Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Investors are buying up big chunks of homes; if you want to invest in property, you better do it now.
As foretold earlier this year from research I had been doing, CNN recently ran a story about how big business is getting into the housing market. Investors are buying up mutual funds and stocks of builders, housing companies, etc... and Wall Street is getting into the action, with even some builders raising capitol through IPOs. Pulte, Lennar and KB Homes have hit 52 week highs recently. Land has even become a target. While it drops the fastest in a downturn, it can increase the fastest in an upturn. Funding groups are also buying up blocks of hundreds of homes from banks. It will not become uncommon to see an entire block or part of the city owned by one company and collecting rent from those who want to live there. A word to the wise…
Monday, January 21, 2013
Snellville Patch's real estate columnist examines what the robo-signing settlement means to homeowners.
On February 9th, 2012, the United States Justice Department released the details of a $25 billion dollar settlement they reached with five major banks. The settlement occurred because the banks were accused of widespread use of robo-signing. The settlement was the largest government industry settlement since the $250 billion Big Tobacco settlement in 1998 and the largest settlement in consumer real estate history. Robo-signing was a practice employed by banks to automate the processing and approval of foreclosure proceedings against homeowners. In many cases, the banks were discovered to have processed thousands of foreclosures in a single day, all signed by one person. Now, almost nine months since the settlement date, over 80 …
Monday, January 14, 2013
According to our real estate columnist, this may become the banks' preferred method of dealing with homeowners who are behind on their mortgage.
Last week, I broke the good news about the federal government extending this act through 2013. All homeowners who are in trouble can now sleep at night knowing that they can avoid foreclosure. With the extension of this law, banks are now indicating that this may be their preferred method of dealing with behind homeowners in 2013. We saw a record number of short sales in 2012 and that trend should continue in 2013. Who to call? It is important that you have a real estate agent who is well versed in the short sale process. An inexperienced agent can be detrimental to your sale and may even delay it to the point where a homeowner gets foreclosed on. Agents, like myself, that are a CDPE, or Certified Distressed Property Expert, are …
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
With low interest rates and a decline in distressed property, property values are on the rise.
A recent Wall Street Journal article indicated that there were five reasons home prices are rising. 1. Rise in Housing Affordability: Interest rates are ridiculously low. People are jumping in to take advantage of these ultra low rates coupled with still depressed (although rising) housing prices. 2. The Increased Number of Households: It is expected to hit 1 million this year, which in essence is putting a strain on the available inventory. This trend will continue since building has been at historically low levels since 2008. The average number of houses built since stats were being kept each year is well over a million in the US. Due to our recession, that has dropped in half. What this will mean in the upcoming years is that there …
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
What could the sell of seriously delinquent home loans mean for you?
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development has begun selling off seriously delinquent loans. In an effort to avoid the short fall and bailout that could happen next year, thousands of loans are being sold, according to a report on AOL Real Estate. This could be a windfall for those whose loans are sold, for many could be modified to avoid foreclosure. The plans is to sell at least 30,000 loans. This represents just a sliver of the nearly 700,000 seriously delinquent loans on their books. Officials would not specify how they would select the loans. Only seriously delinquent would qualify, but no specific information was given. This indicates we are still far from being out of this housing crisis. There are many great …
Monday, December 3, 2012
What impact could the fiscal cliff have on the real estate market in Snellville?
We all know that our economy has been shakey at best over the last several years. With Washington not agreeing on what to do next, what impact does that have on the real estate market in the upcoming months? Whether you were pleased with the election results or not, we have to admit that decisions now made in Washington will dramatically affect us in the upcoming months. The National Association of Realtors chief economist, Dr. Lawrence Yun, paints a cautious picture for us of where we are. There is a new wave of recent layoffs. These will counteract the 4.5 million jobs that were recently added. Dr. Yun basically says we are treading water. The housing price increases we are seeing will continue. Low inventory coupled with low interest…
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
In this week's real estate column, we talk about extra incentives offered in home buying and what that could mean for you.
Sometimes a buyer is looking at a home and there are extra incentives offered. These could include decorating bonus, flat screen televisions, etc. Although all of this may sound like a good idea, there are some things to think about before offering. If you do use to make up for flaws, please heed this warning: You will spend less money in most cases doing the work ahead of time rather than paying the incentive. As an example, in a medium-sized kitchen with adequate counter space, putting granite in may cost just a couple of thousand dollars. Instead, the seller offer a $3000 allowance. Those two thousand could possibly net you much more than that in the overall sales price. By the Numbers: Did you ever wonder what percentage of listing …
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Want more home for your money? Move a little further out of town.
I recently have had some clients that were interested in USDA properties. Basically, these are properties that are in rural communities. There are areas not too far from us here in Snellville that qualify, including parts of Walton and Barrow counties. The loans available for these properties are 100% financing, with no down payment. There are many people that may make a good living but don't have a ton of money saved up. Buying a home right now is considerably cheaper than renting and homes in these rural communities could use the added boost of easier financing in order to continue to grow.* What to do Regardless of your opinion, contact your congressmen/women and voice your thoughts. It is always good to let our leaders know our…
Monday, October 15, 2012
If you're trying to buy a home, do it quickly. It's becoming a seller's market quickly.
Shadow Inventory dropped 10.3% in July which bring us down to 2.3 million homes. This is a six month supply. Of these, 1 million are seriously delinquent and more than a quarter of a million of these are foreclosures. What this tells us is that there is still a fairly good supply of homes that will be coming to the market within the next 6 months. How slow or fast they come is the mystery. It is interesting to note that even though one of the mega banks stated that they don't have "shadow inventory," here I am providing you shadow inventory statistics. Our market will continue to have a mix of normal sales, short sales and foreclosures for at least another six months. If you have been waiting to get into the market, now is the time. …
Monday, October 8, 2012
Brookwood had the most homes sold this month, while the Shiloh district remains the most affordable.
Local Area Snapshots Today I will focus on what is happening in our area by high school district. This will give us a big picture look of how the September numbers ended up. Brookwood Brookwood had 39 homes that sold with an average days on the market of 90. The average price was just north of $150,000. The high sale for September was $530,000. There are still 153 listings left from September that have an average days on the market of 123. South Gwinnett South Gwinnett had 59 homes that sold with an average days on the market of 81. The average price was just north of $106,000. The high sale for September was $220,000. There are still 205 listings left from September that have an average days on the market of 92. Shiloh Shiloh had …
Jackie Reid
12:28 am on Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Jobs are hard to find, and the ones that are available are offering grown folks less than ten dollars an hour. How can we save our homes based on this? What can be done? Desperate snellville resident. more ›