DS News - Digital Archives

» "This auction sold 75 percent of the properties put up for bid and netted the sellers 115 percent of their reserve price," said Eric Paulsen, president of Auction.com's commercial division. "These results certainly underscore our success in multifamily, especially those properties that exhibit all the signs of long-term profitability for the buyer." Paulsen also noted half of the properties sold were more than 90 percent leased. "The industry is approaching auctions with a more open mind, particularly when it comes to selling mostly leased multifamily properties," Paulsen added. "As a result, we're seeing more high-quality assets at our auctions, which are selling for amounts surpassing sellers' expectations." So far this year, the Irvine, Californiabased company has auctioned 5,700 units for more than $125 million. CoreLogic Acquires Fiserv's Case-Shiller CoreLogic, a residential property information, analytics, and services provider headquartered in California, recently announced its acquisition of Case-Shiller from Fiserv, Inc. The deal closed March 20. In addition to offering the Case-Shiller Indexes—which will be renamed the "CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indexes"—CoreLogic will continue to offer its own Home Price Index (HPI), the company announced. The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices will retain their brand name, and all reports will continue to be published and distributed on their customary time schedules and in their current formats. Dr. David Stiff, chief economist for CaseShiller, will continue to supervise the preparation of the CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indexes and will comment on the findings of those indexes. Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, will continue to supervise the preparation of the CoreLogic HPI reports and will comment on those. DataQuick's REOto-Rental Rankings Provide ZIP-Level Data Before deciding on an REO-to-rental investment, it's important to understand distressed property trends on a neighborhood level, according to DataQuick. This is why the San Diego-based company made available the REO-to-Rental Neighborhood Rankings for servicers and investors. The ranking leverages the company's national property database and its RiskFinder Distress product to score and rank areas by county and ZIP code. The rankings can be used to identify specific ZIP codes that have highest return potential within targeted areas. When determining the score and rank of each area, DataQuick considers property valuation appreciation and depreciation, depth of market supply, depth of market demand, distressed sales, and distressed discount trends. "Identifying the most attractive REO-toRental markets and properties is cumbersome for servicers and investors due to the sheer amount of data an accurate analysis requires," said John Walsh, president of DataQuick. "The REO-to-Rental Neighborhood Rankings provide more than 10 years of monthly metrics for ZIP codes nationwide, ensuring the best REO investment destinations are evaluated and targeted." REO-to-Rental Neighborhood Rankings also include extensive data sets. Examples of ZIP-level results provided include number of foreclosures, total REO properties, number of government-owned properties, inferred short sales, as well as other results. California Flipping Activity at Highest Level Since 2005 Real estate sales have been weakening in California, but ForeclosureRadar found flipping activity in the state reached its highest level since September 2005. In March 2013, sales for distressed and non-distressed transactions decreased 12.9 percent from a year ago, while foreclosure sales plunged 50.7 percent during the same time period, according to a property report from the analytics firm. On the other hand, flipping activity, which ForeclosureRadar defined as reselling a property within six months, nearly tripled over a one-year period ending in March after accounting for 5.2 percent of total sales. The analytics firm explained flipping has been on the rise over the past 12 months as a result of the increase in potential to make a profit as home prices further appreciate. In 2011, flipping fell flat at a range of 1.4 percent to 1.6 percent of total sales. Then, in 2012, flipping activity doubled and represented 3.3 percent of sales by December 2012. VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM ForeclosureRadar's report also included an analysis of the impact of rising prices in its large population of underwater borrowers. According to the firm, 1.8 million California homeowners are underwater out of the 7.3 million homeowners with a mortgage in the state. Of borrowers in negative equity, 1.1 million are deeply underwater, or owe more than 25 percent of their home's value. Adding to this are 225,000 homeowners who are in near negative equity, meaning they have 5 percent or less equity in their home. On the upside, if home prices were to rise by 10 percent, ForeclosureRadar estimates 415,000 homeowners, or 23 percent of underwater homeowners, will be free from negative equity. If home prices rise 20 percent, 715,000 homeowners, or 40 percent, will be lifted out of negative equity. Equator, Carrington Announce Commercial Availability of RentPointe Equator Business Solutions and Carrington Technology Solutions, LLC, announced the commercial availability of RentPointe, Carrington's proprietary software application designed to meet the complexities of managing diverse portfolios of single-family rental properties. Integrated into Equator's EQ Investor Platform per an agreement between the two companies, RentPointe provides financial institutions, institutional investors, and largescale property management companies with a scalable, end-to-end, single-family asset management suite dedicated to efficiently maximizing the performance of multipleproperty portfolios. "RentPointe was specifically designed to meet a growing need within the single-family rental market for more efficient portfolio management and a solution with the ability to manage multiple property managers simultaneously," said Brent Rasmussen, EVP and CIO for Carrington Technology Solutions. "Having utilized RentPointe as a proprietary solution for the past seven years to manage its own portfolio of nearly 15,000 U.S. properties, Carrington knows firsthand the potential impact this solution can have on the industry. That is why we are so pleased to offer RentPointe to the commercial market on Equator's EQ Investor Platform." 79

• Cover