Marion Skubi

From RealTrends.com: Southern California homes sold at the slowest pace for a January in three years – and the second-slowest in 15 – amid record-low new-home sales, tight credit, and a persistent reluctance among would-be buyers. The median sale price dipped slightly from a year ago but fell more than usual from December as investors and others targeting lower-cost properties accounted for a larger share of sales, a real estate information service reported.

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From RealTrends.com: Members of the Orlando Regional REALTOR® Association reported a 7.14 percent year-over-year increase in the number (1,950 ) of home sales January 2011, with a record-breaking percent of those transactions involving either bank-owned or short-sale homes. The lower median prices of bank-owned and short sales, which accounted for 75.03 percent of all sales in January, exert a downward influence on the overall median price (as does the enormous percentage of sales of low-priced condos).

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From RealTrends.com: Home sales rebounded in 49 states during the fourth quarter with 78 markets – just over half of the available metropolitan areas – experiencing price gains from a year ago, while most of the rest saw price weakness, according to the latest survey by the National Association of REALTORS®.

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RISMEDIA, February 10, 2011—Home values in the United States posted their largest quarterly decline since the first quarter of 2009, falling 2.6% as the temporary stimulus of the home buyer tax credits wore off, according to Zillow’s fourth quarter Real Estate Market Reports. The Zillow Home Value Index declined 5.9% year-over-year in the fourth quarter to $175,200. Home values have fallen 27% since they peaked in June 2006.

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RISMEDIA, February 8, 2011—Fannie Mae, a leading source of multifamily mortgage financing for workforce rental housing announced that in 2010, the company, in conjunction with its lender and housing partners, provided $16.9 billion in debt financing for the rental housing market, through approximately 2,300 multifamily mortgage loans for 306,000 rental units across the country.

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RISMEDIA, February 7, 2011—With homeownership dropping and rental vacancy rates rising, it is clear many Americans are looking to make a change to renting instead of owning their home. Currently, homeownership levels are at 66.5%, the lowest they’ve been since 1998, reported recently by the Department of Commerce, and the rental vacancy rate at 9.3%, the highest its been since 2003. Many prospective investors could take this information and apply it to a very lucrative decision for future investment property purchases.

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RISMEDIA, February 4, 2011—(MCT)—Reverse mortgages allow seniors to use their home equity while staying in their homes, but have been criticized for their high upfront fees, among other things.  A new loan has hit the market, however, offering sharply lower start-up costs in exchange for a tighter limit on the amount that can be borrowed.

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From RealTrends.com:  La Jolla, CA.—— The number of California homes going into foreclosure dropped again during the fourth quarter of 2010 to its lowest level in more than three years, the result of shifting market conditions as well as evolving lender and mortgage servicer policies, a real estate information service reported.

     A total of 69,799 Notices of Default (NoDs) were recorded at county recorders offices during the October-to-December period. That was down 16.2 percent from 83,261 for the prior quarter, and down 17.5 percent from 84,568 in fourth quarter 2009, according to San Diego-based DataQuick Information Systems.

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