by Rob Chrisman
What is Barack buying Michelle this year? A little non-owner unit, perhaps, but not thanks to Freddie Mac's HomeSteps, which is owner-occupied only. The real estate sales unit of Freddie Mac launched a sales promotion for its inventory of foreclosed homes in select states. Under the HomeSteps Winter Sales Promotion, HomeSteps will pay up to 3% of the final sales price towards the buyer's closing costs and a $1,000 selling agent bonus for initial offers received between Nov. 15 and Jan. 31, 2012. Freddie sold a record number of real estate owned properties in 2011 at 94% of market value (whatever that means) and accounted for 4.4% of the nation's inventory of foreclosed properties as of Sept. 30. But accept no substitutes! The offer is valid only on HomeSteps homes sold to owner-occupant buyers - sorry Mr. Obama. It is available on HomeSteps sales in 28 states and the District of Columbia. Hey, before you scoff, take a look - there are some decent incentives and sweet deals: http://www.homesteps.com/.
Twelve miles up the road, Fannie Mae is promoting its HomePath Online Offers system, which collects offers and manages the submission process on properties listed on HomePath.com. On Pearl Harbor Day "agents and brokers representing buyers are required to submit offers exclusively on the web site. Only properties listed in the following areas are eligible to submit online offers on the designated launch date: California, Florida, and Wayne County, Michigan." Fannie believes its system offers, "A transparent offer process that keeps Selling Agents informed of the status of their clients' offers on HomePath properties listed on HomePath.com and improved communication between the Selling Agent and the Listing Broker regarding offers on HomePath properties listed on the HomePath web site." For more information go to http://www.homepath.com/ or give 'em a shout: 1-866-218-4446.
(By the way, Freddie is temporarily suspending all scheduled evictions involving foreclosed occupied single-family 1- to 4- unit residences. Freddie's announcement noted, "1-4 unit residences with Freddie Mac-owned mortgages beginning December 19, 2011, through January 2, 2012. The suspension will apply only to eviction lockouts related to Freddie Mac-owned REO properties and will not affect other pre- or post-foreclosure processes." The press mentions Fannie doing the same, although I could not find its announcement.)
Both agencies still have plenty of "foreclosure cannon fodder" although delinquencies continued to decline in October according to information released by Lender Processing Services. But foreclosure inventories reached a record high during the month, now representing 4.3% of all active mortgages - how does anyone expect house prices to move higher with that overhang out there? The total delinquency rate in the country is now about 8%, down from over 9% in October 2010. Per LPS the average delinquent loan in foreclosure has been delinquent for 631days versus a few years ago when an average foreclosure took 251 days from the first missed payment. The length of the process has increased by three months just since the beginning of this year for various reasons (backlog, type of foreclosure in the state, lawsuits, and so on).
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