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Providence, RI Real Estate News

By Michael Dutra
(Peoples Home Loans)
    Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of June 28, 2010 MARKET RECAP The housing market is playing out close to what we had anticipated post-April 30, so we weren't surprised to hear that existing-home sales slipped in May, posting a 2.2 percent drop to an annualized adjusted rate of 5.66 million units. The consensus opinion called for sales to increase to 6.07 million units, due to an anticipated push to close by June 30, so the unexpected slip was disappointing. The good news was that the median sales price, at $179,600, remains 2.7 percent above last year's median price, while inventory tightened to an 8.3-month supply. The slip in existing-home sales was nowhere near as disappointing as the tumble in new-home sales, which hit their lowest level since 1963. Whereas the c...
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By Michael Dutra
(Peoples Home Loans)
Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of June 21, 2010 MARKET RECAP Some people are just unsure of where they're going. We'll slot homebuilders into this category. After posting steady gains over the past few months, the National Association of Homebuilders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index tanked five points to 17, which means homebuilders have turned sour once again. The mood change is understandable, given that housing starts sank to their lowest levels in five months. The numbers are hardly encouraging: starts fell 10 percent in May from April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 593,000 units. The good news is that compared to the same time last year, starts are up 7.8 percent. The drop should have been anticipated. In the previous two months, improvements were driven ...
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By Michael Dutra
(Peoples Home Loans)
Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of June 14, 2010 MARKET RECAP The week was light on housing and mortgage data, which was a good thing; most of what was released offered little cheer. For instance, Capital Economics reported that 2.5 million households are going through the foreclosure process, while 5.4 million households have missed at least one mortgage payment. Capital Economics also expects another three million homes to be added to the foreclosure rolls by the end of 2011. In short, Capital Economics is calling for a housing-market double-dip. Problems persist aside from the above mentioned, to be sure. According to more than a few sources, housing prices are under pressure. ZipRealty, for one, has noted that more than 43 percent of home sellers cut their home's li...
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By Ann Sabbagh, President, Sr. Loan Officer
(Seacoast Mortgage Corporation, RI (20021119LB & 20031576LL), MA (MC2107) & CT)
"I will smile at friend and foe alike and make every effort to find, in him or her, a quality to praise, now that I realize the deepest yearning of human nature is the craving to be appreciated." Og Mandino (1923-1996), Author and Speaker   Sometimes we need to take a step (OR TWO!) back and think about the POSITIVES of a person and learn to appreciate those positives.  Unfortunately, it is easy to see the negatives.  So, the next time you see a positive, please be sure to let the person know you appreciate that positive.   By the way, I appreciate YOU reading my blog!     Ann Sabbagh  Vice-President Seacoast Mortgage Corporation 401-305-6906 or 508-243-1190 Residential & Commercial Financing MLO10920   "When you choose me as your mortgage consultant, you also choose a financial planner...
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By Michael Dutra
(Peoples Home Loans)
  Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of June 7, 2010 MARKET RECAP Few housing market participants were surprised when the NAR reported that its pending home sales index increased again, 6 percent in April, to 110.9 (100 is the base set in 2001) thanks to a surge in sales contracts. April, not-so-coincidently, happened to mark the end of the extension of the federal homebuyer’s tax credits. NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun was upbeat on the new business, nonetheless, noting, “The homebuyer tax credit brought close to one million additional buyers into the market, which is now helping the trade-up market and has significantly improved the inventory situation." We can't say with certainty whether Yun's analysis is correct. We've stated in past editions that tax credits bring ...
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By Michael Dutra
(Peoples Home Loans)
    Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of May 31, 2010 MARKET RECAP Is news really news if it had already been anticipated? We're referring to April's housing numbers, which everyone anticipated and which surprised few. Existing home sales rose 7.6 percent compared to March's numbers to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.77 million units while sales of new homes soared 14.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 504,000 units. Under more conventional circumstances we'd be tempted to break out the bubbly on such a bullish report, but we all know why sales spiked in April – impending expiration of the federal homebuyer tax credits. The credits were a useful band-aid, to be sure, but they were no panacea. As we've stated in past editions, they simply moved demand ...
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By Ann Sabbagh, President, Sr. Loan Officer
(Seacoast Mortgage Corporation, RI (20021119LB & 20031576LL), MA (MC2107) & CT)
"Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must first be overcome." Samuel Johnson •·         I can't do that because ........................ •·         We will never be able to sell the house because ........... •·         They will never be able to get financed because ................. •·         The real estate market is too bad to buy now. •·         The economy is too bad, so I better wait before I buy. •·         I just can't buy now because ................   We all MUST ATTEMPT in order for this market to recover.  Learn to overcome the objections.      Ann Sabbagh  Vice-President Seacoast Mortgage Corporation 401-305-6906 or 508-243-1190 Residential & Commercial Financing MLO10920   "When you choose me as your mortgage consultant, you also choose a financial ...
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By Michael Dutra
(Peoples Home Loans)
Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of May 24, 2010 MARKET RECAP A popular investing aphorism states that markets must climb a wall of worry in order to advance. If anyone has had more worries than most in recent years, it's the homebuilders. Over the past two months though, they seem to be worrying a little less. The National Association of Homebuilders reported its housing market index – a measure of industry confidence – rose three points to 22 last month, posting its highest reading since August 2007. Homebuilders are still far from euphoria: readings below 50 indicate negative sentiment about the market. The last time the NAHB's index was above 50 was in April 2006, and we saw how the ensuing four years played out. Perhaps the fact that homebuilders remain somewhat gua...
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By Michael Dutra
(Peoples Home Loans)
    Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of May 17, 2010 MARKET RECAP The pig is progressing through the python – the pig being the shadow inventory of foreclosures, the python being the market. According to Barclays Capital, there are currently 2.4 million loans in 90-plus day delinquency and another 2.1 million in foreclosure, totaling 4.5 million in shadow inventory. Barclays says that this inventory should reach the high-point this summer and then fall off, as the market absorbs an estimated 130,000 distressed properties per month. New foreclosures shouldn't distend the market much further. Foreclosure filings dropped year-over-year for the first time since RealtyTrac began measuring such statistics, in January 2005. Granted, we are dropping from monumental levels, but it...
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By Michael Dutra
(Peoples Home Loans)
    Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of May 10, 2010 MARKET RECAP In news that surprised no one, the pending home sales index surged to 102.9 in March. We all expected the months heading into April would produce more home sales, and that's the way it's playing out. What's more, it's likely to continue to play out over the next couple months, given closings usually occur a month or two after the contract has been signed. Of course, the expiring federal tax credits are the impetus for the spring rush. Most market watchers are expecting a drop once they've worked their way through the system, so we shouldn't be terribly disappointed if sales growth stalls after being artificially stimulated. That said, we remain optimistic. We think the housing market is sufficiently stable ...
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By Michael Dutra
(Peoples Home Loans)
    Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of May 3, 2010 MARKET RECAP The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index is promoted as the leading indicator of the national trend in home prices, but we wonder if its worth is overstated – given that it tends to obfuscate as much as enlighten. For example, the index showed that home prices in 20 cities increased 0.6 percent in February. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis though, the 20-city home price index fell 0.9 percent to 144.03 while the 10-city home price index declined 0.6 percent to 156.8. So what does it mean? Whether the 20-city or 10-city measure, changes to home prices have been so small nationally over the past few months that the Case-Shiller index has morphed into modern art – journalists and economists make of it what they ...
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By Michael Dutra
(Peoples Home Loans)
    Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of April 26, 2010 MARKET RECAP In another sign home prices are stabilizing, Trulia.com reports that the rate of home listings where the seller made at least one reduction in asking price declined 26% in April 2010 compared to the same year-ago period. Trulia noted that 20% of asking prices were reduced at least once compared to 27% in April 2009. We weren't surprised to see the reduction. In fact, we were a little surprised a greater reduction wasn't forthcoming. We've noted in the past that sellers are much more grounded in the new-market reality of lower prices than they were a year ago. The good news is the reality should become somewhat more bearable in coming months. Fannie Mae projects the median price for existing homes to rise ...
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By Michael Dutra
(Peoples Home Loans)
    Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of April 19, 2010 MARKET RECAP Foreclosures remain front-page news. RealtyTrac reports the number of homes taken over by banks jumped 35% in the first-quarter of 2010 compared to the same year-ago quarter. More worrisome, foreclosures grew 7% from the last three months of 2009. It appears we're backsliding again. The foreclosure rate was easing late last year, as banks were pressured to modify home loans. In addition, many states enacted foreclosure moratoriums to give troubled homeowners some breathing room to catch up on their payments. Never mind that banks were struggling with their own survival. Our modus is to accentuate the positive when possible, since the positive is given short shrift by the mainstream media. On that front, t...
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By Kathleen Ann Pacheco-Corbett, Realtor, RI-MA, CEBA, Master, e-Pro, ABR, ABRM, GR
((FIRST Exclusive Buyer's Office Providence-RI) )
      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright photo by Kathleen Ann Pacheco-Corbett, all rights reserved and may not be reproduced without the written permission of Kathleen Ann Pacheco-Corbett, The Buyer's Choice, Lincoln, RI.  Permission granted with a link back to my website and/or blog providing site is appropriate for all ages.  Thank you.  We want to be your "Personal Realtors for Life"                                                                             http://www.thebuyerschoice.com                                                                                                        KATHLEEN ANN PACHECO-CORBETT                                Office 401-725-5608     Cell 401-556-6911   Fax 401-423-4377                             ...
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By Michael Dutra
(Peoples Home Loans)
Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of April 5, 2010 MARKET RECAP We feel confident that the worst is over for home prices, even though recent data suggest a bit of backsliding. The latest data, the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index, actually show continued improvement, with prices climbing 0.3% in January after posting a similar gain in December. Of course, real estate sales are cyclical, so it's worth looking at year-over-year data. On that front, the Case-Shiller index showed prices in the 20 metropolitan regions it surveys were down roughly 0.7% from January 2009. Admittedly, home prices aren't rising as much as we'd like (at least when measured nationally), but the data suggest some sense of stabilization in what's still a struggling market. New-home construction has c...
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By Michael Dutra
(Peoples Home Loans)
    Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of March 29, 2010 MARKET RECAP When is “bad news” actually good news? When it's not as bad as the consensus thought it would be. Sales of existing homes fell a third-consecutive month to a 5.02-million annual pace in February, but the consensus was expecting five million. The difference might seem like a rounding error, but the equity markets responded favorably, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average posting a 100-point gain on Tuesday. But what the market giveth, it can also taketh away. On Wednesday, new-home sales were posted to have declined to an annual rate of 308,000 units in February; the consensus expected a 320,000 annual rate. It was the lowest sales level since the government began tracking housing statistics in 1963. The D...
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By Michael Dutra
(Peoples Home Loans)
    Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of March 22, 2010 MARKET RECAP Homebuilders continue to struggle. Groundbreaking for new homes fell 5.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 575,000 units in February, according to data released by the Commerce Department. The drop-off in starts wasn't unexpected; bad weather in many parts of the country impeded starts, but it appears to have impeded them more than many economists had expected. Given the drop in starts, we shouldn't be surprised that homebuilder confidence dropped as well. The Housing Market Index, a measure of homebuilder confidence, declined to 15 in March from an already low 17 in February. Fifty is the demarcation line – half optimistic, half pessimistic. The last time the index was above 50 was in April 2006. ...
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By Rita Danielle Steele
(Steele Realty Consultants International )
One of mine, and most other real estate professionals for that matter, mantras to first time homebuyers is that there are plenty of fish (houses) in the sea (market). If their first attempt at a home purchase goes awry, be it due to a higher bidder, or a terrifying home inspection discovery, there is always another home in the neighborhood waiting for them, better than the last. And I really believe that. Sort of. So long as it does not apply to me.If I didn't have a passion for real estate I would not be in this business. That being said, I have had my heart broken by properties more so than I have had it broken by men. (Hopefully none of my ex's read this blog, they would, I assume, be a bit miffed to discover that I have spent more time mourning over lost houses than over them.) One ...
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By Michael Dutra
(Peoples Home Loans)
    Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of March 15, 2010 MARKET RECAP The era of everyday lower prices appears to be ending, at least according to recent data from real estate search firm Trulia.com, which reports a new low of 19% of listings currently on the market experiencing a price cut as of March 1, 2010 . Trulia.com's track record isn't particularly long – it dates back to April 2009 – so we don't want to read too much into the news, but it's worth noting that it marks the first time price reduction levels have dropped below 20%. To spin things positively, we could say that over 80% of new listings aren't reducing prices. It makes sense that price cutting is becoming less necessary. Most sellers these days are grounded in the new reality: they understand that they ca...
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By Michael Dutra
(Peoples Home Loans)
  Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of March 8, 2010 MARKET RECAP We warned last week that weather could play a role in the upcoming week's housing data. Sure enough, it did. In fact, the sometimes harsh, if not at least irritating, weather did a number on pending home sales for January, sending them into a 7.6% decline compared to December. Regionally, the biggest decline occurred in the West, where pending sales declined 13.2%; followed by the Midwest , with an 8.9% decline; the Northeast, with an 8.7% decline; and the South, with a 2.1% decline. The positive takeaway from the pending sales data is that activity in all regions remains significantly higher compared to year-ago levels. A more positive takeaway could be found in Clear Capital's Home Data Index, which showed...
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