When it comes to Austin’s growing real estate market and new hot spot for investing, Forbes, CNN, and the Economic Relocation Council can’t all be wrong:

Where to Invest in America? Austin #3

Austin: Best Places to Live

Forbes’ Best Bang For Your Buck: Austin #1

CNN: Austin’s Economy Is Your Best Bet

Austin: America’s 4th Hottest Job Market

A lower inventory, combined with increased home sales has led to a spike in median and average sales prices in Austin. As Austin continues to grow (predicted population to double in the next ten years), we’ll see capital enter the market faster than inventory can grow, causing prices to steadily climb once more.

Kiplinger named Austin the best city for the next decade.

What better news for local real estate investors or for out-of-towners looking for a city on the rise?

According to a new article, while the HAMP (Home Affordable Mortgage Program) and HARP (Home Affordable Refinancing Program) have reached and assisted just shy of a million homeowners, HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative) has reached and assisted merely 2% of that.

Perhaps homeowners nearing foreclosure have passed the stage of motivation and action, but professionals in that field must make up for it with new ways to market, reach, qualify and encourage homeowners to stop foreclosure by completing loan modifications or short sales.

These programs are a great leap forward when it comes to stopping foreclosure and making short sales attractive, offering qualified homeowners cash incentives in exchange for cooperation. Those in the distressed property market currently have a power play. Let’s take advantage of it.

The top lenders in the country: Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citi and Chase just released new information that they have each completely changed the way their loss mitigation departments are now handling short sales. And IT’S GOOD NEWS.

Based on the 2011 mortgage recasts, which have shown dramatic increases in foreclosure activity compared to 2010, they realize that foreclosure rates are still breaking records and buyers are having a harder time acquiring loans to inject money back into the economy. On top of that, outreach programs and no-cost mortgage counseling are not reaching anywhere near the anticipated number of foreclosed homeowners.

The big banks have now decided to streamline their individual processes, each with their own required documents (in most cases fewer than before) and have outlined the precise steps to get a short sale approved fast.

The biggest changes: Wells Fargo is taking advantage of equator and, if utilized, agents can anticipate a short sale approval as fast as three weeks.

Bank of America has created a step-by-step procedure for short sales with a signed contract and one for short sales without a signed contract.

And every one of the big banks now offers a short sale approval with ONLY A LISTING AGREEMENT. So you can market the property while the underwriter, servicer or investor is processing your package instead of separating the two tasks and wasting time.

This article does a great job explaining through example one way to solve a common problem that most agents face during a short sale. Secondary or unexpected liens are one of the top five reasons short sales fail, in my experience.

Negotiating with the bank and/or buyer to figure out a way to pay off a secondary lien, either through a seller concession, lender approval or buyer debit at closing, adds days or even weeks to the foreclosure approval date every time a new option is submitted to the bank.

In certain circumstances, it may be worth it to pay off the lien yourself, or negotiate a split with the seller, bank, buyer OR ALL THREE in order to keep the momentum of the sale going and close fast. You don’t want a homeowner to lose heart or a buyer to lose interest. You must be always be on the lookout for the most pro-active solution to get you closer to the ultimate goal in a short sale: selling the property.

This article from the New York Times talks about how hard an individual or a family is truly hit by a foreclosure. Depression, suicide, diabetes and heart-related illness all increase in the study areas highest in foreclosures. Think about this when dealing with a distressed property owner and their seemingly ‘irrational’ decisions. An individual at times assumes the condition of his home.

The distressed housing market now requires a gentler, more compassionate professional. The foreclosure rate is now a community problem, and must be solved with a wide-reaching sense of community.

Getting to the roots of what capitalism really means, where it came from and how its purely implemented isn’t the end-all-be-all of how a country should run its markets, but if we are to say what we mean and mean what we say, we ought to at least be familiar with the words.

Check out an in-depth look comparing our ideals of capitalism historically, presently, and how we hold up when our biggest ‘capitalist’ entities are audited.

Don’t Confuse “Wall Street” with “Capitalism.”