Pending Home Sales Rising

In addition to watching our mls system and looking at a lot of homes around town, I get a LOT of email and blog updates to help keep an eye on the real estate market. While I firmly believe there is no way for anyone to give a "one size fits all" answer to the market, it is interesting to watch trends. In my opinion, you need to look closely at a specific neighborhood before making a sound decision on buying or selling. I am enclosing material from an email that was sent to me this morning.

Pending Home Sales on a Record Roll

WASHINGTON (September 1, 2009) Contract activity for pending home sales has risen for six straight months, a pattern not seen in the history of the index since it began in 2001, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in July, increased 3.2 percent to 97.6 from a reading of 94.6 in June, and is 12.0 percent higher than July 2008 when it was 87.1. The index is at the highest level since June 2007 when it was 100.7.

NAR's Housing Affordability Index stood at 158.5 in July, below the peak set in April but is still 36.0 percentage points higher than a year ago. The HAI is a broad measure of housing affordability using consistent values and assumptions over time, which examines the relationship between home prices, mortgage interest rates and family income.

Not all areas and price ranges are seeing the same fluctuations in pricing, availability and sales. If there is an area you are interested in or if you have seen a "for sale" sign that you want to know more about, "Just Call Nick!" I'll be glad to help...

More Down Payment Assistance info.

Recently, I wrote about some of the potential changes coming up for down payment assistance. My friend Tammy wrote an article and posted this video yesterday with some more information. I thought it was pretty interesting.

Some new "Buy and Bail" info

I have talked to many people recently about one area of major concern in the lending industry. The term is "Buy and Bail" and it can have an effect on all of us. On Wednesday of last week, I received an email from a friend at Wells Fargo that talked about some of the coming changes dealing with people that want to buy another home while keeping their current home. The problem, in case you are not aware, is where people that purchased a home at the top of the market and are now "upside down," go out and buy another home, at a lower price and then "give the keys" back to the lender for the original home, allowing it to be foreclosed instead of the owner fulfilling their obligation.
Part of the new guidelines are as follows.

The new Fannie Mae BUY & BAIL policy states that a buyer planning to retain and rent out their current residence must: 1) prove 30% equity in the property, 2) provide a copy of the new lease agreement, and 3) provide a copy of the renter's security account. If these criteria are not met, rental income may not be used to qualify and a reserve requirement is also added. Buyers who plan on keeping their current residence as a second home must qualify on both payments and show 6 months reserves for both house payments.

If this is "clear as mud" to you, please feel free to "Just Call Nick" for a better explanation. As always, I will be happy to discuss current market conditions and some of the "hot buttons" in the industry right now.

Turning the Corner?

We have discussed, at length, the real estate market and the fact that the media has basically been telling people NOT to buy real estate for quite some time. Just as the market had been "over-hyped" into an unhealthy frenzy a couple of years ago, I have felt the same thing has been happening over the past several months, or so.
Recently, I have seen a couple of articles that have mentioned the fact that, gasp, some homes are actually selling! I also had an opportunity to meet with some nice folks at one of the large news channels recently to discuss a new series that will be talking about real estate. Wow, imagine that, they are actually going to promote real estate! There will be television commercials and featured space on their web site for several different areas.
Will this be enough to get people off of the fence? Are they really waiting, as some have suggested, for the media to tell them it s "ok" to buy real estate again? Only time will tell but it looks like a step in a new direction to me. Let's watch.. In fact, check back soon for a special announcement! :-)

Arizona's Priciest Properties

While I sometimes disagree with Catherine Reagor of the AZ Republic, I found this video of the valley's most expensive homes to be very interesting and well done.

There was also an interesting piece tracking the sales of million dollar + homes since 1998.
The growth of these sales is pretty impressive. I can recall a time where million dollar sales were a really big deal in Arizona.. Happens all the time these days..

Want to know the recent values of homes in YOUR neighborhood? Would you like me to send list of multi-million dollar home to you via email? It's easy.. "Just Call Nick!"

More Market Casualties

Apparently, Homes Illustrated Magazine is one of the latest casualties of the current market. In an email I received yesterday, they said; "This market has been hard on all of us, both you our customers and our industry as a whole."
I'm not 100% convinced that the market had as much to do with their decline as did "marketing" practices in our business. While they have a web site, the focus on an expensive print format was something that is not nearly effective today as it was many years ago. I had ad space in their publication for many years but decided, 5-6 years ago that web based advertising had a much better result for our clients. Just about any serious buyer begins their search on the web today. Our listings pages on sites like realtor.com and azcentral.com are able to reach a far better audience. Like magazines, many agents and mortgage companies are "folding" like crazy. In just about any industry, change is good. I promise to be around for a long time. :-) For help or advise.. "Just Call Nick!"