Here they come again! It`s like Night of the Living Deadbeats, these financial corpses won`t die.They`re crawling out of the shadows and ready to sign their name to another promissory note that they will blame someone for giving them to sign when they Re-Beat!
Posted: 4:28 p.m. Thursday, July 19, 2012
Post panel: Former homeowners get second chance at American Dream
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Homeowners forced into a short sale or foreclosure during the worst of the real estate bust are tip-toeing back into the housing market as their credit improves and lender prohibitions time out.
Palm Beach County real estate experts who spoke this week during a forum hosted by The Palm Beach Post said people who lost their homes in 2009 and 2010 are able to get new home loans under certain circumstances.
“Starting right now, this month, there is a big population of people who are starting to fit the timeline of those who can qualify after losing a home a few years ago,” said Skip McDonough, president of Family Mortgage in Jupiter, during the forum titled “Finding the up in a down market.”
While having a foreclosure or short sale on your record was once at least a three- to-seven-year sentence against buying another home, McDonough said the Federal Housing Administration as well as federal mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have softened those rules.
It especially helps if the short sale or foreclosure is the only blemish on the homebuyer’s credit record, and if they have a good reason, such as job loss or family illness, for losing the property.
“For the next few months I believe the largest segment of buyers will be those who believed in the American dream and can now get back into the market,” McDonough said.
But whether they’ll find a home may be a different story.
Other panelists at the forum, including Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches President Bonnie Lazar, Platinum Properties Broker-Associate Kevin Kent and Brad Hunter, chief economist for Metrostudy in Palm Beach Gardens, said a shrinking inventory is driving up prices and increasing competition for homes.
About 65 people attended the forum, which was held Wednesday evening at The Palm Beach Post’s West Palm Beach office.
“Are there buys out there? Sure. Are there steals? No,” Lazar said. “If you were waiting for rock bottom, you missed it.”
According to a report released Thursday by the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches, the inventory of single family homes in Palm Beach County fell to five months in June, down from 12 months during the same time last year.
AsifSarfi and his wife RubayaSarfi, who attended The Post’s forum, have seen the dearth of choices first hand. The couple, who married in October, have “passively” looked for a home for about two months.
“What I’ve found is stuff in good condition and that is a good value, cash buyers are coming in and swooping it up,” AsifSarfi said.
And the couple is concerned prices will go lower as more foreclosures — the so-called shadow inventory — are put on the market.
Hunter, of Metrostudy, said he expects prices may slip some, but it will be selective, falling mostly in neighborhoods where there was too much speculation during the run up to the real estate bust.
“There are a couple million homes nationwide in the shadow inventory and that’s not something that is trivial or something to be ignored,” Hunter said.
Still, Lazar said banks have learned from their earlier mistakes when they flooded the market with foreclosures and crashed prices. She believes even though there are hundreds of thousands of foreclosure cases still held up in Florida’s courts that banks will mete them out more strategically.
“I don’t think you’ll just see the inventory dumped on the market,” Lazar said. “(The banks) got smart and saw what they had done to themselves.”
People wishing to attend the next Straight from the Source panel discussion, on Jobs and the Economy, tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 22 at 6 p.m. at The Palm Beach Post, should call (561) 820-4100 for reservations. The event is free of charge.
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