‘Oh yeah, in the next 2 weeks you will know of friends, neighbors, or coworkers who are looking to sell or buy a home or need a mortgage “‘Be sure to tell them about your experience working with us and call me right away with their phone numbers so that I can help them, too.
Visual shows :: True Retreat just minutes from everything! This custom built 5-7bedroom home has nothing left out! Cozy yet room for everything!Beautiful large plank hardwood floors! Gourmet Kitchen with raised barlarge enough to sit 10 stools! Breakfast/formal dining area largeenough to sit 12! Custom cabinets with corian counter tops, tile backsplash, tile floor and stainless appliances! Main level master suitefeatures sitting area. Large master bath features tile shower withrain shower head, double sinks with custom cabinets, jet tub, linencloset AND HUGE walk in closet! Upstairs features up to 5 bedroomsaccording to your needs. Presently one is used as kids den! FullBasement is finished and is a great location for home office withseparate entrance from outside AND Den or another bedroom according toyour needs! Home sits on a VERY private 3.5 acres +/- in a VERY quiteneighborhood with deer and turkey! Above ground pool may remain!Listing courtesy of: Keller Williams Metro South
Pontoon Included. Fully Furnished. Just Bring your friends, Family and Food and Call us at 205-965-8080 or 205-966-7795 and setup a private showing anytime.
Make sure you watch this month’s video! and CALL TEAMBATES, WOO HOO!
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January 2011 Market Update
The housing market is recovering. As more home buyers are taking advantage of the improved affordability conditions. With mortgage rates hovering around recent record lows and home prices having generally stabilized, economists are expecting an upward trend to a healthy and sustainable level in 2011.
Encouraging signs are showing up across the economy. Retail sales recently hit their highest level since before the recession. Key measures of small and big businesses’ optimism marched back up to prerecession levels and new claims for jobless benefits are trending lower. Together they bode well for steady job creation and improved consumer confidence which is generally manifested in more spending.
As the economy improves, current stimulus efforts by the government and the Federal Reserve Board are expected to gradually wind down. Meanwhile, serious buyers stand to benefit from historically favorable buying conditions.
Home Sales
Existing home sales resumed on an upward trend since bottoming in July. Sales activity rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.68 million in November. This was up 22% from July and 5.6% above the 4.43 million level in October, but remained 27.9% below the 6.49 million tax credit rush a year ago. As steady job creation is expected to continue, industry experts are hopeful for 2011.
Home Price
Home prices continued to stabilize. Median home prices edged up slightly to $170,600, 0.4% above year-ago levels. Distressed homes have accounted for a fairly stable market share, representing 33% of sales in November. This is on par with the 34% in October and 33% in November 2009. Historically favorable interest rates, coupled with stable home prices, continue to offer advantageous buying opportunities .
Inventory
The number of homes on the market continued to decline. Total inventory fell to 3.71 million in November from 3.86 million in October. This reflects the increasing response from buyers to improved affordability conditions. As lending standards return to historical norms and consumers become more confident about their financial situation, more people will be able to buy their first home, move up, or invest.
Affordability
Housing affordability set a new record in November. The relationship between mortgage rates, home prices, and family income is the most favorable on record for buying. The home price-to-income ratio, currently at 13.5%, continues to remain well below the historical standard. Stabilizing home prices and rising interest rates are expected to begin drawing affordability back up toward more normal levels.
Source: National Association of Realtors – October housing data released December 22.
Would you like to know the value of your home? Team Bates wants to keep you informed about the Real Estate Market. Just email us with your information and we will be happy to share that information to you with no obligation. Myteambates@gmail.com Marsha & I are dedicated to keep our clients educated and informed so that you are able to make the best decisions for you and your family. Tommy & Marsha Bates Team Bates
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Interest Rates
Mortgage rates are inching up but remain historically low. This trend continues to support home buying as it translates to significant savings for buyers. As overall economic recovery remains on track, rates are expected to rise to keep inflation in check.
Type
Rate
30 year fixed 4.77%
15 year fixed 4.13%
5/1-year ARM 3.75%
30 year average for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage 8.9%
Source: Freddie Mac, Rates as of Jan 7.
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This Month’s Video
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Topics For Home Owners, Buyers & Sellers
Use the Season to Your Home-Selling Advantage
While summer is generally known as the peak season for home sales activity, the winter can also offer great advantages for sellers – such as less competition from other sellers. With a little effort, you can use the season to your home-selling advantage.
Let’s put these ideas to work, so your home shows at its best.
Keep snow and ice at bay. If the buyer can’t get in easily, the house won’t sell. That means keeping walkways and driveways free of the frozen stuff. You want to make the home look well maintained.
Warm it up. Think warm, cozy, and homey. Before a buyer comes through, adjust the thermostat to a warmer temperature to make it welcoming. If you have a fireplace, turning it on right before the tour can create a more welcoming ambience.
Emphasize winter positives. Is your home on a bus route or some other vital service that means it’s plowed or deiced regularly in bad weather? Be sure to mention that to the buyers.
Make it festive. Even if you’re not actually going to be present, greet your buyers as if they were going to be guests at a party. Set up the dinner table with the good china and silver. Have a plate of cookies for your guests, some warm cider, or even chilled bottles of water.
Use the season to your advantage. When the holidays are over, you can still use winter wreaths and dried arrangements around the door to spark interest. In the winter, with the leaves off the trees, you might also have a nice view that isn’t as apparent in the spring and summer months.
Source: msn.com
Contact us,
TEAM BATES
your local real estate experts,
for information about what’s going on in Your area.
205-965-8080
Or
205-966-7795
WE VALUE,ENCOURAGE AND APPRECIATE ALL OF YOUR COMMENTS
*
Brought to you by KW Research. For additional graphs and details, please see the This Month in Real Estate PowerPoint Report.
The opinions expressed in This Month in Real Estate are intended to supplement opinions on real estate expressed by local and national media, local real estate agents and other expert sources. You should not treat any opinion expressed on This Month in Real Estate as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of opinion. Keller Williams Realty, Inc., does not guarantee and is not responsible for the accuracy or completeness of information, and provides said information without warranties of any kind. All information presented herein is intended and should be used for educational purposes only. Nothing herein should be construed as investment advice. You should always conduct your own research and due diligence and obtain professional advice before making any investment decision. All investments involve some degree of risk. Keller Williams Realty, Inc., will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in This Month in Real Estate.
The housing market continues its uneven and gradual recovery without the aid of the tax credit. Experts believe this will be the trend moving forward. Interest rates hit another record low but have started moving back up as the overall economy improves.
Despite a less-than-expected employment report, consumers seem to be feeling brighter about the future. While the Consumer Confidence Index about the Present Situation rose only slightly, the Expectation Index showed substantial improvement. As we enter into the holiday gift-buying season, consumers are expected to be out shopping and buying more gifts for under the tree this year. Reports indicate a 13-24% increase in retail sales from last year. Consumer spending accounts for about half of all economic activity in the US; as long as consumers are spending and using debt responsibly, this is a positive indicator for economic growth.
This march back up continues to provide excellent opportunities: an ample selection of homes, affordable prices, and historically low interest rates. Experts anticipate both the economy and the housing market will continue on a path to a complete recovery.
Home Sales
Home sales dropped slightly in October, compared with the previous month, despite a temporary moratorium on foreclosures, which have recently represented more than one third of sales activity. Sales were up 15% from July when the tax credit expiration caused a drop-off in sales. The most significant indicator of a market rebound, however, appears to be the October pending sales report. A 10.4% increase in pending sales, which measures homes under contract, signals stronger home sales activity in the coming months as the homes under contract close.
Home Price
Home prices have shown considerable stability when compared with the previous several years. October’s median home price declined slightly, down less than 1% from the previous month and year. A recent study shows an increased interest in smaller homes. Smaller homes often mean smaller price tags, depending on location.While the market currently provides many opportunities for buyers, sellers look forward to the general trending upward of home price as the market’s stability without government support grows deeper roots.
Inventory
There are fewer homes on the market. Total inventory fell to 3.86 million in October from 4 million in September. The month’s supply* of homes on the market fell to 10.5 months. While still at a relatively high level, months of inventory has shrunken substantially since July’s 12.5 months. As lending standards continue to loosen and return to historical norms, more people will be able to buy their first home, move up, or invest and take advantage of the abundant opportunities in the current market – including historically low interest rates, highly affordable prices, and an ample but shrinking selection of homes.
* Month’s supply of inventory measures how many months it will take to sell all the homes that are for sale, if no new homes come on the market and buyers continue to buy at the same pace or rate.
Affordability
Housing is at record affordability levels. Prospective home buyers stand to benefit from the lowest mortgage rates in decades, as well as advantageous home prices. The home price-to-income ratio, 13.5% in October, continues to remain well below the historical standard. Stabilizing home prices and rising interest rates are anticipated to begin drawing affordability back up toward more normal levels.
Source: National Association of Realtors – October housing data released November 23.
Interest Rates
Mortgage rates hit another record low of 4.17% on November 11 after which they rose to close to 4.4% for the remainder of the month. Historically low rates have contributed to real savings for buyers who will continue to realize those savings for as long as they own the home.As overall economic recovery gains traction, rates must rise to keep inflation in check. Industry economist Lawrence Yun anticipates rates to be between 5.4% and 6% by the end of 2011.
Type
Rate
30 year fixed
4.46%
15 year fixed
3.81%
5/1-year ARM
3.25%
30 year average for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage
8.9%
Source: Freddie Mac, Rates as of December 2.
This Month’s Video
Topics For Home Owners, Buyers & Sellers
Prime Time to Buy
Homes Have Never Been More Affordable
For most individual home buyers, there are only a few factors that really matter:
• Can I afford this home?
• Is it a good investment?
• Does it meet my family’s needs?
So it’s a bit surprising that the most important housing statistic has gone largely unreported: homes have never been more affordable. Affordability, measured by the median mortgage payment on the current median-priced home ($171,000) as a percentage of the median household income ($62,141), is lower than it’s been in a generation. The chart below shows affordability at a record level, having significantly improved since the height of the recent housing boom in 2006.
Sources: National Association of Realtors, KW Research
Contact me,
your local real estate expert,
for information about what’s going on in our area.
Brought to you by KW Research. For additional graphs and details, please see the This Month in Real Estate PowerPoint Report.
The opinions expressed in This Month in Real Estate are intended to supplement opinions on real estate expressed by local and national media, local real estate agents and other expert sources. You should not treat any opinion expressed on This Month in Real Estate as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of opinion. Keller Williams Realty, Inc., does not guarantee and is not responsible for the accuracy or completeness of information, and provides said information without warranties of any kind. All information presented herein is intended and should be used for educational purposes only. Nothing herein should be construed as investment advice. You should always conduct your own research and due diligence and obtain professional advice before making any investment decision. All investments involve some degree of risk. Keller Williams Realty, Inc., will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in This Month in Real Estate.
Multibillionaire hedge fund operator John Paulson talks bonds, stocks and the value in buying now.
In an article on Forbes’ blog, columnist Robert Lenzer reported on a recent appearance made by multibillionaire hedge fund operator and investment genius, John Paulson. Speaking to a packed crowd at New York’s University Club, Paulson addressed today’s economic landscape and touched on inflation, the bond market, equities and gold, and made several predictions about the next two years. [Read the full story here].
He also made final parting remarks on the state of the housing market. Noting that this is the best time in 50 years to buy a home, Paulson advised those listening to issue 30 year mortgages to buy a home as “your debt and interest payments get locked in a record lows, while the price of your home will rise.”
“If you don’t own a home buy one. If you own one home, buy another one, and if you own two homes buy a third and lend your relatives the money to buy a home.”
Help your clients understand the conditions that make NOW the right time to buy by sending the 7 Reasons Why Now is a Great Time to Buy eBook.
Download it from the MyKW Marketing Tab.
Source: http://blogs.forbes.com/robertlenzner/2010/09/27/john-paulson-sell-bonds-buy-stocks-double-digit-inflation-coming/
Nov7 – Why Buy Now on Forbes.com
A growing number of metropolitan areas are experiencing price gains from a year ago, while most states have seen healthy gains in home sales from the first quarter of 2009, according to the latest survey by the National Association of Realtors®.
In the first quarter, 91 out of 152 metropolitan statistical areas1 showed higher median existing single-family home prices in comparison with the first quarter of 2009, including 29 with double-digit increases; three were unchanged and 58 metros had price declines. In the fourth quarter 67 areas reported gains and 123 were down, while only 30 MSAs in third quarter of 2009 showed annual price increases.
The national median existing single-family price was fairly flat at $166,100, down 0.7 percent from the first quarter 2009 price of $167,300. The median is where half sold for more and half sold for less. Distressed homes, which typically are discounted by 15 percent relative to traditional homes, accounted for 36 percent of first quarter sales.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said stabilizing home prices are encouraging. “This flattening in home prices is something we’ve been seeing in all of the home price measures lately, and quite clearly in this metro area price report,” he said. “The tax credit has been very effective in drawing down excess inventory, with about one million additional sales resulting directly from the stimulus.”
Total state existing-home sales, including single-family and condo, were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate2 of 5.14 million in the first quarter, down 14.0 percent from a surge of 5.97 million in the fourth quarter, which was driven by the initial tax credit. However, first quarter sales remain 11.4 percent above the 4.61 million-unit level in the first quarter of 2009. “Year-ago comparisons are more meaningful in this report due to sales swings from the tax credit,” Yun said.
Sales increased from a year ago in 44 states and the District of Columbia; 31 states and D.C. saw double-digit gains while two were unchanged and four were down.
NAR President Vicki Cox Golder, owner of Vicki L. Cox & Associates in Tucson, Ariz., said there’s been a change in market psychology. “Buyer confidence is back, and home buyers have long-term views. The typical buyer plans to stay in their home for 10 years, so we’ve put the flipping mentality behind us and most people see housing for what it is – shelter that provides social benefits and is also a good long-term investment,” Golder said.
According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate on a 30-year conventional fixed-rate mortgage was 5.00 percent in the first quarter, up slightly from a record low 4.92 percent in the fourth quarter; it was 5.06 percent in the first quarter of 2009.
Golder said even with some recent easing of mortgage credit, separate surveys3 show the housing market continues to be constrained by mortgage issues. “One-third of NAR members report the most important factor limiting potential clients has been difficulty in obtaining a mortgage,” she said.
“In addition, 11 percent of Realtors® in the first quarter report a contract was cancelled because an appraisal came in less than the price negotiated between a buyer and seller, and another 16 percent report a contract had to be renegotiated because of a low appraisal,” Golder said. “As a result, the housing recovery isn’t as strong as it could be. We are discussing these and other concerns with government and industry leaders at a real estate summit currently under way here in Washington.” The three-day summit began today at the Realtors® Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo.
In the condo sector, metro area condominium and cooperative prices – covering changes in 55 metro areas – showed the national median existing-condo price was essentially unchanged at $170,700 in the first quarter, down 0.1 percent from the first quarter of 2009. Twenty-four metros showed increases in the median condo price from a year earlier and 31 areas had declines; in the fourth quarter 11 metros were up, and only four metros experienced annual price gains in third quarter of 2009.
Yun said there were solid single-family price gains in a variety of metro areas. “We see double-digit price increases in the San Francisco Bay region, and in smaller metros in the Northeast,” he said. “Price gains in some Midwestern markets are not very meaningful because of comparisons to very high levels of distressed homes that were sold at huge discounts a year ago.”
Regionally, the median existing single-family home price in the Northeast rose 9.0 percent to $256,300 in the first quarter from the same quarter in 2009. Existing-home sales in the Northeast fell 17.7 percent in the first quarter to a level of 850,000 but are 19.7 percent higher than a year ago.
In the Midwest, the median existing single-family home price slipped 0.8 percent to $130,600 in the first quarter from a year ago. Existing-home sales in the Midwest dropped 17.3 percent in the first quarter to a pace of 1.13 million but are 10.8 percent above the first quarter of 2009.
In the South, the median existing single-family home price was $148,200 in the first quarter, up 1.1 percent from the first quarter of 2009. Existing-home sales in the South fell 14.6 percent in the first quarter to an annual rate of 1.89 million but are 10.7 percent higher than a year ago.
The median existing single-family home price in the West was $210,200 in the first quarter, which is 8.3 percent below a year ago. Existing-home sales in the West declined 6.8 percent in the first quarter to an annual rate of 1.27 million but are 8.3 percent higher than the first quarter of 2009.
The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.1 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.
The USDA Direct Mortgage Loan Program is a federal program offered through the United States Department of Agriculture. Rural Housing through the USDA program provides a number of homeownership opportunities to rural Americans, as well as programs for home renovation and repair. This is an excellent product and benefit for those individuals that qualify. Rural Housing also offers 100% financing opportunities for those who qualify.
Rural Housing loans are now easier to qualify and are a financially secure option for home financing regardless of your situation.
There are several advantages to using USDA ’s Home Loan Program.
•100% Financing
•No Monthly Mortgage Insurance(MI)
•Low Mortgage Interest Rates
•Low Closing Costs
•Zero Down Payment.
•Easy Credit Qualifying
•Never a Pre-payment Penalty
Posted by Tommy & Marsha Bates 
