Central Maine Blog

IMPORTANT UPDATES FROM RURAL DEVELOPMENT: Fiscal Year 2012 began on October 1st and brought many changes to Rural Development’s Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program. First, as in recent years, we will be issuing Conditional Commitments to lenders “subject to the availability of commitment authority”. Since a continuing resolution has been passed by Congress and signed by the President, we expect this authority very soon. We anticipate funding authority of $24B nationally. This is the same amount we received this past year, and all funds were not committed by the end of the year. Based on this, we expect funding to be sufficient to carry us through the entire year.
 

The bigger change is the new annual fee. All Conditional Commitments issued after September 30, 2011, will be subject to an annual fee of 0.3%. This fee is based on the average scheduled unpaid principal balance of the loan. The fee will be charged for the life of the loan. Along with the implementation of the annual fee, the upfront guaranteed fee for purchase transactions is being reduced to 2 percent. The upfront fee for refinance loans will remain at 1 percent. The annual fee will be collected each month as part of the borrower’s monthly payment. The fee collected will be escrowed and paid to Rural Development at the end of each annual period for the borrower’s loan. A fee calculator can be found at: https://usdalinc.sc.egov.usda.gov/USDALincTrainingResourceLib.do

Other recent clarifications that have been issued: RD Administrative Notice 4590 dated July 22, 2011, clarifies outbuildings and when these buildings may or may not affect the overall eligibility of the property for the Guaranteed Loan Program; and RD Administrative Notice 4594 dated July 26, 2011, which clarifies the definition of conventional credit. Any applicant who qualifies for conventional credit, is not eligible to participate in Rural Development’s Direct or Guaranteed Loan Program. For full content of these notices: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rd-an_list.html. With questions: Guaranteed Loan Processing Center, 1423 Broadway, Suite 3, Bangor, ME 04401; (207) 990-3676, Option 4; or GLPC@me.usda.gov

Sales of Maine’s single-family existing homes increased 14.74 percent during the month of August 2011 compared with August 2011, according to the Maine Real Estate Information System, Inc. (MREIS). Home prices decreased 2.8 percent over the same 12 months to a statewide median sales price (MSP) of $165,000. The MSP indicates that half of the homes were sold for more and half sold for less.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports a 20.2 percent increase in August home sales, nationwide. The national MSP declined 5.4 percent to $168,400. Sales in the regional Northeast increased 10 percent and the regional MSP decreased 5.1 percent to $244,100.

Below are two charts showing statistics for Maine and its 16 counties. The first chart lists statistics for the month of August only, statewide. The second chart compares the number of existing, single-family homes sold (units) and volume (MSP) during the months of June, July and August of 2010 and 2011.

AUGUST ONLY CHART
August 1-31, 2010– August 1-31, 2011
County # Units Sold # Units Sold % MSP MSP % 2010 2011 Change 2010 2011 Change

STATEWIDE 950 1090 14.74% $169,750 $165,000 -2.80%
ROLLING QUARTER CHART
From June 1, 2010 – August 31, 2010 and June 1, 2011 – August 31, 2011

County # Units Sold # Units Sold % MSP MSP % 2010 2011 Change 2010 2011 Change
STATEWIDE 3010 3069 1.96% $172,500 $170,000 -1.45%
Androscoggin 210 213 1.43% $138,250 $140,000 1.27%
Aroostook 110 99 -10.00% $85,950 $80,000 -6.92%
Cumberland 804 800 -0.50% $242,000 $235,000 -2.89%
Franklin 68 75 10.29% $128,500 $126,500 -1.56%
Hancock 115 118 2.61% $172,500 $165,000 -4.35%
Kennebec 291 270 -7.22% $135,000 $140,450 4.04%
Knox 96 94 -2.08% $179,750 $174,000 -3.20%
Lincoln 90 73 -18.89% $203,500 $185,000 -9.09%
Oxford 133 140 5.26% $140,000 $125,000 -10.71%
Penobscot 323 339 4.95% $130,000 $137,000 5.38%
Piscataquis 47 56 19.15% $94,000 $75,000 -20.21%
Sagadahoc 81 93 14.81% $175,000 $163,000 -6.86%
Somerset 92 90 -2.17% $86,000 $109,000 26.74%
Waldo 76 78 2.63% $142,750 $137,250 -3.85%
Washington 19 19 0.00% $90,000 $90,000 0.00%
York 455 512 12.53% $218,250 $210,000 -3.78%

Source: Maine Real Estate Information System, Inc. Note: MREIS, a subsidiary of the Maine Association of REALTORS, is a statewide Multiple Listing Service with over 4,600 licensees inputting active and sold property listing data. Statistics reflect properties reported as sold in the System within the time periods indicated.

PROCLAMATION: The Governor and Secretary of State signed a Proclamation indicating June is Home Ownership Month in Maine. To see: http://mainerealtors.com/HomeOwnershipMonthProclamation.pdf

Whereas, our nation's greatest promise has always been the chance to build a better life; and Whereas, for Maine's working families throughout our history, owning a home has come to symbolize the American dream; and Whereas, expanding homeownership will strengthen our nation and state's families and communities, strengthen our economy, create jobs; and Whereas, homeownership has been enhanced by affordable interest rates and the work in Maine of organizations in the public and private sector to provide housing opportunities; and Whereas, the Maine Association of REALTORS will support Maine Open House Weekend on June 4 - 5, 2011, celebrated in conjunction with National Open House Weekend and 56 other nations participating in Global Open House Weekend; and Whereas, Maine offers Quality of Place for first or second homes due in great part to the beauty of our landscape,

Therefore, I, Governor of the State of Maine do hereby proclaim June, 2011, as Home Ownership Month throughout the State of Maine, and urge all citizens to recognize this observance.

A federal law enacted this year offers renters more protection from eviction if their landlord loses the property through foreclosure. The law has some fuzzy requirements, but should be a boon to renters who otherwise might have been evicted with little or no notice.

"The fundamental purpose of the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act is to ensure that tenants facing eviction from a foreclosed property have adequate time to find alternative housing. To that end, the law establishes a minimum time period that the tenant can remain in a foreclosed property before eviction," a Federal Reserve memorandum states.

The national foreclosure crisis has not been kind to renters, despite their seeming bystander status. Indeed, the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) has estimated that some 40 percent of households that have lost their homes due to foreclosure have been renters.

Source: http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=22789901

By Marcie Geffner of Bankrate.com