Luxury Home Video Tours and Virtual Tours in Texas. CONTACT: Ramsay Mudgett, 512-328-3939, Turnquist Partners Realtors EMAIL: Ramsay@TurnquistPartners.com WESITE: www.tourfactory.com PROPERTY TYPE: Single Family Condo ADDRESS: 2300 Barton Creek Boulevard #28, Austin TX. 78735 BEDROOMS: 4 BATHROOMS: 4 DESCRIPTION: Resort living with panoramic views is yours with this 4 bedroom, 4 bath, 4 living area, single family condominium in a gated community located in the prestigious Barton Creek area of Austin, Texas. Walls of windows, soaring ceilings, gourmet kitchen, and a pool with heated spa and waterfall are only a few of the features. Only 25 minutes to downtown Austin and amidst excellent schools, the Barton Creek Country Club, and beautiful Hill Country of Central Texas. Video Tour Service. Virtual Tour Service. Presenting the finest Condos and Luxury Homes in Texas, celebrity homes, and HGTV Mansions. Luxury Home Video Tours filmed on location. Luxury Real Estate on TV and in the news. Luxury Condos in Austin. Castles and Mansions for Sale in TX. www.TheLuxuryBrokers.com All Rights Reserved. Information Deemed Reliable But Not Guaranteed. Neither The Luxury Brokers, LLC. nor the service providers for The Luxury Brokers, LLC. are liable for any errors or inaccuracies in the information provided through this website. © 2009 The Luxury Brokers, LLC.
Video Rating: 0 / 5

The mortgage delinquency rate fell last month in the U.S., along with the total number of delinquent mortgages, says a report by a leading lender processor.

The study by Lender Processing Services found that 6,082,000 mortgages in the U.S. were late by at least 30 days or were in a state of foreclosure, compared to 6,167,000 in December of 2011, about a 1.4 percent drop. The LPS report also shows a drop in the year-over-year January delinquency rate — which excludes homes in foreclosure — and a slight rise in the month-over-month foreclosure inventory. Both are signs of a recovering economy and subsiding government action against mortgage servicers, experts say.

The total U.S. loan delinquency rate — which refers to loans of 30 days or more past due, but not loans in foreclosure — was 7.97 percent, LPS says. That represents a 10.5 percent year-over-year drop from 2011, and a 2.2 percent month-over-month drop from December of 2011. The LPS report examines the just-under 40 million mortgages registered in its loan database.

Browse through photos of millions of home listings or search foreclosure listings

The fall in the national delinquency rate coincides with a survey released earlier this month by the Mortgage Bankers Association that found delinquencies dropped in the last quarter of 2011.

“Mortgage performance continued to improve in the fourth quarter, reflecting the improvement we saw in the job market and broader economy,” Jay Brinkmann, chief economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association, told MortgageOrb.com.

Also finding that the foreclosure pre-sale inventory increased month-over-month by 1.1 percent, the LPS report seems to substantiate analyses that suggest that — even as fewer homes are entering a foreclosure danger zone — foreclosures that government action had previously stalled are now resuming, in the wake of a recently announced $ 25 billion settlement.

‘We continue to see signs on a local and regional level that the frozen-up foreclosure process is beginning to thaw,” Brandon Moore, CEO of online foreclosure marketplace RealtyTrac said in a statement earlier this month.

The rise in foreclosures could accelerate, Moore and other experts say, since the nation’s five major servicers and state attorneys general recently settled a $ 25 billion investigation into illegal foreclosures. During the settlement negotiations, many of the servicers delayed moving forward with foreclosures, wanting to keep a low profile in the face of government scrutiny, experts say. Mortgage servicers like LPS, which handle appraisals, titles and closings, have been among those under investigation for “robo-signing,” or falsifying signatures on foreclosures and other real estate documents.

The states with the highest percentages of delinquencies and foreclosures combined were Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey and Illinois, while the states with the lowest percentages of delinquencies and foreclosures combined were Montana, Arkansas, Wyoming, South Dakota and North Dakota.

%Gallery-145816%
Also see:
Home Affordability at Record High, Builders’ Report Says
Bank Sold Your Loan? Mortgage Settlement May Deal You Out
Foreclosed Homeowners Get More Time to Request a Review

Permalink | Email this | Comments

AOL Real Estate – Blog

South Carolina is famous for its soul food, rapper Young Jeezy and Stephen Colbert, but we think the Palmetto State should be getting some serious love for its houses, too. Exhibit A, this fine creation on the idyllic Spring Island.

This $ 2.895 million home fits so flawlessly into its low-country landscape that it’s almost painfully perfect. Warm earth tones, highlighted by deep green detailing on the home’s sprawling exterior, blend beautifully into the natural landscape which boasts matching hues. From every window, you can spot willowy, moss-covered oaks and glistening opalescent stretches of the Colleton River.

On the inside, it’s an architect’s dream. From its brick, wood-burning fireplaces, cherry floors, onyx-topped cabinets, custom cantilevered “floating” staircase and soaring wood-paneled ceilings, it deserves an award or something … like the AIA’s Robert Mills Award for Architecture, perhaps?

%Gallery-148137%
Other features we love? A stunning separate guesthouse boasting four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a private screened porch with waterfront views (now that’s Southern hospitality), plus the property’s snaking boardwalk, which winds through the oaks to a shared deep-water dock on the Colleton.

View the listing here.

Click on the images below to see more homes for sale near Spring Island, S.C.

See more Houses of the Day on AOL Real Estate.

Got a tip for House of the Day? Know of an exceptional or unusual property currently listed for sale? Please email krisanne.alcantara@huffingtonpost.com with your suggestions and be sure to include links to listing details and photos. (Due to the volume of response, we unfortunately are unable to reply to each submission.)

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
See celebrity real estate

Permalink | Email this | Comments

AOL Real Estate – Blog

Under the terms of the historic $ 25 billion settlement announced last week, the country’s largest mortgage servicers must pay $ 17 billion to distressed borrowers in the form of loan modifications, mostly through principal write-downs.

Painted as long-awaited redress for bank misdeeds, the penalty is supposed to funnel relief to the segment of homeowners hit hardest by the housing bust: “underwater” borrowers at risk of default.

But while the agreement appears poised to offer loan modifications to at least some distressed homeowners, details of the deal that have been released so far suggest that the assistance is not only extremely limited in scope but also, in the words of one expert, seemingly “arbitrary.”

That’s because, regardless of the standing of a loan, qualification for principal reduction appears to hinge on one question: “Who owns your mortgage?”

If the answer is “not a major bank,” then there is a high probability that the borrower won’t see a dime in assistance. That may strike some as unfair, says Jack Guttentag, an emeritus professor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, because borrowers “don’t have any say about who ends up owning their loan.”

Loans owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which account for half of the nation’s mortgages, are already completely off-limits for write-downs under the deal, while FHA-insured loans, which also comprise a considerable portion of total market share, are also ineligible.

In addition, investor-owned loans which, like those owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, are packaged into securities, also generally fall outside of the deal’s purview, according to the attorneys general. The North Carolina Department of Justice estimates that only 20 percent of modifications performed under the deal will touch private investor-owned loans.

Brace for Disappointment?

So what’s left? Only relatively obscure loans that sit on banks’ books, according Guy D. Cecala, CEO of Inside Mortgage Finance Publications Inc. “Most banks [don't] hold 30-year fixed-rate mortgages on their books,” Cecala says, noting that mortgages owned by the five servicers account for just 7.3 percent of all U.S. mortgages.

The pool shrinks even further when you consider that most borrowers need to be at least underwater if not delinquent to qualify for principal reduction. Cecala estimates that just one in 10 bank-owned loans fits that mold. That would appear to leave just 0.73 percent of American loans eligible for most of the modifications (excluding the relatively small amount of private investor-owned loans that stand to receive some relief from the deal).

Given those broad exclusions, many homeowners, who at first might think that they qualify for the deal, seem set up for disappointment.

That’s certainly the case for Christy Mannering, who took out a 30-year, fixed-rate, zero-down mortgage for $ 189,000 from Countrywide (now owned by Bank of America) just prior to the housing bust. Mannering, who is a web designer at the University of Delaware and also runs the blog scrink.com, had always been under the impression that her servicer owned the loan. “Their name is all over everything,” she says.

So when she and her husband heard of the settlement reached between attorneys general, Bank of America and other major servicers last week, the couple breathed a sigh of relief. With a home that’s underwater by tens of thousands of dollars (according to Zillow, their house is worth $ 139,000, Mannering says), they believed that they were likely candidates for assistance under the terms of the deal.

But after a little research, Mannering discovered that they do not qualify because Bank of America sold their loan to what she calls a “phantom loan owner:” Fannie Mae. Unfortunately for the family, Fannie Mae-owned loans, are not eligible for modifications under the deal.

“I would have never thought that it is not [held by] Bank of America,” Mannering said. “Bah, humbug.”

Browse through photos of millions of home listings or search for rentals

According to publisher Cecala, the mortgages that are most likely eligible for the relief are “legacy loans” from the go-go days of the housing boom: payment-option adjustable rate mortgages.

The loans offer artificially low “teaser rates” that exclude principal payment at first, but later “recast,” often resulting in financial distress. The loans, which banks often keep on their books because they are too difficult to securitize, “became underwater very, very quickly,” Cecala said, and the ones still limping along are likely to draw the attention of banks looking for ways to pay their share of the $ 17 billion penalty. But banks have already modified many of these loans, Cecala said, in order to keep them from defaulting. So only a fraction of them are still eligible for modifications.

A Possible Break for Jumbo and Second-Lien Loans

In addition, bank-owned jumbo loans, which are so big that they exceed the limit of what government-sponsored entities are usually allowed to underwrite, are likely candidates for the modifications. But they are generally healthy loans, since borrowers have always needed to meet relatively high standards to acquire them. That means only a small minority of these mortgages will qualify for write-downs as well.

Second liens, which banks tend to hold on their books, are another group of mortgages that could serve as fodder for banks looking to meet their modification quotas. But this option, mortgage experts say, is particularly unpalatable to lenders.

“There is incentive to do a larger principal reduction on the first lien, as it improves the position of the second lien,” reads recent Amherst Securities Group L.P. report, which argues that banks are incentivized by the deal to modify private investor-owned mortgages in order to improve the standing of their second liens. (If a borrower receives a first-mortgage modification, then he is more likely to pay his second mortgage.)

The report also highlights the general incentive that banks have to use private investor-owned loans to pay their penalty credits: modifying a private investor-owned loan costs the bank almost zilch — investors take the hit instead.

Contradicting the Amherst Security Group report’s predictions, state attorneys general have said banks will not pass along most of their penalties from the deal to private investors. After all, they say, under the terms of the settlement, banks get fewer cents on the dollar for paying their penalty through private investor-owned loans, and may only modify those loans if their contracts with investors permit modifications. Cecala agrees, estimating that, out of all loans modified under the settlement, only 10 percent of them will be private investor-owned.

But Laurie Goodman, who co-authored the Amherst Securities Group report, told AOL Real Estate that she doesn’t “see how they can make their numbers with only portfolio loans [bank-owned loans].” And Cecala acknowledged that, given the relatively small number of bank-owned loans that may qualify for modifications, banks would seem to have quite a challenge ahead of them if they want to reach $ 17 billion in modifications by primarily using bank-owned loans.

If banks do pay much of their penalty by modifying private investor-owned loans, that would extend the deal’s coverage beyond a favored group of bank-owned loans to a wider swath of distressed mortgages.

Also see:
Foreclosed Homeowners Get More Time to Request a Review
Foreclosure Fire Sale: Will Bulk ‘REO to Rental’ Program Fly?
Billboard House Advertises a Way Out of the Housing Crisis

%Gallery-139166%

Permalink | Email this | Comments

AOL Real Estate – Blog

By Kerri Panchuk

Mortgage lender Chase and nonprofit Operation Homefront will partner to place 100 wounded warriors, military members and veterans into Chase-owned homes.

Operation Homefront is a nonprofit that provides aid to active military, wounded warriors and veterans.

The new program — Homes on the Homefront — will provide transitional services for veterans and families chosen to receive the residences.

Read the full story on HousingWire.

Also see:
CoreLogic Report Shows Sharp Drop in Foreclosures for 2011
Bank of America Plaza to Sell at Foreclosure Auction
Top Turnaround Housing Markets for 2012

%Gallery-147919%
More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

AOL Real Estate – Blog

It’s a home that even the obsessively picky Dr. Niles Crane would love.

Which is a shame, because it appears that his off-screen self, the Emmy Award-winning actor David Hyde Pierce, is over it.

AOL Real Estate has learned that Pierce has just listed his exquisite, Spanish Colonial-style mansion in Los Angeles for $ 7.5 million. Granted, Pierce has owned the house for nine years (a lifetime in the fickle world of Hollywood real estate), but if that house were ours, we’d never want to leave.

With 1920s-Spanish features like a grand rotunda entrance, a stunning baronial fireplace, and a gorgeous spiral staircase rising to a stained glass ceiling, the home is anything but your typical California McMansion. The home is decked out in warm, earthy tones and each room is beautifully illuminated by chandeliers or other artful fixtures.

%Gallery-147819%
The 8,184-square-foot home also features seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a huge kitchen, a wine vault, a home theater and a superb library-study. (Check out those gorgeous, floor-to-ceiling wooden bookshelves!)

Richard Cassese and Raphael Barragan of Engel & Volkers Los Angeles have the listing.

Click on the images below to see more homes for sale in Los Angeles, Calif.

See more Houses of the Day on AOL Real Estate.

Got a tip for House of the Day? Know of an exceptional or unusual property currently listed for sale? Please email krisanne.alcantara@huffingtonpost.com with your suggestions and be sure to include links to listing details and photos. (Due to the volume of response, we unfortunately are unable to reply to each submission.)

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
See celebrity real estate

Permalink | Email this | Comments

AOL Real Estate – Blog

There are two things we really like about this stately mansion in San Clemente, Calif. One, it’s located in the Cotton Point Estates, the former neighborhood of President Richard Nixon and his “Western White House.” Two, it’s selling for $ 7,777,777. Yep, you read right: That’s lucky number seven, seven times.

Though it hardly needs any luck. The stunning, 10,728-square-foot property is located steps away from Cotton Point’s private white sand beaches and some world-class surfing. It boasts sprawling, immaculate green grounds and striking Spanish-Santa Barbara style architecture. And come on — it’s located on the old stomping grounds of a former U.S. president. Granted, that president was unseated by one of U.S. history’s greatest political scandal’s, but hey … either way, the community’s alive with history, some would say.

%Gallery-147739%
History aside, the home also features seven bedrooms, 8½ bathrooms, a living room with 20-foot-high ceilings, a media room, gourmet kitchen with walk-in wine room, and a private pool and spa.

Scott Kidd from Prudential California Realty has the listing.

Click on the images below to see more homes for sale in San Clemente, Calif.

See more Houses of the Day on AOL Real Estate.

Got a tip for House of the Day? Know of an exceptional or unusual property currently listed for sale? Please email krisanne.alcantara@huffingtonpost.com with your suggestions and be sure to include links to listing details and photos. (Due to the volume of response, we unfortunately are unable to reply to each submission.)

%Gallery-117034%
More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

AOL Real Estate – Blog