This article outlines the regulations necessary to limit the destabilizing influence of speculative interference in the sale of California single family residences (SFRs) during times of boom or bust.

This article exposes the inclusion of default insurance premiums and impounds as part of the total monthly payment on an FHA-insured loan, and their effect on the amount the homebuyer is qualified to borrow. Similarly discussed are the costs of private mortgage insurance (PMI).

This article addresses the conflict of interest that occurs when a listing broker or his agent receives undisclosed benefits for acting as or representing a speculator intent on flipping a property the broker or agent has been employed to sell.

Prepayment penalties are among the lending practices targeted in the financial overhaul bill currently being discussed in Congress. The current version of the bill would altogether prohibit prepayment penalties for certain types of mortgages, including: adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs); subprime mortgages; negatively amortizing mortgages; and higher-priced mortgages (mortgages with rates exceeding a set threshold). For [...]

The private mortgage insurance industry (PMI) is no longer boycotting California.  Some of the largest private insurers in the nation, including PMI, Genworth and MGIC, have returned to the California market after abandoning the state following the housing bubble implosion. PMI has lowered the requirements for conforming loan amounts in California to the following criteria: [...]

Foreclosure resales accounted for 42.6 % of all California resales recorded in the first quarter of 2010, up from 40.6% in the fourth quarter of 2009, and down from 57.8% one year ago, the peak of the foreclosure resale trend. 81,054 notices of default (NODs) were recorded on 79,457 homes last quarter, compared with 84,568 [...]

Critics of the recent federal housing tax credits point to three major flaws in the calculation of the credits’ “success”: a majority of the homebuyers who used the tax credit would have bought homes in the immediate future without the housing tax credit, thus the credit did not organically create as many sales as reported; [...]

Homeowners who have gone through a short sale or participated in a deed-in-lieu arrangement with their lenders may, beginning July 1, 2010,  qualify  for new mortgages under Fannie Mae programs in as little as two years from the recording  of the short sale or deed-in-lieu arrangement. The current penalty period before recovery of credit is [...]

Additional fees charged by real estate agents separate from their basic contingency fee were the subject of a recent letter to industry lawyers from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The HUD letter reiterated its long-held stance that the federal government does not cap the fee a broker may charge his client. [...]

This article discusses the ethical concerns associated with “flipping” a property and the two ways a speculator can structure the transfer of his ownership rights in a flip.