As the number of borrowers falling behind on their mortgage payments climbs to the highest level in five years, the mortgage industry is trying new strategies to help bail them out. Much of the attention is on homeowners who in recent years took out adjustable-rate mortgages, a popular way to finance a home when interest rates were low. Now, with rates having moved up, many of these borrowers have recently seen, or soon will see, their mortgage rates adjust higher for the first time.

For some borrowers, efforts to work out bad loans can be complicated by the fact that many mortgages no longer are held by the banks that made the loans. Instead, roughly two-thirds of mortgages are packaged into mortgage-backed securities and sold to investors. How much leeway a borrower is given can vary, depending in part on the rules spelled out at the time the securities are created. Some agreements, for instance, don’t permit loan modifications or limit the circumstances under which a loan can be modified. Others put a cap on how many loans can be restructured.

Some 2.51% of mortgages were delinquent in the fourth quarter, according to new data from Equifax Inc. and Moody’s Economy.com Inc. That is up from 2.33% in the third quarter and the highest level since a recent peak of 2.53% in the first quarter of 2002.

Real estate agent Caesar Parisi stands ready with effective advice on buying or selling a Boca Raton FL condo. Visiting the Delray Beach community? Contact Realtor® Caesar Parisi for information on buying or selling an Atlantic Grove Condo in Delray Beach Real Estate. (more…)

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We are currently selling our home and have a question about seller disclosure. Beside our house, there is a large Dutch elm tree. It is diseased and will probably die in a couple of years. Our buyers have not raised any question about the tree, and the symptoms of the disease are not readily noticeable. Should we tell them about the tree or just let them enjoy it until it needs to come down?

In today’s litigious environment, it is never wise to withhold or abridge real estate disclosure. There are buyers out there who would sue over the loss of a tree with an undisclosed disease. So play it safe and disclose everything you know about the condition of your property. It is the way you would want to be treated if you were the buyer.

As for allowing a Boca Raton FL buyer to enjoy the tree for the time being, that enjoyment will have little intrinsic value when they eventually pay thousands of dollars to have the tree removed. If they should then suspect that you knew about the problem, you could find yourself wishing that you had said something before the property was sold.

Real estate agent Caesar Parisi stands ready with effective advice on buying or selling Boca Raton FL condos. (more…)

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After much anticipation, Manatee County’s newest luxury community opens to the public today. The Lake Club is kicking off the opening of its 10 multimillion-dollar showcase homes with 10 weeks of events, including workshops and demonstrations open to the public and private galas. Each week, the events will focus on a different home. The first home to be featured is Anchor Builders’ Savoy model. During the week, public events include lectures on home entertainment and multimedia, interior design, architecture and more.

Taylor Woodrow is challenging real estate professionals to sell, sell, sell. Starting immediately, licensed real estate agents who sell three homes within the builder’s new Palma Sola Trace community will be entered into a drawing to win a 1,282-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bath coach home. Real estate agents must sell the Taylor Woodrow homes between Feb. 1 and Aug. 31, and sales must close before April 30, 2008. Palma Sola Trace is north of Cortez Road on 75th Street West. Upon completion, the neighborhood will include 546 homes.

To locate the perfect home or condominum, Sarasota FL realtor Annette Smith is available to help you be an informed home buyer or home seller in today’s changing Sarasota real estate market. (more…)

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Consumer advocates say most people learned about mortgages from their parents and grandparents, who typically put down 20 percent on a 30-year fixed loan on which they always knew what their payments would be. Those longstanding assumptions have been challenged in recent years by the rapid proliferation of new loan products with looser credit requirements and fluctuating payment plans. Although the newer mortgage products allow almost anyone to buy or refinance a house, consumer groups say the loans often contain land mines hidden in the fine print.

Alternative mortgage loans were designed for a handful of people with promising long-term earnings potential: young lawyers destined to make partner, doctors finishing medical school or stock brokers who get large commission checks several times a year.

But as housing prices have surged, outstripping wages in the most expensive markets, alternative financing has become a popular path to homeownership.

These new loans come in many forms. “Nontraditional” mortgages allow borrowers to pay only the interest on the loan or even only a portion of the interest each month, without being required to pay down the principal. Nationwide, more than a third of borrowers who got loans in the first nine months of 2006 got nontraditional loans, up from about 2 percent in 2000, according to First American Loan Performance, a real estate information firm.

For more information on this and other real estate matters, your first source for Palm Beach real estate should be licensed agent and long-time resident Caesar Parisi. (more…)

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Despite all the cries about the real estate bust, year-end median prices for both existing single-family homes and existing condominiums did manage to rise in every part of South Florida, with the exception of a 1 percent drop in median single-family home prices in West Palm Beach-Boca Raton FL. In numbers released Thursday, the Florida Association of Realtors put the single-family home median price increase at 2 percent in Fort Lauderdale, to $367,800 from $361,100, even though the number of homes sold declined 26 percent, to 8,373 homes in 2006 from 11,331 homes the year before.

In Miami, the median price rise was 7 percent, to $375,800 from $351,200, as the number of single-family homes sold fell 21 percent, to 8,692 homes from 11,016 homes. Even with its 1 percent decline, to $384,700 from $390,100, the median home price in West Palm Beach-Boca Raton remained the highest in the region. The number of homes sold dropped 37 percent, to 8,640 homes from 13,679 homes. “The housing market transitioned to a more sustainable balance during 2006, coming off the record-setting sales pace and price gains of the previous five years,” FAR President Nancy Riley said.

Looking for a home in Gleneagles Country Club? Realtor® Caesar Parisi is ready to help you buy your dream property. (more…)

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Changing American demographics and social norms are altering the real estate landscape: the average home buyer is very different compared with buyers of generations past. The biggest group of home buyers by far is still married couples, accounting for 61 percent of all homes bought, according to the National Association of Realtors. But single women now purchase 22 percent of all homes. Single men accounted for only 9 percent of purchases.

The generous assortment of mortgage loans has also helped another emerging demographic: minority homeowners, who now account for 30 percent of all homes bought. During the 10 years through 2005, homeownership among African Americans grew from 44 percent to 48 percent, according to Vredevoogd. Among Hispanics it grew from 43 percent to 49 percent and among Asians, from 51 percent to 60 percent. All these groups made significant progress toward achieving the level of homeownership of 72 percent that the nation as a whole enjoys. One rising group of homeowners who require little, if any, assistance consists of buyers from abroad. Just as more Americans are buying vacation homes in foreign countries, so are deep-pocketed foreigners buying second homes here. Plus, overseas buyers of Delray Beach FL homes made billions of dollars worth of residential real estate purchases in the United States during 2005. (more…)

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Increasing numbers of potential buyers and investors are exchanging information in online forums, downloading video and audio reports and reading blogs for property news and opinion. Web activity by international real estate professionals and laymen started picking up only last year. Sam Taliaferro, an American developer in Panama, now spends three hours a day on a half-dozen blogs that range from events in his development to general investment trends and life in the country.

Podcasting, a format that has skyrocketed in the past couple of years thanks to the popularity of Apple’s iPod, also are proving popular for information related to real estate.

“Podcasts are a huge medium at the moment for many media consumers who like to digest their information in other ways than reading,” said Felicity Quigley, property editor at Buy Association. The site was started in September as “an impartial buying guide,” with fact sheets, articles and surveys as well as podcasts.

“A podcast, being audio, is quite personal. You can do other things on our site whilst listening or take it away to listen at your convenience,” said Ms. Quigley, an Australian journalist who ventured into international real estate herself six years ago, buying and reselling a Florida condo to pay for her wedding.

Looking for that perfect Sarasota FL home for sale? Realtor® Annette Smith is ready to help you buy or sell your dream property. (more…)

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