The share of home purchase transactions involving distressed properties surged to almost half in February, according to an industry survey released Monday. Last month distressed properties - those involving homes acquired as part of a foreclosure or pre-foreclosure sale - accounted for 48.1 percent of the home purchase transactions tracked by the survey. It was the highest distressed property market share seen since last July, with short sales accounting for the largest percentage of transactions.
The Federal Housing Administration has come under fire for the growing number of delinquencies in its portfolio, with some economists and industry observers even predicting that a bailout of the federal mortgage insurer is in the cards. But according to the agency's latest operations report it's beginning to see some improvements in the seriously delinquent column. While still considerably elevated, the rate of loans 90 or more days overdue in FHA's portfolio dropped to 9.2 percent in February, down from a reading of 9.4 percent for the month of January.
When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. And that's exactly what some savvy real estate investors are doing. Declining values, debt maturity, tight credit access, and stalled construction may continue to plague commercial real estate for the remainder of 2010, but optimistic investors are seeing opportunity in this difficult market via the purchase of distressed assets, according to Deloitte's Perspectives on Real Estate: Uncovering Opportunity in a Distressed Market, released Monday.
Chase announced Monday that it will provide additional help to struggling homeowners by joining the second-lien program under the administration's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Known as 2MP, the second-lien modification program is designed to work in tandem with HAMP to lower homeowners' payments on both their first and second mortgages. Qualified homeowners may see the interest rate on their second lien reduced to as low as 1 percent for five years.
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