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By Susanne Dwyer

For the first time in a dozen years, Texas is not claiming the top spot in the annual Allied Van Lines Magnet States Report. Instead, Florida and Arizona beat the Longhorn State with higher net relocation gains.

The annual report uses internal data to track U.S. and cross-border migration patterns with Canada, and found that Florida’s net relocation gain of 1,316 propelled it to the top of the 2016 list from the second spot last year. This net gain is calculated by the difference between inbound moves and outbound moves performed by Allied Van Lines, one of the world’s largest moving companies.

“Texas has been a powerhouse magnet state for more than a decade, but traditional retirement states like Florida and Arizona are always strong contenders for the list,” says Lesli Bertoli, general manager and vice president of Allied Van Lines. “For the first time in recent history, both Florida and Arizona were able to unseat Texas from its top spot position.”

Arizona was the second most magnetic state, with 1,137 net inbound moves in 2016, and Texas came in third, with 891 net inbound moves.

Rounding out the top five magnet states in 2016 were North Carolina (9th in 2015) and Utah (8th in 2015).

Biggest Movers in 2016
California continues to dominate as the most mobile state, with 10,590 moves conducted by Allied Van Lines that featured California as its departure or destination state.

Increasing Attraction
Some of the biggest movers on the list are Virginia (up 16 spots from the least magnetic state in 2015 to the 17th least magnetic), Iowa (up 15 spots from No. 42 to 27) and Connecticut (up 10 spots from 37th place to 26th place).

Other states with big changes on the list included Delaware, which tumbled to 9th least magnetic state, dropping 17 spots, and Colorado, which went from 6th most magnetic in 2015 to 21st in 2016.

Outbound States
Illinois returned to the bottom of the list after a brief respite in 2015. Allied’s 2016 Magnet States data show Illinois as the state with the greatest net outbound moves, with 1,284 moves out of state. California took its place as the 2nd most outbound state (1,060 outbound moves), followed by Pennsylvania (716 net outbound moves) and New York (714 net outbound moves). Rounding out the bottom five was New Jersey (542 net outbound moves).

Canadians on the Move
Similar to 2015, more Americans crossed the border in a move to British Columbia than left, making it the most attractive province for U.S. relocation. Ontario chalked up the largest net loss to cross-border moves.

Source: Allied Van Lines

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From:: Finance and Economy

By Susanne Dwyer

(TNS)—Back when house-flipping was the major fad of the mid-2000s, Matt and Elizabeth Faircloth were not like most. As tens of thousands of people across the nation were securing mortgages they never should have received to fund flips, the New Jersey couple were tapping into money for projects in any way they could find: personal savings, money from friends and their inner circle.

They were the outliers: Only 30 percent of flippers were paying with cash, the majority instead borrowing from banks and other lenders to get a lot of money fast.

For years, the system worked. Until it didn’t.

At the peak of the flipping boom in second-quarter 2005, when 95,000 people across the country flipped single-family homes or condos, many flippers were holding two, three or four mortgages, experts say—partially driven by investors who lied on their applications, saying the homes would be their primary residences so they could get cheaper interest rates. Lenders who severely loosened their borrowing standards were also part of the problem.

When the housing bubble burst and values plummeted, flippers with multiple mortgages suddenly couldn’t sell their properties and couldn’t pay their loans. The rest is history.

Now, flipping—buying second-rate homes, rehabbing them quickly, and selling them for a profit—is back. In 2016’s second quarter, more than 51,000 U.S. homes were flipped, the most since 2010.

Can we ensure what happened in the mid-2000s doesn’t happen again? Industry experts say there’s something that can help: the internet and the crowd.

Thanks to websites such as Kickstarter and GoFundMe, we live in an era in which the public can fund almost anything. (Years ago, a man made headlines for receiving more than $55,000 on a project to make potato salad.)

It was only a matter of time before flippers got money the same way. But crowdfunding a flip is a bit more complicated.

The concept in theory is still the same: Potential flippers who can’t get mortgages from banks and lending institutions solicit internet and crowdfunding sources for loans.

At some of these, loans are created using funds from individual investors—some of whom pay as little as $5,000 to get in on the deal. The smaller loans are packaged together. In return, the investors receive 10 percent to 15 percent interest back on the loan they provided. Terms may differ by lender.

Founded in 2012, Fund That Flip, based in New York, is one such company, created to fill what founder Matt Rodak saw as a void in the industry.

“I was doing some house-flipping on the side…and found the (funding) process to be very frustrating, filling out lots of applications and dealing with a sometimes opaque process,” Rodak says.

He touts a more simplistic process: Borrowers have less paperwork and fewer hidden fees. And in most cases, he promised, interest rates are not as high as with loans from hard-money lenders, in which the loans are secured by the properties.

In return, investors make safer bets, Rodak says. Instead of writing large checks for one borrower, Fund That Flip investors can “take that same $200,000 and spread …read more

From:: Real Estate News

Ocwen Financial announced late Friday that it reached a $223 million settlement with the California Department of Business Oversight, ridding itself of the restrictions that hampered its mortgage business in California for more than two years. The settlement includes a cash payment of $25 million. Ocwen is also required to provide an additional $198 million in debt forgiveness. Click the headline to read more. …read more

From:: Real Estate Wire

Altisource Portfolio Solutions revealed recently that the CFPB is looking into the company’s relationship with Ocwen Financial. But that wasn’t the only Ocwen-related revelation of the week. The company also reached a $32 million settlement in a class action lawsuit brought by Altisource investors who claimed financial harm after Altisource’s stock plummeted after the New York Department of Financial Services began investigating the company’s relationship with Ocwen in early 2014. …read more

From:: Real Estate Wire

Recently, Fannie Mae announced its first non-performing loan sale of 2017, stating that it plans to sell 10,000 delinquent loans with a total unpaid principal balance of $1.76 billion from its portfolio. Fannie Mae’s fellow government-sponsored enterprise announced a NPL sale of its own on Friday. …read more

From:: Real Estate Wire

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit finally ruled on the landmark case between the Consumer Financial Projection Bureau and PHH in favor of the CFPB. The decision significantly lengthens the timeline for knowing the fate of the bureau and its director, Richard Cordray. So what’s likely to happen now? Alan Kaplinsky, partner and leader of Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Financial Services Group, explains what he thinks will happen. …read more

From:: Real Estate Wire

The most recent data from Freddie Mac shows that the average interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is around 4.15%, but interest rates are going to increase by a significant margin over the next few years, analysts from Goldman Sachs said in a new report. Here are the details. …read more

From:: Real Estate Wire