For every two homes available for sale, there is another in lender shadow inventory, according to a report by CoreLogic. Nationally in October 2011, 1.6 million residential units were shadow inventory comprising property delinquent 90 days or more, in foreclosure or real estate owned (REO) and thus were not yet listed with a multiple listing [...]

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae’s (collectively Frannie’s) hands are full of real estate owned properties (REOs) and it doesn’t look like they are going anywhere anytime soon. Frannie held 180,000 REOs as of October 1, 2011 – a net drop of 16,000 from the 196,000 they owned three months earlier. This is only the second [...]

This article discusses the current residential vacancy rates in California and the pressure vacant properties place upon this decade’s real estate recovery.

The Administration’s Housing Scorecard for May 2011 was recently released, giving detailed assessments of the ten largest lenders participating in the Making Home Affordable Program, which includes the Administration’s own Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). The Housing Scorecard rates the performance of lenders in three categories: identifying and contacting homeowners; homeowner evaluation and assistance; and [...]

Where the buyers are Shadow inventory, meet the shadow households. Nearly one million households nationwide will be created in 2011 – roughly 130,000 in California alone – and start driving real estate sales and consumption in 2012, according to a prediction by industry analysts and IHS Global Insight. Generation Y-ers (Gen Y-ers) headline as the [...]

This article discusses the current residential vacancy rates in California and the pressure vacant properties place upon this decade’s real estate recovery.

Updated 10/28/10, updates appear below in blue Don’t blink — with dizzying speed and (supposed) efficiency, Bank of America (BofA) has announced it will resume foreclosures in the 23 states it halted foreclosures in several weeks ago. The other 27 states subject to the foreclosure moratorium, announced by BofA last week and including California, will [...]

Lenders are targeting underwater homeowners in a campaign to attract those interested in bypassing foreclosures and short sales and simply deeding over the title of their property to the lender. Bank of America is offering cash incentives that range from $3,000 to $15,000, as well as a promise to not pursue the homeowner for any [...]

As the nation’s residential real estate market begins to ascend out of its valley of economic despair, some are suggesting we may be fast approaching a new national crisis: a housing shortage. With fewer than 400,000 new households formed in 2009 — as opposed to the historical annual average of 1.3 million — development of [...]

Statewide, 27,858 new and existing homes were sold in January, down 33.4% from December, and down 5.4% from January one year ago. 15,361 of these homes were sold in Southern California (So Cal), down 31.2% from December, and up 0.9% from one year ago. The statewide price paid for the phantom median-priced new or existing [...]