Archive for July, 2008

The Best Real Estate Yard Sign

This is the kind of broker I would want to work with.

via Knoxnews via Instapundit

27Jul2008 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued

Why Did Washington Mutual Rescind Congresswoman Richardson’s Foreclosure Sale?

You have to wonder about the machinations that went into Washington Mutual unwinding the foreclosure sale of Congresswoman Laura Richardson’s Sacramento home.
The Congresswoman lost her home to foreclosure and it was sold to James York by the bank. Then when the story hit the press, Richardson got the bank to unwind the sale of the [...]

27Jul2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Georgia ‘Extreme Makeover’ House In Foreclosure in 3.5 Years

Talk about screwing up a good thing.
Extreme Makeover and Beezer Homes builds you a luxury home, gives you 100,000 dollars, paid off your mortgage, and you lose the home to foreclosure in 3 and a half years.
How the hell does that happen?
Well, it does when you do good things for people with no sense [...]

25Jul2008 | Tom Royce | 41 comments | Continued

Home Equity Cash Outs Hit 4 Year Low

This is a good sign, homeowners have hit a 4 year low in their home equity cash outs.
Of course it begs the question, do they have any say in the matter or is the piggy bank all tapped out?

The amount of money Americans pulled out of their homes is at a four-year low as homeowners [...]

25Jul2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Federal Bill Will Provide Incentive To 2nd Lienholders To Allow Refinance

While I am still not thrilled with the 300 billion dollar housing bill working it’s way through Congress, they did insert some logic into the process. The bill is designed to help out the lenders and homeowners that are underwater on their loans.
But the reality is that most of these loans were financed 80–20, [...]

25Jul2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Hours Before Home Foreclosed Upon, Woman Kills Herself

A 53 year old Massachusetts woman killed herself after faxing her mortgage company that she was going to do so. Her family home was due to be foreclosed upon later that afternoon, and in a last gasp desperate attempt to save the home, she committed suicide.
This is a tragic story, no doubt about it, [...]

24Jul2008 | Tom Royce | 4 comments | Continued

A 4.8% Drop in Home Prices For May, 2008

Housing prices dropped 4.8 percent in May from the previous year according to the Office of Federal Housing Oversight. The most severe hit occurred out west where housing prices fell 14.5 percent while prices actually rose in the West South Central region of the country (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana).
What does this mean? Overall the [...]

24Jul2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Candy Spelling Trades in Mansion For Record 47 Million Dollar LA Condo

Candy Spelling, widow of TV mogul Aaron Spelling, has bought a record setting Los Angeles Condominium for the tidy sum of 447,000,000. The new condo will be on the top 2 floors of The Century, a new condominium in Century City right across fro the Century Plaza Hotel.
Candy Spelling caught heat for putting her [...]

23Jul2008 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued

So You Want To Know Why We Are In This Mess?

If you are wondering why the housing credit crisis happened, and the implicit role the government, media, and press played in it, please read this editorial by Paul Gigot at the Wall Street Journal.
He and his staff have been on this story since 2001. That is right, 2001. While the rest of the media and [...]

23Jul2008 | Tom Royce | 5 comments | Continued

Fannie Mae Has 5 Billion Worth Of REO Property

You wonder why it is hard to resell homes today? Just take a look at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Fannie Mae has 5 billion worth of unsold property on it’s books. That is not properties in foreclosure, that is 5 billion dollars worth of property they have already taken over and have to pay [...]

23Jul2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued