7 neighborhood threats to your home’s value

Who — or what — is next door can affect how much people will pay for your home.

By Brian O’Connell of MainStreet
Article from:www.msn.com

Bad neighbors can be a serious problem, according to the Appraisal Institute. An unkempt yard, proximity to a sex offender or having certain commercial facilities nearby, such as a power plant or funeral home, can reduce the value of surrounding homes by as much as 15%.

“The impact can vary tremendously, depending on a few factors: how ‘bad’ the bad neighbor is, the kind of neighborhood you’re located in and the type of market that exists,” says Carlos Gobel, director of residential services at Integra Realty Resources in Miami.

But what exactly is a “bad” neighbor? Definitions vary, but real-estate professionals say it boils down to any home or business that turns people off.

“A bad neighbor is one that has no consideration for the rest of the community,” says Mindy Pordes, co-founder of Pordes Residential Sales & Marketing in Aventura, Fla. “For example, someone who doesn’t take care of the outside appearance of the home, such as the gardening, painting of the outside of the home, roof, garbage and general upkeep. In addition, a bad neighbor may have constant visitors taking up parking spaces, perhaps on the street, loud house parties, dogs that bark all night or stray cats lingering around.”

What’s your home worth?
A “bad” neighbor can also be a business or government enterprise whose very existence drives down the value of your property. Here are seven surprising neighbors that can reduce your home’s value:

Power plants. The data are fairly clear on the impact of a power plant on nearby home values — it usually hurts them. A study (PDF) from the University of California at Berkeley shows that home values within two miles of a power plant can be decreased between 4% and 7%.

Landfills. A study (PDF) from the Pima County, Ariz., assessor’s office shows that a subdivision near a landfill loses 6% to 10% in value compared with a subdivision that isn’t near a landfill — all other residential factors being equal, including house size, school quality and residential incomes.

Robert A. Simons, an urban planning professor at Cleveland State University, says that if you live within two miles of a Superfund site — a landfill that the government designates as a hazardous-waste site — your home’s value could decline by up to 15%.

Sex offenders. Living near a registered sex offender is one of the biggest downward drivers of home values. Researchers at Longwood University in Farmville, Va., concluded that the closer you live to a sex offender, the more your home will depreciate. In the paper, “Estimating the Effect of Crime Risk on Property Values and Time on Market: Evidence from Megan’s Law in Virginia,” Longwood researchers say, “The presence of a registered sex offender living within one-tenth of a mile reduces home values by about 9%, and these same homes take as much as 10% longer to sell than homes not located near registered sex offenders.”

Delinquent bill payers. One surprising way neighbors can bring down the value of surrounding homes, especially in town home or condo communities, is by not paying their maintenance fees or mortgages. “Bad neighbors bring values down by not paying their maintenance fees, in some cases their mortgage payments, and not maintaining the home’s appearance,” Pordes says. “These homeowners usually do not care about real-estate values.”

Foreclosed homes. Perhaps the biggest single factor that drives nearby home values down is a foreclosure. A recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concludes that the value of homes within 250 feet of a foreclosed property will decrease by 1% per foreclosure, on average. Federal Reserve Governor Joseph Tracy said recently in his economic outlook for 2011: “The growing inventory of defaulted mortgages continues to weigh down any recovery in the housing market … Problems in housing markets can impact economic growth.”

Lackluster landscaping. Studies show that lawn care has a big impact on surrounding home values. Virginia Tech University released a report stating that pristine landscaping can jack up the value of a home by 5% to 11%.

Closed schools. Sometimes, neighborhood problems can stem from local government action. For example, if a cash-strapped city or town closes a neighborhood school, that can easily steer home values south. The National Association of Realtors says 75% of home shoppers say the quality and availability of schools in the neighborhood is either “somewhat important” or “very important.”

So can you fight back against problem neighbors? In the case of a landfill, power plant or sex offender, your options are severely limited. As long as your neighbors are following the letter of the law, you’ll just have to grin and bear it — or move. If not, you have every right to petition your local government authorities for a grievance and at least get the matter reviewed.

If it’s a residential property causing the problem, however, you might have better options.

For starters, you can leave a polite letter in the offending homeowner’s mailbox to get his attention. In addition, Pordes says that if the home is within a homeowners association or condo association, the association can send letters to the homeowner and deny him community privileges to encourage him to comply with the community rules and maintain home values.

Most cities and towns have ordinances against messy yards and junk-laden driveways, so check your community’s rules and regulations to see what applies.

Unfortunately, many cities and towns also have landfills, power plants and other less-than-desirable commercial-sized neighbors.

Most likely, you’re just going to have to live with them.

By Brian O’Connell of MainStreet
Article from:www.msn.com

This article was reported by Holden Lewis for Bankrate.com.

Is it safe to buy a foreclosure?

At first, bank-owned houses seemed like some of the best bargains in town, but then the robo-signing controversy made buying seem like a risky proposition.

It’s safe to buy a previously foreclosed-upon house if title insurance is available on it, experts say.

The “robo-signing” scandal — in which banks and law firms cut corners on foreclosure paperwork — caused some lenders to suspend foreclosures this fall while they reviewed their procedures.

What would happen to the buyer of a foreclosed house if the home previously had been wrongly repossessed?

As long as the new lender and new owner have title insurance, the former owner can’t seize the home back.

The new owner will keep the house, and the displaced former owner might be compensated with money.

“To the extent that a borrower who was foreclosed upon has recourse, it’s against the foreclosing lender, and they can seek monetary damages. But the property’s gone,” says Mark Skilling, the chief operating officer and general counsel for ForeclosureRadar, an online foreclosure data marketplace.

“The current owner who got title insurance — they get to keep the property. They’re a good-faith purchaser,” Skilling says.

That’s welcome news for homebuyers who rummage through the bargain bin of foreclosed houses.

Few consumers buy houses at foreclosure auctions. More commonly, consumers buy foreclosed properties from the banks that seized them.

The term for such houses is REO, for real-estate owned by a bank. Some real-estate agents specialize in selling REO properties.

A good share of REO houses are decrepit. Many sit empty for months before they are sold, and they end up in such bad shape that they are ineligible for mortgages. Investors often buy these REOs with cash, fix them up and sell them, just like the house flippers of the boom years.

Whether bought from the bank or from a flipper, almost all REOs are listed through real-estate agents.

Armando Montelongo, the former host of “Flip This House” on the A & E network, says certain phrases in the listing — such as “completely rehabbed” or “newly remodeled” — are signs that the dwelling was a foreclosure and is now in good-enough shape to be eligible for a home loan.

“It’s the benefit of buying an REO from somebody who flips properties, versus buying an REO straight from the bank,” says Montelongo, who lives in San Antonio.

Properties with a past:
However the foreclosed house ends up in a buyer’s hands, issues that lurk in the property’s past could “cloud title” — cast uncertainty on the buyer’s ownership rights. Title insurance protects against such defects in the title, such as undiscovered liens, forged signatures or defects in documentation.

There are two types of title policies. Lenders policies protect lenders, and owners policies protect owners. A mortgage lender always requires a lender’s title policy.

Owners policies are optional and are recommended for properties that have been through foreclosure.

“From the consumer’s perspective, I don’t think they have a lot to fear as long as they’re able to purchase title insurance on an REO property,” says Ivan Choi, national default sales executive for New Vista Asset Management in San Diego. “By and large, the title companies are still out offering policies.

There have been reports that title insurers have refused to issue policies on some homes foreclosed by lenders involved in the robo-signing scandal. Responding to these reports, Fidelity National Financial — the largest mortgage insurance company — issued a statement that “this situation will not have a material adverse impact on its title business.”

The statement said “new owners and their lenders would have the rights of good-faith purchasers which should not be affected by potential defects in documentation.”

Those “good-faith purchasers” won’t be kicked out of their houses, Skilling says. He adds that Fidelity’s message is that “they’re still going to underwrite on REO properties.”

This article was reported by Holden Lewis for Bankrate.com.

Isles’ unemployment rate drops to 6 percent in May

The rate is the lowest since 2009 and comes as businesses restart their hiring

By Kristen Consillio
Article from: Star-Advertiser

More Hawaii residents were employed in May, the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations said Wednesday, bringing the jobless rate to the lowest level in nearly 21⁄2 years.

Hawaii’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6 percent last month — matching the January 2009 rate — and down from 6.1 percent in April.

The rate had been stalled at 6.3 percent for four months before that and was as high as 7 percent from mid-2009 through the end of 2009 during the economic downturn, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The steady drop indicates greater confidence in the general economy as businesses resume expansion plans shelved during the recession. Increased economic activity is expected to boost job growth by 1.8 percent, or 10,700 positions, this year, the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism said last month.

“As we’re seeing IT (information technology) budgets opening up and as we see companies moving forward with initiatives they put on hold, that is in turn driving business for us,” said Jeremy Amen, chief executive officer of Wavecom Solutions Corp., a technology and communications firm that plans to increase its 75-employee work force this year.

McDonald’s of Hawaii hired more than 400 people in May, after receiving more than 4,000 applications to fill about 1,000 positions by year’s end, said Melanie Okazaki, marketing manager.

“New customers are coming more often. Because of that we’re growing our business and because of that we have opportunities for people who are looking for jobs,” she said. “We’re optimistic about our business. This is the first time we had a concerted effort regarding hiring efforts.”

The Walt Disney Co. also increased hiring efforts last month in an attempt to enlist most of the 800 workers needed for its Aulani Resort in West Oahu opening Aug. 29.

“We’re happy that the timing of Aulani is proving to be helpful to the state’s employment numbers,” said Todd Apo, the resort’s director of public affairs.

The state labor department said there were 597,000 employed and 38,100 unemployed in May, for a total seasonally adjusted work force of 635,100. 8.2 percent.

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to 9.1 percent in May from 9 percent in April.

Surf Paws Animal Hospital, which opened last month in Hawaii Kai and hired half a dozen workers, plans to double its work force by year’s end as confidence in the economy continues to improve.

“I’ve seen a lot more businesses opening around the time we were opening,” said part-owner Joem Costes.

Foreclosures might swamp isle courts

Fannie Mae eschews a quicker, nonjudicial process in response to a new Hawaii law

By Andrew Gomes
Article from: Star-Advertiser

One of the nation’s biggest owners of home mortgages has made a move that could add to an already overburdened Hawaii court system’s caseload.

Fannie Mae, a publicly owned company created and overseen by the federal government, recently instructed companies that handle foreclosures for its loans to file all new Hawaii foreclosures in court.

Fannie Mae also told the firms known as loan servicers to cancel any pending nonjudicial Hawaii foreclosures and restart them in court.

Fannie Mae took the steps in response to Hawaii’s new foreclosure law enacted last month. Critics are concerned Fannie Mae might be attempting to sidestep the main intent of the law, which was to engage mediators to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

The vast majority of residential foreclosures in Hawaii in recent years have been conducted out of court through a nonjudicial process because it was quicker and cheaper than going through court.

The law was changed in part because the nonjudicial foreclosures left borrowers with little opportunity to contest repossessions even in cases where they believed a lender was improperly taking their home.

The new law, Act 48, gives qualified owner-occupants of Hawaii homes the option of having a dispute resolution professional assist with foreclosure mitigation in front of a lender representative before a foreclosure sale can proceed.

Fannie Mae’s directive, issued Friday, drew criticism from a local homeowner advocacy group that lobbied for Hawaii’s new law.

The Rev. Bob Nakata, a member of Faith Action for Community Equity, said Fannie Mae is attempting to bypass the new law. “Just two days ago, 25 churches got together from two islands and celebrated our new foreclosure mediation law, and now Fannie Mae is trying to outmaneuver us,” he said. “It stinks. Our government-sponsored enterprises are supposed to help us, not take away everything we have fought for.”

Some supporters of Hawaii’s new law fear the move by Fannie Mae, which buys U.S. single-family home loans from loan originators, could spur similar moves by giant banks and other big holders of Hawaii home mortgages, shunting aside the revamped nonjudicial foreclosure law and overwhelming the state court system.

Fannie Mae declined to say whether it established its new policy to avoid nonjudicial foreclosures in Hawaii under the new law or whether the policy is only temporary until it’s possible to file new nonjudicial foreclosures.

The new law resulted in a de facto moratorium on nonjudicial foreclosures because the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs won’t accept any new nonjudicial foreclosure filings until the mediation program is running. The law also prohibits any nonjudicial foreclosure auctions until borrowers have an opportunity to participate in the program.

The program is expected to be running by Oct. 1.

Fannie Mae spokeswoman Amy Bonitatibus said policies are regularly reviewed and adjusted as needed.

“Our announcement is consistent with Hawaii law and was made in response to recent Hawaii legislation,” she said. “Currently, nonjudicial foreclosures cannot be pursued in Hawaii. There is not currently an end date listed in the announcement we issued, but again, we regularly make updates and changes to reflect the current law and foreclosure processes in a state.”

Kim Harman, Hawaii policy director for Faith Action for Community Equity, questioned whether Fannie Mae is trying to avoid requirements for documenting original and amended mortgage agreements and promissory notes under the new law.

Harman said the documentation requirement is the only substantial difference between Hawaii’s law and a Nevada foreclosure mitigation law upon which Hawaii’s law was modeled. Fannie Mae hasn’t banned nonjudicial foreclosures in Nevada.

State Rep. Bob Herkes, who along with Sen. Rosalyn Baker was a chief architect of the law, said Fannie Mae would be misguided if it intends to avoid better documentation by running foreclosures through Hawaii courts.

Herkes intends to ask the Judiciary to hold mortgage holders to the same documentation standards contained in the nonjudicial foreclosure law.

Some Hawaii foreclosure industry attorneys had warned that lenders might flock to judicial foreclosures, in part because lenders can pursue borrowers for any difference between what a borrower owes and proceeds from selling a foreclosed home. This difference, referred to as a deficiency judgment, could help offset higher expenses of judicial foreclosure.

However, others believe the extra time and expense of judicial foreclosure, especially if Hawaii courts get bogged down, still make judicial foreclosure less attractive than the revamped nonjudicial foreclosure process.

While Fannie Mae seeks to proceed with Hawaii foreclosures in court, it is also offering financial incentives for loan servicers to avoid foreclosure and was instructed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency in April to not start a foreclosure if a borrower and servicer are engaged in a good-faith effort to resolve a mortgage delinquency.

So far, there has not been a huge increase in judicial foreclosures in Hawaii, considering that the new law went into effect May 5.

For all of May, there were 141 judicial foreclosure cases, up from 119 in May 2010, according to Judiciary figures. Nearly all of the increase occurred on the Big Island.

For all of last year, state Circuit Courts handled 1,331 foreclosure cases. That figure is estimated to be around 10 percent of all Hawaii foreclosures.

The Judiciary, in testimony on Senate Bill 651 that became the foreclosure mitigation law, expressed concern that any big increase in judicial foreclosures could dramatically delay cases unless new judges and staff are hired.

According to real estate research firm RealtyTrac, close to 500 new foreclosure cases a month were filed on average this year through April.

The Judiciary estimated it would cost about $4.3 million a year for additional personnel to handle such an increase.