Jail Time for Man Convicted of Stripping Foreclosed Home

At last, someone has been convicted of stripping their foreclosed home! After showing many homes that have been foreclosed on and stripped, it’s about time law enforcement is doing something about this.
For example, I was going to make an offer on a foreclosed home for a  client just this last week, but the listing agent [...]

Home Affordable Refinance Program Extended Another Year

According to a news release, the government is giving homeowners another year to refinance  their loans under a little-used program designed to help borrowers whose homes have plummeted in value.  My experience with clients who have tried to refinance their homes have had a total horrible experience with their mortgage holders.
The Obama administration effort, known [...]

Hong Kong Real Estate Bubble About to Burst?

As i mentioned in a recent article, China’s real estate is super hot and may be ready to collapse,  well, it looks like Hong Kong and Singapore  are in the same boat. Home prices in Hong Kong have risen 25 percent and land prices have doubled. Singapore’s government has stated that because of low interest [...]

Reagan Office Building for Sale

I guess if you need money you sell your real estate? How about the State of California selling some of their real estate to raise money?  Do you think that’s a great idea?  In the bottom of the real estate market, the State is selling two dozen buildings in order to raise $2 billion to [...]

Phony Fornensic Review for Mortgage Relief Latest Scam

Los Angeles-Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. has joined the California Department of Real Estate (DRE) and the State Bar of California in warning Californians to avoid forensic loan audits, the loan-modification industry’s latest “phony foreclosure-relief service,” in which homeowners pay up-front fees for a forensic review of their lender’s practices, but are provided no [...]

Good Real Estate News: Home Equity is Rising Again

Numerous articles have reported that homeowners are underwater and that strategic defaults are increasing. However, a little known statistic by the Federal Reserve shows that home equity again is on the rise.
KEEP THIS IN MIND
• The Federal Reserve conducts substantial research on mortgage balances and home-value changes in hundreds of local markets nationwide and reports [...]

China’s Building Bubble Bout to Bust

Another building bubble?  Yes, but this time it’s not the US that has a building bubble, we are way past the bubble and on the path to recovery. This time it’s China, with banks making as many loans as possible to get the mortgage upfront fees. (Does this sounds familiar to you?)
Flipping properties, factory owners [...]

Home Price Reductions Level Off

By John J. O’Dell
Are we finally be nearing the bottom of the market? I understand in talking to some real estate agents that inventory in some areas of Placer County are starting to get thin. Accoridng to Trulia.com, price reductions of homes on the market declined 21 percent as of February 1.
This is a [...]

FBI Cracks Down On Mortgage Fraud

By John J. O’Dell
The FBI is spending a lot of time investigating real estate fraud cases. In the hay day of the housing boom, with loose standards and banks wanting to make as many loans as possible, supposedly sophisticated people got greedy and tried to get rich quick. Now the boom is coming down [...]

Fannie Mae Announces 3.5 Percent Seller Assistance on HomePath® Properties

Incentive Part of Ongoing Effort to Stabilize Neighborhoods
Fannie Mae (FNM/NYSE) announced that people purchasing a Fannie Mae-owned