US HOUSE PRICES DOWN

A survey by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has shown that prices of existing homes in the US have fallen over last year for the first time since April 1995. The price of the average existing property fell by 1.7 per cent in 2006 to approximately $225,000 (£120,000),  according to the NAR, while the number of sales was also down over that year.

NAR chief economist, said that the figures held mixed messages for analysts but that overall it was clear that the market slowed down rather than "crashing" as some predicted, we saw a level off and anticipate growth again by year end through into 2008.

“It keeps us on track to see the third-highest sales year on record, with adjustment in home prices over the last several months we can now work through the build-up in the inventory of homes on the market,” 

NO MORE CGT IN MALAYSIA

Malaysia is set to abandon capital gains tax on property transactions beginning on 1 April, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced last week. The measure – part of a series of government initiatives designed to stimulate the country’s currently moribund property market – will “inject more excitement and dynamism in both the property and financial sectors”, according to Abdullah.

“Potential that has gone unrealised or under-optimised will be turned into new industries and businesses, new value creation and new jobs,” he told the Thai parliament last week.

Alongside the scrapping of CGT the government has announced the creation of new incentives for the substantial Iskandar Development Region free economic zone. Businesses in six key sectors – education, financial consultancy, healthcare, logistics, tourism and “creative industry” – will be offered tax breaks if they set up within the zone before 2015. It is expected that foreign developers and agents will be quick on the uptake here, as well as in the four new free zones announced by Abdullah: the Northern Corridor Economic Region, the East Coast Corridor, the Sabah Corridor and the Sarawak Corridor – the latter two are on the island of Borneo, which has been the recipient of a new wave of foreign property development investment over the past year.

The first step – the loan application

As might be expected, the first step in obtaining an AU (automatic underwriting) is to provide a complete credit application (also called a “Fannie Mae 1003”) or “Uniform Residential Loan Application”. This is the most important document in any USD mortgage loan package.
It must be accurately and fully completed in order to be able to obtain timely loan decisions.
Application needs to disclose verifiable information, so Loan Processor will be able to confirm it
Unverifiable information, misrepresentations or omission of facts will create a cause for denial.

U.S. Home Prices Still Rising But Rate Of Appreciation Slower

Unlike the see-saw figures on housing sales and house prices that come out monthly from the National Association of Realtors and the Census Bureau, the House Price Index (HPI) published quarterly by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) takes the longer view.

The HPI for the fourth quarter of 2006 was released on March 1, and while it clearly shows that the bubble is no longer expanding insanely, prices have stabilized and there is still modest appreciation. In fact, the appreciation, 1.1 percent over the three month period, was slightly better than the 1.0 percent growth in the third quarter.