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Despite Federal Reserve regulations that took effect April 1 requiring lenders to pay appraisers fair fees, many appraisers say they are still offered $200 to $250 by lenders for work billed to consumers at $450 or more.

MAKING SENSE OF THE STORY:

Last year’s Dodd-Frank financial reform law mandated that appraisers receive fees that are “customary and reasonable” for their local market areas, yet the Appraisal Institute says that is not happening.

While a portion of the difference between what consumers are billed and appraisers are paid goes to the management companies that connect lenders with local appraisers and take a percentage for their services, often times lenders make a profit from the appraisal as well.

Home buyers should care about this for several reasons. For starters, accurate appraisals are a concern for consumers, as appraisals can be deal-breakers if the appraisal comes in too low. When performed competently, appraisals can be accurate measures of the equity in a home when the homeowner refinances or seeks a second mortgage.

Read the full story: http://lat.ms/hIGZUL

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

Spring is in the air and all of your tech devices could use a good spring cleaning if you want them to last longer, experts say.

Carlo Tuzzolino, service department manager at Computer Direct in Madison Heights, Mich., recently in the Detroit Free Press offered some of the following spring-cleaning tech tips:

Don’t let dust clog your computer. Dirty computers can collect dust inside that can jeopardize performance. He recommends using a can of compressed air to remove dust and other debris.

“Eventually if you get enough dust, it’ll start to conduct electricity,” which causes to computer to run less efficiently, Tuzzolino says.

More information at source:  “High-Tech Spring Cleaning: Dust, Wipe, Fix Up, and Declutter Devices,” Detroit Free Press (April 18, 2011)

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

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced it will offer several grants to help remove housing-related health hazards — such as lead-based paint removal — from low-income homes.

“These grants are critical for states, counties, and cities who are on the front lines of protecting our children from lead hazards and other residential hazards,” says Jon Gant, director of the Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control. “We look forward to communities applying for these grants so that they can help make older housing safer and healthier for children.”

HUD is making the grants available through its Lead-Based Paint Hazard Control, Lead Hazard Reduction Demonstration, Healthy Homes Production, and Asthma Interventions in Public and Assisted Multifamily Housing Grant Programs.

The application deadline for all of the grants above is June 9, 2011. For more information, visit www.grants.gov or www.hud.gov.

Source: “HUD to Offer Grants to Fix Housing-Related Health Hazards,” RISMedia (April 13, 2011) 

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

Banks continue to receive backlash for their handling of a flood of foreclosures across the country. A new report released this week by federal regulators finds that banks failed to do a good job in handling foreclosures and sometimes evicted home owners when they clearly should not have.

The problems were “significant and pervasive” and added up to “a pattern of misconduct and negligence,” according to the Federal Reserve. The Fed says it soon plans to announce monetary penalties against mortgage servicers.

The report revealed several cases “in which foreclosures should not have proceeded due to an intervening event or condition,” such as families in bankruptcy or home owners who were eligible for a loan modification or even in the process of doing a loan modification.

Source: “Report Criticizes Banks for Handling of Mortgages,” The New York Times (April 14, 2011) 

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

Despite the decline in home prices, 81 percent of U.S. adults believe buying a home is the best long-term investment a person can make, according to a national survey by the Pew Research Center.

MAKING SENSE OF THE STORY;

Homeownership topped the list of long-term financial goals for Americans, according to the study. Respondents rated homeownership, as well as living comfortably in retirement, as more important than sending children to college or leaving offspring an inheritance.

“Owning a home is really a part of the American dream, and that is just part of the American psyche and something that people aspire to,” according to one of the study’s authors.

Read the full story http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pew-homeownership-20110412,0,2943484.story

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

New rules for the nation’s largest mortgage servicers haven’t yet gone into effect, but critics are already speaking out, saying the new rules fall short of really addressing foreclosure problems and helping home owners.

In a settlement with federal banking regulators, new rules for mortgage servicers include requirements that servicers stop foreclosing while negotiating a loan modification, improve their processing systems, provide defaulting borrowers a single point of contact, and bring in a consultant to investigate complaints by home owners who were foreclosed on because of foreclosure processing errors in 2009 and 2010.

However, Alys Cohen of the National Consumer Law Center says the agreements “do not in any way require the servicers to stop avoidable foreclosures, and that is what we need.”

In a letter to the regulators, dozens of groups — including the Consumer Federation of America and the Center for Responsible Lending — are calling for the withdrawal of the agreement in favor of “specific and protective measures regarding loss mitigation, account management, and documentation.”

Full article at : “New Rules for Top Mortgage Servicers Face Early Criticism,” The New York Times (April 11, 2011) 

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

The country’s top mortgage servicers have reportedly reached an agreement on changes to their foreclosure procedures.

The consent agreement has not yet been made public, but The New York Times was able to get a preview of what the agreement contains from individuals who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Among the proposed changes include:

• Greater oversight of foreclosures. The oversight will happen from third party groups that include law firms, who mostly will be charged with doing the actual work of eviction, The New York Times reports.
• Improved training of foreclosure staff.
• A single point of contact for every defaulting home owner with the servicers. Mortgage servicers will no longer be able to foreclose while borrowers are pursuing loan modifications.
• Servicers will hire independent consultants to review foreclosures that have been completed in the past two years. Mortgage servicers have agreed to compensate any owner who is found to have been improperly foreclosed on or made to pay excessive fees. 

Source: “Servicers Said to Agree to Revamped Foreclosures,” The New York Times (April 5, 2011) 

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

Banks Forge Mortgage Docs, Commit Fraud.

Watch this 60 minutes news story to learn what is coming next for the housing industry. If this story is any indication of wide spread fraud perpetrated by the major mortgage servicers we are about to enter into a whole new level of housing industry pain. NOTE: This story is NOT about the Robo-signer issue…this is a whole new problem. The states AGs settlements with the banks is NOT over this issue.

VIDEO of full story and details at:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaBVVuSpPXE&feature=player_embedded

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

Living downtown is becoming increasingly appealing to college-educated 20- and 30-somethings.

In two-thirds of the country’s 51 largest cities, the college-educated population in the past decade has grown twice as fast within 3 miles of urban centers when compared to the rest of the metro area, the USA Today reports. That is a jump of 26 percent, on average, compared with 13 percent in other parts.

Young adults with higher education, in particular, seem to be showing a preference for urban living. Young adults with a four-year degree are about 94 percent more likely to live near urban neighborhoods than less-educated young professionals. (In 2000, that number was about 61 percent.)

More at Source: “Young and Educated Show Preference for Urban Living; Even Shrinking Cities See More Moving Downtown,” USA Today (April 1, 2011)

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

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – California lawmakers have approved a bill that would create the most ambitious renewable energy standards in the nation, giving utilities less than 10 years to receive one-third of their power from wind, solar and other alternative sources. 

Tuesday’s 55-19 vote in the Assembly sends the bill to Gov. Jerry Brown. The state Senate approved Senate Bill 2X last month. 

The bill’s author, Democratic Sen. Joe Simitian of Palo Alto, says it maintains California’s place as a national leader in clean energy, provides environmental benefits and will create jobs. He says the legislation also protects ratepayers from excessive costs.

Critics say the bill forces utilities to turn to more expensive sources of energy, which will drive up business costs and hurt the state’s competitiveness. 

Portion of article by The Associated Press:  http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2011/03/29/legislature-approves-renewable-energy-rules/ 

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