Investor Update
December 2, 2019
Source: FHFA
Three Unusual Tornadoes Confirmed in Arizona Friday
Disaster Alert
November 29, 2019
Source: The Weather Channel
Additional Resources:
azcentral.com (3 tornadoes touched down in metro Phoenix on Friday morning, National Weather Service confirms)
FOX 10 Phoenix (NWS confirms tornadoes blew through parts of the Valley)
Approximate locations sustaining home damage
Texas
– Gilbert (Maricopa County, 85295)*
*Tornado touch down in the area of Williams Field Rd. and Highway Loop 202)
– Phoenix (Maricopa County, 85028, 85032))*
*Damage reported in the 30-40th St./E.Shea Blvd. and Roadrunner Park area
– Paradise Valley (Maricopa County, 85253)
– Queen Creek (Maricopa/Pinal counties, 85140, 85142, 85143)
NOTE: This has not yet been declared a FEMA Major Disaster.
At a Glance
- The National Weather Service confirmed 3 tornadoes developed Friday morning in the Phoenix, Arizona, area.
- This was the third time three tornadoes occurred on the same day in Maricopa County.
- The severe weather was due to a powerful low pressure system moving through the West.
Three tornadoes developed in the Phoenix, Arizona, area early Friday as a powerful storm system moved through the West.
This was the third time since 1950 that three tornadoes were observed on the same day in Maricopa County. This is also the latest in the year that multiple tornadoes have occurred in Maricopa County, according to the National Weather Service.
Tornado warnings were issued early Friday morning and the first tornado developed just before 4 a.m. MST in Paradise Valley. This tornado tracked into northwest Scottsdale and has been rated EF1. Numerous trees were downed and roofs were damaged.
A second tornado formed near Higley and has been rated EF0. Small trees were damaged.
The third tornado was in the Queen Creek area just before 5 a.m. MST and has also been given a rating of EF0.
For full report, please click the source link above.
High Winds Become Catalyst for Oklahoma Wildfire Outbreak
Updated 11/27/19: KSN.com published a report offering an update on a rash of wildfires that broke out across Oklahoma and have destroyed at least two homes.
Oklahoma wildfire danger eases with weather shift
Disaster Alert
November 26, 2019
Source: KOCO ABC 5
Approximate locations sustaining home damage
Oklahoma
– Fargo (Ellis County, 73840)
– Mooreland (Woodward County, 73852)
NOTE: This has not yet been declared a FEMA Major Disaster.
MOORELAND, Okla. — Parts of towns in northwestern Oklahoma had to be evacuated Tuesday afternoon after dangerous wildfires sparked and spread quickly because of high winds.
Shortly before 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, a dangerous wildfire was located just southwest of Mooreland. Authorities said the flames are moving rapidly northeast. Evacuation instructions were sent out, but the order has since been lifted in Mooreland.
Authorities said the wildfire threatened about 100 homes, and police said the fire burned two houses and a barn. A senior living center in Mooreland also had to be evacuated. Woodward Public Schools officials said employees drove two school buses to the nursing home to help in the evacuation.
The Mooreland police chief told KOCO 5 that all fire and police units have been released from the fire scene and they are gong to let the rest burn itself out.
Around 4:20 p.m., a dangerous wildfire was located just northwest of Fargo and moving rapidly toward the southeast, officials said. Evacuation orders were issued shortly afterward. They have since been lifted.
Chemical Plant Explosion Causes Extensive Damage to Texas City
Disaster Alert
November 27, 2019
Source: CNN
Approximate locations containing home damage:
Texas
– Port Neches (Jefferson County, 77651)
NOTE: This has not yet been declared a FEMA Major Disaster.
(CNN) — An explosion rocked a chemical plant early Wednesday in Texas, causing extensive damage across the small city of Port Neches and leaving at least three employees injured.
A chemical fire continues to burn at the site, and a mandatory evacuation order has been issued within a half mile of the TPC Group plant, about 90 miles east of Houston, the Nederland Volunteer Fire Department said.
“There’s extensive damage throughout the City,” Port Neches Police Department said in a statement. “Please stay off the roads anywhere near the refineries. Obey all the barricades that are in place. We are doing everything we can to keep everyone safe and informed.”
Personnel have been evacuated from the plant, which makes products for chemical and petroleum companies, said TPC Group, which runs the Port Neches Operations site. About 13,000 people live in Port Neches, and some said their home windows were blown out by the blast.
The fire is burning a chemical called butadiene, police said. A colorless gas, butadiene is considered a health hazard, according to the US National Library of Medicine. It is made from processing petroleum and is used to make synthetic rubber and plastics.
“Our focus is on protecting the safety of responders and the public, and minimizing any impact to the environment,” TPC Group said.
The injured employees are undergoing treatment, the company said.
For full report, please click the source link above.
Tropical Storm Kammuri Impacts Guam
Disaster Alert
November 26, 2019
Source: Pacific Daily News
Approximate areas experiencing power outages:
Guam
– Dededo (96912, 96929)
– Harmon (96913)
– Tumon (96913)
– Yigo (96929)
– Yona (96915)
NOTE: This has not yet been declared a FEMA Major Disaster.
Gusty winds and scattered power outages were reported across Guam Tuesday night as Tropical Storm Kammuri moved south of the island.
Schools will be closed Wednesday, and forecasters warned that rainfall of 4 to 5 inches, hazardous seas and deadly rip currents are possible through Wednesday morning.
Power outages reported
Power was out in Tumon, Harmon, and isolated parts of Dededo, Yigo and Yona, according to Guam Power Authority spokesman Art Perez. Perez said field crews were responding, but they were reporting high winds.
Although circuits were restored in Tumon and Harmon, there were pocket areas of Tumon Heights, and isolated areas of Maite, Yona, Yigo and Dededo without power. Outages in Ipan, Talofofo, toward Bear Rock in Inarajan were also reported, Perez said.
For full report, please click the source link above.
‘Bomb Cyclone’ Expected to Strike West Coast
Disaster Alert
November 26, 2019
Source: The Weather Channel
At a Glance
- A powerful storm will move into southern Oregon and Northern California on Tuesday.
- This storm will be a bomb cyclone when it hits southern Oregon later Tuesday.
- The storm will then move slowly through the West into late this week with snow, rain and gusty winds.
- Snow and wind from this storm will move into the Northern Plains and upper Midwest late this week into the weekend.
- Wintry weather could push into parts of the Northeast over the weekend.
Snow, rain and strong winds will make travel conditions difficult in parts of the West this week from an powerful storm that will slowly spread toward the central and eastern United States into this weekend.
The intensifying storm is located in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and will move into Oregon and Northern California on Tuesday. This storm will undergo bombogenesis before it moves inland. This means it will be a bomb cyclone since its pressure will drop at least 24 millibars within 24 hours, making it an intense storm when it strikes.
From there, the storm will track slowly eastward from the West toward the central and eastern states into this weekend through a sharp southward plunge of the jet stream.
The Weather Channel has named this system Winter Storm Ezekiel.
Forecast Timing
Tuesday-Tuesday Night
The powerful area of low pressure will push inland near the border between Oregon and California by late in the day.
The intensity of this storm is potentially historic for southwestern Oregon and northwestern California, the National Weather Service said.
Strong winds gusting over 70 mph will punch into southwestern Oregon and northwestern California. The winds could cause tree damage and power outages in some areas.
For full report, please click the source link above.
Cave Fire Ignites in California
Updated 11/27/19: KSBY NBC 6 issued a report offering the latest updates on California’s Cave fire, which has consumed 4,367 acres in Santa Barbara County.
UPDATE: All Cave Fire-related evacuation orders and warnings lifted
Disaster Alert
November 25, 2019
Source: Los Angeles Times
Approximate locations in current event path*
California
Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara County, 93101, 93103, 93105, 93108, 93109, 93110, 93111, 93117)
Goleta (Santa Barbara County, 93110, 93111, 93117)
*Home damage has not been reported at this time.
NOTE: This has not yet been declared a FEMA Major Disaster.
SANTA BARBARA — Firefighters early Tuesday continued to battle a wind-driven brush fire that erupted a day earlier near Highway 154 in Santa Barbara County and burned quickly downhill, threatening thousands of properties and sending residents fleeing from their homes.
The Cave fire started just after 4 p.m. Monday near East Camino Cielo and Painted Cave Road in Los Padres National Forest and has exploded to 3,800 acres with no containment, according to the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. The blaze, fanned by strong sundowner winds, grew overnight and was advancing toward populated areas in the cities of Santa Barbara and Goleta as well as unincorporated areas of the county.
The fire prompted Santa Barbara County officials to declare a local emergency and request that Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaim a state of emergency for the region. The fire is “causing conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within Santa Barbara County,” the county wrote.
Within three hours of starting, the fire had traveled to the top of Cieneguitas Road near the San Marcos Foothills Preserve. The blaze initially moved into a few canyons and rapidly expanded as it was pushed south by 15 mph down-canyon winds with 30 mph gusts. By 7:30 p.m., the fire was spotting in front of itself and had started at least one spot fire near Highway 154 and Cathedral Oaks Road, said Mike Eliason, a public information officer with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.
For full report, please click the source link above.
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta: Foreclosure Externalities and Vacant Property Registration Ordinances
Industry Update
November 19, 2019
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Additional Resource:
Foreclosure Externalities and Vacant Property Registration Ordinances (full white paper)
This paper tests the effectiveness of vacant property registration ordinances (VPROs) in reducing negative externalities from foreclosures. VPROs were widely adopted by local governments across the United States during the foreclosure crisis and facilitated the monitoring and enforcement of existing property maintenance laws. We implement a border discontinuity design combined with a triple-difference specification to overcome policy endogeneity concerns, and we find that the enactment of VPROs in Florida more than halved the negative externality from foreclosure. This finding is robust to a rich set of time-by-location fixed effects, limiting the sample to properties within 0.1 miles of a VPRO/non-VPRO border and to a number of other sample restrictions and falsification exercises. The results suggest that an important driver of the negative price effect of nearby foreclosures is a non-pecuniary externality where the failure to maintain or secure a property affects one’s neighbors.
CFPB: Report Explores Differences Between Large and Small Mortgage Servicers
Industry Update
November 21, 2019
Source: CFPB
Washington, D.C. –The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) released today a report examining the differences between large and small mortgage servicers. The report explores the role servicers of different sizes play in the mortgage market where size is defined by the number of loans serviced. Because of differences in the resources, capabilities, customer base, and business models of financial institutions of varying sizes, the impact of consumer finance regulations can vary as well.
The report finds that smaller servicers, such as community banks and credit unions, play an outsize role in rural areas, that the loans they service are less likely to be sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or to be government-backed, and that during the financial crisis they experienced lower delinquencies.
Key findings in the report include: 74 percent of borrowers with mortgages at small servicers said having a branch or office nearby was important in how they chose their mortgage lender, compared to 44 percent at large servicers; delinquency rates on loans at servicers of all sizes increased substantially starting in 2008, but peak delinquency rates were much lower for small servicers than for large and mid-sized servicers; and smaller servicers have a greater share of mortgages in non-metro or completely rural counties.
A link to the report may be found here: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/data-point-servicer-size-mortgage-market/
Group Looks to Reduce Number of Abandoned ‘Zombie’ Homes
Industry Update
November 21, 2019
Source: Spokane Journal of Business
A loose group of Spokane professionals has begun working to relieve some of the pressure the area’s housing market is under by bringing “zombie homes” back to life.
Spokane Association of Realtors government affairs director Darin Watkins says zombie homes are so called because they are often the result of a stalled foreclosure. They’re unoccupied and neglected, yet they remain the homeowner’s responsibility. Such homes can turn into nuisance properties overrun with squatters, crime, and neglect.
“They’re a blight on the neighborhood,” Watkins says.
Watkins is part of a group that is informally known as the zombie homes coalition, which comprises about 40 people, including city employees, representatives of nonprofit organizations, real estate agents, and developers.
The coalition began forming about a year ago, after the City of Spokane spotlighted the issue in a video on its website, he says.
In August, the group went through a training program offered through the National Association of Realtors and led by an organization called the Center for Community Progress.
“We brought in some national speakers just to look at ideas that other communities had to try to find ways to transition those houses from being vacant to back on the marketplace,” Watkins says. “We brought a lot of people together that don’t normally talk to each other, and there were some really cool benefits of that.”
Watkins adds, “After we had this training, we all got fired up about what could happen. We said, ‘Let’s stay together and talk about these things.’”
The coalition’s first order of business was to determine how many zombie homes exist in Spokane.
The city of Spokane initially had estimated there were about 1,200.
By examining how many homes have had water service shut off for at least six months, however, the coalition determined that there are about 3,000 zombie homes in the city.
Jason Ruffing, code enforcement officer with the city, says it’s hard to say exactly how many such homes are in Spokane due to a lack of a concrete definition.
“I would be surprised if the number was that high in the city limits, but zombie property can mean many different things to different people, so it can be a hard figure to approximate,” Ruffing tells the Journal via email.
But both the city and the Spokane Association of Realtors agree that those empty homes, however many exist, do nothing to help Spokane’s real estate market to cool down.
“That’s a home that someone could be buying,” he says. “Empty homes don’t help anybody. We’re in a housing crisis in Spokane, by any measure.”
A housing supply of less than four months represents a seller’s market, Watkins says, while Spokane’s supply is currently at about five weeks.
“I don’t see any sign of (the market) slowing,” Watkins says. “That’s the scary part. We’ve been at double-digit (price) growth in this city for five years — it’s unprecedented.”
According to property data company Attom Data Solutions, there are currently more than 1.5 million vacant single-family homes and condos throughout the U.S., representing 1.5% of the total 98.6 million single family homes and condos nationwide.
There are more than 97,000 single-family homes in Spokane, according to U.S. census data; if the zombie homes coalition is right about the number of zombie homes here, 3% of Spokane’s single-family homes are vacant.
Cleaning up zombie homes and getting them back on the market could ease the need for housing, but there are numerous obstacles.
For full article, please click the source link above.
