The Bergen County Homes Blog

Bergen County homes have done better than most in the US real estate market but like elsewhere, our home values have depreciated over the past few years. For many homeowners this has created a horrible situation where they are facing a short sale or foreclosure.

For those who have seen their mortgage rates reset to a loan they can’t afford, the situation soon deteriorates to a short sale or foreclosure because their loss of equity makes it impossible to get the appraisal needed to refinance to today’s low interest rates. This is why the Federal Government stepped in to help.

On July 1st HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will begin refinancing mortgages with loan-to-value ratios as much as 125%. This means you can be 25% negative in the value of your house and still refinance. The idea is to try to match the loss of equity so that homeowners who’ve been paying their mortgages and have good credit can stay in their homes.

While this is just part of the Bergen County housing market, it allows many people to keep their home and helps stabilize real estate values by avoiding foreclosures and short sale transactions.

If this works for you or someone you know, get in touch with a licensed mortgage banker. You need a top level loan officer’s help to qualify for this program; if you need a recommendation, just let me know.

Great news for home buyers! U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced yesterday, May 29th, that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will allow home buyers to apply the Obama Administration’s new $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit on FHA mortgage loans. Previously the tax credit only applied to conventional mortgages. The only catch is that the tax credit cannot be used towards the minimum 3.5% down payment. But, this is still terrific and a great help for people who need to use a FHA insured mortgage loan.

Secretary Donavan said that the FHA’s objective in doing this was to help stabilize the housing market by stimulating more home sales across the US and it certainly should do so. With the ability to apply the tax credit to purchase costs, buying a home now becomes affordable for thousands of people and affordable enough to get thousands to jump off the fence and into a house.

FHA loans are extremely popular with first time home buyers because qualifying for a FHA mortgage is a lot easier than qualifying for a conventional loan. The ratios are easier and the down payment can be as little as 3.5% although I must tell you that I do not approve of buying a home with such a low down payment. What I tell my home buyers is to wait until you’ve saved up at least a 10% down payment.

While interest rates went up this week, they also came down on Friday so we’re still in the 5-5.5% range for what most people really qualify for in a mortgage. This has been where it’s at for the past several months throughout the spring.

The reason the first time home buyer market is critical to the housing market is because this is where the housing domino chain begins – when a home buyer buys a house, he buys it from someone who often moves on to a bigger house and so on and so on. The entire chain of transactions begins with the first house that is sold and that’s your first time home buyer.

If you look at the real estate market the picture you see is a pyramid with the least expensive homes on the large bottom (mostly first time home buyers) and the most expensive at the very top. Without those large bottom rows of buyers, the real estate market will collapse. So the FHA, by accepting the $8,000 tax credit on its loans, has helped tremendously to maintain the strength and stability of real estate.

There is a new thief who preys upon homeowners who must put their home on the market as a short sale. Simply put, a short sale occurs when a homeowner can no longer pay his mortgage, has no other assets and the loan amount is greater than the home is worth. As a result there is a shortage between what’s owed on the home and it’s market value. The only way a homeowner can sell his home is by getting the bank to accept this shortage, thus the term “short sale.”

These new thieves market themselves as having all the solutions to your problems because they have a “special” ability to negotiate a short sale with the bank. Nothing could be farther from the truth. What really happens is that a desperate homeowner is taken advantage of by these horrible people because the truth is that they are completely unnecessary.

Realtors do short sales all the time. If you must put your home on the market as a short sale, your listing agent can do the work and negotiate with the bank on your behalf. You can also ask your attorney to do this for you and many people do. What you don’t need is to encumber yourself with an unnecessary expense by hiring one of these charlatans. They are today’s version of the proverbial “snake oil salesman.”

I have worked on short sale transactions successfully. It is a tremendous amount of work and takes a long while. Everyone involved needs a lot of patience but eventually things do work out. Buying a home that is a short sale means a long wait for the buyer. Sometimes a buyer will cancel his contract out of frustration – it takes months and months to see if the mortgage bank will accept the buyer’s offer. But, hiring one of these thieves will not help you – it only wastes your money on these frauds. Every bank has it’s own unique process and no one can make a bank move any faster.

Don’t allow a predator to hurt you – if you have any questions, email me and if I don’t know the answer, I’ll find someone who does.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy mortgages which means that they guarantee them. Without the backing of Fannie and Freddie, mortgage lenders have to find other investors to sell their mortgage loans to and those investors charge more so interest rates are higher. Fannie and Freddie backed mortgages are called conforming; the others are called jumbo. The limit on a conforming mortgage is $417,000 but that is about to change.

There’s also an intermediate level which is a special allowance for higher cost areas like Bergen County. Such mortage loans are at $417,000 – $625,000 with moderately higher interest rates than conforming loans. This is a super conforming loan but marketing folks have coined the phrases Jumbo and Super Jumbo. You’ll see a Jumbo Mortgage at $417-625,000 and Super Jumbo above $625,000.

OK, now you should have a good basic idea of how things work. Here’s where it gets interesting:

Fannie and Freddie are increasing the conforming mortgage loan limits to $729,750 on May 4th. This came about due to the economic stimulus package which was signed into law on February 17th. Wells Fargo will start taking applications for these loans on Monday, April 27th and I’m sure other banks will begin before May 4th too.

New Jersey MLS data shows that the 2008 average sales price for a single family home in Bergen County was $570,217. Even with a 20% down payment, this put a buyer into jumbo loan territory. In several towns it was often impossible for many buyers to qualify and is part of the reason that upper mid range homes have had such a hard time.

In the upper mid range market, it’s really been tough due to the restrictions on conforming loans. Loosening up lending for these homes creates more buyers for sellers. For real estate in Bergen County this is huge. Bergen County is the 18th most affluent county in the US; many of our towns have been severely impacted by the $417,000 limit and even $625,000 didn’t quite work.

For example, Tenafly had an average sales price last year of $915,581, Old Tappan was $1,147,159 and Woodcliff Lake was $838,309 plus many other Bergen County towns have scores of homes that will benefit. If you are a home buyer who’s looking at $850,000 homes, think of how this will help you! You won’t have to pay a point and your interest rate just dropped.

Think of the impact this will have on real estate in Bergen County and across the United States. Buying a home is never an isolated transaction. Real estate is a chain of events – there are homes sold above and below your own transaction so anything that happens in one price range affects it all. This is going to have quite an impact.

What Can We Expect in 2009?

I can answer this with one word – improvement. I had projected 10% depreciation but that was before the stunning sub prime mess was revealed. While we have “Monday Morning Quarterbacks,” the truth is virtually no one knew of this growing menace. The Tenafly market for homes in 2008 ended with 25% fewer sales and 18% depreciation.

Yet Tenafly homes did better than most; our market is more resilient than you’d think. Selling a home took less time in 2008 and first quarter figures indicate we’ll do even better this year.

Appraisers are still deducting 1% per month but say this will end later in the year; Jeff Otteau, the renowned analyst of New Jersey’s housing market, announced in mid March that 2009 will end with 9% depreciation statewide. This dovetails with a second half recovery; homes in Tenafly will see it during the fourth quarter.

By recovery I do not mean that prices will go up; they won’t. They will stop going down and the market will stabilize. We’ll stay there for another year or two before any upward swing bringing us to 2012 or later.

Although unemployment will continue to increase over the next several months, it should level off by year’s end. Unfortunately unemployment will not improve quickly. For now we can only estimate how this will affect our market; its impact takes a while to be felt.

But Washington funded the FHA to continue lending and increased the tax credit to $8,000 with no payback required. This enabled first time buyers to get in the market. With the lion’s share of price depreciation done and mortgage rates so low most of us have never seen this, home buyers are back in the market. Activity has really picked up since March 1st with no signs of slowing down.

What is certain is that Tenafly real estate remains one of the most in demand markets in the NYC metropolitan area. This will not change. While we can’t escape the storms of life, the truth is that Tenafly weathers them better than most in Bergen County and the New York City area.

The most important first step in buying a home is financing which involves getting prequalified for a home mortgage.  It doesn’t matter if you’re buying Bergen County real estate or a home somewhere else – because your mortgage loan is so critical to your home buying process, you are naturally interested in any news about these loans.  Here is where you begin what I call Mortgage Rate Madness.

People afflicted with this disease believe that they can get mortgage rates at levels not seen because they don’t exist.  The other day I had a call from a consumer who had this disease – a really bad case of MRM!  She thought she could get a mortgage rate of 4%.  The reason she was so sure of this was simply because one of her friends heard this on the radio and someone else saw it on TV.  Hmm…..maybe at 3 in the morning you might see some infomercial where all sorts of nice people are sitting in their Bentleys (which they rented for the hour) telling the world all sorts of mysterious fables.  You know, the folks who make millions without working and get tons of free money.  It isn’t your fault if you get the MRM disease.  This virus is everywhere – it’s on the radio, it’s on TV, it’s online, it comes from a friend who heard it from a friend who heard it from…and on and on and on.

OK – how about a good dose of reality?  Mortgage rates are indeed low.  In fact, they’re so low that they’re truly at historic lows.  But the interest rate on your mortgage depends on many things – for example, if you have a small down payment, for almost everyone that means a FHA loan.  Because your down payment is small, the risk is greater to the lender so the interest rate is a little higher; the FHA specializes in such loans.  It’s all in the details as they say.

It also depends on how much money you are going to borrow.  Up to $417,000 it’s one rate, at $417,000 – $1 million it’s about one half point higher, etc.  Mortgage rates vary depending on how much you borrow, your down payment and, of course, your credit score.  What I can tell you is that there’s a cure for MRM disease – work with a good licensed mortgage banker.  Invest some time in getting properly educated and pre-approved for your mortgage.  It’s usually the biggest loan you’ll ever have.  If you go to the Financing section at www.BergenCountyHomes.com you’ll find several.  Trust me – if it’s too good to be true, it’s MRM disease!

Simply put, a short sale occurs when a home that is sold is worth less than the mortgage amount and the homeowner cannot make up the difference.  For example, you sell a home for $75,000 but the mortgage is $100,000; you’re short $25,000.  The bank enables the homeowner to sell the house by forgiving the $25,000 difference.  So while the bank doesn’t own the house, the owner can’t sell it without the bank’s cooperation.   Of course, in an actual short sale, the bank would be forgiving the mortgage amount, any other liens and the closing costs. 

If you are interested in pursuing a short sale in Bergen County, please contact an attorney who specializes in real estate before you do anything.  It is always best if you begin by being fully informed.

To get the bank to allow a short sale, a homeowner completes a “workout package” for the bank’s approval including a ”hardship letter” in which the circumstances of the homeowner’s difficulties must be explained along with supporting documentation (pay stubs, account statements, etc).   

Why would a bank do this?  Because the other alternative is a foreclosure which will cost the bank much more in time and money. 

Why would a homeowner do this?  A short sale erases the debt – most of the time the bank forgives everything; infrequently it may insist on a promissory note for part of the loss but that’s still much better than a foreclosure.  In a foreclosure, the debt is still owed so creditors can take your vehicles, garnish your wages, clean out your checking account etc.  This can last for years until the debt is paid off.  A foreclosure ruins your credit for about 10 years – this is a disaster like the Titanic.  You can recover your credit in a few years with a short sale plus the IRS does not consider the forgiven debt as income.

In Bergen County we have 3,703 single family homes for sale according to the New Jersey MLS today; 346 are short sales.  That’s 9.3% of all homes for sale.  Real estate can be negatively impacted by foreclosures; it’s not nice to drive down your street and see a boarded up house with a “Sheriff’s Sale” sign on it so there are many reasons why a short sale is a better idea; it helps the bank, the homeowner and real estate in Bergen County.

Buying a home for most of us means getting a mortgage and, of course, the interest rate on that mortgage is determined in large part by your credit score.  Actually, whether or not you qualify for a mortgage is often determined by your credit score alone.  While it’s true that your income as well as your debt and assets are also important, your credit score is critical to the interest rate charged on your mortgage.

Credit scores are vital to your financial well being in so many ways that have nothing to do with purchasing a home.  For example, your credit score can impact what you are charged for auto insurance or whether or not a utility company requires a security deposit in order to get the lights turned on in your new home.

Here’s a good tip to improve your credit score – don’t pay off your credit cards; instead, get them all down to half or less of what you’re allowed to charge.  Ellen Jacobson is a Senior Mortgagage Banker with JP Morgan Chase and someone I’ve worked with for years.  She told me that most of the folks she sees think that they should pay off one credit card at a time in an effort to have fewer credit cards.  “Nothing could be further from the truth” she told me.  In fact, she said that closing a credit card can hurt your credit score. 

Of course no one is advocating that you maintain credit card debt but if you have several credit cards, try to make sure you keep them all no higher than 50% of what you are allowed and you should see an improvement in your credit score.  It’s also a smart idea to consult with your mortgage banker before you do anything.  Being careful is always a good idea.

I’m not an economist – I’m just a real estate agent.  But, as opposed to what some of my friends will tell you, I am not crazy and I have a lot of common sense.  This is why what has happened makes no sense at all to me.

It all starts with the mortgage.  If you go to my website at www.BergenCountyHomes.com you will see an entire section devoted to how to buy a house the right way.  And what is the first thing I tell you to do?  Go to a licensed mortgage bank.  I refuse to work with any buyers who will not go to a credible financial institution.  Period.  End of story.  No way.  Can I be more direct?

It makes no sense at all for anyone to go to a credible banker who tells them they can afford $100 and then shop around on the internet and find a miracle – you can now afford $150!  Miracles, voodoo dolls, fortune tellers, glass balls with smoke inside, tarot cards etc. are not how you figure out what you can afford. 

I keep telling people, the first thing you do before you look at one house is to work with a licensed mortgage banker.  This is why what happened makes no sense to me.   Realistically I understand how it happened – of course I do.  But it still makes no sense at all to me that so many people found miracles and believed them.  What’s even worse were the people stirring that miracle pot of magic and proclaiming that they were Merlin the Magician or the Wizard of Oz.  Where was Dorothy when we needed her?

And how about those Hedge Fund folks and all the others who churned those packages of bogus loans?  Years ago you had to justify the credit worthiness of a loan to get an investor to buy it.  Well, I guess that went out the window into some dark hole.  But, again, it all comes down to that individual who only wanted to buy a home and wanted a miracle.  But, it wasn’t entirely his fault.

Have you ever tried to read a mortgage document?  If you’ve bought a home in Bergen County, you’ll remember your closing as a blur of papers you had to sign.  They are supposed to be in understandable English but no one, perhaps not even the Pope, can understand it all. 

So between greed from the mortgage broker (notice the expression mortgage broker – it doesn’t say licensed mortgage banker now does it?) who was motivated to sell a loan and get a commission, the real estate agent who was motivated to sell a home and get a commission, in many cases that agent’s manager and company who wanted even more transactions, the banking system who wanted that loan no matter whether or not the buyer could pay for the mortgage and the international investors who wanted US investments and took it “on faith” that what some salesperson was telling them (disguised as a financial advisor, trader, investment banker, hedge fund, international institution, etc) was the truth, we went down this road to a crash literally heard around the world.

So, for those of you who want to buy a home and are nice enough to work with me, understand why I have been telling people for over 20 years that you do not go to alphabet soup mortgage brokers, you go to such places as JP Morgan Chase, Huson City Savings & Loan, Classic Mortgage, New Jersey Lenders or ISB.  These are all strong, solid institutions and no they do not have the lowest rates published – I can almost guarantee you of that.  What they do have is something we used to call a “true rate” (as opposed to untrue?) which tells you what it really costs.

Remember, if these folks tell you can afford 100 or 150, that’s what you can afford.  Because not only do they figure in your mortgage amount, but good, ethical licensed mortgage bankers also figure in things like property taxes and home insurance.  As a result, the figure they give you is credible and usually not as terrific as ABC Mortgage’s phony pie in the sky miracle rate.  But, it is real and so you are protected. 

If you need some good bankers to refinance or buy a home, go to http://bergencountyhomes.com/financing.htm (and in case you’re wondering, I receive no sponsorship from any of them; they don’t participate in conflict of interest behavior and neither do I)