David Hughes' Blog: Mortgage

There are some homes in our area that are taking a beating, literally. Some disgruntled homeowners are taking out their frustration on the home as they are going through the foreclosure process as their castles are being taken from them. Appliances, fixtures, windows, door handles, whatever they can pry loose or load in their truck is what some of these unhappy homeowners are taking with them. As their dream of home ownership comes to an end, so does the condition of the home. It does not happen in all cases but as realtors we see it on a daily basis. This not only hurts the bank but it certainly hurts the neighborhoods and neighbors that these homes are in. In this state of disrepair the bank will have to fire sale the home to get it sold, thereby…

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Let me paint you a little picture.  Let’s say somebody comes to you and says, “Hey how would you like a nice 6% investment on your money?” But next year your money is only worth 75 cents on the dollar, meaning the value of the asset that your investment was tied to has gone down in value and or the very qualified borrower of the money has lost his job and cannot sell his home for enough to pay off the mortgage (short sale). Bad things are happening to good people right now and it cannot be helped until prices stop falling.

There are too many variables out there right now that is scaring investors into investing in mortgage backed securities. Rates right now should be in the 5-5.5% range but because of the added risk investors are building in a 1%…

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Ok folks, here it is.  Right now in the greater Reno Sparks and outlying areas there are currently 2817 homes on the market. Of those 18%, or 505, are foreclosures and 33%, or 923, are short sales. Short sales are where the sellers are trying to sell their homes for less than they owe and the bank has to agree to this, which in about 80% of the time, they cannot come to an agreement and the bank ends up foreclosing on the seller anyway (stay away from these whenever possible).

 

So far this year there have been 2670 homes that have sold and of that number 748 have been foreclosures, 219 have been short sales. So can see there are a lot more foreclosures that are actually closing escrow over the number of short sales that are actually closing. The…

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Last night I was interviewed by KRNV Channel 4 about the growing number of foreclosures and the damage that is being done to them by the sellers, as their homes are being taken back by the banks. Shelby Sheehan asked me about these eyesores that sit for months with dead grass and sometimes people will even move into these homes and camp out until the bank gets control of these homes.  Shelby also asked me when their is damage done by a seller, or others, to these homes. "Do the banks try and file charges". The answer sadly is "no". It would be very difficult to prove who actually stole the appliances or took a hammer to the sheetrock.

There is such a back log with the banks and the process that these foreclosure agents have to go through before they can…

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My phone is ringing and my email is sounding off! It’s a wonderful thing. The buyers in the Reno and Sparks area are starting to come out of Real Estate hibernation mode and are ready to buy. They are getting some great deals as the market has adjusted back to affordability.

Homes sales in the Reno area grew to 300 in April. That number does not include sales in the Pleasant Valley, Lemmon Valley and Stead areas. That’s a better number than we have seen in the last couple years.

 Fannie Mae is giving us a helping hand by dropping its policy of a higher down payment and not labeling Reno as a  “declining market”.   This allows buyers to put down 3% instead of the 5% they were requiring them to do. This should make it easier for buyers to purchase homes in… Read Full Post

Last Thursday the Fed dropped its key overnight lending rate to 2% in a move to curb recession. What that means for Reno homeowners is a 30 year fixed mortgage currently at 5.72% down from 5.86% last week. The prime lending rate fell to a corresponding 5% which applies to a lot of home equity lines of credit, credit cards and other loans. This will help the Reno Real Estate market and any buyers who are sitting on the fence.

If you want to see what you qualify for you can go to my website at www.homes-reno.com and get started.

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