MLS Real Estate & Listings Blog

California’s foreclosure rate fell in February compared to January but was up from the fourth-quarter 2007 average, research and data company ForeclosureRadar reported Wednesday.

Foreclosure sales at auction in the state fell 15 percent compared to January, with 16,931 sales at a combined loan value of $6.85 billion. Notices of default dropped 7.6 percent to 37,362, and notices of trustee sale (which set the auction date and time) fell 20 percent.  more…

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Consumers appreciate public property-search Web sites set up by multiple listing services, though such sites remain a divisive issue for industry professionals, according to a report released today by WAV Group, a real estate consulting company.

The "MLS Consumer Website Effectiveness Study" highlighted HAR.com, a popular real estate search site created by the Houston Association of Realtors, and gathered consumer and Realtor input about public MLS sites.  more…

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Countrywide Financial Corp. released numbers today showing a refinancing boom helped push February mortgage loan fundings up 16.9 percent from the month before, to $25.6 billion, but purchase-loan activity fell to a new low.

Countrywide said refinancings grew 29.2 percent in February, to $19.5 billion, helping the company post the best numbers for total mortgage fundings since August.  more…

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U.S. foreclosure activity rose 59.8 percent in February compared to the same month last year, data provider RealtyTrac reported today, and Nevada led the nation with a foreclosure rate of one filing for every 165 households — more than three times the national average.  more…

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Busloads of home buyers are hopping aboard the foreclosure bandwagon in search of bargains, and real estate agents and brokers are supplying the wheels and deals in markets across the country.

Ruth and John Ahlbrand, who own and manage RE/MAX Central, a Las Vegas brokerage company, bought a 40-seat luxury coach and wrapped it with advertising that features their TourVegasHomes.com Web site and the company’s phone number.  more…

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Citing deteriorating performance of home-equity loans, Fitch Ratings has lowered the debt ratings of some big name banks including Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo, National City, Providian Financial and First Horizon, while warning it may take similar action toward Bank of America, Citigroup, Fifth Third Bancorp and SunTrust.

Home-equity delinquency rates are rising at "a far more rapid pace than even most bankers’ and analysts’ grim outlook for 2008 had anticipated," Fitch analysts said.  more…

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Re: ‘U.S. foreclosure starts hit new records‘ (March 6)

Dear Editor:

Unless I am mistaken, a 0.83 percent foreclosure rate is also a 99.7 percent NON-foreclosure rate. It would be interesting to know what percentage of the foreclosure rate is actually attributable to ARMs and what portion is in fixed-rate loans.  more…

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OAKLAND, Calif. — Bush administration officials visited a hotbed of foreclosure activity Thursday to make a case that one solution to the problems plaguing mortgage lending and housing markets is better education of borrowers.  more…

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Loans entered the foreclosure process at a record rate during the fourth quarter, and things are likely to get worse before they get better, the chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association said today.

Although reductions in short-term interest rates have lessened the shock of interest-rate resets for many borrowers with adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) loans, falling home prices are leaving more homeowners with little or no equity in their homes — and less incentive to keep up on their mortgage payments, said MBA Chief Economist Doug Duncan.  more…

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