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Home Values Lost $1.4 Trillion during 4Q 2008

Jay Hammond — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 02:02:17 +0000

Americans lost more, in terms of home values, during the final quarter of 2008 than in all of 2007. According to Zillow Real Estate Markets Report, home values fell 11.6 percent or $1.4 trillion during the eighth consecutive quarter of declines.

The declines mean that U.S. homeowners lost a cumulative $3.3 trillion in home values during 2008. During all of 2007, home values lost only $1.7 trillion. Since the peak of the housing market in 2006, home values have declined by $6.1 trillion.

As home values have declined, more American homeowners have found themselves underwater on their mortgages. One out of every six homeowners had negative equity by the end of 2008, up from the one in seven in the third quarter. Further, foreclosures made up nearly one in five or 19.9 percent of all transactions in 2008.

A witch’s brew of economic insecurity, foreclosure and tightened lending standards are helping to keep hard-hit markets down and to widen the scope of markets showing declines in home values,” said Dr. Stan Humphries, Zillow vice president of data and analytics. “As more markets turn down and markets that were already down go deeper, the pace at which value is being erased from the U.S. housing stock is rapidly increasing, with more value wiped out in the fourth quarter of 2008 than was eliminated in all of 2007. The fourth quarter is the first in which we were able to see the effects of the mounting economic insecurity that picked up steam in the fall of last year. People without jobs, of fearing jobs loss, typically don’t buy homes, no matter how low prices or mortgage rates might be. Public policy, in terms of both job creation and efforts to stem the tide of foreclosures, will have a large influence on when some of these markets find bottom.”

Of the 161 metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) surveyed as part of the Zillow Real Estate Market Reports, 21 are not feeling the pinch of declining home values. Home values in the Pittsburgh MSA were flat (-0.1 percent) in 2008. Home values in the Fayetteville, NC MSA actually increased by 6.9 percent, followed closely by the 6.2 percent increase in Yakima, WA MSA. Other areas in New York State, the Midwest and the South also experienced steady or increasing home values.

Unfortunately, 10.9 percent of all real estate transactions across the country in 2008 were short sales. The Lincoln, NE MSA led the country in the rate of short sales, with 14.1 percent of all transactions. Short sales also accounted for more than 11 percent of all transactions in California’s San Jose, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz MSAs. The Central Valley in California continued to lead the nation in foreclosures, as well. More than half of all sales in the Madera, Merced and Stockton MSAs were foreclosures compared to the 3.9 percent recorded in the New York City MSA and Grand Junction, CO MSA, which were the nation’s lowest.

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Loan officers help your clients with their loan modifications

Morgan — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:04:33 +0000

Disclosure: This post is about a loan modification program I participate in and get paid for.

FACT: There’s a huge need out there for people who are experts at loan modifications. Every day more than 500 people visit Blownmortgage.com from the Google search term “loan modification”. Those people need help and I can’t give it to them.

They all come to an article I wrote for homeowners, doing loan modifications on your own a year ago. Loan officers, are you doing loan modifications as part of your mortgage business? If not you’re throwing away two very valuable things: 1) income and more importantly 2) satisfied customers who can refer you to other folks you can help.

Imagine getting 500 leads a day for your business. What would you do with all of them? For me, I share with them an opportunity to do loan modifications themselves. It’s an ebook that I’m an affiliate for, that I’ve read and used the techniques in and believe in. The man who wrote the book is smart, ethical and experienced. I’ve heard nothing but good things from the people who have bought the book.

If loans were my full-time business I’d be doing loan modifications non-stop. If you’re a mortgage broker, loan officer, loan processor, underwriter or account executive who is looking to make additional income you owe it to yourself to check out Richard Geller’s Loan Mod Magic program. He helps you get setup to help others with their loan modifications.

It’s easy to get started. You get a full 365-day trial of the program and you get all the tools and techniques you need to be a success and get people the help they need.

Click here to learn more and supplement your dwindling loan income with loan modification income now.

Yes, I get paid if you sign up, but I wouldn’t be recommending it if I didn’t think it was a good program. So try it now for 365 days for free.

PS. If you’d rather just be an ebook affiliate like me you can sign up here to resell the Loan Mod Magic ebook which is a tremendous resource to anyone looking to do their loan modification on their own.

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Sponsored Review: Thrifty Scot

Morgan — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:40:00 +0000

This article has been paid for by The Thrifty Scot as part of the sponsored advertising opportunities that Blown Mortgage offers to advertisers to review their Web sites and services. If you?re interested in learning about the review advertising opportunity for your business or service contact us here.

While the article is paid for this is an honest review of the service based on the personal review of the service by us.

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Today we go across the pond to England to review the Thrifty Scot which is a money comparison site for folks in England. For those of you concerned about the housing and credit crunch in England and what that means to your current financing and credit options this site is for you. With the recent Northern Rock nationalization and the tightening credit markets it?s imperative that consumers have access to unbiased information about credit, mortgages, refinances or remortgages and fixed rate mortgages. It also covers information about credit cards and car loans.

The site is packed with information about how to choose a mortgage or loan and offers advice about using a mortgage broker, what the recent credit crunch means for people in the mortgage market and tips on getting the right mortgage.

The main engine of the site is an online application form that allows users to fill out their information about the loan that they are looking to get by providing some basic information (similar to other online mortgage inquiries seen in the US) about the loan size, whether you?re looking to buy a new home or remortgage your existing loan.

The information you provide is then sent to ?an expert? that can provide financing opportunities to you based on the information provided as well as a phone consultation.

In addition to their mortgage engine the site offers the following (from the site owners themselves):

The Thrifty Scot is an independent money comparison site. Not only do we ensure that our search functions scan the whole market but we also connect users to products we receive no commissions on if it suits their needs.

We have just added a complete search facility for banking products that searches over 3000 saving and current accounts and are just about to launch a new section titled ‘money tips’ allowing users to see the latest discounts, best buys and freebies on offer from a wide selection of industries which would include finance, retail and travel etc.

While the site offers a bunch of useful information and tips for money management I do have one primary concern. The site doesn?t have a live privacy policy so it?s impossible to determine what happens to the information you provide to the site. It would be great if that was clarified. Based on my experience with online information requests here in the States the experience you get goes from decent to awful depending on how your information is used and shared.

So I would strongly recommend to the Thrifty Scot that they make their privacy policy and information use extremely clear so that consumers know what is going to happen to their information once they hit submit.

They should clarify how many calls a consumer is going to get and from who, and if they are not compensated for the match of the lenders or brokers they should clearly state what the relationships they have with the lenders on their site.

So if you?re in England and looking for information on, or are in the market for, a mortgage, fixed rate mortgage or are looking to remortgage your existing property I would definitely check them out. There is lots of great information that should help you in the process. I would definitely contact the Thrifty Scot about their privacy policy and how your data will be used if you are interested in using their online application service.

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Blown Mortgage » Sponsored

Home Values Lost $1.4 Trillion during 4Q 2008

Loan officers help your clients with their loan modifications

Sponsored Post: DIY Loan Modification Kit

Sponsored Review: Got Survival?

Sponsored Review: Nationwide Loan Processing

Sponsored Review: Thrifty Scot