The real estate blog.

Well folks the numbers are in for April. Below is what has SOLD and closed compared to this time last year. As you will see, the numbers are the same as/or a little better this year than last year!

April 2007
# of Single Family Homes that SOLD = 221
Average Sales price = $367,482

# of Condos that SOLD = 83
Average Sales price = $233,131

April 2006
# of Single Family Homes that SOLD = 221
Average Sales price = $385,589

# of Condos that SOLD = 80
Average Sales price = $247,335

Now is a great time to buy a home! Interest rates are still low and there is plenty of inventory to select from. Feel free to search the MLS to view all of the homes available in Manatee County and surrounding areas. There are still
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C/Net reports the following:

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif.–Casey Serin is on his way to becoming the most hated blogger on the Internet.

With scant income, assets, or business savvy, the would-be real-estate mogul managed to purchase eight homes in hopes of reselling them at a profit. Along the way, he’s lost all of them, run up some $170,000 in credit card and credit line debt, and launched iamfacingforeclosure.com to share his woes with the world.

Though I have never read his blog. I would think that there must be some tidbits of information in there somewhere on his blog of things NEVER to do when it comes to flipping real estate. I would think that someone would be able to learn from his mistakes and take a few things away from reading his blog and add them to memory of things to avoid doing if you plan on making flipping real estate a career choice.
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An article in today’s Herald Tribune confirmed what I have been arguing for the last few months. Things ARE getting better in Manatee County!!

I have been saying these very same words to everyone that asks me for the past several months. I started taking note of the MLS activity every day starting on January 1 of this year and the numbers don’t lie! Things have slowly been getting better.

“Hank Fishkind, Florida’s premier economist, believes that the downturn in the residential real estate market is over.”

“I argue that housing has stopped going down,” Fishkind said. “It is weak. It is painful, but it is not going to get any worse.”

FINALLY!!!! Someone is reporting the positive side of real estate and not the negative. I am so tired of hearing
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At the heart of the housing crash debate is whether jobs will remain readily available. Housing bears argue much of America relies on construction and housing related jobs that when that industry goes crashing down, the rest of the economy will follow. Fortunately, there has been no evidence of this scenario yet. In fact, jobs have become more readily available and incomes have been rising.

I was browsing the Internet the other day when I came across this guy’s site. It’s kind of a fun distraction to create verbiage on church signs. What was more interesting was the beg-a-thon he had a link pointed to on his main page.

Curious, I went over and read a story I’ve seen written many, many times when it comes to mortgage refinances. Here’s a blurb -

This is a painful thing for me to do. It may be considered in bad taste by some (including me, to an extent) but time is running out and I don’t have any options.
We (my family) have made some bad decisions, so consequently the bank is going to foreclose on our house.

We thought our current mortgage was variable rate, and that our payments were about to skyrocket. (It turns out that this isn’t the case,
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Finding affordable houses to buy in Salt Lake City has become a daunting task. The number of homes priced below $200k has reached 19%, a huge drop from 62% just a few years ago.

For first time home buyers the answer is to extend finances or search for a condo or townhouse. Real estate investors are also feeling the squeeze since many new communities have strict rules and the supply of lower priced houses has diminished.

With more people feeling priced out of the market, rents are rising which is placing more of a squeeze on future home buyers.

The median selling price in Salt Lake County in the first quarter was $241,000, up 20 percent from the first quarter of 2006, according to the Salt Lake Board of Realtors. Selling prices in Tooele County are up a hefty
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Like most homeowners, I frequently get offers to refinance in the mail. Some of the offers are quite insidious in their packaging to get better open rates and lower “round file” rates.

Sometimes lenders will send “official” looking letters trying to replicate a government letter or even impersonate the current home owner’s bank.

On the Internet we see these ridiculous animated ads showing low payments on high loan amounts. Over the past few years the culprit was the Option ARM, a loan now called toxic.

Believe it or not, the Option ARM is still the culprit, but it’s being marketed now in an even more disturbing way. Pay attention to the image on this post. It offers a 400k loan for $1334 with “4 Flexible Payment Options.” It’s an Option ARM still being mass marketed to consumers.
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Like the show about nothing, Seinfeld, I dare say 2007 has become the Fed about nothing. No rate hikes and no rate reductions. The Fed is doing nothing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Some people call this the Goldilocks economy as the Fed has enough good news and enough bad news to call things “just right.” Every time economic reports come out that are “bad,” the counter balance soon follows. This leaves the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), an economic body that meets 10 times a year, in a conundrum of sorts. After raising short term interest rates 17 times in a row, the committee has been in a holding pattern since August of ‘06.

The interest rates this body governs are short term rates that affect things like credit cards and short term mortgage rates.
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The mainstream media is at it again. Deciding that foreclosures are the topic du jour, CNN recently released a story about the increased amount of people potentially losing their home.

Now first of all, you have to remember these foreclosure statistics refer only to homeowners entering the foreclosure process…receiving a notice of default. A homeowner that enters the process doesn’t usually lose their home. In fact, the majority, over 65%, sell, refinance or manage to get current with their payments.

Over the past nine months, the media and others have gotten it into their heads the number of adjustable rate increases will cause a slew of foreclosures. While foreclosure rates have increased, the apocalypse predicted has not yet come to fruition.

Because of this, the mainstream media needs to create their own story. Consider the following from CNN -
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As expected, the Fed held key short term interest rates steady during the FOMC meeting held today. Besides the rate decision, financial analysts always pay attention to the accompanying statement in hopes of divining some future rate direction.

In this case, the statement changed little from its previous meeting.

It said, “future policy adjustments will depend on the evolution of the outlook for both inflation and economic growth,” language identical to what the central bank said when it held rates steady in March.

Some analysts have called the current state of the economy “Goldilocks” in that it’s just right.

“It sounds like everything is on course for a Goldilocks scenario. The Fed is probably on hold for the foreseeable future,” said Brian Stine, investment strategist with Allegiant Asset Management Co. in Cleveland.”This is a transition period for the economy. There is no urgency to cut rates anytime soon.”

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