Mortgage Fraud
mark94
Arizona
Why does this matter ? It means the claim that 90% of homes are owner occupied with plenty of equity is false. It means there isn’t a shortage of housing but rather a lot of people own multiple homes.
It means the housing bubble is bigger than we imagined. If these investor and vacation homes hit the market, it will be nuclear.
https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/…
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Or....people who have been searching for homes, but dealing with multiple bids/competition will finally be able to purchase a home, rather than being a servant to landlords, due to scarcity of real estate.
I'm not opposed to landlords. In fact, if I weren't so averse to dealing with potentially disrepectful tenants, and unreliable/untrustworthy contractors and real estate agents, I would be one myself.
As with any profession, there are good ones and bad ones...so I'm not intending shade toward anyone; I've just had too many bad experiences.
So, a lot of these homes are now being offered as long term rentals and are still sitting empty.
The only people buying are those with high incomes who are desperate to buy ( e.g. moving a family to a new city ).
It’s a game of chicken. If all the AirBnB, investor owned, and vacation homes were to suddenly hit the market, prices would fall dramatically. Otherwise, it’s going to take interest rates coming down, whenever that might be.
That’s why the number of homes that aren’t owned by the primary resident are key to what happens next.
SoCal isn’t like the East Coast where it seems many beach areas are 60-75% “second homes” for individuals and thus more crash-susceptible.
Unfortunately, there are always a group of new RE investors who think home prices and rents can only go up. They leverage their investment and are financially unprepared for the occasional correction.
The Philadelphia Fed study suggests that a significant percent of homes are owned by this kind of unprepared investor. Bad for them. Bad for the housing market.
I’d like to add that there will be many two story homes coming into the market over the next 10-20 years as boomers try to downsize and search for smaller single story residences. This too will be a loooong process, non disruptive to the markets other than premiums offered for single story. Smaller single story homes have always garnered a higher price per sq ft compare to 2 story, going forward they will either get a bigger premium or 2 stories will be sold at a discount. It’s difficult to paint with a broad brush, ie specific markets will vary. Phx will be different than the Midwest, and west coast will be different than east coast, but in general I think large gyrations in the housing sector will be relatively smooth compared to 2006-2009.
As for people who bought a house to live in, yes they will likely lose some equity if the housing market goes down - yes. How much they lose will depend on the location since some areas are much more overvalued right now than others. If they made a logical purchase that was within their means and at a reasonable price based on historical values in the area rather than the inflated values being realized during the bubble they shouldn't lose much. If they bought into an overpriced home that was in an area with a huge bubble that wasn't a smart purchase and now they are going to pay for it.
Even in that scenario it probably wasn't that bad of an investment if you look at it as a whole rather than just the sales price.
As long as your loss on the sale of the home is less than the total it would have cost you to rent a similar home in the same area for the entire time you owned the house you are still better off for having bought the house than if you were renting for that period of time. As long as you weren't trying to quickly flip the house and you actually lived in it for several years you should be ahead, especially considering that rent has gone up even faster than home prices in many areas.
For instance, if you bought a 3 bedroom house for $250k 10 years ago and you sell it for $200k now you would still be better off even factoring in interest on the mortgage than paying $1,000+ per month to rent a house for those 10 years and being out $120k+ in rent with zero equity.
Worst case, if you are underwater on the mortgage after prices drop just hold off on selling until the math works in your favor several years down the road. If you have to move now for whatever reason you may have to buy a smaller home in a less desirable location or rent a place that is cheaper than you can rent out your current home for.
There’s always fraud around investments, but as with any other investment, if you’re making intelligent decisions and thinking long term, whatever short term mistakes you make, are likely not going to permanently damage the investment value of your portfolio.
A lot of corporate RE investors are selling inventory and scaling back on home purchases. A lot of their financing is adjustable rates. That’s killing them. They get a better return on bonds and TBills.
We will see a gradual increase in homes for sale. Will it crash ? It might in some places.
The folks that worry about a crash are mostly shortsighted, folks, that are looking for a scheme, to get rich quick. Long term investors know there’s downside risk in every market and plan accordingly.
So yeah there was fraud but there was also a system that encouraged fraud