board. Please include links if you have a page to direct people to. Email announcements and ads to 94501RealEstate@Gmail.com.