The FBI has issued a consumer alert warning of phony online rental ads. According to the alert, the scam goes like this:
You can’t believe your good fortune-you find a rental home in a nice area through a Craigslist classified ad at an unbelievably low rate. The landlord-who had to leave the country and travel to Nigeria-asks that you wire him two months worth of rent. You arrive at the home on the agreed-upon date, but there is just one small problem- the house is not actually for rent and its owners know nothing about your agreement.
This latest scam is being perpetrated by Nigerian criminals located halfway aroudn the world and has been seen in a number of U.S. states, perhaps in response to the current housing market- with fewer people buying, more people are renting.
The FBI offers these tips to avoid being victimized:
Only deal with landlords or renters who are local
Be suspicious if you’re asked to only use a wire transfer service
Beware of email correspondence from the “landlord” that is written in poor or broken English
Research the average rental rates in that area and be suspicious if the rate is significantly lower
Don’t give out personal information, like social security, bank account, or credit card numbers.
The National Association of REALTORS(R) has been reporting and tracking a “Housing Affordability Index” since January 1989. The index looks at whether or not an average family (an income equal to the median income) can qualify for a loan to buy a median-priced home.
The Housing Affordabiity Index for June was at 159.2 meaning that a family with an average income has 159% of the income they need to afford an average house. This is down from the revised index for January of this year of 176.9 which makes January the month housing was the most affordable since the National Association of REALTORS(R) began this index 20 years ago.
If the index had a value of 100 that would mean a family making the median income has the exact amount of income necessary to qualify for a loan to buy a median-priced home. A value beneath 100 means the family is falling short of enough income and any over 100 means the family has more than enough income.
Today the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices report was released which showed that, although still negative, the annual rate of decline of the 10-City and 20-City Composites improved for the fourth consecutive month in 2009.
The 10-City and 20-City Composites declined 16.8% and 17.1%, respectively, in May compared to the same month last year. These values are improvements over April’s data, which showed annual declines of 18.0% and 18.1% respectively. After 16 consecutive months of record annual declines, beginning in October 2007 and ending in January 2009, the indices have now shown four consecutive months of improvement in annual returns.
“The pace of descent in home price value appears to be slowing” says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s. “To put it in perspective, this is the first time we have seen broad increases in home prices in 34 months. This could be an indication that home price declines are finally stabilizing,” he added. Read more…
This morning the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000, an 11% increase from May. The year over year decline lessened, June’s numbers are down 21.3% from a year ago which is a substantial improvement over May’s decline of 33% from the year prior.
Median prices for new homes decreased from $221,600 in May to $206,200 for June. Homes in the $150,000 – $299,999 range continue to dominate sales with 56% of the sales for June falling in this price range.
Perhaps the best news in the report is on the inventory of new homes. Inventory declined again to 281,000 homes which represents an 8.8 month supply based upon current sales rate. This is the lowest inventory we have seen in a long time and is a very positive sign to me. Read more…
According to Freddie Macs weekly mortgage market survey mortgage rates increased slightly this week from the prior week. The survey shows 30 year fixed rate mortgages averaging 5.20% with 0.7% in fees and points, up from 5.14% the week before. Last year at this time, the 30 year rate averaged 6.63%.
Rates on 15 year fixed-rate mortgages increased slightly as well, up to 4.68% from 4.63% the week before, 5/1 ARM’s held about the same at 4.74% and 1 year ARM’s as well as 4.76%. This time last year these arms were 6.18% and 5.49% respectively.
Existing home sales, including single-family, town-homes, condominiums and co-ops increased 3.6% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million units. This rate is almost identical to last years sales at the same time which is a first in a quite a while. May’s rate was down 3.6% from a year ago and June is down just 0.2% from a year ago.
Also for the first time in a while, all four regions of the U.S. had an increase in sales for the month with the West leading the pack with a 6.4% increase followed by the South at 4.9%, Northeast at 2.5% and the Midwest a 0.9%. Read more…
To the right of this post is a player for Real Estate Today. The daily radio show produced by The National Association of REALTORS(R). Every day there is a new show with interesting and informative news and information for real estate consumers.
Home prices in the U.S. fell 9.2% in May compared to a year ago according to newly released data from First American CoreLogicand its Loan Performance Home Price Index (HPI). This drop represents the smallest year-over-year decline since December 2007.
Below are other highlights from the data released:
The rate of national price declines for residential single-family detached homes peaked at 11.9% in January 2009 and has since improved by over 2.5 percentage points through May. The June preview data suggests further improvements int eh rate of decline.
Since U.S. home prices peaked in July 2006, national home prices have declined 20.1% on a cumulative basis Read more…
The government has taken steps to curtail the rate of foreclosures and help those homeowners that are facing foreclosure with the “Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009″ and the “Making Home Affordable” program however the number of homeowners facing foreclosure is setting records.
As I stated in a post a couple of weeks ago about loan modifications making a difference and helping people stay in their homes, the real benefits of this won’t be seen for another quarter or two. In the meantime the numbers are sad.
According to a report issued by RealtyTrac(R), there were 1,905,723 foreclosure filings (default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions) on 1,528,364 U.S. properties in the first six months of 2009, a 9% increase in total properties from the previous six months and a 15% increase in total properties from the first six months of 2008. This works out to 1.19% of all U.S. homes (1 in 84) receiving at least one foreclosure filing in the first half of this year.
For the month of June there were 336,173 properties with foreclosure filings, the fourth straight month that the total exceeded 300,000 which helped boost the 2nd quarter to the highest quarterly total since RealtyTrac(R)began issuing its report in the first quarter of 2005. Read more…
$10 is the price of a raffle ticket for a chance to win a $3,000,000, 6,000 square foot gated waterfront estate home in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida according to information published by Florida Luxury Auctions.
According to information in a press release, a Florida couple chose this approach to “selling” their home due to the current real estate market conditions. “Moving from their dream home is something the Brannans never thought would happen, but the economic crisis has caused them to make many touch decisions. They came to the conclusion that raffling off their 6,000 sq. ft. home was the only reasonable solution.”
The website says there will be 300,000 tickets sold and a portion of the proceeds are to go to The Mission of St. Francis, according to the website.
I might mention, I’m not familiar with the company doing the auction and have not checked out the facts that were in their press release or on their website, but I thought it was an interesting and novel approach to move a home in this market. Before you buy a raffle ticket I would suggest you do your own due diligence .
By: Dennis Norman
Today the 
To the right of this post is a player for Real Estate Today. The daily radio show produced by The National Association of REALTORS(R). Every day there is a new show with interesting and informative news and information for real estate consumers.