Market Conditions
July 31, 2010 by Phil QuerinThe National Association of Realtors has published some excellent summaries and charts for local markets. Their Oregon research covers Portland, Salem, and Eugene.
Posted in Market Conditions, Miscellany, Realtors | Tagged Market Conditions, Oregon, Real Estate, Realtors“Strategic Defaults” – Making Borrowers the Bad Guys?
July 31, 2010 by Phil QuerinFannie Mae, the secondary mortgage giant, is targeting certain borrowers, whom they say, are voluntarily electing to go into foreclosure rather than continue paying on a loan that may be a hundred thousand dollars or more over the value of their home today. Fannie calls these “strategic defaults’ and vows to either go after them personally, refuse to buy their future housing loans for seven or more years, or do both. Apparently, Fannie has forgotten that the very banks who sold them the paper created many of these exotic loan products, ignored borrowers’ credit, and basically helped create our credit mess in the first place.
Posted in Legislation - Oregon, Market Conditions, Miscellany, Real Estate General, Real Estate/Distressed | Tagged Banks, Deed-In-Lieu, Distressed Transactions, Foreclosure, Liability, Market Conditions, Modification, Oregon, Piggy-Back Loans, Promissory Notes, Short Sales, Trust DeedsKnowing The Score
July 30, 2010 by Phil QuerinIn today’s real estate marketplace, credit is driving all lending decisions. And the bar keeps getting raised. But you can’t fix it if you don’t know it’s broken – or how badly it’s broken. You need to know what’s on your credit report and what your credit score is. Only then can you get started fixing it.
Posted in HyperLynx, Miscellany, Real Estate General, Real Estate/Distressed | Tagged Credit, Credit Scoring, Distressed TransactionsBank REOs And Property Disclosure
July 28, 2010 by Phil QuerinFor many years, Oregon has had a seller property disclosure law. It requires owners of 1 to 4 family dwellings to disclose to buyers certain important information about the property being sold. It does not require sellers to disclose what they don’t know – just what they do know. This seems only fair. However, Oregon’s property disclosure law expressly excludes banks. When the law was first created years ago, the exclusion made sense. But today, with bank REOs comprising one of the largest segments of all sales transactions, consumers need a minimal level of protection. If sellers of 1 to 4 family homes cannot hide behind “caveat emptor” (buyer beware) why should banks?
Posted in Legislation - Oregon, Miscellany, Real Estate General, Real Estate/Distressed | Tagged AS-IS, Banks, Distressed Transactions, Property Disclosure, REOsMaking Sausage – Observations on Some Recent Oregon Legislation
July 28, 2010 by Phil QuerinOregon legislative drafting can be like making sausage – you don’t want to watch the process. A case in point is the Legislature’s attempt to deal with homeowners’ promissory note liability that can survive the foreclosure of certain mortgages on distressed housing. The sausages were House Bills 3004 and 3656 – both attempted to deal with “piggy-back” loans – those 80% and 20% mortgages stacked on top of each other. The bills were enacted in 2009 and 2010, respectively. In both cases the Legislature came up short. Who suffers? The Oregon homeowner, of course. No wonder they’re distressed.
Posted in Legislation - Federal, Legislation - Oregon, Miscellany, Real Estate/Distressed | Tagged Distressed Transactions, Liability, Mortgages, Piggy-Back Loans, Promissory Notes, Trust Deeds
