Monday, February 9, 2009
Designers Unite
Any Philadelphia-area Bloggers and/or Wordpress fanatics? You know who you are. Show off all your design skills right here...
Saturday, February 7, 2009
9 housing-market head winds for 2009
With home prices having dropped a painful 21% from their 2006 peaks, property owners everywhere could use a splash of good news in their New Year's Eve cocktails. But as a nasty recession is now part of the picture, the chances of an aggressive housing-market rebound in 2009 are dim. "A lasting recovery in the housing market?" says Mike Larson, a real-estate analyst at Weiss Research. "I don't see it in the cards until the back end of the year -- if that."
Here's a look at the factors that will be weighing down the housing market in 2009:
1. Recession
After months of speculation, the National Bureau of Economic Research made it official in early December 2008, announcing that the U.S. economy entered into a recession in December 2007. The only question now is: How painful a recession will we have? In a Nov. 21 report, economists at Goldman Sachs revised their previous forecast to reflect a more significant economic contraction and higher unemployment. "We now estimate that real GDP is falling at a 5% annual rate in the current quarter, and we expect this to be followed by declines of 3% and 1% in the next two quarters," the economists said. "This deepens and extends the expected recession, bringing the drop in GDP close to the decline seen in 1982 (2.3% in our forecast versus 2.7% then)." The recession will exert downward pressure on the housing market in a number of ways.
2. Higher unemployment
The shrinking economy will result in additional layoffs, which will work to smother housing demand. The unemployment rate has already been climbing -- in early December it was at 6.5% -- but many expect it to increase significantly in the coming year. Goldman Sachs projects the unemployment (more)
A $15,000 gift for homebuyers?
A $15,000 gift for homebuyers?
The U.S. Senate approves an amendment to the economic stimulus package that would provide a tax credit of up to $15,000 for homebuyers who purchase a primary residence in the coming year. But economists are skeptical tax credits will prove stimulative.
Senate readies $780 bln stimulus plan for vote
Senate readies $780 bln stimulus plan for vote
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/senate-debates-details-780-billion/story.aspx
Five reasons to buy a home this year
Five reasons to buy a home this year
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- People are afraid to buy a home in times like these, with the economy tanking and home prices continuing to fall. But if you're brave enough to stray from the herd, you might be in for the home-buying opportunity of a lifetime.
Ask for price reductions, improvements, closing costs -- whatever -- and the seller, desperately trying to get a contract, is very likely to work with you, said Jay Papasan, one of the authors of the book "Your First Home." When the market starts improving, your negotiating power starts to diminish, he added.
Buying A Home Is An Investment
A couple of days ago I came across a very interesting post by Danny Thornton. In that post he examines some of the fundamentals of how one approaches and evaluates home ownership. Oftentimes economists and personal finance professionals look only at something as either an asset or a liability. There is of course no absolute black or white when one looks at homeownership; there is the interplay of the two. I think this article quite effectively examines some fundamental questions about home ownership.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The Home You Save Could Be Your Own
More people are representing themselves - pro se - in their home foreclosure cases. The trend's details are here.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Home items that need your attention
You know it’s a funny thing. When you buy a toaster, a car or even a lawn mower, you get an owner’s manual. But when you purchase a home about all you get is surprises, bills and a big fat mortgage.
Now I am a firm believer that a well-maintained home is one that is more pleasant to live in and one that is of higher value. The other fact is, that regular maintenance of certain systems in your home is fairly easy and costs little to do. If not attended to, you can wind up with hefty repair and replacement bills. Below are five common issues in a home and some advice on what to do and how to keep them running and working smoothly.
1. Water heater: Here are some facts about that tank sitting in your basement or mechanical room. The average life of a tanked water heater in the U.S. is seven years. Now, I know there are some of you reading this thinking that you have a water heater that is older than 20, and that’s great! But know that a tanked heater starts out at about 75%-80% efficient when new and after about five years their efficiency levels can be as low as 50%, --- read more here ---
Helpful Tips to Help Move Your House
Housing trends sail by faster than most of us have time to notice, but when it comes to selling your house, you might suddenly wish you’d sat up and paid attention before. Some styles can be put down to the vagaries of fashion and are easily fixed — gaudy wallpaper isn’t difficult to replace, but moving a laundry room above ground or fitting a proper staircase is another story entirely.
One bathroom
We don’t want to wait to use the bathroom. Not any more. With so many people used to the luxury of multiple bathrooms, it is a hard sell to get them to take a step backward in time.
No air conditioning
Installing central air to your house will cost you about $10,000-$12,000, but if there was ever a juicy bone to get a buyer interested, this is it.
Fuse boxes
Fuse boxes? People expect circuit breakers nowadays, and if you want to modernize your electrics, consider spending $2,000 to replace those outmoded old fuses.
Read further for additional tips.
10 Real Estate Myths for Buyers and Sellers
The truth about the housing market
In today’s uncertain market, fear runs rampant on both the buying and selling sides of the fence. Many myths need debunking. Here are five untruths held by buyers, and five held by sellers.
In today’s uncertain market, fear runs rampant on both the buying and selling sides of the fence. Many myths need debunking. Here are five untruths held by buyers, and five held by sellers.
Buyer myth No. 1: The longer the house is on the market, the more you can negotiate.
When buyers ask, “How long has this property been on the market?”, they think “six months” means they can negotiate the price down. It more often means the seller is stubbornly holding on to their price.
When buyers ask, “How long has this property been on the market?”, they think “six months” means they can negotiate the price down. It more often means the seller is stubbornly holding on to their price.
Buyer myth No. 2: The sellers today are desperate.
Most aren’t. Always ask why the sellers are selling. It’s the key to finding how motivated and anxious they are. “I’m being transferred to Dallas” is a very different answer than “We’d like to find something bigger.” The first homeowner is hot to trot.
Read more here...
Most aren’t. Always ask why the sellers are selling. It’s the key to finding how motivated and anxious they are. “I’m being transferred to Dallas” is a very different answer than “We’d like to find something bigger.” The first homeowner is hot to trot.
Read more here...
5 Money-Saving Ways to Heat Your Home
As winter hits its full swing you can still take a few steps to winterize your home. Adding some insulation here, a little plastic window film there can save you real dollars. Here are a few ideas:
Install a programmable thermostat
There are many different brands on the market that range in price from $40 to $100. You can program one to lower the temperature while you're at work or sleeping and save up to 30 percent in a well-insulated home. What's more, outdated thermostats are the weakest link in conserving energy. According to the government's Energy Information Administration, only about 25 percent of U.S. homes are equipped with modern programmable thermostats. They are easy to install; using low-voltage currents, you just attach the color-coded wires from the wall to the corresponding terminals on the back of the unit (W means white, R means red and so on).
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Personal Finance Refresher
Need a great resource to help with preparing for your new home purchase? Look no further than CNBC's On The Money.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
The Real Estate Marketplace Glossary (free PDF)
The better prepared one is for life, the better the outcome. Courtesy of the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), we are happy to share this real estate market glossary.
From Annual Percentage Rate (APR) to Walk-Through, Escrow Analysis to Right of First Refusal, this PDF will serve as a huge resource to those new to the housing market and those who just might need a refresher.
THP wants all of our Buyers to be educated Buyers...plain and simple. Take this with you when you speak with a THP Sales Associate, Hendricks Mortgage, or Hendricks Abstract.
The Top 5 Housing-Market Hopes for 2009
In the face of an intractable credit crisis and a recession that could be the deepest since World War II, economists are expecting another downcast year for housing in 2009. Mission Residential Chief Economist Richard Moody, for example, projects home prices to continue along their downward slope for the entire year before hitting bottom in early 2010. But while there's no shortage of gloomy data—rising unemployment, higher mortgage delinquencies, increasing foreclosures—glass half-fullers do have a number of hopes to cling to. And while these more optimistic factors might not be enough to spring housing back to life in 2009, they could—with a few lucky breaks—prevent the market from declining as sharply as it otherwise might.
Here are the five best reasons to be hopeful about housing in 2009:
1. Cheap mortgage rates: With inflationary pressures easing and economic concerns mounting, shell-shocked investors are seeking the protection of government securities, such as 10-year treasury notes, driving down yields. The lower yields, coupled with the Fed's recently announced plans to buy up debt and mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have dragged mortgage rates to multi-year lows. Thirty-year, fixed mortgage rates hit an average of 5.47 percent last week, the lowest they've been since 2004, according to Freddie Mac.
To be sure, not everyone will be able to take advantage of these attractive rates: Tougher lending standards will prevent many would-be buyers from getting into the market, while homeowners whose houses are now worth less than what they owe on their mortgage won't be able to refinance. Still, the rates present a welcome incentive for qualified borrowers to step up to the plate. "Lower mortgage rates mean more people with those credentials will be able to qualify," says Patrick Newport, a U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight. While that might not make a dramatic impact on the market, it could be enough to keep home sales from declining as much as they otherwise would, Newport says.
2. Lower prices: Home prices at the national level have already fallen 21 percent from their 2006 peaks. And in certain bubble markets, the crash has been even steeper—prices have fallen more than 30 percent in Phoenix and Las Vegas over the past year alone. Although that's a big blow to homeowners—the housing bust is expected to wipe out more than$2 trillion in home values in 2008—lower prices do help stimulate buyer demand, which is badly needed to mop up the excess housing inventory. And while home prices are expected to drop further in 2009, values in certain markets are already at levels low enough to tempt bargain hunters. "Falling home prices aren't part of the problem, they are part of the solution," says Mike Larson, a real estate analyst at Weiss Research.
Rent Growth Still Expected
Thomas K. Shelton, CAPS, CPM, is the new president of Western National Property Management, the multifamily management arm of Western National Group. Western National Property Management currently oversees the management of over 20,000 residential units, valued at more than $3 billion. In his new position, Shelton will lead a team of real estate professionals who supervise a portfolio of assets owned by Western National Group, as well as assets owned by third-party clients.
Shelton previously served as regional partner of Greystar Real Estate Partners where he supervised a portfolio of 26,000 units throughout the western United States. He is also a past president of the National Apartment Association (NAA) and a member of the National Multi Housing Council (NMHC).
Shelton talks to Online News Editor Anuradha Kher about the challenges of taking on the role of president at such a difficult time, his plans for the company, and why the Obama administration creates uncertainties about investment strategies.
What challenges do you face as president of the company in such troubled times?
The challenges in this position at the present time are similar in nature to those of my peers across the country. Fortunately, the balance of our portfolio is located in Orange County, Calif., one of the more stable markets in the country, as evidenced by the fact that we intend to see some rent growth in our portfolio next year. So, while we are not immune to the softness of the overall economy, the overall stability of our portfolio will allow me an opportunity to focus on operational excellence, the continued development of our people, continued opportunities for revenue growth and expense reduction, as well as business development.
Shelton previously served as regional partner of Greystar Real Estate Partners where he supervised a portfolio of 26,000 units throughout the western United States. He is also a past president of the National Apartment Association (NAA) and a member of the National Multi Housing Council (NMHC).
Shelton talks to Online News Editor Anuradha Kher about the challenges of taking on the role of president at such a difficult time, his plans for the company, and why the Obama administration creates uncertainties about investment strategies.
What challenges do you face as president of the company in such troubled times?
The challenges in this position at the present time are similar in nature to those of my peers across the country. Fortunately, the balance of our portfolio is located in Orange County, Calif., one of the more stable markets in the country, as evidenced by the fact that we intend to see some rent growth in our portfolio next year. So, while we are not immune to the softness of the overall economy, the overall stability of our portfolio will allow me an opportunity to focus on operational excellence, the continued development of our people, continued opportunities for revenue growth and expense reduction, as well as business development.
Will Tax Credit Drought End In 2009?
Over the weekend, the San Francisco Chronicle provided a good article on how the credit crunch has impacted the market for tax credits and their use in financing various housing projects with a specific focus on California. The article entitled, Lack of tax-credit market hurts building trade, profiles a Napa Valley Senior Housing Project that cannot sell the credits to raise the equity. Considering that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchased almost 40% of the tax credits available in 2007, it seems that the agencies (now under government control) need to begin purchasing them en masse again. However, with the amount of tax loss carry forwards that they will have from the write downs, it seems that they won’t have a major financial need to purchase the tax credits. However, if they continue to fulfill their mission of enabling affordable housing, the government will have to figure out how to make it financially worthwhile for the agencies to continue those purchases in their new role. Other proposals have included that major financial institutions will be required to purchase tax credits if they receive federal assistance under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) or that purchased tax credits could be refundable if investors don’t have adequate income to make use of them. Any way you look at the tax credit program, a government “bailout” or restructuring is most likely in the program’s future.
Consumer Reports Suggests To Retirees: Don’t Abandon Moving
Consumer Reports National Research Center recently ran a survey of more than 19,000 Consumer Reports online subscribers between the ages of 55-75. The latest Consumer Reports Retirement Survey which has a plethora of generic and common sense retirement advice provided this bit of advice on moving out of the current home:
“Don’t abandon moving plans. Your $400,000 home may have lost $100,000 in value, leaving you with less to spend on housing elsewhere. But values are down in many areas, and moving to a lower-cost area might still be worth that trade-off.
You can do a side-by-side comparison of crime statistics, climate, and cost of food and housing in pairs of cities, at www.bestplaces.net, a site produced by Fast Forward. It also has a cost-of-living calculator you can use to determine how much you’ll need to maintain your current standard of living elsewhere. The Retirement Living Information Center Web site, at www.retirementliving.com, has a “Taxes by State” guide that lets you do state-by-state comparisons of income, property, sales, estate, and other tax rates. “
Additionally, the tone of the article is fairly negative on reverse mortgages and provides little overall insight other than common sense ideas. For the full press release from Consumer Reports, click here.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
$500K is the new $1 million
More home is now within reach as the economy resets and things settle down. Half a million dollars is, by almost any standard, a lot of money. But during the past few years, when credit was easy and regulations were loose, for many Americans it didn't seem like all that much.
That's because they were able to borrow huge amounts of money to buy new homes, often with little or nothing down. And while most homes sold in the United States, even at the height of the housing bubble, were $500,000 or less, rising prices in many major cities and affluent suburbs around the country pushed the cost of a three-bedroom home into seven figures or more.
A look at where rates on home loans are headed in the new year
7 things to know about mortgage rates in 2009
It wasn't too long ago that mortgage rates were expected to move sharply higher in the coming months thanks to rattled investors and mounting inflation. But while falling home prices and jittery financial markets have done little to assuage investor fears, a number of recent developments have combined to create a decidedly optimistic mortgage-rate outlook for 2009. "The preponderance of forces that would typically operate on mortgage rates — the economic backdrop, the inflation backdrop and, in this case, government policy — are all pointing towards lower interest rates," says Mike Larson, a real-estate analyst at Weiss Research.
Rates have already become increasingly attractive. The average national rate for 30-year fixed mortgages fell to 5.57% in the week of Dec. 5, from 6.61% just seven weeks earlier, according to HSH Associates. Here's a look at where mortgage rates are headed in the new year, the forces that will be influencing them, and how consumers can take advantage of the trends.
1. 2009 rate outlook: Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates should begin 2009 at around 5.5%, says Keith Gumbinger of HSH Associates. From there, they will "wax and wane" in the 5.5% to 6% range, before closing out the year somewhere between 6% and 6.25%. "That's still very attractive," he says. "There is no reason to think that rates are going to go up so substantially so as to erode the marketplace." (However, should the economic outlook improve more quickly than expected, mortgage rates could trend higher, Gumbinger says. In addition, new government programs unveiled next year could alter the projection.)
THP, partnered with Hendricks Mortgage, can help you match your housing needs with the house and price range "built" just for you.
Friday, January 2, 2009
9 housing-market head winds for 2009
With home prices having dropped a painful 21% from their 2006 peaks, property owners everywhere could use a splash of good news in their New Year's Eve cocktails. But as a nasty recession is now part of the picture, the chances of an aggressive housing-market rebound in 2009 are dim. "A lasting recovery in the housing market?" says Mike Larson, a real-estate analyst at Weiss Research. "I don't see it in the cards until the back end of the year -- if that."
Here's a look at the factors that will be weighing down the housing market in 2009:
1. Recession
After months of speculation, the National Bureau of Economic Research made it official in early December 2008, announcing that the U.S. economy entered into a recession in December...
New Home Discussion Group on Google Groups
Check out the new home discussion group on Google Groups.
We will discuss anything from builders to resale, mortgage rate to refinancing, the housing market to the rebounding economy.
8 easy (and cheap) ways to prevent home theft
Given all the frightening headlines about exotic mortgage products and under-water home loans, it's easy to forget about the old-fashioned threats to property. But in 2007 alone, there were nearly 2.2 million burglaries in the United States, according to FBI estimates. While that's down slightly from 2006 levels, the figures represent a 1% increase from five years earlier. Even worse, more than two-thirds of all burglaries in 2007 involved residential properties.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
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