Ways to Save on Moving

Published by Allan 8 months, 1 week ago in Housing. 2 Comments

New HomeOne thing that’s certain to be included in almost every real estate transaction is a move. Someone’s moving out, someone’s moving in. While moving may not be a glamorous subject, and there’s not a lot written about it, there are ways to save a ton if it’s done right.

MSN has an article on 18 ways to save money on your next move. This is one of those articles you should copy and give to your clients as they prepare to move into a new home. The article has several ways to save that I’ll bet you haven’t thought of. Click here to see how to save.

Most Affordable Housing Markets

Published by Allan 8 months, 1 week ago in Housing. 1 Comment

Loan RequirementsNow that’s a title I can get excited about. We all want to know where the most affordable markets are and Forbes is just the one to spell it out. Unfortunately, you might not be able to make a living in some of the markets. For example, one of the markets is the greater Detroit area. There’s a reason things are so cheap there: there are no jobs. Whole neighborhoods went up for sale when the automakers cut back on labor forces and the price of homes went in the dumper.

But there’s a bright side too. For example Greensborough, N.C. made the list. That’s a beautiful place and would make a great place to raise a family. This article is fun to read if you like the upbeat side of the news. Take a minute and click here for the full story.

Home Price Growth Slowest in Two Decades

Published by Allan 8 months, 2 weeks ago in Housing. 0 Comments

DeflateThat’s the opening statement in the article in MSN Money. Funny, though, they go on to say that home prices haven’t been this low since 1994. Now, I didn’t major in math, but ‘94 till now doesn’t seem like 20 years. You do the math. Maybe there’s something I’m missing.

The article goes on to show that 131 of 287 cities are in decline, some of them in a steep decline. They cite a lot of statistics to show that things are unlikely to rebound any time soon. In all fairness, though, they do report housing booms still going on in Washington, Utah, and Texas. They also cite Colorado as growing, but I’ve been to Denver recently and seen whole neighborhoods for sale. That doesn’t sound like a boom to me.

At any rate, you can read the whole article by clicking here. Be sure to go to the second page of the article where you can click on the link of all the nearly 300 cities and see where you stand. This is a quick read and worth the time.

Is There A Disconnect Between Home Prices and Other Key Indicators?

Published by Allan 8 months, 2 weeks ago in Housing, Real Estate and Finance. 0 Comments

InvestmentsThere is a great article on the disconnect between home prices and other key indators on efinance directory. The piece explores the relationship that typically exists between the price of homes in a given market with rent prices, median income, etc., etc. They point out that while real estate prices continually rise, what’s different in this “bubble” is that home prices have risen quite disproportionately to these other key indicators. This not only sheds light on what is different about what’s happening now (and what’s already happened in the last few months) and what typically happens in a hot real estate market it also helps you to understand how to succeed in predicting future real estate prices. This is very educational information and I highly recommend you take the time to read and digest it. Don’t miss this one. Click here for the full story.

Some Mega-Builders Feel Pain of Mortgage Mess

Published by Allan 8 months, 3 weeks ago in Real Estate and Mortgage. 2 Comments

Housing StartsThey say when you ride the big waves, you sometimes get slammed into the beach. That seems to be the case for some of the big mega-builders / developers. Business Week is reporting that some of the big, publicly-traded builders / developers decided to get into the mortgage business at the height of the home building frenzy in an effort to “streamline” the sometimes lengthy process of getting buyers into their homes. There’s a reason why everyone isn’t in the mortgage business (or any other business, for that matter.) When you’re just dabbling in something as complex as the mortgage industry, you run a real risk of getting hurt.

I think the problem is magnified for these publicly traded companies. If you’re a small town builder (or even a big city builder, for that matter) and are not part of a publicly traded company, you make your business decisions based on what’s best for the business. Nobody knows if you are building 50 houses or 51 or 151. So you have no pressure to build “just one more” to “make the numbers for this quarter.” Publicly traded companies, on the other hand, are scrutinized each quarter. They have to do whatever they have to do to “make the numbers.” Therein lies part of the problem.

This is a good article that shows what at least part of the collateral damage from this whole situation will be. There is undoubtedly more to come. To read the whole story, click here.

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