Boise Real Estate Blog

FHA To Tighten Lending Standards

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has announced that it will soon strengthen lending standards to reduce risk of default for FHA loans.

New regulations will include stricter requirements for lenders as a condition of being allowed to continue issuing FHA loans.

Also expected are new lending guidelines that will reduce the amount allowed for seller-paid buyer closing costs.

Source: DSNews.com article

January 23rd, 2012 Posted in Inside Real Estate |  Print This Post | No Comments »

B of A Struggles With Its Bad Loans

Bank of America has been forced to restructure and reduce its workforce as it deals with a mountain of delinquent mortgage loans.

The company slashed 7,000 jobs during the fourth quarter of 2011 and expects to cut more jobs this year.

As part of those cuts, B of A paid out $239 million in severance payments during the last three months of 2011.

To deal with its “legacy mortgage problems” (aka bad loans), the bank has created a separate division called the Legacy Asset Servicing Division with 48,500 employees who do nothing but deal with troubled mortgage loans.

B of A currently has about $4 BILLION worth of delinquent mortgage loans on its books.

This is one very troubled company.

Source: HousingWire.com article

January 22nd, 2012 Posted in Inside Real Estate |  Print This Post | No Comments »

Boise Named One of Healthiest Cities

Women’s Health magazine has designated Boise as the #4 healthiest U.S. city for women.

And, Men’s Health magazine named Boise as the #5 healthiest U.S. city for men.

The survey ranked 100 U.S. cities and considered 35 health factors including locally-grown foods, exercise, air quality, employment, disease, and mental health.

Now I don’t feel so guilty about my apple-smoked bacon addition

Source: KTVB.com

January 21st, 2012 Posted in About Boise, ID |  Print This Post | No Comments »

Are Principal Reductions Coming?

Nearly one million U.S. homeowners could get principal reductions if the federal government reaches a settlement with five of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan is pressing the lenders to provide up to $25 billion in relief to distressed homeowners in return for releasing them from potential government litigation over alleged improper foreclosures and abusive lending/servicing practices.

The proposed settlement could result in as much as $20,000 principal reduction for each of one million borrowers.

A possible settlement may be in the works, coming as soon as a few weeks from now.

I can only imagine how this will unfold and how many strings will be attached.

Who will define the eligibility criteria?

Who will receive the principal reductions?

One potential problem?  The IRS views debt forgiveness as a taxable event.

Stay tuned, folks.

Source: Reuters.com article

January 20th, 2012 Posted in Inside Real Estate |  Print This Post | 2 Comments »

Boise Real Estate Statistics Explained – Part II

The Mix of Data

Statistics can be easily-skewed, depending upon the mix of data.

For example, in a small statistical area like Eagle, Idaho, the broad range of property values combined with few sales, can result in widely-varying numbers.

A couple of high-dollar or low-dollar sales in an area with little activity can cause a big swing in the numbers, especially in month-over-month comparisons.

Data Extraction Date

My monthly statistics posts use data extracted from Intermountain MLS a few days after the end of a given month to ensure that I have all of the data for the previous month.

Pulling data from MLS too early or too late can skew the results.

Unreported Sales Incentives

Intermountain MLS does not collect data for seller-paid closing costs, bonus commissions to buyer agents, and other seller-paid incentives.

Thus, those concessions are invisible to both real estate agents and the public and “mask” the true value of a property.

Appraisers often take those concessions into consideration as they determine the true value of a property.

January 19th, 2012 Posted in Boise Market Stats |  Print This Post | No Comments »