According to the Los Angeles Times, closing costs–the fees associated with closing a transaction, most notably title insurance, document fees and applicable taxes–across the nation have been going down in price. Usually, if not always, closing costs are in correlation with a sales price, so this news may not shock our readers as we’ve all seen prices coming down over the year.  That said, the LA Times article notes that despite comparisons of similarly priced homes, the cost to close is still dropping.  Yet another perk to buying in a distressed market.

Nationwide, the average closing fees on a $200,000 mortgage, with 20% down and a 30-year fixed-rate loan, totaled $2,732, down from $3,118 in 2008, the study found. Closing costs for home buyers haven’t been this low since 2007, the survey said.

Average U.S. closing costs fall; San Francisco grabs the No. 4 spot [LA Times]

Mike Genstil, CEO of eRealInvestor, details why it’s critical that investors have access to complete information to make more informed purchase decisions.

A study conducted by economists at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the European University Institute found that:

Up to 26% of U.S. homeowners who stop paying their mortgage may be doing so intentionally, not because they can’t make the payments but because they don’t want to put money into a house that’s worth less than what they owe. [The study] raises some doubt about the approach the Obama Administration has taken toward stabilizing the housing market.

We’d like to hear from our readers.  Have any of you decided to stop paying your mortgage because you’re under water?

Mortgage Defaults: Many Are Intentional, Study Finds [TIME]

The Obama administration’s $75 billion foreclosure prevention effort is unlikely to succeed because mortgage lenders cannot turn a profit on modified loans, concludes a new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Analyzing 665,410 loans originated between 2005 and 2007 that subsequently became seriously delinquent, the Boston Fed found that only 3 percent of borrowers had their loans modified to lower monthly payments, and about 5.5 percent received workouts that did not result in lower payments.

Also, up to 45 percent of approximately 150,000 borrowers who received some kind of aid ended up in arrears again, but about 30 percent of delinquent borrowers were able to fix their problems without help from their lenders.

Lenders avoid redoing loans, Fed concludes [Boston Globe]

There have been rumors circulating for months that banks are holding on to thousands of foreclosed properties so that they don’t flood the market to further depress prices.  Over the last few weeks however, those rumors have started to surface from credible sources, including The Washington Post, where Renae Merle takes a closer look at a family that wants to foreclose, but can’t due to the bank back-log.  Some would argue that we have not yet seen the bottom of the housing slump and if investors are looking for opportunities to purchase foreclosed property, all they have to do is sit tight and wait for more distressed property to hit the market.

The backlog of seriously delinquent mortgages, which so far affects about 1 million borrowers, is a shadow over hopes for a rebound in the nation’s housing markets. It masks the full extent of the foreclosure crisis and threatens to depress prices even further just as some parts of the country are hinting at recovery. For lenders, it could portend even more financial losses tied to the mortgage meltdown.

Not Paying the Mortgage, Yet Stuck With the Keys [The Washington Post]

Some would argue that the housing “crises” started in conjunction with the bank collapses last September.  Buyers got wary and held off on purchases, listings sat on the market for lenghts of time not seen in years and got stale.  The banks that didn’t fold were afraid to lend money and the Federal Reserve was siezing financial instutions that were teetering!  Yikes, it got messy for a moment.  There are solid arguments being presented on both sides of the “have we hit bottom yet?” conundrum, but it’s clear that some markets are looking more attractive than others to home buyers and investors.  Yahoo Real Estate recently reported that:

home price declines have sent affordability soaring. Prices have fallen so far that the average U.S. home is now undervalued by 12.2%, according to a new report from IHS Global Insight.

Atlantic City, New Jersey was ranked as the number one most overvalued city in the nation as it has listings like these on the market.  We’ll take a closer look at the most undervaled city as ranked by IHS Global Insight Vero Beach, Florida in our next post. 

Most Overvalued and Undervalued Housing Markets [ Yahoo Real Estate]
Most over- and under-valued housing markets [CNN Money]

To slow the foreclosure process down in California, last February Governor Schwarzenegger signed ABx2 7 (Lieu) also known as the Foreclosure Prevention Act which went into effect on Monday 5/15/09.

The Act adds 90 days onto the time period between when homeowners default on a loan and when their home can be repossessed in foreclosure. Banks can avoid the 90-day holdup by having a comprehensive program in place to make mortgages more affordable by reducing the interest rate, extending the loan term, or reducing or deferring some of the principal.

Foreclosure freeze prods banks to modify loans [SF Gate]
Governor Signs Lieu Foreclosure Prevention Act [Ted Lieu]

More people are recognizing how critical numbers are to buyers and sellers in today’s market. Yes, you can buy properties for positive cash flow. Two sites, New Homes Realty and Fizber.com, recently chose eRealInvestor to be their analysis tools of choice for their sites.

See the very slick integration done by New Homes here…click Analyze This Property on this great Austin Home.

It’s very simple to customize the integration of our software. The New Homes agents love it!

As the credit market tightens up, now is an even better time to be looking at foreclosures.  If you have cash, or can get private money, you can really get into some amazing deals.

Our latest marquis partner is www.foreclosure.com, who has integrated eRealAnalyzer on its thousands of foreclosure listings on their property details pages.

If you have a foreclosure.com account, you would find the Cash Flow Calculator link on this page. When you click Analyze This Property, it would take you here

All foreclosure sites can be integrating our software, as it enables primary homebuyers and investors to be one click away from determining the financial attractiveness of a purchase!

We’re very pleased to be integrated with Condo.com, the largest condo listings portal. Take a peek at the integration on this Denver property on Condo.com. See “Analyze Property” under Next Steps.

Read the article about our partnership here.

Different partners promote our integration in different ways. Real Estate Promoter/ eHarbor’s integration is very prominent on all featured listings.

Check out the article describing this partnership here and let us know what you think!

Inman News, the leading source of real estate technology news, featured the company today in a great article titled eRealInvestor provides long-term view of property purchases. The article talks about the power of tools as well as eRealInvestor’s growing number of partnerships. Check out the article and let us know what you think.

I spoke at RealComm, the commercial real estate industry’s premier technology conference, last Wednesday. Jim Young and Howard Berger, the co-founders of RealComm, gave us the opportunity after seeing a demonstration of our solution and learning that LoopNet had utilized our application. See the panel we participated on here, under Automated Business Solutions, Innovation Spotlight - www.realcomm.com/sandiego.htm

The feedback was highly positive at the event, as several commercial agents are now considering including our technology on their sites. Some of them requested customizations, which we will be easily able to include.

- Mike Genstil, Founder and CEO

We are now live on  RealEstateJournal.com, the real estate section of the Wall Street Journal online. For those who don’t know, WSJ.com is one of the fastest growing online news sites. According to its own numbers, WSJ.com hosted 15 million unique visitors in March 2008, a 175% increase over March 2007. It’s real estate section is one of the most popular sections of the site. RealEstateJournal.com targets real estate buyers, sellers and professionals and providers visitors with editorial reporting alongside property search and research tools.

The eRealInvestor’s Property Analyzer is accessible from the toolkit section of the Wall Street Journal’s real estate section home page (the toolkit is located in the right-hand column below the Marketplace section).

You can also checkout the Property Analyzer by visiting: http://www.erealinvestor.com/w/dowjones.html

We recently sponsored a study available from Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine that debunks some of the myths in the current real estate market and identifies significant opportunities.

This first-of-its-kind national study conducted by Harris Interactive, parent company of the Harris Poll, debunks ten widely held “myths” about real estate investment in this $320 billion annual market. Other sponsors of the survey include the California Association of Realtors, CyberHomes by Fidelity National Financial, Houston Association of Realtors, RE/MAX Integra and Wells Fargo Mortgage. For more information on the study, please visit the Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine website.

Over the past couple of weeks, eRealInvestor has gone live on hundreds of thousands of properties across thousands of agents’ websites. Here are some examples of how some of our partners have integrated our tools into their website offerings for real estate professionals:

• Prudential Decker Realty (Birdview)
• Praedo Homes (eHarbor)
• John Hall & Associates (Number1Expert)
• Coldwell Banker (Obeo)

If you visit these sites you will notice the flexibility we have given partners to embed our “Analyze” button into their sites. This button puts potential buyers visiting a partner’s site just one click away from the simplest, most usable real estate analysis tool available!

You will also notice how partners can create private-labeled or co-branded versions of eRealInvestor!