Monday, November 12, 2012
Do You Have A Million Dollar Home To Sell?
Great news for you! - The luxury market is picking up nicely after a slow summer. There were 71 closed ARMLS sales during October for Greater Phoenix homes listed over $1,000,000. This compares well with only 49 for October 2011, 49 for October 2010, 65 for October 2009 and 55 for October 2008. Listings under contract (pending and AWC) are also on the rise for homes priced over $1,000,000, This morning we had 148, far more than the 105 we saw on November 9, 2011. Of these 148, 117 were normal listings, whereas we had only 69 one year ago. We are heading into our busiest time of year- Your chances of selling your home is great! Call Greg or Jeannine today 480-353-8231 or 480-747-8492.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
You Made Money If You Own A Home!
Homeowners Recover 13.5 Percent of Lost Equity Through Q3
Posted By susanne On October 10, 2012 @ 3:40 pm In Consumer News and Advice,Finance and Economy,Home Owner News,Real Estate Information,Real Estate News,Real Estate Trends,Today's Top Story,Today's Top Story - Consumer | Comments Disabled
[1]Rising home values have brought homeowner equity to its highest level since the third quarter of 2008 and helped lift 1.3 million families above water. Homeowner equity jumped $406 billion, or 5.9 percent, to $7,275 billion in the second quarter of 2012, according to the Obama Administration’s September Housing Scorecard.After a sharp first quarter rise, total equity has grown to $863 billion, or 13.5 percent, since the end of 2011. The number of underwater borrowers has declined by 11 percent since the end of last year, from 12.1 million in the 4th quarter of 2011 to 10.8 million in the second quarter of 2012.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
AZ Housing Market is Top Performer! Call Me to Invest!
5 Strong Performing Housing Markets
Several real estate markets are showing signs of recovery, with median home prices and sales rising. But which markets are showing some of the strongest signs of recovery?
24/7 Wall St. recently evaluated home price changes for the year ending in July, foreclosure data, the unemployment rate, and other factors to help determine which housing markets are performing some of the strongest. The states that emerged on top of the list are:
1. Arizona Home price change in the last year year: +16.6% Median home price: $248,229
2. Idaho Home price change in the last year: +10% Median home price: $85,000
3. Utah Home price change in the last year: +9.3% Median home price: $129,000
4. South Dakota Home price change in the last year: +8.3% Median home price: $101,700
5. Colorado Home price change in the last year: +7.3% Median home price: $240,000
Friday, August 31, 2012
MARKET RECOVERY LEADS TO BETTER DAYS FOR DISTRESSED HOME OWNERS
More Home Owners Come Out From ‘Underwater’
During the second quarter, nearly one million home owners were able to emerge from being “underwater” on their mortgage due to rising prices, according to a new report by Zillow. Home owners who owe more on their home than it is currently worth dropped to 30.9 percent in the second quarter compared to 31.4 percent three months prior.
While more home owners are getting caught up, nearly half of home owners who are underwater are disproportionately under the age of 40.
"We hear about tight inventory in many markets, and it's clear where this is coming from," says Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow. "Negative equity is trapping young people in their homes, preventing them from selling. These homes are like the very starter homes potential first-time home buyers are seeking."
The high number of home owners under the age of 40 who are “underwater” could have long-term consequences for their financial situation as well as for the overall economy, Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, told CNNMoney. For example, these home owners will struggle to move on or trade up, and they could be at higher risk of defaulting on their mortgage because they don’t have any equity in their homes to rely on.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
HOMES SALES ARE UP!! NATIONWIDE..........
Pending home sales touch two-year high
Contracts to buy previously owned homes rose to their highest level in more than two years in July, an industry group said on Wednesday, suggesting the housing market recovery was gaining traction.
The National Association of Realtors said its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in July, increased 2.4 percent to 101.7 - the highest level since April 2010 and shortly before the deadline for the home buyer tax credit.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected signed contracts, which become sales after a month or two, to rise 1.0 percent after declining 1.4 percent in June.
The National Association of Realtors said its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in July, increased 2.4 percent to 101.7 - the highest level since April 2010 and shortly before the deadline for the home buyer tax credit.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected signed contracts, which become sales after a month or two, to rise 1.0 percent after declining 1.4 percent in June.
Friday, July 27, 2012
California Raises Property taxes by 2% !!
Many Calif. Home Owners Shocked at Property Tax Bills
With the housing market improving in California, thousands of home owners are now getting an unexpected surprise: Their property taxes are starting to soar. A law in California permits assessors to temporarily reduce property assessments when home values drop. But when values start heading back up, the law allows assessors to increase property taxes, in many cases even by more than 2 percent.
More than 37,000 home owners in Santa Clara County are seeing their property taxes increase by more than 2 percent this year because of the increase in home values in the home area, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Other counties across the state are seeing similar jumps. For example, one home owner in San Jose says her property taxes are expected to rise 9.4 percent this year alone.
While the rise in property taxes will help many of the counties’ squeezed budgets, home owners say they weren’t expecting the rise and it’s a “double-edged sword” — your property value finally goes back up but then so do your property taxes.
Friday, April 6, 2012
MAKES BETTER SENSE TO BUY? FOR MANY DIFFERENT REASONS
Higher Rents Open Eyes to the Value of Owning
Economists and real estate agents say entry-level home buyers are once again jumping into the market in time for the spring selling season, spurred by ongoing price declines and higher apartment rents.
Reis Inc., a real-estate research firm, reports in its quarterly survey that the average apartment rents rose by 2.7 percent in 2011, and vacancy rate fell below 5 percent nationwide for the first time since 2001 .
This year is poised to be the first since 2005 that the number of apartment renters buying homes rises year-over-year, according to Zelman & Associates. Moreover, Deutsche Bank housing analyst Nishu Sood says rental costs exceeded homeownership costs by 15 percent at the end of last year.
Monday, April 2, 2012
WARREN BUFFET WAS WRONG- WHAT???
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says he was “dead wrong” with a prediction that the U.S. housing market would begin to recover by now, but he remains optimistic about the nation’s economy.
In his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Buffett said he is sure housing will recover eventually and help bring down the nation’s unemployment rate. But he did not predict when that would happen.
Investors eagerly await the letter from Buffett, 81, called the Oracle of Omaha, who built a $44 billion fortune by following a steadfast, no-nonsense investing strategy.
Buffett said housing “remains in a depression of its own,” but he predicted, in typical plainspoken style, that the housing market will come back because some human factors can’t be denied. “People may postpone hitching up during uncertain times, but eventually hormones take over,” he wrote. “And while ‘doubling-up’ may be the initial reaction of some during a recession, living with in-laws can quickly lose its allure.”
Berkshire Hathaway owns more than 80 subsidiaries, including the Geico insurance company and See’s Candy, and five of them rely heavily on construction activity. Those businesses, which include Acme Brick, Clayton Homes and Shaw carpet, generated pretax profit of $513 million last year. That’s well off their $1.8 billion contribution in 2006.
Berkshire’s insurance companies took $1.7 billion in catastrophe losses last year, including from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Berkshire reported only $154 million in underwriting profit, down from $1.3 billion the previous year.
But several of its larger non-insurance businesses – Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, MidAmerican Energy, Marmon Group, Lubrizol and Iscar – generated record earnings in 2011.
That helped Berkshire generate $10.3 billion in net income, or $6,215 a class A share, last year, down from nearly $13 billion, or $7,928, in 2010.
Buffett reassured Berkshire shareholders that the company has someone in mind to replace him but did not name the successor. He emphasized that he has no plans to leave.
Glenn Tongue, a managing partner at T2 Partners investment firm, said he was struck by the fact that Buffett chose to deal with the succession topic as one of the first items in his letter. “I think this was a forceful and stronger attempt to put this issue to bed,” Tongue said.
Buffett said the Berkshire board is enthusiastic about the executive it has picked and said there are two good back-up candidates. “When a transfer of responsibility is required, it will be seamless, and Berkshire’s prospects will remain bright,” Buffett said
In his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Buffett said he is sure housing will recover eventually and help bring down the nation’s unemployment rate. But he did not predict when that would happen.
Investors eagerly await the letter from Buffett, 81, called the Oracle of Omaha, who built a $44 billion fortune by following a steadfast, no-nonsense investing strategy.
Buffett said housing “remains in a depression of its own,” but he predicted, in typical plainspoken style, that the housing market will come back because some human factors can’t be denied. “People may postpone hitching up during uncertain times, but eventually hormones take over,” he wrote. “And while ‘doubling-up’ may be the initial reaction of some during a recession, living with in-laws can quickly lose its allure.”
Berkshire Hathaway owns more than 80 subsidiaries, including the Geico insurance company and See’s Candy, and five of them rely heavily on construction activity. Those businesses, which include Acme Brick, Clayton Homes and Shaw carpet, generated pretax profit of $513 million last year. That’s well off their $1.8 billion contribution in 2006.
Berkshire’s insurance companies took $1.7 billion in catastrophe losses last year, including from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Berkshire reported only $154 million in underwriting profit, down from $1.3 billion the previous year.
But several of its larger non-insurance businesses – Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, MidAmerican Energy, Marmon Group, Lubrizol and Iscar – generated record earnings in 2011.
That helped Berkshire generate $10.3 billion in net income, or $6,215 a class A share, last year, down from nearly $13 billion, or $7,928, in 2010.
Buffett reassured Berkshire shareholders that the company has someone in mind to replace him but did not name the successor. He emphasized that he has no plans to leave.
Glenn Tongue, a managing partner at T2 Partners investment firm, said he was struck by the fact that Buffett chose to deal with the succession topic as one of the first items in his letter. “I think this was a forceful and stronger attempt to put this issue to bed,” Tongue said.
Buffett said the Berkshire board is enthusiastic about the executive it has picked and said there are two good back-up candidates. “When a transfer of responsibility is required, it will be seamless, and Berkshire’s prospects will remain bright,” Buffett said
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Stay in your Foreclosed Home??
More Home Owners Stay-Put in Foreclosure
Posted by GLOZAL on March 6, 2012
More lenders are allowing home owners in default to stay-put in their homes longer--and even negotiating special arrangements with them, such as the lender paying the home insurance if the home owner pays the utility costs, The New York Times reports.
Why the postponement? Banks don’t want the cost of maintaining more homes on their books. Many municipalities are forcing banks to better maintain foreclosed homes, which has been adding to the costs.
By the end of January, more than 644,458 homes were under bank ownership. What’s more, about 710,725 are in the foreclosure process, awaiting to add to that number, according to data by RealtyTrac.
“Under normal circumstances, the banks would be able to cover the cost of maintenance, upkeep, and property taxes by just reselling the property, but these are desperate times, and banks are resorting to somewhat desperate measures in some cases,” Daren Blomquist, a vice president at RealtyTrac, told The New York Times. “It is more of a factor now because property values have come down and will not cover all these costs when the banks resell the property, if they can resell the property.”
In 2007, the average time it took to complete a foreclosure was four months. By the end of 2011, that has stretched to a year. In some states the slowdown is even more pronounced, such as in Florida where defaulting home owners often stay put for more than two years, or in New York in which foreclosures in 2007 once took 263 days to complete and in 2011 now average 1,019 days.
Posted by GLOZAL on March 6, 2012
More lenders are allowing home owners in default to stay-put in their homes longer--and even negotiating special arrangements with them, such as the lender paying the home insurance if the home owner pays the utility costs, The New York Times reports.
Why the postponement? Banks don’t want the cost of maintaining more homes on their books. Many municipalities are forcing banks to better maintain foreclosed homes, which has been adding to the costs.
By the end of January, more than 644,458 homes were under bank ownership. What’s more, about 710,725 are in the foreclosure process, awaiting to add to that number, according to data by RealtyTrac.
“Under normal circumstances, the banks would be able to cover the cost of maintenance, upkeep, and property taxes by just reselling the property, but these are desperate times, and banks are resorting to somewhat desperate measures in some cases,” Daren Blomquist, a vice president at RealtyTrac, told The New York Times. “It is more of a factor now because property values have come down and will not cover all these costs when the banks resell the property, if they can resell the property.”
In 2007, the average time it took to complete a foreclosure was four months. By the end of 2011, that has stretched to a year. In some states the slowdown is even more pronounced, such as in Florida where defaulting home owners often stay put for more than two years, or in New York in which foreclosures in 2007 once took 263 days to complete and in 2011 now average 1,019 days.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
CHASE BANK OFFERS HOMES TO WOUNDED VETS!!
Chase Donates Inventory Homes to Wounded Vets
Daily Real Estate News
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Chase announced it will donate at least 100 homes it owns to wounded military veterans as part of a program operated by a national nonprofit group known as Operation Homefront.
Eligible military families must be on active duty, not currently own a home, and be financially capable of taking on home ownership. Spouses of military members killed in action will also be considered for the program.
"These individuals have made tremendous sacrifices for our nation, and as they move back into civilian life in a tough economic environment, we hope that a mortgage-free home will make that transition a little easier," Frank Bisignano, JPMorgan Chase Chief Administrative Officer and CEO of Mortgage Banking, said in a statement.
Military families can apply for the Homes on the Homefront program at www.OperationHomefront.net/HomesOnTheHomefront.
The announcement comes months after Chase has taken steps to develop a foreclosure prevention and assistance program for military vets. Last year, Chase admitted to 14 wrongful evictions of military families. Other wrongful evictions of military families also surfaced from other banks last year, and the Justice Department is currently overseeing reviews by major banks of military members’ mortgages for any violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.
Daily Real Estate News
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Chase announced it will donate at least 100 homes it owns to wounded military veterans as part of a program operated by a national nonprofit group known as Operation Homefront.
Eligible military families must be on active duty, not currently own a home, and be financially capable of taking on home ownership. Spouses of military members killed in action will also be considered for the program.
"These individuals have made tremendous sacrifices for our nation, and as they move back into civilian life in a tough economic environment, we hope that a mortgage-free home will make that transition a little easier," Frank Bisignano, JPMorgan Chase Chief Administrative Officer and CEO of Mortgage Banking, said in a statement.
Military families can apply for the Homes on the Homefront program at www.OperationHomefront.net/HomesOnTheHomefront.
The announcement comes months after Chase has taken steps to develop a foreclosure prevention and assistance program for military vets. Last year, Chase admitted to 14 wrongful evictions of military families. Other wrongful evictions of military families also surfaced from other banks last year, and the Justice Department is currently overseeing reviews by major banks of military members’ mortgages for any violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
FORECLOSED HOMES TO BECOME RENTAL PROPERTIES
KEEP FORECLOSED PROPERTIES AND TURN THEM INTO RENTALS??
Morgan Stanley Predicts REO Rental Program Will Create 1.8 million Jobs
posted by GLOZAL on February 19, 2012 at 3:34pm
The government's program to turn foreclosed Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Federal Housing Administration properties into rentals "is here to stay," according to housing analysts at Morgan Stanley. One of the greatest effects of it, the bank's analysts say, is job creation, with the possibility of creating more than 1 million jobs in the hard-hit construction and real estate industries. The jobs could be created by private capital without the use of taxpayer dollars.
The program's purpose is to clear the national backlog of distressed housing.
"On a macro level, (the REO rental program) could not have come at a better time," the analysts say.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy lost 2.5 million housing-related jobs over the past five years. Of those, 2.16 million were in construction and 240,000 were in real estate.
Employment in construction increased by 21,000 in January, following a gain of 31,000 in the previous month.
Analysts estimate about eight million properties will be sold in some form of distressed sale over the next five years.
"Even if only half can be turned into rentals, which would represent only a 20% increase in the total number of single-family rental properties available today, that could result in the creation of one million one-time construction-oriented jobs plus a possible additional 800,000 in permanent jobs, mostly in some of the hardest-hit sectors and the hardest-hit economic areas of the country," they say.
The 800,000 jobs would comprise the cottage industry for servicing REO rental units, from cleaning properties to collecting the rent.
The chart below shows Morgan Stanley's full-time job-creation numbers per distressed property turned into rental by each category and for total jobs. The calculation is based on anecdotal labor-usage feedback the firm received from current single-family operators.
Capital Economics called the program to move REO properties to rentals the “best housing fix so far” and “possibly more significant” than President Brack Obama’s refinancing proposals announced late last month.
Support for a government-led program was the most popular disposition strategy among panelists at January's American Securitization Forum.
But when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sent a letter in January to Congress proposing the REO rental program, it highlighted the deep political divide on how to repair housing.
Private investors, with the government's support, are gearing up for what they perceived as a massive and long-term investment opportunity
"With the added benefit of the potential for significant private sector-led job creation, potentially in the hardest-hit sectors in the hardest-hit regions, we are increasingly confident that (the program) can have a positive impact on housing and the macro economy as a whole," the analysts say.
Morgan Stanley Predicts REO Rental Program Will Create 1.8 million Jobs
posted by GLOZAL on February 19, 2012 at 3:34pm
The government's program to turn foreclosed Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Federal Housing Administration properties into rentals "is here to stay," according to housing analysts at Morgan Stanley. One of the greatest effects of it, the bank's analysts say, is job creation, with the possibility of creating more than 1 million jobs in the hard-hit construction and real estate industries. The jobs could be created by private capital without the use of taxpayer dollars.
The program's purpose is to clear the national backlog of distressed housing.
"On a macro level, (the REO rental program) could not have come at a better time," the analysts say.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy lost 2.5 million housing-related jobs over the past five years. Of those, 2.16 million were in construction and 240,000 were in real estate.
Employment in construction increased by 21,000 in January, following a gain of 31,000 in the previous month.
Analysts estimate about eight million properties will be sold in some form of distressed sale over the next five years.
"Even if only half can be turned into rentals, which would represent only a 20% increase in the total number of single-family rental properties available today, that could result in the creation of one million one-time construction-oriented jobs plus a possible additional 800,000 in permanent jobs, mostly in some of the hardest-hit sectors and the hardest-hit economic areas of the country," they say.
The 800,000 jobs would comprise the cottage industry for servicing REO rental units, from cleaning properties to collecting the rent.
The chart below shows Morgan Stanley's full-time job-creation numbers per distressed property turned into rental by each category and for total jobs. The calculation is based on anecdotal labor-usage feedback the firm received from current single-family operators.
Capital Economics called the program to move REO properties to rentals the “best housing fix so far” and “possibly more significant” than President Brack Obama’s refinancing proposals announced late last month.
Support for a government-led program was the most popular disposition strategy among panelists at January's American Securitization Forum.
But when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sent a letter in January to Congress proposing the REO rental program, it highlighted the deep political divide on how to repair housing.
Private investors, with the government's support, are gearing up for what they perceived as a massive and long-term investment opportunity
"With the added benefit of the potential for significant private sector-led job creation, potentially in the hardest-hit sectors in the hardest-hit regions, we are increasingly confident that (the program) can have a positive impact on housing and the macro economy as a whole," the analysts say.
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