The City of Irvine's Global Village Festival takes place on Saturday, October 1, from 10 a.m - 6 p.m at Bill Barber Park.
Now celebrating its 10th year, this multicultural festival features international cuisine, live entertainment, a Kids Village with crafts and activities, cultural and religious exhibits and an international marketplace.
Festival admission, parking and shuttles are free.
For more information, visit irvinefestival.org
See you there!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
10th Annual Irvine Global Village Festival
Monday, September 26, 2011
What Happened to Modifications?
There seems to still be a great deal of confusion to where the marketplace is headed with regard to Loan Modifications, Short Sales and Foreclosures.
Our friends at Keeping Current Matters have waded through the details and brings us the latest on...What Happened to Modifications?
There are many questions as to whether modifications would have a major impact on preventing an increase in future foreclosures. Though modifications are still being done, the onus by the government and the banks has currently shifted to two other initiatives to help the housing recovery:
1. Preventing future delinquencies (people falling behind on their payments)
2. Clearing the backlog of foreclosures already owned by the banks (REOs).
As proof of this, we just need to look at the speech by Edward J. DeMarco, the Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), to the American Mortgage Conference. The text of the speech was released last week.
Mr. DeMarco explains: “At the end of the Bush Administration and in the early days of the Obama Administration, attention focused on loan modifications as a way of stabilizing troubled borrowers’ monthly payments and aiding them in avoiding foreclosure. These efforts resulted in the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP. For much of 2009, the key priority was developing and then implementing HAMP; in late 2009 and into 2010, the challenge became making HAMP more operationally effective and converting borrowers from trial modifications
to permanent modifications.”
DeMarco then talks about what initiatives the agency is now concentrating on:
“Current priorities are focused on issues at the two ends of the foreclosure process – at one end, we are enhancing efforts to keep current borrowers from going delinquent in the first place and at the other end, we are now focusing on the challenges of disposing of the real estate owned that is left after a foreclosure.”
My experience shows that the vast majority of loan mods do not work, and I urge people who are upside down with their mortgages to have a back-up plan.
Preventing New Delinquencies
Trying to prevent more American families from falling delinquent on their mortgage payments is a great first step to a recovery in the housing sector. DeMarco claims:
“FHFA is carefully reviewing the mechanics of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) program to identify possible enhancements that would reduce barriers for borrowers already otherwise eligible to refinance using HARP. If there are frictions associated with the origination of HARP loans that can be eased while still achieving the program’s intent of assisting borrowers …we will seek to do so.”
Clearing Existing Foreclosures
We must also clear the inventories of foreclosures currently held by the banks. This is seen by FHFA as a crucial component to any plan to help the real estate market recover.
“The second area I would like to briefly discuss is the disposition of Real Estate Owned or REO. In August, FHFA, Treasury, and HUD issued a Request for Information (RFI) on ways to dispose of REO properties. While the Enterprises have considered various approaches to disposing of REO over time, the RFI represents an opportunity to consider new approaches, including possible approaches that include both the Enterprises and the Federal Housing
Administration (FHA). By taking this collaborative approach, the three agencies seek ways to improve returns to taxpayers and bring greater stability to local housing markets. We have received nearly 4,000 submissions in response to the RFI. We are encouraged by the strong response and interest in this effort. Obviously it will take a little time to review so many responses but we are already hard at work doing so. To be clear, this effort is not intended to
develop a single, national program for REO disposition. Rather, we are most interested in proposals tailored to the needs and economic conditions of local communities.”
Bottom Line
To help the market, the two major initiatives FHFA is pursuing are preventing new delinquencies and selling off the backlog of foreclosures that currently exists. Modifications, at best, now appear to be on the back burner.
Read about innovative short sales here.
Our friends at Keeping Current Matters have waded through the details and brings us the latest on...What Happened to Modifications?
There are many questions as to whether modifications would have a major impact on preventing an increase in future foreclosures. Though modifications are still being done, the onus by the government and the banks has currently shifted to two other initiatives to help the housing recovery:1. Preventing future delinquencies (people falling behind on their payments)
2. Clearing the backlog of foreclosures already owned by the banks (REOs).
As proof of this, we just need to look at the speech by Edward J. DeMarco, the Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), to the American Mortgage Conference. The text of the speech was released last week.
Mr. DeMarco explains: “At the end of the Bush Administration and in the early days of the Obama Administration, attention focused on loan modifications as a way of stabilizing troubled borrowers’ monthly payments and aiding them in avoiding foreclosure. These efforts resulted in the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP. For much of 2009, the key priority was developing and then implementing HAMP; in late 2009 and into 2010, the challenge became making HAMP more operationally effective and converting borrowers from trial modifications
to permanent modifications.”
DeMarco then talks about what initiatives the agency is now concentrating on:
“Current priorities are focused on issues at the two ends of the foreclosure process – at one end, we are enhancing efforts to keep current borrowers from going delinquent in the first place and at the other end, we are now focusing on the challenges of disposing of the real estate owned that is left after a foreclosure.”
My experience shows that the vast majority of loan mods do not work, and I urge people who are upside down with their mortgages to have a back-up plan.
Preventing New Delinquencies
Trying to prevent more American families from falling delinquent on their mortgage payments is a great first step to a recovery in the housing sector. DeMarco claims:
“FHFA is carefully reviewing the mechanics of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) program to identify possible enhancements that would reduce barriers for borrowers already otherwise eligible to refinance using HARP. If there are frictions associated with the origination of HARP loans that can be eased while still achieving the program’s intent of assisting borrowers …we will seek to do so.”
Clearing Existing Foreclosures
We must also clear the inventories of foreclosures currently held by the banks. This is seen by FHFA as a crucial component to any plan to help the real estate market recover.
“The second area I would like to briefly discuss is the disposition of Real Estate Owned or REO. In August, FHFA, Treasury, and HUD issued a Request for Information (RFI) on ways to dispose of REO properties. While the Enterprises have considered various approaches to disposing of REO over time, the RFI represents an opportunity to consider new approaches, including possible approaches that include both the Enterprises and the Federal Housing
Administration (FHA). By taking this collaborative approach, the three agencies seek ways to improve returns to taxpayers and bring greater stability to local housing markets. We have received nearly 4,000 submissions in response to the RFI. We are encouraged by the strong response and interest in this effort. Obviously it will take a little time to review so many responses but we are already hard at work doing so. To be clear, this effort is not intended to
develop a single, national program for REO disposition. Rather, we are most interested in proposals tailored to the needs and economic conditions of local communities.”
Bottom Line
To help the market, the two major initiatives FHFA is pursuing are preventing new delinquencies and selling off the backlog of foreclosures that currently exists. Modifications, at best, now appear to be on the back burner.
Read about innovative short sales here.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Why live anywhere but in Woodbridge, Irvine?
I was taking the dog for a walk around South Lake in Woodbridge last night, and the view of the lake was quite stunning.
Here's a short video I took with my iPhone.
I really love working and living in Woodbridge, and it's not only because of all the activities in and around the two lakes, or the 31 parks, the 24 pools, the 4 tennis court complexes, the 8 basketball courts, the barbeques and tot lots.
Perhaps it's the shopping & restaurants, or the great schools?
(My youngest kid loves Woodbridge High where she is a Junior, and also Springbrook Elementary & South Lake Middle, where she was enrolled prior. There
are four Elementary schools, two Middle schools & one High School, in Woodbridge.)
Perhaps it's the great people I've met, and continue to meet, that appeals to me about Woodbridge, but after thinking about it, there probably isn't just one reason, but an accumulation of all of the above reasons!
If you know anyone who'd like some information about Woodbridge, please let me
know. I'll be happy to send them a package, and if they're interested, I can show them some Woodbridge properties that are for sale or for lease. My contact info is at the bottom of this page.
102 Woodbridge homes are currently "for sale", and the prices range from $209,900 for a 2 bedroom attached short sale condo in the Village Green tract, to $1,159,900 for a 3 bedroom 2,366 square foot SFR on Lakeview in Arborlake.
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