A new piece of legislation is coming before the California Senate intended to preserve a borrower’s protection from a deficiency judgment when home loans are refinanced, as long as the refinance is used to pay debt incurred to acquire, construct or substantially improve the real property.

A deficiency judgment is a judgment for an amount not covered by the value of the home put up for the loan.

The bill was written by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Senator Ellen Corbett.

“Most borrowers are generally unaware that refinancing their home mortgage causes them to lose the anti-deficiency protection of existing law,” she said. “That anti-deficiency protection is important because it protects the borrower under certain circumstances if the lender forecloses on them.  Senate Bill 1178 seeks to narrowly address that issue by preserving the anti-deficiency protection for borrowers if they choose to refinance their home for purposes of improvement. Borrowers who refinance for personal reasons, such as buying a car, would not be protected.”

Jeremy Olsan, partner at Perry, Johnson, Anderson, Miller & Moskowitz in Santa Rosa, specializes in real estate issues.

“This would not count for those borrowers who used their homes as a piggy bank. They would still be liable as they are now,” said Mr. Olsan. “But this bill, if passed, would protect the ones that improved the property because they are adding to the value of the property and not refinancing their home to buy a new car or go on vacation.”

Full story is available on North Bay Business Journal

Jehns Real Estate professional, Serge Santos, has chosen to employ IDX, Inc. to simplify and improve the search options and capabilities on his real estate website. Through the Bay Area Real Estate Info Service (BAREIS) listings, Santos’ website is constantly updated with a plethora of property listings, thanks to the integrated IDX solution that extracts raw listing data from BAREIS and displays it directly on Santos’ search page for his clients’ convenience.

Additionally, potential buyers who are utilizing Santos’ website can search in a more in depth way with the Advanced Search tool online. Here home seekers can establish their own search parameters to retrieve results that best suit their needs from a home. IDX Broker’s software includes other options such as giving home seekers the ability to connect with sellers and listing agents, schedule showings, calculate likely mortgage payments and take virtual tours all from the ease and convenience of Santos’ website.

Santos himself is also afforded some luxuries never before available to agents online. His personalized administrative login page allows him to control the look and feel of his website. He can use various design options by editing CSS and global wrappers and he can create custom XML codes and dynamic title tags to increase visibility of his listings and website. All of these tools help to give Santos a better online presence. With the addition of IDX Broker software Santos is in control over his business and his website.

Full story is available on Real Estate Rama

A state agency is teaming up with the Wisconsin Realtors Association to promote an affordable housing program.  Called Wisconsin Housing Works, it encourages employers to chip in and help workers buy a house.

Employers set up employees with downpayment grants–usually between $3,000 and $10,000.  Then, if the person stays with the company for five years, the debt is erased.

Then, the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority steps in with additional grant money.

Antonio Riley heads WHEDA and in a promotional video on the program, he says the Housing Works program is good for communities, employers, and home buyers.

“There are some income limits, things of that sort,” Riley explains.  “Purchase price limits and what not.  Although under our new program now those income limits are about ten to thirteen percent higher all across the state so more people will qualify.”

Full story is available on fox21online.com

Due to the nation’s current  housing crisis state officials are taking it upon themselves to help struggling homeowners in their area. Many borrowers simply do not know what to do when their mortgage payments become unaffordable and its crucial these people get educated enough to prevent foreclosure.

U.S. Representative Grace F. Napolitano is to hold a free foreclosure prevention fair on June 5th. The fair will provide a number experts and reps from local banks to help educate distressed homeowners in the area.

Rep. Napolitano is teaming up with the Alliance for Stabilizing our Communities to help host the fair. According to a statement from Napolitano’s office, only foreclosure prevention counselors approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and home loan specialists from local banks will be in attendance.

The workshop will provide a number of services including credit management, foreclosure avoidance, and they will also provide tips on how to avoid fraud and scam artists who prey on those in need.

Full story is available on Loan Safe.org

The local housing market continues to show improvement in sales and value of homes, though overall home sales in the nine-county Bay Area and the state as a whole, showed mixed results during the month of April, according to latest real estate sales and price reports.

MDA DataQuick reports sales for all new and resale homes and condos in Santa Clara County rose 3.1 percent in April compared with the same period last year. A total of 1,656 homes sold in April, up from 1,606 homes sold in April 2009. The median home price for all homes jumped 20.7 percent from $405,000 in April of 2009 to $489,000 this year. The jump in median price is attributed to increasing sales in the higher-end market in comparison to last year.

“Sales activity in the high-end market appeared sluggish around this time last year, but there is more activity in this price range this year because high-end financing has loosened a bit and the government tax credits may have provided the additional incentive for buyers to make their move,” said Jeff Bell, president of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors. “Sales could be stronger if financing eases for buyers in the high-end market.”

Sales in the nine-county Bay Area fell slightly below the year-ago level, as increased high-end activity couldn’t offset sales declines in the lower-cost areas and in the new-home market. However, the continued shift toward a greater portion of sales occurring in higher-cost coastal

Full story is available on Mercury News

It seems like only yesterday when the real estate market was booming and everyone was investing, whether it was a home or investment property.  Then the bottom of the sub-prime lending market dropped out, leaving hundreds of people facing either foreclosure or bankruptcy, or more typically, both; and leaving the economy devastated in its wake.

Bankruptcy, whether it’s chapter 7 or 13, affects every aspect of a consumer’s finances, especially their home. Dozens of people facing the loss of their home are filing for bankruptcy, hoping to save their icon of the American dream.  But filing for bankruptcy while facing foreclosure isn’t always the answer.

Most people filing for bankruptcy in order to save their home, hear about the marvelous laws regarding automatic stays and homestead exemptions jump with joy, until they receive notice that the foreclosure proceedings are continuing even after they file.  Here’s why.

Full story is available on FavStocks

Homeowners who have a second lien on their home loan have often found that short selling is more difficult when this is the case. Secondary mortgage holders often have been unwilling in the past to allow short sales to go through since they will be losing out on the deal.

Incentives from the Obama Administration that will hopefully prompt more second lien holders and primary mortgage lenders to make short sales in cases where a homeowner has seen a loss in value of their home. Underwater mortgages are becoming more difficult to manage as frustrated homeowners claim there may be little chance for them to recoup any of the value lost.

Principal reductions, while offered by some lenders, are not as popular among the other mortgage lenders since banks feel that this is an unfair practice in the majority of cases. Unless a homeowner is having trouble making their mortgage payment or lives in an area where housing prices are unlikely to recover much of what was lost, many lenders feel principal reductions should not be used.

Full story is available on Red, White, and Blue Press

In contrast to the commendation of Maryland’s new foreclosure mediation law ["Maryland takes a shot at slowing the flow of foreclosures," May 24] by Chad Williams, executive director of the Coalition for Homeownership Preservation in Prince George’s County, I believe the measure is flawed, adds to delay in foreclosure and, as such, hurts homeowners, neighborhoods and the economic recovery in Maryland.

Previously, Maryland had one process for foreclosure, regardless of the type of property. Under that process, a foreclosure sale occurred approximately 150 days after the payment default.

In April 2008, the legislature initially changed the law by creating new procedures for the foreclosure of residential property. The goal of the law was to give homeowners in default more time to work something out with the lender. Under this revised procedure, a foreclosure sale will typically occur about 225 days after the payment default. The procedural changes have added between $250 and $750 or more to the cost of foreclosure.

Now, as of July 1, Maryland will add another category of “owner occupied” residential property and will require new procedures for foreclosures of this type of property.

Full story is available on The Washington Post

New home sales over the previous 7 months have been goosed by the $8,000 tax credit, the result of pulled forward demand.

It has also been reported that in many cases the tax credit was simply being used for a down payment with no other cash out of the pocket of the buyer, bringing back the ‘no income and no chance in hell of affording the home in the long run‘ scenario all over again. But, that is a subject for an article all to itself.

Now that the home purchase tax credit program expired on April 30, early indications of home sales have once again begun to contract, but that is no surprise and I have discussed that very problem last year when the program was first introduced. That is what happens when you pull forward demand with free government money.

Phoenix and Las Vegas, two U.S. markets hardest hit by foreclosures, are set to plunge as a federal tax credit for homebuying expires, according to data from real estate researcher Metrostudy.

Full story is available on iStock Analyst

Many homeowners that have lost value in their home find themselves with an underwater mortgage, which is a case where they owe more on their home than their home is worth. This can be a frustrating situation for any homeowner who may view their home as an investment or may be having trouble paying their mortgage payment because they have lost value in their home.

There are some lenders who are using principal reduction programs in order to help homeowners in this troubling situation. Many homeowners have asked for a principal reduction on their mortgage simply because they feel that with such widespread drops in home prices that lenders were selling homes with inflated prices.

Some lenders are unwilling to make principal reductions in the majority of underwater cases, but even lenders who may be opposed to principal reductions are willing to make them in certain cases. In a situation where a homeowner may not be able to pay their mortgage because they lost value in their home or if a homeowner is in an area where they are unlikely to regain the value that they lost in their home, a principal reduction may be used.

Full story is available on Red, White, and Blue Press