Field Check Group: Real Estate & Finance

Mark Hanson’s latest reports can now be found at http://www.MHanson.com/.

– Will loss reserves decrease again in Q2?
– Long-term default trends broken
– Prime, Jumbo Prime, and Option ARMs leading the way
– FL and NV – 1 in 5 homeowners in default or foreclosure
– 637k NEW mortgage delinquencies in May
– Q1 new loan production down [...]

First published in The Mortgage Pages – June 19th 2009
- SF Bay Area Median House Price Jumps 12.3% — Mid-to-high end sellers begin to capitulate

More transactions will reduce prices for the mid-to-high end price bands
Mid-to-high end transactions increasing substantially as a pct of total, may put continued pressure on Case-Shiller

- CA May House Sales Anemic [...]

The foreclosure wave is here — look beneath the headlines

Notice-of-Trustee Sales are up 100% from Feb to May and subsequent foreclosures are up 75% from March to May.

CA foreclosure activity outpaces total house sales by 100% – infinite supply

**We chose one of many weekly research reports and notes for this blog. For more [...]

The Age of False-Bottoms in Real Estate is Here
The Anatomy of a Housing Market at a Potential False Bottom

I do a significant amount of work for distressed funds and thought this research would be interesting to share. This is only the San Diego MSA but most other MSA’s in the state look very [...]

After the Rate Spike — Mortgage Operations Turmoil…Kick out the Dead Loans Now
Rates are all over the map as lenders assess the damage and price cautiously.  Now, it is a mad dash to only focus upon the loans that are locked and have a chance of funding. If the locked loans are not funded quickly [...]

Mortgage Rates – It Could be as Bad as You Can Imagine
With respect to yesterday’s in the mortgage market — yes, it is as bad as you can imagine. No call can be made on the near-term, however, until we see where this settles out over the next week of so. If rates do stay [...]

- Gridlock: CA Organic House Sales — No Increase in 18-months
In order to chew through supply and balance the market, homeowners must be able to sell and re-buy. Move-up/across/down homeowners have always carried the market in the past. Now the market is dominated by its weakest participants — the first timer and investor — [...]

-April Foreclosure Action — Preview of Market-Moving Headlines This Week
-Potential False Bottom as Servicers Game the System in March
-Nearly Half of the Decrease in April NOD’s was caused by Chase Gaming the System
-Mortgage-Mod Recidivism Update — We Can’t Modify Our Way Out of This
-Loan Mod Re-Default Rates at 80% at Countrywide and WaMu
-Large Bank Origination [...]

Special REO Investor Report — Why Buy Bulk REO?  The Servicers Are Giving Them Away…If You Know How to Look
In CA at the courthouse steps very few properties sell because you need to be an absolute pro — especially with respect to due-diligence, figuring out approx opening bid pricing early and knowing which servicers consistently [...]