This message was posted by a member on one of my Groups at Yahoo.
It is an article from the Chicago Tribune.
Five reasons to buy a home this year
Affordability returns to housing, and buyers have loads of negotiating power
By Amy Hoak, MarketWatch
Last update: 7:52 p.m. EST Feb. 27, 2009
Comments: 376
This story originally published Feb. 6 has been updated to reflect the passage of the economic stimulus bill.
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- People are afraid to buy a home in times like these, with the economy tanking and home prices continuing to fall. But if you're brave enough to stray from the herd, you might be in for the home-buying opportunity of a lifetime.
Ask for price reductions, improvements, closing costs -- whatever -- and the seller, desperately trying to get a contract, is very likely to work with you, said Jay Papasan, one of the authors of the book "Your First Home." When the market starts improving, your negotiating power starts to diminish, he added....
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/five-reasons-buying-house-now/story.aspx?guid={01DA1B93-91D1-49E4-A1B1-0ACA9CE66FF4}&siteid=yahoomy
This story originally published Feb. 6 has been updated to reflect the passage of the economic stimulus bill.
Five reasons not to buy a home this year
Homes are more affordable, but don't rush -- prices won't skyrocket soon
By Amy Hoak, MarketWatch
Last update: 7:52 p.m. EST Feb. 27, 2009
Comments: 502
This story originally published Feb. 6 has been updated to reflect the passage of the economic stimulus bill.
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- The unemployment rate is creeping up and home prices keep falling: Two great reasons why it might be best to put your home buying plans on hold.
After all, your own job could be the next on the chopping block. Plus, why not wait until home prices have reached their bottom and you can safely buy knowing your new house won't depreciate like a car coasting out of the dealership?
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/five-reasons-buying-home-2009/story.aspx?guid=%7B22185FBD%2D7F44%2D4A49%2DA604%2DA29D4225E122%7D&dist=TNMostRead
Latest News and Opinion About Real Estate Around The USA.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tough Time For Home Owners.
Time is getting tough for home owners all over the US. I have gathered some useful links and articles from legitimate and reliable sources for my BLOG posting today.
1) Consumer Alert - Advance Fees and Loan Modification Services
First on this list is the article and useful links on the California Department of Real Estate web site:
MORTGAGE QUICK LINKS
Using the Services of a Mortgage Broker
Predatory Lending Prevention
Who do you call?
Avoiding Foreclosure
Advance Fees/Loan Modification
http://www.dre.ca.gov/mlb_adv_fees.html
2) Housing Market Facts:
National Association Of Realtors web site offer information on
the benefits Of Owning A Home.
There are links to information on :
Housing Market Facts.
Tax Credit Facts.
Home Owners Benefits.
Market Research.
How Realtor Can Help.
Multi Media Download For Mobil Phone.
http://www.housingmarketfacts.com/
3) Mortgage Work Out Program:
California Association of Realtors web site provides help to consumers on
this page for Mortgage Workout Programs for Homeowners.
There is the information about the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan,
click here .
For consumer information sheets containing detailed information on specific programs that REALTORS® can share with their clients, please click on the appropriate link below.
. HOPE For Homeowners (H4H) (revised 2/09)
. Countrywide Financial (Bank of America)
. Citigroup, CitiMortgage
. JP Morgan Chase & Co.
. IndyMac Federal Bank, FDIC (revised 2/09)
. Federal Government Loan Modification (revised 2/09) (Participants include: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Federal Home Loan Banks, Hope Now participants, Department of the Treasury, Federal Housing Administration and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and Wells Fargo.)
http://www.car.org/legal/mortgage-workout-programs/
I hope that this helps.
Jieranai Maier
http://JieranaiMaier.com
http://JieranaiRealEstate.com
1) Consumer Alert - Advance Fees and Loan Modification Services
First on this list is the article and useful links on the California Department of Real Estate web site:
MORTGAGE QUICK LINKS
Using the Services of a Mortgage Broker
Predatory Lending Prevention
Who do you call?
Avoiding Foreclosure
Advance Fees/Loan Modification
http://www.dre.ca.gov/mlb_adv_fees.html
2) Housing Market Facts:
National Association Of Realtors web site offer information on
the benefits Of Owning A Home.
There are links to information on :
Housing Market Facts.
Tax Credit Facts.
Home Owners Benefits.
Market Research.
How Realtor Can Help.
Multi Media Download For Mobil Phone.
http://www.housingmarketfacts.com/
3) Mortgage Work Out Program:
California Association of Realtors web site provides help to consumers on
this page for Mortgage Workout Programs for Homeowners.
There is the information about the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan,
click here .
For consumer information sheets containing detailed information on specific programs that REALTORS® can share with their clients, please click on the appropriate link below.
. HOPE For Homeowners (H4H) (revised 2/09)
. Countrywide Financial (Bank of America)
. Citigroup, CitiMortgage
. JP Morgan Chase & Co.
. IndyMac Federal Bank, FDIC (revised 2/09)
. Federal Government Loan Modification (revised 2/09) (Participants include: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Federal Home Loan Banks, Hope Now participants, Department of the Treasury, Federal Housing Administration and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and Wells Fargo.)
http://www.car.org/legal/mortgage-workout-programs/
I hope that this helps.
Jieranai Maier
http://JieranaiMaier.com
http://JieranaiRealEstate.com
Monday, February 23, 2009
Dealers, dreamers see gold in California housing bust
Dealers, dreamers see gold in California housing bust
Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:23pm EST
By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's tortured real estate market has brought heartbreak and ruin, but some investors, speculators and first-time home buyers are also dreaming big and finding opportunities -- a silver lining in the Golden State's epic housing crash.
For many young couples, plummeting prices and near record-low interest rates make it possible to own a home in California for the first time.
Investors and real estate speculators, meanwhile, can snap up foreclosed properties on the cheap to sell during the next boom in California's boom-and-bust real estate cycle, a boom they believe is inevitable and possibly not far off.
"This is the buying opportunity of our lifetime," said Bruce Norris, who heads an investment group that expects to purchase some 100 homes this year in Southern California's Inland Empire region.
California -- which would be the world's eighth largest economy if it were a country -- saw a near-doubling in home sales in the fourth quarter, a pace surpassed only by Nevada's 133.7 percent growth.
But experts warn it's a dangerous game to play when nobody is really sure how low home prices will go or when they will rebound as the recession lingers, jobs dry up and residents pour out of the state in search of better prospects.
Norris concentrates on the Inland Empire of Southern California, made up mostly of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, one of the fastest-growing areas of the country during the housing boom, driven partly by immigrant families who couldn't afford pricier coastal cities.
It's now one of the hardest-hit. In the past 18 months, the median home price in Riverside and San Bernardino, pummeled by the subprime meltdown and now recording some of the highest foreclosure rates in the state, has plummeted 55 percent.
Norris Investment Group looks for homes built between 1980 and 1990, typically under 2,000 square feet (186 sq meters). Older houses come with too many maintenance "surprises," Norris says, and larger places can be tough to sell or rent in hard times.
Last month the group paid $55,000 for a foreclosed home that was worth $360,000 at the top of the market. Norris expects to spend $30,000 on repairs and rent it for $1,200 a month until the market turns around.
The group also hopes to minimize risk by owning the homes free and clear, thus accruing little debt.
"You cannot have this (low) level of pricing be permanent because it costs too much to build a home here," Norris said. "That's how you know you're making a logical decision when everything is falling around you. When you can buy a finished product someone will want to live in for $55,000, that just has to make somebody pretty wealthy someday."
'DARK MOMENTS'
Experts agree California home prices will ultimately rebound but caution that real estate investing in this economy -- the worst contraction since 1982 -- should not be undertaken by amateurs or the faint of heart.
"You have to have a pretty strong feeling about where this is all going," Stuart Gabriel, director of the Ziman Center for Real Estate at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Reuters. "This cycle is so different from prior cycles that it's very difficult to extrapolate." Continued...
"Most would argue that California is not going into the sea," he said. "On the other hand it's not totally out of the question that this particular period of weakness could extend for a while, and that means multiple years."
California's roller-coaster real estate cycles can be traced to the 1970s, when home prices tripled, ignited in part by foreign investment and the end of the gold standard following decades of explosive population growth.
Home prices plunged in the early 1980s, turned around and doubled within 10 years, slumped in the mid-1990s and then blasted off again at the end of the decade. The subprime meltdown and recession pushed them back off the cliff.
"It's a great time to buy for people who are willing to risk a little more and be optimistic when everybody else is doom and gloom," said Daren Blomquist, marketing and communications manager for RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure data service.
But he warned: "They will probably have to wait it out, possibly for several years."
Chris Twoomey and his wife Jennifer illustrate the risk underlying the perceived opportunities. They moved to California from the Midwest in 2004 to pursue acting careers and had just begun to think the dream of home ownership was out of reach when the crash came and they saw their chance.
The couple pounced in January, right after Jennifer, 39, learned she was pregnant with their first child, making an offer on a small, bank-owned home in suburban Los Angeles.
But the day after the Twoomeys' offer was accepted, Chris was called into the cafeteria at his job in a cosmetics company warehouse and laid off.
"Sometimes in our dark moments we sit around and say to ourselves, 'Look, forget the acting, forget everything, this is the time to bail' (from California). We can be doing this someplace else that's still warm but doesn't cost as much," Chris told Reuters in an interview.
"But we're sticking it out," he said. "It's perverse, but something inside of us does want to stay here. It's sort of a belief that because it is Southern California and because it is the kind of place where everybody wants to be, it will come back eventually."
(Editing by Edwin Chan and Eric Walsh)
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE51M0CT20090223
Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:23pm EST
By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's tortured real estate market has brought heartbreak and ruin, but some investors, speculators and first-time home buyers are also dreaming big and finding opportunities -- a silver lining in the Golden State's epic housing crash.
For many young couples, plummeting prices and near record-low interest rates make it possible to own a home in California for the first time.
Investors and real estate speculators, meanwhile, can snap up foreclosed properties on the cheap to sell during the next boom in California's boom-and-bust real estate cycle, a boom they believe is inevitable and possibly not far off.
"This is the buying opportunity of our lifetime," said Bruce Norris, who heads an investment group that expects to purchase some 100 homes this year in Southern California's Inland Empire region.
California -- which would be the world's eighth largest economy if it were a country -- saw a near-doubling in home sales in the fourth quarter, a pace surpassed only by Nevada's 133.7 percent growth.
But experts warn it's a dangerous game to play when nobody is really sure how low home prices will go or when they will rebound as the recession lingers, jobs dry up and residents pour out of the state in search of better prospects.
Norris concentrates on the Inland Empire of Southern California, made up mostly of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, one of the fastest-growing areas of the country during the housing boom, driven partly by immigrant families who couldn't afford pricier coastal cities.
It's now one of the hardest-hit. In the past 18 months, the median home price in Riverside and San Bernardino, pummeled by the subprime meltdown and now recording some of the highest foreclosure rates in the state, has plummeted 55 percent.
Norris Investment Group looks for homes built between 1980 and 1990, typically under 2,000 square feet (186 sq meters). Older houses come with too many maintenance "surprises," Norris says, and larger places can be tough to sell or rent in hard times.
Last month the group paid $55,000 for a foreclosed home that was worth $360,000 at the top of the market. Norris expects to spend $30,000 on repairs and rent it for $1,200 a month until the market turns around.
The group also hopes to minimize risk by owning the homes free and clear, thus accruing little debt.
"You cannot have this (low) level of pricing be permanent because it costs too much to build a home here," Norris said. "That's how you know you're making a logical decision when everything is falling around you. When you can buy a finished product someone will want to live in for $55,000, that just has to make somebody pretty wealthy someday."
'DARK MOMENTS'
Experts agree California home prices will ultimately rebound but caution that real estate investing in this economy -- the worst contraction since 1982 -- should not be undertaken by amateurs or the faint of heart.
"You have to have a pretty strong feeling about where this is all going," Stuart Gabriel, director of the Ziman Center for Real Estate at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Reuters. "This cycle is so different from prior cycles that it's very difficult to extrapolate." Continued...
"Most would argue that California is not going into the sea," he said. "On the other hand it's not totally out of the question that this particular period of weakness could extend for a while, and that means multiple years."
California's roller-coaster real estate cycles can be traced to the 1970s, when home prices tripled, ignited in part by foreign investment and the end of the gold standard following decades of explosive population growth.
Home prices plunged in the early 1980s, turned around and doubled within 10 years, slumped in the mid-1990s and then blasted off again at the end of the decade. The subprime meltdown and recession pushed them back off the cliff.
"It's a great time to buy for people who are willing to risk a little more and be optimistic when everybody else is doom and gloom," said Daren Blomquist, marketing and communications manager for RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure data service.
But he warned: "They will probably have to wait it out, possibly for several years."
Chris Twoomey and his wife Jennifer illustrate the risk underlying the perceived opportunities. They moved to California from the Midwest in 2004 to pursue acting careers and had just begun to think the dream of home ownership was out of reach when the crash came and they saw their chance.
The couple pounced in January, right after Jennifer, 39, learned she was pregnant with their first child, making an offer on a small, bank-owned home in suburban Los Angeles.
But the day after the Twoomeys' offer was accepted, Chris was called into the cafeteria at his job in a cosmetics company warehouse and laid off.
"Sometimes in our dark moments we sit around and say to ourselves, 'Look, forget the acting, forget everything, this is the time to bail' (from California). We can be doing this someplace else that's still warm but doesn't cost as much," Chris told Reuters in an interview.
"But we're sticking it out," he said. "It's perverse, but something inside of us does want to stay here. It's sort of a belief that because it is Southern California and because it is the kind of place where everybody wants to be, it will come back eventually."
(Editing by Edwin Chan and Eric Walsh)
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE51M0CT20090223
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