Housing experts’ predictions for the new year tend to center around a market stabilizing before entering a gradual, albeit very slow, recovery. However, the tone is more upbeat than it has been in years for the housing market. This reflects current trends in the Placerville, El Dorado County, CA., regions.

Here are a few of the signs that are showing the market moving in a more positive direction: 

Home sales: Existing home sales are expected to increase 12 percent this year, following a 2 percent jump last year, Moody’s Analytics predicts. The signs are already showing: In November, pending home sales — a gauge for future home buying — reached its highest level in 19 months, the National Association of REALTORS® reported. (Read more.)

Consumer confidence: With mortgage rates at record lows and housing affordability high, about 71 percent of Americans say now is a good time to purchase a home. Also, more Americans are optimistic that home prices will rise over the next year — about 26 percent say prices will rise in 2012, an increase of 4 percent over the last survey, according to Fannie Mae’s December National Housing Survey

More information at sources: “Housing Outlook Is More Upbeat,” USA Today (Jan. 15, 2012) and “Consumers More Confident, Survey Says,” Deseret News (Utah) (Jan. 16, 2012)

In following instructions from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, government-sponsored enterprises Freddie and Fannie Mae are both looking at how they can ease requirements to spur more refinances so more borrowers can take advantage of record-low mortgage rates.

Fannie Mae has removed a refinancing requirement that lenders must determine the borrower’s ability to repay — aimed at increasing refis and helping more underwater borrowers stay current on their mortgages. 

HousingWire reports that about 4 million loans serviced by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are underwater, in which the borrower owes more on their loan then their home is currently worth. 

Source: “Freddie Cuts Some Refi Credit Score Requirements,” HousingWire (Jan. 5, 2012)

More news from the “Sierra Foothills” of El Dorado, Placer, Amador and Sacramento Counties of California at: www.sierraproperties.com or www.dougandbudzeller.com

“It’s important to recognize that we’re ending 2011 on a stronger note than we’ve seen throughout the year,” Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan said in a statement. “Unfortunately, however, our 2012 outlook is not as rosy as our forecast for the fourth quarter of 2011.”

Fannie Mae’s Economics & Mortgage Market Analysis Group predicts that despite recent improvements, the housing market will remain “subdued next year — a reflection of the winter season, an expected slowdown in economic activity, and a potential increase in distressed sales.” The nation’s fiscal problems as well as the European debt crisis are also expected to threaten the nation’s economic recovery in 2012.

Source: Fannie Mae

We hope your activity has picked up like ours has here in the Sierra Foothills regions of Placerville, El Dorado County, California.

“Knowing someone who has defaulted on their mortgage appears to be correlated with consumers being slightly more pessimistic about the direction of the economy, their finances, and their ability to obtain a mortgage, but does not materially correlate with their desire to own a home or their view of housing as a safe investment,” said Doug Duncan, vice president and chief economist of Fannie Mae.

Owners and renters who know defaulters are as likely to say owning makes more sense than renting, say buying a home is a safe investment and display roughly the same intention to buy a home as those who do not know a defaulter.

However, the survey also finds higher levels of pessimism on several measures related to the broader economy and personal financial prospects among consumers who know people that have defaulted:

More information at: http://www.fanniemae.com/portal/about-us/media/corporate-news/2011/5546.html

Other information about the Placerville, El Dorado County, California regions at: www.dougandbudzeller.com

More information is available from FHFA at http://www.fhfa.gov/webfiles/22721/HARP_release_102411_Final.pdf.

Dave Porter, with PorterWorks in Stanton, Wash., who provides continuing education courses on green lending to those in the real estate industry, says there are several basic types of green mortgages, which most of the public still isn’t very aware about. For example, energy-efficient mortgages (EEMs) are “used to finance the construction of a home that would meet green standards or to buy one that’s newly built.” An energy improvement mortgage (EIM), on the other hand, is used to buy and fix up a house that needs green improvements, like insulation or new windows. 

The loans are available through mortgage programs by Fannie Mae, the Federal Housing Administration, Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Agriculture. More information for the Placerville, El Dorado County, California regions at: zteam4u@gmail.com

“They have slight differences in requirements, but basically they allow you to finance the home, plus the energy-conserving improvements, without having to qualify for the additional cost of the improvements,” Porter told the Chicago Tribune.

Source: “Market Ripe for Green Loans,” Chicago Tribune (Sept. 9, 2011)

The current loan limits are set to expire Oct. 1. If an extension isn’t granted, the maximum mortgage amount in high-cost areas will drop from $729,750 to $625,500 (although that limit will vary throughout the country).

Some banks, such as Bank of America, have already stopped taking new applications for jumbo loans at the current rate so that they can process the ones already in the pipeline in time for the Oct. 1 deadline.

The drop in the conforming loan limit is expected to impact 2 percent of homes nationwide, but will have a much greater effect in some areas. For example, some analysts say 10 percent of the housing market in New York will be affected. 

Pamela Liebman, CEO of New York real estate company the Corcoran Group, told USA Today that the new loan requirements will “put a lot of buyers out of the market.”

Meanwhile, lobbying efforts are continuing, as several industry groups, including the National Association of REALTORS®, are urging Congress to act quickly on a two-year extension to maintain the GSE loan limit at $729,750. 

 Source: “Coming Loan Changes Could Squeeze High-Priced Home Markets,” USA Today (Sept. 6, 2011)

Other articles relating to the Sacramento and Placerville, California regions at: www.sierraproperties.com

The bill would authorize federally-chartered institutions to enter into a long-term lease — for up to five years — with the occupant of the property or with another person, and then at the end of the agreement provide an option to buy the home to the tenant. 

The bill could allow delinquent borrowers to remain in their homes but they would have to agree to pay rent and still sign over the deed to the bank or GSE, National Mortgage News reports.

According to the bill, this would allow the foreclosed property to remain occupied during the still-sluggish housing market and “preserve the property itself as well as the aesthetic and economic values of neighboring homes and even whole neighborhoods.”  

“As Americans across the country are affected by this unrelenting foreclosure crisis, it is imperative that Congress address this issue,”Congressman Gary Miller, R-Calif., who introduced the bill, said in a statement.

Source: “Bipartisan Bill Encourages GSEs to Rent Foreclosed Properties,” National Mortgage News (July 27, 2011) and “U.S. Lawmakers Back Bipartisan Foreclosure Aid Bill,” Reuters News (July 28, 2011)

Some of us in the Placerville, California region for over 3 years have wondered when the Fed’s would consider multiple options similar to this especially to the owners in foreclosure?

On Oct. 1, the maximum mortgage amount in high-cost areas is set to drop from $729,750 to $625,500.

“As far as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are concerned, there is a tradeoff there between supporting the higher-priced homes and weaning the housing finance system off of unusual limits it was put under during the crisis,” Bernanke told the House committee. “I understand the private sector is taking at least a significant number of the jumbo mortgage market but at a higher cost.”

The National Association of Home Builders has said that it fears more than 17 million homes nationwide will become ineligible for more affordable federal funding when the loan limit expires.

More information at: “Bernanke: Private Sector Ready for Conforming Loan Limit Drop,” HousingWire (July 13, 2011) and “Lower Mortgage Limits Are a ‘Trade-Off’ Bernanke Says,” CNBC (July 13, 2011) 

Other articles relating to the Sacramento and Placerville, California regions at: www.sierraproperties.com

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a three-year waiting period following a foreclosure, and a two-year wait following a short sale, deed in lieu, or discharge or dismissal of bankruptcy. However, if borrowers can justify that the circumstance for the foreclosure or bankruptcy occurred because of an illness or job loss — or other “extenuating circumstance” — that may help reduce their wait. But with no such extenuating circumstances, these former home owners may have to wait longer, even up to seven years following a foreclosure or four years after bankruptcy, the article notes.

For loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, borrowers with perfect credit afterwards also will, in general, have to wait three years after a foreclosure and two years after a bankruptcy is discharged, The New York Times notes.

Following a short sale, borrowers will have to wait three years to secure another FHA loan — however, there are plenty of exceptions. Borrowers will have to wait three years if they were in default at the time of the short sale and had no extenuating circumstances. However, if the borrowers were on time with all their payments a year prior to the short sale, they may have no wait at all and might even qualify for an FHA loan immediately.

Source: “The Post-Foreclosure Wait,” The New York Times (June 23, 2011) 

Other articles relating to the Sacramento and Placerville, California regions at:www.sierraproperties.com