U r b a n T r e k k e r

Banks Offer Bitter Homeowners Money

Don't let the exterior of foreclosed (bank-owned) properties fool you. I have seen some houses with dings, trash all over the place, roaches everywhere. Whatever your imagination allows. Deal or no deal. You just have to figure out how much it's going to cost you if - you decided to move forward and buy the property. A reality scene from Wall Street Journal. 

Crystal Plaza II Office to Residential conversions (update-1)

Crystal Plaza II office building conversion to mixed-use moves forward. It is currently under going renovation, according to Arlington County. County Board approved the conversion in 2006 to let Vornado/ Charles Smith convert the 12-story building into a residential building with 6 additional new floors and will contain 324,263 gross square feet. The redevelopment could rise as high as 20 floors. Wow. This could potentially be quite a 'view' overlooking DC from the Penthouse?

Before

After

image: Arlington County

The new residential building will have 254 residential units (an adjustment from 266 units). Project designer is Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum, the same company that worked on Clarendon sector plan for Arlington county. A visit to their website shows their impressive line of design architectural and design work.

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Not Bad

Countrywide dude, Angelo Mozilo (former CEO), will walk out the door with $10 million as a parting gift from Bank of America. This is the same guy who said in his testimony to Congress that 'no one predicted housing bust.' Really? That's interesting.

Via BloggingStocks.

Countrywide (NYSE: CFC) CEO Angelo Mozilo, perhaps the most reviled executive in corporate America, will get $10 million as part of a Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) takeover of the mortgage broker. Investors and members of Congress are incensed. The "bonus" is described in SEC filing as "performance based." Countrywide shares are down from $42.24 to $5.63 over the past year.

One powerful senator may go after the payment. "It's perverse for Bank of America to reward the principal architects of the bad business practices that caused this housing crisis,'' said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, said in a statement, according to the AP. Perhaps shareholders will get lucky and Schumer will fight the pay-out of the money.

Shame.

Weekly Real Estate News Roundup

image: Slate

* Fannie, Freddie Must Raise Up to $20 Billion
WASHINGTON - The federal regulator who oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said Friday they likely will have to raise between $10 billion and $20 billion in new capital to offset the impact of loosened regulatory restraints.

* First American Core Logic: 36 States See Housing Prices Drop in Past Three Months
First American CoreLogic released its latest housing price index values for February on Friday, which found that housing prices continued to drop steeply in key areas throughout the United States.

* Inside the Mortgage Crisis: From Boom to Bust

* Get a Hot Deal in Cool Market
Birth, death, marriage, divorce. Throw in new careers and lost jobs, and you've got the reasons most of us fail miserably at timing the real estate market. We sell and buy because life -- not market conditions -- drives the decision.

* Bush Readies Mortgage Aid Plan
The Bush administration is finalizing details of a plan to rescue thousands of homeowners at risk of foreclosure by helping them refinance into more affordable mortgages backed by public funds, government officials said.

* KB Homes Swings to Loss as Housing Sales Decline
Home builder KB Home posted a quarterly loss on Friday with impairment and abandonment charges as the U.S. housing market continued its steep decline, and said it did not expect conditions to improve in the near term.

* Vacation Home Sales and Prices Tumble as Buyers Wait
     March 28 (Bloomberg) -- Vacation home sales in the U.S. tumbled 31 percent last year and real estate bought for speculation dropped 18 percent as mortgage lenders tightened standards, the National Association of Realtors said.

* The Quad's Not the Only Green Spot on Campus
Although college buildings can be energy-hogs with weekday-only classrooms and offices, the environmental revolution discussed in class is increasingly visible on the outside of the same lecture halls.

* Da Noive" of That Lender!
A MYSTERY: In this week's Bankrate survey, the 30-year fixed fell 3 basis points, to 5.95 percent. As they say in France, "je suis really confused."

* Be Proactive When Foreclosure Looms
I have an 80/20 mortgage and the payments are steep. We were told by our previous mortgage company that we could lower the payment by refinancing in six months and combining the mortgages into one mortgage.

* Zippy Cheats and Tricks
The Oregonian is reporting this morning on a JPMorgan Chase memo titled "Zippy Cheats & Tricks". The Oregonian obtained a copy of the memo, and the memo apparently offers tips on how to get loans through Chase's in-house automated loan underwriting system..

* Best Places to Buy Foreclosed Homes
Only today's bravest buyers would consider homes in cities like Las Vegas and Tampa, where rampant foreclosures are sinking already weak real estate markets.

* Commercial/ Multifamily Finance Markets Mixed, Report Says
Washington, D.C.–based Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Finance Quarterly Data Book for the fourth quarter of 2007.  The Data Book compiles the most up-to-date information on topics of interest to financial investment industry participants and observers.

* U.S. Housing: The Big Picture by the Numbers

There is no denying that all real estate is local and that over the long term, personal income ultimately drives the price of residential real estate.

* Foreclosing on Fido
In the swank Country Club area of Anthem, Ariz., Barbara Ward-Windgassen's rescue group has saved a bichon frise, Lhasa apso and shih tzu -- some with their leashes still on -- after their owners had abandoned them in their foreclosed high-priced homes.

* Desperate Measures: A Look at Home Builder Incentives
Last month, 29.8% fewer new homes sold than in February 2007, with the level of new homes sold hitting a 13-year low, Jeff Bater reports in today’s Journal.

FROM AROUND THE REGION: DC-MD-VA

* County Mails Reassessments Notices
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY -- The County government has completed its annual reassessment for 2008 and on March 31 will begin mailing approximately 131,600 assessment notices to property owners.

* The Housing Bust at Bernanke's House
Bloomberg.com takes a look at home prices in the Washington, D.C. area through the prism of Ben Bernanke’s house. The Fed Chairman (pictured) bought his brand-new four-bedroom, 2,600-square-foot townhouse in Capitol Hill’s historic district for $839,000 in May 2004. Home values in Mr. Bernanke’s neighborhood — mostly filled with 19th-century brick row houses — peaked the following year.

* Buyers' Dollars are Going Further
The slowest real estate market in years appears to be translating to nicer houses for Washington area buyers.

* A Struggle for Stability
Even people who avoided the exotic loans and unrealistic budgets that brought on a wave of foreclosures can lose out -- if there are enough of the other folks living nearby.

* Supervisors See Declining Home Values, Too
Feeling glum about declining home values? Will it make you feel better to know that members of the Board of Supervisors are in the same predicament?

* A Space that Rocks
How cool would it be to invite a close group of friends to your Georgetown condominium overlooking the Potomac River to listen to Mandy Moore singing from her latest recording, Shannon McNally giving a private, soulful performance, or Eric Lindell and his band jamming just for you and your guests?

* Fredericksburg Officials Expect Waterpark to be Economic Windfall
Fredericksburg officials hope the proposed Kalahari Waterpark Resort will drive down the city’s unemployment rate and help it attract more conventions and events.

* A Long Trip Down Memory Lane, via the Blog
Let's take break from the here and now and spend a few moments looking back at Big Moments in Nationals Park History, as reported here on JDLand.

* D.C. Picks Developer for Lincoln Heights Project
D.C. has selected Blue Skye Development LLC as its development partner for 4427 Hayes St. NE - a long-vacant apartment building that will be redeveloped into 26 units of mixed-income housing.

* F.C. Council Puts Ceiling on Tax Rate, Average Tax Bill Will Drop
It came as a startling revelation to some on the Falls Church City Council Monday that, despite prospects of raising the real estate tax rate from $1.01 to $1.04 to balance the coming fiscal year budget this spring, the result will be that homeowners in Falls Church will pay an average of $112 less in taxes.

* Pr. George's Bucks Local Population Trend with 2007 Decline; Housing Market Cited
Prince George’s County lost more than 2,000 residents last year, making it the only county to lose population in a region that experienced modest growth, according to Census Bureau data.   

The Naysayers

The Problems with Short Sale

Last I checked, there are at least 711 short-sale properties (all types) on the market from DC stretches down to Prince William county with price range from the low-$99k to $2.9 million. Not counting Maryland here.

Short-sale homes are not foreclosed yet. Kind of having a hanging-in-there status. This kind of sale requires the third party, that is the lender, for approval.

The problems with short-sale lie in the fact: 1) It takes forever to hear back from the lenders via listing agents and 2) Only a small percentage (really tiny sliver of the whole market) of short-sale homes actually got sold! In 2007, only 36 short-sale properties got sold vs. 5000 foreclosures vs. 34,596 non-distressed homes or the regular sales. (Think the data maybe a bit off, since I don't know exactly when MRIS started tagging the 'short-sale' properties)

The number two is the 'biggest' problem of short-sale.

It's easy if you have only one lender to deal with. But, what about lender/s holding second - and third trusts if any - since every little bit of mortgage loans is being sliced and diced?  An easy way to explain the dilemma, via CNBC.

Lenders holding first mortgages get first dibs on borrowers’ cash or on the homes should people fall behind on their payments. Banks that made home equity loans are second in line. This arrangement sometimes pits one lender against another.

When borrowers default on their mortgages, lenders foreclose and sell the homes to recoup their money. But when homes sell for less than the value of their mortgages and home equity loans — a situation known as a short sale — lenders with first liens must be compensated fully before holders of second or third liens get a dime. [emphasis mine]

There you go. And where are the other lenders located? Who knows where the securities ended up. Somewhere in the world. Maybe in Asia. Maybe in Europe.

Since nobody knows their whereabouts, that's why it takes forever to hear back from the lender or listing agent. Without their approval, there won't be any sale.

Taxpayers Bill for Bailout

A follow-up from yesterday's post.

There's talk about comprehensive plan to 'bail out' (Washington don't like the 'bail out' word) dipping further beyond what Fed already did. The Fed got us into bailing companies with bad investments and stick the bill to taxpayers. But, they haven't got into the heart of the problems yet, the main reasons why we got to this mess!

Bloomberg's headline says it all: "Taxpayers May be Liable from Bear, Mortgage Rescue."

The new development coming from the Fed is that the Fed should limit their effort to bailout Wall Street. I don't know the relationship between what the Fed's chief saying and the Senate's inquiry into how the Bear is going to cost us (read:the  US taxpayers).

No wonder some homeowners are taking it to the Bear.

Metro DC #9 Foreclosures Bank (Lender) Owned

If you're not sick yet reading about foreclosures, here is the list of top 10 metropolitan cities where you find the most number of lender-owned or investors foreclosed properties, via Wall Street Journal.

These are probably metro areas where prices were high. No wonder, DC is in. At the same token, foreclosures kind of driving buyers out there looking for 'diamond in the rough.'

Read the full thing.

Shaky Market

image: MSNBC

Reading what's coming out of the news today made my head spin (trying to understand what went wrong). It started out with housing. Consumer confidence the lowest since 1973. Thornburg mortgage hit panic button, selling their bonds at 18% interest? And the value of our greenback tanks. We got into situation where we're losing our buying power.

Reuters.

The Federal Housing Finance Board on Monday voted to let the banks immediately use existing capital to increase their holdings of mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie and Freddie, or agency MBS, for two years.
The $4.5 trillion market for agency MBS is the cornerstone of the entire mortgage market and had shown signs of cracking until signs of federal support appeared.

MarketWatch.

Here's the list of 20 cities covered by the Case-Shiller index:       
Las Vegas, down 19.3% in the past year; Miami, down 19.3%; Phoenix, down 18.2%; San Diego, down 16.7%; Los Angeles, down 16.5%; Detroit, down 15.1%; Tampa, down 15%; San Francisco, down 13.2%; Washington, down 10.9%; Minneapolis, down 10%; Cleveland, down 8.5%; Chicago, down 6.6%; New York, down 5.8%; Denver, down 5.1%; Atlanta, down 4.8%; Boston, down 3.4%; Dallas, down 3.3%; Seattle, down 1.3%; Portland, down 0.5%; Charlotte, up 1.8%. [emphasis mine]

CNBC.

Thornburg Mortgage said it was looking to sell up to $1.35 billion of bonds in a private placement as the company tries to raise the funds necessary to keep lenders at bay and avert bankruptcy. The struggling "jumbo" mortgage lender is paying an annual interest rate of 18 percent on the debt, which can be adjusted down to 12 percent if Thornburg satisfies certain conditions.

Bloomberg.

The dollar may decline a second straight day against the euro and yen as traders bet the Federal Reserve will cut its target lending rate by as much as a half- percentage point next month to revive economic growth.

New York Times.

Gerard Cassidy, managing director of bank equity research at RBC Capital Markets, projects 150 bank failures over the next three years, with the highest concentration in states like California and Florida.

There's talk about comprehensive plan to 'bail out' (Washington don't like the 'bail out' word) dipping further beyond what Fed already did. The Fed got us into bailing companies with bad investments and stick the bill to taxpayers. But, they haven't got into the heart of the problems yet, the main reasons why we got to this mess! The kind of check and balances that should be in place. So far, they're only scratching the surface.

On the 'buy' side. Buyers are out there looking out foreclosures. Bargain hunter investors already lined up to buy beaten-down mortgage related securities.

Dunn Loring New Homes

A while back, when I just get started tracking new homes for New Homes Trekker blog, the first post was this.

It looks like new homes will be built on this site sometime soon. I don't know exactly how many acres of lot. There are a couple of houses next to this one that's been bought out in addition to this house.

The site is about a block away from Merrifield Metro. Wonder what type of homes will be constructed on this site. Condos? Townhomes? Single Family Homes? There's no information available yet as of now.

Merrifield is part of Fairfax County Revitalization project and one of the fastest growing condo communities in Fairfax. Easy access to Metro, the Beltway, I-66 and Tyson's Corner helps fuel the going condo trends over here.

Fast forward a few years, there are two communities across the street from each other, Dunn Loring Chase and Dunn Loring Glen. Both of these communities are within walking distance from Dunn Loring metro station. That's why they name it Dunn Loring - and - something. Two different developers, Brookfield Homes and Dittmar Company, working the area across from each other's site. The constructions for single homes is an unusual move by Dittmar, because their core of business is rentals. The last condo they built in Arlington was converted to rentals.

Brookfield had done clearing the bigger land and ready to build 18 new single homes on the site. Not sure how many homes sit on the land before it was bulldozed to build the community. Across the street from here, Dittmar has already subdivided their (smaller) land for 7 homes.

DUNN LORING CHASE (by Brookfield Homes)

image: Brookfield Homes

Over here, Brookfield plans to build 18 Craftsman-inspired homes that offers 3,400-7,900 s.f. of living space and up to 7 bedrooms and 7.5 baths. The standard is 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, and 2 car garage. Nothing has been built there yet. According to the sales rep, it'll take anywhere from start to finish 6-8 months after contract data. There are five different models (with different elevations): Chadwick, Dudley, Edgemont, Halley, and Meridia. It seems that the Dudley model offers the largest living area among these five models.

Each home comes with fully equipped kitchen, luxurious baths and energy-saving features. Few of the things you'll find in the kitchen: GE Profile Energy Star appliances, granite or silestone countertops, 42-inch oak cabinet, butler's pantry, kitchen island, morning room and hardwood flooring. Some of the features in the bathroom: ceramic tile floors and bathtub surround in bathroom, garden soaking tub (not sure I have seen this before) and separate shower in the master bathroom, private water closet.

There's only a few communities in our area that have build 'truly green homes.' At the most, you'll find Energy-Savings features. Here is some of the 'good energy savings' features.

• Energy Star appliances
• Clean and green recycling center
• Dual-zone gas heating for maximum efficiency
• 75-gallon, high-efficiency gas hot water heater
• Maintenance-free low-e, double glazed, insulated, double-hung windows with tilt-in sashes
• Insulated entry door
• Insulation in roof ceiling, overhangs, vaulted ceilings, exterior walls and basement walls
• Air infiltration prevention system
• Attic ridge vent system
• OSB with house wrap

The insulation in roof, overhangs, ceilings, exterior walls and basement walls plus the low-e double glazed windows and vent system - would help you maintain a lower energy bills, keep the house warm in the winter and cool (comfortable) in the summer.

Homes are priced from the low-$1 million.

DUNN LORING GLEN (by Dittmar Company)

model home

There are only 7 homes planned to be built in this community. One of them is already been completed, that's the house they use as a model home. Size of lots approximately 0.25 acre per home with finished homes from 3,600 to 6,500 s.f.

Each home features designer kitchen, luxurious bath finishes, and energy efficiency. Designer kitche features granite countertops, stainless steel GE appliances package, walk-in pantry, butler pantry with sink and wet bar. The energy-efficiency shares some similar features as Dunn Loring Chase even though not as comprehensive as what they have to offer here:

• Andersen thermal pane windows and sliding doors
• Efficient forced air gas heating
• Dual zone central heating and cooling
• 75-gallon 'quick recovery' gas hot water heater
• Tyvek insulated house wrap
• R-15 exterior insulation, R-38 attic insulation

There are two models available: Albermarle and Brentwood.

Homes are priced from low-$1.3 million.

Schools: Stenwood ES, Thoreau MS, George Marshall HS. Community info, here.

Crossposted at New Homes Trekker