Well, at least that’s the plan according to the Nevada Attorney General. She’s decided the play hardball by filing criminal charges against title officers of Lender Processing Services for, yup, robo-signing. They’re guilty of just about everything a lazy title officer can do – falsifying documents, falsifying certification, signing or notarizing not in the presence of the signatory, etc. etc. It’s a list of the worst of the offenses that every major loan servicing company is guilty of.

I’m happy that someone is willing to name names and clean up some of the mess, but I just love the additional bit of irony that it’s Nevada making the news. The entire country made bad loans, the entire country foreclosed on homes illegally, but it’s two lonely guys in Clark County who were probably just being lazy who get the entire country’s blame.

What a cool system! Think we can make them pay back the trillions of dollars that they owe the economy? Nah, we might just stick these guys in jail and end up paying for them!

Have a great weekend guys.

31% of all home sales in the first quarter of 2010 were foreclosures.

You’re thinking it’s true, right? I mean, why would I make up such shocking numbers for no reason?

Well, you’re right. It’s actually true. Though pretty unbelievable.

What’s even more amazing is that prices for distressed properties were 27% lower than average prices for non-distressed ones.

RealtyTrac says those numbers are up 2500% from the height of the boom! And they claim that most of these properties were picked up by either first time homebuyers or investors. (Ahem, prime customers for folk like us, if you catch my drift. If you don’t, send me a message and we’ll talk.)

And the biggest sources of foreclosure properties were Nevada, California, and Arizona. (Hey, where’d Florida go?)

And average closing prices for distressed homes in Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois had the biggest discounts, 39% below non-distressed.

So, where are we moving first? And if we don’t move, where are our clients moving? Because we’ve got to get in on these prices. If you have any ideas, share them with the group. We’d love to hear what you’re thinking.

I just heard the US government is giving California $700 million to fight foreclosures. So maybe I can pull a fast one and get the money deposited in my account. After all, who helps fight foreclosure more than me?

Though, if I took the money I guess I’d be admitting that I’m a “hard-hit” guy and haven’t been doing well for the last few years.

And I’ll be honest with you, that’s not true. Thank God, I’ve been doing well. And with my success I’ve been able to help lots of decent hard working folk to also be successful. So you know what? No hand-outs for me. I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing.

But back to business, well, the news business anyway.

So the five hardest hit states in our nation: Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, and Nevada are getting a total package of $1.5 billion to create “foreclosure-prevention initiatives.”

Sounds good to me, but do they have any idea what those initiatives should be? Has someone come up with a better system than the short sale yet?

Why do they keep throwing money into a bottomless hole? Just end the madness now and come to grips with reality.

Well, Obama doesn’t ask my opinion. But if you see him, let him know. Maybe he’ll leave a comment on my blog!

Government Handouts

Well, if you’ve been a spectator all this time on the real estate sideline, some people are saying you don’t need to worry about waves anymore. Well, not big ones anyway. The three year onslaught of foreclosure activity appears to finally be receding. According to January’s reports, foreclosure filings were reported on under 316,000 units. That’s down 10% from Dec. but above last January.

However, RealtyTrac predicts that the lull will soon be followed by the wrapping up of a large number of delinquencies that were not saved by loan mod programs. Also, many attempts at avoiding foreclosure through short sales lose steam in the middle of the process.

However, bank repossessions are still down 5% nationwide from December. Nevada still reigns as the national foreclosure capital for the 37th straight month. But California and Florida enjoyed a welcome respite from rising defaults. Foreclosure activity in each was down over 10%.

However, the top 6 states account for 60% of all foreclosures. So if the waves are going to stop pounding us, the bulk of the change is going to happen in the biggest states, such as Florida, Nevada, Michigan, Oregon, etc.

But the real lesson here is not the numbers. What we need to look at is the overall picture. Just like that wave knocking over the spectators, if you’ve been a real estate spectator this whole time, don’t think you’re playing it safe. What affects one person affects all of us. Rogue waves (of foreclosures) can pounce when you least expect them. The answer isn’t to sit on the sidelines and wait it out. The answer is to grab a surf board and ride the waves.

You need to jump on the opportunities that this market is presenting. Take a few risks, get some help (mine, of course) and make some huge strides forward towards your goals.

All you need to do is dive in.

Now this is a map of the severity of the foreclosure crisis that has swept the nation. These are the final tallies for 2009. The darker the shade, the more foreclosures.

(How did your state do? How do you feel your local housing market has been affected?)

The two hardest hit states, as we’re all aware, are Nevada and Florida. These two states have had foreclosure rates of over 17%.

But let’s consider housing prices for a second. Average home prices in Miami rose by 1%, the highest percent in the country last year. On the other hand, Nevada recorded the worst losses of the year. Los Vegas prices fell from $342k in 2007 to $166k in 2009.How do you explain that? The two highest foreclosure states show opposite movements in housing prices? What does that tell us about housing demand in Florida and Nevada?

But anyway, we’ve got to keep an eye on both of these key figures. They’ll help us understand the strength of the recovery. And they’ll give us an indicator of housing trends on a national level. Where should we focus our strengths? Do we push first-time buyers, renters, etc.?

I’d like to know your thoughts.