We know that Nevada leads the nation in foreclosures but seldom with little supporting data.
This heat map from RealtyTrac shows the foreclosure data for Nevada county by county. One out of 177 housing units received a foreclosure filing in December, 2011. Washoe County had one for every 318 housing units. Surprisingly, Lyon County even topped Clark county with 1 for every 144 units. All this compares with 1 for every 634 units nationwide. Check it out.
Just in case you may have forgotten about the robo-signing scandal that first came to light in Florida, I thought that I might jar your memory. Florida happens to be a judicial foreclosure state while Nevada is non-judicial. In Florida’s case, the fraudulent document signers work ended up in court. But, the foreclosures in Nevada were for the most part settled at public auction on the court house steps. These never had to face a judge.
Now, it has come to light that Nevada is not immune for fraudulent signing. At least three notaries have now been charged with notarizing documents without actually witnessing the signing.
The three notaries had all worked for LPS, (Lender Processing Service) to handle paperwork for the banks. This is the same company at the center of the problem in Florida. Apparently, they had such a workload such that they could never witness every document within the time allotted.
The problems here, were addressed in AB 284. Now the foreclosing entity must certify that their documents are in order. The end result is that foreclosures will now take longer to complete the process.
Read More: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57337111/3-nevada-notaries-named-in-foreclosure-fraud-case/
The rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage reached a new record low of 3.91 percent. This marks the third new low this year. The 15-year fixed mortgage rate, remained unchanged at a low of 3.21 percent.
The exceptionally low rates and the depressed prices have created a superb buying opportunity, but the opportunity is lost for many potential buyers because of the difficulty qualifying for new loans.
With so many homes underwater here in Reno and Sparks very few homeowners can qualify for a re-finance. Additionally, Nevada’s real unemployment further reduces the chances to re-finance.
Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9RPKO100.htm
Here’s another one of the “Best of” and “Worst of” lists that must fill journalists need for “product.” This time it is ranking the best of and the worst of the 50 states according to their arbitrary opinion.
These are the same kinds of lists that the politicians and the activist refer to when they seek to further pick the pockets of the public. Notice that they don’t include the per capita taxes the states collect.
FWIW, Nevada ranks #46 on the list:
46. Nevada
> State debt per capita: $1,690 (6th lowest)
> Pct. without health insurance: 22.6% (2nd highest)
> Pct. below poverty line: 13.0% (24th lowest)
> Unemployment: 13.4% (the highest)Nevada has dropped five places in our rankings. This drop is due primarily to its credit downgrade this year from AA+ to AA. Surprisingly, the state has one of the lowest debts per capita in the country, at just $1,690 per person. However, it has other financial woes that make it a long-term risk. Nevada properties declined 44.5% in value between 2006 and 2010, the worst decline in the country. In October alone, one in every 180 homes was foreclosed upon, easily the worst rate in the country. The state also has the second lowest percentage of residents covered by health insurance and the highest unemployment rate in the country.
California ranks the worst, # 50, but you probably already knew that.
Read more (To save you time, Nevada is on page #6.).
As you probably already know from a myriad of sources,, and from just living here. We had some extremely strong winds yesterday. Along with those winds a large number of families lost their homes to fire. The last count I had heard was 22 homes destroyed. I won’t go into all the details because it is readily available elsewhere. My heart goes out to those who were harmed by the fires. The wind not only fanned the flames, but it also carried burning embers to start more fires. Trees were blown down, which also knocked down power lines that may have started more fires.
And now for my experience. I did not have any damage except for things blown around the yard making more work for clean up. When I went into the garage, I noticed that the double garage door was bowing outward and even had some small creases. The door is on the east side of the garage. The wind, coming out of the west southwest created enough negative pressure that I feared the closed door was about to collapse. I ultimately relieved the pressure on the door by opening the door. At first a short distance, and then completely. This resulted in a lot of dirt coming into the garage, but it saved the door.
Canadians must think Las Vegas is a good place to invest. Else, why would they be putting their own money there?
The reality is that Candadians are investing in Las Vegas, big time. Do they know something that we don’t? Or, are we so close to the problem that we can’t see the opportunity.
“Where in Canada can you currently buy a $50,000 property that you can turn around and rent for $1,000 a month?” says real estate broker Steve Martel of Martels Real Estate Inc. in Ottawa, who specializes in the U.S. realty market.
This may be an idea for investing – or or may also be an indication of opportunities here in Reno.
What do you think?
read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Invest+real+estate/5611525/story.html
My posts on this blog about the Belvedere condominium project and developer Bijan Madjlessi generated more interest than any other so far. Readers have even contacted me asking what I thought about buying units in the project.
I must begin with this disclaimer because except for what I have read or learned in newspaper or other reports my direct knowledge of the Belvedere is almost nonexistent. I’ve never been in the Belvedere nor have I ever met any of the players that I am aware of. As I said the extent of my knowledge has come only from news articles or from comments on this or other blogs. Therefore I believe I am not qualified to recommend in any way either positive or negative about the benefits of purchasing a Belvedere condominium unit.
My concern with the Belvedere project is that I am not convinced that the legal difficulties are yet over. There are some other reasons that I do not like condominiums but I will save that for another time.
As we have learned from the Reno Gazette Journal, the Belvedere condominiums were purchased at a Washoe County tax foreclosure sale by David Lonich, the attorney for Madjlessi. It would appear to me that Lonich is nothing but the straw buyer for Madjlessi.
We learned that Madjlessi failed to pay his mortgages, failed to pay his vendors, and failed to pay property taxes, thus resulting in tax foreclosure.
We learned that Madjlessi had been arrested in California for insurance fraud. Then as information began to grow we learned that Madjlessi was involved in the failure of Sonoma Valley bank. We further learned that Madjlessi had been involved in at least three other failed developments in California in the Sonoma and Petaluma area.
I would be concerned that the Belvedere is still a target rich environment for attorneys and law suits. I can only imagine that some hungry attorney will see an opportunity in coming to aid of the vendors that lost so much by their supplying goods and services to the project.
I just can’t imagine that they will be happy seeing Madjlessi win at their expense.
So, no. I would not personally be comfortable buying a condominium in the Belvedere project.
I would welcome comments from anyone having a different opinion.
Two different courts in California have upheld foreclosures by MERS corp.
The court ruled the statute cited by plaintiffs to prove an improper foreclosure applies only to mortgages, not deeds of trust, and other state laws give MERS authority to foreclose.
With the battles that have preceded these decisions, I would not expect that the issue will be soon resolved. And, it may, or may not have any impact on any Nevada laws.
I have received a lot of visitors from the Reno Realty Blog because of the discussion on the Belvedere.
One thing I noticed is that the link to the RGJ article no longer work. After 30 days the RGJ places its articles in its archives. You can still find the article if you choose the correct term, and are willing to pay to read it.
I will attempt to address some of the comments at RRB:
Jo Amick says:
June 13, 2011 at 6:30 PMI also think “Tax implications and vacancy rates alone could very well put your return on investment at 4 years + ” to agree with “Nomad”. Guess I got beat to the punch!
I believe that all “tax implications” were wiped out at the Washoe County tax sale.
Renter says:
August 16, 2011 at 1:58 PM
…
Back to the discussion on being an investment opportunities, what seems to kill the deal is the “mechanic’s liens number in the hundreds”. I believe there are over $80K of liens on each apartment there.
…
As I understand the law a tax foreclosure takes priority over all other debts and obligations except IRS liens. Therefore, the mechanics liens were also wiped out.
GreenNV says:
August 16, 2011 at 7:52 PMOK, this is my understanding. In a foreclosure situation, all the junior lien holders have the right to bid to try to maintain their interests in the property. If they don’t and the Trutees Sale is completed, their claim on the property it expunged.
So for the Belvedere, short sale properties still have the mechanic’s liens in place and should be avoided. Properties that have gone TD should be free and clear of the mechanic’s liens. I think buying a unit from the bank is pretty safe legally (given the other risks), but there are NOT any of the foreclosed units on the market right now. That smells fishy to me, so there may be more to the story.
This would be correct if it were a Trustee foreclosure sale or short sale. The Belvedere properties were NOT short sales nor were they Trustee sales. These were tax deed sales, sold by Washoe County.
By using the tax foreclosure sale route the property no longer has any bank debt, mechanics liens, HOA liens.
The bank did not buy the properties. According to the RGJ, they were all bought by Madjlessi’s lawyer. Therefore, the bank is NOT the seller.
I welcome and invite your comments and especially your corrections to anything where I may have been in error.
Please feel free to Like this post.
A friend received the following email from Sen Harry Reid;
Dear M XXXXXXXXXXXXX:
Thank you for contacting me. I appreciate hearing from you and agree with you about the importance of restoring fiscal discipline in Washington.As you probably know, this year’s federal deficit is expected to be about $1.5 trillion. Meanwhile, our debt exceeds $ 14 trillion and is growing rapidly. Perhaps even more importantly, in coming decades, as the baby boomers retire and projected health care costs increase, our nation is on an unsustainable long-term fiscal path. It is important that leaders in both parties work together to address this problem.
One important way to restore fiscal discipline is to abide by so-called “pay-as-you-go,” or “PAYGO” rules. Under PAYGO, all new mandatory spending or tax breaks must be fully offset, so that it does not increase the deficit. In the last Congress, I sponsored legislation, H.J.Res. 45, to put the PAYGO rules into law. These rules proved to be very successful in the 1990’s, and helped the government achieve a budget surplus. So I was pleased when my legislation was approved and signed into law by the President last year.
The PAYGO rules will help, but they alone will not solve the long-term deficit problem. We also need to conduct a thorough review of all federal spending and eliminate waste wherever we find it. In addition, we need to do a better job of closing tax loopholes and cracking down on cheaters who cost the government literally hundreds of billions of dollars every year. All of this will be difficult, but it needs to happen, and it is essential that we work together to solve the problem.
Again, thank you very much for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. I appreciate it and look forward to hearing from you in the near future.
My best wishes to you.
Sincerely,
A
HARRY REID
United States Senator
NevadaHR:BK
This definitely shows Harry cares – if you believe it.