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PROPERTIES FOR SALE 

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I don’t know about you but I hate tornadoes. Seriously.

So it does not warm my heart to realize I live between the 2^nd worst and the 9^th worst cities in the country for tornado activity. Ugh…

Give me a hurricane any day of the week. You know you are going to get clobbered with a hurricane but you have time to prepare. But a tornado is like a doberman. You know there is a chance he will turn on you, but you are never sure when or how it will get you.

That being said, here are the

Top 10 Cities For Tornado Activity

RANK	CITY	ACF (%)	DISTURBED LAND AREA (ACRES)
1	Little Rock, AR	0.02453	197
2	Atlanta, GA	0.02369	191
3	Indianapolis, IN	0.01852	149
4	Birmingham, AL	0.01748	141
5	Macon, GA	0.01683	135
6	Jackson, MS	0.01360	109
7	Shreveport, LA	0.01169	94
8	Montgomery, AL	0.01016	82
9	Columbus, GA	0.00901	72
10	Columbia, SC	0.00889	71

via Raycom Weather

Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published.

Top 10 Cities For Tornado Activity

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A sign that the big banks are focusing on core fundamentals and not esoteric investments happened today. Citigroup is selling their Citi Property Investors division to Apollo Management. The reasons for the sale are 2 fold. One, these investments are tanking. They are not performing and are a drag to the company. Better to divest them while the company is underwater and still has government investments in it.

The other reason is that big pappy, the federal government and 27% owner of the company, told them to get rid of assets. And when big pappy speaks, you listen. Of course, this subverts our whole economic system when the political arm directly injects itself into the business of business. But, who cares anymore, right?

All I do know is the timing was right for Apollo to buy. Even if the market still goes down, all the factors in the deal point to a bad deal being made by Citigroup. They were told to sell an asset, they did, and they have cover if the deal is bad.

Such is life in the new America…

The inclusion of Citi Property Investors to Apollo’s portfolio will more than triple the private equity firm’s real estate assets, the agency said. City Property Investors’ portfolio includes 65 investments in 26 countries with a net asset value of $3.5 billion, according to the agency. Apollo signed a letter of intent and the deal may take as long as three months to close, the agency said.

The U.S. government stepped in to prop up Citigroup at the height of the financial crisis in October 2008 when officials at the U.S. Treasury feared the bank’s crumbling financial condition could destabilize financial markets worldwide.

On March 4, Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit told a congressional panel that he had sold off many proprietary trading businesses, including the Phibro energy trading unit, and was focused on trading services for clients. via Reuters

Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published.

CitiGroup Selling Real Estate Division to Apollo

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Another week, another tepid swing of the bat by the White House to fix the housing crisis before the midterm elections.

If you are short of time this is as succinct an analysis as I could offer on the new Federal Short Sale Program offered by the White House to fix the foreclosure problems plaguing the country.

The trillion dollar foreclosure program will not be fixed by any band-aid or government program. The notion that we can fix systemic problems that took years to create overnight by a program or two is crazy, but it seems that Washington thinks this is the way to do it. All this does is perpetuate the problem and draw it out.

Here is the analysis by the NY Times:

The problem is highlighted by a routine case in Phoenix. Chris Paul, a real estate agent, has a house he is trying to sell on behalf of its owner, who owes $150,000. Mr. Paul has an offer for $48,000, but the bank holding the mortgage says it wants at least $90,000. The frustrated owner is now contemplating foreclosure.

To bring the various parties to the table — the homeowner, the lender that services the loan, the investor that owns the loan, the bank that owns the second mortgage on the property — the government intends to spread its cash around.

Under the new program, the servicing bank, as with all modifications, will get $1,000. Another $1,000 can go toward a second loan, if there is one. And for the first time the government would give money to the distressed homeowners themselves. They will get $1,500 in “relocation assistance.”

Now let’s be serious for a brief moment and look at this situation realistically. A bank that is seeing a short sale and is upside down on the offer by $101,000 is now going to throw manpower it does not have to earn an extra $1,000?

Have these folks on Washington not waited on the phone for Bank of America’s mortgage guys to answer? You have to be kidding me.

The difference between reality on the streets and the ideology in Washington is getting further and further apart. And the sad thing is, if Washington had kept out of the process we would have had a market by now. The short term pain would have been greater but there would be hope for the future.

Now all we have is death by a thousand paper cuts.

Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published.

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Do my eyes deceive me? Is America slowly climbing out of the debt cycle that has come close to choking it in recent years. (ed. For everyone but the government it has…) The American consumer is shying away from home equity loans and cash out refinancing on their mortgages and are now bringing money to the table when they are refinancing their mortgages.

The deleveraging of America is happening right before our eyes and for some it is welcome news. Of course, there is a consequence to this, the money that was coming out was keeping our economy humming. Think about it for a second. If money is being saved it is not being spent creating jobs and buy “stuff”.

But the irrational purchasing during the past decade may have kept employment high and businesses humming, it was still an artificial bump. The consumers bringing money to the table to refinancing their mortgages is a great example. They will be able to save on costs like Private Mortgage Insurance and have the opportunity to qualify for lower mortgage rates.

The savings on these cost will provide a more disposable income for families, income that will not be predicated on debt that must be re-payed down the line.

America is wising up…

Now the pendulum in consumer psychology appears to be swinging toward reduction of household debt — whether on credit cards or mortgages.

In Freddie Mac’s latest quarterly survey of refinancings, 33% of homeowners put cash into the deal to lower their mortgage balances, the highest percentage ever. By contrast, only 27% of refinancers took cash out — the lowest percentage on record.

Why shift money from savings into your house? Nothaft says a small percentage of refinancers — including himself and his wife — traditionally have preferred to lower their mortgage balances whenever possible.

There are at least two key rationales for doing so, Nothaft says. No. 1: If interest rates are low and you’re getting minuscule returns on your bank savings or money market funds, paying down your home loan may well provide you a better return on your investment. via the LA Times

Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published.

Cash-In Refinancing Gaining in Popularity

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