Bank of America has launched a nationwide program that offers delinquent mortgage customers increased assistance with relocation expenses – from $2,500 to $30,000 – at the completion of a qualifying short sale.
To qualify for the enhanced relocation assistance payments under the new program, the seller must work proactively with the bank to obtain a preapproved sales price prior to submitting a purchase offer to the bank. A short sale must be initiated by the end of 2012 and close by Sept. 26, 2013, to be eligible for the payment. Qualifying short sales that have already been started but have not closed may be eligible for the relocation assistance.
Initially, the program will be offered on mortgages that are owned and served by Bank of America. Currently, the percentage of loans that qualify for the program is 8 percent nationwide.
http://www2.realtoractioncenter.com/site/R?i=9SkYMMUWJORJ5pAdh1CeLQ
Los Angeles Times
The pace of new home sales in March was up 7.5 percent from a year earlier, the Census Bureau and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development reported this week.
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http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-new-home-sales-20120424,0,1201517.story?track=rss
Asking prices on for-sale homes rose 0.5 percent in April compared with March on seasonally adjusted basis, according to the latest report by Trulia’s Price Monitor. Together with increases in March and February, asking prices in April rose nationally 1.9 percent quarter over quarter, seasonally adjusted.
Within the largest metro areas, asking prices rose year on year in some neighborhoods, but fell in others. Rents, however, rose in nearly all parts of these major metropolitan areas.
In Los Angeles, asking prices increased only in the downtown area. Prices fell elsewhere throughout the region, most of all in Long Beach, where rents also fell.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, prices rose most in San Francisco and fell furthest in Alameda County.
http://www2.realtoractioncenter.com/site/R?i=F10BM-OoTom4wqVohXwzHA
The Washington Post
With home prices at historic lows and rental rates on the rise, a growing number of investors with cash to spare are seeking lucrative returns by gobbling up foreclosures in distressed markets across the country and turning them into rentals.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/housing-downturn-spurs-a-boom-in-foreclosure-to-rental-conversions/2012/04/24/gIQAFWUZeT_story.html?hpid=z2
Construction spending during March was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $808.1 billion, 0.1 percent above the revised February estimate of $807.3 billion. The March figure is 6 percent above the March 2011 estimate of $762.6 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce.
Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $244.1 billion in March, 0.7 percent above the revised February estimate of $242.5 billion.
http://www2.realtoractioncenter.com/site/R?i=dpflze4Bc-h9Tmqu-MbNsQ
