Lenders paying borrowers to do short sales
By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY Lenders are allowing more short sales by financially strapped homeowners and a few people are even getting cash to complete the sale. Short sales are when lenders allow borrowers to sell homes for less than their unpaid mortgages. They are an alternative to foreclosures. Short sales have been [...]
Housing Crisis to End in 2012 as Banks Loosen Credit Standards
By Krista Franks Capital Economics expects the housing crisis to end this year, according to a report released Tuesday. One of the reasons: loosening credit. The analytic firm notes the average credit score required to attain a mortgage loan is 700. While this is higher than scores required prior to the crisis, it is constant [...]
Finally, a foreclosure settlement (Maybe)
By Jennifer Liberto @CNNMoney February 3, 2012: 5:19 AM ET WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) — States have until late Monday to agree to the latest draft deal aimed at relieving homeowners struggling with mortgages bigger than their home’s value. That means federal officials and states attorneys general could be days away from announcing a deal with some [...]
Housing May Turn a Corner in 2012: CoreLogic
CoreLogic’s chief economist Mark Fleming says housing statistics and the duration of the downturn to date indicate 2012 may be the year the housing market begins to turn the corner. In the first release of CoreLogic’s new MarketPulse newsletter Wednesday, Fleming explained his rationale for such an assessment. He notes that housing is an industry [...]
Survey says homeownership still important to Americans
By Nick Kotecki Americans continue to place a high value on homeownership, but qualifying for a mortgage and saving up for a down payment in an economy that won’t produce jobs keeps many uncertain. The results of the Hanley Wood’s Housing 360 Survey say 89 percent of owners and 59 percent of renters feel that homeownership is [...]
12 Ways To Sell Your House In This Crappy Market
To buy or sell in 2012, what with Armageddon coming and all? Absent any ancient Mayan wisdom on real estate strategies, let’s just hope the real cataclysmic event in the real estate market already has passed, even if the rubble from the bubble remains. A stubborn overstock of households with loans higher than their value [...]
Residential Housing Ready to Awaken?
After half a decade of withering sales and slumping prices, there are strong and diverse signs that the single-family housing market is poised for a rebound. In some metropolitan areas, the market has bottomed, with both sales and prices on the rise and foreclosures on the decline. This contrarian – and largely overlooked – thesis [...]
“BLACK FRIDAY” IS STILL AVAILABLE FOR REAL ESTATE BUYERS
The great deals that Buyers line up for at retail stores on the day after Thanksgiving are still available in spades for real estate Buyers. In real estate, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the slowest time of the year. Most people are so busy buying presents and Christmas trees, that they don’t have [...]
Case-Shiller: Get Ready for a Long Winter for Home Prices
It’s time for our monthly check-in of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices (HPI). The Case-Shiller data is generally considered to be the most reliable measure of overall home price changes for a region, since they only consider repeat sales of homes when calculating their index, instead of looking at all the homes that sold in [...]
Gradual Recovery for Housing and the Economy Expected in 2012
Anaheim, November 11, 2011 Although the housing market struggled to maintain an even footing in 2011, gradual improvement is expected in 2012 and beyond, according to projections at a residential forum here at the 2011 Realtors® Conference & Expo. Read More Here
Portland September home sales rise above 2010 levels
by KERRI PANCHUK Tuesday, November 8th, 2011, 3:45 pm September home sales in the greater Portland, Ore., area rose 10.2% from a year earlier, with 2,296 new and resale homes recorded in the five-county region that encompasses Portland and surrounding communities, DataQuick said Tuesday. The study looks at home sales in the five-county Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton metro [...]
Home Buying Tips Q&A
Q: I am planning on buying a home later this year and wondered if you have a few tips to simplify the process. A: That is a great question and I am glad that you asked it. As with many important life events, planning ahead when you want to purchase a home is a wise [...]
Short Sale Properties Q&A
Q: My husband and I are planning to purchase a home in Oregon or Washington this summer and are interested in short-sale properties. Do you have any advice for us as we begin this process? A: You have asked a very important question because the purchase of a short-sale property can be challenging without proper [...]
Top Reasons to Own a Home (realtytimes.com)
By Carla Hill There’s good reason that over half of all Americans are homeowners. Social and financial benefits are key factors when it comes to deciding to buy. Homeownership allows people to grow wealth slowly over time, to hold assets that build equity, and to bring stability into chaotic lives. Despite these facts, homeownership rates [...]
Median Home Prices Revert to Years Past: Report
By: Carrie Bay 08/23/2011 Home prices figured out the secret to time travel while no one was looking. The research firm John Burns Real Estate Consulting (JBRE) says if you’re looking to find a comparable point of reference for current median home prices, prepare to take a trip back in time. JBRE manager Gregory Tsujimoto [...]
When the hard sell doesn’t work – and it never does
I read a great Article recently on The Psychology of Apartment Leasing by Jim Baumgartner and it got me thinking about the leasing process and the interaction between Leasing Professional and Prospect. Jim’s article touched on a number of key points one of which was the occasional push back we in the industry sometimes hear [...]
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