Summary of Real Estate Housing Market Conditions

The following Summary of the Real Estate housing market conditions and activities was obtained from the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development's Website on 1/25/2011. The report provides an overview of economic and housing market trends within each region of HUD management.

The New York/New Jersey HUD Region II, as pertains to Real Estate, provided that “Conditions in most sales housing markets in the New York/New Jersey region are improving but remain slightly soft because of weak economic conditions. According to the National Association of Realtors, home sales in the region during the second quarter of 2010, increased by 80,000 homes, or 22 percent, from a year earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 434,900 homes sold. ...In New Jersey, home sales markets are slightly soft. Home sales have recently increased, a trend that began in December 2009, but home prices remain relatively flat in most areas....The median sales price in New Jersey remained nearly unchanged at $306,600 during the 12 months ending June 2010. All three regions of the state reported increased home sales and slightly higher home prices. For the 12 months ending June 2010, Southern New Jersey home sales rose 17 percent to 32,700 homes, and the median price increased nearly 4 percent to $208,900. In Northern New Jersey, existing single-family home sales were up 24 percent to 61,500 homes, and the median price increased 1 percent to $374,400. Existing single-family homes sales in Central New Jersey increased 26 percent to 33,600 and the median price increased 1 percent to $314,300......During the 12 months ending September 2010 , increased home sales in the New York/New Jersey region contributed to an increase in single-family home building activity, and multifamily construction began to show signs of improvement compared with the activity during the same period a year earlier...”

Prior Refusals DO NOT Enhance Subsequent DWI

Held by New Jersey Supreme Court in State v. Ciancaglini, prior convictions for refusing to submit to breath test does not enhance subsequent driving while intoxicated.


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U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo & Co. Lose Foreclosure Case

U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo & Co. lost a foreclosure case in Massachusetts’s highest court that will guide lower courts in that state and may influence others in the clash between bank practices and state real-estate law. The ruling drove down bank stocks.

The state Supreme Judicial Court today upheld a judge’s decision saying two foreclosures were invalid because the banks didn’t prove they owned the mortgages, which he said were transferred into two mortgage-backed trusts without the recipients’ being named.

Joshua Rosner, an analyst at the New York-based research firm Graham Fisher & Co., called the decision “a landmark ruling” showing that at least in Massachusetts a mortgage “must name the assignee to be valid.”

“This is likely to open the floodgates to more suits in Massachusetts and strengthens cases in other states,” Rosner said.

“We agree with the judge that the plaintiffs, who were not the original mortgagees, failed to make the required showing that they were the holders of the mortgages at the time of foreclosure,” Justice Ralph D. Gants wrote for a unanimous court.

Wells Fargo, the fourth-largest U.S. lender by assets, fell 96 cents, or 3 percent, to $31.19 at 2:43 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. U.S. Bancorp, the fifth-largest U.S. bank by deposits, declined 25 cents, or 1 percent, to $26.04.

Source: Bloomberg News 1/7/2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

From all of us at Silvi, Fedele & Honschke Attorneys At Law, have a Happy, Healthy and Safe 2011!


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