Short sales will be huge in 2012 as banks are still holding large inventories of distressed real estate.  Most banks are still in the process of establishing well structured departments to handle the inventory.  Many have established small groups with the expectation of growing them. Therefore, look for short sales to increase and inventories start to decline in the new year.

When considering a short sale, a licensed real estate agent is the best individual who can help guide you through the process.  For more information on short sales look here http://homebuying.about.com/od/4closureshortsales/a/shortsalebasics.htm.

 

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The world remains awash in troubles, including slowing growth and recession likely forming in Europe, less-stellar growth in China and a still-weak recovery here at home. That being the case, and with fiscal policy flailing about both here and abroad, central banks announced both individual and coordinated actions to help address some of these issues, and stock investors cheered loudly at the efforts. A considerable rise in stocks this week came partly at the expense of bonds, and while underlying interest rates rose somewhat as a result, most mortgage rates didn’t follow them.

Equity markets were also cheered by reports of very solid sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday to kick off the holiday retailing season. We’ll need to see if these extreme bargain hunters continue to come out for the rest of the annual buying binge before it’s all said and done, but a good start is an encouraging sign that consumers are hunkering down somewhat less than they had been.

HSH.com’s broad-market mortgage tracker — our weekly Fixed-Rate Mortgage Indicator — found that the overall average rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages was unchanged from last week, holding fast at an average 4.35%; the FRMI’s 15-year companion closed the week with a single basis point increase to 3.67%. Important to homebuyers and low-equity-stake refinancers, 30-year FHA-backed mortgages climbed off last week’s record low by three basis points (0.03%) to moved to 3.95%, while the overall average for 5/1 Hybrid ARMs trickled higher by just one hundredth of one percent to 3.12%.

 

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