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Existing home sales tumble
Sales of existing homes plunged in March by the largest amount in 18 years, reflecting in part rising troubles in the subprime mortgage market. The Valley fared better with last months resales leaping 25.8 percent from February. The economy of Arizona has a lot to do with it, said Paulie Parouse, general manager of Century 21 Distinguished Properties in Scottsdale. The Valley is still experiencing tremendous job and population growth and maintaining affordable prices, Parouse said. Still, local resales were down 25.9 percent from March 2006. Analysts cautioned that tougher approval standards by lenders in response to the increase in mortgage delinquencies will depress sales further in coming months. They said a rebound in housing may not happen until 2008. The National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday that sales of existing homes fell by 8.4 percent nationwide in March, the sharpest drop since a 12.6 percent plunge in January 1989.
How To Apply For A Mortgage
Ok, it's time to take a deep breath and go borrow an outrageous sum of money. You'll find that the process is not nearly so intimidating as it looks if you're prepared. Credit There are three things you should do about your credit. The first is to take a look at what the three credit ratings agencies have on file about you. Do this early in the process, as it takes time to get errors and retired debts removed from credit reports. The rough estimate is that forty percent of all credit reports contain errors, and it's guaranteed that the three are never identical. So get them up to date and know what they contain so you can discuss it. Retire as much outstanding short term credit and low-balance debt as you can. The less debt you have on the books, the more you can borrow on the mortgage.
Some home buyers must settle for 'alternative' loans
The 23-year-old has been putting it away in savings accounts and mutual funds since he was a child. He promptly moved back with his parents in Pittsford when he graduated from the State University College at Geneseo last year so he could squirrel away more money for a down payment on a house. "I believe in being a good steward of your money," Drouin said. "I couldn't see myself renting if I can buy."
Yet when he was ready to buy a four-unit home, with the promise of rental income, in the Park Avenue area, the savvy saver had a hard time qualifying for a conventional loan. The reason: little credit history. Drouin falls into what's known in the mortgage industry as the alternative category, people who don't fit neatly into either the conventional loan profile or the subprime category, for borrowers with spotty credit histories.
Cross-Border Finance: Mortgage Docs Without Borders
A home lender and technology firm team up to help U.S. citizens buy homes south of the border. With prices in sunny Mexico a fraction of Florida, they might be onto something.
By John Adams
A peek at beach-front real estate listings in places like Florida and California can lead to extreme sticker shock-even with the cooling of the real estate market in those sunny climes over the past year. That's leading some U.S. residents to look longingly below the border to Mexico for vacation property. But that market has traditionally been a tough nut to crack for ordinary citizens for reasons ranging from language differences to legal uncertainties to limited financing options. A new partnership hopes it's got the key to unlock this market for Mexico's northern neighbors.
Fast, Loose Credit Scares Even the Buyout Gurus: Mark Gilbert
May 3 (Bloomberg) -- Central bankers aren't the only people distressed by lax lending standards. Even the dealmakers who depend on cheap finance with few strings attached are complaining that finance is too cheap and there aren't enough strings. ``There's too much liquidity in the system,'' Philip Yea, chief executive officer of 3i Group Plc, Europe's largest publicly traded venture-capital and buyout firm, said last month. ``There's too much debt available.'' Too much debt available? That's tantamount to Kate Moss complaining that her photo is in too many magazines, Steve Jobs moaning about iPod ubiquity or Madonna criticizing African nations for not having more stringent child-adoption policies. So what's going on here? Why, in the fastest, loosest credit markets seen since a tulip bulb was worth as much as a house, are the supposed beneficiaries of loan largess bleating about easy money and the boom in global liquidity from Texas to Tokyo? Is it because cut-price loans are propping open the mergers- and-acquisitions door for interlopers? Are existing leveraged- buyout specialists concerned about new entrants pushing up prices, and exacerbating the risk that a big deal will sour and attract the unwelcome attention of regulators? Steve Rattner, co-founder of buyout firm Quadrangle Group LLC, told Bloomberg reporter Edward Evans in January that ``the world isn't pricing risk appropriately.
Lenders accused of preying on blacks
Three companies violated civil-rights laws by targeting predominantly black neighborhoods in Cleveland for home loans that were likely to result in foreclosure, according to complaints made by a housing advocacy group. The Housing Advocates Inc. filed the complaints Monday with the city of Cleveland and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, accusing Argent Mortgage Co., Wells Fargo Bank and First National Mortgage Co. of unfair lending practices. The agency filed on behalf of 77-year-old Elizabeth Redrick and other black residents whose homes are in foreclosure. Redrick lives on East 147th Street in ZIP code 44110, where the housing agency reported that the population is nearly 74 percent black. Agency director Ed Kramer said Argent, based in California, made 30 percent more loans in Redrick's ZIP code over three years than in ZIP code 44118, an area in and around Cleveland Heights where residents are 53 percent white.
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