Author: Brad Beckett

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently announced the alignment of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s (the Enterprises) policies regarding servicer obligations to advance scheduled monthly principal and interest payments for single-family mortgage loans.  In other words, once a servicer has advanced four months of missed payments on a loan, it will have no further obligation to advance scheduled payments. This policy applies to all Enterprise servicers regardless of type or size.  In addition, the FHFA is instructing the Enterprises to maintain loans in COVID-19 payment forbearance plans in Mortgage Backed Security (MBS) pools for at least the duration of…

The National Association of Realtors is reporting that existing home sales were down 8.5% in March.  However existing home sales were up 0.8% year-over-year.  Total housing inventory at the end of March was 1.50 million units, up 2.7% from February and down 10.2% from one year ago. Total unsold inventory was at a 3.4-month supply at the current sales pace with properties remaining on the market for around 29 days. The median existing-home price for all housing types was $280,600, up 8% from March, 2019. “Unfortunately, we knew home sales would wane in March due to the coronavirus outbreak,” said…

With the Coronavirus pandemic temporarily (hopefully) altering the way America works, the folks over at RentCafé reminds us that the concept of space has taken on a whole new meaning – especially for apartment dwellers.  They looked at the largest cities across the nation (using Yardi and U.S. Census Bureau data) in terms of apartment space per person.  Next they divided the average apartment size by the average number of persons living in rentals for those cities.  Indeed… “…we’re so used to spending a lot of time outside of our homes that we don’t fully appreciate how nice it is…

While home sales have slowed dramatically since last month, CNBC’s Diana Olick said that despite the Coronavirus pandemic, home prices could hold steady.  The discussion was part of a discussion about home sales on Squawk Box where they also pointed out that previously “hot” home prices may not fall as dramatically.  However, areas that heavily rely on travel & tourism are at risk. Click here to watch at CNBC.com.

According to ATTOM Data’s latest U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, there were 156,253 U.S. properties with a foreclosure filing, representing a 42% increase from Q4, 2019.  However, Q1’s number is 3% lower than one year ago.  In addition, the report says that in March alone there were 46,800 properties with foreclosure filings, down 3% from February and down 20% from one year ago.  Indeed… “As foreclosure activity across the country continued to decline in March, contributing to a run of quarterly declines, the number of filings remains just one-sixth of what it was following the Great Recession a decade ago,” said…

The U.S. government is reporting that privately‐owned housing starts in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,216,000, which is 22.3% below February’s revised number.  However, it was still 1.4% higher than one year ago.  March’s rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 347k.  Privately‐owned housing units authorized by building permits in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,353,000, which was 6.8% below February’s revised number,  However it was 5% higher than one year ago.  Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 423,000…

April is Fair Housing Month, as designated by the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.  Each year, HUD and its fair housing partner organizations pursue enforcement actions, work to enhance the public’s awareness of their housing rights and emphasize the importance of ending housing discrimination.  They say that any form of discrimination makes it difficult to create the nation our forefathers envisioned.  Indeed…..Happy Friday! “Here at National REIA we take Fair Housing seriously.  No person should be discriminated against based upon race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, or familial status.  Our members are dedicated to improving neighborhoods one…

The Mortgage Bankers Association is reporting an increase in requests for mortgage forbearance.  This data is from the MBA’s latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey which reported that the total number of loans in forbearance jumped from 2.73% to 3.74% during the week of March 30 to April 5.  Mortgage forbearance is an agreement between the borrower and lender where a the lender agrees not to foreclose on on a property due to missed payments (in this case brought on by the Coronavirus pandemic).  A plan is then put into place under the agreement that ultimately brings the mortgagee back…

Redfin says that small towns and rural areas may be set to boom in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic as homebuyer interest in America’s less populous areas saw a surge in March.  Interestingly, their data show that pageviews of homes in rural areas & small towns were up 115% and 88% respectively, however, pageviews for homes in urban metro areas (with populations > 1 million) decreased 10% over the same period.  They do point out that the spike in interest in rural areas has not yet translated into an increase in actual sales, but the decline in pending sales…

Do you have any short-term rental investments that have been affected by the Coronavirus?  On a recent episode of Real Estate News for Investors, Kathy Fettke discusses the impact the pandemic has had on the short-term rental industry as well as what Airbnb has been doing to address it. “Airbnb has set up a fund to help hosts dealing with coronavirus cancellations. Travelers ditched plans for vacations, work trips, and family get-togethers when the virus spread. And then, Airbnb promised full refunds. Airbnb’s “Host Relief Fund” will help cover some of the lost revenue, but many hosts are coming up…