Mortgage interest rates remain very affordable

Freddie Mac's index moved a bit higher this week for 30-year fixed, stopping at 5.07%. Last year this time the PMMS averaged a lofty 6.24%. Washington is actively buying mortgage-backed bonds that keeps demand solid and is a direct reflection on these attractive rates.

LV headline turns heads

This can't be true? In the current reeling housing market that makes mortgage approvals a serious mental and physical exercise and closed real estate transactions an endurance test it was hard to accept what the Review-Journal headline actually said. But there it was, loud and clear. "Foreclosures in Las Vegas drop in January."

Southern Nevada residents are nowadays used to reading headlines that talk about how they are climbing, not dropping. Anything that suggests upward movement. The statement is accurate, however. Foreclosures.com is behind the statistic disclosing that Las Vegas numbers decreased about 20% in January from December, or from 3,283 to 2,609. Very nice improvement indeed after so many months of adverse results.

Photo by Tom Hilton, Red Rock Canyon

Las Vegas existing home sales stay strong in January

The familiar pattern keeps more or less repeating itself when it comes to monthly Southern Nevada real estate numbers. In essence, there are some good news and then some less than good news. One way of putting is that the Las Vegas housing market is simply trying to find its bearings.

As usual, GLVAR, or Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, is providing a detailed look at what happened in January in the local housing sector. Altogether 2,224 single-family houses were closed, amounting to a stellar 126% jump from the year ago figure. That trend has been evident for quite some time now and it does instill some optimism that the shredded market is working hard to right itself. As a caution, the sales are about 11% less than in December, so the slight decline is worth keeping in mind. Perhaps it's temporary, with people just taking the frigid month, believe me Vegas can be cold in January, off from looking at houses or are waiting to see what the Obama administration will do about providing fresh home buyer assistance.

Mortgage workouts should have more kick

As foreclosure numbers keep growing nationwide banks are facing more pressure to make home loan modifications, or workouts, more meaningful. Up to now their efforts have mostly been half measures from the homeowners's perspective, backed by recent stats that around half of modified home loans re-default within six months. That surely isn't helping the ravaged real estate market to recover, something everyone ought to strive for, and thus help the entire economy get back on track.

The companies operating between distressed homeowners and the investors who have bought their underlying mortgages usually are the servicing firms. They are the key players, work under contract for the investors and naturally first look for what's good for them. And that means modifying as little as possible. For loan modifications to have more bite the contract terms need to be adjusted or otherwise the whole exercise is largely wasted. Foreclosures would keep rising, home values head further south and at the end the investors would suffer even bigger losses when their deeply discounted, foreclosed property is at last disposed of.

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