The Federal Housing Administration is a primary source of mortgage financing for millions of America’s families and plays a key role in helping bring stability to the housing market. This is the message that the National Association of Realtors® delivered to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee today.

“Without FHA financing, families would be unable to purchase homes and communities would suffer from continued foreclosures and blight,” said Lennox Scott, a member of NAR’s Real Estate Advisory Board and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate in Bellevue, Washington. In his testimony, Scott shared NAR’s belief in the importance of FHA and concern for the safety and soundness of its programs due to its dramatic growth over a short period of time.

“We believe that FHA has done a good job stepping up to today’s market challenges. However, along with the dramatic growth in market share comes greater responsibility and the need for increased infrastructure and staff,” Scott said. Over the past 18 months, FHA has handled an increase in volume four times greater than 2007 levels, increasing its market share to over 30 percent. CONTINUED »

National Association of Realtors

The combination of vacation- and investment-home sales slipped to 30 percent of all existing- and new-home transactions in 2008, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

However, more than four out of 10 investment buyers and more than three in 10 vacation-home buyers paid cash for their properties, with large percentages indicating that portfolio diversification was a factor in their purchase decision.

The market share of homes purchased for investment was 21 percent last year, unchanged from 2007, while another 9 percent were vacation homes, compared with a 12 percent market share in 2007. The total share of second homes declined from 33 percent of all transactions in 2007. In 2005, the peak year for home speculation, 40 percent of sales were second homes.

NAR’s 2008 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey shows vacation-home sales dropped 30.8 percent to 512,000 last year from 740,000 in 2007, while investment-home sales fell 17.2 percent to 1.12 million in 2008 from 1.35 million in 2007. Primary residence sales declined 13.2 percent to 3.77 million in 2008 from 4.34 million in 2007. CONTINUED »

National Association of Realtors

Realtors® care about protecting consumers from unfair lending practices and are important allies in those efforts. That is the message National Association of Realtors® President Charles McMillan delivered to the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit in testimony today.

“As we have seen recently, abusive lending erodes confidence in the nation’s housing system, strips equity from homeowners and damages local and national economies,” said McMillan, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Dallas-Fort Worth.

In 2005 NAR adopted a set of Responsible Lending Principles to encourage lending practices that ensure consumers have affordable mortgage choices and are protected in the real estate transaction. The principles also call for ensuring strong underwriting, eliminating prepayment penalties, eliminating mortgage flipping, strengthening enforcement against predatory and abusive lending practices, and maintaining the independence of appraisers and the appraisal process. CONTINUED »

National Association of Realtors

As consumers across the country prepare their 2008 tax returns, Real Estate Today is preparing to deliver crucial tax information that may affect the bottom lines of all homeowners, buyers and sellers.

“Congress has passed new tax laws that will help many people who may be struggling in these challenging times,” said National Association of Realtors® President Charles McMillan, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Dallas-Fort Worth. “As the leading advocate for housing issues, NAR wants to make sure that homeowners, buyers and sellers can make full use of the tax advantages available to them.”

On this weekend’s show, Amy McAnarney, executive director of the Tax Institute at H&R Block, and Kevin McCormally, editorial director at Kiplinger’s, will join Real Estate Today host Gil Gross to address and answer listeners’ questions and concerns about tax issues related to buying, selling and owning a home in today’s economic environment.

Some of the issues they will cover include: CONTINUED »

Brian Kerrigan

Peoples’ Self-Help Housing Corporation (PSHH) invites the public to attend a free foreclosure prevention workshop on Wednesday, March 11th at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Building at Dahlia Court Apartments, at 1300 Dahlia Court, in Carpinteria. The workshop will be conducted in Spanish and English simultaneously.

The workshop is open to Santa Barbara and Ventura area homeowners who wish to learn more about the foreclosure process and what other options may be available besides foreclosure to resolve their current situation. Participants will learn strategies to preserve homeownership and avoid foreclosure. Workshop attendees needing further assistance will be able to set up appointments with bi-lingual PSHH housing counselors.

Workshops are facilitated by Brian Kerrigan, Housing Counselor for Peoples’ Self-Help Housing (PSHH). A graduate of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Kerrigan holds a degree in business administration/finance and most recently worked as a loan officer for Chase Bank. CONTINUED »

National Association of Realtors

The following is a statement by National Association of Realtors® President Charles McMillan:

“NAR’s 1.2 million members are eager to help make President Obama’s Making Home Affordable plan a reality. We are pleased that the president released the guidelines today for refinancing and mortgage loan modifications and that the guidelines will be implemented immediately to help struggling homeowners as well as millions of eligible homeowners who have stayed current in their mortgage payments.

“Housing stabilization must be the key component of any federal recovery plan. Helping families keep their homes is critical to this effort and for the health of our economy and communities across the country.

“NAR has long called for a multipronged approach to address the housing and economic crisis. Allowing eligible homeowners to refinance or modify their loans will help millions of families avoid foreclosure. This in turn will support the housing recovery by slowing the growth in inventory due to foreclosures. Lowering unsold inventory will help stabilize home prices and values. We believe that the incentives the loan modification plan offers to borrowers and loan servicers will encourage additional loan modifications, reducing the default rate. CONTINUED »

National Association of Realtors

A sustained lack of credit and the economic slump will depress the commercial real estate market this year, according to a forward-looking index and forecast for the commercial real estate sectors published by the National Association of Realtors®.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said all components of the index declined. “The credit crunch has especially hammered down some components of NAR’s commercial leading indicator,” he said. “A lack of commercial credit is a serious threat to the overall economy. The Federal Reserve needs to use the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) to provide liquidity and support for commercial mortgage-backed securities.”

The Commercial Leading Indicator for Brokerage Activity1 fell 6.0 percent to an index of 109.2 in the fourth quarter from a downwardly revised reading of 116.1 in the third quarter, and is 9.1 percent lower than an index of 120.1 in the fourth quarter of 2007. NAR’s track of the commercial leading indicator dates back to 1990. CONTINUED »