Housing News
Oregon bill aims to stop banks from double billing homeowners
The double billing bill
Oregon lawmakers seek to pass a bill that stops banks from claiming a loss on a short sale and still collecting the money later from the borrower.
Homeowners get the 1099 from the bank, pays taxes on the bank’s loss and is still collected on by the bank after the fact, typically through collection agencies or even lawsuits, thus they are being “double billed.”
Oregon State Representative Jason Conger told KBND talk radio that the House Bill makes the bank chose one option and not do both: “A bank still has the right under the contract unless they waive it to try to collect the residual debt from the borrower and this bill prevents the bank from reporting it as income to the borrower and trying to collect the debt.” Conger says to his knowledge this practice isn’t very widespread, but definitely needs to be dealt with.
The House Bill now moves to the Senate and is likely to pass. Is double billing legal in your state? Tell us in comments the state of affairs in your location.
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Housing News
Average age of houses on the rise, so is it now better or worse to buy new?
With aging housing in America, are first-time buyers better off buying new or existing homes? The average age of a home is rising, as is the price of new housing, so a shift could be upon us.
The average home age is higher than ever
(REALUOSO.COM) – In a survey from the Department of Housing and Urban Development American Housing Survey (AHS), the median age of homes in the United States was 35 years old. In Texas, homes are a bit younger with the median age between 19 – 29 years. The northeast has the oldest homes, with the median age between 50 – 61 years. In 1985, the median age of a home was only 23 years.
With more houses around 40 years old, the National Association of Realtors asserts that homeowners will have to undertake remodeling and renovation projects before selling unless the home is sold as-is, in which case the buyer will be responsible to update their new residence. Even homeowners who aren’t selling will need to consider remodeling for structural and aesthetic reasons.
Prices of new homes on the rise
Newer homes cost more than they used to. The price differential between new homes and older homes has increased from 10 percent traditionally to around 37 percent in 2014. This is due to rising construction costs, scarcity of lots, and a low inventory of new homes that doesn’t meet the demand.
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Housing News
Are Realtors the real loser in the fight between Zillow Group and Move, Inc.?
The last year has been one of dramatic and rapid change in the real estate tech sector, but Realtors are vulnerable, and we’re worried.
Why Realtors are vulnerable to these rapid changes
(REALUOSO.COM) – Corporate warfare demands headlines in every industry, but in the real estate tech sector, a storm has been brewing for years, which in the last year has come to a head. Zillow Group and Move, Inc. (which is owned by News Corp. and operates ListHub, Realtor.com, TopProducer, and other brands) have been competing for a decade now, and the race has appeared to be an aggressive yet polite boxing match. Last year, the gloves came off, and now, they’ve drawn swords and appear to want blood.
Note: We’ll let you decide which company plays which role in the image above.
So how then, does any of this make Realtors the victims of this sword fight? Let’s get everyone up to speed, and then we’ll discuss.
1. Zillow poaches top talent, Move/NAR sues
It all started last year when the gloves came off – Move’s Chief Strategy Officer (who was also Realtor.com’s President), Errol Samuelson jumped ship and joined Zillow on the same day he phoned in his resignation without notice. He left under questionable circumstances, which has led to a lengthy legal battle (wherein Move and NAR have sued Zillow and Samuelson over allegations of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and misappropriation of trade secrets), with the most recent motion being for contempt, which a judge granted to Move/NAR after the mysterious “Samuelson Memo” surfaced.
Salt was added to the wound when Move awarded Samuelson’s job to Move veteran, Curt Beardsley, who days after Samuelson left, also defected to Zillow. This too led to a lawsuit, with allegations including breach of contract, violation of corporations code, illegal dumping of stocks, and Move has sought restitution. These charges are extremely serious, but demanded slightly less attention than the ongoing lawsuit against Samuelson.
2. Two major media brands emerge
Last fall, the News Corp. acquisition of Move, Inc. was given the green light by the feds, and this month, Zillow finalized their acquisition of Trulia.
…Click here to continue reading this story…
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Benjamin Ficker
May 3, 2011 at 12:32 am
I was told early on to request for confirmation of the 1099 because if they ever did pursue for deficiency, and you ended up in a lawsuit, it could prove to be ambiguous on the banks intentions and get the deficiency thrown out. We've never actually had to go that far though, so who knows how that would play out.
MH for Movoto
May 3, 2011 at 11:54 am
Not sure what the current legal standing on this is in California, but I agree with this bill 100%.
Joe Loomer
May 4, 2011 at 3:11 am
Hmmm, I was under the impression that an Indianapolis (may have the city wrong) lender was actually buying toxic mortgages, offering short sales, selling the homes, and then actually recouping the loss in bailout funds from the government – thereby actually making a killing off of the bad mortgages which would have defaulted anyway. Predators come out when opportunity knocks. The housing boom gave birth to predatory lender growth, the housing bust is just changing their stripes.
Navy Chief, Navy Pride