C.A.R. Offers First Time Homeowners Peace of Mind with New Mortgage Protection Program

To help provide first-time home buyers with peace of mind when purchasing a home, the C.A.R. Housing Affordability Fund (C.A.R.H.A.F.) is offering a new mortgage protection program to first-time home buyers.Through the Housing Affordability Fund’s Mortgage Protection Program, first-time home buyers who lose their jobs due to layoffs may be eligible to receive up to $1,500 per month for up to six months to help make their mortgage payments. A qualified co-buyer also can participate in the program, for a monthly benefit of $750 per month for up to six months. Program benefits also include coverage for accidental disability and a $10,000 death benefit. C.A.R.’s Housing Affordability Fund is dedicating $1 million toward its Mortgage Protection Program this year, and estimates that up to 3,000 families will benefit from the program throughout 2009.

To qualify for the Mortgage Protection Program, applicants must:
. Be a first-time home buyer – someone who has not owned a home in the last three years
. Open escrow April 2, 2009, or later, and close on or before Dec. 31, 2009
. Use a California REALTOR® in the transaction
. Purchase the property in California
. Be a W-2 employee (cannot be self-employed or military personnel)

First-time home buyers must request an application for the H.A.F. Mortgage Protection Program from their REALTOR®. Visit the C.A.R Web Site for applications and other information on this exciting new program.  You can Find a California REALTOR® at HouseRebate.com along with a huge selection of REO’s, Foreclosures and New Home Listings on the MLS!

Homes For Under $100 K In San Diego?

Is it true that you can find homes for sale in San Diego for under $100 K. HouseRebate.com Founder Brian Yui shows you where you can find homes in San Diego for less than $100 K

Could 2009 Be The Time To Buy?

With home prices dropping and mortgage rates at an all time low, could this be the time to move out of that rental and into a home of your own?

What would the difference be in the monthly payment, if any if you were to purchase a home now rather than pay rent?  Let’s take a look at the numbers?

Let’s look at a typical 3 bedroom, 2 bath home.  The average rent for a home or apartment of that relative size would be about $1885, and if you paid out $20 per month in renter’s insurance your total monthly payment would be $1905.

Now if you were to buy an entry level home of similar size you would likely pay around $248,000.  Say you had a 10 percent down payment, a 40 percent qualifying ratio, the prevailing one-year ARM mortgage rate, and a 1.038 percent assumed insurance costs and property taxes. The monthly PITI payment under these assumptions is $1,630.

So at first glance you would save around $275 a month by purchasing a home. Now what about the tax benefits?

Say you earn a minimum of $48,900 a year-which is also the minimum income needed to purchase the statewide entry-level home price of $248,000. If you are a first time home buyer and you bought a home you could qualify for a tax deduction of over $15,800 in the first year of ownership (assuming a full year of mortgage interest) as well as the one-time tax credit of $8,000 at that home price.

However as a renter you likely could only claim the standard IRS deduction of $10,900, quite a bit less that the homebuyer and that is without taking into consideration the $8000 tax credit.

Factoring in the $8000 credit the First-Time Home Buyer’s taxable income is roughly $5000 lower than that of the renter and the difference in their tax liability is more than $8700, in favor of the First-Time Home Buyer thanks to the Home buyer Tax Credit in 2009.

So clearly in some circumstances you would be much better off to purchase a home now rather than keep renting, and HouseRebate.com can help you find the perfect entry level home for you and your family.  Stop by our site and take a look at all the great properties we have listed and don’t forget to take a our virtual foreclosure tour bus to find great properties and record low prices.

Home Affordable Refinance Program Opens New Doors For Distressed Homeowners

4 to 5 million homeowners in owner-occupied borrowers with conforming Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans  are going to be receiving help from The Obama Administration.  The new program will help to refinance up to 105 percent of the current market value of their properties.

That plan is to help homeowners refinance thier homes when they would not be able to get a refinance through traditional routes because of falling home values.

Homeowners seeking to refinance are generally limited to a loan amount of less than 80 percent of the appraised value. But because home values have dropped, many homeowners are unable to refinance and take advantage of historically low mortgage rates.

Consider a couple who purchased a home a few years ago for $260,000. They took out a $208,000 mortgage loan at 6.5% for 30 years. Today, they owe $200,000 on the loan. However, if the home values in their neighborhood have dropped 15%, their property may currently only be worth $221,000. If a lender requires an 80% loan-to-value ratio for a refinance, the borrowers could only finance $176,800, even though they owe $200,000. Yet, if the couple could avail themselves of the current going interest rate of, let’s say, 5 percent, they could save roughly $2,400 per year in mortgage payments.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are opening door for homeowners in similar situations to borrow up to 105% of hte home’s appraised value to help take advantage of the historically low rates.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are issuing guidelines to originating lenders that will allow them to begin offering the Home Affordable Refinance immediately. The Home Affordable Refinance will expire on December 31, 2012.

The eligibility requirements for a Home Affordable Refinance is as follows:

• Current loan is owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac

• Owner occupied, one-to-four unit home;

• Maximum refinance loan amount is 105% of the current market value of the property;

• Borrower must have sufficient income to support the new mortgage debt; and

• Borrower must have an acceptable mortgage payment history.

 HouseRebate.com, a member of the National Association of Realtors®, is a full-service value real estate company that maintains a seasoned staff of agents. They provide all the services that traditional real estate offices offer at discount prices, with reduced commissions on sale, and rebates of 33 percent on commissions of purchases. HouseRebate.com features a virtual foreclosure tour bus that shows currently available San Diego foreclosure properties.

Homebuyers Face New Fees From Fannie Mae

It’s not what home buyers, sellers and refinancers want to hear, but what they need to know. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are ratcheting up their mandatory fees and toughening credit-score and down-payment rules as of April 1.  Most major lenders already are tacking on the higher fees, effectively raising costs to consumers immediately and reducing the impact of housing stimulus efforts from Congress and the Obama administration.

Under Fannie’s and Freddie’s new guidelines, even applicants who assumed their FICO scores would get them favorable rates will be charged more unless they can come up with down payments of 30 percent or higher. For example, a buyer with a 699 FICO score who can make a down payment of 25 percent will now get hit with a 1.5 percent “delivery” fee at closing under the new guidelines.

A buyer with a Fair Isaac Corp. FICO score between 700 and 720 will pay an extra three-quarters of a point. Even someone with a 739 FICO will get dinged with a quarter-point add-on.

Applicants who seek to buy a condominium and cannot come up with a 25 percent down payment will be hit with a three-quarter point add-on penalty, no matter how high their credit score – simply because they are not purchasing a traditional detached, stand-alone home.

Buyers of duplexes, where one unit is owner-occupied and the other is rented, will be charged a flat 1 percent add-on from Fannie, even if they’ve got FICOs above 800 and make 50 percent down payments. Refinancers who take cash out at settlement also will be forced to pay extra – as much as three points if they’ve got low credit scores and modest equity stakes.

Fannie and Freddie say they are adding the fees to counter higher risks and losses associated with certain loan products, buyer equity stakes and credit scores. Declining home values in many parts of the country are intensifying losses for both companies when loans go to foreclosure.

However, realty agents, mortgage bankers and brokers are incensed at the fee increases, calling them counterproductive in an environment where housing needs help, not impediments. They have begun lobbying Congress and the two companies’ federal overseers to scrap the add-ons.

As recently as two years ago, FICO scores in the upper 600s were enough to qualify any applicant for prime financing. Now scores of 720 to 740 are the bare minimum if you’re going to escape add-on fees – and still not good enough if you choose to buy a condo or a duplex.

HouseRebate.com, a member of the National Association of Realtors®, is a full-service value real estate company that maintains a seasoned staff of agents. They provide all the services that traditional real estate offices offer at discount prices, with reduced commissions on sale, and rebates of 33 percent on commissions of purchases. HouseRebate.com features a virtual foreclosure tour bus that shows currently available San Diego foreclosure properties.

San Diego Real Estate Is Becoming More Affordable

A silver lining to San Diego County’s falling home prices emerged as an index showed housing affordability approaching the 50 percent mark for the first time in 15 years.

A report from the National Association of Home Builders showed that 44.6 percent of homes sold in the fourth quarter of 2008 were affordable to households earning the county’s median income of $72,100.  The highest San Diego has ever reached was 48.2 percent in the first quarter of 1994 at the depths of the last recession. The latest reading compares with 38.7 percent in the third quarter of 2008 and 14.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Nationally, the index rose to 62.4 percent, up from 56.1 percent in the third quarter and 46.6 percent at the end of 2007.

Meanwhile, La Jolla-based MDA DataQuick reported that home prices continue to fall in Southern California. Overall, the median for the six-county region stood at $250,000, down 39.8 percent from January 2008′s $415,000.  The firm had reported earlier this week that San Diego County’s median home price had sunk below $300,000 for the first time in seven years. The $280,000 median for January was 34.7 percent below year-ago levels.

Analysts said the continuing decline reflects the preponderance of low-cost foreclosed homes, which represented 55 percent of all San Diego resale houses and condos sold in January.  In San Diego and the rest of Southern California, sales volume continues to increase as buyers look for bargains. There were 15,227 sales throughout the region, up 52.5 percent year-over-year, and 2,459 in San Diego County, up 34.7 percent.

Buyers are reaping the benefits of falling interest rates. Freddie Mac reported that its weekly survey showed the average 30-year, fixed-rate loan carried a rate of 5.04 percent, down from 5.16 percent a week ago and 6.04 percent a year ago.

Even with falling prices, San Diego County was still the 26th least-affordable of 222 metro areas. The figures are based on a median income of $72,100 and a median-priced home at $295,000, down from $412,000 a year earlier.

Brian Yui, president of Houserebate.com, said it is likely San Diego County’s affordability improved on only a temporary basis because low-cost foreclosure homes have pushed down the median in the most-affected neighborhoods.

With the federal government’s efforts to stem foreclosures and help owners refinance, Yui predicted the low-cost days will end and prices will stabilize before rising once again.

“Once stabilization occurs, we’ll probably inch our way back to be one of the least-affordable cities because the weather’s so great,” Yui said.

But for the next year or two, he said, low prices should attract would-be buyers to move to the San Diego area and employers to stay rather than relocate, as some were doing when prices rose so rapidly in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

If you would like to get in on the record number of affordable homes available in San Diego, visit Houserebate.com and see the complete MLS and Foreclosure listing.

The Biggest Loser — San Diego’s Largest Foreclosure

When the opening bid of $2.275 million was announced on at the San Diego foreclosure auction on Friday, February 13, 2009, it was a fair bet that someone enterprising millionaire would snatch up the “Vivienda Estate” but HouseRebate.com has learned through Surf Foreclosures that there were no takers. The 17 bedroom, 9 bath, 16,330 square foot home at 3225 Fortuna Ranch in Encinitas, CA 92024 might have been a vacation retreat, residence for a family of 14 or more or a corporate getaway; instead it went down in the record books as one of San Diego’s largest foreclosures and San Diego’s biggest loser.

Olivenhain is certainly no stranger to mini-mansions with currently over 16 homes offered for sale for over $2 million dollars. This 16,330 square foot home would be a bargain for the right homeowner with a large family.

Originally constructed to be a healing and detox center finished in March 2006, Vivienda’s previous real estate agent says that Suzy Brown and other investors sunk more than $11 million into construction and finishes.

The property faced anger from neighbors throughout the permitting process despite its energy efficient profile. Local residents complained that it ruined the rural feel of Olivenhain (part of Encinitas) and formed a nonprofit to sue Brown and her co-investors. Zoning issues were bandied back and forth over what was called “the monster house” as the investors tried to generate income from weddings and business retreats–the home’s commercial kitchen and beautiful pool made it an ideal spot.

The “spirit of the neighborhood” was called into question and Brown’s original plans for the facility went the way of most detox efforts. Vivienda never opened as a rehab center due to zoning restrictions and failed to raise enough revenue from events causing the owners to default on their mortgage in late 2007. According to Brian Yui, CEO of HouseRebate.com and San Diego’s foreclosure expert, “Olivenhain is certainly no stranger to mini-mansions with currently over 16 homes offered for sale for over $2 million dollars. This 16,330 square foot home would be a bargain for the right homeowner with a large family.”

Still, the mansion at 3225 Fortuna Ranch that had been the source of such great hope and so many hotly contested arguments was on the auction block. HouseRebate.com predicts that it may take several weeks before the bank markets it for sale.

Suzy Brown, her co-investors and lender are yet more victims of San Diego’s turbulent real estate market, just on a larger scale. After all, there are countless homes in San Diego in foreclosure, from one bedroom condos to the “monster house.” If you’re in the market for something grand, keep an eye out to see when the bank lists Vivienda for sale. For foreclosures of any size or price, check the San Diego foreclosure home list, which serves as San Diego’s premiere source of foreclosures. With an expert staff, HouseRebate.com lists foreclosures big and small and stands ready to help buyers take advantage of the market flooded with San Diego bank owned properties.

President Obama Offers Up $75 Billion Foreclosure Rescue

President Obama announced Wednesday that he will be making $75 Billion available to help some 9 million homeowners who are facing foreclosure.  Obama declared the need for drastic action in the face of the growing economic crisis and stated that the funding will help to keep the housing crisis from wreaking further havoc on our already fragile economy.

The government is also backing Mortgage Giants Fannie Mae and Freddi Mac with over $400 Billion in an effort to encourage them to start re-financing loans that are upside down, that is homes whose market value has sunk below the amount left on the loan.

Success from the life line is far from certain even though the administration is loosening refinancing restrictions for many borrowers and providing incentives for lenders in hopes that the two sides will work together to modify loans. But no one is required to participate.

Complicating matters, investors in complex mortgage-linked securities, who make money based on interest payments, could still balk, especially those who hold second mortgages or home equity loans. Their approval would be needed to prevent many foreclosures.

The ultimate goal is to lower homeowners mortgage payments to less than 31% of their total income, but that depends on lenders who are already leery of extending new loans in the current unstable market.

President Obama is also supporting legislation that will allow bankruptcy judges to chage the terms of mortgages, a measure that is currently opposed by major lenders and the banking industry.

If you are looking for help negotiating with your lender contact MBA Commercial or call Toll Free, 800-958-1952 and listen to our recorded message available 24 hours a day.

Fannie Mae Lifts 4-Property Limit for Investors

Investors around the country are cheering as Fannie Mae announced this week that they are lifiting the 4 property limit for investors.  Fannie Mae’s official announcement reads: 

“Fannie Mae is committed to providing financing opportunities for high-credit quality, bona fide investors. Experienced investors play a key role in the housing recovery.”

This is great news for experienced seasoned investors who will play an important role in the re-stabilization of the housing industry.  In Fact Fannie Mae avoids lending to first time investors, or investors who do not have proven track record of success.

So for their part Fannie Mae will begin lending to investors who have an interest in 5-10 properties, but the loans are not with out guidelines:

• 25 percent down payment on the investment property;
• Minimum credit score of 720;
• No mortgage payments late within the last 12 months;
• No bankruptcies or foreclosures in the last seven years;
• Two years of tax returns showing rental income from all rental properties;
• Six months of principal, interest, taxes and insurance reserves on each of the financed properties.

“Fannie Mae is committed to providing financing opportunities for high-credit quality, bona fide investors. Experienced investors play a key role in the housing recovery.”

To reduce fraud, Fannie Mae will now require all real estate investors to sign a form granting lenders permission to verify supplied tax returns against the official, IRS-filed version. This document is less commonly known as a 4506-T.

Senate Bill Raises The Conforming Loan Limit

Last week, the U.S. Senate passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, with the final tab for the stimulus bill coming in at $787.2 billion.On the housing front, the good news is that the legislation resets the conforming loan limit cap at $729,750, up from $625,500. Numerous counties in California experienced a marked decrease in their conforming loan and FHA limits on Jan. 1, and the stimulus bill reinstates 2008 loan limits through Dec. 31, 2009.

The bill also increases the first-time home buyer credit from $7,500 to $8,000 mentioned in a previous blog post, and removes the requirement that the credit be paid back if the buyer stays in the home for at least three years. It also extends the expiration date for the credit from July 1 to Dec. 1, 2009. Homebuyers must have purchased a home after Jan. 1, 2009, and before Dec. 1, 2009, to be eligible for the $8,000 credit.

Now that the stimulus package is approved and is on its way to President Obama for signature, it is our hope that Congress will turn its attention toward helping homeowners remain in their homes and will take immediate steps directed specifically at stemming the ongoing foreclosure crisis.