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 MERRY
CHRISTMAS FROM
ELLIOTT® & COMPANY APPRAISERS
All of us at ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers wish you
a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. During this holiday season,
we would like to take a step back and express our appreciation for
the business we have received from our long-time clients, as well as
the ones who have started doing business with us this year.
Our office will be closed on Friday, December 24, and Monday,
January 3, for the holidays. We will be open all other weekdays
during the holiday season, including Thursday, December 23, Monday,
December 28 and Friday, December 31, offering appraisal service in
all 50 states.
STUDY CONCLUDES
THAT HOUSING IS UNDERVALUED
 One encouraging sign that housing prices will
eventually rebound comes from a study by Capital Economics. Using
the S&P Case-Shuller index, analysts at the macroeconomic research
consulting firm concluded that home prices are currently undervalued
by 17%. Using data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Capital
Economics determined that home prices were 14% undervalued.
The National Association of Realtors housing affordability index is
near its all-time high, meaning that a median-income household can,
with a 20% down payment, afford mortgage payments on a median-priced
home more easily than any other time in the last 30 years. For now,
high unemployment, tight credit and negative equity are preventing a
rebound in home sales.
“The housing market appears to have stalled,” read the Capital
Economics report, “before it even began.”
DISTRESSED
PROPERTIES ACCOUNTED FOR
ONE FOURTH OF THIRD QUARTER HOME SALES
A report issued by RealtyTrac, which deals with and
researches information about foreclosed real-estate properties,
showed that about one of four U.S. homes sold in the third quarter
were distressed properties. These distressed properties, which
included homes in default, foreclosed homes up for auction and REOs,
sold on the average at 32% below the sales prices of similar
properties that were not distressed.
“The expiration of the homebuyer tax credit created a substantial
dip in buyer demand in the third quarter,” said James J. Saccacio,
CEO of RealtyTrac. “The foreclosure-processing controversy, which
was brought to light at the very end of the third quarter, could
chill demand even further.”
SOMETIMES IT’S
NOT THE HOMEOWNER WHO WALKS AWAY
In the mortgage servicing industry, the term, “walkaway,”
usually refers to a borrower who has decided it is no longer
practical to keep up his mortgage payments and voluntarily leaves
the property before it is foreclosed upon. But there are also cases
of walkaways that take place after foreclosure. Bank walkaways occur
when servicers abandon a property that has been foreclosed upon or
fail to take possession of property that has been vacated. This is
usually done because the servicer does not expect to recover its
costs from the sale of the property. These walkaways are also
referred to as charge-offs.
Such property abandonment usually occurs in economically distressed
neighborhoods with high crime rates. Such walkaways tend to result
in more problems for already troubled communities.
“Based on our reviews of bank regulatory guidance and discussions of
federal and state officials, no laws or regulations exist that
require servicers to complete foreclosure once the process has been
initiated,” a recent report by the Government Accountability Office
read. “Therefore, servicers can abandon the foreclosure at any
point.”
FREDDIE MAC
ANALYSTS MAKE PREDICTIONS FOR 2011
 Analysts
at Freddie have come up with five predictions that they believe will
occur in the U.S. housing market in 2011. They are:
-
Mortgage rates will remain low throughout the
year.
-
Housing prices will begin a gradual increase in
the second half of 2011.
-
There will be more home sales next year than in
2010 as many first-time homebuyers take advantage of affordable
pricing.
-
There will be a decline in refinance activity.
-
The percentage of home loans in foreclosure or
over 90 days delinquent will decline.
 ASK MARTITIA
QUESTION: A lender questions an appraiser about an
appraisal report he had prepared for a different lender. The lender
calling with the questions had not been named as an intended user
for the appraisal. Would the appraiser be in violation with USPAP if
he answered those questions?
MARTITIA: Yes, the Uniform Standards of Professional
Appraisal Practice do not allow an appraiser to discuss assignment
results or confidential information, regarding an appraisal he has
performed, with anyone but the client, someone authorized by the
client or someone authorized by due process of law.
Martitia Mortimer, Elliott’s executive vice president, answers
appraisal questions on a regular basis in Elliott Real Estate
News.
QUOTES
“He who has not Christmas in his heart will never
find it under a tree.” – Roy Smith
“Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been
attained, progress stops.”
– Thomas Watson
“When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will
command the attention of the world.” – George Washington Carver
“It’s the most unhappy people who most fear change.” – Mignon
McLaughin
“Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you
value your time, you will not do anything with it.” – Scott Peck
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| Newsletter Editor:
kevin@elliottco.com
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3316-A
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Greensboro, NC 27410 |
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