Here’s another in the ever-growing collection of questionable marketing tactics: A home loan disguised as a supposed mortgage-insurance refund. This one, from a colleague’s mailbox, looks official. “Form 769-OH” comes with a recipient ID number, cites two sections of the Consolidated Appropriations Act and says the recipient has “a marked record on file.”

This particular ad suggests that the homeowner could be due a refund of the mortgage insurance paid on an FHA loan. Yes, an FHA loan was used to buy the house. And, yes, mortgage insurance also was used. But does this company want to procure a rebate? Tiny print in light-gray ink says (66 words into a fairly dense paragraph): “This is a solicitation for a home loan.”

Anthony Carter, an enforcement attorney for the consumer services division of the state Department of Financial Institutions, said he’s investigating two cases where money back on mortgage insurance appears to be used to lure callers. He didn’t see the ad sent to my colleague, but he said the others he's seen tend to target VA or FHA loan holders and end up pitching new home loans or a refinanced mortgage, which he called deceptive.

“It’s promising something they can’t really deliver. They’re not in the business of getting money back from the government. They’re in the business of making loans,” he said.

Here's a look at the flier:

October numbers from RealtyTrac on foreclosure filings around the country show Washington state remaining in the middle of the pack, as it has been for months. The state ranks 26th in the country for filings that include default notices, bank repossessions and auction notices as tracked by the California research and marketing company.

No. 1 was Nevada; no. 50 was Vermont.

One new feature, however, illustrates the level of filings on a U.S. map that's a handy color-coded visual of the national foreclosure scene.

The newest stats from the S&P/Case-Shiller index were released today and show that when it comes to price appreciation, the Seattle-Tacoma market remains among the best in the nation, though its standing has slipped a bit in recent months.

The index measures the gain or declines in prices of a typical house, not including condos, with the base value set at prices in January 2000. Seattle-Tacoma came in at 191.66 for September, meaning prices have appreciated 91.7 percent in the last nearly eight years. That's above the national index of 180.45 for the third quarter and one of the few that grew year-over-year. (September's 4.7 percent gain fell from August's gain of 5.7 percent.)

Metro areas that saw the worst year-over-year declines in September are the same ones you keep hearing about: Detroit, Miami, Tampa, San Diego and Las Vegas. All five markets saw their indexes fall by at least 9 percent since September 2006.

Elizabeth Razzi at The Washington Post muses on obsolescence in home design. Not just a fading fad, but the kinds of things that are so far gone you might not get the money out of your home that you expect when you sell.

Here's an excerpt from the story:

The backyard fire pit? It will go the way of the ruffled tuxedo shirt. The soaring two-story foyers? They might as well be women’s shoulder pads.

Obsolescence is more serious. People will reject the obsolete. Their needs have changed, and technology has rendered the old stuff useless.

Obsolescence is not just a function of age. An old house can be rehabbed so it nicely meets the needs of a buyer willing to spend a couple million dollars. But unless owners periodically invest in repairs and upgrades, their homes will fall so far below the standards of current buyers that they become obsolete. Property value then lies almost entirely with the land.

What’s obsolete? It could be an extremely small stand-alone house, say 900 square feet or less. Buyers who want only one or two bedrooms, which are all you can jam into such a small house, today look for condos.

Other relics:
• A house with only one bathroom. Even a house with one full bath and a toilet/sink powder room is going to turn buyers off.
• A house without some form of air conditioning, at least in places with hot, humid summers.
• Electrical systems protected by a fuse box instead of a circuit breaker. That’s not going to do the job for a plasma TV and computer.
• Spiral staircases. They’re relatively rare, and for good reason. The tight spiral and wedge-shaped stairs make it next to impossible to safely carry a laundry basket, not to mention a baby.
• Basements with only an outside entrance. When that space was strictly a cellar housing a coal bin or an oil tank, outside access was all you needed. Today, homeowners expect convenient access to that valuable space.

=> Read more!

Some say the stretch between Thanksgiving and Jan. 1 is just about the worst time to list a home for sale or try to find a buyer for one that’s already listed. Others take the counter approach: List it the day after Thanksgiving and you’ll shine among the reduced competition.

Northwest MLS numbers show that listings dropped from September to December in 2005 by 9.6 percent and in 2006 by 16.6 percent.

Consider Elizabeth Weintraub in the anti-holiday listing camp. She writes for about.com and had the following list of reasons you should not sell your home at holiday time.

• Buyers will think you are desperate.
• It's inconvenient to always be ready to show at a moment's notice.
• The offers you receive will likely be for less than list price.
• You're appealing to a much smaller inventory of buyers who have very specific needs that your home might not match.
• It's almost impossible to close a transaction in December if the offer is received mid-month. Buyers who want to close in January make offers in January.
• Your agent might be on vacation in December and unavailable.

And what about the plastic Santa and poinsettias? Should you tone down the decor or not put any out at all? Or will buyers at this time of year expect holiday cheer and find it alluring, like the age-old advice that dictates baking cookies before an open house so your home smells homey?

Yakima’s double-digit median home price appreciation in the third quarter snagged it a top five spot for all metro markets in the U.S., according to National Association of Realtors numbers released this week. (The figures don’t include new construction homes.) At 13.6 percent, Yakima was No. 3 out of more than 100 markets.

Yakima’s lofty spot could have something to do with its relatively low median price, just $163,200 for the third quarter. That compares to $394,700 for the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area, which saw 6.0 appreciation in the third quarter. (For a more recent and local perspective: Pierce County’s median home price in October was down 1.4 percent year-over-year to $266,157, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.)

Nationally, prices dipped 2.0 percent year-over-year, according to the Realtors group.

Here are the top five markets:
1.Bismarck, N.D.: 15.1%
2.Salt Lake City, Utah: 14.1%
3.Yakima: 13.6%
4.Binghamton, N.Y.: 11.4%
5.Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, N.C.-S.C.: 11.0%

Pierce County’s rate of homes sales in the third quarter fell far below the state’s and farther than its Puget Sound neighbors, according to the newest numbers from WSU's Washington Center for Real Estate Research. The figures exclude new construction and condo sales.

Sales dropped 32 percent compared to the same quarter in 2006. Statewide sales declined by 11 percent.

The median home price was up year-over-year 3.3 percent in the county but also not keeping pace with the state or other nearby counties.

Pierce County prices, said Glenn Crellin, director of the center, could easily slip into negative territory in the fourth quarter given the number of homes for sale.

“That means buyers have a lot more market power. If they’re going to buy, they are going to negotiate aggressively,” he said.

Affordability remains an issue, with the typical first-time home buyer in Pierce County having just 52.8 percent of the income needed to purchase a typical home. That’s one number that upstages the state’s, which had a third-quarter first-time affordability index of 48.2.

Here’s a look at the percentage change in third-quarter numbers for Pierce and other Puget Sound counties compared to the third quarter of 2006.

Sales
Pierce: -32.2%
King: -18.0%
Snohomish: -26.9%
Kitsap: -21.4%
Thurston: -17.3%
State: -11.4%

Median price
Pierce: 3.3%
King: 9.1%
Snohomish: 3.6%
Kitsap: 5.8%
Thurston: 5.0%
State: 4.4%

I’m hearing from agents that emboldened buyers are increasingly coming to the table with offers they consider insulting, which sounds to be about 20 percent under list price. Agents say that not only does such an offer start the sale off on a bad note but buyers who shoot for a bargain-basement price could have little room to maneuver should other pieces of the transaction require negotiation.

On the other hand, we keep hearing it couldn’t be a better time to be a buyer. So aren’t buyers who bring offers far under asking price just trying to get all they can in a favorable market? And if the Pierce County median home price has appreciated 57 percent in the last five years, is 20 percent under asking price such an insulting offer?

Not to mention that an offer is a starting point, at which point the seller can counter.

Perhaps, like all sales, it comes down to the individuals and their needs. Pat Maddock, president of the Tacoma-Pierce County Association of Realtors, puts it this way: "The degree of insult is directly related to your degree of motivation."

The National Association of Realtors has released its annual national survey and it showed, among other things, that nearly 70 percent of respondents are concerned about the cost of housing in their area. More concerned than they are about jobs, crime, terrorism or the environment. The trade group surveyed 1,000 adults by phone, according to a NAR release.

Other results:
• 63 percent think the mortgage-approval process is an obstacle to home ownership, up 13 percent since 2005.
• More than 80 percent say finding the money for a down payment and closing costs are obstacles to home ownership, up 17 percent from 2005.
• Only 25 percent believe home sales and values in their neighborhood will decrease in the short term, while about 10 percent believe they will rise.

Two of my co-workers received an ad in the mail last week in an envelope that is white, slightly over-sized and addressed in black ink using a pretty, occasion-type font. It would be easy to mistake the presentation for a wedding invite.

Open it, however, and there’s a picture of a cute baby gazing at you from the cover of a card. A birth announcement? No, an attempt at mortgage marketing. Look inside the card and it says, “I have reviewed your mortgage information … and with the new program released last week it appears I can lower your payment to $676.97.”

Ray Sanderson, manager of the AMS Bank branch in Sacramento that paid for the direct-mail piece, told me this week that the card is designed to get people to open it up.

“We’re not having any luck with the standard mail pieces we sent out,” he said.

I told him my coworkers were unhappy to be pitched a mortgage via a cute baby. (By the way, Sanderson said the picture is of his baby, who’s now three years old.)

“I never really thought of it that way,” he said. “I thought it was harmless, really. Our hope is to help people get out of adjustable-rate mortgages and into fixed rates.”

Here's the mailing. Thoughts?

A new round of foreclosure numbers were released today, this time looking at U.S. metro areas rather than statewide.

Tacoma ranked 49th out of 100 for its third quarter foreclosure filing rate, with one filing for every 221 households, according to RealtyTrac, a real estate research firm. By comparison, the No. 1 market had one filing for every 31 households. RealtyTrac counts foreclosure-related filings, including default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions.

Here are the top 10 foreclosure markets for the third quarter, otherwise known as another reason to be thankful you don't live in California. Unless you're a buyer looking for a bargain tract home.

1. Stockton, Calif.
2. Detroit, Mich.
3. Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif.
4. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
5. Las Vegas, Nev.
6. Sacramento, Calif.
7. Cleveland, Ohio
8. Miami, Fla.
9. Bakersfield, Calif.
10. Oakland, Calif.

Ever wonder why an area like Anderson Island sees such a big increase in the median home price in one month? A real estate agent who lives on Anderson Island wrote in and said he was "amazed" at the island's 49 percent year-over-year increase in October and suggested a story.

Such a big jump in the island's median price highlights one of the less perfect aspects of using median prices to measure a market. Only three homes sold on Anderson Island in October, so one being unusually high or low can easily skew the numbers. In fact, September numbers show the median price declined by 19.6 percent when five homes sold. A better measure for this particular area are the year-to-date numbers, which show a 11.6 percent gain in prices for the first 10 months of the year when tallying the sale of 41 homes.

I sometimes don't include Anderson Island in statistical roundups because so few homes are sold and bought there compared to other areas of the county. Puyallup, for instance, had 145 sales close in October followed by 109 in Sumner and 86 in Gig Harbor.

Following yesterday's area-by-area rundown of the median price for home sales, let's look specifically at condos. I decided to go with year-to-date numbers, since the numbers in individual areas are so small on a monthly basis. (Throughout Pierce County, only 91 condos sold in October compared to 753 houses.)

These are median condominium sale prices, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, for the first 10 months of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006.

Here’s a look at October's median home price in the 17 Pierce County areas tracked by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

I calculated the percentage change between Oct. 2007 and Oct. 2006. Though some are up year-over-year and others are down, it should be noted that median prices in all areas are up for the first 10 months of the year compared to the same period in 2006. And despite the county's median home price being down 1.4 percent overall, a couple of areas had particularly good months – check out Gig Harbor (which includes the Key Peninsula) and the Roy and DuPont areas.

That would be Spanaway, on average, according to Northwest Multiple Listing Service numbers.

The quickest turnaround in Pierce County, on average, for the last six months?

The Graham/Eatonville area, where a home took 55 days to sell. North Tacoma was a close second at 56 days.

Here's a look at some other areas and their days-on-market averages:
• Gig Harbor: 93
• University Place/Fircrest: 76
• Puyallup: 85
• Browns Point: 69
• Lakewood: 64

I'll post more October housing market stats for areas around the county on Thursday.

October home price numbers just arrived from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service and show that Pierce County had a second month of price declines, a 1.4 percent drop from the same month in 2006.

Take a look at the chart to track where prices have been throughout the year and how they compare to 2006. (Numbers that break down prices and sales stats around the county might not be released until tomorrow, so we might have to make do today with county wide figures.)

Turns out the state Department of Financial Institutions also has taken note of the refinance junk mail filling the mailboxes of homeowners. In part, because of a big jump in complaints. So far this year, the department has received 100 complaints about mortgage-related advertising – a 223 percent increase from all of 2006.

Typically, the department sends letters and resolutions explaining to companies what’s wrong with their ads and asking the companies to fix the advertisements. In the next several weeks, however, the department plans to file an order, with fines, that requires a Washington mortgage company to halt its deceptive advertising, said Deb Bortner, director of the department’s Consumer Services Division.

You might be familiar with some of the refi-mailer tactics: official looking envelopes, low-low teaser rates, specifics detailing your loan amount and other info related to your mortgage.

“They’re right on the fence when they don’t tell them where they got the information,” Bortner said. “It makes it looks like they got it from their lender.”

Beyond deceiving homeowners who receive the mail. Bortner said it’s anti-competitive, because the ads lure customers who might otherwise take their business to mortgage brokers who don’t use bad come-ons.

“They get people through the door and end up making them a loan that doesn’t match up with advertising,” she said.

BusinessWeek examined the inventory of housing markets across the country and compiled a slide show of those with the most for sale, which includes Houston, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The Pacific Northwest gets a pass on the list. But, interestingly, Pierce County’s stock of homes for sale increased more in September (36.9 percent) compared to the same month in 2006 than any of the markets on BusinessWeek’s list. The closest was Miami, which saw a 27.8 percent year-over-year increase.

Of course, the raw numbers we’re talking about are like looking at two different planets. In September, there were 8,681 homes – houses and condos – for sale in Pierce County, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Miami had 79,154 listings, Chicago had 82,839 and Houston had 39,332. (For additional perspective: In the markets tracked by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which includes most of Washington state, there were 48,969 homes for sale in September.)

Go here to check out the BusinessWeek list of markets with the most listings.

Washington retained its middle-of-the-road ranking when it came to U.S. foreclosure-related filings in the third quarter, according to numbers released today by research firm RealtyTrac. Such filings were up 42 percent over July, August and September in 2006. By comparison, the No. 1 state – Nevada – saw a 202 percent year-over-year increase.

RealtyTrac compiles default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions.

Pierce County's foreclosure-filing rate was up 52 percent year-over-year in the third quarter, according to RealtyTrac.