On Thursday, February 9, 2012 our office will host an informative seminar on Social Media and how it can benefit your real estate business.

The seminar will be presented by Matt Ward of inConcert Web Solutions.  Mr. Ward will help you understand the value of Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other social media and how it can build or break your business.

 Read more about the seminar and register here.  Seating is limitted to 45 of our Business Partners and guests.  A lite lunch will be available at the conclusion of the presentation. 

The court ruled that because U.S. bank did not hold the mortgage note when it foreclosed on the property, it did not obtain the title in the foreclosure. Therefore, Bevilacqua did not purchase a legal title when he made the purchase.

In its ruling in Bevilacqua v. Rodriguez, the court referenced a case tried in the same court last January, U.S. Bank, N.A. v. Ibanez, in which the court ruled that if a bank cannot provide proof it owns the mortgage note, any foreclosure filings it initiates are void.

The Ibanez case, however, simply involved a foreclosure action. Bevilacqua extends that ruling to instances when a new homeowner has already purchased the property.

“As we recently held in the Ibanez case, Massachusetts ‘adhere[s] to the familiar rule that ‘one who sells under a power [of sale] must follow strictly its terms’‘ so, where a foreclosure sale occurs in the absence of authority, ‘there is no valid execution of the power, and the sale is wholly void,’” the court wrote.

“This case is just one example of a much larger problem,” stated Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley in response to the ruling. “In the rush to foreclose, the banks’ reckless origination and foreclosure practices have created a domino effect that has harmed Massachusetts homeowners as well as third-party purchasers who purchased properties after foreclosure.”

“This is yet another clear demonstration that the only way we are going to restore a healthy economy is to address the foreclosure crisis and hold the banks accountable for their actions,” she continued.

From DSNews.com

However, there is a chance that many of these bank owned homes may never hit the market. Banks are increasingly turning to demolition teams instead of real estate agents to dispose of many of the nearly worthless properties. Bank of America recently announced plans to demolish over 90 foreclosed homes in the Cleveland area. They will then donate the land to the local government authorities. Bank of America says that their donations in Cleveland are part of a larger plan to dispose of un saleable properties. According to a company spokesperson, these homes are worth less than $10,000. Bank of America has already donated homes in Detroit and in Chicago, and plans to do the same in other cities by the end of the year.

Many other banks are also increasing their efforts to dispose of their unwanted homes. Fannie Mae has a program to sell houses to local municipalities for around a few hundred dollars. Wells Fargo has donated 800 homes to be demolished since 2009. JPMorgan Chase is one of the first banks to begin donating houses it couldn’t sell, or identified as un repairable. Since 2008, the JPMorgan has donated or sold at a discount 1,900 houses to cities and county authorities.

The main incentive for these dispositions and donations is based on the tax obligation. The banks take this measure because once the properties are donated they no longer have to pay taxes or for upkeep. Banks may also get a write off for the donation. To the banks that better than trying to repair some of these homes, which according to a bank spokesperson are more economical to demolish than fix up. The local governments participate because they get free land to develop or use for open space. One Ohio County made a deal with Bank of America and has been one of the most aggressive local government organizations in striking these deals. Housing economists like these deals because they remove homes from the market that would otherwise sell for a low price or not at all, depressing overall home price. One of the big problems plaguing real estate has been an oversupply of homes on the market. Current residential real estate inventory suggests that it would take nine and a half months for the current number of homes on the market to sell. The housing market is considered healthy when supply equals six months of sales. Taking some of these homes permanently off the market could reduce some of the depressing effects.

What isn’t known is whether the banks will ever put enough housing up for demolition to make a difference. The Obama administration says it is working on its own plan to revamp its loan modification program in order to help keep more people in foreclosure in their homes, reducing the number of foreclosed properties on the market. Some areas of the country are looking at how to speed up foreclosures in an effort to return some normality to the market. It’s not clear that any of this will work. Certainly, the idea that we are at the point where banks would be better off knocking down houses that reselling them shows there is still something very wrong with the housing market. But what is clear is that banks and others are at the point where they are ready to try something new to boost the housing market. And that is a good sign for the future.

Home prices in the U.S. increased by 0.8 percent in May 2011 compared to April 2011, the second consecutive month-over-month increase. On a year-over-year basis, home prices declined by 7.4 percent in May 2011 compared to May 2010 after declining by 6.7 percent* in April 2011 compared to April 2010. Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices declined by 0.4 percent in May 2011 compared to May 2010 and by 0.8* percent in April 2011 compared to April 2010. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.

Highlights as of May 2011

• Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest appreciation were: New York (+4.4 percent), Vermont (+3.9 percent), North Dakota (+3.8 percent), Hawaii (+2.5 percent) and the District of Columbia (+0.5 percent).
• Including distressed sales, the five states with the greatest depreciation were: Idaho (-16.4 percent), Michigan (-12.9 percent), Arizona (-12.1 percent), Illinois (-11.8 percent) and Nevada (-11.6 percent).
• Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the highest appreciation were: West Virginia (+10.1 percent), Hawaii (+9.0 percent), North Dakota (+8.6 percent), Vermont (+6.3 percent) and New York (+6.1 percent).
• Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the greatest depreciation were: Nevada (-9.8 percent), Idaho (-7.9 percent), Arizona (-7.0 percent), South Dakota (-6.1 percent) and Minnesota (-5.0 percent).
• Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to May 2011) was -32.7 percent. Excluding distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the HPI for the same period was -21.2 percent.
• Of the top 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) measured by population, 91* are showing year-over-year declines in May, unchanged from April.

"Two consecutive months of month-over-month growth and continued relative strength in the non-distressed market segment are positive seasonal signs in the housing market. Slowly declining shadow inventory and stabilized negative equity levels are also positive signs." said Mark Fleming, chief economist with CoreLogic. "Nonetheless, the fragile economic recovery is still critical to the long-term recovery in the housing market." © 2011 CoreLogic. All rights reserved. http://www.corelogic.com/

The average price of a single-family home rose for the first time in eight months in April and is now back at levels last seen in the summer of 2003, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index.

Housing may soon rise from the dead, argue some economists. And, the severity of the slump may in fact accelerate the arrival of a recovery.

A simple scam aimed at hijacking just one or two mortgage payments from unwary homeowners is making the rounds once again. It isn't as insidious as, say, "flopping," the ruse de jour in the mortgage market. But it is a continuing, if not a growing, problem.

There were a lot of factors that contributed to loan defaults, but the lack of hefty down payments was not one of them. Rather it was making loans to people who had little or no chance to pay their mortgages.