HouseHunt Network

By Jim Droz

Processing delays are taking a toll on first-time home buyer interest in short sales, which now account for more than one of every six house sales, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance tracking survey.

First-time home buyer purchases of short sales dropped to 39.7 percent of short sale transactions in August. That represented a three-month slide and was the lowest level for first-time home buyers ever recorded by the survey.

The first-time home buyer share of short sales hit a peak of 54.1 percent of all short sale transactions in November 2009, just before the originally-scheduled expiration of the federal homebuyer tax credit.
Short sales are just one type of distressed property, with damaged REO and move-in ready REO also being significant components of today’s housing market. In August, short sales accounted for 17.1 percent of the home purchase market, with damaged REO and move-in ready REO accounting for 13.2 percent and 15.6 percent, respectively.

Real estate agents responding to the August survey indicated that home buyers frustrated with short sale delays are resorting to placing offers on multiple properties, with the intention on closing on only one. This practice can bog down the short sale approval process with many mortgage lenders.

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By Jim Droz

Existing-home sales increased in August, providing some good news for the struggling housing market. Monthly gains were seen in all regions, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Total existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhouses, condominiums and co-ops, rose 7.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.03 million in August from a revised 4.67 million in July, and are 18.6 percent higher than the 4.24 million unit level in August 2010.

Investors accounted for 22 percent of purchase activity in August, up from 18 percent in July and 21 percent in August 2010. First-time buyers purchased 32 percent of homes in August, unchanged from July; they were 31 percent in August 2010.

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By Jaime Westman

With a background in NASCAR, Bryan Dunaway is used to working fast. So when he left the auto racing circuit to try his hand at real estate, Dunaway wasn’t sure what to expect because of the economic slowdown and lull in the housing market.

“It was a little slow at first, being the end of 2010, but, to be honest, I really believe it was HouseHunt that kept us afloat the first couple of months,” said Dunaway, who works with his wife, Sharon, in the Charlotte area of North Carolina. “It was tough because we didn’t really have any prospects, we were new at it, we didn’t know how to go and find clients, and there weren’t that many to be found because the buyer pool was small. But people that are looking at houses are on the Internet, and the HouseHunt site seems to attract quite a few of them, so it was good to have that as we started out.”

Dunaway hasn’t taken his foot off the gas since, and he has found success by bringing some of the work-related tools he picked up at NASCAR to the real estate industry.

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By Jaime Westman

Karen Taussig is an upbeat real estate agent in a reportedly down market. In fact, business is so good in her HouseHunt territory of Oxnard, Camarillo and the Channel Islands in Southern California’s Ventura County that she’s thinking about expanding.

“I feel like I’m working the system well enough to bring on another agent and be able to funnel her some of the leads because I just have too many,” said Taussig, whose home office is in Oxnard. “Even the really successful listing agents out here are amazed at how many buyers I’ve had.”

Taussig has been an agent for about five years and with HouseHunt for four. After taking time to get her MBA, this is the first year she has spent totally focused on her business. And it’s paying off.

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By Jim Droz

Foreclosure filings rose in August, as more homebuyers fell behind on their mortgage payments. Filings were up 7 percent compared to July, but were still 33 percent lower than a year ago, marking the 11th consecutive month of year-over-year declines.

According to a report by Realty Trac, 228,098 homes in the U.S. received some kind of foreclosure filing in August. Default notices, which typically initiate the foreclosure process, surged more than 33 percent from July. Foreclosure auctions and bank repossessions, which come later in the process, both fell slightly.

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