Daily Finance: Home sales are hitting new lows, the number of homeowners behind on their mortgages is again climbing, as is the number of foreclosures. Housing market misery is widespread—but particularly intense for the troubled homeowners relying on the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), the federal foreclosure relief program.

Criticized both by those who argue for more aid and those who think the lackluster program only delays a needed bank reckoning, HAMP stumbles along, more often simply prolonging the pain of foreclosure than providing a solution.

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Palm Beach Post:  WEST PALM BEACH – The Palm Beach County Convention Center filled again Friday with tales of mortgage woe.

Before dawn, with a plump white moon overhead, a line of desperate home owners trailed around the outside of the building. They slept in beach chairs or on blankets on the ground, refugees from a bad economy, bad loans, or bad decisions.

They stayed even as the rain poured down on them.

Because for most of the people in the queue, the Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America is the end of the line. The last chance to save their homes.

The nonprofit will be here through Tuesday helping people get lower monthly payments through loan modifications.

At least 1,000 people arrived before the doors opened.

“If the banks won’t come to you, you go to them,” said Detroit resident Brian Kelley, 44, as he blinked rainwater from his eyes

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(Money Magazine) — Home improvement is one of the fastest-growing segments of e-commerce. But the consequences of a bad decision when it comes to finding a contractor or remodeling products online are far worse than buying the wrong paperback.

What if those rave reviews you read about a contractor are ringers posted by his daughter — or if your supposedly in-stock sink order doesn’t ship for two weeks, throwing off your entire work schedule?

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New York Times: Housing will eventually recover from its great swoon. But many real estate experts now believe that home ownership will never again yield rewards like those enjoyed in the second half of the 20th century, when houses not only provided shelter but also a plump nest egg.

The wealth generated by housing in those decades, particularly on the coasts, did more than assure the owners a comfortable retirement. It powered the economy, paying for the education of children and grandchildren, keeping the cruise ships and golf courses full and the restaurants humming.

More than likely, that era is gone for good.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Question: As the seller, I have a signed contract on a short sale. I have a first mortgage and second mortgage which put the house underwater, but not by a lot. Then I have a third mortgage — a home-equity line of credit — that puts it underwater significantly.

During the contract process, my lawyer discovered that the third lender never bothered to record the loan. Now my agent and lawyer are convinced that the first two lenders will never sign off on a short sale with a lender that does not have a lien on the property and are encouraging me not to deal with the third lender until after the short sale. On the other hand, I do not want to agree to a short sale without a settlement with the third mortgagee from the proceeds.

I do not want to sell my house and then have to worry about making a settlement on my own which may push me into bankruptcy should it not succeed. So I have quite a dilemma on my hands in terms of how to proceed.

Answer: The holders of your first and second mortgages should not give a hoot if your third mortgage, a home-equity line of credit, is recorded or not. If they come to agreement with you and your debt with them is eliminated, they have no obligation to the lender who holds your home-equity line of credit because his lien is junior to theirs.

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BOULDER, Colo. (MarketWatch) — The recession is “officially” over according to GDP figures. Stocks are up 50% from the March 2009 bottom. Gold and silver are up dramatically, too. So what’s the only remaining asset class that’s still cheap?

Real estate.

Sure, in most parts of the country the market is still in the toilet. July marked the 17th straight month foreclosures exceeded 300,000, and the number of homeowners who lost their homes rose again on the month. But real estate is always a local market and different cities, neighborhoods and individual houses will bottom at different times. And now is that time for many areas.

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Palm Beach Post:   Palm Beach County property owners will get their first glimpse at how much they can expect to pay in property taxes when tax notices arrive in mailboxes this week.

Property Appraiser Gary Nikolits on Monday will mail preliminary tax notices to all 655,181 county property owners.

But Nikolits said he is concerned some residents might be confused by the notices’ new look. Lawmakers in Tallahassee required that property appraisers across the state this year add more information to the preliminary notices.

Nikolits said the additional information might overwhelm some homeowners. His office plans to post a sample notice on its website, www.pbcgov.com/PAPA, and is ready to answer calls from residents with questions

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So-called “vulture” firms have been snapping up troubled home loans at a faster pace, and are expected to ramp up securitizations of the assets in coming months. That should give a modicum of life to the private mortgage bond market that has been dormant since it imploded during the subprime home loan crisis in 2008.

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In its monthly report on the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, the Treasury said 48.1 percent of 1.3 million homeowners who started a mortgage modification through July have been dropped from the program.
That was up from a 41.2 percent dropout rate through June and underlined the continuing distress felt by homeowners who face falling prices and rising foreclosure rates.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — With home sales plunging to their lowest level in 15 years, economists warn that a double-dip in housing prices is just around the corner, threatening to further slow the overall recovery.

Existing home sales sank 27.2% in July, twice as much as analysts expected, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million units. Much of that drop is attributed to the end of the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit.

That credit brought buyers out in droves, as they tried to sign home contracts before the April 30 deadline. Now, two months later, sales are 34% below April’s tax incentive-induced peak.

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Higher monthly fees, larger down payments and better credit scores are among the new initiatives intended to insure that the FHA stays solvent. Its reserves, which are used to cover bad loans, plummeted to $3.5 billion at midyear from $19.3 billion in September 2008, according to a report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

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U.S. commercial real estate prices posted their first quarterly gain in more than two years last quarter, data showed on Monday, although deepening economic gloom may cut post-slump celebrations short.

After shedding about a third of their value between the first quarters of 2008 and 2010, average U.S. commercial property prices rose by 2.2 percent in the three months to end-June, as measured by the Investment Property Databank US Quarterly Property Index.

The milestone data ends a phase of writedowns that wiped out five years of property value appreciation before the credit crisis hit, but the London-based index compiler said a “mixed” economic outlook could arrest further price growth.

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Public records show it sold in foreclosure for $25,500 in January 2009, then resold for $355,000 in October. In between, a $110,000 mortgage was taken out on the home, supposedly for renovations. This June, the property went back into foreclosure.

To Emilio Carrasquillo, head of the local office of non-profit lender Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago (NHS), the numbers don’t add up. He believes this is a case of mortgage fraud.

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CNBC: Home builder confidence in the market for newly built, single family homes declined again in August for the third consecutive month, according to an index released Monday by the National Association of Home Builders that surveys home builders.

“Today’s report reflects single-family home builders’ concerns about current and future economic conditions and about the increasing hesitancy they are seeing among potential home buyers,” said National Association of Home Builders Chief Economist David Crowe.

The index, which surveys home builders monthly, moved down one point to 13 from the previous month, the lowest it has been since March 2009, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index

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Realtor.org:   The trend in firming home prices solidified in the second quarter with more metropolitan areas showing increases from a year ago, aided by a surge in home sales driven by the home buyer tax credit, according to the latest survey by the National Association of Realtors®.

In the second quarter, 100 out of 155 metropolitan statistical areas¹(MSAs) had higher median existing single-family home prices in comparison with the second quarter of 2009, including 14 with double-digit increases; two were unchanged and 53 metros showed price declines. In the first quarter of this year 91 areas had higher prices, while only 26 MSAs experienced annual price gains in second quarter of 2009.

The national median existing single-family price was $176,900 in the second quarter, up 1.5 percent from $174,200 in the same period of 2009. The median is where half sold for more and half sold for less. Distressed homes accounted for 32 percent of second quarter sales, down from 36 percent a year ago.

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Reuters: The number of U.S. homes listed for sale rose nearly 3 percent in July compared to June, according to real estate brokerage data that suggested the supply demand imbalance in the housing market could worsen.

The July increase in listings by the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) was the 7th consecutive monthly rise, according to recent data released by Emeryville, California-based ZipRealty.

More inventory on the market could add to existing pressures on home prices — homes for sale are sitting on the market longer, while foreclosures are increasingly prevalent in many cities.

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Reuters: The Federal Reserve is undertaking a “dangerous gamble” by keeping rates at near zero for so long, and must start raising rates or risk damaging the nascent U.S. recovery, a top Federal Reserve official said on Friday.

“To be clear, I am not advocating a tight monetary policy,” Kansas City Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig said in the text of a speech to the Lincoln, Nebraska, Chamber of Commerce. “I am advocating a policy that remains accommodative but slowly firms as the economy itself expands and moves toward more balance.”

Hoenig has been the lone dissenter on the Fed’s policy-setting panel, which on Tuesday repeated the U.S. central bank’s pledge to keep interest rates extraordinarily low for an “extended period.”

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Have you ever wondered how you can increase the value of your home? One of the easiest ways to do so is by turning your home into green home. Green home refers to an eco friendly home which is energy efficient and is thus safe for the environment. It is very economical to live in such homes and thus more and more people are opting for them. Changing your building lights and replacing them with LED lighting systems is a sure shot way to increase the value of your home.

Introducing LED lights at your home can help you be more energy efficient. This is possible as the LED are powerful and do not use much energy. So opting for LED retrofits means that you can save energy which is reflected in your electricity bill and you can be environment friendly as well.

Another thing that can help you increase the value of your home through LED lighting systems is that these lights do not emit heat like other bulbs and CFL lights. This means that you can look forward to reduced air conditioning cost and can save more on your electricity bill.

So far, existing government programs designed to help people to stay in their homes have met with limited success. The rate of property foreclosures climbed 8% to 1.65 million in the first six months of 2010 compared to the prior year, according to RealtyTrac.   Shiller sees significant likelihood of double dip

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — New home construction ticked higher in July, but indications of future building were weak, the government said Tuesday.

Housing starts rose 1.7% from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 546,000 last month, the Commerce Department said.

Economists were expecting housing starts to rise to 555,000, according to a consensus estimate from Briefing.com.

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