Need Help to Refinance or Avoid Foreclosure?

On February 18, 2009, President Obama announced his Making Home Affordable Program (MHA), designed to help up to 7-9 million families avoid foreclosure by restructuring or refinancing their mortgages. In doing so, the plan not only helps responsible homeowners behind on their payments or at risk of defaulting, but prevents neighborhoods and communities from being pulled over the edge too, as defaults and foreclosures contribute to falling home values, failing local businesses, and lost jobs.

For more detailed information, visit MakingHomeAffordable.gov.

Interest Rates Fall - More Good News For Buyers

May Existing-Home Sales Continue Rising

Sales of existing homes showed another gain in May, benefiting from favorable affordability conditions and a first-time buyer tax credit, according to the National Association of Realtors®. May’s increase was the first back-to-back monthly gain since September 2005.

Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – rose 2.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate¹ of 4.77 million units in May from a downwardly revised level of 4.66 million units in April, but remained 3.6 percent below the 4.95 million-unit pace in May 2008.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, expected an improvement. “Historically low mortgage interest rates clearly drew buyers into the market, and housing remains very affordable even with a recent uptick in rates,” he said. “First-time buyers also are being drawn off the sidelines by the $8,000 tax credit, which is helping to absorb inventory. However, the increase in sales is less than expected because poor appraisals are stalling transactions. Pending home sales indicated much stronger activity, but some contracts are falling through from faulty valuations that keep buyers from getting a loan.”

Total housing inventory at the end of May fell 3.5 percent to 3.80 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 9.6-month supply² at the current sales pace, down from a 10.1-month supply in April.

An NAR practitioner survey in May showed first-time buyers accounted for 29 percent of transactions, and that the number of buyers looking at homes is nearly 10 percentage points higher than a year ago. “This is the time of year when we see large increases in the number of repeat buyers, who are benefitting from sales to entry-level buyers,” Yun said. “Investors appear less active, but are more prevalent in areas with large price corrections.”

Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast rose 3.9 percent to an annual level of 800,000 in May, but are 10.1 percent below a year ago. The median price in the Northeast was $243,600, which is 12.5 percent below May 2008.

Sen Offers Bill To Expand Home Buyer Tax Credit

By Jessica Holzer

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A tax credit currently limited to certain first-time home buyers would expand dramatically under legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.

Under the legislation, any buyer of a home - not just first-time home buyers - would be eligible for a tax credit worth 10% of the purchase price up to $15, 000.

A tax credit passed into law earlier this year is worth only $8,000 and is limited to individuals and couples making no more than $75,000 and $150,000 respectively.

The legislation, which Isakson introduced Wednesday, quickly attracted co- sponsors from both parties, including Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.

A beefed-up tax credit has strong backing from business and industry groups. The Business Roundtable earlier this week launched a campaign recommending the key changes to the credit that are proposed in the legislation. The National Association of Home Builders and the National Association of Realtors have also pushed for an expanded tax credit.

Still, the measure faces an uphill climb in Congress because of its price tag, which is likely to be high. Lawmakers would also have to justify assisting high earners purchase a home.

"One of the biggest problems facing the American people today is an illiquid housing market, a decline in their equity, a decline in their net worth and a depression in the housing market that we are obligated to correct if we possibly can," Isakson said in a press release.

The legislation would extend the tax credit, which expires Dec. 1, by one year from the date of enactment. Home buyers would be able to claim the credit on their 2009 tax return for purchases made in 2010.

More Owners KEEPING Their Homes

Foreclosures fall 6% nationally in May from April

By Alan Zibel |The Associated Press

7:48 AM EDT, June 11, 2009

WASHINGTON - The number of U.S. households on the verge of losing their homes dipped in May from April, and the annual increase was the smallest in three years.

But as layoffs, rather than risky mortgages, become the main reason that borrowers default on their home loans, foreclosures likely will remain elevated this year and into 2010. Many economists expect unemployment, now at 9.4 percent nationwide, to rise as high as 10 percent, and some project it will exceed the post-World War II record of 10.8 percent.

Foreclosure filings fell 6 percent in May from April, according to RealtyTrac Inc. More than 321,000 households received at least one foreclosure-related notice last month -- 18 percent more than a year earlier -- but the smallest annual gain since June 2006. Ohio had one of the highest foreclosure rates, though filings in the state dropped nearly 13 percent from a year ago.

Despite the drop from April, it was the third-highest monthly rate since Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac began its report in January 2005, and the third straight month with more than 300,000 households receiving a foreclosure filing.

Read the entire article here.

First-time buyers help unjam housing market

As housing prices fall, experts hope for revival
By Lorraine Mirabella lorraine.mirabella@baltsun.com
June 11, 2009

April Longest had a lot of reasons to move from an apartment in Hampden to a house of her own: low interest rates, a first-time-buyer credit and a monthly payment not much higher than her rent.

But one of the biggest motivators of all for buying a semi-detached rancher in Medfield last month came from her competition - other buyers." As I was looking at houses in the area, I was seeing a very good selection, but it started to dwindle," said Longest, a 24-year-old insurance coordinator. "Obviously people were buying, so that pushed me."

Real estate experts say first-time buyers such as Longest are helping to break through a gridlocked housing market, offering some of the first glimmers that Baltimore's housing market may be starting to turn around.

Read The Complete Article Here

Homes sold, prices continue to drop in Baltimore region

But decline in number sold is slimmest percentage decline in months

By Lorraine Mirabella
The number of homes sold in the Baltimore area fell 8.5 percent in May, and the average sales price plunged 11.4 percent compared to a year earlier, statistics released Wednesday showed.

The number of homes that changed hands last month -- just over 1,900 -- represented the slimmest percentage decline in sales in months in the metro area, which includes Baltimore City and Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Howard, Harford and Carroll counties, according to the report by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc.

The average home price in May fell to $280,015 from an average $315,989 in May 2008, the real estate listing service said. Average prices in metro Baltimore, which took their steepest dive in more than a decade in April, have been below the $300,000 mark each month since November.

Home values in May fell at least 9.25 percent in each jurisdiction except for Harford County, where priced remained flat.

The number of homes sold rose slightly in Anne Arundel County, remained flat in Carroll County, fell nearly 4.5 percent in Baltimore County and more than 13 percent in Howard and Harford counties and dipped by 17.5 percent in Baltimore city.

The May report showed it took nearly four and a half months, on average, for homes to sell. Sellers in May got about 90 percent of their asking price, MRIS said.