The Spring market is upon us. Professionals across the country are reporting that buyer activity is very strong. Purchasers are beginning to realize that this is one of the greatest times in American real estate to buy a home. There are basically four reasons for this: They realize that it is th
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03/29/2012
Here comes Spring, historically the time of year when buyers awake from the winter slumber of the holidays and snowfall, and go on their pilgrimage to look for new housing. Houses look better in Spring with green grass, blooming trees, and flowers. Plus, buyers who find a home in the next 60 days
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03/26/2012
Because of the challenges in the current economy, many families have either decided to rent or been forced to rent. How has this impacted rental options and the cost of the available options? HousingWire recently quoted Paul Dales, senior economist with Capital Economics: “As a consequence of Ame
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03/22/2012
A short sale, in most instances, is a complex transaction. However, there are two very simplistic characteristics that every qualified short sale possesses: The house must be valued at less than the homeowner owes on their mortgage debt obligation. In other words, the home must be “underwater”.
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03/14/2012
Everyone wants to know if the housing market is truly showing signs of a recovery. There are conflicting headlines every day. One day, we hear sales are up. The next day it is reported that prices are down. Is the real estate market coming back? The answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’. There are two aspects
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03/13/2012
This is an interesting map showing the months of supply of shadow inventory by state. Some of it is surprising and seeing the differences among the states is quite remarkable. I live in Washington state where we have a 4 month supply but those living in New Jersey have an incredible 65 months.
03/06/2012
I read this article in USA Today. http://usat.ly/xYLbja The article talks about the increasing activity within the refinance arena and the HARP 2.0 program. The article explains who can qualify for the program and states further that they expect to help over a million homeowners with the new imp
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03/03/2012
In a move to increase their financial standing (and to get the FHA back into required capital requirements), on Monday, HUD announced their anticipated increases in the premiums they charge borrowers. Simply stated, the cost of borrowing is going up. FHA loans, by design, are more liberal in thei
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02/29/2012
I recently gave a presentation about the current real estate market to a group of home sellers in a city in the Northeast. That night, I explained to them that home values in their area were about to be negatively impacted by a surge of distressed properties entering their region over the next y
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02/27/2012
There have been conflicting opinions as to where housing prices are headed. We want to give our opinion on this subject for the short term. We believe sellers have a window of opportunity for the next 90-120 days in most parts of the country in which to sell their homes for maximum price. We beli
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02/26/2012