Category Archives: Real Estate

Trapped in Negative Equity

Posted on April 1, 2013 | 2 comments

Home sales around the country are on the rise.

But finding a house to buy could be a big problem. The inventory of homes listed for sale is at the lowest point in more than a decade.

So why aren’t more properties coming on the market?

Housing economist Mark Fleming thinks it’s because many homeowners just owe too much to comfortably sell.

Have questions about the value/sale price of your home? Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com

“Almost half of all mortgage loans today are under-equitied — they have less than 20 percent,” Fleming, chief economist for housing and mortgage analyst CoreLogic Inc., said recently.

“These people aren’t supplying their homes to the market because they are underwater or under-equitied.”

Fleming, who spoke to a meeting of the Mortgage Bankers Association in Grapevine, Texas, said it will be years before some homeowners who purchased before the recession have enough of a stake in their house that they can trade up to another property.

Even though home prices are increasing in most U.S. markets, it will take a while before homeowners can net enough from the sale of their current home to have a down payment for another purchase.

“Equity is one of the primary constraints to people buying and moving,” Fleming said.

CoreLogic estimates that 22 percent of mortgage holders nationwide owe more than the value of their properties. And the situation is worse in places in Nevada, Arizona and Florida, where more than a third of homeowners with a loan are upside down, according to CoreLogic.

“Negative equity will cast a shadow over the housing market for years to come,” Fleming said.

Rising home values will eventually cure the situation, he told members of the Washington, D.C.-based mortgage group.

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

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Posted in Real Estate

Tagged low real estate inventory, rising home values, why

Homebuying: Should You Take The Plunge?

Posted on March 28, 2013 | Leave a comment

Spring is typically the busiest season for homebuying, and this year the housing market is already showing signs of coming back to life.

According to the National Association of Realtors, the median price for U.S. homes was $173,600 in January, the latest month of available data. That’s up 12.5 percent from the same period in 2012, and is the largest year-over-year increase since 2005.

Have questions about the market? Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com

What’s more, even though home prices are beginning to rise, affordability continues to improve — especially for first-time buyers. The NAR’s first-time homebuyer affordability index reached a record high of 127.7 in 2012 (the higher the number, the better). In 2006, at the real-estate market’s peak, the index stood at 71.3.

Low mortgage rates and an improving economy are helping make homebuying more attractive today. Should you take the plunge? Consider the following.

Renting vs. owning

In many areas of the country, it is now cheaper to own a home than it is to rent. But much of that advantage still depends on the size of your down payment, the interest rate you’ll pay on a mortgage and the amount of time you plan to stay put.

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

How Agents Read You

Posted on March 26, 2013 | Leave a comment

EVERY saleswoman will tell you that the customer is always transparent. Maybe not entirely, completely, but compared with the poker face a buyer thinks that he or she is wearing, there are always expressions and signals that are obvious to the practiced observer.

While every sale is different, there are also discernible stages that a customer goes through on the way to a transaction. A check with real estate brokers around the country indicates that many experienced ones “read the minds” of their customers — and can use their knowledge of consumer behavior to steer a market participant toward (or away from) a sale.

Want to know the value before you begin negotiating? Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for value questions.

“Here’s a tell,” said Jim Foote, who has been in real estate for 38 years and is broker-owner of Greenwich Custom Real Estate Services in Old Greenwich, Conn. “If they linger for a long time in any one room, that’s telling you that there is something about this room that’s especially interesting to them.”

Conversely, a speed-through is often a sign of lack of interest. Mr. Foote has a current listing of a four-bedroom ranch house in Old Greenwich, on the market for $1.625 million. “If the progress from the hall through the living room, where the first fireplace is, through the dining room to the kitchen, through the family room where the second fireplace is — if that circuit takes two to three minutes, that’s pretty good,” Mr. Foote said. “If it takes 30 or 45 seconds, that’s not so good.”

Of course, agents who admit to “reading” their clients insist their pattern recognition is in service of the greater good. Even (or especially) in these days of consumer online access, some of an agent’s value lies in her being able to offer a buyer a choice different from his preconception.

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

Category Archives: Real Estate

Trapped in Negative Equity

Homebuying: Should You Take The Plunge?

How Agents Read You

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