Answer at bottom of this post, do not look yet!

Just realized I had not posted anything lately so here are some stats I gather from our MLS:

1. 24.6% down
2. 25% up
3. 5.1% down
4. 11.5% up
5. 9.7% down
6. 2.2% up
7. 4.9% down
8. 3.4% down

Is this good news or what?

Ok, so it is Friday and just felt like being humorous about stats.

Did you noticed the “Add This” button I placed on my blog and web site so you can quickly get back, try it you might like it.

Visit my website: www.MoodtTeam.com

Oh yes, the answer is: so they can hide in cherry trees.

Smile now it will not hurt you.

Finally, it’s not too hot or too cold.  Everything is in full bloom and the birds are on full time song duty.  It is vital to go on a picnic.

South County Sacramento has some BEAUTIFUL parks.  You can find one in about 15 minutes from just about anywhere.

Park Maps: Sacramento county Park maps

You can pack some wonderful food: Picnic recipes   Or just make it casual.  There are about a millon Great reason to live in the south area.

The parks are just one of them.

I enjoy taking with smart people, ater a recent conversation with someone I consider very knowledge in the Brevard county real estate market I got to thinking (yes, I know this can be concern) what other market trends should I be watching…

So, here is some more trends for Brevard County Florida market, data pulled from MLS.

Months supply of residential homes:

• Jan 2008 - 27.2 months of property available.
• Feb 2008 - 20.3 months of property avaiable.
• Mar 2008 - 16.2 months of property available.
• Jan 2009 - 15.7 months of property available.
• Feb 2009 - 13 months of property available.
• Mar 2009 - 10.2 months of property available.

Our market for residential homes is still a buyers market, yet is closer to being a nutrual market. I believe it is better than it was and is improving. It will be a while more before we are back to a sellers market.

The downside to these numbers are they include regular resale, short sales and REO properties, someday maybe our MLS will give us the tools to generate better reports.

Please visit my website: www.moodyteam.com

NWREporter April 2009

Prefacing his comments with the caveat that forecasting in the current economic environment is extremely difficult, Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of REALTORS®, told King County brokers he believes components of President Barack Obama’s stimulus package will prompt hundreds of thousands of home sales.

Home prices have fallen to levels that are “fundamentally justifiable,” Yun stated. In fact, he remarked, any further drops could be an overcorrection. He forecasts price stabilization by the end of the year and a 10 percent to 20 percent increase in sales of existing homes nationwide as the impact of the housing stimulus package kicks in.

The shaky job market and buyer hesitancy are restraining activity, Yun suggested. “Incentives are out there,” he emphasized, adding, “Momentum is rising. What’s missing is consumer confidence.” He characterized the economy as being in a “great recession” or possibly a “mild depression” because “consumers have completely given up.”

Yun predicts the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit for homes purchased before Dec. 1 will generate up to 300,000 additional buyers. Higher jumbo loan limits could prompt an additional 600,000 sales.

Yun, who also serves as NAR’s senior vice president of research, was the featured speaker at a Feb. 27 Broker Summit presented by the Seattle-King County Association of REALTORS®. Noting he is grateful for some housing market component in the stimulus plan but “wished it had more,” the economist acknowledged not every element of NAR’s housing agenda was included at desired levels. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, signed by President Obama on Feb. 17, includes ten housing-related provisions in the $780 billion package.

In response to a question, Yun denounced a proposal in the Obama budget that would reduce the mortgage interest deduction (MID) for thousands of families, resulting in unintended fallout. Yun said NAR’s analysis shows a change could depress home prices and values for the nation’s 75 million homeowners, not just the 2 percent with incomes of $250,000-plus who are targeted. Among the negative consequences, cutting the MID will hamper the economic recovery, raise foreclosures and hurt the ability banks to lend, according to NAR.

Yun told Seattle-King County brokers he expects to see some recovery in the housing sector the latter part of the year, but whether it will be sustainable going into 2010 is uncertain due to the huge deficit and expectation of another 1.5 million job cuts over the next six months. The unprecedented nationwide housing downfall and the economy’s multiple moving parts make short-term forecasting even more challenging, Yun noted.

On a positive note, Yun said the Housing Affordability Index is at its highest-ever level, thanks in part to declining home values and historic low interest rates. Stricter underwriting standards, “frozen” jumbo loans (a big factor in the high-cost markets such as the Puget Sound area), and shaky consumer confidence are impeding sales activity, Yun believes.
 
To illustrate that “things were out of whack,” and needing correction Yun showed charts that depicted wide gaps between home prices from 1998-2006 at the height of the boom, when compared to income, the cost of construction and rent.
 
Yun also spoke of the correlation (or lack or correlation) between jobs, the recession, interest rates and home sales. In the 2000 recession, “we lost jobs yet had rising home sales because of falling interest rates.” Interest rates make the difference, he said.

In another example, Yun compared the monthly payment for a median income household buying a median priced home in 2008 with a decade earlier. In 1998, 30-year fixed mortgage rates were around 7 percent with a 1 percent fee. In 2008, rates had dropped to around 6 percent with a 0.5 percent fee. Considering only rates (and not fees), the monthly mortgage payment as a percentage of income was about the same (19 percent) in both 2008 and 1998.

Using California as a barometer, Yun said momentum is rising “much faster than I ever anticipated.” In Orange County, where prices are considerably higher than Seattle, activity had been stalled, but began turning around over the past six months. He attributes the shift to a combination of pent-up demand and psychological factors. Some who have been sitting on the fence don’t want to be the last ones left sitting,” he observed.

Yun also cited a return of multiple offers in some California markets. That suggests prices may be bottoming or have bottomed out,” he stated. Whether what’s happening in California will be replicated here is uncertain, Yun said, but noted when California recovers it typically benefits neighboring states. California is experiencing out-migration whereas Washington has a positive inflow of relocating families, many from California. Homeowners who move here from California tend to find Puget Sound area prices attractive and much more affordable.

In other comments during his presentation to more than 150 brokers, Yun asked rhetorically if there would be a refueling of the bubble. He was emphatic in saying no because of recently imposed checks and balances. One area of concern, according to Yun, is the sharp drop in single family housing starts in the Seattle area. Noting they’re even lower than 1984 (the previous low mark), he said it could lead to shortages in the future, depending on the pace of the turnaround and builders’ ability to ramp up production.

Among other remarks, Yun encouraged brokers to contact past clients, including those who are under water, to make sure they are aware of new and emerging foreclosure mitigation plans. He also hopes the Feds won’t hint at future rate cuts since that causes activity to stall among “wait and see” consumers.

Yun suggested reporters need to correct how they report new home sales. Reports of declining sales should be accompanied by an explanation that it’s because builders are scaling back production, a needed correction in the current high inventory situation.
Even though unemployment rates are approaching 10 percent in some markets, Yun reminded his audience that means more than 90 percent of the work force has jobs. Even if 20 percent have job anxiety, that still leaves 70 percent with stable jobs – “and they respond to incentives.” He favors higher limits on jumbo loans. “Why punish successful people,” he wondered.

In a final forecast, he was upbeat about Seattle. “Ten years from now it will be one of the best performing areas nationally because there are so many smart people in the area.”

Goal for number of transactions you must close to make goal (A)

Figure 10 percent fallout if you do not know your actual number (B)
- 10 percent of the number above

Add the number of your goal to the number which represents 10 percent - A + B = (C)

What percentage of closings will be listings? (D)

Times the total (C) by the percentage (don’t forget the decimal point) - C X D = (E)

What percentage of your listings sell? (F)

Percentage (E) divided by (F) = (G)

What are the average days on market? (H)

Take average days on market and divide into 365 = (I)
- This is your average turnover rate

Take average turnover rate (G) / (I) = (J)
Total listings you must carry to reach your goal!

EXAMPLE:

You want to close 50 transactions 50 A
Then 10% is 5 B
55 Total C
What percentage of closings will be listings 40% D
Listings I need to close 22 Total E
% of listings that sell 50% F
22 / .5 = 44 44 G
Avg. days on market 100 H
365 divided by 100 = 3.65 3.65 I
44 divided by 3.65 = 12 12 G / I=J
You must carry 12 listings at all times

1. Start with a plan. Make a list of projects

2. Take three simple steps. Every

system: keep, discard, and don’t know.

3. Clean out the closets. Get everyone in

4. De-clutter the kitchen. The kitchen

has an Unfinished Oak Lazy Susan

5. Tidy up the bathrooms. Clean out all

the Real Organized™ Chrome Drawer

6. Make laundry day a breeze. Keep

An Arizona Republic reader submitted an interesting question the other day that I thought would be worth discussing here.

The question: I am a real-estate agent in the West Valley trying to help homeowners avoid foreclosures on their homes. Some of the lenders refuse to discuss a “short sale,” and notify the homeowner that even after the foreclosure, the homeowner will be liable for any deficiency on the loan amount. If a lender will not agree to a “short sale” by reducing the loan, and the lender forecloses, will the homeowner be liable after the foreclosure? If not, will the homeowner’s credit be affected?

Real estate attorney Christopher Combs’ answer: Under the Arizona anti-deficiency laws, a lender generally has no recourse against a homeowner because the homeowner has no personal liability on a loan used to purchase the home. Unfortunately, many out-of-state lenders incorrectly believe that the homeowner has liability for any deficiency on the loan amount after the foreclosure sale. In regard to the homeowner’s credit, by the time of the foreclosure, there are already several “dings” on the homeowner’s credit report.  Unless the homeowner has damaged the home, the homeowner will not be significantly harmed by the foreclosure sale.

In Arizona, a mortgage is what’s called a “non-recourse” loan, meaning “A type of loan that is secured by collateral, which is usually property. If the borrower defaults, the issuer can seize the collateral, but cannot seek out the borrower for any further compensation, even if the collateral does not cover the full value of the defaulted amount. This is one instance where the borrower does not have personal liability for the loan.”  In some states, mortgages are partial recourse or full recourse loans, meaning that the homeowner can be held liable for the defaulted amount that’s not covered by the foreclosure sale.

Combs didn’t really answer the reader’s question about how a homeowner’s credit might be affected by a foreclosure - and his last sentence is potentially confusing.  The fact is that there’s no way to say for certain how many points a homeowner’s credit score will fall after a foreclosure, but experts agree it could be huge, in the 200-point range.  A foreclosure stays on a person’s credit report for up to 10 years.  So while a homeowner may be in more serious trouble if he’s damaged the home, the adverse effects of a foreclosure on the homeowner’s credit report will be serious.

Because the issues of personal liability and how a foreclosure will affect your credit score are just two of many that a homeowner facing foreclosure will have to deal with, homeowners in trouble should contact a real estate attorney that specializes in foreclosures or a non-profit foreclosure counseling agency.  Last June, former Governor Napolitano created the Arizona foreclosure help line, “a vital link between families facing a housing crisis and access to free foreclosure counseling appointments. The Arizona Department of Housing is contracting with Community Information and Referral Services to staff the call center which will connect homeowners to a local, certified foreclosure counselor.”  To reach the help line, call 1-877-448-1211.

What do you think? Click on the “Comments” link to join the discussion!

The National Association of Realtors has reported some new news in regards to the new/revised Housing Stimulus Bill, Feb 2009.

Investors, call me and I will help you get in touch with a lender who can help me help you get back to buying properties.

There was a 31% increase in the number of single family homes to go under contract (contingent + pending). Comparing 1 – 31 January, 2008 to 1 – 31 January, 2009.

There was a 26.8% increase in the number of single family homes to close. Comparing 1 – 31 January, 2008 to 1 – 31 January, 2009.

There was a 17.8% increase in the number of single family homes to go under contract (contingent + pending). Comparing 1 – 31 December, 2008 to 1 – 31 January, 2009.

The sky is not falling chicken little! If you are doing the things you need to do to increase your business then you will succeed. 

Stats taken from the Brevard County Florida MLS.

The Internal Revenue Service recently announced it will expedite its process of providing relief from federal tax liens for distressed homeowners. With over one million current federal tax liens against real and personal property, the IRS announcement should help sellers resolve federal tax lien issues in their sale and loan transactions.

As background, a homeowner seeking to sell or refinance a property must generally pay off an existing federal tax lien. However, during the current economic downturn, many homeowners don’t have the cash or equity to do so. Hence, for a refinance, the homeowner may request that the IRS make it’s tax lien subordinate or secondary to the lien of the refinancing lender. For a sale, the homeowner may, under certain circumstances, request that the IRS discharge its claim. The IRS’s processing time for subordination or discharge requests has been about 30 days. The IRS is currently working to expedite that time frame to help distressed homeowners. For IRS instructions on requesting relief from federal tax liens, go to the IRS Publication 783 for discharges and Publication 784 for subordinations at www.irs.gov.