Forward this e-mail to your friends!

Then they can subscribe directly at the following link:

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com/

*** Join Chris’ Facebook Fan Page–>

http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

*** Follow Chris on Twitter–>

http://www.twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

************************************************************

Banks ramping up short sales

Banks, accelerating efforts to move troubled mortgages off their books, are offering as much as $35,000 or more in cash to delinquent homeowners to sell their properties for less than they owe.  Banks are nudging potential sellers by pre-approving deals, streamlining the closing process, forgoing their right to pursue unpaid debt and in some cases providing large cash incentives, said Bill Fricke, senior credit officer for Moody’s Investors Service in New York.  Losses for lenders are about 15% lower on the sales than on foreclosures, which can take years to complete while taxes and legal, maintenance and other costs accumulate, according to Moody’s. The deals accounted for 33% of financially distressed transactions in November, up from 24% a year earlier, said CoreLogic Inc., a Santa Ana, California-based real estate information company. A mountain of pending repossessions is holding back a recovery in the housing market, where prices have fallen for six straight years, and damping economic growth. Owners of more than 14 million homes are in foreclosure, behind on their mortgages or owe more than their properties are worth, said RealtyTrac Inc., a property-data company in Irvine, California.

Short sales represented 9% of all US residential transactions in November, the most recent month for which data is available, up from 2% in January 2008, according to Corelogic. Bank-owned foreclosures and short sales sold at a discount of 34% to non-distressed properties in the third quarter, according to RealtyTrac.  As lenders shift their focus to sales, they are finding that some borrowers would rather risk repossession while they wait for a loan modification, according to Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance, a trade journal. In a loan modification, the monthly payment, and sometimes principal, is reduced to help prevent seizure. Homeowners facing foreclosure may live rent-free for years before they are forced out.  “That’s why the banks have got to pay the big bucks,” Cecala said. “The real question is why is the bribe so big? Is that what it takes to get somebody out of their home?”

Obama returning money, better late than never…

Two American brothers of a Mexican casino magnate who fled drug and fraud charges in the United States and has been seeking a pardon enabling him to return have emerged as major fund-raisers and donors for President Obama’s re-election campaign.  The casino owner, Juan Jose Rojas Cardona, known as Pepe, jumped bail in Iowa in 1994 and disappeared, and has since been linked to violence and corruption in Mexico. A State Department cable in 2009 said he was suspected of orchestrating the assassination of a business rival and making illegal campaign donations to Mexican officials.  As recently as January of last year, one of Cardona’s brothers in Chicago, Carlos Rojas Cardona, arranged for the former chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party to seek a pardon from the governor for Pepe Cardona, according to prosecutors in that state.  Last fall, Carlos Cardona and another brother in Chicago, Alberto Rojas Cardona, began raising money for the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The Cardona brothers, who have no prior history of political giving, appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the world of Democratic fund-raising, Democratic activists said.

The money Alberto Cardona raised put him in the upper tiers of fund-raisers known as bundlers, according to a list released last month by the campaign. He and Carlos Cardona each gave the maximum $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee, and a lesser amount to a state victory fund. A sister, Leticia Rojas Cardona of Tennessee, donated $13,000 to the national committee, and another relative in Illinois gave $12,600, records show. There is no record of Pepe Cardona making a donation.  Although the two brothers live and work in Chicago, they maintain ties to Pepe Cardona in Mexico. Alberto Cardona operates an advertising agency in Mexico that has worked for political candidates backed by his brother, according to public records and Mexican news reports. Public records also show that the domain name for the Web site of a restaurant Pepe Cardona owns is registered to Alberto Cardona.  When The New York Times asked the Obama campaign early yesterday about the Cardonas, officials said they were unaware of the brother in Mexico. Later in the day, the campaign said it was refunding the money raised by the family, which totaled more than $200,000.

Olick – 40 states sign on to robo-deal

“After more than a year of negotiations, attorneys general from more than 40 states signed on to a proposed settlement agreement with five of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers over ‘robo-signing’ foreclosure processing abuses, according to the lead negotiator, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller.  ‘This enables us to move forward into the very final stages of remaining work. Federal and state officials, as well as representatives from the banks, continue to address matters that they must complete before finalizing any settlement,’ Miller said in a statement released late Monday.  The deal with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Ally Financial will reportedly total $25 billion. Some $17 billion of that would go toward writing down mortgage principal for an estimated 850,000 troubled borrowers, $3 billion could go toward restitution payments of $1,500 each to borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure, and the rest could go to state funds for foreclosure relief, according to reports and estimates by Inside Mortgage Finance.  The total could be less, however, if California does not sign on. As of late Monday, officials there said Attorney General Kamala Harris had not agreed to the proposal.

New York did not sign on to the deal either, according to sources in Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office. Schneiderman had said he would not sign, but reports earlier in the week suggested he was reconsidering, given his new roll as co-chair of a Justice Department task force to investigate mortgage-related abuses.  Attorneys general from Delaware and Nevada also have reportedly not agreed to the deal. Despite the Feb. 6 deadline, states can still sign on and the expectation is that more will.  So-called robo-signing, where thousands of foreclosure documents are signed by one employee without proper verification, came to light in the fall of 2010. Miller formed the coalition of attorneys general to investigate major bank servicers in October 2010. Allegations of forgery and abuse in the documentation process ground foreclosures nearly to a halt for much of 2011, as servicers reviewed and changed the way they process foreclosure documents. They are just now ramping up again in states where foreclosures are not required to go before a judge, or non-judicial states. In judicial states, foreclosures can now take up to three years.  Miller’s office would give no details as to the agreement, or the states that committed to it.”

After pipeline rebuke, Canada turns to Asia

Speaking ahead of Canada’s most high-powered trade mission to Beijing for almost 15 years, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that Canada must focus on markets that are growing, regardless of the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline, which is proposed to carry crude from the Alberta oil sands to Texas refineries.  The US State Department blocked Keystone last month, saying they didn’t have time for a thorough environmental review.  Harper told Reuters in an interview: “I think we need to be clear. As much as I want to see that Keystone project proceed, I think this incident … underscore(s) the fact that it is in this country’s national interest to be able to sell products beyond the United States.  And I don’t think a reversal of an American decision can change that fundamental reality. So I think it is absolutely essential that we find ways of being able to sell our products to the biggest growing markets in the world, and those are in Asia.”

Canada — the largest supplier of energy to the United States — was profoundly disappointed by Washington’s decision to veto TransCanada’s Keystone project. The United States — which is by far Canada’s largest trading partner — is unlikely to look at it again until after the election.  At 170 billion barrels, Canada’s oil sands are the third-largest crude deposit in the world, and Canadian exports to bigger markets will be a focal point of Harper’s meetings in China, where he will be accompanied by five cabinet ministers and the heads of major corporations seeking business.  China has already made clear it would like to import Canadian oil to help power its rapidly expanding economy.  It’s not clear to most people why the Obama government would rather import oil from the Middle East than from its own backyard.

MBA – Q4 2011 commercial/multifamily up 13% from 2010, but…

Commercial/multifamily originations during the fourth quarter of 2011 were up 13% over the fourth quarter of 2010, but fell 7% from the third quarter of 2011, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Quarterly Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations.  “MBA’s Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Origination Index hit record levels for life insurance companies in the second and third quarters of 2011,” said Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Research. “In the fourth quarter, multifamily originations for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hit a new all-time high. While the CMBS market continued to be held back by broader capital markets uncertainty during the past year, others – like the GSEs, life companies and many bank portfolios – increased their appetite for commercial and multifamily loans.”  The 13% overall increase in commercial/multifamily lending activity over the fourth quarter of 2010 was driven by increases in originations for industrial and multifamily property types. The increase included a 43% increase in loans for industrial properties, a 31% increase in loans for multifamily properties, an 8% decrease in loans for retail properties, a 24% decrease in loans for health care properties, a 29% decrease in office property loans and a 44% decrease in hotel property loans.

Among investor types, loans for commercial bank portfolios increased by 122% compared to last year’s fourth quarter. There was also a 17% increase in loans for Government Sponsored Enterprises (or GSEs – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), a 13% decrease in loans for life insurance companies and a 50% decrease in loans for conduits for CMBS.  Fourth quarter 2011 commercial and multifamily mortgage originations were 7% lower than originations in the third quarter of 2011. Compared to the third quarter, fourth quarter originations for hotel properties saw a 52% decrease. There was a 39% decrease for office properties, a 24% decrease for retail properties, a 29% increase for multifamily properties, a 51% increase for industrial properties, and a 153% increase for health care properties.  Among investor types, between the third and fourth quarters of 2011, loans for conduits for CMBS saw a decrease in loan volume of 26%, loans for life insurance companies saw a decrease in loan volume of 23%, originations for commercial bank portfolios decreased 16% and loans for GSEs increased by 34%.

Greek problems escalate

Greek party leaders face crunch talks on Tuesday to secure a new international bailout and avoid a chaotic debt default, caught between European Union (EU) demands that they accept painful reforms now and a national strike against more austerity.  Prime Minister Lucas Papademos negotiated through most of the night with Greece’s European Union and IMF lenders, ending at 4 a.m. (0200 GMT) when the 24-hour strike was about to begin, closing ports and tourist sites and disrupting public transport.  Papademos, a technocrat parachuted in to lead the Greek government late last year, must persuade leaders of the three parties in his coalition government to accept the EU/IMF conditions for the 130-billion-euro ($170-billion) rescue.  An official said the government was preparing a text to put to the leaders for their approval, suggesting some movement in the process.

With Greece’s future in the euro zone in question, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said time was of the essence and there are growing signs that euro zone officials have lost patience.  They say the full package must be agreed with Greece and approved by the euro zone, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund before February 15.  This is to allow time for complex legal procedures involved in a bond swap deal – under which the value of private investors’ holdings of Greek debt will be cut radically in value – so Athens can get rescue funds before March 20 when it has to meet heavy debt repayments or suffer a chaotic default.

Better inventory levels, fragile prices

Home prices and sales remained fragile in January even as housing inventory levels and foreclosure starts improved during the same month, the Obama administration said in its latest Housing Scorecard Report.  Inventories of existing homes for sale declined from 3.2 million in the second quarter of 2011 to 2.4 million in the fourth quarter, according to data from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Treasury.  Overall, housing results were a mixed bag, the scorecard said. Inventory levels improved in the last two quarters while the number of housing units held off market fell from 3.9 million in the first quarter to 3.6 million in 4Q, the scorecard said. Foreclosure starts also fell in December, suggesting some signs of improvement.

Still, home prices are weak and foreclosure completions edged higher.  Home prices hit $138,500 on average for November 2011, compared to $140,300 in October 2011, according to Case-Shiller data cited in the report. New home sales hit 25,600 in December 2011, down from 27,600 a year ago. Meanwhile, the number of existing home sales hit 384,200 in December 2011, up from 370,800 in the year-ago period. First-time homebuyer numbers grew to 204,900 in December 2011, up from 196,000 in November 2011, according to the scorecard.  Foreclosure starts fell to 58,300 in December 2011, from 71,700 in November 2011. Foreclosure completions declined during the same period hit 61,800 in December 2011, up from 56,100 in the month before that.  While mortgage originations for the purchase of new homes declined to 431,500 from 498,000 in the year-ago period, but refinance originations rose to 1.3 million in 4Q from 950,000 during 3Q. Mortgage delinquency rates were mostly falling, dropping to 4.4% in December from 4.7% in the year-ago period.

See you at the top!
Chris McLaughlin

**************

Copyright Loss Mitigation Institute LLC 2011.
All Rights Reserved.

http://www.shortsalesriches.com

http://www.shortsalescoach.com

http://www.sixfigurebpo.com

http://www.reomillionaireclub.com

http://www.youtube.com/shortsalesriches

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com

(subscribe to this newsletter)

*************************************************

About the author:
Chris McLaughlin is widely known as America’s top
Real Estate Attorney and Investment Consultant.

* As the top Florida foreclosure and pre-
foreclosure expert, he oversees more than
100 short sale & REO closings each month

* Long-time authority on real estate investing
and rapid reselling of distressed homes.  Owns
portfolio of nearly 150 high-value, high-profit
properties

* Owner of one of Florida’s largest Real Estate firms,
running 4 different offices, supporting over
420 agents, uniquely positioning him to help
thousands of investors make money in the
biggest market opportunity ever!

* In 2010, Chris’ 4 Central Florida real estate offices
closed 2,786 sides for a closed sales volume of
$392,912,927!

* Highly sought-after speaker, consultant, and
seminar leader for current trends and hot topics
in Real Estate Investing, Entrepreneurship, and
Wealth Building

* Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

* Join my Facebook Fan Page: http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

Forward this e-mail to your friends!
Then they can subscribe directly at the following link:

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com/

*** Join Chris’ Facebook Fan Page–>

http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

*** Follow Chris on Twitter–>

http://www.twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

************************************************************

Washington state considers short sale protection

Banks could soon be barred from pursuing deficiency judgments against Washington state borrowers after a short sale. A Senate committee in the Washington State Legislature will hold a hearing over H.B. 2718, which states that if a bank “writes off debt from the short sale, they can’t then subsequently collect this debt from the seller. The bill was modeled after similar action passed in Oregon last summer. The bill if passed does not require the lender to accept a short sale offer. It would go into effect with 90 days of being passed. According to a Washington Realtors alert put out late last week, a borrower would report the write off to the Internal Revenue Service and take a tax deduction for the loss. This same amount is also counted as taxable income for the seller. “Providing certainty and consumer protections for short sale sellers is critical in the current real estate market,” the trade group said. “Successful short sales often prevent foreclosures that would harm consumers, tax revenue and economic recovery.” After the Oregon bill took effect in June, REO numbers became choppy and then began to fall at the end of the year. In September, repossessed homes totaled 1,420, according to RealtyTrac. That number increased to 2,057 the following month then slid to 936 in November and 874 in December. Some of that could be due to seasonal trends. Most lenders put repossessions on hold during the holiday season, but the December total was down 29% from the same month one year earlier.

S&P warns of rate cuts over health costs
Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s warned it may downgrade “a number of highly rated” Group of 20 countries from 2015 if their governments fail to enact reforms to curb rising healthcare spending and other costs related to aging populations. Developed nations in Europe, as well as Japan and the United States, are likely to suffer the largest deterioration in their public finances in the next four decades as more elderly strain social safety nets, S&P said in a report. “Steadily rising healthcare spending will pull heavily on public purse strings in the coming decades,” S&P analyst Marko Mrsnik wrote in the report. “If governments do not change their social protection systems, they will likely become unsustainable.” If no reforms are adopted, healthcare-related credit downgrades would likely start within three years, eventually leading to an increase in the number of junk-rated countries as of 2020, the study showed.

Olick – US Treasury forcing principal forgiveness

“Late Friday the US Treasury Department announced a major expansion of its Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). The three-year-old program has been largely deemed unsuccessful, as it has provided just about 750,000 borrowers with permanent loan modifications. The initial expectation from government officials was that it would help three to four million borrowers. ‘Clearly the initial program erred on the side of making sure taxpayers were protected, but it didn’t do enough to help the overall economy,’ said Michael Barr, former Asst. Treasury Secretary for Financial Institutions and one of HAMP’s original architects. Now taxpayers will pony up the cash, as Treasury is tripling the financial incentives to lenders and opening the program up to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and investors in rental properties. The money would come out of TARP funds, i.e. from the taxpayers. We still don’t know if Fannie and Freddie will participate, since their conservator, the FHFA’s Ed DeMarco, has been actively fighting principal write down for years. A week ago he sent a letter to members of congress explaining the math behind his argument.

But the Treasury may be forcing DeMarco’s hand. He claimed that writing down mortgage principal would cost $4 billion more than the modifications that Fannie and Freddie are doing now. Those involve interest rate reduction and principal forbearance. The newly expanded HAMP, however, with its triple- sized cash incentives, would shore up that $4 billion hole. Funny how he mentioned that hole on Monday, and the Treasury announced the new plan Friday. ‘If he [DeMarco] doesn’t get to yes, then he has no political leg to stand on,’ says FBR’s Ed Mills, who estimates the enhanced program could add one million borrowers to its ranks. Mills says a ‘no’ from DeMarco would enable the Obama Administration to replace him, which it tried to do once before, only to be blocked by members of Congress. ‘It would be an appropriate response for him to do it,’ says Barr of DeMarco. ‘I do think they should participate.’ I asked Barr why the Treasury waited three years to use the TARP funds for principal reduction. The obvious answer is that this is presidential election year, and the housing market is still floundering, but Barr claims the Treasury was just being careful. ‘It’s a use of taxpayer funds, and you want to make sure you’re not providing more of an incentive than is required,’ he said. ‘One person’s successful program is another person’s bailout.’”

Treasury department stirs the pot

The Treasury Department is investigating a report that Freddie Mac, the mortgage giant, bet against homeowners’ ability to refinance their loans even as it was making it more difficult for them to do so, Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, said yesterday. ProPublica and National Public Radio reported that Freddie Mac, which maintained slightly tighter restrictions than Fannie on homeowners’ eligibility to refinance, had a multibillion-dollar investment whose value hinged on borrowers continuing to pay higher interest rates. Beginning in 2010, Freddie bought several billion dollars’ worth of “inverse floater” securities — essentially the interest-paying portion of a bundle of mortgages — for its investment portfolio while selling the far less risky principal portion. Fannie and Freddie are supposed to be decreasing the size of their investment portfolios. There is no evidence that Freddie tailored its refinancing standards to its investing strategy, but “inverse floaters” make less money if the loans they cover refinance to a lower interest rate. Freddie issued a statement yesterday defending its commitment to helping homeowners. “Freddie Mac is actively supporting efforts for borrowers to realize the benefits of refinancing their mortgages to lower rates,” it said. The company said refinancing accounted for 78% of its loan purchases in 2011.

HAMP 2.0
The expansion of the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) by the Treasury Department is expected to benefit special mortgage servicers, mortgage insurers and nonagency mortgage-backed securities holders, while having no material effect on agency MBS, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said yesterday. Previously, if a borrower’s first-lien monthly mortgage payment was lower than 31% of income, the borrower was ineligible for HAMP. Factoring other debts to the evaluation will expand the pool of borrowers who can now qualify for HAMP. Investors also were given new incentives for accepting principal write-downs, with the financial benefits for such an action increasing from a range of 6 to 21 cents on the dollar to 18 to 63 cents. The Obama administration also extended the HAMP program deadline through December 2013. “We believe that the more flexible debt-to-income ratio and the inclusion of some investor properties will have a positive impact on modification activity,” KBW analysts said in its research note. “The impact of the increased principal reduction incentives remains unclear.

While it should help the nonagency sector, the impact would be far greater if there was GSE participation. The response from FHFA on Friday afternoon suggests that the GSEs might not participate,” according to KBW analysts. The research firm expects the changes to have “no material impact on agency MBS prepayment speeds.” However, special servicers in the mortgage industry are expected to benefit from the modifications. Ocwen Financial Corp. earned $28.3 million in HAMP incentive fees in the first nine months of 2011, and KBW believes other firms also will benefit from an expanded HAMP program. Barclays Capital analysts also see the changes as having no significant impact on agency MBS. “The reason is that the vast majority of debt forgiveness will be on delinquent loans, which are typically already bought out of the agency MBS trust,” Barclays wrote. “The only effect might be from the moral hazard side: if underwater borrowers in agency MBS pools start going delinquent on purpose to qualify for debt forgiveness, speeds will obviously rise. But we think this is unlikely to have a significant effect on agency speeds.”

See you at the top!
Chris McLaughlin

**************

Copyright Loss Mitigation Institute LLC 2011.
All Rights Reserved.

http://www.shortsalesriches.com

http://www.shortsalescoach.com

http://www.sixfigurebpo.com

http://www.reomillionaireclub.com

http://www.youtube.com/shortsalesriches

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com

(subscribe to this newsletter)

*************************************************

About the author:
Chris McLaughlin is widely known as America’s top
Real Estate Attorney and Investment Consultant.

* As the top Florida foreclosure and pre-
foreclosure expert, he oversees more than
100 short sale & REO closings each month

* Long-time authority on real estate investing
and rapid reselling of distressed homes. Owns
portfolio of nearly 150 high-value, high-profit
properties

* Owner of one of Florida’s largest Real Estate firms,
running 4 different offices, supporting over
420 agents, uniquely positioning him to help
thousands of investors make money in the
biggest market opportunity ever!

* In 2010, Chris’ 4 Central Florida real estate offices
closed 2,786 sides for a closed sales volume of
$392,912,927!

* Highly sought-after speaker, consultant, and
seminar leader for current trends and hot topics
in Real Estate Investing, Entrepreneurship, and
Wealth Building

* Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

* Join my Facebook Fan Page: http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

Forward this e-mail to your friends!

Then they can subscribe directly at the following link:

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com/

*** Join Chris’ Facebook Fan Page–>

http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

*** Follow Chris on Twitter–>

http://www.twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

************************************************************

60 BOA short sales in Florida

Only 60 Floridians have received cash from a Bank of America (BOA) program that pays up to $20,000 to homeowners who sell distressed properties in a short sale.  The lender still expects thousands more in the Sunshine State to collect the money before the pilot program ends in August. Bank spokesman Richard Simon said it’s too early to judge the results.  “There are some encouraging signs in this early stage,” he said. “This is just the start of the process.”  Several Realtors and title agents around Tampa Bay said deals are in the pipeline, but none has finalized any of the sales.  Real estate agents say some lenders have been closing the deals in 45 to 60 days instead of a year or longer.  Bank of America had targeted 20,000 of the 1.1 million mortgages it services in Florida.  In the program, qualified homeowners would get 5% of the unpaid mortgage balance as of August 2011, with a minimum payout of $5,000. And so on up to a maximum of $20,000. The sales price does not impact the payout.  By offering the incentive, Bank of America saves attorney fees, court costs and property taxes by avoiding foreclosure. It also speeds the process of getting bad loans off its books and gets the properties back on the market faster.  To sweeten the deal further, the lender said it would consider waiving the deficiency on the mortgages, which would allow homeowners to sell the house for less than they owe for it without having to make up the difference to the bank.  The bank tested the program only in Florida because of the higher foreclosure rates.

Asia to drive natural gas demand

Despite natural gas prices falling to near 10-year lows last week, Royal Dutch Shell’s CEO Peter Voser says demand for gas will be much higher than oil in the long term with the Asia-Pacific region driving the sector’s growth.  “I think you cannot travel around Asia at the moment without getting the question, ‘can you sell us some LNG (liquefied natural gas)?’” Voser at the World Economic Forum in Davos.  Low demand and high inventory levels in the US has deterred some companies from future investments, but according to Voser, America’s waning demand doesn’t reflect what is happening in the rest of the world.  “If you’re talking about North American gas, clearly the current price levels are not sufficient to actually bring all the developments forward. You have seen a lot of companies starting to cut their production.”  With oil and gas production normally taking seven to eight years to come on stream, Voser says Shell is sticking to its long-term strategy to produce more natural gas.  “We produce more gas in 2012 now, 52% versus 48% oil,” he said. “Clearly Asia-Pacific, that’s going to be the driver.”

WSJ – mortgage rates rise

Rates for fixed mortgages moved higher over the past week amid positive signals from the long-suffering US housing market, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of mortgage rates.  “Fixed mortgage rates ticked up this week as the housing market ended 2011 on a high note,” said Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft, noting encouraging data like a report that existing home sales rose 5% at the end of the year to 4.61 million houses, the largest amount since May 2010.  The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.98% for the week ended Thursday, up from 3.88% the previous week, though below 4.8% a year ago. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.24%, up from 3.17% last week and below 4.09% a year earlier.  Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARM, averaged 2.85%, up from 2.82% last week and below 3.7% a year ago. One-year Treasury-indexed ARM rates averaged 2.74%, matching the prior week and below 3.26% last year.  To obtain the rates, 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages required an average 0.7 percentage point and 0.8 percentage point payment, respectively. Five-year and one-year adjustable rate mortgages required an average 0.7 percentage point and 0.6 percentage point payment, respectively. A point is 1% of the mortgage amount, charged as prepaid interest.

Growth up in Q4

US gross domestic product expanded at a 2.8% annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Friday, a sharp acceleration from the 1.8% clip of the prior three months and the quickest pace since the second quarter of 2010.  It was, however, a touch below economists’ expectations for a 3.0% rate.  Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of US economic activity, stepped to a 2% rate from the third-quarter’s 1.7% pace – largely driven by pent-up demand for motor vehicles.  Spending was also lifted by moderate inflation.  A price index for personal spending rose at a 0.7% rate in the fourth-quarter, the slowest increase in 1-1/2 years, after rising at a 2.3% pace in the July-September period.  A core inflation measure, which strips out food and energy costs, increased at a 1.1% rate after rising 2.1% in the third quarter.  The increase last quarter was the smallest in a year and put this measure well below the Fed’s 2% target.

Growth in the fourth quarter got a temporary boost from the rebuilding of business inventories, which was the fastest since the third quarter of 2010, after they declined in the third-quarter for the first time since late 2009.  Inventories increased $56.0 billion, adding 1.94 percentage points to GDP growth. Excluding inventories, the economy grew at a tepid 0.8% rate, a sharp step-down from the prior period’s 3.2% pace.  The robust stock accumulation suggests the recovery will lose a step in early 2012.  Also pointing to slower growth, business spending on capital goods was the slowest since 2009, a sign the debt crisis in Europe was starting to take its toll.  Expectations of soft growth led the Federal Reserve on Wednesday to say it expected to keep interest rates at rock bottom levels at least through late 2014.  Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank, which forecast growth this year in a 2.2% to 2.7% range, was mulling further asset purchases to speed up the recovery.  The Fed warned the economy still faced big risks, a suggestion the euro zone debt crisis could still hit hard.

Absorption rates to improve in 2012?

Net absorption rates in the US turned positive during 2011 for all major property types, according to CBRE Econometrics, which expects the trends to continue in 2012 on the heels of employment growth and then accelerate in 2013.  The absorption rate is the percentage of units expected to be rented or purchased over a period of time.  After a downturn across all property types, annualized apartment absorption turned positive at the beginning of 2010, office by mid-2010, industrial in 2010, and finally retail in mid-2011, analysts at Barclays Capital said.  In the apartment sector, CBRE forecasts a 0.7% absorption rate in 2012 and then 1.2% in 2013. Office property, the company said, will experience a 0.6% rate in 2012 and 1% in 2013, while the industrial sector should see a 1.1% rate in 2012 and 1.5% in 2013. Retail property will have a 0.7% absorption rate in 2012 and then 1.2% in 2013.  Grubb & Ellis said the overall outlook for the office market is stronger for 2012. The real estate services firm also expects the industrial sector to experience increased demand this year with total net absorption of 110 million square feet.  Net absorption rates usually follow employment growth. An exception came during the recent downturn when each property type outperformed relative to the levels of job losses suffered during 2008 and 2009.  Given the positive net absorption across property types and almost no new construction, occupancy rates, or the number of occupied units at a given time, began to improve in the third quarter.  According to CBRE, apartment occupancy rose 0.8% from a year earlier to 95%. Office occupancy increased 0.6% to 83.8%, while the industrial sector inched higher 0.9% to 86.3%. Retail, the only laggard, is down 0.1% from a year earlier to 86.8%.

See you at the top!
Chris McLaughlin

**************

Copyright Loss Mitigation Institute LLC 2011.
All Rights Reserved.

http://www.shortsalesriches.com

http://www.shortsalescoach.com

http://www.sixfigurebpo.com

http://www.reomillionaireclub.com

http://www.youtube.com/shortsalesriches

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com

(subscribe to this newsletter)

*************************************************

About the author:
Chris McLaughlin is widely known as America’s top
Real Estate Attorney and Investment Consultant.

* As the top Florida foreclosure and pre-
foreclosure expert, he oversees more than
100 short sale & REO closings each month

* Long-time authority on real estate investing
and rapid reselling of distressed homes.  Owns
portfolio of nearly 150 high-value, high-profit
properties

* Owner of one of Florida’s largest Real Estate firms,
running 4 different offices, supporting over
420 agents, uniquely positioning him to help
thousands of investors make money in the
biggest market opportunity ever!

* In 2010, Chris’ 4 Central Florida real estate offices
closed 2,786 sides for a closed sales volume of
$392,912,927!

* Highly sought-after speaker, consultant, and
seminar leader for current trends and hot topics
in Real Estate Investing, Entrepreneurship, and
Wealth Building

* Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

* Join my Facebook Fan Page: http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

Forward this e-mail to your friends!

Then they can subscribe directly at the following link:

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com/

*** Join Chris’ Facebook Fan Page–>

http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

*** Follow Chris on Twitter–>

http://www.twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

************************************************************

2012 to be the best year for short sales?

The Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Act of 2007 allows an income tax exemption for a homeowner whose mortgage debt is partly or entirely forgiven by a bank.  It’s set to expire Dec. 31, 2012.  Matt Alegi, a partner with the Potomac law firm Shulman Rogers and chair of the firm’s residential real estate practice group, says the tax break has meant a savings in the tens of thousands of dollars for individuals.  Typically, if someone were to have $150,000 forgiven by the bank, Alegi says, “you just made another $150,000 of income for tax purposes in that year.”  So, say someone makes $50,000 but had $150,000 forgiven by the bank. That person is now paying taxes on a $200,000 income, and included in a much higher tax bracket.  The loss of the relief will plunge homeowners further into debt, Alegi says.

He also thinks the expiration of the Debt Forgiveness Act will have an impact on short sales themselves. Homeowners could try to push the short sale through this year to take advantage of the tax break.  Alegi believes there will be strong lobbying to extend the tax break. If it isn’t extended, the appeal of a short sale could greatly diminish for the homeowner.  To take advantage of the Debt Relief Act, you need to fall under very specific guidelines outlined by the IRS.  For example, the debt forgiven is only for primary residences and the debt must have been used to buy, build or substantially improve your principal residence and be secured by that residence.  Alegi says homeowners who spent the forgiven money on education or other bills do not qualify.

Gridlock an Obama strategy?

When President Obama outlines his goals for 2012 during Tuesday’s State of the Union address, he shouldn’t expect a lot of cooperation from Republicans, senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said yesterday.  “With the Obama economy established now…unemployment is still at 8 ½%,” McConnell said. “It didn’t work, and we’re not interested in doing more of the things that don’t work.”  He said Obama was “AWOL” last year on his bus tour when Republicans wanted to tackle tax reform and entitlements, and he expects more of the same this year.   “He was not involved whatsoever,” McConnell said. “So I’m not optimistic, frankly, that in an election year that he’s likely to be any more engaged than he was last year.”  What’s more, he thinks the logjam in the nation’s capital is part of Obama’s agenda.  “That’s his strategy…to demonize Congress, to complain because he can’t continue to get everything he wants, like he did the first two years,” he said. “It’s all about his re-election and not about the country.”  One thing that McConnell thinks will get done is the payroll tax cut extension, which was extended for only two months in December when Congress couldn’t come to an agreement.  “We’ll be back at trying to figure out how to do that for the balance of the year and how to pay for it,” he said. “We don’t want to add to the deficit.”

What the $25 billion bank deal means

According to an Associated Press report, five major banks — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Ally Financial — and US state attorneys general could adopt the agreement within weeks. It’s expected President Barack Obama will mention new developments in the negotiations in his State of the Union address today.  A settlement between the banks and the states doesn’t mean homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure will get them back. In fact, they’re unlikely to benefit much at all financially, though the total financial settlement could be as high as $25 billion.  What’s worse is the settlement does not apply to loans held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Since Fannie and Freddie own about half of all US mortgages – or 31 million US home loans – that means a lot of homeowners who have been hurt by the banks’ deceptive foreclosure practices won’t be getting much-needed assistance.  Nearly 11 million people – one in four homeowners – owe more than their home is worth. According to current guidelines, these underwater homeowners have few options and little chance at refinancing.  Here’s how the settlement could shape up:

-  $17 billion would go toward reducing the principal balance struggling homeowners owe on their mortgages.

-  $5 billion would be put into a reserve account for various state and federal programs. A portion of this money would cover the $1,800 checks that would be sent to homeowners affected by deceptive practices. Only about 750,000 Americans, or half of the households who might be eligible for assistance under the deal, will likely receive checks.

-  About $3 billion would be used to help homeowners refinance at 5.25%, far below current mortgage interest rates.

If the proposed settlement terms are accepted, roughly 1 million of these homeowners could see the principal amount of their mortgages reduced by an average of $20,000. That’s good news for some, but bad news for the other 10 million homeowners who would like to claim a principal reduction but won’t qualify.  The better news is this settlement has the potential to reshape long-standing lending guidelines and make things easier for at-risk and underwater homeowners across the board. But critics say it doesn’t do enough. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) tells the Associated Press: “Wall Street is again trying to pass the buck. Instead of criminal prosecutions, we’re talking about something that’s not more than a slap on the wrist.”  Some states have disagreed over what to offer banks, with states like New York, Delaware, Nevada and Massachusetts arguing banks should not be “protected from future civil liability.” The deal will not fully release banks from future criminal lawsuits by individual states, and a few of those states’ attorneys general have already promised to pursue their own investigations.  Bank officials have argued few, if any, foreclosures wrongfully took place as a result of documentation issues. Ally Financial CEO Michael Carpenter has been among the most vocal, claiming the company found no instances of wrongful foreclosure after its own internal audit. Carpenter has said he will fight the government in court if need be.

US Treasurys edge higher after Greek setback

US Treasurys edged higher today, after euro zone finance ministers rejected an offer by private creditors to restructure Greek debt, keeping alive fears of a default.  Benchmark 10-year note’s yield was at 2.06%, compared with 2.058% in late US trade on Monday. The yield rose as high as 2.094% on Friday, its highest since early December. The 30-year bond yield was at 3.14%.  Demand for safe-haven US debt was further boosted after a report rekindled fears that Portugal, seen as the second most risky country in the euro zone, could be the next potential default candidate after Greece.  Further dousing optimism, Germany denied a report that it was ready to boost the combined firepower of the euro zone’s rescue funds to 750 billion euros ($979 billion).  During its two-day policy meeting starting on Tuesday the Federal Reserve is expected to push out expectations on when it will next raise interest rates until at least 2014, and the meeting will also be closely watched for any hints of new QE, which analysts expect would focus on mortgage-backed bonds.  The Treasury Department will sell four-week bills and two-year notes later in the day. The Treasury will sell a total of $99 billion in new two-year, five-year, and seven-year notes this week.

Mortgage writedowns to cost taxpayers $100 billion

Forgiving mortgage debt on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans would cost the taxpayer-funded companies almost $100 billion, their regulator said.   The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said that as of June 30, the companies guaranteed nearly 3 million mortgages on single- family homes that are underwater, or worth less than the loans they secure.  “FHFA estimates that principal forgiveness for all of these mortgages would require funding of almost $100 billion,” FHFA Acting Director Edward J. DeMarco said in a Jan. 20 letter to Representative Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat who had threatened to subpoena the information. The FHFA posted the letter on its website today.  Nearly 80% of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers with negative equity were current on their payments, DeMarco said.

DeMarco, whose agency was created by Congress to minimize losses at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and is independent of President Barack Obama’s administration, has maintained that principal forgiveness would increase the size of the government’s bailout of the companies, which have cost taxpayers more than $153 billion since they were taken under government control in 2008.  The agency compared the cost of principal forgiveness to the companies’ current practice of forbearance, which allows delinquent borrowers to defer payments.  “Given that any money spent on this endeavor would ultimately come from taxpayers and given that our analysis does not indicate a preservation of assets for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (FMCC) substantial enough to offset costs, an expenditure of this nature at this time would, in my judgment, require congressional action,” he said.

WSJ – EU tries to revive Greek talks

European Union finance ministers today piled pressure on Greece and its private-sector creditors to do more to ensure that a proposed deal to restructure Greece’s private-sector debt will be enough to put the country back on a firm fiscal footing.  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the euro zone’s four triple-A-rated countries-—Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg—are pushing for a low average interest rate on new bonds to be issued as part of the restructuring, in order to ensure the government can pay its debts in the future.  But as they were heading to a meeting Tuesday, EU finance ministers also urged Greece to implement tough austerity and structural reforms and provide more written assurances to its partners that it would commit to its pledges before further aid can be released.  Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter said she’s “not pleased” with progress so far. “We’re sending a very direct message to Greece that the community expects more, also in terms of structural reform,” she told reporters. “We’re not pleased and only when there’s a written message on the table in front of us, can further assistance be discussed.”

Greece’s debt restructuring is planned to take the form of a bond exchange in which creditors holding some €200 billion ($260.32 billion) in debt would swap their securities for new instruments with half the face value. The key sticking point is how much interest the new bonds should pay.  The restructuring is part and parcel of the second bailout program for Greece amounting to €130 billion. Without this loan, Greece will default on a €14.4 billion bond maturing March 20.  But talks in Athens with the Institute of International Finance, which represents the majority of Greece’s private-sector creditors, have dragged on for three weeks and stalled over the weekend. Private-sector creditors said in a final offer that they won’t accept an average interest rate of less than 4%.  The IMF voiced concerns yesterday that the deal being discussed by Greece and the creditors would leave the country with a higher-than-expected debt burden in the years ahead, people familiar with the matter said.  That sets up a difficult choice: press bondholders to accept more losses, or accept that Greece’s peers and the IMF will have to kick in more support.

Olick – foreclosure investors a double edged sword

“The best and most expeditious way to clear the vast inventory of foreclosed properties weighing down today’s housing market is to get more investors in and sell them these properties at bulk discounts.  That’s what the Obama administration and Federal regulators are currently considering for the thousands of homes currently owned by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA.  While big private equity funds are still largely in a very tedious deal-making stage with banks or waiting on the sidelines for a government program, smaller individual investors are getting in. Nearly 23% of home purchases in December were by investors, according to a new survey from Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance. That is a slight increase from November, but the share has remained largely unchanged for the past year.  What has changed dramatically is how many of these investors are using all-cash…74% according to the survey, which also found that, ‘cash buyers are able to bid significantly lower—and successfully—on many properties because they offer a shorter and more reliable closing timeline.’ That is precisely what mortgage servicers want.

‘While investor bids may not be the first offers accepted, they often end up winning properties after other homebuyers are eliminated because of mortgage approval or timeline problems,’ according to the survey authors. ‘Appraisals below the contracted price are a common reason for mortgage denials. Most mortgage financing timelines are now in excess of 30 days.’  There has been a lot of concern among industry analysts that bulk foreclosure sales would push home prices down further, but it appears that is already happening, as investors usually offer 10-20% below list price, while first time home buyers and current homeowners are generally offering list. If the offers are competitive, cash will prevail.”

See you at the top!
Chris McLaughlin

**************

Copyright Loss Mitigation Institute LLC 2011.
All Rights Reserved.

http://www.shortsalesriches.com

http://www.shortsalescoach.com

http://www.sixfigurebpo.com

http://www.reomillionaireclub.com

http://www.youtube.com/shortsalesriches

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com

(subscribe to this newsletter)

*************************************************

About the author:
Chris McLaughlin is widely known as America’s top
Real Estate Attorney and Investment Consultant.

* As the top Florida foreclosure and pre-
foreclosure expert, he oversees more than
100 short sale & REO closings each month

* Long-time authority on real estate investing
and rapid reselling of distressed homes.  Owns
portfolio of nearly 150 high-value, high-profit
properties

* Owner of one of Florida’s largest Real Estate firms,
running 4 different offices, supporting over
420 agents, uniquely positioning him to help
thousands of investors make money in the
biggest market opportunity ever!

* In 2010, Chris’ 4 Central Florida real estate offices
closed 2,786 sides for a closed sales volume of
$392,912,927!

* Highly sought-after speaker, consultant, and
seminar leader for current trends and hot topics
in Real Estate Investing, Entrepreneurship, and
Wealth Building

* Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mclaughlinchris
* Join my Facebook Fan Page: http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

Forward this e-mail to your friends!
Then they can subscribe directly at the following link:

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com/

*** Join Chris’ Facebook Fan Page–>

http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

*** Follow Chris on Twitter–>

http://www.twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

************************************************************

Existing home sales up

The National Association of Realtors said Friday that sales increased 5% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.61 million, the best level since January 2011 and the third straight monthly increase. For the year, sales totaled only 4.26 million. While that’s up from 4.19 million the previous year, it’s below the 6 million that economists equate with healthy housing markets. Sales are increasing at a time when the market is flashing other positive signs. Mortgage rates are at record-low levels. Homebuilders have grown slightly less pessimistic because more people are saying they might be open to buying a home this year. And home construction picked up in the final quarter of last year. The median sales price rose 2.3% to $164,500 in December. Still the housing market has a long way to go before it is fully recovered from the housing bust four years ago. In the last four years, home sales have slumped under the weight of foreclosures, tighter credit and falling price. Fewer first-time buyers, who are critical to a housing recovery, are in the market for a home. Purchases by that group fell last month to make up only 31% of sales. That’s down from 35% in November. In healthy markets, first-time buyers make up at least 40%. At the same time, homes at risk of foreclosure made up a third of all sales last month. In healthy markets, they comprise 10% of sales. Investors are increasingly buying homes priced under $100,000. Still, Sales rose across the country in December. They increased on a seasonal basis by more than 10% in the Northeast, 8.3% in the Midwest, 2.9% in the South and 2.6% in the West. The glut of unsold homes declined to 2.38 million homes. At last month’s sales pace, it would take a nearly 7 months to clear those homes. Analysts say a healthy supply can be cleared in about six months.

US and Europe to face more ratings cuts?

The string of sovereign debt downgrades in recent months could be just the beginning. The US, Europe—even Germany—could face further ratings cuts over the next three years, according to a lengthy analysis this week by Citigroup. The European Union got a slight reprieve late Friday as Standard & Poor’s backed it’s triple-A/A-1+ rating on the EU. It had been under review and at risk of a downgrade. The outlook remains “negative.” In announcing its decision, S&P said the EU “benefits from multiple layers of debt-service protection sufficient to offset the current deterioration we see in member states’ creditworthiness.” The US is at the top of Citi’s list for possible downgrades because its debt and deficit troubles are unlikely to be resolved with the political infighting in Washington. Some of the other usual suspects also are on Citi’s list – the European peripheral nations in particular such as Greece and Spain. But even mighty Germany, seen as the continent’s most secure economy, could face a downgrade as the sovereign debt crisis escalates and a European recession spreads through the region. “We expect a string of further ratings downgrades for advanced-economy sovereign debt, and do not expect any ratings upgrades,” Citi analysts Michael Saunders and Mark Schofield wrote. That includes American debt, which Standard & Poor’s downgraded in August in a move that set off a more than 600-point one-day selloff in the Dow industrials.

Citi said it is keeping its outlook unchanged on US debt in the near term but sees trouble looming for the American rating over the next two to three years. Indeed, the list of potential downgrades is ominous and serves as a reminder that while the US equity markets seem conveniently to have forgotten about the world’s debt troubles, some stern and punitive reminders are on the way. Further downgrades for the US, and the initial downgrade for Germany, could be a few years away. But in the next six months, the ratings agencies are likely again to start rattling their sabers, starting with the declaration of a Greek default that is approaching a near-certainty in March. In fact, in the next six months, Citi expects Moody’s to cut ratings for Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece, with the nascent recovery in Ireland allowing it to be the only one of the “PIIGS” nations to escape the downgrade scalpel. Additionally, France and Austria are deemed likely for a “negative outlook,” while Greece will be placed into either “selective default” or “outright default.” Going out further, the next two to three years are likely to see downgrades not only to the US but also to Japan, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands and Portugal.

DSNews.com – FHA steps up lender requirements
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) on Friday announced new measures to strengthen standards for the lenders it works with – measures the agency says will help it better manage the risk that comes with insuring mortgages against default. The new regulations institute tighter requirements for lenders authorized to insure mortgages on the agency’s behalf under the Lender Insurance mortgagee program.FHA says these institutions will be required to meet stricter performance standards to obtain and maintain their approval status. More than 80% of all FHA forward mortgages are insured through lenders participating in the Lender Insurance program. FHA’s second mortgagee program – the Direct Endorsement program – requires the agency’s approval for endorsement. In order to be eligible to participate in the FHA single-family programs as a Lender Insurance mortgagee, a lender must be an unconditionally approved Direct Endorsement mortgagee that is high performing. Under the new rule, a Lender Insurance mortgagee must demonstrate a two-year seriously delinquent and claim rate at or below 150% of the aggregate rate for the states in which the lender does business. HUD and FHA will review Lender Insurance mortgagee performance on an ongoing basis to ensure participating lenders continue to meet the program’s eligibility standards. The new rule also establishes a process by which new HUD-approved lenders created through corporate mergers, acquisitions, or reorganizations may be considered for Lender Insurance authority. In addition, FHA has shored up its processes for requiring lenders to cover potential losses from insurance claims paid on mortgages that involve fraud or that are found not to meet the agency’s underwriting guidelines, which could force lenders to buy back more defaulted loans. For those loans insured by Lender Insurance lenders, HUD may require indemnification for “serious and material” violations of FHA origination requirements and for fraud and misrepresentation. In a separate notice to be published soon, FHA plans to propose to reduce the maximum amount allowed for seller concessions, in which the seller contributes a share of the purchase price toward the buyer’s closing costs.

FHA says it will bring the maximum allowable amount to a level more in line with industry norms. The current level exposes FHA to excess risk by creating incentives to inflate appraised value, the agency explained in a press statement. FHA says these measures will help to protect and strengthen its Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, which has fallen below the level mandated by Congress, while enabling the agency to continue to fulfill its mission of providing qualified borrowers with access to homeownership. “Taken together, the changes announced today will protect FHA’s insurance fund from unnecessary and inappropriate risks while offering clear guidance to lenders regarding HUD’s underwriting expectations,” said Carol J. Galante, FHA’s acting commissioner. “FHA must continue to strike a balance between managing risks to its insurance funds and ensuring that FHA products are offered as widely as possible to qualified borrowers,” Galante continued. “We hope that the added clarity and certainty provided through these rules will enable lenders to extend financing opportunities to larger numbers of American families.”

Growth but few jobs

The National Association for Business Economics’ industry survey found that two-thirds of respondents expected no change in employment at their companies over the first half of the year. That was the highest share in recent quarters. Although the US jobless rate fell to a near three-year low of 8.5% in December, fewer businesses said they would hire more workers, compared with the previous industry poll. The survey, which was conducted between December 15 2011, and January 5 2012, found that 65% of respondents expect gross domestic product growth to exceed 2% between the fourth quarter of last year and the last quarter of 2012. That was higher than the 1.6% growth rate economists polled by Reuters found. About two-thirds of the companies surveyed said the European debt crisis would have little impact on their sales over the first half the year, while 27% of respondents said they expected to see a decline in sales of 10% or less.

CMBS delinquency rate higher than 9% in 2011

The delinquency rate of loans in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) bounced higher in December and remained above 9% all year. Delinquency rates were mixed across the five commercial property types in December with hotel and multifamily rates declining while office, retail and industrial rose. Moody’s Investors Service said the rate rose to 9.32% last month from 9.27% in November and from 8.79% a year earlier. The ratings agency said there were $3.7 billion of newly delinquent loans in December, including Bank of America Plaza in Atlanta, while $3.5 billion were resolved or worked out. The $1.4 billion of new CMBS deals was more than offset by $5.5 billion of seasoned loan dispositions and payoffs, pushing the CMBS universe to $582.8 billion, analysts said. The $363 million loan that went into arrears in Atlanta is the seventh largest delinquent loan overall, according to Moody’s. The delinquent rate in the hotel sector fell to 12.96% from 13.54% a month earlier, while multifamily declined to 14.44% from 14.88%, which remains the highest rate among the core asset classes, Moody’s said. Retail delinquencies rose to 7.22% from 6.97% in November; industrial climbed to 12.09% from 11.5%; and office increased to 8.65% from 8.39%. Moody’s specially serviced loan tracker fell to 11.97% in December from 12.1% the prior month.

See you at the top!
Chris McLaughlin

**************

Copyright Loss Mitigation Institute LLC 2011.
All Rights Reserved.

http://www.shortsalesriches.com

http://www.shortsalescoach.com

http://www.sixfigurebpo.com

http://www.reomillionaireclub.com

http://www.youtube.com/shortsalesriches

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com

(subscribe to this newsletter)

*************************************************

About the author:
Chris McLaughlin is widely known as America’s top
Real Estate Attorney and Investment Consultant.

* As the top Florida foreclosure and pre-
foreclosure expert, he oversees more than
100 short sale & REO closings each month

* Long-time authority on real estate investing
and rapid reselling of distressed homes. Owns
portfolio of nearly 150 high-value, high-profit
properties

* Owner of one of Florida’s largest Real Estate firms,
running 4 different offices, supporting over
420 agents, uniquely positioning him to help
thousands of investors make money in the
biggest market opportunity ever!

* In 2010, Chris’ 4 Central Florida real estate offices
closed 2,786 sides for a closed sales volume of
$392,912,927!

* Highly sought-after speaker, consultant, and
seminar leader for current trends and hot topics
in Real Estate Investing, Entrepreneurship, and
Wealth Building

* Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

* Join my Facebook Fan Page: http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

Forward this e-mail to your friends!

Then they can subscribe directly at the following link:

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com/

*** Join Chris’ Facebook Fan Page–>

http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

*** Follow Chris on Twitter–>

http://www.twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

************************************************************

Foreclosures to take longer

Reviews of hundreds of thousands of foreclosure cases ordered by regulators last year will take months longer to complete than first expected, according to documents filed with federal banking regulators.  The delays could postpone compensation for some homeowners harmed by improper foreclosure actions.  The reviews cover foreclosure actions in 2009 and 2010 by the nation’s 14 largest mortgage servicers, which handle payments for about 65% of US mortgages. They are required by enforcement orders announced by federal regulators in April.  Under the deadlines set in April, the reviews — which are being done by independent consultants hired by servicers — should have been completed this month.  But reviews of Bank of America’s (BOA) foreclosure cases could take until November, a letter that BOA’s consultant filed with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) indicates. BOA is the nation’s largest mortgage servicer, and the Promontory Financial Group is its consultant.  JPMorgan Chase’s consultant, Deloitte & Touche, indicated it may need about the same amount of time, according to its letter.

Review time frames have lengthened for other servicers, too, because the detail, scope and complexity of the reviews weren’t fully known in April, says OCC spokesman Bryan Hubbard.  Some companies may finish before others. Some may beat the timelines in their letters. Some deadlines may get longer, Hubbard says.  The OCC says servicers should not wait until all reviews are done to compensate homeowners.  While 4 million cases are eligible for reviews, consultants will sample only some for errors such as unlawful foreclosures and excessive fees.  Borrowers who faced a foreclosure action on their primary home by one of the 14 servicers in 2009 or 2010 are eligible for reviews. Anyone eligible who asks for a review by the April 30 deadline will get one, the OCC says.

Consumer sentiment up

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary January reading on its overall index of consumer sentiment rose to 74.0 from 69.9 in December for the fifth month of gains and the highest level since May 2011.  The report topped expectations of 71.5 and was in contrast to December’s weaker-than-expected retail sales reported on Thursday.  Thirty-four% of consumers polled in the consumer confidence survey said they had heard of recent job gains, a record high in the survey’s history and well above December’s 21%.  “The data suggest a stronger consumer spending outlook, rising to about a 2.1% gain in 2012,” survey director Richard Curtin said in a statement.  But consumers still lacked confidence in government economic policies with the majority rating policies unfavorably for the sixth month in a row.  Americans also remained dour on their personal finances with just 24% expecting their finances to improve in January, slightly below 25% last month.  The survey’s barometer of current economic conditions rose to the highest since February at 82.6 from 79.6, while its gauge of consumer expectations gained to 68.4 from 63.6.

2013 for housing recovery?

A poll of 23 economists and analysts found a consensus for no change in the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index in 2012, compared with a median 0.3% decline that was forecast in the last poll in November.  Many say that a recovery in the housing market is a key requirement for any vigorous rebound in the world’s largest economy. The spectacular collapse in US housing, which sent average prices plummeting by a third, was the trigger for the 2008-09 financial crisis and subsequent recession.  The meager 1.5% gain expected in 2013 will offer little comfort to the millions of Americans trapped in negative equity — owing more to their mortgage lender, and in some cases much more, than their houses are worth.  “I think we are seeing stabilization, but unfortunately it’s stability at the bottom,” said Lindsey Piegza, economist at FTN Financial, describing the grinding halt to several years of relentless price declines.  The average price of a US home is currently around where it was nine years ago, and the most recent data, from October, showed price declines still accelerating.

The market is still under pressure from an excess of homes up for sale. Fifteen of 20 respondents said monthly foreclosures should subside this year, while five didn’t see any let-up until 2013.  Among 20 respondents, 15 said they expect foreclosures to ease some time this year, while five said it would not happen until 2013.  Gains in home sales and new home construction in November, and recent improvement in homebuilder sentiment, added only a touch of optimism at the end of last year.  Still, while the gain expected over the next two years is tiny compared with the more than 30% plunge from the peak in 2006, it is still a more cheery outlook than in some other parts of the world.  A recent Reuters poll predicted British home prices, which have not dropped anywhere near as far as they have in the US, will slip 1.7% this year. In China, they are expected to fall 10 to 20%.

Excess regulations hamper economy

Regulatory policies are badly undermining the economic objectives of governments around the globe by hampering bank activity, JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon said in a conference call discussing fourth-quarter earnings Friday morning.  “Regulatory policy is completely contradictory to government objectives,” Dimon said, citing restrictions on trading and new capital regulations as regulatory sources of slower economic growth.  Dimon said that although regulators have provided additional clarity on new capital rules, the clarifications are have demonstrated that the capital rules are “bad.”  He noted that higher capital requirements have made risk weighting even more important for banks. Under international capital standards, different kinds of bank assets receive different capital treatment, a practice known as risk weighting.

Dimon also criticized the so-called Volcker rule banning proprietary trading. He warned that if the rule is not carefully crafted, it could limit not just prop trading but market making.  “The United States has the widest and deepest and most transparent capital markets in the world,” Dimon said. “And the most liquid.   If you lose liquidity because you lose market making, you cost investors money.”  He said that pension funds, retirees, and other large investors could lose out if restrictions on trading go too far.  “We have to be very careful that we don’t destroy that [market making] as we try to limit — put a fair limit — on proprietary trading,” Dimon said.

Fitch downgrades Merrill mortgage securities

Fitch Ratings downgraded four classes of Merrill Lynch Mortgage Trust securities certificates backed by commercial real estate because the underlying loans are expecting losses.  At the same time, 17 classes of loans in the same series of securities were affirmed by the ratings giant.  Fitch specifically classified 76 loans as mortgages of concern. About 25 of those 76 are specially serviced loans.  The entire loan pool subjected to the downgrade had an aggregate principal balance of $2.2 billion at the end of December, compared to $2.5 billion at issuance.  Of those loans in special servicing, 16 are real-estate owned, three are in foreclosure, another three are delinquent and 1% are current.  One of the largest contributors to the expected losses in the pool is a three-story office building in Scottsdale, Ariz. The loan was moved into special servicing in October of 2009 when a large tenant that fully occupied one of the buildings terminated its lease and vacated the premises. As of mid-last year, the building’s occupancy rate stood at 62%.  A hotel located in Tampa, Fla., also is contributing to uncertainty over the pool of loans with a special servicer saying it would like to pursue a foreclosure.

See you at the top!
Chris McLaughlin

**************
Copyright Loss Mitigation Institute LLC 2011.
All Rights Reserved.

http://www.shortsalesriches.com

http://www.shortsalescoach.com

http://www.sixfigurebpo.com

http://www.reomillionaireclub.com

http://www.youtube.com/shortsalesriches

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com

(subscribe to this newsletter)

*************************************************

About the author:
Chris McLaughlin is widely known as America’s top
Real Estate Attorney and Investment Consultant.

* As the top Florida foreclosure and pre-
foreclosure expert, he oversees more than
100 short sale & REO closings each month

* Long-time authority on real estate investing
and rapid reselling of distressed homes.  Owns
portfolio of nearly 150 high-value, high-profit
properties

* Owner of one of Florida’s largest Real Estate firms,
running 4 different offices, supporting over
420 agents, uniquely positioning him to help
thousands of investors make money in the
biggest market opportunity ever!

* In 2010, Chris’ 4 Central Florida real estate offices
closed 2,786 sides for a closed sales volume of
$392,912,927!

* Highly sought-after speaker, consultant, and
seminar leader for current trends and hot topics
in Real Estate Investing, Entrepreneurship, and
Wealth Building

* Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mclaughlinchris
* Join my Facebook Fan Page: http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

Forward this e-mail to your friends!

Then they can subscribe directly at the following link:

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com/

*** Join Chris’ Facebook Fan Page–>

http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

*** Follow Chris on Twitter–>

http://www.twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

************************************************************

Senate committee approves statewide guidelines for foreclosures

The Banking and Finance Committee voted 5-2 in favor of sending the substitute to House Bill 110 to a full vote, which could happen as soon as this week.  According to the proposal, the bill would authorize cities and counties to create foreclosure registries that would have statewide requirements. The fee to register a property would not exceed $175, and the penalties for failing to register properties would be limited to $500 a month and $2,000 total.  The proposal does not preempt city or county ordinances requiring registration of foreclosed properties for repeated violations that remain uncorrected for at least 60 days, but would it would stop any other local foreclosure registries currently in existence.  Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Jack Murphy said such a law is needed to prevent cities and counties from treating fees associated with foreclosures and vacant properties as a cash cow.  “It can’t become a revenue source,” Murphy said. “That’s a tax. We need something standardized that everybody has to go by. That will keep abuse from occurring.”  Murphy cited reports that DeKalb County raked in more than $550,000 in fees in less than a year.

The original legislation was sponsored by state Rep. Mike Jacobs, a Republican lawmaker whose district includes DeKalb County.  The bill is a carryover from last year, when it stalled as lobbyists for cities and counties raised concerns that the bill could have unintended consequences. Several people representing groups who opposed the original version remarked that they had not seen the updated proposal until Monday’s committee hearing and were still evaluating whether it is an improvement.  “County and city elected officials are hearing a lot from the public about this,” said Clint Mueller, a spokesman for the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia. “There are a lot of foreclosed and properties that are not being taken care of. We have no idea where to even begin to find out who is responsible.”  Still, Mueller said it is important to ensure that municipalities are not punished in an effort to address the issue through state legislation.  “It could have far-reaching effects if it’s not done right,” he said.  If approved, the law would take effect July 1.

Small business optimism edges up

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said its Small Business Optimism Index rose 1.8 points to 93.8.  Eight of the index’s 10 components were either improved or flat. About half the gain was due to reduced concern about business conditions six months into the future, the NFIB said.  The index is still in recession territory, however, 6 points below the pre-recession average and more than 10 points below the same point in the recovery from the 2001 recession.  The gains in the index are supportive of the view that economic growth will pick up in 2012, but the gains are not likely to be substantial unless the index rises more sharply, the business group said.  The NFIB reported earlier this month that small businesses cut staff in December. The% of businesses reporting reductions in employment remained relatively low, but the percentage increasing employment, though larger, did not offset the losses and remains historically low for an expansion.

Zillow – 3 – 5 years away from normal

Real estate website Zillow.com on Tuesday released a report that shows South Florida home values were flat in November.  Zillow’s Home Value Index for Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties was $137,000 – up 0.1% from October.  Values here have been flat or positive for seven of the past nine months. Prior to that, though, values had declined in 66 of the previous 67 months.  Zillow said home values in South Florida have fallen about 4% from a year ago and 55% from the 2006 peak.  Zillow’s report comes a day after a mostly encouraging forecast from the Clear Capital research firm.  Stan Humphries, chief economist for Zillow, said in a statement that supply and demand are still out of whack in many markets, and more foreclosures in 2012 are expected to hurt home values.  “Even with the anticipated increase in foreclosures, look for 2012 to be a transitional year in which home values fall modestly followed by a prolonged period of flat home values,” he said. “We’re still three to five years away from ‘normal’ housing market conditions.”

New details for MF Global

The investigation into MF Global is intensifying as federal authorities unearth new details and confront potential obstacles in their hunt for roughly $1.2 billion in customer money that disappeared from the brokerage firm.  While prosecutors and regulators have jointly conducted dozens of depositions with former and current employees, a senior official in the Chicago office of MF Global recently declined to meet with the federal authorities, people briefed on the investigation said.  That official, Edith O’Brien, a treasurer at MF Global, is considered a “person of interest” in the investigation, the people said. Federal authorities suspect that she transferred about $200 million to JPMorgan Chase in London on the eve of the bankruptcy of MF Global, money that turned out to be customer cash.  Authorities had expected to interview Ms. O’Brien last month. She instead balked at meeting voluntarily, asking first to strike a deal with criminal authorities that would excuse her from prosecution, the people said. The criminal investigation is led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and federal prosecutors in Chicago and Manhattan.  The request by Ms. O’Brien is the first in this case, one person briefed on the investigation said. Still, such requests are common in federal investigations and it does not suggest that she violated Wall Street regulations. Ms. O’Brien has not been accused of any wrongdoing, and there is no indication that she intentionally transferred customer money to JPMorgan.  Ms. O’Brien’s lawyer, Reid H. Weingarten, did not respond to requests for comment.

WSJ – mall occupancy up slightly

US malls and shopping centers experienced a slight improvement in occupancy during the fourth quarter, a relief for landlords that have been battling lackluster demand from retailers for most of the downturn.  But data service Reis Inc. cautioned that any recovery remains precarious and the outlook for this year is mixed, given the clouds hovering over the economy. While some retailers are expanding—such as Forever 21 Inc., Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. and Dollar General Corp.—landlords can expect more headaches from high-profile store closures by companies such as Sears Holdings Corp. and Gap Inc.  The fourth quarter typically is the strongest for retail landlords as well as their tenants. Still, the fourth quarter of last year was one of the strongest since the recession hit, in terms of rising rents and occupancies.

Malls in the top 80 US markets posted an average vacancy rate of 9.2% in the quarter, down from the 11-year high of 9.4% in the third quarter, according to Reis, which began tracking mall data in 2000. Mall vacancies had been climbing steadily for most of the downturn since 2007, when the vacancy rate fell as low as 5.5%.  Demand for space at neighborhood and community shopping centers also strengthened in the quarter, with stores occupying an additional 3.1 million square feet in the top 80 markets. Because of new construction, vacancy in this category remained at 11%, where it has been for three quarters, a level last seen in 1991.  Owners of retail property have been hit hard during the downturn by overbuilding, consumer caution and competition from online shopping. In the three years covering 2008 through 2010, retailers at neighborhood and community shopping centers vacated a total of 31.6 million square feet, according to Reis.  But the most recent quarter’s results indicate that the worst might be over, especially with the economy adding jobs. A decent holiday shopping season also gave the retail property sector a boost, with 23 national chains reporting an average sales gain of 3.4% in November and December at stores open at least a year, according to Retail Metrics Inc.

The average annual rent at US malls rose to $38.92 a square foot in the fourth quarter, a 0.3% increase from the third quarter and the second consecutive quarterly gain, according to Reis. Mall rents had been mostly flat or declining since 2008.  Average annual rents at US strip centers increased 0.1% in the fourth quarter to $19.04 a square foot after 13 consecutive quarters of remaining flat or declining.  Retail landlords also have been helped by a virtual shutdown in new store construction, meaning they face less competition for tenants. Only 4.5 million square feet of shopping-center space opened in 2010, the lowest figure in 31 years, according to Reis. Last year was slightly higher, with only 4.9 million square feet being delivered.

HARP 2.0 effects to be seen soon

Effects of the retooled Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) may start to appear next month, analysts said yesterday.  Since the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced changes to HARP in October, servicers have been adjusting operations. Upfront fees, loan-to-value ratio caps and representation and warranty claims on the old loan file were eliminated for eligible borrowers.  The program launched in March 2009. Roughly 838,000 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers were able to refinance into lower rates, but only about 7% of them had LTVs above 105%.

Prepayments slowed in December, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BOAML) analysts, dropping 6% on Fannie Mae securities backed by 30-year fixed-rate mortgages.  “We anticipate another uneventful month in January before February provides the first glimpse into the new program’s prospects. Even before then, it is interesting to note that HARP-eligible pools — which responded slowly at the start of the current refinancing wave — continued to show slow, steady prepayment increases this month,” BOAML analysts said.

Rumors stirred of another plan from the White House to boost more refinancing. A white paper from the Federal Reserve made the case for one, along with other suggestions to address still lingering housing problems.  Analysts at JPMorgan Chase said Monday that modifying all coupon stacks of mortgage-backed securities would violate the prospectus. The loans, analysts said, need to be at risk of imminent default for such an action. If Washington started a refi wave on GSE loans and everything was moved into a 4% mortgage, Chase analysts believe it would only result in a total of $25 billion to $30 billion in annual savings for borrowers.  “The dollar savings of such a move are modest in light of the overall economy,” the analysts said and would merely be a transfer of wealth from investors to borrowers. “HARP 2.0 theoretically addresses many refi hurdles, and we will learn over the next six months how successful it will be.”

See you at the top!
Chris McLaughlin

**************

Copyright Loss Mitigation Institute LLC 2011.
All Rights Reserved.

http://www.shortsalesriches.com

http://www.shortsalescoach.com

http://www.sixfigurebpo.com

http://www.reomillionaireclub.com

http://www.youtube.com/shortsalesriches

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com

(subscribe to this newsletter)

*************************************************

About the author:
Chris McLaughlin is widely known as America’s top
Real Estate Attorney and Investment Consultant.

* As the top Florida foreclosure and pre-
foreclosure expert, he oversees more than
100 short sale & REO closings each month

* Long-time authority on real estate investing
and rapid reselling of distressed homes.  Owns
portfolio of nearly 150 high-value, high-profit
properties

* Owner of one of Florida’s largest Real Estate firms,
running 4 different offices, supporting over
420 agents, uniquely positioning him to help
thousands of investors make money in the
biggest market opportunity ever!

* In 2010, Chris’ 4 Central Florida real estate offices
closed 2,786 sides for a closed sales volume of
$392,912,927!

* Highly sought-after speaker, consultant, and
seminar leader for current trends and hot topics
in Real Estate Investing, Entrepreneurship, and
Wealth Building

* Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

* Join my Facebook Fan Page: http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

Forward this e-mail to your friends!

Then they can subscribe directly at the following link:

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com/

*** Join Chris’ Facebook Fan Page–>

http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

*** Follow Chris on Twitter–>

http://www.twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

************************************************************

LPS – foreclosures stagnant

The November Mortgage Monitor report released by Lender Processing Services, Inc. (NYSE: LPS) shows that while mortgage delinquencies at the end of November 2011 were nearly 25% less than the January 2010 peak, the  trend toward fewer loans becoming delinquent, which dominated 2010 and the first quarter of 2011, appears to have halted. At the same time, new problem loans – those loans seriously delinquent as of the end of November that were current six months prior – have not improved significantly in the last year. This degree of stagnation indicates that while the situation is not getting markedly worse, it is not improving either, and inventories of troubled loans remain significantly higher than pre-crisis levels across the board.  The November mortgage performance data also showed both new and repeat foreclosure starts dropped sharply in November, down nearly 30% from the month prior. As late-stage delinquencies in the pipeline still number close to 2 million, the sharp drop is more indicative of the impact of ongoing document reviews, additional state legislation and new regulatory requirements rather than a shift in trend.

Prepayment activity – a key indicator of refinances – remained strong after several consecutive months of growth; however the October origination data showed a month-over-month drop of nearly 12%. While still the second highest level for the year, originations through October 2011 were down 21% vs. the same period in 2010 and down almost 30% vs. 2009.

Other key results from LPS’ latest Mortgage Monitor report include:

​Total US loan delinquency rate:  ​8.15%

​Month-over-month change in delinquency rate:  2.7%

​Total US foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate:  ​4.16%

​Month-over-month change in foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate:-  3.0%

​States with highest percentage of non-current* loans:-  FL, MS, NV, NJ, IL

​States with the lowest percentage of non-current* loans:  ​ND, AK, WY, SD, MT
*Non-current totals combine foreclosures and delinquencies as a% of active loans in that state.

Notes:

(1)    Totals are extrapolated based on LPS Applied Analytics’ loan-level database of mortgage assets.

(2)    All whole numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand.

Service sector up

The services sector—long the engine of the US economic growth but an unusual drag in the recovery this time around—is finally showing signs of sustained strength, from job creation to overall output.  The trend has been underscored in nonfarm payroll data over the past few months, including the better-than-forecast December data released Friday, which showed healthy gains again in retail trade and leisure and hospitality.  The jobs recovery in the service sector — long overdue and anxiously expected — is most pronounced over the past six months, during which time private sector service employment rose some 850,000 to almost 92 million. Over the past 12 months, payrolls are up more 1.5 million.  The pickup is in stark contrast to the first year of the recovery, when services payrolls were essentially flat, following a deep decline during the 2007-2009 recession.  In the four recessions prior to the recent one, the number of services jobs held steady or rose slightly. In the Great Recession, some 3.4 million were lost.  During the 1990-2000 period—the longest peacetime expansion in US history—services counted for some 80% of net private sector payroll growth. In the previous US expansion, the economy added more than 6 million service jobs in the 2003-2007 period, but lost 2.5 million manufacturing ones during that time.

WSJ – mortgage rates hold near lows

Average fixed mortgage rates in the US over the past week kicked off the new year at or near record lows, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of mortgage rates.  The firm noted the rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage during the period matched its all-time low, making it the fifth straight week the rate has averaged below 4%.  The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.91% for the week ended Thursday, down from 3.95% the previous week and 4.77% a year ago. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.23%, down from 3.24% last week and 4.13% a year earlier.  The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage, or ARM, averaged 2.86%, down from 2.88% last week and 3.75% a year ago. One-year Treasury-indexed ARM rates averaged 2.8%, up from 2.78% the prior week, though below 3.24% last year.  To obtain the rates, 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages required an average payment of 0.8 percentage point. Five-year and one-year adjustable-rate mortgages required an average 0.7 percentage point and 0.6 percentage point payment, respectively. A point is 1% of the mortgage amount, charged as prepaid interest.

Job crisis to last years

Despite an upswing in hiring during 2011, the jobs crisis could last many more years as millions of Americans struggle to find work.  The US Labor department said employers added 200,000 jobs during December, many more than expected by Wall Street. In 2011 as a whole, 1.64 million jobs were created, well above the 940,000 in 2010 and the best showing since 2006.  But the number of jobs in the economy is still about 6.1 million lower than before the brutal 2007-2009 recession. At December’s pace of gains, it would take about 2 1/2 years just to get back to pre-recession levels of employment.  That means many people will be in for an agonizing wait.  In December, 5.6 million of the nation’s unemployed had been out of work for at least six months, the Labor Department data showed, only slightly lower than the previous month.  While job creation certainly picked up in the United States during the end of the year, economists point out that even a gain of 200,000 is underwhelming considering constant growth in the population and the still-high 8.5% unemployment rate.  In December, the construction industry added 17,000 jobs. But that sector, devastated by a burst housing bubble that helped trigger the last recession, has even farther to go than the rest of the economy before it can recover.  There were still almost a third fewer construction jobs in December than at the industry’s pre-recession peak in August 2006.

Olick – selling foreclosures in bulk

“The Obama Administration, in conjunction with federal regulators and led by the overseer of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are very close to announcing a pilot program to sell government-owned foreclosures in bulk to investors as rentals, according to administration officials.  There are currently about a quarter of a million foreclosed properties on the books of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and millions more are coming.  The foreclosure processing delays of last year created a mammoth backlog of properties yet to be processed, which are just now being re-started. One of the initiatives of this program is for the federal government to be in the position to mitigate and manage any new wave of foreclosures, sources say. Late stage delinquencies still in the pipeline number close to two million, according to a new report from Lender Processing Services. Foreclosure starts outnumber foreclosure sales by two to one, and, ‘the trend toward fewer loans becoming delinquent, which dominated 2010 and the first quarter of 2011, appears to have halted,’ according to LPS.  Knowing this all too well, the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, HUD, FDIC, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with their conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) at the helm, are engaged in a collaborative effort to face this new wave of foreclosures head on and figure out a way to keep these properties from sitting heavily on the books of the government and sitting empty in the nation’s neighborhoods.

As the Federal Reserve alluded to in its white paper on housing last week, ‘A government-facilitated REO-to-rental program has the potential to help the housing market and improve loss recoveries on reo portfolios.’ REO’s (Real Estate Owned) are bank-owned properties, or, in this case, properties owned by the GSE’s and the FHA. Three Fed governors pushed for similar plans in speeches last week as well.  A pilot sales program will be starting in the very near future, according to administration officials. They are working on what the market potential is, what pricing would be, how government can partner with private investors, and who has the operational experience to manage so many properties.  ‘I think there is a fair amount of money in the wings waiting to buy, investors doing cash raises to buy properties on a large scale,’ says Laurie Goodman of Amherst Securities. ‘But that means they have to build out a rental organization; it means they build out a management company because if you’re accumulating a hundred homes in Dallas that’s very different than running a multi-family building.’  A number of institutional investors have shown appetite and interest in bulk REO deals, according to officials, but the plan has to incorporate ways to help facilitate financing. That has been one of the biggest roadblocks to deals already in the works between hedge funds and the major banks. Sources close to these private bank negotiations say there is plenty of cash to buy properties, but building out a management structure for the rentals is pricey, and some investors are finding the math doesn’t add up to make it worth their while.

Larger investors want to be able to get real scale in any government program, in the range of 50, 100, 500 properties per deal, or one billion plus in assets, say officials close to the plan. That’s why the government is looking to test a combination of different approaches. Fannie Mae did a fifty million dollar sale last June, but that was on the small side. Officials are evaluating at what larger asset sales beyond that would look like.  ‘We expect several pilots that will involve both local investors and institutional investors. The goal here is to reduce supply by converting foreclosed homes into rental units,’ says Jaret Seiberg of Guggenheim Securities. ‘Less supply – even less fear about a flood of foreclosed homes hitting the market – could stabilize [home] prices.’  While much of this program will focus on local areas of distress, largely in the sand states, officials say they are looking at where the assets are today but are really more focused on where all the foreclosures will be in the future. It’s not about the stock of foreclosures currently, it’s about the flow of them over time and alternative ways to manage that flow.  Officials say they want to bring back private capital and help support rental opportunities for households, particularly when rent rates are up at the same time home prices are down.”

See you at the top!

Chris McLaughlin

**************

Copyright Loss Mitigation Institute LLC 2011.

All Rights Reserved.

http://www.shortsalesriches.com

http://www.shortsalescoach.com

http://www.sixfigurebpo.com

http://www.reomillionaireclub.com

http://www.youtube.com/shortsalesriches

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com

(subscribe to this newsletter)

*************************************************

About the author:
Chris McLaughlin is widely known as America’s top
Real Estate Attorney and Investment Consultant.

* As the top Florida foreclosure and pre-
foreclosure expert, he oversees more than
100 short sale & REO closings each month

* Long-time authority on real estate investing
and rapid reselling of distressed homes.  Owns
portfolio of nearly 150 high-value, high-profit
properties

* Owner of one of Florida’s largest Real Estate firms,
running 4 different offices, supporting over
420 agents, uniquely positioning him to help
thousands of investors make money in the
biggest market opportunity ever!

* In 2010, Chris’ 4 Central Florida real estate offices
closed 2,786 sides for a closed sales volume of
$392,912,927!

* Highly sought-after speaker, consultant, and
seminar leader for current trends and hot topics
in Real Estate Investing, Entrepreneurship, and
Wealth Building

* Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

* Join my Facebook Fan Page: http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

Forward this e-mail to your friends!

Then they can subscribe directly at the following link:

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com/

*** Join Chris’ Facebook Fan Page–>

http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

*** Follow Chris on Twitter–>

http://www.twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

************************************************************

Short sales surged in second quarter: RealtyTrac

Second-quarter pre-foreclosure sales jumped 19% from the previous quarter, suggesting more banks and distressed borrowers are searching for efficient ways to offload properties that are near foreclosure, RealtyTrac said. Third parties acquired 102,407 pre-foreclosures in the second quarter, while 162,680 bank-owned homes were sold in the same period. Pre-foreclosure sales are generally short sales and properties sold within the foreclosure process. As for who is nabbing up distressed and bank-owned properties, RealtyTrac said third parties acquired 265,087 homes classified as in foreclosure or bank-owned in the second quarter. That is up 6% from the revised first quarter figure and down 11% from the second quarter of last year. The average sales price for foreclosures or bank-owned properties hit $164,217 in 2Q, down less than one percent from 1Q and 5% from the second quarter of 2010.  The sales price for distressed real estate was 32% below the average sales price of homes not in foreclosure. States with the largest quarterly increase in pre-foreclosure home sales included Nevada, which experienced a 43% increase; Washington (39%), California (38%); and Texas (34%). The states with the highest number of foreclosure sales included Nevada, Arizona and California.

Budget Deficit Estimate Cut to $1.28 Trillion: CBO

The federal budget deficit will hit $1.28 trillion this year, down slightly from the previous two years, with even bigger savings to come over the next decade, according to congressional projections released Wednesday.  The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says budget deficits will be reduced by a total $3.3 trillion over the next decade, largely because of the deficit reduction package passed by Congress earlier this month. Nevertheless, the federal budget will continue to be awash in red ink for years to come. Even with the savings, budget deficits will total nearly $3.5 trillion over the next decade—more if Bush-era tax cuts scheduled to expire at the end of 2012 are extended.  There is more bad news in the report: CBO projects only modest economic growth over the next few years, with the unemployment rate falling only slightly by the end of 2012. The agency projects an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent for the last four months of 2012. The presidential election is in November of that year.

“The United States is facing profound budgetary and economic challenges,” the new CBO report says. “With modest economic growth anticipated for the next few years, CBO expects employment to expand slowly.” Failure to pass a package would trigger $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts, affecting the Pentagon as well as domestic programs.  The new CBO report projects that the legislation will reduce deficits by a total of $2.1 trillion over the next decade. The agency also projects savings of $600 billion over the next decade from lower interest rates.

Diana Olick: Higher-End Housing Hits a Wall

Most of America won’t shed a tear for those who own higher-priced homes, especially given that the median home price in the nation has now fallen to just $174,000, but investors and homeowners alike should take note: Higher priced homes are taking a hit and the outlook for them is worse than the overall market.  That will have ramifications for recovery.  Despite the fact that just eight percent of US loans are currently jumbo, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, and that share will rise to just 10-12 percent when the conforming loan limit is lowered October 1st, high-end housing is already being hit harder than the overall market, which isn’t exactly doing so well itself. For one, weekly mortgage applications to purchase a home have been falling steadily, down 5.7 percent last week. But jumbo loan purchase applications fell 15 percent.

While sales of homes below $250,000 rose nearly 25 percent in July year over year according to the National Association of Realtors (June 2010 was the end of the home buyer tax credit, so July 2010 was artificially low, still….) sales of homes over $500,000 were basically flat.  Demand on the low end of the housing market is boosted by investors largely buying distressed properties; they either fix up and flip the homes or rent them out, waiting for the market to recover. Higher end homes have far fewer investors and may be more sensitive to a volatile stock market, as potential buyers are more likely to be invested there. Suffice it to say, we need all segments of the housing market pushing forward in order to get the full market back to health.

Markets not impacted by rise in jobless claims

Initial jobless claims rose last week, increasing by 5,000 filings for a total of 417,000 claims on a seasonally adjusted basis. That is up from the previous week’s revised figure of 403,500 claims. The Labor Department noted the numbers for the week ending Aug. 20 were impacted by 8,500 claims stemming from a labor dispute between the Communications Workers of America and Verizon Communications. Meanwhile, the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate hit 2.9% for the week ending Aug. 13, a slight decrease from the previous week’s revised rate of 3% Despite recent volatility in the stock market, analysts with Econoday said Thursday the markets “are showing little reaction to the report, which outside of the Verizon strike, points to mildly improving conditions in the labor market.”

Pre-Foreclosure Short Sales Jump 19% in Second Quarter

Short sales shot up 19 percent between the first and second quarters, with 102,407 transactions completed during the April-to-June period, according to RealtyTrac. Over the same timeframe, a total of 162,680 bank-owned REO homes sold to third parties, virtually unchanged from the first quarter. RealtyTrac’s study also found that the time to complete a short sale is down, while the time it takes to sell an REO has increased. Pre-foreclosure short sales took an average of 245 days to sell after receiving the initial foreclosure notice during the second quarter, RealtyTrac says. That’s down from an average of 256 days in the first quarter and follows three straight quarters in which the sales cycle has increased.  Nationally, REOs had an average sales price of $145,211, a discount of nearly 40 percent below the average sales price of non-distressed homes. The REO discount was 36 percent in the previous quarter and 34 percent in the second quarter of 2010.  Together, REOs and short sales accounted for 31 percent of all U.S. residential sales in the second quarter, RealtyTrac reports. That’s down from nearly 36 percent of all sales in the first quarter but up from 24 percent of all sales in the second quarter of 2010.

See you at the top!

Chris McLaughlin

**************

Copyright Loss Mitigation Institute LLC 2011.

All Rights Reserved.

http://www.shortsalesriches.com

http://www.shortsalescoach.com

http://www.sixfigurebpo.com

http://www.reomillionaireclub.com

http://www.youtube.com/shortsalesriches

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com

(subscribe to this newsletter)

*************************************************

About the author:

Chris McLaughlin is widely known as America’s top

Real Estate Attorney and Investment Consultant.

* As the top Florida foreclosure and pre-

foreclosure expert, he oversees more than

100 short sale & REO closings each month

* Long-time authority on real estate investing

and rapid reselling of distressed homes.  Owns

portfolio of nearly 150 high-value, high-profit

properties

* Owner of one of Florida’s largest Real Estate firms,

running 4 different offices, supporting over

420 agents, uniquely positioning him to help

thousands of investors make money in the

biggest market opportunity ever!

* In 2010, Chris’ 4 Central Florida real estate offices

closed 2,786 sides for a closed sales volume of

$392,912,927!

* Highly sought-after speaker, consultant, and

seminar leader for current trends and hot topics

in Real Estate Investing, Entrepreneurship, and

Wealth Building

* Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

* Join my Facebook Fan Page: http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

Forward this e-mail to your friends!

Then they can subscribe directly at the following link:

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com/

*** Join Chris’ Facebook Fan Page–>

http://www.mclaughlinchris.com

*** Follow Chris on Twitter–>

http://www.twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

************************************************************

RealtyTrac:  2012 – the year of the streamlined short sale

RealtyTrac is calling 2011 the year of foreclosure litigation, strategic default, failing foreclosure law firms and shadow inventory.  It also was a year of infighting between regulators, underwater mortgages and the year when Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems faced suits over everything from its business model to its assignment procedures.  Joel Cone, staff writer for RealtyTrac’s Foreclosure News Report, released a lengthy report on what this year brought for the mortgage, real estate and default servicing industries.  So what did we learn in 2011?  Cone says more borrowers learned to lean on strategic default, choosing to walk away from distressed or underwater loans instead of continuing to make payments on their mortgages.  Other borrowers discovered the system is moving at a snail’s pace, giving them more room to float by without making payments on mortgages. As banks struggled to catch up from 2010′s robo-signing-induced foreclosure moratorium, Cone says borrowers learned to gain a strategic advantage from the delays.  Cone writes that “armed with knowledge that the financial institutions are so far behind the eight ball playing catch-up with the delayed foreclosures, homeowners have no motivation to move on.” He added, “There are documented cases now of homeowners who are simply staying in their homes without making a mortgage payment for as long as three years, figuring they can stay until the bank gets around to foreclosing on them. In the meantime, they are living rent-free.”

RealtyTrac data shows it took on average 336 days to complete a foreclosure on properties that made it through the process in the third quarter of 2011, that’s up 180% from the first quarter of 2007 when it took an average 120 days, Cone said.  The states with the longest foreclosure timelines include New York, where it takes an average of 986 days to foreclose; New Jersey, where it takes about 974 days; and Florida, where it can take up to 749 days to complete a foreclosure.  As homeowners and foreclosure firms continue to sort through the mess, Cone noted several major foreclosure law firms shut down and others to pick up new business.  Casualties included heavy hitters David J. Stern in Plantation, Fla., the Amherst, New York-based law firm Steven J. Baum PC (which paid $2 million to settle allegations from a Department of Justice probe into its allegedly misleading foreclosure documents), and Fort-Lauderdale, Fla.- based Ben-Ezra & Katz, which shuttered its foreclosure practice.

While some firms stumbled, others saw an opportunity to grab market share. Cone quotes Law.com data, which shows Atlanta-based McCalla Raymer opening new branches and adding foreclosure divisions in the Southeast to handle up to 5,000 transfer files from foreclosure giants that have shuttered their doors.  So what’s Cone’s take on 2012? He believes short sales will play a huge role.  “The dysfunctional and delayed foreclosure process may finally be leading lenders to usher in the much-anticipated ‘year of the streamlined short sale’ in 2012,” he wrote.

Stock losses hit public pensions

Total investments held by pension systems administered by state and local governments fell 8.5% from the second quarter, although investments did inch up 1.1% from the same period a year earlier.  The total holdings reached $2.5 trillion in what was the eighth consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth.  After being battered by the financial crisis and recession, public pensions had seen four straight quarterly increases starting in 2010.  But in the third quarter, pensions’ corporate stock holdings fell 14.9% from the second quarter to $134.7 billion. That marked a 6.6% drop from the third quarter of 2010.  And international securities declined for the first time since the second quarter of 2010, falling 14.2% from the second quarter to $448.9 billion. It was the largest decline in international securities since the fourth quarter of 2008, in the midst of the Great Recession, according to the Census.

Public retirement systems depend on contributions from employees and employers to pay benefits, but the lion’s share of their revenue comes from investment returns.  A year ago, concerns about public pensions’ soundness reached a fever pitch. Conservative members of the US Congress called for the systems to lower their expected rates of return — a metric that is used to determine the systems’ abilities to meet their obligations — and for states to have the unprecedented option of filing for bankruptcy to escape public employee contracts.  The bankruptcy idea has largely disappeared, although earlier this month a leading Republican US senator, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, hinted other legislation changing public pensions could be coming soon.

Equator sees 1.17 million short sales

Default servicing technology company Equator says nearly 1.2 million short sales were initiated through its module over the past two years.  The company tracks this data through its default servicing platform, which helps mortgage industry clients deal with loan modifications, short sales, deeds-in-lieu, foreclosure processing and REOs.  Los Angeles-based Equator said Wednesday that more than $150 billion in assets have been sold using its technology platform over the past eight years. Analyzing trends from the recent fourth quarter, Equator said servicers heading into 2012 are focused on compliance issues.  “The needs of our clients have focused on the demands for stricter compliance and infrastructure security,” said Chief Operating Officer John Vella.  As the firm transitions into 2012, it’s prepping the launch of the REvolution software program, which will provide real estate professionals with a system to track both distressed and traditional properties.  The company said the software gives agents enough flexibility to automate their daily work-flow cycles from a single portal, removing the need for agents to employ more than one software system to handle various asset types and sales functions.

Jobless claims up

Initial jobless claims rose last week after a few weeks of declines and remain at levels last since in 2008.  The Labor Department said the seasonally adjusted figure of actual initial claims for the week ended Dec. 25 increased to 381,000 from 366,000 the previous week, which was revised upward 2,000.  Analysts surveyed by Econoday expected 372,000 new jobless claims last week with a range of estimates between 370,000 and 383,000. Most economists believe weekly claims lower than 400,000 indicate the economy is expanding and jobs growth is strengthening. Initial claims have been lower than this threshold for most of the past two months.  The four-week moving average, which is considered a less volatile indicator than weekly claims, declined by 5,750 claims to 375,000 — the lowest in more than three years — from the prior week’s slightly revised 380,270.  The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate for the week ended Dec. 17 inched higher to 2.9% from 2.8% the previous week, according to the Labor Department.  The total number of people receiving some sort of federal unemployment benefits for the week ended Dec. 10 rose to 7.23 million from 7.15 million the prior week.

WSJ – cracked foundation threatens housing recovery

A house is only as good as its foundation.  The same is true of the housing market. Unfortunately, its foundation, the housing-finance system, still has big cracks in it. Until those are fixed, any hoped-for recovery may prove difficult to sustain.  That isn’t to say housing won’t show signs of improvement. Recent data, such as new-home starts and existing-home sales, have offered some glimmers of hope. Tuesday’s release of the S&P/Case-Shiller index for October is likely to show further slippage of prices. But the rate of decline in the index, which tracks home prices in 20 metropolitan areas, is expected to continue slowing, to less than 3% year over year. That trend, some economists expect, presages prices finding a floor in 2012.  Meanwhile, mortgage rates hit a new low last week; Freddie Mac said the average for a 30-year fixed-rate loan was 3.91%. Such super-low rates and the resulting increased affordability of homes may spur more housing activity.

Still, the challenge of housing-finance overhaul remains a long-term headwind. As things now stand, housing finance remains almost completely dependent on government support via proxies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  That isn’t likely to change soon. Both Congress and the administration essentially punted in 2011 on hard decisions about the future of those firms and are likely to do so again in the coming presidential-election year.  Washington’s inaction is somewhat understandable, if disappointing. Any overhaul will force the government to decide if it wants a housing market where risk is taken by home buyers and private investors, or by the taxpayer. Any action also may threaten the existence of 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages with a prepay option and require a rethink of subsidies such as the deductibility for tax purposes of mortgage interest.

But the dithering isn’t only over big issues. Many small decisions about changes to housing-finance rules haven’t been finalized. Regulators, for example, have yet to give banks concrete guidance about how they will have to handle mortgages if they want to sell them to private investors.  Speaking at a conference earlier this month, J.P. Morgan Chase Chief Executive James Dimon lamented such a lack of progress saying it is “holding back the mortgage market.”  Continued delay means that any gains in housing may be built on shaky ground.

Expanding government role in mortgages

Washington lawmakers, who began 2011 with sweeping plans to shrink the US government’s role in mortgage finance, are heading into 2012 after enacting policies that expand it.  An 11th-hour payroll tax cut extension signed into law last week would for the first time divert funds directly from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two mortgage-finance companies under US conservatorship, to pay for general government expenses.  That move came after two others that also are expected to increase government involvement: Lawmakers allowed a tax break on private mortgage insurance to expire and raised loan limits for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration. Advocates of private mortgage finance say they are concerned that using fees from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is setting a precedent that will keep the government in the mortgage business for a decade or more.  Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA currently back more than 90% of loan originations, about double what they did during the subprime lending boom, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, a trade publication.

Earlier in the year, both the Obama administration and members of Congress outlined plans to reverse that trend. In February, US Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner released three options for reducing government’s role in housing finance. Shortly afterward, Republicans introduced bills to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have cost taxpayers about $153 billion since 2008 because of defaults on loans they guaranteed. The legislation never moved forward because there was no agreement even within the Republican caucus on the best way to proceed.  In December, pushing to find about $36 billion in revenue to offset the payroll tax cut for two months, Congress instituted a decade-long increase in the premiums that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge lenders, known as “g fees,” to guarantee principal and interest on home loans. Lenders typically pass on the cost of the fees to borrowers as higher interest rates.  The move is drawing criticism: It relies on long-term revenues from entities both Democrats and Republicans want to shrink, and the money won’t be spent to offset the risk of loan defaults.  “In effect, this is a tax on Fannie and Freddie mortgages,” said Bert Ely, a banking consultant in Alexandria, Virginia. “When you go to privatize or take any action to wind them down, you have a budget effect that you didn’t have before.”

Fewer delinquencies, more foreclosures coming

Real estate research and marketing firm Trulia said employment figures improved slightly at the end of 2011, making it possible for more borrowers to pay their mortgages next year.  While Trulia says this trend could reduce 2012 delinquencies, the company expects foreclosures to continue to climb as banks sort through a backlog of distressed properties and foreclosures that stalled in the wake of robo-signing and increased regulatory oversight.  The firm says once a settlement between mortgage servicers and state attorneys general is finalized, many delayed defaults will plunge through the process.  As for what this means for real estate agents, Trulia said an increase in “foreclosures will depress prices for several reasons — foreclosed homes are often sold at a discount and used as comps for non-distressed homes.”  In turn, this will kill seller motivation even though buyers stand to benefit from affordable pricing structures.  “Agents should be gearing up with competitive pricing strategies to catch buyers and preparing to counsel their traditional seller-clients about the depressed prices to come in high-foreclosure areas,” Trulia said.  For those Americans now confined to the rental market, costs will be rising in 2012 as people losing their homes move toward the rental model. To resolve the issue, high-cost cities need to address the rental shortage directly by having local governments get rid of restrictions and permitting processes that are too stringent, according to Trulia.

See you at the top!

Chris McLaughlin

**************

Copyright Loss Mitigation Institute LLC 2011.

All Rights Reserved.

http://www.shortsalesriches.com

http://www.shortsalescoach.com

http://www.sixfigurebpo.com

http://www.reomillionaireclub.com

http://www.youtube.com/shortsalesriches

http://www.smartrealestatenews.com

(subscribe to this newsletter)

*************************************************

About the author:

Chris McLaughlin is widely known as America’s top

Real Estate Attorney and Investment Consultant.

* As the top Florida foreclosure and pre-

foreclosure expert, he oversees more than

100 short sale & REO closings each month

* Long-time authority on real estate investing

and rapid reselling of distressed homes.  Owns

portfolio of nearly 150 high-value, high-profit

properties

* Owner of one of Florida’s largest Real Estate firms,

running 4 different offices, supporting over

420 agents, uniquely positioning him to help

thousands of investors make money in the

biggest market opportunity ever!

* In 2010, Chris’ 4 Central Florida real estate offices

closed 2,786 sides for a closed sales volume of

$392,912,927!

* Highly sought-after speaker, consultant, and

seminar leader for current trends and hot topics

in Real Estate Investing, Entrepreneurship, and

Wealth Building

* Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mclaughlinchris

* Join my Facebook Fan Page: http://www.mclaughlinchris.com