Ran across this information today from By Christopher Solomon of MSN Real Estate and wanted to make sure all Buyer had a chance to see it... the market is only going to get hotter in 2010 so be sure you have the most update information....  1. Choose a reputable auctioneer. First, do your research by poking around the auction Web site's "About" page; find out when the site was established and how long it's been in operation, says author Roberts. Make sure the business has a real street address or mailing address, not just a P.O. box, he says. Make sure the business has a phone number you can call -  and do so, asking the person who picks up the phone about the business. If the service requires you to pay a deposit prior to entering a bid, make sure you're paying the deposit to a reputa... 12/29/2009

Holiday sales up  According to figures from MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse, which track all forms of payment, including cash, retail sales rose 3.6 percent from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, compared with a 2.3% drop a year ago.  Adjusting for an extra shopping day between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the number was closer to a 1 percent gain.  Last year, the economy was in "critical condition," said Michael McNamara, vice president at MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse. "This year, it's in stable condition."  "We had a pretty decent surge," McNamara said.  Online sales were a particular hot spot, fueled by a big increase the weekend before Christmas. They rose 15.5 percent on the season, though they make up less than 10 percent of all retail sales.  Stores count on a post-Christmas boost ... 12/28/2009

Mortgage rescue can kill your credit rating  Most troubled homeowners don't realize that President Obama's entering a trial mortgage modification can actually hurt their credit.  It's true that many people who apply for the president's plan are already delinquent in their mortgage payments, but being in a months-long trial period may only add to the pain.  Under the president's plan, troubled borrowers can have their monthly mortgage payments reduced to 31% of their pre-tax income.  Homeowners are first put in a trial modification for several months to prove they can handle the new commitment and to give the bank time to collect the necessary income and hardship verification documents.  During this period, industry guidelines call for loan servicing companies to report borrowers to the ... 12/28/2009

S.&P Downgrades Five Mortgage Insurers Standard & Poor's downgrade the credit ratings on five mortgage insurance companies. The credit ratings agency said continued losses on insurance claims exceeded previous expectations, as low-risk books of business are starting to experience greater losses.  "The lower-risk books of business within the mortgage sector (such as those with higher FICO scores or lower loan-to-value ratios) have been and will be more adversely affected than we had anticipated and U.S. mortgage insurers' losses will continue to be greater than previously expected overall," S&P analyst Ron Joas wrote.  "If the US economy were to experience another setback, prolonging the exit from the recession, delinquencies and resulting losses could increase at an even greater rate, w... 12/28/2009

Mortgage rates increase  Freddie Mac said the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) was 4.94% with an average 0.7 point for the week ending December 17, up from 4.81% last week. A year ago, the 30-year FRM was 5.19%.  Freddie Macs survey has put the rate for 30-year FRMs below 5% for the past seven weeks, creating a boost in refinance activity. Bankrate.com put the 30-year FRM at 5.13% with an average 0.42 point for the same period, up from 5.04% in the previous week.  Mortgage rates followed bond yields higher once again this week amid signs of an improving economy, said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.  On the consumer side, retail sales jumped 1.3% in November and consumer sentiment, as measured by the University of Michigan, rose above th... 12/18/2009

Foreclosure backlog at 1.7 million  About 1.7 million homeowners were on the verge of foreclosure in the fall, a looming "shadow inventory" of homes that will be put up for sale in the coming years and weigh down prices, according to a report from First American CoreLogic.  The number, up from 1.1 million a year earlier, is likely to keep rising through the middle of next year or later, said Mark Fleming, chief economist of CoreLogic.   The foreclosure backlog isaAlready equal to nearly half the 3.8 million unsold new and existing homes currently on the market, First American said.  "We're going to be dealing with high levels of distressed (sales) in the marketplace for at least a couple of years," Fleming said. "It's not just all going to disappear."  Other reports have come up with la... 12/18/2009

Lawrenceville is the largest city in Gwinnett County, GA (pop. 29528 inside the city limits in July, 2008).  And it is the second oldest in the Atlanta Metro area, created by Charter by the the Georgia General Assembly in December 1821.  It is named after Commodore James Lawrence, Commander of the Frigate Chesapeake during the War of 1812.  He is best knownhis dying command, "Don't give up the ship."  He never lived in the area of Lawrenceville, though.  The first courthouse was built on what is now the Square in Lawrenceville in 1823-1824, although the current courthouse that stands in that location only dates back to 1885.  There were actually a couple of buildings on that plot of land between those times, including a courthouse that was burned down by the KKK in 1871.  They thought t... 12/12/2009

More foreclosures coming  Diana Olick has climbed on board with an increasing number of people who thinks foreclosures are still going to hit us like a ton of bricks, driving home prices even further down.  She quotes Lender Processing Services: "The November Mortgage Monitor report, released by Lender Processing Services, Inc. (NYSE: LPS), reveals a nationwide loan deterioration ratio higher than 3:1 - indicating that for every one loan improved, three more loans are deteriorating... The number of foreclosures on the market continues to stall as foreclosure timelines extend. Nearly 30 percent of properties that have been in foreclosure for 12 months have not yet been put on the market for sale - twice the level of the prior year. Foreclosure inventories continued to climb to record lev... 12/04/2009

Auto delinquencies up in 3rd quarter According to credit reporting agency TransUnion, auto delinquency rate -- the rate at which payments fell behind 60 days or more -- edged up in the July-to-September quarter to 0.81%, from 0.80 in the same period last year.  Car loan payments that are 60 days or more late are considered a precursor to default because of the difficulty consumers face in getting caught up.  TransUnion culls its data from approximately 27 million individual credit files in its database.  The small increase in auto delinquencies compared with 2008 also reflects the fact that loans are harder to get, because banks and finance companies have raised their lending standards, and consumers are looking for fewer loans as they tighten their belts.  Those factors led to a drop i... 12/01/2009

End of the Year Tax Tips  It's that time of the year; no, we aren't talking about holiday shopping or gift giving guides...it's time to put those last minute tax strategies into place before the end of the year. Act now and chances are you will have just enough time to implement these money saving tips:  1. Transfer Assets: Have a high income with a stay-at-home spouse? Talk to your accountant about transferring income-producing assets into their name instead of yours. For example, if you currently own investment properties worth $500,000 which produce an income of 5 percent or $25,000 annually you could be hit with a tax bill of up to $12,500 for high income earners. On the other hand, by transferring these to your spouse, it may be possible to save half or more in taxes alone.  2. Buy... 12/01/2009

Prices for commercial real estate have already fallen by about 40%, but the problem is that lots of owners are in negative equity now, said Richard LeFrak, president of the LeFrak Organization.  Malls are also likely to suffer, as "the new norm is that nobody goes shopping, everybody is saving," LeFrak said, adding that mall vacancy rates run at about 11-12%.  Owners don't sell because "the bottom line is there's more debt than there's value," Zell added.  However, debt makes up about 80 or 90% of commercial real estate projects in the US and because of the recession, unemployed people "need little retail space," Wilbur Ross, chairman and CEO of WL Ross & Co., said.  Owners don't sell because "the bottom line is there's more debt than there's value," Zell added.  However, debt makes up ... 12/01/2009

Real Estate Econometrics LLC says commercial mortgage default rate on loans held by U.S. banks more than doubled to 3.4% in the third quarter as vacancies rose and rents declined.  Defaults climbed from 1.37% a year earlier and from 2.88% in the second quarter, the New York-based property research firm said today in a report. Default rates in the first three quarters of 2009 have been the highest since 1993, the firm said.  Mortgages originated in 2006 and 2007 are experiencing the most significant shortfalls in current cash flow relative to current debt-service obligations, Sam Chandan, chief economist of the firm, said in the report.  Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said in a Nov. 16 speech that the fallout for banks from commercial real estate could slow the nations economic... 12/01/2009

The Gwinnett County Commission is looking at an offer to privatize Briscoe Field.  Currently, the county owns and runs the airpost, near Lawrenceville, off GA316.  It has an operating budget of about $1,000,000/year.  All of the money generated in fees and leases have to be plowed back into the budget for the airfield. If it was leased out to a private entity, the company leasing the airfeild would be responsible for all costs, while at the same time they would be paying the county for the privilege.  So, instead of a budget expenditure of just over $1m, there would be a payment... although we don't know the amount of that payment yet. source source from LaneBailey.com image courtesy of Aleksander Markin 11/25/2009

Existing home sales up? The National Association of Realtors' report is scheduled for release today, and home resales for October are projected to rise to the highest level in more than two years as first-time buyers, anticipating that a tax credit would soon expire, rushed to beat the clock.  Sales are expected to show a 1.4 percent increase to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.65 million, up from 5.57 million in September, according to economists polled by Thomson Reuters. If this turns out to be true, it would be the best month for home sales since July 2007.    But sales are likely to drop over the winter as buyers hibernate for a few months without the looming tax credit deadline, said Pat Lashinsky, chief executive of online real estate brokerage ZipRealty Inc.  Over the summ... 11/23/2009

  Only a tiny percentage of troubled homeowners have received permanent modifications under President Obama's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), raising concerns about the effectiveness of the $75 billion effort.  Fewer than 5% of the trial modifications on loans owned or guaranteed by Freddie Mac were converted to long-term adjustments as of Sept. 30.  More broadly, the figures are even lower. As of Sept. 1, only 1.26% of all trial adjustments were made permanent after three months, reported the Congressional Oversight Panel, which monitors the government's use of bailout funds.  The preliminary data, which has not been widely reported, underscores the next big problem facing the government's effort: Officials have leaned on banks to offer more homeowners trial modifications,... 11/21/2009

In a lead story, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) paints a dismal picture of the housing market in 2010.  Uncertainty over the extension of a home-buyer tax credit sent new-home starts in October crashing down a full 10.6% from September, and starts of single-family houses fell 6.8%.   That's the lowest level since April, the Commerce Department said. This news suggests that foreclosures are not only going to keep rolling in, but that they may actually increase.  Richard Dugas,  chief executive of Pulte Homes Inc., the nation's largest home builder, warned investors: "As we look out to 2010, we are expecting difficult conditions to continue."  Wednesday's data prompted some economists to revise their fourth-quarter forecasts down slightly. Macroeconomic Advisers moved its GDP estimate down... 11/21/2009

Mortgage rates at record lows  Freddie Macs weekly survey of average interest rates put the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) at 4.83% with an average 0.7 points for the week ending Nov. 12, down from the average rate of 4.91% the previous week. Thats a mere 5 basis points shy of Freddie Macs record low of 30-year FRM rates, reached twice in April this year. Last year, the rate was 6.04%.  Freddie Mac put the 15-year FRM at 4.32% with an average 0.6 points, down from last weeks 4.4% and the lowest rate for the product since Freddie Mac began its 15-year FRM survey in 1991. A year ago, the average rate for the loan was 5.73%.  Bankrate.coms survey of large US banks and thrifts put the 30-year FRM at 5.06%, the lowest in the surveys 24-year history and down 13 basis points from the previo... 11/21/2009

Why are foreclosures up?  Jay Brinkmann, MBAs Chief Economist, says it's jobs.  Despite the recession ending in mid-summer, the decline in mortgage performance continues.  Job losses continue to increase and drive up delinquencies and foreclosures because mortgages are paid with paychecks, not percentage point increases in GDP.  Over the last year, we have seen the ranks of the unemployed increase by about 5.5 million people, increasing the number of seriously delinquent loans by almost 2 million loans and increasing the rate of new foreclosures from 1.07% to 1.42%.  Brinkmann says it's prime and FHA mortgages that are taking the worst beating.  Prime fixed-rate loans continue to represent the largest share of foreclosures started and the biggest driver of the increase in foreclosures. ... 11/21/2009

Foreclosures hit record highs  According to the Mortgage Bankers Associations (MBA) National Delinquency Survey, the delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties rose to a seasonally adjusted rate of 9.64% of all loans outstanding as of the end of the third quarter of 2009, up 40 basis points from the second quarter of 2009, and up 265 basis points from one year ago.  The non-seasonally adjusted delinquency rate increased 108 basis points from 8.86% in the second quarter of 2009 to 9.94% this quarter.   The delinquency rate includes loans that are at least one payment past due but does not include loans somewhere in the process of foreclosure.  The percentage of loans in the foreclosure process at the end of the third quarter was 4.47%, an increase of 1... 11/21/2009

Renaissance Realty Group, Inc. | Renaissance Realty Group | 770-277-6652 Beechum Woods Ct, Lawrenceville, GA Beautiful 3 Bed 2 Bath Ranch in quiet cul de sac. 3BR/2BA Single Family House offered at $174,900 Year Built 1999 Sq Footage 2,003 Bedrooms 3 Bathrooms 2 full, 0 partial Floors 1 Parking 2 Car garage Lot Size .39 acres HOA/Maint $31 per month DESCRIPTION Beautiful ranch in cul-se-sac of quiet subdivision. Lots of beautiful architectural details throughout. Master on main features sitting room, master bath w/ sep shower, whirlpool tub. Bonus second level room could serve as bonus, office, or 4th bedroom. This home is move in ready and priced to sell quickly. see additional photos below PROPERTY FEATURES - Central A/C - Central heat - Fireplace - High/Vaulted ceiling - Hardwood fl... 11/21/2009