Las Vegas Real Estate Blog

Source: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - Article from the Online Journal

Growing inventories of unsold homes continue to weigh on the U.S. housing market, portending more downward pressure on prices, the latest data show.

The number of homes listed for sale in 18 major U.S. metropolitan areas at the end of May was up 5.1% from April, according to figures compiled by ZipRealty Inc., a national real-estate brokerage firm based in Emeryville, Calif. The data cover all listings of single-family homes, condos and town houses on local multiple-listing services in those areas.

Source:
Psst: Want to buy a better credit history?
Kenneth Harney
Washington Post Writers Group,  April 20, 2007 – 12:08 PM
http://www.startribune.com/417/story/1131631.html

The latest scam to hit the Real Estate/Mortgages/Credit/FICO market: Buying and Selling FICO scores to qualify sub-prime applicants for tightened standards.

When your credit scores don't qualify you for the home mortgage you want, where do you turn? That's an especially timely question now, as banks and mortgage companies tighten underwriting standards for applicants with less than perfect credit.

But federal and state authorities fear that some borrowers are turning to a fast-growing business on the Internet: companies that claim to boost credit scores by transplanting the credit DNA of people with excellent payment histories into the credit files of people with subpar histories -- ostensibly without breaking any law.

The companies claim to raise FICO credit scores by 50 to 250 points by adding low-scoring borrowers as "authorized users" on the credit card accounts of people with FICO scores well in excess of 700. The positive payment information from such cardholders then flows into the files of the persons with subpar credit.

This takes advantage of a loophole in the Federal credit law, which does not limit the number of "authorized users permitted on any single credit card account." The law does not "prohibit the rental or sale of authorized user designations.

The potential for fraud is there -- especially with the way loan originators offload mortgages. As long as everyone involved keeps the loan going for a few months (3-6 months) prior to default/foreclosure, the loans can get easily sold and not represented to the originator.

Consider how easy it is if a few players are in on the fraud: If the appraisers over-value their estimates of the home, it allows excess purchase prices to be paid. The RE agent gets their commissions, the mortgage brokers get paid, the originator who did the loan got its fee. The buyer who magically qualified for much more house than it could afford gets a seller's concession in cash/check. They only have to make a certain number of payments, and then they can walk away.

There's a new baby making a splash on the Strip. A male dolphin was born Friday. He weighs just 25 pounds right now.

It's rare for dolphins to be born in captivity. The Mirage says it'll be a few weeks before we'll know if the calf will survive.

He doesn't have a name just yet, but a contest is in the works to determine what his name will be.

     Your a GOLFaholic if...

• You think that some day you'll shoot your age, when a more realistic goal would be to shoot your weight!
  
• You know there's more to life than golf, but your'e not interested in finding out what it is!
  
• You quit the game forever, twice a month!
  
• You buy every new golf gizmo that comes out!
  
• You think you're skillful and everybody else is lucky!
  
• You miss the ball, but still think it was a great swing!
  
• The new clubs you just bough cost more than your mortgage and car payment combined!
  
• You can't break a 100 but still think you could give Tiger a few tips!