Mortgages and Real Estate
Despite cost, homeowners prefer mortgages to landlords
In my Detroit-area neighborhood, there are almost no homes for sale. Out of more than 1,000 homes in a two-mile area there are probably only a half-dozen on the market.Yes, you read that right. Downtrodden Detroit, Michigan, where real estate set new records for declines has neighborhoods where you can hardly buy a house because they've all been sold.
Seeing this makes me feel better about being a homeowner, even though the market value of my home has fallen. It gives me confidence in the opinion that I have long held -- that owning a home is smart.
A survey this week from Move.com suggested that home sales are up everywhere. According to the survey, nearly 10% of consumers nationwide say they plan to buy a home in the next two years, with 5.4 % planning to purchase in the next 12 months. Buyers say they are motivated by these factors:
Men are quick, women take their time
For women, it's about emotion. Men? Size, of course.No, we're not talking about that. We're talking about home buying. And the male-female approach to that activity is about as similar as football and crocheting.
To be fair to the less-fair sex, size isn't the whole picture, although men do like big yards and ample square footage. When buying a house, they prefer to deal with facts, researchers say, and they tend to make decisions quickly. They like schematics and floor plans: Where's the garage and will it accommodate my jet ski?
Home buyer tax credit extended & improved!
Ryan Minick
Nov 12th 2009 @ 11:00AM EST
Filed Under: Borrowing, Real Estate, Tax, Video, The2MortgageGuys, Mortgages, Taxes-advice, Taxes-tax credits
The first time home buyer tax credit has officially been extended. If you're an existing home owner you may also qualify for the tax credit if you're planning on buying a new house! Check out this week's episode of Show & Tell with The 2 Mortgage Guys and we'll fill you in with the "nuts & bolts" of this new program. You can also get the complete details by visiting federalhousingtaxcredit.com.
Ryan Minick and Steve DeLon are The 2 Mortgage Guys. Subscribe to their newsletter or visit them at www.The2MortgageGuys.com.
When a picture is worth .... the asking price: Why pro photos will pay off when selling your home
It's been long established that curb appeal has moved to your computer screen. For at least two years now, the National Association of Realtors has been saying that at least 85% of all home buyers first saw the house they wound up buying on the Internet. We can't think of a better reason to get the best possible photos taken and posted online. Yet the realty industry's reaction has been slow and curious: Agents continue to shoot listing photos with their cell phone cameras.OK, that's a slight exaggeration to make a point. Sometimes, Realtors actually invest in a digital camera and shoot the photos themselves. But as professional photographers like to say, "Buying a Nikon doesn't make you a photographer; it makes you a Nikon owner."
Million Dollar Listing: Don't let Realtors fool you with listing presentation BS
On a recent episode of Bravo's Million Dollar Listing, Ben Bacal of Keller Williams Realty teamed up with one of the show's stars, Chad Rogers, to sell a potential client on the benefits of listing a house for sale with the pair.Bacal launches into a spiel about how great his firm is: "Keller Williams is totally tapped into the internet market. . . A lot of the top reasons to move to Keller Williams Real Estate: We also put you on Trulia, Google, Yahoo! Real Estate, HomeScape, Zillow, FrontDoor. . ."
Homeowners may be able to rent rather than lose home to foreclosure
If you're having trouble making your mortgage payments, but want to stay in your home, you may get the option if your loan is held by Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae announced a new program recently that will allow you to stay in your home as a renter if you hand back the deed to the lender. This new "Deed for Lease Program" will allow families to stay in their home rather than being displaced. It will also help to stem foreclosures and prevent further deterioration of neighborhoods filled with vacant foreclosures, according to an announcement from Frannie Mae.
College town housing remains affordable, according to Coldwell Banker
Instead of sitting on the couch watching college football, make yourself useful: go buy some college-town real estate!According to a new report from Coldwell Banker, "Every fall, college football fans feel nostalgic for the tradition, lifestyle and spirit of their college towns as they cheer on their favorite teams. This year's Coldwell Banker(R) College Home Price Comparison Index (HPCI) reveals that these school-centric areas also sport very affordable homes, in addition to the culture and economic stability associated with higher education institutions - making them great areas to purchase real estate."
Hey y'all! Index finds happiest U.S. states are in nation's vast heartland
Think you're seeing a lot more glum faces in your neighborhood? That's likely the case if you live in one of four states with high home-foreclosure rates: Florida, Nevada, California and Arizona. Those normally majestic, carefree states ranked as the least happiest, at least when it comes to money matters, a new survey shows.And where might you find some of the most smiley people? According to Mainstreet.com's Happiness Index, dead in the center of the country, where some of the country's least densely populated states can be found. Nebraska was at the top of heap, followed by Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and Montana.
Emerging real estate trends: Buy infill, avoid suburbs
Buy apartments, hotels, land and distressed properties, but focus on infill while avoiding the fringes; hold onto office buildings until the market improves; look for deals in shopping malls, but only in upscale areas.Oh, and go ahead and grab that Miami Beach ocean-view condo you've had your eye on.
That was the advice to real estate investors from experts in a webcast release WalletPop tapped into this week for the Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2010 Report, co-sponsored by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
Ready to gamble that your home value will tumble more?
Queasy-stomached home owners who can't bear to watch the equity in their homes continue to dwindle have an option: Equity protection policies. These policies, will, for a fee that generally ranges from 1% to 3% of your home's equity, guarantee against further losses when it comes time to sell. Most of the policies work like this: At the time the contract is purchased, the company takes a snapshot of the average home price in the customer's ZIP code. If, at the time of sale the ZIP Code property value has declined, the company would make up the difference -- in most cases, less a 10% "deductible."
Overseas housing too pricey for most Americans
Krakow, Poland may be a real estate steal, but it's arrevederci Roma and ciao to Milan and Florence, too, for anyone expecting to roll U.S. home sales profits into a European domicile -- except for those already living in such high-cost enclaves as Beverly Hills and Greenwich, Conn. A recent home price comparison index by Coldwell Banker Real Estate found those Italian cities out of reach for most anyone not already living in stateside luxury.Milan and Florence weighed in at over $1.6 million for a home, on average; Rome just under $1.3 million. And that's dollars, not lira (which, of course, don't even exist anymore).
Also out of reach for many Americans these days are the pink sands of Hamilton, Bermuda, Bucaresti, Romania and Shanghai, all averaging above $1.3 million, not to mention Vancouver and Dublin at $1.1 million -- and Dubai trailing not far behind.
The most expensive market is not in Italy, however. It's in Singapore, where homes average nearly $1.9 million. Coldwell Banker points out that is "10% lower than La Jolla" but fails to mention it is also 10 times the average home value in everyday places like Phoenix, Mobile, Ala, Lexington, KY, and Syracuse, NY.
Cracking open the real estate market in Krakow; Is Poland the new Park Slope?
Time was when the sage advice was to "go west young man" in search of fame, fortune and nifty real estate deals. But in 2009, heading east may be a better idea. At least if you are starting out in the U.S. And, when I say east, I mean like all the way to Poland! Now hold on to your Polish zlotys while I explain this one:
Seems Poland, Krakow in particular, is a darn good place to not only indulge in a sausage or two, but also to buy up chunks of real estate at prices that are down anywhere from 9% to 17%.
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Ryan MinickNov 12th 2009 @ 11:00AM Filed Under: Borrowing, Real Estate, Tax, Video, The2MortgageGuys, Mortgages, Taxes-advice, Taxes-tax credits
Home buyer tax credit extended & improved!
The first time home buyer tax credit has officially been extended. If you're an existing home owner you may also qualify...
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The 2 Mortgage Guys: Fixed vs. adjustable mortgage rates
Not all mortgage rates are created equal. There is a time and a place to consider an adjustable rate mortgage vs. a fixed...
Interest Rates
| Type | Current | APR |
|---|---|---|
| 30 yr fixed mtg | 5.07% | 5.20% |
| 5/1 ARM | 4.20% | 3.84% |
| $30K HELOC | 5.23% | 0.00% |
| 36 month new car loan | 6.93% | 0.00% |
| 1 yr CD | 1.61% | 1.62% |
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