Buyers in states less impacted by the housing bust are finding it easier to borrow. Some lenders have moved from lending 90 percent of the purchase price to 95 percent according to
realtor.org and
The Wall Street Journal. Good credit is still a requirement.
In those states that suffered the most (for example, Arizona) lending is still very tight and making it difficult for potential buyers.
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This kitchen is not as bad as some. We often have missing cabinet doors, sometimes whole cabinets gone.
In Cochise County, in fact all of Arizona, stripping your home just before foreclosure is a felony.
Over half of the HUD homes we sell have at least the appliances removed, rarely do we have a home that is “complete”. We had one which was the ultimate of stripping, all appliances (including the a/c compressor), counter tops, face plates on switches and outlets, bathtub, toilets, interior doors… in fact everything that could be removed. The only thing left of any consequence was the kitchen sink. And you could tell the prior homeowner tried to remove it but could not get it free.
This
article from
The New York Times tells how the FBI is using Craigslist to catch people in the act of stripping their home.
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We have a year to go for fuller disclosure by lenders.
Today a lender does not have to explain why a borrower’s credit score resulted in a less than favorable interest rate. Beginning January 1, 2011, under new rules from the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Trade Commission, borrowers who are loaned money at less than competitive rates because of their credit ratings must be notified and given a free copy of their credit scores.
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Interest rates have been held down due to the Federal Reserve’s program of buying mortgage backed securities from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and others. The Fed’s program comes to an end in March of 2010.
When private investors begin purchasing these mortgage backed securities they will expect a higher rate of return on their investment than what the Fed was willing to accept. This will drive interest rates up as lenders try to satisfy the demands of the purchasers of these securities.
Amy Crews Cutts, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac expects 30 year fixed rates to hit 6 percent in 2010.
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According to the Census Bureau fewer Americans moved in 2009 than at any other time this decade. Population growth also fell according to their projections.
With the combination of falling home prices and the difficulty of obtaining credit it is no surprise that we decided to stay in our current homes.
The migration to the sun belt has stopped. In fact Florida’s population decreased in 2009.
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The revised 1st time homebuyer program to include a $6,500 tax incentive for current homeowners is working according to a survey conducted by Campbell Communications. 41 percent of home purchases in November were by current homeowners, up from 38 percent in October.
Don Grafues
Resource: realtor.org & HousingWire.com
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In a few days we will mark the beginning of the second decade of the third millennium. But the second day of the new decade may be more auspicious.
The date written in the typical American format of mm/dd/yyyy is a palindromic date – 01/02/2010. When did we last have a palindromic date?
Don Grafues
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The on-line REALTOR® Magazine (realtor.org) published an
article on the continuing decline of the commercial market. Moody’s Investors Service reports that commercial prices fell 1.5 percent in Ocotober and they are now 36.4 percent lower than in Ocotber of 2008 and 43.7 percent below their peak in October of 2007.
On November 7 we published a post titled, “
Commercial Real Estate Bottom” in which PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute, predicted that commercial real estate values will decline an average of 40 percent from their peak in 2007.
That forecast has now been met and will most likely be exceeded. And as we reported on
November 17 there are “commercial real estate debt maturities [that] will spike at $1.8 trillion in 2012 and many are poor-quality loans”. So anticipating further declines is not unrealistic.
We follow and report on commercial market for it is one of many indicators of our overall economy.
Don Grafues
Resource: Realtor.org
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US Capitol
© 2009 JupiterImages Corporation
The third article about tax credits for energy saving devices "
Replacing Your Roof" is now available on our blog. Look in the right sidebar and click on the article title. Or you can click
here.
These tax credits come from the IRS. You can check into additional credits or rebates with your local utility, city or Cochise County governemnts.
These articles are provided by a new National Association of Realtors website "
HouseLogic.com."
Don Grafues
Resource: HouseLogic.com
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