The WeBuyTucsonHomes Blog

The Tucson La Paloma Resort & Spa and Westin Hilton Head Island Resort & Spa in South Carolina, financed via a $209 million loan from JPMorgan & Chase, is near default according to Standard & Poor’s. The loans were based on rising revenue. The harsh economic times have reduced revenues and rising cancellations have pushed the two resorts on the brink of default.

La Paloma could be on the brink of default

BAD NEWS FIRST

30 Reasons for the Next Great Depression

Homebuilders Index is at an all time low.
Guess that is what happens when you overbuild, ask the telephone companies from the dot come bubble.

GOOD NEWS
HUD relaxes requirements for Hope for HomeOwners

Mortgage rates are going down

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae suspend all foreclosures until after the holidays!

San Diego home sellers have trouble recognizing their homes are now worth 20% less than before.

Home prices have dropped so much, no one really knows what price homes will sell. A lack of credit worthy buyers and lack of lending in the nation, means a longer time on market. The longer the house is on the market, the more likely the Realtor will push for a price reduction. Most Realtors rely heavily upon this proven selling convention of lowering prices to sell homes quickly. The tactic works because everyone loves a bargain, but it comes at the sellers expense. There are ways to sell a home without lowering the price, but it means having a Realtor that is willing to work for a higher price. In this market that takes a lot of work to compete with bank foreclosures.

Great Information on how to work with your credit score.

Interesting on how many factors go into your credit score.

Changes coming to Good Faith Estimates

This form looks much better and will help many new home buyers.

1 in 3 homes sold for a loss last year.

Look at the chart! Countrywide’s REO inventory is still growing.

Arizona has some 1770 homes owned by Countrywide alone. Tucson has around 80 homes owned by Countrywide.

It looks like home prices have a long way to fall yet.

Have a great week!

Caleb

Nov 10-14 Pima County recorded 127 Notice of Sale documents against homeowners this past week. First mortgage loans totaled roughly $23.5 million vs $25.5 million in value(Zillow Estimates). Applying the same 20% average second mortgage against every home gives a total of $27.7 million owed vs $25.5 million in value. This means the average foreclosure home is 8% “underwater” this past week, better than last weeks average of 20% underwater.

Once again 85706 led the rankings with 12 filings, 85746 was second with 11, and 85629 was third with 9.

Via nytimes.com The New York Times ran an article with an interactive map displaying the United States and what percentage of the homes are worth less than the mortgages on them.  Arizona currently stands with 29% of homes  worth less than the mortgages on them.   Roughly 375,469 homes have negative equity, and most homes have an average debt to value ration of 76%.

Later today the Fed is set to present a loan modification program for Fannie and Freddie!

The banks are starting to see that adjusting rates, reducing the principle balance, and extending the term of the loan; maybe favorable opposed to foreclosing on the home, holding the house for a year and then trying to resell.

Caleb

The Arizona Daily Star ran an article reporting the increased foreclosure sales figures for Pinal county.  According to the article 45% of the existing home sales in Pinal county were foreclosure driven.   That means of the 3,355 home sale transactions 1,515 were from foreclosure.  I can’t find any mention of Pima county but will be on the lookout.

This past week Pima County listed 185 Notice of Sales filed for the week of November 2-7. The first mortgage on the properties totaled roughly 34.4 million vs property values according to Zillow of 34.7 million.  Now remember this is only the first mortgage position and all most all of the properties list 2nd and sometimes 3rd positions. The second position can vary anywhere from 5% all the way up to 40%. Take a low end average 20% and the liens against the properties increase to over 41.2 million. This puts almost all the properties 19% “underwater.” Now factor in that Zillow maybe overestimating housing prices and some home owners could be even further underwater!

Looking at the chart we see 85706 again led the way with 24 notices filed. 85746 was second with 19 and 85711 was third with 14. Some interesting things to note were a few large real estate investing companies, both national and local are seeing notices filed against properties they own. Why do I mention this? They were speculators in some instances, as the filings were on very new and high priced homes, and also to show that the financing crunch paired with the downturn in housing is hitting everyone hard.

Here is the chart with 185 Notice of Sales for November 2-7, 2008

This past week 200 foreclosures were filed in Pima County totaling over 36.7 million dollars in first mortgages. 85706 continued to lead the county in Notice of Sale filings, with 27 filings and 3.6 million dollars in first mortgages. 85717 had the second highest filings with 17 and 2.7 million dollars in first mortgages. Here is the graph.