NAR President Moe Veissi praises new help for struggling
homeowners. The Federal Housing Finance Agency on Tuesday announced
measures to make “short sales” of underwater homes easier for
homeowners, including extending help to people who have financial
difficulties but haven’t missed mortgage payments.
View the video here.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Good News for Housing: Home Prices Continue Positive Trend
The Case-Shiller indexes of home prices increased again when compared to the previous month or the previous year. Both the 10-city and 20-city seasonally-adjusted indexes rose 1 percent and 0.9 percent respectively from May to June 2012. This is the fifth straight month for steady increases in the SA indexes.
Read the Full Article Here
Read the Full Article Here
New Featured Listing - 76 Club Course Drive
Surrounded on 2 sides by lagoons and a commanding view of
the3rd fairway of the Sea Pines CC Club Course combine to make this 3 BR, 2.5
BA home a great value for the buyer who wants an updated home featuring granite
counter tops in the kitchen and laundry rm., family room with gas fireplace,
dining room with wet bar, spacious living room with cathedral ceilings and
large foyer, main floor master suite, deck with stunning views of the lagoon
and golf course, circular drive and 1 car garage. This home is ideal as a
permanent residence or vacation getaway. MLS# 317737 More Information
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Homebuilder Confidence in U.S. Increases to Five-Year High
Confidence among U.S. homebuilders
climbed in August to the highest level in more than five years,
affirming the improvement in residential construction.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder confidence index rose to 37, higher than projected and the best showing since February 2007, according to figures from the Washington-based group released today. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for no change from July’s 35. Readings below 50 mean more respondents said conditions were poor.
Read Full Article
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder confidence index rose to 37, higher than projected and the best showing since February 2007, according to figures from the Washington-based group released today. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for no change from July’s 35. Readings below 50 mean more respondents said conditions were poor.
Read Full Article
Monday, August 20, 2012
If you can pull it off, a house is a smart investment
Investment opinions are like, um, noses: Everyone has one. Buy stocks,
sell bonds? Go long steel and short copper? Buy sheep, sell deer? It's pretty easy to see both sides of an investment argument. But it's
hard to argue against buying a house now, assuming you can get a loan. Read the full article here.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
New Featured Listing - 9 Newhall Road
Monday, August 6, 2012
Why You Should Go Buy a House, Maybe Even Two
“If I was an investor that was a handy type and I could buy a
couple of them [houses] at distressed prices and find renters, I think
it’s a leveraged way of owning a very cheap asset now and I think that’s
probably as attractive an investment as you can make now.” Warren Buffet,
February 2012
Buying North American real estate is likely one of the best investments you can make right now.
Record low interest rates coupled with depressed real estate prices mean that housing affordability is at a record high.
Rental property owners are also sitting pretty in many areas of the country as potential buyers hold off from buying a home. Memories of the latest real estate crash are still too fresh to be easily forgotten.
This past weekend I had a drink with a friend who lives in the Boston area. He and his wife just paid a full month's rent just as a finder's fee for their next apartment. That tells me rental demand is back. And the rental property they own in Cape Cod is filling their bank account with cash, having been rented throughout the entire summer.
Certainly some markets are faring better than others. And relatively speaking the Northeast is doing pretty well. But most data shows that the worst of the real estate crash is behind us across the rest of the country too. As a result, homebuilder confidence is surging.
On Tuesday the National Association of Home Builders reported that its
housing market index (HMI) leapt by 20%, up 6 points to 35. Every region
in the U.S. posted gains with the West and the Northeast leading the
South and Midwest.
Gains were recorded on all three variables in the HMI: current single-family home sales volume; projected single-family home sales volume for the next six months; and current buyer foot traffic.
Generally speaking a reading above 50 is bullish for home builders while a reading below 50 is bearish. Note how low this index was over the past couple of years and the dramatic increase in recent months.
We're not in bullish territory yet, but we're certainly improving. And that means now is a good time to increase your exposure to housing.
If you're still on the fence, consider the following:
The inventory of existing homes for sale has fallen to a near-normal level of six months worth of inventory...
In May 2012 builders started 26% more single-family homes than in May 2011...
And the widely followed S&P Case-Shiller Housing Index showed that prices rose in April 2012 by 1.3% after seven consecutive months of declines.
This is all good news, but by no means is this a bull market yet; it's just an improving one.
While data shows things are getting better, sales of existing single-family homes are still below 5 million annually and single-family home starts are around a paltry 650,000.
Both of these are well below historical figures dating back before 2000. And the Case-Shiller Housing Index of 20 cities, while improved in April, is still down by 1.9% year-over-year.
So what we have here is still a soft market, but one that likely has the worst behind it and is going to get better - possibly much, much better. When it does, the right real estate investments you make now should pay off.
Good Investing,
Tyler Laundon, MBA
Editor, Pay Dirt
Buying North American real estate is likely one of the best investments you can make right now.
Record low interest rates coupled with depressed real estate prices mean that housing affordability is at a record high.
Rental property owners are also sitting pretty in many areas of the country as potential buyers hold off from buying a home. Memories of the latest real estate crash are still too fresh to be easily forgotten.
This past weekend I had a drink with a friend who lives in the Boston area. He and his wife just paid a full month's rent just as a finder's fee for their next apartment. That tells me rental demand is back. And the rental property they own in Cape Cod is filling their bank account with cash, having been rented throughout the entire summer.
Certainly some markets are faring better than others. And relatively speaking the Northeast is doing pretty well. But most data shows that the worst of the real estate crash is behind us across the rest of the country too. As a result, homebuilder confidence is surging.
Gains were recorded on all three variables in the HMI: current single-family home sales volume; projected single-family home sales volume for the next six months; and current buyer foot traffic.
Generally speaking a reading above 50 is bullish for home builders while a reading below 50 is bearish. Note how low this index was over the past couple of years and the dramatic increase in recent months.
We're not in bullish territory yet, but we're certainly improving. And that means now is a good time to increase your exposure to housing.
If you're still on the fence, consider the following:
The inventory of existing homes for sale has fallen to a near-normal level of six months worth of inventory...
In May 2012 builders started 26% more single-family homes than in May 2011...
And the widely followed S&P Case-Shiller Housing Index showed that prices rose in April 2012 by 1.3% after seven consecutive months of declines.
This is all good news, but by no means is this a bull market yet; it's just an improving one.
While data shows things are getting better, sales of existing single-family homes are still below 5 million annually and single-family home starts are around a paltry 650,000.
Both of these are well below historical figures dating back before 2000. And the Case-Shiller Housing Index of 20 cities, while improved in April, is still down by 1.9% year-over-year.
So what we have here is still a soft market, but one that likely has the worst behind it and is going to get better - possibly much, much better. When it does, the right real estate investments you make now should pay off.
Good Investing,
Tyler Laundon, MBA
Editor, Pay Dirt
Friday, August 3, 2012
Freddie Mac says 30-year fixed mortgage plunges below 3.5%
Courtesy latimes.com
The typical rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage tumbled below 3.5% for the first time this week, Freddie Mac said -- the latest record low in a trend that has fired up refinancings but done little to ignite housing demand.
Freddie Mac's weekly survey of what lenders are offering to rock-solid borrowers showed the 30-year rate at an average of 3.49%, down from 3.53% last week. The 15-year fixed loan fell from 2.83% to 2.8%.
Borrowers would have paid 0.7% of the loan amount in lender fees and points to obtain the rates, according to Freddie Mac.
The survey underscores the success of the Federal Reserve in pushing down interest rates to support a sputtering economy that shows few signs of inflation.
In late July 2010 and 2011 the typical 30-year rate in the Freddie Mac survey was just over 4.5%, more than a percentage point higher than now. The 30-year rate was above 6% in 2006 and most of 2007, over 8% back in 2000, and over 10% in 1990. Back in the bad old days of inflation, the rate topped 18% for 10 weeks in 1981.
This year's record rates have created a frenzy of refinancing by homeowners who still have equity in their properties and are current on their loans. But they have done little to spur housing demand, as Celia Chen, a housing economist for Moody's Analytics, pointed out.
"Home sales are slowly improving, but the pace of sales is still very weak," Chen said Thursday. The low rates are only available to households with excellent credit and earnings, she noted, and sales are constrained by weak job growth and millions of homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.
"I guess the good news is that if rates were to go up back up to 4.5%, it probably wouldn’t have a huge negative impact on home sales," Chen said. "The impact on refinancing, however, would be decidedly negative."
The typical rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage tumbled below 3.5% for the first time this week, Freddie Mac said -- the latest record low in a trend that has fired up refinancings but done little to ignite housing demand.
Freddie Mac's weekly survey of what lenders are offering to rock-solid borrowers showed the 30-year rate at an average of 3.49%, down from 3.53% last week. The 15-year fixed loan fell from 2.83% to 2.8%.
Borrowers would have paid 0.7% of the loan amount in lender fees and points to obtain the rates, according to Freddie Mac.
The survey underscores the success of the Federal Reserve in pushing down interest rates to support a sputtering economy that shows few signs of inflation.
In late July 2010 and 2011 the typical 30-year rate in the Freddie Mac survey was just over 4.5%, more than a percentage point higher than now. The 30-year rate was above 6% in 2006 and most of 2007, over 8% back in 2000, and over 10% in 1990. Back in the bad old days of inflation, the rate topped 18% for 10 weeks in 1981.
This year's record rates have created a frenzy of refinancing by homeowners who still have equity in their properties and are current on their loans. But they have done little to spur housing demand, as Celia Chen, a housing economist for Moody's Analytics, pointed out.
"Home sales are slowly improving, but the pace of sales is still very weak," Chen said Thursday. The low rates are only available to households with excellent credit and earnings, she noted, and sales are constrained by weak job growth and millions of homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.
"I guess the good news is that if rates were to go up back up to 4.5%, it probably wouldn’t have a huge negative impact on home sales," Chen said. "The impact on refinancing, however, would be decidedly negative."
Home values rise for first time in 5 years
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Home prices hit a bottom and are finally
bouncing back, according to an industry report released Tuesday.
Nationwide, home values rose 0.2% year-over-year to a median $149,300 during the second quarter, the first annual increase since 2007, real estate listing site Zillow reported. Prices were up 2.1% from the first quarter.
Even though June marked the fourth consecutive month of home value increases, overall home prices are still down almost 24% since April 2007, when Zillow began to track home values.
"[I]t seems clear that the country has hit a bottom in home values," said Zillow's chief economist Stan Humphries. "The housing recovery is holding together despite lower-than-expected job growth, indicating that it has some organic strength of its own."
Last winter, Zillow projected that the housing market turnaround would not arrive until the end of the year.
Other home price indexes have also recorded gains lately, including the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index. In it latest release, it reported that home prices in 20 major markets rose 1.3% in April, the first monthly increase in seven months.
Zillow uses a different methodology in calculating home values than other home price indexes like Case-Shiller and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Sales of foreclosed, bank-owned properties, for example, are not factored into Zillow's data. Zillow does include short sales, however, which are more difficult to distinguish from conventional sales.
"Our index is geared to consumers, conventional sellers deciding whether they want to put their homes on the market," said Humphries.
The indexes that include foreclosures in their market data show larger price declines. The peak-to-trough drop for the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index, for example, is about 34% compared with Zillow's 24%.
Fewer than one third of the 167 metro areas Zillow surveyed recorded annual increases in home values, but the size of the price gains in these areas more than offset the losses posted by the remaining two-thirds of the markets.
In Phoenix, the biggest gainer, home values soared 12.1% year-over-year to a median of $136,200. Meanwhile, the biggest loss sustained by any of the 30 largest metro areas was in Chicago where median home values fell 5.8% to $158,600.
Foreclosures remain one of the biggest risks to the housing market recovery, Humphries said. In the wake of the national foreclosure settlement which clarified how banks can legally pursue foreclosures, Humphries expects the pace of foreclosures to pick up.
"That will translate to more homes on the market," he said. "But we think demand will rise to absorb that."
Zillow expects the housing market to continue to slowly recover, with median home values projected to climb 1.1% -- relatively flat -- over the next 12 months.
Beaten down markets like Phoenix, Las Vegas and many Florida cities, will likely record greater-than-average gains over the next 12 months, said Humphries.
The results in those places, however, will be bumpy. Home price increases will cause some homeowners who have been patiently waiting for values to rebound to put their homes on the market. And those additional listings could cool prices for a while, resulting in a staircase effect with "price spikes followed by plateaus," said Humphries.
Nationwide, home values rose 0.2% year-over-year to a median $149,300 during the second quarter, the first annual increase since 2007, real estate listing site Zillow reported. Prices were up 2.1% from the first quarter.
Even though June marked the fourth consecutive month of home value increases, overall home prices are still down almost 24% since April 2007, when Zillow began to track home values.
"[I]t seems clear that the country has hit a bottom in home values," said Zillow's chief economist Stan Humphries. "The housing recovery is holding together despite lower-than-expected job growth, indicating that it has some organic strength of its own."
Last winter, Zillow projected that the housing market turnaround would not arrive until the end of the year.
Other home price indexes have also recorded gains lately, including the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index. In it latest release, it reported that home prices in 20 major markets rose 1.3% in April, the first monthly increase in seven months.
Zillow uses a different methodology in calculating home values than other home price indexes like Case-Shiller and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Sales of foreclosed, bank-owned properties, for example, are not factored into Zillow's data. Zillow does include short sales, however, which are more difficult to distinguish from conventional sales.
"Our index is geared to consumers, conventional sellers deciding whether they want to put their homes on the market," said Humphries.
The indexes that include foreclosures in their market data show larger price declines. The peak-to-trough drop for the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index, for example, is about 34% compared with Zillow's 24%.
Fewer than one third of the 167 metro areas Zillow surveyed recorded annual increases in home values, but the size of the price gains in these areas more than offset the losses posted by the remaining two-thirds of the markets.
In Phoenix, the biggest gainer, home values soared 12.1% year-over-year to a median of $136,200. Meanwhile, the biggest loss sustained by any of the 30 largest metro areas was in Chicago where median home values fell 5.8% to $158,600.
Foreclosures remain one of the biggest risks to the housing market recovery, Humphries said. In the wake of the national foreclosure settlement which clarified how banks can legally pursue foreclosures, Humphries expects the pace of foreclosures to pick up.
"That will translate to more homes on the market," he said. "But we think demand will rise to absorb that."
Zillow expects the housing market to continue to slowly recover, with median home values projected to climb 1.1% -- relatively flat -- over the next 12 months.
Beaten down markets like Phoenix, Las Vegas and many Florida cities, will likely record greater-than-average gains over the next 12 months, said Humphries.
The results in those places, however, will be bumpy. Home price increases will cause some homeowners who have been patiently waiting for values to rebound to put their homes on the market. And those additional listings could cool prices for a while, resulting in a staircase effect with "price spikes followed by plateaus," said Humphries.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)