Housing Bubble Bursting?

[Big ole Boy]

Roger,

Did I mention that "1"'s were considered wild ? ..........

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Cooling Home Market Spurs Interest in Foreclosure Sales

By Ruth Simon
From The Wall Street Journal Online

Rising interest rates and a cooling housing market are whetting the appetite of real-estate bargain hunters and fueling interest in Web sites that list homes in, or near, foreclosure.

Economists expect delinquencies and foreclosures to increase from today's historically low levels.

A variety of Web sites have sprung up to cater to home buyers and investors looking to purchase properties in or nearing foreclosure. They include RealtyTrac.com, which ranked seventh among real-estate Web sites in terms of unique visitors in May, according to comScore Media Metrix, a unit of comScore Networks Inc. Foreclosure.com, another popular offering, not only runs its own Web site, but also says it supplies data to more than 200 other Web sites.

The federal government operates its own site, www.homesales.gov, that is free and provides information about foreclosed properties being sold by the Federal Housing Administration, the Veterans Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

To see how these Web sites work, we checked the government site and three for-profit alternatives, RealtyTrac.com, Foreclosure.com and Foreclosures.com, for listings in one neighborhood near Atlanta. We also looked at the information each Web site provides and talked to real-estate brokers who specialize in foreclosed properties.

We learned that novices should approach the foreclosure process -- and the Web sites that sell foreclosure listings -- with care. Finding a good buy on a foreclosed house requires hard work and can carry significant risks. Critics say that Web sites selling foreclosure listings often contain outdated information or listings on houses that aren't ready for sale; some try to direct would-be buyers to partners with whom they have a financial relationship or to seminars and other products.

"We run into a lot of problems with foreclosure Web sites because a lot of the houses can't be sold" because various legal requirements haven't yet been met or the lender hasn't readied the property for sale, says David Benham, owner of Benham Real Estate Group in Charlotte, N.C., which sells foreclosed homes on behalf of lenders.

Keeping the foreclosure listings up-to-date "is always an issue," says Brad Geisen, chief executive of Foreclosure.com. "Not every owner in foreclosure is going to want to sell their home," he adds. In the early stages, "it is a distress situation that is a possible opportunity." Alexis McGee, president of Foreclosures.com, says her site was created to "accommodate investors." The foreclosure listings "are not listed like [multiple listing service] listings," she adds. "We don't check to see if it's sold."

Investors aren't the only ones who look at foreclosure Web sites. RealtyTrac says about 20% of its subscribers say they are first-time home buyers. The company estimates that another 20% are looking for their next home or for a second home.

The rules vary from state to state. Typically, properties first appear in the commercial databases when the lender files a foreclosure action with the local court. At this point, the borrower still has options, including working out a payment plan with the lender and selling the property to pay off the debt.

If the problem isn't resolved, the house is put up for auction. Buying at auction can be risky, in part because buyers typically must have cash in hand, can't back out of the sale, have little or no information about the interior of the house and no guarantee that the title to the property is clear.

If the property doesn't change hands at auction, the lender typically turns it over to a real-estate broker specializing in the sale of bank-owned properties, who cleans up the yard and makes repairs before putting the house back on the market. Properties are typically priced "at or just below market value," says Cindy Simpson, a vice president with Harry Norman, Realtors in Atlanta.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Bucks, I tried to view that URL, but used a secure browser on my Mac.....Access denied!! I assume Randolph's system has been logged and his firewall breached Then again, maybe it is just a case of browser discrimination. I hate to risk the PC and a view via IE

Randolph, you were a computer geek. Is it safe??

David, there is only 16 numbers on 2 bills,.......so I'm thinking about it

Well Roger, I use to beta test for Microsoft all the way back to 1993. Yes, I was somewhat of a computer geek but now I am concentrating on just using the computer for what it was meant to do in normal everyday life.

I have a hardware and software firewall with two routers on two different network IP domains. No active X, script, or programs can be activated or executed. IE is confined to its own memory space. It is safe for me but the MAC users have to answer for themselves.

Here's what it looks like, the normal condo around here:

 

[Bobby Bucks]

Roger it’s a picture of a garden area/sidewalk at 1400 block of Church St NW with about 7 MLS lockboxes attached to a wrought iron fence. It was on this site

Be careful, the feds are probably using the site in a sting operation....I found a wire under my car this morning.


http://bubblemeter.blogspot.com/

 

[Mr Rex]

The Boy in the Big Housing Bubble.:happy:

Bucks, see you are blogging now. Its one thing to talk to yourself, another to talk to yourself when other folks can hear you, but talking to your self when other folks can read it? Get a hold of youself man.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Good link there Bobby.

When the numbers looked disappointing, The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) decided to stop updating their new homes sales statistics page in February 2006.

I verified that info with the link to NAHB.

 

[Bobby Bucks]

Mr. Radford I’m somewhat bewildered, what does the content on someone’s personal blog have to do with the bubble?

 

[Mr Rex]

Mr. Radford I’m somewhat bewildered, what does the content on someone’s personal blog have to do with the bubble?

As per The Boy in the Big Housing Bubble, after 1000+ posts of the same gloom and doom, time to go off track. Sorry if I offended your sensibilities, but if there was ever a sign of an apocalyptic event it would be a BB blog. Next thing you know you will reveal your true identity and location, and not only will the bubble burst, but the 4 horsemen will ride.

 

[Bobby Bucks]

No offense taken at all....I can assure you of one thing, there will be no apocalyptic bubbles, pale riders or 4 horsemen permitted here…I have high standards…after all this is technically still a pig farm.

 

[george foster]

There was a post not to long ago about a borrower suing Ameriquest (no surprise there) for putting them into a loan they allege they couldn’t afford. The interesting thing about the suit was they included the appraiser, and in their filing, used the specific language that the appraiser arrived at a “pre-determined value” to facilitate the loan approval.

Allot more of this to come...

The perceptions here on the Forum for the coming valuation collaspse are rather tepid.

I like the newbie posts on being busier than ever-LMAO. New suckers for the rubber-stamp game.

Much more hardcore analysis and comment on the HousingBubbleBlog.