Freddie Mac(FRE) CEO Ed Haldeman said Monday that last-ditch tactics to prevent foreclosure, such as short sales, have risen drastically as the government scrambles to fix the housing mess.

Freddie Mac has been resorting to short sales seven times as much as it did two years ago, when the mortgage crisis first appeared dire, Haldeman said in a prepared statement. In such a sale, the lender and borrower agree to sell the home for less than the outstanding mortgage balance. In many cases, the bank and borrower share in the losses, but the short sale is deemed less costly and painful than foreclosure.

“The undisputable fact is that everybody wins when foreclosures are prevented,” Haldeman said in a statement released on Monday.

Nonetheless, short sales and other last-ditch tactics — such as “deed-in-lieu,” in which a borrower simply hands over the property to a lender to wipe away most or all of his mortgage debt — have a negative effect on home prices. It adds more inventory to the home supply, thereby depressing prices further.

Full story is available on TheStreet

Luis Ponce of Union City is closing on a Westwood home Wednesday — he hopes.

If the closing is delayed, Ponce and his wife won’t qualify for a federal tax credit of $8,000, which they plan to spend on repairs, paint and a washer and dryer for the house.

“If we don’t get the money, that’s going to be a big setback for us,” said Ponce, an information technology specialist.

With the tax credit expiring Wednesday, it’s crunch time for buyers, real estate agents, lawyers and lenders. While the National Association of Realtors has pushed for an extension, as of Monday, Congress had not acted to extend the deadline. The credit is available to buyers who signed a contract by April 30, as long as they close by June 30.

“Time is running out,” said Paul Marino, a Hackensack real estate lawyer.

Ponce’s agent, Tony Sanchez of Weichert in Clifton, is working on six deals he hopes will close by Wednesday. Two of them, he said, probably won’t make the deadline. In one case, there are problems with the property’s title; in the other, the lender requires repairs that may not be done in time.

But Sanchez was optimistic about the Ponces’ purchase, which involves a bank-owned property that needed repairs before the town will issue a certificate of occupancy.

Short sales, in which the lender accepts less than is owed on the mortgage, typically are more complicated and time-consuming than regular sales. As a result, some buyers in these deals won’t be able to meet the deadline.

Full story is available on NorthJersey

This past week, I received an email from one of my dearest friends that has really stuck with me. It illuminates perhaps one of the single largest shifts in borrower psychology likely to come from a push to short sales:

My neighbors are being foreclosed on. He is an civil engineer, and she is a retired banker. They are the most wonderful people I have ever met, and have been such sweet giving neighbors. She basically designed and built the house from scratch.

The house and land (1.3 acres) was valued at $1.8m a few years ago. Now, they are behind on payments and the bank wants to force a short sale for only $700k. She told me that she tried to modify the mortgage twice already, and has been turned down. She is willing and able to make payments on the $700k amount, but the bank is refusing and would rather sell to someone else.

The message paints an interesting picture of a potentially hidden angle to the recent short sale push by the Administration, banks, and Realtors: a renewed call for broad principal forgiveness.

It’s not too hard to see this sort of thinking quickly becoming the norm among many distressed homeowners, as a push for short sales grows ever stronger and many ask themselves why someone else is getting the better deal. More than 11 million borrowers currently owe more on their mortgage than it is worth, according to CoreLogic (CLGX: 17.885 -1.13%)—and this group of borrowers would love nothing more than to replace their current underwater mortgage with whatever the accepted “short sale price” is deemed to be.

Full story is available on HousingWire

Christian and Samantha Bang were newlyweds who thought homeownership would be out of reach while they saved money and paid off debt. All that changed in February when they qualified for an $8,000 home buyer’s tax credit from the federal government that they planned to use toward a house in Bloomington. Five months later, on the eve of Wednesday’s closing deadline to get the credit, their loan still hasn’t closed.

“It’s been a nightmare,” Christian Bang said. “If we can’t get this done, we’re through. We’ll have to back out of the deal.”

They’re among an estimated 180,000 home buyers nationwide at risk of forfeiting their tax credit because of delays at the closing table, many of them because banks have been slow to process short sales and foreclosures. Last week, efforts in Washington to extend the closing date failed, leaving buyers who go through with their closing without the credit to hope it will be granted retroactively.

Full story is available on Star Tribune

It is a time of great excitement in an individual’s life when they look to take on their very first UK mortgage loan. They will need to consider everything that comes along with having a mortgage loan, however it is generally easier for first-time property buyer to enter into a UK mortgage plan. Please take into consideration that just because you are a first time home buyer you do not only have to consider first-time homeowner loans. You may not want to limit yourself to only these types of mortgage loans due to the fact that they often come with very strict guidelines and there are many small points to this type of mortgage. Let us look at the loans that are  the first-time property buyer.

Most individuals are very overwhelmed when it comes to buying their very first property. To help cover some of the extra cost that goes into purchasing a property, a first-time property owner will look for a program that is geared toward someone would never had a mortgage loan before. They often look into financial help in buying their first home with this type of UK mortgage deal. Certain perks that they usually experience with a special first-time homeowner mortgage is that they are able to receive a low deposit or in some cases no deposit at all, they are able to defer payment or even receive grants.

Full story is available on StockMarketsReview

Home prices rose as sales got a boost from a tax credit, while consumer confidence cooled from a two-year high, signaling a pickup in employment is needed to sustain the recovery, economists said before reports today.

The end of a government homebuyer incentive worth as much as $8,000, mounting foreclosures and unemployment near a 26-year high threaten to set real estate prices back following the stabilization that began earlier this year. Eroding home equity may limit household spending, the biggest part of the economy, even as gains in income help revive demand.

“The worst is behind us but the potential for further price declines still exists,” said David Semmens, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in New York. “With the expiration of the tax credit, demand has collapsed. Why would consumers commit to buying a house when they’re feeling nervous about job prospects?”

The home-price figures are due at 9 a.m. New York time. Estimates ranged from increases of 1.3 percent to 4.1 percent, after a 2.3 percent year-over-year gain in March.

The Conference Board, a New York-based research group, will issue the sentiment report at 10 a.m. Estimates ranged from 59.5 to 65. May’s reading was the highest since March 2008. The measure averaged 45 in 2009 and 97 during the expansion that ended in December 2007.

Full story is available on Business Week

In the current economy, the Toledo housing market is bad for sellers, but great for buyers. Maumee homeowner Jim Rowe has been trying to sell his home since early spring, and he is feeling the negative effects of the housing downturn. He’s had to drop the price of his home several times, and it’s currently priced lower than what he paid for it.

Now may be the time to buy because interest rates are reaching historic lows and there is plenty of inventory on the market. Interest rates only tend to be between 4 and 6 percent.

Full story is available on wtol.com

Hollister, Mo. — My timing is off on venturing into the new role of house-owner. The market is no longer a “buyer’s market”, due to the poor shape of America’s economy. By waiting too long, the $8000 tax credit that
was being offered to those who purchased a home has expired.

I have kicked around the idea of purchasing a home for awhile now. I have recently rented a place to live in Branson, Missouri. This is the area that I am looking for my dream house. I would like to find a nice house close to one of the area lakes. My reasons for buying a house are all financially based. I would rather make a payment every month knowing that it is an investment, as compared to rent where it just money paid for short-term arrangements.

Being a single mom, safety is the most important aspect of which house I buy. A safe neighborhood is an absolute must. I want a house that has been recently built, a strong structure that was built right the first time. I don’t want to purchase something that will need major repairs as soon as my daughter and I move in.

I am probably one of the pickiest home shoppers Branson has seen in quite some time. I know what I want, and it is just a matter of finding the specific house. I require a four bedroom home. Even with just two of us, I want a room for an office, and a guest bedroom as well. A garage, of course, is a necessity.

Full story is available on Associated Content

Today we begin a series on CNBC called The Housing Fix. To be honest, it grew out of our need to look at the biggest elephant in the home today: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Maybe the government doesn’t want to deal with them just yet, but that doesn’t mean we should all just ignore the fact that these two ticking time bombs continue to support more than half of the mortgages in this country and the bulk of new originations.

So like any good essay, we had to start with the thesis statement, which really comes down to: Is home ownership an American right?

The government appears to say yes.

In my piece on CNBC today, I relate through the history of just how we got to this ownership society…the politics, policies and politicians behind home ownership. But here I’d like to take the conversation forward. We know how we got here, and we know what happened when home ownership went completely haywire. Now the politicians are calling for “responsible” home ownership, and yet government continues to pour billions of dollars into programs and incentives that push more borrowers into homes that may not be the best fit.

Full story is available on CNBC

My first rehab project was definitely a learning experience, and that’s how I justify the $6000 I lost on the deal — it was the price of education. It also got me moving. The mere act of taking action is worth something. I’d learned enough in real estate investment seminars to look for a bank-owned property (REO = real estate owned). My agent recommended a townhouse in a well-kept complex. She said it was bigger than others in the neighborhood because it had a finished basement, and that the smoke damage upstairs kept it from getting sold. Once it got painted and recarpeted, it should sell at the top of the marketI didn’t know how much to offer (number one in how not to buy an empty house), and I accepted her recommendation. As I know now, my offer was too high.

The rehab went well. I had a home inspection done before I bought the townhouse, I found good contractors, and the three-level townhouse was beautiful when finished. Then came item number two in how not to buy an empty house. I hadn’t investigated the neighborhood and didn’t know that 80% of a value of a house is its neighborhood. Number three was that I didn’t plan any marketing until it was ready to sell.But the market had dropped while I was rehabbing this townhouse, and many of its neighbors went into foreclosure. “For Rent” signs sprouted. Although I received contract offers, they weren’t high enough for me to make a profit. When I finally accepted an offer, the FHA appraisal came in too low and the deal fell through.

Full story is available on Texas Real Estate Appraisal Company