Utah Real Estate Advice and Updates

Most are worried about housing payments | Inman News

 

More than half of Americans are worried about not having enough money to pay their mortgage or rent, according to a survey from the Washington Post released today.

A third of respondents were "very concerned" about their ability to make housing payments, while a fifth were "somewhat concerned," adding up to 53 percent of respondents. This contrasts to the results of similar surveys the newspaper conducted in February 2009 and December 2008.

In the 2008 survey, 37 percent of respondents said they were at least "somewhat concerned" about making their housing payments. By February 2009, that figure had risen to 46 percent.

via www.inman.com

This is pretty disturbing. We have had so many foreclosures already, you think that the non payers would start being weeded out and that trend would go down. In addition, thousands of Americans have modified their loans, had principal reduced, or just refinanced their home loans with all time low interest rates.

This attitude reflects that we will likely see an increase in foreclosure activity in the near future. This poses a problem for owners of Draper Utah Homes and Sandy Ut Real Estate as well as real estate values and futures everywhere else. 

Predictions on Housing Market and Mortgage Rates | Real Estate News

The Mortgage bankers association is predicting that home sales will still be slow next year, although improved over this year, but then will see significant growth in 2012. They’re also predicting that mortgage rates are only going up from here, and that they are going to rise to about 6% two years from now. Still a fairly good rate in historic terms.

What this means is that if you’re planning on buying Homes in Richmond Virginia, Palm Beach Gardens FL, or Redmond Washington Real Estate, and buying with a mortgage loan, this winter will likely be the best time to buy in terms of affordability.

If you plan on paying cash, home prices will probably be down in most areas next year, so you’ll probably save money then, as the monthly payment amount makes no difference.

Home sales will rise modestly next year but won’t really take off until 2012, economists with the Mortgage Bankers Association predict in their latest forecast. Existing-home sales, which are expected to be about 8 percent lower this year than last, are expected to grow by less than 2 percent next year before increasing by 16 percent in 2012.

New-home sales, which will probably drop 13 percent this year from last, are expected to bottom out in the third quarter of this year and grow by 20 percent in 2011 and 40 percent in 2012.

That, along with price stabilization and an uptick in sales of high-end properties, should drive purchase mortgage originations up 30 percent in 2011, the MBA said.

Mortgage rates are probably headed up, but may still be below 6 percent in two years, the forecast said. MBA economists expect fixed-rate mortgages to average about 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter of this year, increasing to 5.1 percent by the end of 2011 and reaching 5.7 percent in 2012.

via MBA sees double-digit sales growth in 2012 | Inman News.

via mlshousesandcondos.com

From my studies of following the home sales and inventory trends for Utah Real Estate, these stats look about right to me.

Housing Boom Leaves Salt Lake Real Estate In Decline

The housing boom was remarkable for real estate agents, and some home owners. Whathappened was home values escalated andn the people who sold at the right time made money effortlessly. But, those boom days are long gone, and the reality of the Real Estate in Salt Lake Utah market is one of decline. Neary everyone now might have wished that the housing boom never happened.

If market conditions remained steady and constant, where would home sales and prices be? If they increased by exactly 2% each year, this is where annual home sales in Salt Lake City would be. If this were the case, we would have had about 4,750 single family home sales this year. This is two times the original home sales we'll see that are probably aroudn 2,400.

The real estate market in Salt Lake has been going up and down. Because of economic recovery and home buyer's tax credit, it is still considered feeble than the average rates. For buyers, this is a an oppotunity to take advantage of the low prices. This is the best time to deal with properties for investors, but they have to be careful for competition is growing. For sellers, it is best to be patient because this is still the buyer’s market.

Compared with home price averages from 1998-2001, if Salt Lake home prices increased by exactly 3% every year, they would still be too high. The yellow and red lines show what “average” home values would be, while the blue and green lines represent the median values. Under this model, average home prices in 2007 were about 28% too high. This year they are still nearly 12% above the turn of the century adjusted for inflation levels.

The SLC Real Estate market has come down a long ways over the past three years, but with the way things are looking, it looks like SLC Homes will see further price declines over the next year.

Fall Home Maintenance Tips

Here are a few items you should attend to this season.

1. Trim back nonflowering bushes: These plants are headed into their dormant stage, and that means you can get in one last trim before cold weather.

2. Mums the word: Chrysanthemums are a great way to keep your frontstep colorful and inviting. Find your favorite color at your local plant nursery!

3. Fall cleaning: Clean-up isn't just for Spring anymore. Fall is prime time to pick up and put away gardening tools, summer toys, and pool supplies. Take advantage of the beautiful and temperate weather by tidying up your yard.

via realtytimes.com

Here in Utah, the weather is drastically changing. With weather changes, means time for some winterizing work, that is if you want your home to maintain its value.

Here are some tips from an article I read that offer some good reminders to home maintenance issues we usually forget about.

FHA Mortgage Insurance Policy Changes Increase Annual Mortgage Insurance

With all the foreclosure activity we have seen since the housing market started slipping, mortgage insurance companies have really suffered. Mortgage insurance is essentially “foreclosure insurance” for banks.

When a home buyer purchases a house with less than a 20% down payment, they are usually required to pay for a policy of mortgage insurance to cover the lender in the event of a default. These Mortgage Insurance premiums have been used with most FHA and conventional loans over the past three years.

FHA has been the primary choice for first time buyers, who usually can not come up with a large down payment. There have been several changes to how mortgage insurance payments have been made over the last year. Because there has been so many foreclosures, FHA needs to collect more funds to cover their mortgage insurance pool.

The most recent FHA change this spring increased the upfront mortgage insurance cost to 2.25%. This made up front closing costs more expensive for borrowers. Because this makes it more difficult for people to buy homes in a time while the economy is struggling, FHA wants this amount lowered.

Starting October 4th, the up front mortgage will go down, but the Annual Mortgage Insurance premium is increasing from .55% to .9%. Also FHA has Congress approval to raise this annual fee to 1.55% without requiring an additional vote.

A lot of Logan Real Estate mortgage lenders are concerned about how the new FHA changes will affect peoples abilities to afford homes, even though interest rates are at historic lows. Higher monthly mortgage insurance payments lower the debt to income ratio.

Now, no matter what people can’t have total debt of more than 41% of income, and the actual mortgage debt can’t be more than 29% of their total income. The 29% includes Principal, Interest, Taxes, Insurance, and Mortgage Insurance.

The increase in annual Mortgage Insurance increases with a multiplier effect, it really makes a differences in the amount of loan borrowers will be able to qualify for. It greatly affects the debt to income ratios, meaning buyers will be less likely to buy more expensive Homes for Sale in Utah.

Will Your Short Sale Transaction with Bank of America take forever?

Working out with Bank of America will turn almost any real estate agent trying to work out a short sale deal frustrated. The slow and painful process is just a big headache to them. But to make things clear, Bank of America is handling more short sales deals than any other company, due to their acquisition of Countrywide Home Loans well-known for offering bad loans during the housing boom.

One of the reasons that makes short sale transaction difficult with Bank of America is that they will not approve a short sale file unless there are two separate agents. In other words, they don't allow the same agent to represent both sides of the transaction.

They are doing so because of two major reasons - one, it will help them get the best purchase for each home that they approve, and second, it will help them stay out of potential legal issues. However, this situation is a royal pain to real estate agents who have BOA short sales listed, especially if they have a buyer who is interested in a property they have listed.

Another thing is that Bank of America requires that buyers get prequalified with BOA before they will accept a short sale offer - a total smart move indeed. But for people who are trying to buy short sales, and who are already prequalified with other banks, this is a total pain. Bank of America knows this, of course, however, they are still requiring this because of two major reason - they might actually get a few more loans out of the deal, and this will help them get business in a time of major losses.

Looking at it positively, Bank of America is indeed in a difficult situation because they are losing millions everyday. But even if their policy is irritating for real estate agents, they have to do everything they can so as reduce their losses and make a profit.

At the moment, Bank of America will continue to face the same or worse market conditions. As a matter of fact, they have paid the attorney's fees to foreclose, estimated at a low end of $40K in my state. It's not a good business move though the Bank of America is doing it for you. Wasting America's money!

They say that learning to do a short sale is very simple with Bank of America compared to other banks.  But since they have been attacked due to their slow approval rate, short sale homes are processed painstakingly.  In today's real estate world purchasing short sale homes can really turn homeowners, buyers, sellers, and real estate agents upside-down. 

The Recession has Ended!... Well atleast by definition, as we had 2 quarters of growth... The housing market sure isn't recoverd yet though...

Just trying to figure out this Vox to Typepad Conversion. It seems pretty simple so far, I'm just having issues figuring out how to save the title...

Reliance on High Speed Internet

Now days, it is possible to get high speed internet and Cable TV almost anywhere, and with multiple options. This wasn’t always the case. I remember eight years ago when I moved to new communities every few months, one of the first things we would always check was if the apartment complex had high speed internet. This was essential for our business in the early days of the reliance of telecommunications. 

Our lives today are reliant on the internet. Without it we can’t work. At this very instance, I am writing this article on a word document because my internet is down. I was just watching TV, victim to the circumstances that I couldn’t do any work, when my wife suggested I write an article on why high speed internet through Comcast isn’t available in our neighborhood. So here I am. 

While high speed internet isn’t perfect. Other than occasional outages, it is pretty reliable these days. Yet, there still are instances where certain providers aren’t available in neighborhoods. Even fairly densely populated neighborhoods like the one where my house in Logan Utah is located. 

It’s really interesting, we moved into the neighborhood about three years ago. The development still has new construction going on, and the older phases are about a decade old. For some strange reason Comcast Cable didn’t think it was necessary to run Cable lines to this neighborhood. Why this wasn’t economically feasible for them, I have no idea. But the interesting thing is that it wasn’t done when there are more than a hundred houses in the Green Meadows neighborhood, populated mostly by younger families in which high speed internet is a necessity.  This would present an excellent business opportunity for Quest, the chief  rival high speed internet provider of Comcast, but for some reason their structural development had inadequate bandwidth to allow more than 20 homes in the neighborhood to have DSL through them. 

Fortunately, Digis was invented. Digis provides Hi-Speed Wi-Fi internet using an antenna similar to a small grey satellite dish. Like the other internet providers, it’s not perfect, but for the most part I have been very happy with it, other than the rare occasions like right now when it’s out. So the interesting thing about houses in my neighborhood is that most homes have not just one small gray satellite Dish, but two of them. One for TV service, and the other for high speed internet and occasional phone service. 

Timing The Market - Finding the Best Time to Buy Utah Real Estate

Good Video with some information regarding watching market condition statistics to determine when to buy real estate in Utah.