hastalavista
Elite Member
- Joined
- May 16, 2005
- Professional Status
- Certified General Appraiser
- State
- California
(my bold)Randolph Kinney said:New mortgage applications are up sharply, the number of pending home sales is up, the national economy continues to expand moderately, and the rate of unemployment just declined again — to 4.6%.
All of which begs the question: Just what kind of housing bust is this anyway? With gloom-and-doom purveyors forecasting imminent crashes in dozens of metropolitan areas, how could such key fundamentals as jobs, interest rates and even pending home sales simultaneously be trending in the opposite direction?
Anecdotally speaking....
What I am seeing in my market is this:
Many of the refi's I'm seeing (origination and review) are situations where the borrower had their home up for sell and couldn't sell it. Needless to say, their expectations on the refi value are typically "over-exuberant".
On the pre-foreclosures/NOD appraisals, I'm seeing the same thing; new mortgages (less than a year old), house has been for sale and now they are trying to refinance.
As to "pendings are up", I'm seeing many properties that are "pending" now, that were on the market 3-6+ months (average market time here is 30-60 days; beginning of the year, it was 30 or less) at a significantly reduced price (15% in one specific neighborhood in Tracy, CA I researched).
One that was built upon artificially low mortgage payments with the expectation that continued home appreciation would result in a LTV where one could "swap" the existing mortgage for another.All of which begs the question: Just what kind of housing bust is this anyway?