Foreclosure offerings in Nevada are hardly a steal, report finds

Buying a distressed home in Nevada was no bargain last year.

The average sales price of a home in some stage of foreclosure — such as having a notice of default or being bank-owned — was $126,521 in 2012, almost 6 percent higher than in 2011, according to a new report from RealtyTrac.

Also, the state’s average foreclosure discount of 19 percent — the price break compared with nondistressed homes — was well below the national average of 31 percent.

About 34,900 distressed homes were sold in Nevada last year, down 36 percent from 2011. Still, they accounted for 37.78 percent of all home sales statewide last year, the third-highest rate in the country.

California was No. 1 at 38.05 percent, followed by Georgia at 37.83 percent. Nationally, distressed homes accounted for 21.4 percent of all sales.

Las Vegas Valley home buyers and brokers say there is fierce competition for all homes, distressed or otherwise. That’s because of the limited inventory and the seemingly endless appetite of cash investors, who buy cheap homes in bulk to use as rentals.

Meanwhile, the number of short sales — in which a lender agrees to sell a home for less than what’s owed on the mortgage — soared by 86 percent last year in Nevada, RealtyTrac reported. They accounted for 33 percent of all home sales statewide, and the average amount owed was $121,977.

But just because short sales are a dominant force in the housing market doesn’t mean they’ve become any faster to process. It still can take six months to a year — if not longer — to complete a deal.

Nationally, short sales rose 4 percent from 2011 and comprised 22 percent of all sales last year. The average amount owed was $81,621.

source: vegasinc.com

Goldman, Morgan Stanley to Pay $557M in Foreclosure-Abuse Settlement

Joining a broad settlement into alleged foreclosure abuse, Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) reached a deal on Wednesday to pay $557 million to help mortgage borrowers.










The agreement is tied to a federal investigation into deficient practices in mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing such as robo-signing.

The Federal Reserve said Goldman and Morgan Stanley agreed to pay $232 million in direct payments to eligible borrowers as well as $325 million in “other assistance,” which includes loan modifications and forgiveness of deficiency judgments.

The deal paves the way for compensation for more than 220,000 borrowers whose homes were foreclosed on in 2009 and 2010 with former subsidiaries of Goldman and Morgan Stanley.

Compensation for eligible borrowers is expected to range between hundreds of dollars to $125,000, depending on the servicer error.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have since divested the mortgage-servicing businesses in question: Litton Loan Servicing and Saxon Mortgage Services, respectively.

The Fed said eligible borrowers can expect to be contacted by the end of March by a payment agent who will be appointed to administer the process. Borrowers won’t be required to sign a waiver of any legal claims they may have against their mortgage servicer in exchange for payment, the government said.

The news comes a week after the Fed and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reached a similar deal with a range of banks, including Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM), PNC (PNC), U.S. Bank (USB) and Wells Fargo (WFC).

Taking into account the agreement announced on Wednesday, the Fed said more than four million borrowers will now receive a total of $3.5 billion in cash compensation and an additional $5.5 billion for mortgage assistance.

The Fed said it is in talks to reach similar agreements with other mortgage servicers.

Shares of Goldman Sachs rallied 2.53% to $139.00 Wednesday morning amid enthusiasm for the company’s big fourth-quarter earnings beat, while Morgan Stanley gained 0.39% to $20.52.

source: foxbusiness.com

Things to Have Removed from your Credit Report

If you want to repair your credit quickly, there are a number of things that you can do to fix up your credit report. In general, there are some things on your credit report that really drag your credit score down. This is a look at the seven worst possible things that you can have on your credit score, as well as an explanation of why removing them will allow you to repair your credit quickly.

Most of us are already aware that some things on our credit reports are more dangerous than others. For example, going through a foreclosure or bankruptcy can cause your credit report to be scarred, and can force your credit score to plummet. Surprisingly, there are five other things that can have the same effect without you actually knowing it. Because lending institutions and banks that issue credit can use your credit score in order to evaluate who you are as a borrower, it is absolutely vital that you ensure that none of these entries ever appear in your credit report.

1 - Foreclosures.

While it may seem as if your world has literally crumbled all around you, there is still hope even when you are going default on your mortgage payment. When you do eventually default on your mortgage, most lenders are going to force you to give up possession of your home. Depending on your state laws, the lender may then auction your home off within a certain period of time in an attempt to recoup some of the lost costs. If there is any deficiency at all between what was owed to them and what your home is sold for, the lender can still come after you to reclaim those funds. With all of the foreclosure that is occurring right now, more and more banks are trying to come up with special arrangements in order to work with the homeowners. Even if you work out a deal with the lender and manage to keep your home, your credit score and credit report may still be scarred by the missed mortgage payments and the pre-foreclosure. Foreclosures remain on your credit report for seven years, so avoid them if you can.

2 - Debt Collections.

Attorney debt collections and ordinary debt collection companies can create a huge negative when they are listed on your credit report. The average credit score can drop by between 30 and 85 points for a single debt collection notice on a credit report. Sometimes you will take an even harder hit because the original credit will mark your account as a charge off, and then a second entry will appear for the collection agency, and this will only do more unnecessary and avoidable harm to your credit score.

source: richcreditdebtloan.com