Since the Treasury launched HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program) in March 2009, the participating servicers have started approximately 1.4 million trial modifications with 519,648 of them converted into permanent status. A borrower is supposed to move out of a trial when it he or she has made three monthly payments under the new terms and has submitted all documentation. Source: Download Oct 2010 MHA Public Final Trial mods transitioning to permanent status have been averaging about 37,000 for the past six months, but during the month of October, only 23,750 permanent modifications were granted. The Treasury says of active trial... Read more →

In my blog post dated January 26, 2010, Negative Equity and Strategic Defualts - Will We Ever See Principal Reduction Loan Mods? - I addressed the fact that the primary reason for stratgeic defaults on mortgages is negative equity. Numerous studies, white papers and articles have and continue to address this major concern for a continued distressed property market in the US and in particular in Las Vegas, Nevada. Here are some recent stats on Negative Equity: Core Logic - Negative Equity Report 2nd Quarter 2010 National negative equity rates declined for the second consecutive quarter. According to CoreLogic, 11... Read more →

A the NAR Annual Convention this month, NAR and HUD unveiled three videos to help prospective homeowners shop for a home, shop for a mortgage and understand the closing process. Read more →

During the November 2010 National Association of Realtors (NAR) annual meeting in New Orleans, NAR’s delegate body voted to amend the NAR Code of Ethics to include sexual orientation as a protected class. The amendment to Article 10 of the REALTORS® Code of Ethics was passed in a roll-call vote by a greater than 9-to-1 margin. Read more →

The Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS® has an excellent tool to use for staying in touch with your current, past and prospective clients - an HTML Consumer Newsletter. The Association will collect, compile and distribute statistics, news and events pertinent to the consumer and forward the information to each REALTOR® member each month. When forwarding the Newsletter, remember to perform the following steps: Click the [Forward] button to generate a new email. Change the [Subject] line of the email to your choosing. Delete ALL content from the top of the email to the specified line (Delete the line too!).... Read more →