Naples Real Estate News - 01/09/08
HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE - The insurance laws passed by the Florida Legislature one year ago appear to work, at least according to a state regulator testifying before a Senate committee yesterday. “I really don’t think there’s been any rate increases since we passed our laws,” Sen. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge says.
Later this month there will be blog post regarding clarification of the alleged homeowners insurance crisis in the state - it will be a personal experience. Truly an eye opener for prospective buyers and a possible myth debunker.
SHORT SALES - Some real estate practitioners
are carving out a new market niche by specializing in "short sales," in which the lender holding a home’s mortgage agrees to accept an offer for less than what’s owed and forgives the rest of the loan.
The question remains how successful the new niche will be - as most lenders are currently overwhelmed with requests for potential "short sales". Briefly, a lender will work on a "short sale" if there is a true financial hardship on the part of the borrower - however, the lender will be looking at the loan application and the past two years of income tax returns. Some borrowers may actually find themselves in a bind, due to major conflict between the financial information shown on both documents.
PENDING SALES - Existing sales should hold fairly steady over the next few months, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), then rise later in the year and continue to improve in 2009. NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in November, fell 2.6 percent to stand at 87.6, but remains above the August and September readings, indicating a broad stabilization.
Information regarding forecast sales volumes for the Naples, Bonita Springs, and Estero real estate markets will be forthcoming in a post this month.
SUB-PRIME MORTGAGES - Will the federal government freeze the mortgage rates for all Adjustable Rate Mortgages - funded homeowners? Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said yesterday that the administration is considering an expansion of the current rate-freeze program that applies only to subprime borrowers.
In my humble opinion freezing the interest rates for these types of mortgages will be good for the economy as well as having the potential of reducing the number of homes for sale on the market. The expansion of the rate freeze also will provide lenders or mortgage holders with more performing mortgages than non-performing mortgages. This makes perfect sense and is fairly logically as well as a simple solution to the current situation.
COUNTRYWIDE - Shares of Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation’s largest mortgage lender, partially recovered from a midday plunge Tuesday after the company denied rumors that it was planning to file for bankruptcy protection.
