Housing, Mortgages & Money

How about them apples?  Denise Tejada bought a house last month at the age of 20, thanks in large part to a loan guaranteed by the Federal Housing Authority.  She scored a $183K FHA loan and is now in her very own house, too bad she can't buy a six-pack to celebrate, only one more year.

Which one is more advantageous for investors? Buying Foreclosed or Short Sale properties? Try Pre-Foreclosure and Bank Owned Properties, the less risk the better.

Commercial real estate values in the U.S. have dropped 27% in the year through June and rents for offices, shops and warehouse space may continue to drop through 2010 as the recession saps jobs and consumer spending. Via Bloomberg.com an analysis and discussion with the Senior Analyst of BMO Capital Markets. He talks about the fundamentals that deteriorate throughout the commercial real estate sector and the rise of vacancies and the fall of rent.

One drag on recovery in Southern California is illustrated by three new office buildings near the LA-Ontario International Airport. One is 60% leased. The other two sit empty.
Much has changed. "New construction is now literally stopped," said Katherine Aguilar Perez, executive director of the Urban Land Institute's office in Los Angeles. The industry has shed jobs as new building starts have plummeted.

If you have been thinking about refinancing or getting your first mortgage now would be the time to do it.  If you wait a few months or even a few weeks, you might be looking at mortgage rates in excess of 6%.  These would basically make it pointless to even go through the refinance
process at all  Bottom line -- get your refinance on if you haven't already.

Two new recent REIT IPOs launched in June. Government Properties Income Trust (NYSE:GOV) began trading earlier this month. The company priced 10 mm shares at $20.00 per share. The company is a subsidiary of HRPT Properties Trust, an office REIT based in Massachusetts. HRPT owns 49.9% of GOV.

Would-be home buyers caught a break this week as rates for 30-year home loans fell back after soaring to the highest level in seven months.  According to Freddie Mac (NYSE:MAC) the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 5.38% this week, down from 5.59% a week earlier.  However Freddie Mac shares can't get above 70 Cents, gotta love U.S. Government intervention.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate jumped 0.32% point in the June 5 week to 5.57%. That was nearly a full point, about 100 basis points, above the record low rate of 4.61% in March.  Demand for new loans is even worse, bottom line -- get your refinance on if you haven't already.

Burn baby burn, in the first quarter, almost half of the overall increase in the start of foreclosures was due to the increase in prime, fixed-rate loans, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). At the end of the fourth quarter, 2.4% of prime mortgages were seriously delinquent, more than double the 1.1% at the end of March 2008, according to a report by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision.

Reverse mortgages could be the next subprime mortgage product to experience rapid growth while taking advantage of a vulnerable segment of the population, top U.S. bank regulator John Dugan said on Monday.  Yet another reason to bet against the U.S. Housing Sector recovering.