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Mortgage lenders take almost 7 days on average to respond to consumer inquiries via phone, and over one day to respond to inquiries received via email, resulting in a poor return on their marketing investment, bottom line under-performance and a disappointing or even damaging customer experience. ...

Pending home sales slipped in August with a mixed regional performance but are higher than a year ago, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.  The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, declined 1.2 percent to 88.6 in August from 89.7 in July but is 7.7 percent above August 2010 when it stood at 82.3. The data reflects contracts but not closings.

Data through July 2011, released recently by S&P Indices for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, showed a fourth consecutive month of increases for the 10- and 20-City Composites, with both up 0.9% in July over June. Seventeen of the 20 MSAs and both Composites posted positive monthly increases; Las Vegas and Phoenix were down over the month and Denver was unchanged.

Processing delays have taken their toll on first-time home buyer interest in short sales, which now account for more than one of every six house sales, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. First-time home buyer purchases of short sales dropped to 39.7 percent of short sale transactions in August. That represented a three-month slide and was the lowest level for first-time home buyers ever recorded by the HousingPulse survey.

Greg Rand (@gsrand), CEO of OwnAmerica and host of Rand on Real Estate on 770 WABC, talks with a current business owner who is looking to expand on his investments and voicing his concerns about residential vs. commercial investments.

A home inspection is a crucial component of making a smart home-buying decision. According to Jay Gregg, director of marketing for Pillar To Post, not all home inspections are equal. Gregg, who has experience in home inspections, sales marketing and as a previous Pillar To Post franchisee,

Litigation over the foreclosure process reached its highest level in the second quarter than in any quarter since MortgageDaily.com’s Mortgage Litigation Index was introduced in 2007.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently released its third annual report on guarantee fees (g-fees) charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises), concluding that the average “g-fee” on single-family mortgages increased in 2010 relative to 2009, from 22 basis points to 26 basis points. The report finds that the Enterprises’ g-fees continued to convey cross-subsidies from mortgages that posed lower credit risk, on average, to loans that posed higher credit risk, but overall that cross-subsidization was substantially less in 2009 and 2010 than in 2007 or 2008.

Homeowners, who go past 2012 with no loan mod and have to short sale, could have a huge tax bill. Some short sales take a year. Homeowners who wait until 2012 may have a short sale close in 2013 and face a huge tax bill. Expert Home Solutions Inc. says “Be Concerned.” Here’s how the 2007 Act works. If your lender forgives any of your loan, it is reported to the IRS as ordinary income. That income could add over $100,000 to your taxable income. The 2007 Act forgives that tax.

The end of the spring-summer buying season is taking its toll on luxury properties. Median days on market for homes selling over $500,000 has fallen 40 percent since the peak of the season in May.

Increased lending to creditworthy homebuyers and more loan modifications and short sales are necessary to reduce the rising inventory of foreclosed homes and help stabilize and revitalize the housing industry and economy, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

The home price picture for this year is shaping up to be a little better than it looked in June, according to the September 2011 home price expectations survey of 111 leading housing economists and experts sponsored by MacroMarkets LLC. With just three months to go, the average prediction for the price decline this year from last year’s levels improved from a 3.52 percent price decline predicted by the experts in June to 2.53 percent in the latest survey. The survey is based upon the projected path of the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index over the coming five years.

If the housing market were human, it would look like it just wrestled a few alligators after running an obstacle course through a snake pit. The market is beaten and bruised, but still emerging from the recession, which is why Greg Rand, a real estate veteran and author of Crash Boom! from Career Press, wants people to know about five new trends that could help them beat the housing blues. "The market is made up of buyers and sellers," Rand says. "It's just people who are trying to figure out how to buy low and sell high. The secret to making sure your real estate doesn't turn into a money pit is to watch the trends so you can predict where the prices will rise and where they won't."

You’re about to put an offer on a home, but you’re worried that prices will sink and you won’t get the best deal. You’re putting your home on the market and you want to get the most you can for it but you can’t wait forever to sell it. You’ve found a great deal on a foreclosure that looks like a great investment, but how will you know what will it be worth a year from now? Wouldn’t it be nice if you had more than a guesstimate to guide you as you make one of the most expensive decisions in your life?

With the Oct. 1 deadline rapidly approaching when the conforming loan limits for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will be lowered, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) recently called on Congress to move swiftly to extend the current loan limits to prevent further damage to the already fragile housing market and lackluster economy.