Archives: September 2009

Hope Now Lenders Still Choosing Payment Plans Rather Than More Permanent Fixes

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 30

Hope Now, the consortium of banks, mortgage companies and credit counselors hoping to stem the housing crisis, released its August numbers. New foreclosure starts dropped by more than 25% to...

Send Us Your Real Estate Questions

Posted by: Prashant Gopal on September 29

We spend a lot of time here on the HotProperty blog gauging the health of the real estate market and pointing to clues about where it might be heading. But...

New Home Sales Lose Momentum in August

Posted by: Prashant Gopal on September 25

New home sales, after four months of robust gains, only inched up 0.7% in August, the Commerce Department reported Sept. 25. The government's monthly new home sales report, which has...

Manhattan Apartments: Free Rent But Still Not Cheap

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 25

The analysts at the investment firm Sandler O’Neil recently did a tour of the Manhattan apartment market with some of the biggest publicly-traded management companies including Avalon Bay and...

Stimulus Funds Are Boosting Construction Work

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 23

The stimulus package is well, stimulating. According to the Associated Builders and Contractors trade group, the nation's construction backlog for July rose 8.9 percent to 6.1 months. The backlog is...

Banks Are Forcing Homeowners to Keep Paying After Short Sales

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 21

I heard recently from a reader who said the bank she had a mortgage with wanted her to continue to pay off part of the loan even after she sold...

Debate Rages about Real Estate's Future

Posted by: Prashant Gopal on September 18

Such prominent analysts as Meredith Whitney are raising alarms about the prospect of a deepening slump despite recent signs of improvement in home sales, prices, construction, and inventory levels. Just...

Housing Starts Up, But Look Behind the Numbers

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 17

The housing news continues to be mixed. The Commerce Dept. released its monthly numbers on new housing starts, showing an increase of 1.5% to 598,000 units, the highest level in...

Big Changes in Southern California Home Sales

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 16

For months the big story was how fast California home sales were rebounding as investors snapped up cheap, foreclosed homes. Now the sales and price trends are reversing. In August...

Wells Fargo Fires Exec Who Partied In A Foreclosed Malibu Pad

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 14

Wells Fargo confirmed today that it has fired the executive who partied in a foreclosed Malibu beach house this summer. The Los Angeles Times first reported on Friday that...

Weekend At Bernie's: A Peek Inside Madoff's Beach House

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 11

The feds are putting swindler Bernie Madoff’s homes on the market. The U.S Marshall’s service is selling his 4,000 square foot Upper East Side flat. That’s the one where...

Homebuying Season Could Extend into the Fall

Posted by: Prashant Gopal on September 11

The spring buying season was a little longer than usual this year. Home sales gathered strength as the summer progressed. Pending home sales, for example, jumped 3.2% in July from...

Foreclosures Down Even Though Some Government Programs Are Off To A Slow Start

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 10

Michael Barr, the Treasury Dept.’s assistant secretary for financial institutions, briefed Congress on the Administration’s various housing related programs on Sept. 9. Barr said 45 loan servicers accounting for...

Should You Buy Into A Distressed Debt Fund?

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 09

A slew of new REITs that will invest in troubled real estate loans are about to hit the market. Nicholas Einhorn, an analyst at Renaissance Capital, adds up 18 new...

Las Vegas Condo Buyers Lose Big On The Strip

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 06

I’ve written before about the sorry state of the condo/hotel market in Las Vegas. Bill Lerner of Union Gaming just came out with a report with some more analysis....

Homebuilders Planning for Brighter Future

Posted by: Prashant Gopal on September 04

Hovnanian Enterprises disappointed Wall Street this week with an earnings report that showed deep revenue and profit declines. But CEO Ara Hovnanian, who said that new home contracts have improved...

Hope Now's Numbers Mostly Going In The Wrong Direction

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 04

Hope Now, the alliance of banks, mortgage servicers and non-profit mortgage counselors, came out with its July data this week and the numbers still look bleak. While the actual...

Michael Jackson's Burial Place Is As Colorful As Him

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 02

The King of Pop is being laid to rest on Sept 3 in a cemetery as colorful as him--the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Calif. The century-old property features...

Are We Still At Risk for Mortgage Armageddon?

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 01

While much of the recent housing news has been good there remains a hardy band of skeptics that don’t believe the mortgage crisis is over. In fact, they think...