Government

The Virginia Supreme Court sided with a Hampton developer that had begun construction on beachfront homes, after a local citizens’ group tried to overturn the development’s zoning.

Construction can continue, said the court, because you can’t give someone a right then take it away after they act on it.

The developer, Parade of Homes, had asked the city of Hampton to zone a section of East Pembroke Avenue for mixed-use properties, intending to build high-end homes there. The zoning process proceeded, and the city granted PoH’s request.

The company began building. A month later, a local citizens’ group petitioned the City Council to revoke the zoning. It did.

If you’re interested in what’s happening in Virginia in terms of affordable housing and homelessness, you’ll have a chance to hear what the state’s plans are — and offer your ideas — at several “information and input sessions” being held by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, the Virginia Housing Coalition and the Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness.

The sessions are free, but registration is required. See this page for registration links.

The sessions will include:

One of the provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act creates two categories of mortgage loans that you have heard — and will hear — a lot about: QM and QRM.

As a Realtor^®, you’ll need to know about them because your clients are going to ask, and because starting sometime next year most of your clients’ loans will fall into one of those two categories.

Fannie Mae’s latest monthly survey finds that Americans are getting more confident, nay, enthusiastic about the housing market, even as they receive mixed messages about the economy.

73% think it’s a good time to buy a home, up slightly from May’s 72%, while only 15% thought it was a good time to sell.

 But here’s something interesting: Not only did 35% say they expected prices to rise (the highest number since the survey started), but on average people expect them to rise by 2.0% over the next year — that’s a 42% jump from last month’s expectation of a 1.4% rise.

Time magazine has a positive profile of a Virginia Congressman — Rep. Scott Rigell (R – VA-2) — who is actually thinking in terms of what the nation’s economy needs, rather than what kind of party politics to play.

With so many things that affect the housing market in the hands of a Congress that spends more time squabbling for political points than actually doing anything, seeing that there are moderates (and, even better, from Virginia!) and people willing to work for consensus… well, there’s some hope after all.

So what is Rigell’s terrifyingly reasonable idea?

Per Ken Wingert, NAR’s senior legislative representative: Our long national nightmare is over. We are officially done with flood insurance extensions for 5 years.

The House had already passed a bill, but the Senate was being held up by Rand Paul (R – Ky.) who tried to attach a controversial and unrelated amendment to the bill. Apparently that’s been dealt with and the bill passed. President Obama will sign the measure this weekend.

“This is the culmination of a successful multi-year Realtor^® campaign,” said Wingert.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has attached a controversial and unrelated amendment to the bill that would extend the National Flood Insurance Program. Because of that, the bill is stuck until further notice.

The bill would fund the NFIP for five years; a version passed the House quickly last summer, and it was expected to do so in the Senate as well after lawmakers reached compromises on two key issues regarding coverage of areas protected by levees. Without an extension, the program will only be funded until July 30.

 An interesting read from the Center for American Progress on how violent crime affects property values. “The Economic Benefits of Reducing Violent Crime” (click takes you to a PDF) found that besides the obvious — saving money on police, courts, and jails — reducing violent crime has a direct effect on property values.

Across five cities with the necessary data for our analysis, we found
that a 10 percent reduction in homicides should lead to a 0.83
percent increase in housing values the following year, and a 25 percent
reduction in homicides should produce a 2.1 percent increase
in housing prices over the next year.

Got a client who’s in preforclosure — where the lender has filed a default notice, but the owner can still sell it?

FHA is offering a free webinar for real estate pros in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington DC, and West Virginia on its Preforeclosure Sale Program. It’s Thursday, July 12 from 2:00 to 4:00 PM.

Quoth:

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

The Federal Housing Administration has done an about-face, rescinding a rule that would have prevented anyone with credit disputes totaling more than $1,000 from getting a loan.

When originally put in place (April 1), potential borrowers would either have to pay off their balances to get them below the $1,000 threshold, or provide documentation that a payment arrangement was in place.

Not surprisingly, there was pushback. A few days after the rule took effect, FHA said that borrowers whose disputed amounts were the result of a “life event” (medical bill, divorce, etc.) could use that to get around the rule.