Permanent regulations that require licenses for home mortgage modification and foreclosure consultants are expected to become effective today, but one important question remains unanswered.
Housing
The worst may be over for the U.S. real estate market, a report issued Tuesday suggests. Nationally, prices in the second quarter posted their first quarterly increase in three years, up 2.4 percent, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller’s U.S. National Home Price Index.
Nevada’s housing industry continues to limp along with the highest residential foreclosure starts in the country at 3.7 percent for the second quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday.
The median price for both new and existing homes rose a fraction of a percent in July from the previous month, a hint that the housing market has flattened out in Las Vegas, a local analyst said.
The number of homes purchased in Nevada by military personnel using VA loans funded by USAA jumped 360 percent this year and refinancings are up 250 percent, the San Antonio-based financial services company reported.
WASHINGTON — Nevada had the nation’s highest foreclosure rate for the 31st-straight month as the number of U.S. households on the verge of losing their homes rose 7 percent from June to July, figures being released today show.
Housing market conditions in Las Vegas remain softer than a week-old banana, but real estate observers are seeing more signs of recovery with each passing month.
CARSON CITY — Last spring state legislators were certain the foreclosure crisis in Nevada was so severe that thousands of residents each month would apply for assistance under a new law to help them keep their homes.
Las Vegas real estate agent Frank Nason has read numerous reports about Nevada leading the nation in foreclosures and the “phantom inventory” of foreclosures coming down the pike.
RENO — A possible wrinkle in the state’s plan to mediate home foreclosures is that mortgage lending companies often have foreclosure insurance, creating a disincentive for them to work with homeowners.
Apartments are getting cheaper to rent in Las Vegas, thanks to increased competition from the “shadow market” of single-family rental homes, a commercial broker said Tuesday.
Las Vegas is on pace for 40,000 existing-home sales and 5,000 new-home sales in 2009, but a second wave of foreclosures will continue to put downward pressure on pricing through the end of the year, housing analyst Larry Murphy said Thursday at his quarterly Crystal Ball seminar.
Mortgage modification and foreclosure consultants are showing little interest in complying with a new Nevada law that requires them to obtain licenses.
Nobody wants to take heat for declaring an end to the Las Vegas housing market downturn, but local analysts don’t see the market going much lower, especially in terms of prices.
PHOENIX — Each time Lance and Kelli Thorson thought they had found their first home, someone would outbid them. It’s already happened at least 15 times.
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