The South Florida property market is in a State of Limbo. At the end of last year foreclosures fell to their lowest in three years, but not because less people lost the ability to pay their mortgage, but because the banks are under intense scrutiny over their foreclosure procedures, as a robo-signing scandal lead to more dodgy practices and irregularities being uncovered.
Posts Tagged ‘Foreclosures’
South Florida Property Market Facing Uncertain Times
by Overseas Property Mall on Wednesday, February 16th, 2011 in Florida
Foreclosure Fraudsters Increase Misery for US Home Sellers
by Overseas Property Mall on Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 in Foreclosures, United States Property
A recent article in Wall Street Journal touches on the local damage of foreclosures. We can all look at the bargain foreclosed homes being sold in wonderment, but imagine you were selling the house next door, or down the block.
Say your house is appraised at $220,000 and your hoping to get at least $200k for it in the current market. When a foreclosed home down the road sells for $80,000 you can kiss those hopes good buy — not least because recent local sales are all factored into an appraisal.
It is bad enough that the self-serving banks are flushing their bad loans out into your local market at crazy-low prices, but worse, the situation has provided an opportunity for greedy fraudsters. Not happy that they will get a discount of 50% or more, fraudsters are paying potential bidders off at foreclosed auctions to get properties even cheaper.
The latest case to be announced by the Department of Justice is that of Christopher J. Deans a real estate investor from Raleigh North Carolina, who pleaded guilty to rigging bids on Friday. Deans apparently paid co-conspirators not to bid on certain properties, which he then bought for a massively low price, allowing him to benefit from a quick-sale or high-yield rental income.
I hope it was worth it because Deans now faces up to a $1 million in fines and up to 10 years in prison.
Though there are no figures on how many properties Dean fraudulently nabbed, but the DOJ said that his campaign would have done damage to the local market, by artificially driving down prices.
“The conspiracy resulted in the suppression of competitive bidding on foreclosed properties which caused foreclosing lien holders and certain homeowners to receive a lower price for properties sold through foreclosure actions,” the DOJ said in a statement.
Deans case follows a spate of similar cases uncovered this year, including: the case of 43-year Stockton, Ca investor Anthony B. Ghio, who pleaded guilty in May, and that of Baltimore lawyer Harvey Nusbaum who pleaded guilty to rigging tax lien auctions in Maryland, also in May.
WSJ said it best:
“As the feds decide the future of the government’s involvement in the housing market, whether it’s reforming Fannie and Freddie, another stimulus, or more assistance to banks weighed down by foreclosed houses, the fraudsters may seem like just another nit in their hair to weed out. But for local markets, they’re a pretty pesky bug.”
US Homeownership Rate Slipping, Could Slip Back to 1960 Low
by Overseas Property Mall on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 in Foreclosures, United States Property
Homeownership in the US threatens to fall to its lowest percentage since 1960, because of the volume of foreclosures which has continued to increase into 2010. The latest data showed that 66.9% of Americans owned their home in the second quarter of this year, down from 69.4% in 2004.
“Anybody who knows anything about housing thought it would be flat in the second quarter,” said John Burns, CEO of John Burns Real Estate Consulting, a national housing market analyst based in Irvine, Calif. “Homeownership fell during the quarter when government was offering a tax credit (to first-time homebuyers). What do you think is going to happen now that there’s no tax credit?”
Conservative Asian Buyers Snapping Up Distressed US Property
by Overseas Property Mall on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 in California, United States Property
A survey by a US realtors group has highlighted a remarkable rise in the number of Asian and Asian-Americans buying houses in the US. The consensus is that the demographic primarily avoided being caught in the housing crash, because they tend to be conservative towards property purchases, and that now they are capitalising on the fact that they have the cash and the credit to get good deals on homes.
According to the California Association of Realtors Annual Housing Market Survey, the proportion of ethnically Asian — most commonly Asian Indian, Japanese, Chinese or Filipino — buyers rose 3.8% between 2007 and 2008 and a further 2.3% between 2008 and 2009. This left the total proportion at 18.1 percent in 2009, up from 12% in 2007. The surveys also tell us that the proportion of Asian buyers never went higher than 12% even at the height of the boom (2003-2006).
Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors (CAR), said the change in the proportion over time was noteworthy.
“They’re buying in distressed markets and utilizing (government incentive) programs,” she said.
The trend has also been noted by local realtors in San Diego and Southwest Riverside counties, who said that Asian’s tend to be uncomfortable taking on too much debt, and have preferred to invest in their small business rather than buy property during the boom.
“Asians are very conservative when it comes to buying,” said Scripps Ranch realtor and president of the San Diego chapter of the Asian Real Estate Association of America, Shonee Henry, “We don’t go out there and buy, and forget about what’s going to happen tomorrow. We tend to make sure we have enough money to support ourselves and everyday expenses.”
Henry mused that homes being too expensive was also a reason for Asians holding off buying during the boom:
“They might have had the down payment, but the monthly payments were too high,” she said.
Now that average house prices are down 35% the conservative Asians are in the fortunate position of having sizeable down-payments.
The CAR survey said Asian buyers put down an average down-payment of $90,000 in 2009, triple that of non-Asians. This was mostly in the form of 20% of the purchase price, compared to the 10% stumped up by non-Asian buyers. Appleton-Young said Asians may be avoiding low-down-payment programs such as those offered by the Federal Housing Administration.
This is one trend that is not echoed however; Ric Manalo, a Realtor with offices in Temecula and Chula Vista, said that Asian buyers in Southwest Riverside were making use of low-down-payment programs.
“The margin between what it costs to rent a home and what it costs to buy a home is so small, most of these are FHA and VA (Department of Veterans Affairs) deals they can get in for very little money,” he said.
Henry pointed out variations between the different nationalities; she said that her Filipino buyers went with low down-payment programs, while Chinese buyers tended to have cash for big down payments.
Photo credits: Jeff Turner via Flickr
International Property News Beat – How to Buy a Forclosure, Panic in Dubai & Stagnation Fears in the UK
by Overseas Property Mall on Monday, June 7th, 2010 in Property News Summaries
- South Korean property market sees recovery in H2 [Interactive Investor]
- UK Property Prices in May slip for the second month in a row [The Independent]
- Spanish banks in Merger Mode [Wall Street Journal]
- Dubai property market in major oversupply threat [AME Info]
- 1,000 Irish investors offered a new Dubai Sport City deal by Indian developers [Irish Times]
- Video – How to buy a Foreclosure investment Property [ValleyCentral.com]
- Canada – Residential property construction taking a breather [Toronto Sun]
- Most expensive house in the most expensive zip code – (PICs) [Luxist]
- Egypt Real Estate Report Q3 2010 – New Market Report Published [Official Spin]
American Property Wholesalers: Good, Bad or Ugly?
by Overseas Property Mall on Monday, May 31st, 2010 in Foreclosures, United States Property
Property wholesaling is big business in the American housing market right now. When it comes to property, wholesaling is different from what it means in any other industry. Property wholesalers are flippers, who buy distressed properties cheap, and sell them for a few thousand dollars profit before the ink is even dry.
They are causing quite a stir at the moment because of the sheer volume of properties sitting on their playing field, and because of the immeasurable impact they have on the market.
For anyone that doesn’t know, wholesalers sell properties fast on behalf of people that can no longer pay their mortgage. They do not take ownership of the property, they simply take the owners contract and sign it over to the new buyer with their profit in the form of an assigning fee.
In March alone almost 370,000 properties received foreclosure notices, the highest monthly total since online foreclosure marketplace RealtyTrac began tracking them in January 2005. 2009 was a record year; with 2.8 million American homes repossessed, but, because of the growth this year culminating in the record-breaking March, analysts are fearful that this year could be even worse.
Wholesalers certainly are not fearful, if anything they are gleeful. How everyone else feels about their glee, and their business, is as mixed as the properties they have to choose from.
International Property New Beat – Repossessions in Burj Khalifa, Top 100 Real Estate People in NY and Meet a 19 Year Old Property Mogul in China
by Overseas Property Mall on Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 in Property News Summaries
- Searches for international property increased by 111% [MyIntroducer]
- Michigan – 1 in 8 homes in foreclosure [WWMT]
- East Europe propery values continue slide [Business Week]
- U.S – Millions could still lose homes to foreclosure [Telegram]
- UK – Worst said to be over for commercial property [FT]
- The world’s tallest tower in Dubai set to see its first repossessions [The National]
- 100 Most Powerful People in New York Real Estate [New York Observer]
- Meet 19-Year-Old Yingzi, China’s Most Obnoxious Real Estate Mogul [Business Insider]
International Property News Beat – Foreclosure Mansions, Dubai on the Rise & Phnom Penh Boom
by Overseas Property Mall on Monday, September 22nd, 2008 in Property News Summaries
- Luxury Foreclosures Mansions for Sale [WSJ]
- How Rich Are New York’s Real Estate Developers? [NY Observer]
- Nicaragua becomes the new Costa Rica [FT]
- Dubai property prices rise [AME Info]
- Rightmove: UK Housing Market on its Knees [Bloomberg]
- Ajman property prices rising 3-5 per cent every month [Business 24-7]
- Buying property in Cuba [Times, London]
- Phnom Penh’s real estate boom [Asia Property Report]
- Russian Developers Hitting the Brakes Amid Credit Crisis [WSJ]
Celebrities and the Credit Crunch – Ed McMahon
by Overseas Property Mall on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 in Celebrities & Property, Overseas Property Trends
American comedian, game show host and former anchor man on “The Tonight Show”, Ed McMahon is currently on the verge of losing his Beverly Hills mansion due to his inability to make mortgage repayments.
Real estate magnate, Donald Trump is reportedly stepping in to buy Ed McMahon’s mansion in a bid to lease it back to McMahon to ensure he maintains his standard of lush Beverly Hills living.
According to the LA Times, Mr. Trump explained that his ‘conviction’ for helping Ed McMahon was that, “When I was at the Wharton School of Business … I’d watch him every night. How could this happen?”…. it “would be an honor” to ‘help’ McMahon
Perhaps the reason for the shrewd buy was due to McMahon slashing the price on his Beverly Hills house by $1.9 million, to $4.6 million.
Photo credits: Alan Light (Flickr)



