Posts Tagged ‘home’

The Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have released New Residential Home Sales data for July 2010. Surprise! New Home Sales Hit a New Record Low. AGAIN! Excerpts from the Release... Sales of new single-family houses in July 2010 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 276,000. This is 12.4 percent below the revised June rate of 315,000 and is 32.4 percent below the July 2009 estimate of 408,000. The median sales price of new houses sold in July 2010 was $204,000. This is the lowest median price since December 2003. The average sales price was $235,300. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of July was 210,000. This represents a supply of 9.1 months at the current sales rate. Three months after the home buyer tax credit expired...(read more)

The National Association of Realtors today released Existing Home Sales data for July 2010. HERE is the methodology for data collection Excerpts from the release.... Existing-home sales were sharply lower in July following expiration of the home buyer tax credit but home prices continued to gain, according to the National Association of Realtors®. Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, dropped 27.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million units in July from a downwardly revised 5.26 million in June, and are 25.5 percent below the 5.14 million-unit level in July 2009. Total Sales are at the lowest level since the total existing-home sales series launched. Single-family home sales dropped 27...(read more)

The National Association of Home Builders released the monthly Housing Market Index today. Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for more than 20 years, the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as “good,” “fair” or “poor.” The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as “high to very high,” “average” or “low to very low.” Scores for each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good than poor. Excerpts taken from the release... Builder confidence in the market for newly built...(read more)

09:00 27Jul10 RTRS -US MAY HOME PRICES IN 20 METRO AREAS RISE 0.5 PCT SEASONALLY ADJ (CONSENSUS 0.2 PCT) VS 0.6 PCT IN APRIL - S&P/CASE-SHILLER 09:00 27Jul10 RTRS -US MAY 20-METRO AREA HOME PRICES RISE 1.3 PCT (CONSENSUS 0.3 PCT) VS 0.9 PCT IN APRIL - S&P/CASE-SHILLER 09:00 27Jul10 RTRS -US MAY 20-METRO AREA HOME PRICES RISE 4.6 PCT (CONSENSUS 4.0 PCT) FROM YEAR AGO - CASE-SHILLER 09:00 27Jul10 RTRS -US MAY HOME PRICES IN 10 METRO AREAS UP 0.5 PCT SEASONALLY ADJUSTED VS APRIL - CASE-SHILLER 09:00 27Jul10 RTRS -US HOME PRICES IN 10 METRO AREAS RISE 1.2 PCT IN MAY VS 0.7 PCT IN APRIL - S&P/CASE-SHILLER 09:00 27Jul10 RTRS -US MAY HOME PRICES IN 10 METROPOLITAN AREAS UP 5.4 PCT FROM YEAR AGO - S&P/CASE-SHILLER 09:00 27Jul10 RTRS -US home prices rise 0.5 pct in May Post to be updated...(read more)

The National Association of Realtors today released Existing Home Sales data for June 2010. HERE is the methodology for data collection Excerpts from the release.... With the scheduled closing deadline for the home buyer tax credits, existing-home sales slowed in June but remained at relatively elevated levels, according to the National Association of Realtors®. Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, fell 5.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.37 million units in June from 5.66 million in May, but are 9.8 percent higher than the 4.89 million-unit pace in June 2009 . In addition, existing single-family home sales rose in 12 of the 19 areas from a year ago while two were unchanged. Single-family...(read more)

1. Don’t buy if you can’t stay put.

If you can’t commit to remaining in one place for at least a few years, then owning is probably not for you, at least not yet. With the transaction costs of buying and selling a home, you may end up losing money if you sell any sooner – even in a rising market. When prices are falling, it’s an even worse proposition.

2. Get your credit checked.

Since you most likely will need to get a mortgage to buy a house, you must make sure your credit history is as clean as possible. A few months before you start house hunting, consult a mortgage professional to examine your credit with you.  See if there are any credit issues that can be resolved before looking for a home.

3. Aim for a home you can really afford.

The rule of thumb is that you can buy housing that runs about two-and-one-half times your annual salary. But you’ll do better to use one of many calculators available online to get a better handle on how your income, debts, and expenses affect what you can afford.

4. If you can’t put down the usual 20 percent, you may still qualify for a loan.

There are a variety of programs available to home buyers with little to no money down, consult with your mortgage professional to see what programs you can qualify for.

5. Buy in a district with good schools.

In most areas, this advice applies even if you don’t have school-age children. Reason: When it comes time to sell, you’ll learn that strong school districts are a top priority for many home buyers, thus helping to boost property values.

6. Get professional help.

Even though the Internet gives buyers unprecedented access to home listings, most new buyers (and many more experienced ones) are better off using a professional agent. Look for an exclusive buyer agent, if possible, who will have your interests at heart and can help you with strategies during the bidding process.

7. Choose carefully between points and rate.

When picking a mortgage, you usually have the option of paying additional points — a portion of the interest that you pay at closing — in exchange for a lower interest rate. If you stay in the house for a long time — say three to five years or more — it’s usually a better deal to take the points. The lower interest rate will save you more in the long run.

8. Before house hunting, get pre-approved.

Getting pre-approved will you save yourself the grief of looking at houses you can’t afford and put you in a better position to make a serious offer when you do find the right house. Not to be confused with pre-qualification, which is based on a cursory review of your finances, pre-approval from a lender is based on your actual income, debt and credit history.

9. Do your homework before bidding.

Your opening bid should be based on the sales trend of similar homes in the neighborhood. So before making it, consider sales of similar homes in the last three months. If homes have recently sold at 5 percent less than the asking price, you should make a bid that’s about eight to 10 percent lower than what the seller is asking.

10. Hire a home inspector.

Sure, your lender will require a home appraisal anyway. But that’s just the bank’s way of determining whether the house is worth the price you’ve agreed to pay. Separately, you should hire your own home inspector, preferably an engineer with experience in doing home surveys in the area where you are buying. His or her job will be to point out potential problems that could require costly repairs down the road.

U.S. mortgage rates continued their downward trek in the past week, edging closer to a record low set in early December, according to a survey released on Thursday by Freddie Mac, the second-largest U.S. mortgage finance company.

Lower interest rates on mortgages should buoy home loan refinancing activity, putting more cash into consumers’ hands to funnel into the U.S. economy. It also makes homes more affordable during the most important period, the spring selling season.

Interest rates on U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, the most widely used loan, averaged 4.78 percent for the week ended May 27, down from the previous week’s 4.84 percent, according to the survey.

That is below the year-ago level of 4.91 percent and also the lowest the rate has been since the week ended Dec. 3, 2009 when it hit a record low of 4.71 percent. Freddie Mac started the survey in 1971.

“These low rates will help to elevate home-buyer affordability and soften the effects of the sunset of the home-buyer tax credit,” Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist, said in a statement.

Mortgage rates are linked to yields on Treasuries and yields on mortgage-backed securities.

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Calculators and Advice from Bankrate.com:

Compare Mortgage Rates Nationwide

Struggling to Save Your Home? Get Help Here

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What a preapproval means is a mortgage broker has verified that you qualify for a mortgage and the time frame for which the approval is good for.  This is a must first step in buying a home.  Most realtors will not even show houses without knowing that you have been preapproved.  The biggest benefit for a preapprovalis that now you will know how much of a home you can afford and how much it will cost you to get into that home.  Preapprovals are free and should be taken advantage of months before you look at that first home.

Nine months after a fire partially destroyed their home in Southampton, a Long Island family is turning the tragedy into a green opportunity . After losing their home last December 22, the David Dubin family joined with members of The Hamptons Green Alliance to rebuild the house in what is believed to be the first net zero energy consumption, certified carbon neutral, and LEED Platinum home in Long Island if not the nation. And it is a project that the world is being invited to watch. After the fire the Dubins began to talk with their friend and local architect Richard Stott, a LEED certified specialist, about planning their new home. Stott, knowing that the Dubins were also environmentalists, began to discuss with them the idea of incorporating state-of-the-art materials, procedures, and techniques...(read more)