Realty World – Homesellers.com

Trulia Inc. recently released the results of its Real Estate Regrets survey, which reveals the most-common housing mistakes today’s home buyers and renters should avoid during spring house hunting season.
According to the survey, buyers are feeling the pressure of rising home prices this spring: 75 percent of Americans say it’s better to buy a home now than a year from now. However, fewer than 1 in 3 Americans (32 percent) agree it would be better to sell now than a year from now. Patient sellers, along with little new construction, fewer foreclosures, and underwater borrowers, have pushed inventory to a 12-year low, creating a seller’s market. This year’s housing season will likely cause aggressive buyers to scramble in order to try to win tough bidding wars and overcome stiff competition–putting them at risk of making real estate mistakes they will regret.
More than half of Americans who were involved in the process of choosing their current home (52 percent) have at least one regret about their current home or the process of choosing it. A common theme of the top regrets is Americans not investing enough in their home. Top regrets include choosing a home that’s too small, renters wishing they had bought instead of renting, homeowners regretting not remodeling more, and not being financially secure. When comparing homeowners to renters who were both involved in the process of choosing their current home, renters are more likely to have housing regrets – 56 percent versus 50 percent. Among different age groups who were involved in the process of choosing their current home, Millennial homeowners (age 18 to 34) are far more likely to have housing regrets than homeowners age 55 or older – 75 percent versus 36 percent.

In its quarterly survey of U.S. bank risk professionals, FICO found lenders more bullish on the housing recovery than at any point in three years, with 71 percent of respondents saying home prices are “rising at a sustainable pace” in the context of mortgage lending risk. In addition, 39 percent of respondents are expecting mortgage delinquencies to decrease over the next six months, while another 45 percent expect delinquencies to remain flat, and only 16 percent expect an increase. Those are the most optimistic figures recorded in the 12 quarters since the survey was launched.
The survey, conducted for FICO by the Professional Risk Managers’ International Association (PRMIA), also found that a majority of bankers (59 percent) expect the supply of credit for residential mortgages to meet demand over the next six months, and a slightly larger majority (60 percent) expect the supply of credit for mortgage refinancing to meet demand.

The California Composite Index of Consumer Sentiment increased to 100.4 in the first quarter of 2013 from the fourth quarter’s revised reading of 94.9, according to Chapman University. Consumer sentiment has been increasing steadily for the past five years. An index level above 100 reflects a higher percentage of optimistic consumers versus those who are pessimistic. Improvement in the job market, higher home prices, and the rebound in the stock market seem to more than offset the negative effects of higher payroll taxes and gasoline prices leading to brighter consumer sentiment.
The California Composite Index is generated based on three indices: Consumers’ outlook on current and future economic conditions, and an index measuring consumers’ spending plan.
The current economic conditions index increased from a revised November reading of 83.9 to 93.4 in February 2013, an increase of nearly 10 points. The index measuring future economic conditions increased by eight points to a reading of 108.9 in February from a revised reading of 100.9 in November.
The index measuring consumers’ planned spending on big-ticket items, a volatile component of the composite index, showed a decrease of more than seven points from the revised November reading of 105. The decrease in this index in February to a reading of 97.6 may be due to a decline in consumers’ discretionary income resulting from higher payroll taxes and gasoline prices.

Keep Your Home California has launched an easier-to-use website at www.KeepYourHomeCalifornia.org, allowing homeowners to answer questions online and determine if they are a good candidate for the free mortgage assistance program, and, if so, which program works best for them.
The federally funded program helps homeowners who have suffered a financial hardship, such as a job loss, a reduction in pay, divorce, or significant health care expenses, to make their mortgage payments.
The program, administered by the California Housing Finance Agency, can only help homeowners if they meet income requirements and their mortgage servicers participate in the program. More than 100 servicers now participate in the Keep Your Home California, so most mortgages in California are serviced by a participating Keep Your Home California servicer.
The website also includes lists of participating servicers and HUD-approved housing counselors who support the program and can help homeowners in-person.
Homeowners can obtain full details of the four programs:
• Unemployment Mortgage Assistance Program: Homeowners can receive as much as $3,000 per month in mortgage assistance for up to nine months. Homeowners must be currently receiving or approved to receive jobless benefits from the state Employment Development Department.
• Mortgage Reinstatement Assistance Program: Homeowners can receive as much as $25,000 in assistance to help them “catch up” on their past-due mortgage payments. Homeowners must have suffered a financial hardship and be able to make their mortgage payments going forward.
• Principal Reduction Program: Homeowners can get as much as $100,000 in principal reduction. To qualify, the homeowner must have suffered a financial hardship and be able to make their mortgage payments in the future. Also, the current market value of the home must be less than what is owed on the mortgage, that is, “underwater.”
• Transition Assistance Program: Homeowners can collect up to $5,000 to cover relocation costs as part of a servicer-approved short sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure of their home.
Homeowners seeking more information about the program should call 888-954-KEEP (5337) between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. The Keep Your Home California counseling center can answer questions in virtually any language, and there is never a charge for services through Keep Your Home California. A Spanish-language version of the website is available at www.ConservaTuCasaCalifornia.org.

Data through November 2012, released Tuesday by S&P Dow Jones Indices for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, showed home prices rose 4.5 percent for the 10-City Composite and 5.5 percent for the 20-City Composite in the 12 months ending in November 2012.
In the 12 months ended in November, prices rose in 19 of the 20 cities and declined in New York. In 19 cities, prices rose faster in the 12 months to November than in the 12 months to October; Cleveland prices rose at the same pace in both time periods. Phoenix led with the fastest price rise – up 22.8 percent in 12 months as it posted its seventh consecutive month of double-digit annual returns