U.S. Foreclosures Decreases 6%

RealtyTrac, reports in its just released May 2009 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report that foreclosure filings-default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions-were decrease by 6% from the previous month.
California posted a 4% decrease in foreclosure activity from the previous month.

Default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions in Florida were all down from the previous month.

Related articles:

• Foreclosures Slow 6 Percent in May (abcnews.go.com)
• U.S.home foreclosures fall in May (thestar.com)

Do You Suffer From the Internet Plague

Mikey Likes It

My pal Mike Work of the The Real Estate Consultants in Los Angeles commented on my most recent real estate video blog

The email thread went as so:

Hey TO,You have typo on the landing page. I like the fresh out of bed look…Seriously, the v blog medium has a lot of sizzle.

My response was:

I fought going natural forever and found I never did anything. So I will go with loose hair and a goat from here on out.Better to be shitty than not do anything at all.

Even still I think you will agree this is better than 90% of the stuff out there.

He came back with:

Well said, I have been the other way too much… ready aim, ready aim. Sometimes you got to “ready fire aim.”

I like this and I think you can build on it. My thoughts while I was watching it, my thoughts are always influenced by my perspective here at TREC watching this business through the eyes of many agents:

You are right about what a typical home purchase represents, and it is not an investment. I would stay away from general market predictions, words like “bottom” etc. Doesn’t matter really. The fact is prices and rates are low and if you can afford it and are prepared to stay a while now is a good time to buy. The question I always have our agents ask is why are you moving? When you understand the reason then you know the motivation.
With that, it is critical now to separate your buyers into two classifications. Homeowners and investors.

Positive on real estate, when addressing the real estate community there are many positive points right now in spite of what the general trend may be. Things like: rates are low, sales are up, agent rosters are down, less competition, the rules have changed creating new opportunities, ability to touch more people using technology, great investment opportunities in distressed real estate. Beyond that, where else can you go and work a few hours a day and make 100k? Still a great place for the entrepreneur without having to own a franchise or some other business. You can create a very positive lifestyle around this industry. Every agent has there own micro market potential. Every agent has the ability to create their own results, their own outcome completely independent of any trend, nationally, regionally, or locally.
Keep up the good work.

I provide you this look into my personal communication with a friend only because I think that what he has to say is poignant. And if perfection is holding you back then you are sorely missing out on a gold mine of business.

My brother in law recently obsessed over a website for months. I finally pushed him to just finish it as bad as he thought it might be. He didn’t really think it was bad, just not perfect. With our marketing magic he is getting tons of call in leads every week. In fact, he is expanding his business based on the success. Too bad he didn’t start any sooner because he lost out on a ton of business.

We deal with what is good enough and how to easily produce more content faster to capture your leads at http://www.realestateguerilla.com

Mike is over at :

Mike Work
U. S. Foreclosure Consulting
310 849 6802

Realtors See Better Times Really Close/Already Here

The table shows a recovery in confidence about both the current market and the expected outlook in recent months. A score of less than 50 indicates relatively poor market conditions; the current score of 33.5 for Single Family homes is clearly reflective of current market conditions, and the score of 45 shows continued concern in terms of the market outlook. However, overall confidence for the single family market outlook is improving. Increases in confidence are also apparent for townhouses and condos, but to a significantly lesser degree. The data in graph form are portrayed below. The reason for a weak condo market outlook appears to be due to stringent requirements for condo loans.

Realtors® Confidence Index—Current Conditions

Realtors® Confidence Index—Six Month Outlook

Best Affordability In 18 Years

Wow-Housing Affordability Highest in 18 Years!
Nationwide housing affordability jumped 10 percentage points during the first quarter of 2009 to its highest level since the series began 18 years ago, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI).

The HOI showed that 72.5 percent of all new and existing homes sold in the first quarter of 2009 were affordable to families earning the national median income of $64,000, up from 62.4 percent during the previous quarter and up from 53.8 percent during the first quarter of 2008.

From http://charrissacawley.com/

Related articles:

• Most affordable city in the nation (money.cnn.com)

Housing To Rise

The Housing Market Hits the Bottom http://www.huliq.com/4745/81119/housing-market-hits-bottom

According to Real Estate Professionals and most of the major indices, the beleaguered housing market has finally hit the bottom or is only weeks away from being at the bottom of the market.

The mood in the Real Estate Industry seems to be on an uptrend. A recent survey conducted by HomeGain.com showed that almost half of Real Estate Agents who took part in the survey expect home prices to stop falling and begin increasing in the next six months. The majority of these Agents (85 percent) said that the homes in their areas had dropped in value in the last twelve months. However, the last couple of months they have definitely seen an increase in activity and sales.

Distressed Real Estate entrepreneur – Sam Zell – agrees with the survey. He is forecasting that the housing market will bottom out this summer because the drop in building is starting to impact supply. Zell recently said that “the U.S. will recover and recover first around the world because we have a culture and we have an environment where we face up to reality quickly and effectively.”

Related articles

• Sam Zell calls bottom for residential real estate, says GM is done (dailyfinance.com)
• U.S. housing may be nearing bottom: Case-Shiller index (financialpost.com)

Bay Area Come Back

Bay Area home prices edged higher in April for the first time in 18 months, a sign that the region’s housing downturn may finally be easing, according to a new report.A total of 7,139 new and resale houses and condos sold in the Bay Area last month, up 13.1 percent from a year ago. It was the eighth consecutive year-over-year gain for the nine-county region.

From http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090521/BUSINESS/905219940/1036?Title=Is-the-Bay-Area-housing-market-stabilizing-

U.S. expands housing aid program

Banks could get incentive payments for allowing borrowers to sell their homes at a loss rather than go through foreclosure under new guidelines issued Thursday for the Obama administration’s $75-billion housing plan.

The program, known as Making Home Affordable, focuses on paying lenders to modify distressed borrowers’ loans so that payments are cheaper.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-housing15-2009may15,0,7106579.story

Foreclosure property