The real estate blog.

Home sales for April came out in the last two days. As usual, the message and headline presented by the media substantially deviated from the truth.

New Homes

Yesterday’s new home sales figures earned the headline, New home prices plunge, sales soar. That doesn’t sound too horrible. Prices are down, sales are up. That stands to reason. The truth is prices are down and sales are down. Let’s look at the data.

A big drop in the price of the typical new home sold in April spurred much better-than-expected sales, according to the latest government reading on the battered real estate and home building market released Thursday.

New homes sold at an annual pace of 981,000 in April, up 16.2 percent from the revised 844,000 pace in March. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast an 860,000 rate in April.
(more…)

A niche market that never seems to slow down.

_____________________

Many of us have fond childhood memories of dad loading up the station wagon or van and heading out of town for a long week-end.

For some the destination was a lakeside campsite, but for many it was the summer cottage or cabin by the lake. For others it was a Winter activity that brought with it the long-anticipated excitement of driving up to the favourite mountain and throwing open the doors to a modest old ski lodge that one could call home for the next week or so. But unless one was lucky enough to inherit dad’s cabin, the thought of purchasing one piece of recreational paradise can be daunting for most young families.

With prices still
(more…)

By FRANK GLUCK
Herald Tribune

MANATEE COUNTY — Many of Manatee’s gated communities that shut off their roads to uninvited visitors may have to become much more welcoming.

County commissioners on Tuesday directed the county attorney’s office to draft an ordinance requiring that community development district roads remain open to the public, even if they have gates.

Many of Manatee’s community development districts, or CDDs, are fenced in and have gates with security guards to limit entrance.

Click here to read the entire story.

Three-room apartment on Prague 5. Cost of 3 500 000 crones. The second floor of the nine-floor panel house. Area Velka Ohrada, Praha 5. The area of 78 meters square. The glazed balcony of 6 meters square. The cooperative property, on translation documents are submitted to a private property.

On Friday we talked about the benefits of living in condos. If that got you interested be sure to read this article about three things every home buyer should know before they purchase a condo unit.

First of all know what your monthly condo fee covers. Does it include any utilities? What are the fees or consequences if it’s late? Some condo owners have lost their homes due to missed payments or ignored fees. Condo fees are included in the debt to income ratio when calculating the mortgage. If the fees are high in comparison to surrounding communities, try to find out why. Are there additional amenities included? Are utilities calculated in?

Secondly, ask for a copy of the condo’s CC&Rs (covenants, conditions and restrictions) before you buy. Are there limitations to satellite
(more…)

Dave Ramsey is rapidly becoming one of America’s most popular financial planning personalities. While I agree with most of what he says, when it comes to mortgages I have an issue.

Ramsey is highly conservative when it comes to finances and believes people should only use 15 year fixed mortgages when it comes to buying a home. I don’t disagree with him in theory. He’s right…if your goal is to pay off the house as fast as possible. However, in reality, the 15-year fixed doesn’t appeal to very many people. Why? The payment is too high!

This is the reason there is a variety of loan programs available to help people get the best loan for their objectives, their price range and their tolerance to risk.

There is a group of people out there who agree with Dave
(more…)

There is no such a thing in Real Estate as agreeing now to agree at a later date._______________________________________
Real Estate, by its own very nature, is all black and white - you either do things, or you don’t.
There is no grey area in Real Estate, which one can find otherwise in commerce and trade. For instance, letter of intents that are widely used prior and during negotiations between corporations or between individuals and corporations have no place whatsoever in the world of real estate, where the only subject matter of trade is the exchange of titled interests in land for money. One cannot stipulate today to contract out in the future and hope the stipulation will be upheld, unless such an agreement is contained in a contract drafted and accepted today and is in the form of an option.
(more…)

In a story I read the morning from Realty Times reminded me of why I don’t like carpet. When I lived in Michigan, I didn’t mind it because in the winter time, it helped keep the house a little bit warmer than if I would of had wood or tile floors. But here in Florida, tile floors are best to have for a couple reasons. Once the sand gets in the carpet, it trashes the carpet pretty quickly and tile floors also help keep the house cooler here in a warm climate.

Here are a few excerpts from that article:

Over the last 20 years, there have been many complaints made to health agencies relating to carpeting — as they have been tested and some have contained hazardous materials.

One of the hot button issues is carpet glue used for installation. Over recent years,
(more…)

As is the custom on the Salt Lake Real Estate blog, this week’s real estate blog carnivals are being reviewed. We only review the carnivals we participate in as there are hundreds out there in the blogosphere.

First off, the Carnival of Real Estate was held by RSS Pieces (a valuable site for real estate blogging knowledge) where a beauty contest was held. Only the top six contributors were crowned. The rest of the competition was left crying in their evening gowns at the Zillow carnival recap for the also-rans.

Class was in session at the Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate where my article on the perils of mortgage loan marketing received an “A.” Also sharing that grade was Dan Melson’s article on rate comparisons. A very worthy read for anyone shopping for a mortgage.
(more…)

As the Salt Lake valley runs out of cheap land to develop, more and more high density housing projects are coming online.

Some of them are being built over existing sites, while others are conversions or complete remodels. Due to the age of some of the buildings downtown, some conversions have been turned into complete tear downs once the project starts.

For first time home buyers, condos present tremendous opportunities to find out what home ownership is about without having to make the same financial or upkeep commitments a small house would have. (For the purposes of this article, let’s also consider townhouses to be grouped into this higher density category.)

First time home buyers often fear the repair and maintenance obligations a home brings. There are constant chores like
(more…)