Category Archives: Other

PulteGroup ($10.27 0.24%) reported first-quarter losses of $12 million, or 3 cents a share, reducing its year-ago losses of $40 million, or 10 cents a share. The Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based homebuilder met analyst expectations of 3 cents a share, according to Zacks Investment Research, buoyed by a dramatic increase in land sale revenues. Home sale revenues in the first quarter increased 4% to $814 million from $782 million a year earlier. The rise in revenue reflects a 5%, or $12,000, increase in average selling price to $261,000, partially offset by […]

Although U.S. foreclosure activity may be declining, the problem is far from over. There have been 5 million foreclosures since 2007, reports the Center for Responsible Lending, which estimates that between 3 million and 5 million more will occur over the next couple of years. In 2003, one in 38 U.S. home owners were seriously delinquent on their mortgage payments or in foreclosure, but today those numbers are one in 10. Some of the consequences of foreclosures are obvious: family displacements, crime in vacant properties, ruined credit, and the loss […]

Freddie Mac wants mortgage servicers to use funds from an underutilized federal program to help homeowners through short sales and other foreclosure alternatives. The mortgage giant, in a letter to its servicers Monday, said they now must participate in Hardest Hit Fund transition assistance programs from 18 states and the District of Columbia. The directive, issued Monday, is effective immediately. The requirement applies to borrowers for short sales, deed-in-lieu deals or relocation assistance, but only if they don’t interfere with Freddie rules. The letter to mortgage servicers comes as Freddie […]

Fitch Ratings believes single-family housing starts will increase 10% in 2012, while new home sales will rise 8%, according to the firm’s latest U.S. homebuilding update. Still, the ratings giant sees an erratic homebuilding market after witnessing disappointing results for 2011. “Single-family housing finished well below expectations at the beginning of the year,” Fitch said in its update. “Single-family starts fell 8.5%, while new home sales declined 5.9%. Existing home sales, meanwhile, improved 1.7%.” Despite challenges in the housing market and the expectation that home prices will remain soft, Fitch […]

Ginnie Mae issued $29.2 billion in mortgage bonds in March, up roughly 21% from the same month last year. Ginnie packages Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Affairs home loans into securities and guarantees timely payment of principal and interest to investors. The Ginnie Mae II single-family pools increased to $21.5 billion in March from $15.8 billion last year. Single-family Ginnie Mae I securities dipped to $5.3 billion from slightly more than $6 billion in March 2011. “Ginnie Mae has been a key component of the country’s economic recovery,” said Ginnie […]

When choosing a domain name for their Web site, real estate agents should consider incorporating the name of their market, keeping in mind that domain names with large cities likely have been taken already. Rather than using their own name, they should incorporate keywords to help boost the site’s ranking in Google. In addition to the market or city name, they would be wise to use such terms as condos, homes, real estate, or realty. Once they have created a domain name that has not been taken already, they should […]

The U.S. economy is sliding sideways with consumer sentiment down on higher gasoline prices and economists realizing a mild winter stimulated early economic activity, according to CoreLogic. A weather-related upswing in economic activity during the winter can result in a sluggish spring since buyers spend earlier, creating a potential drop off in spring activity. Meanwhile, the housing sector continues to reflect two opposing trends: On one hand, household growth increased a slight 0.6% in 2011, said Mark Fleming with CoreLogic. This slow growth suggests the presence of pent-up demand, a […]

To prevent overall home prices from any further potential drops, the Federal Reserve is urging banks to transform more of its foreclosed homes into rental properties. The Fed made the request to banks in new policy guidelines it released Thursday. “Banking organizations should make good-faith efforts to dispose of foreclosed properties,” the Fed said. The Fed has been urging banks to consider more foreclosure rentals for several months. In a policy paper earlier this year to Congress, the Fed argued that if banks turned more of their foreclosed properties into […]

A $25 billion foreclosure settlement among the nation’s five largest banks and federal regulators isn’t the end to regulator’s efforts to repair the wrongs from lenders’ foreclosure abuses. Regulators are casting a wider net on the number of banks they’re eyeing to punish for wrongful foreclosure practices. The Federal Reserve recently recommended that eight more financial firms, which were not part of the government’s settlement, be fined for their foreclosure practices. The eight firms the Fed cited: HSBC’s United States bank division, SunTrust Bank, MetLife, U.S. Bancorp, PNC Financial Services, […]

KB Home reported a loss of $45.4 million in the first quarter ended Feb. 29, a loss of 59 cents a share, narrowing its loss by 60% from a year earlier. But new orders declined, and investors punished the homebuilder’s stock, which was down about 9% in mid-afternoon trading. Net orders totaled 1,197 in the first quarter of 2012, down 8% from 1,302 net orders in the year-earlier quarter, as a 22% increase in the homebuilder’s Central region was more than offset by decreases in each of its three other […]