Category Archives: Real Estate

Don’t Overlook These Home Buying Details

Posted on July 7, 2013 | Leave a comment

You did your due diligence, inspecting every inch of your future home. The home inspector found no major problems.

You can sign on the dotted line now, right? Not so fast.

Remember your appraiser is not a home inspector. Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your home appraisal questions.

Real estate pros say you have more detective work to do because overlooked details lurk in the fine print or are intangible. Here’s a homebuyer’s checklist:

Noise factor. Check the neighborhood’s noise level at various times of day. Is it on the path of low-flying airplanes? On an ambulance route? Near trains with blaring horns?

“Walk the neighborhood, day and night, weekday and weekend,” said T.J. Rubin, broker at Fulton Grace Realty in Chicago. “You’ll see the restaurant with nighttime deliveries.”

Question the neighbors about frequent neighborhood noises.

If the house is in a homeowners association, you might find clues about noise and disturbances by reading between the lines of board meeting minutes.

“If the (association) has a lot of legal or security service bills, there’s a problem,” said Rubin.

The fine print. A real estate lawyer can be invaluable when it comes time to review the terms of a transaction. Many homebuyers have gotten into trouble because they don’t understand the documents they are about to sign.

Home Seller Confidence Improving

Posted on June 28, 2013 | Leave a comment

The share of Americans who believe now is a good time to sell a home has risen, says a survey from mortgage giant Fannie Mae on Monday.

Of those surveyed in May, 40 percent felt confident about their ability to sell, up from 30 percent in April and up 16 percent from the same time a year ago. The uptick, the largest one in the survey’s three-year history, is likely linked to news of home-price increases.

Want an unbiased opinion of value of your property before contacting the real estate agents; contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com

“Sentiment toward selling a home appears to be catching up with the strengthening housing market,” said Fannie Mae chief economist Doug Duncan, in a statement.

Potential buyers are feeling more confident, the survey says. Seventy-six percent of those surveyed said it’s a good time to buy a home. That’s the highest percentage in the survey’s history.

Realtor Mike Wolf, of Ascent Real Estate in San Diego, says the trends from the report are also reflected locally.

“I think it’s a good time to do something, whether it’s buying or selling,” Wolf said.

Because of recent home-price gains, some property owners who believe they’re still trapped by negative equity could be in a position now to sell. However, fear and lack of knowledge may be keeping some potential sellers from jumping into the hot real estate market, Wolf said. He says there’s a lot of waiting-and-seeing.

Wolf’s observations are supported by the number of homes on the market. There are about 4,800 listings right now, a nearly 7 percent increase from last month but a 22 percent drop from a year ago, according to numbers from the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors. The month-to-month uptick can be attributed to seasonality — people tend to move during the summer. Despite that uptick, Wolf says the county is still undersupplied.

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

Home Prices are Up 15% From A Year Ago

Posted on June 26, 2013 | Leave a comment

San Diego home prices have hit a nearly five-year high, ushering in more evidence to “confirm the housing recovery’s strength,” the S&P/Case Shiller home price index reported on Tuesday.

Residential real estate prices rose nearly 15 percent from a year ago and almost 4 percent from the previous month, based on April figures from the national real estate indicator. Those gains bring back home values to June 2008 levels.

The index, which has two-month lag, calls the housing bounce-back “broad-based.”

What do these figures mean to you? Does an average of all the sales in San Diego over a year really reflect what is going on your neighborhood? Is this another bubble? Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your value questions. If you live in Santee would you compare it to La Jolla? If you lived in Vista would you compare it to Rancho Santa Fe? Why is the Zillow price a lot lower than you think your home is worth? Contact us and let us help you.

When looking at all of the 20 major metro areas in the index, prices are up 12 percent year-over-year, the highest return in seven years.

Those same areas have all shown annual increases for at least four straight months. In San Diego, April’s returns mark the 10th consecutive month of positive year-over-year returns.

Taken together, the 20 cities in the index posted a nearly 3 percent price increase, marking the biggest positive return in the history of that composite index, which goes back 13 years.

“The recovery is definitely broad-based,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the S&P index committee. “Recent economic data on home sales and inventories confirm the housing recovery’s strength.”

Such news continues to be a positive sign for homeowners who have been waiting for their home values to bounce back from recession levels.

Limited inventory and pent-up demand have mainly contributed to soaring real estate prices, potentially pricing out potential buyers.

lily.leung@utsandiego.com (619) 293-1719 Twitter: lilyshumleung

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

Category Archives: Real Estate

Don’t Overlook These Home Buying Details

Home Seller Confidence Improving

Home Prices are Up 15% From A Year Ago

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