“Peddlers of so-called mortgage relief services have taken hundreds of millions of dollars from hundreds of thousands of home owners without ever delivering results,” FTC chair Jon Leibowitz said. “By banning providers of these services from collecting fees until the customer is satisfied with the results, this rule will protect consumers from being victimized by these scams.”

The new rules also require that companies disclose that:

· They are not associated with the government, and their services have not been approved by the government or the consumer’s lender.

· The lender may not agree to change the consumer’s loan.

· If companies tell consumers to stop paying their mortgage, they must also tell them that they could lose their home and damage their credit rating.

Source: Federal Trade Commission (11/19/2010)

The commission chairs are former Clinton administration chief of staff Erskine Bowles and former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson.

President Obama created the 18-member, bipartisan commission earlier this year to identify ways to balance the budget by 2015. The panel is supposed to provide the president its recommendations onDec. 1. To be part of the final report, recommendations must be approved by at least 14 of the members.

In his letter, Phipps said REALTORS ® would reject any tax law changes, including modifications to MID, that would impair Americans’ ability to own their homes and to invest in real estate. “The federal policy choice to support home ownership has been in the Internal Revenue Code since its inception,” he said. “We see no valid reason to undermine that basic decision. Indeed, we believe that the only viable tax system is one that would continue to nurture home ownership.”

NAR estimates that any paring back of MID, whether at once or over time, would reduce home values by an average 15 percent. Phipps called that level of wealth destruction “unacceptable,” particularly since “this loss of value is never fully recouped” and it would come at a time when the U.S. economy can’t turn around without a stable housing sector.

Phipps drew on NAR analyses of previous efforts to change tax policy, including 1986, 1996, and 2005 tax reform efforts, to show the detrimental impact changes such as curtailing deductions or turning some of them into credits would have on housing and the economy. Those analyses made clear that the changes were proposed without fully understanding their negative impact on households and communities.

“Calling home ownership the American Dream is not a mere slogan,” said Phipps, “but rather it expresses a bedrock value. Owning a piece of property has been central to American values since Plymouth and Jamestown. Homes are the foundation of our culture, the place where families eat and learn together, the basis for community life. The cottage with a picket fence is an iconic part of our heritage.”

Source: Robert Freedman, REALTOR ® Magazine Online

Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops, dropped 27.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million units in July from a downwardly revised 5.26 million in June, and are 25.5 percent below the 5.14 million-unit level in July 2009. Sales are at the lowest level since the total existing-home sales series launched in 1999, and single family sales – accounting for the bulk of transactions – are at the lowest level since May of 1995.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said a soft sales pace likely will continue for a few additional months. “Consumers rationally jumped into the market before the deadline for the home buyer tax credit expired. Since May, after the deadline, contract signings have been notably lower and a pause period for home sales is likely to last through September,” he said. “However, given the rock-bottom mortgage interest rates and historically high housing affordability conditions, the pace of a sales recovery could pick up quickly, provided the economy consistently adds jobs.

“Even with sales pausing for a few months, annual sales are expected to reach 5 million in 2010 because of healthy activity in the first half of the year. To place in perspective, annual sales averaged 4.9 million in the past 20 years, and 4.4 million over the past 30 years,” Yun added.

Source: ForSaleByOwner.com (07/29/2010)

“Homeownership fell during the quarter when government was offering a tax credit [to first-time home buyers]. What do you think is going to happen now that there’s no tax credit?” asks John Burns, CEO of John Burns Real Estate Consulting, a California-based housing market analyst.

Burns believes that 6 million of the 8 million home owners who are behind on their mortgages will have their properties repossessed in the next two years, pushing down the homeownership rate quickly, especially among low-income consumers.

Some observers are more optimistic. Arthur C. Nelson, director of the University of Utah’s Metropolitan Research Center, says the rate may not go down as fast or as far as predicted because others will purchase many foreclosed homes.

May was the fourth straight month prices showed a year-over-year increase.

“Home price appreciation stabilized as home buyer tax credit-driven sales peaked in late spring,” says Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “But given that the labor market and income growth remain tepid, we expect prices to moderate and possibly decline the rest of the year.”

Source: CoreLogic (07/13/2010)

On an unadjusted basis, the purchase index declined 12.7 percent compared to the previous week and was down 43 percent compared to the week of July 4th in 2009.

Interest rates were up slightly, though they remain very low:
30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.69 percent from 4.68 percent.
15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 4.12 percent from 4.11 percent.
1-year ARMs remained unchanged at 7.20 percent.

Source: Mortgage Bankers Association (07/14/2010)

Apartment vacancies were down and rents were up last month as people got tired of living in their parents’ basements and rented a place of their own.
Nationally, the apartment vacancy rate was 7.8 percent at the end of June, according to research firm Reis Inc., down from 8 percent in the first quarter.
Rents rose 0.7 percent from April to June, the largest quarterly gain in two years.
The advantage hasn’t returned “completely back to owners right now,” says Hessam Nadji, managing director at real estate firm Marcus & Millichap. “But we’re well under way to see that balance shift back.”
Source: The Wall Street Journal, Nick Timiraos (07/08/2010)