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Marianna Grafel , Broker®, ABR, CRS, GRI, e-PRO,OPHP,HHS
Marianna  Grafel


Short Sales Might Help Curb U.S. Housing Slump


Daily Real Estate News  |  March 21, 2007Short Sales Might Help Curb U.S. Housing Slump
A growing number of lenders are approving short sales as an alternative to foreclosure, says Doug Duncan, Mortgage Bankers Association chief economist.

The move is a way for lenders to avoid having to take over and manage property.

"The way banks see it, it's better than if the house goes into foreclosure, stands empty, and sees its value spiral downward before it's auctioned on the courthouse steps," says Duncan, who expects rising delinquencies to spark an increase in pre-foreclosure sales.

Though short sales put additional downward pressure on the national median home price, Fannie Mae chief economist David Berson says they also lower the number of foreclosures and can help ease the housing downturn. Short sales are hard to track, though, because they're not counted, making it impossible to know exactly how many occur.

Source: Bloomberg, Kathleen Howley (03/21/07)


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Mortgage Lenders Seek Ways to Avoid Foreclosure


Mortgage Lenders Seek Ways to Avoid Foreclosure
The number of borrowers whose mortgages are at some point in the foreclosure process has hit the highest level in five years.

The mortgage industry, which ultimately is uninterested in owning properties, is reaching out to troubled borrowers, trying to help them head off delinquencies.

Bank of America Corp. is allowing some borrowers with ARMs to refinance into a different loan at no cost. Citigroup Inc.'s CitiMortgage unit is contacting delinquent borrowers within days after a missed payment, if it doesn't fit their normal bill-paying habits. National City is one of a dozen major lenders behind a national advertising campaign that will, beginning this spring, promote a toll-free number (888/995-HOPE) that borrowers can call for homeownership counseling and referrals.

Some lenders may allow a house to be sold at a loss and forgive the remaining debt in a process known as a "short sale." These can be difficult to negotiate because many loans are packaged and sold to investors, so the mortgage company doesn’t have much flexibility.

“There are all sorts of log jams,” says John Izzo, a Las Vegas real estate practitioner, who says he is working on 19 short sales but figures that he maybe able to successfully close just one in five.

The Wall Street Journal, Ruth Simon (01/24/07)

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