Bad Credit Online Magazine - Daily News and Advice on Credit, Debt and Mortgage : Real Estate
Real Estate
March 10, 2006
Manhattan condo prices up 20 percent
Can you believe this? A square foot in Manhattan now goes for $951 green American dollars. Wait, may be it isn't that bad, it is under a million bucks for 1000 square foot condo with a view, hopefully, and Manhattan zip code ..., is there such a thing as Manhattan zip code? Must be, otherwise how would people know that you own condo in Manhattan, not Bronx thank you very much ... nothing against Bronx by the way. But can you really have a view for that little?
Posted at 02:28 PM
Twin Cities real estate sales keep falling
February marks the fifth consecutive month with the Minneapolis - St. Paul real estate sales diving further. More worrisome is that February median home price was lower than January median price.
That is the trend seen in many Midwestern metro areas, including Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, St. Louis and others.
Posted at 02:02 PM
February 14, 2006
Condo for sale market is cooling off significantly
Condo for sale signs are still everywhere but the appreciation has slowed down. Developers have simply overbuilt. Here is nice condo for sale market summary based on 5 down town markets.
Posted at 01:39 PM
December 29, 2005
Home sales dipped in November, the prices decreased as well
Many blaming slower sales which are only 1.7% below of October sales, and lower prices which are 1.4% below of October prices, on rising interest rates. It is not the case, we think. Simply it is a seasonal adjustment when many homeowners already moved as school season and warmer weather have much more influence than a small increase in mortgage rates which are still very low. Interest rates will really start hurting when they will go over 7 percent for a 30 year fixed mortgage and stay that way for continuous period of time, at least 2 - 4 months.
According to Freddie Mac, the national average rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage was 6.33% in November, up from 6.07% in October. Let's round up these rates to 6.375% and 6.00% respectively.
Consider these numbers: for $200,000 mortgage you pay $1,247.74 at the interest rate of 6.375%, and $1,199.10 at 6.00%. That is difference of $48.64 a month which is not going to stop too many buyers.
For $300,000 mortgage, the same difference would be 4 cents short of $73. People assuming $300,000 mortgage are not bothered with $73 increase.
Another reason as we see it, the potential pool of buyers has simply shrunken. It is not sustainable and needs to be replenished by new college grads, retired and relocated military personnel, and of course, immigrants. The frequent movers may have gotten tired from packing every 2, 3 years.
So this is simply an extended break. The sales will come back.
Posted at 11:20 AM
December 14, 2005
Orange county has the second most expensive real estate
Orange county trails only to San Francisco in home prices. Located on Pacific Ocean coast between Los Angeles and San Diego, Orange County median home price is $710,700. The national median price is partly $215,900.
San Francisco is ahead but not by far, with median price of $726,900.
The home sales are still pretty strong as many people like this coastal region, and the area job market remains very strong.
Posted at 02:10 PM
December 08, 2005
Daytona Beach condos are still selling hot
Just as to negate my previous post, this one comes from the local paper - Florida's "independent voice of Volusia & Flagler counties".
According to it, "many area developers and Realtors, some of whom are investors themselves, remain bullish about the future and discount any hint of gloom or doom, even as the inventory of houses and condos keeps going up sharply."
Hey, I am just one-man opinion and I think it is a wishful thinking on the part of these developers and realtors. Still, some of what some of them are saying, make sense somewhat, so here it is:
"I think it's a bunch of hogwash," said Doug Cook of Cook Development, which is now working on the third of five planned luxury oceanfront condominiums in Daytona Beach Shores. "The demand is still very strong," he stressed, noting that "we normally sell out our buildings before they break ground . . . This area is still a bargain."
Mr. Cook's condos go from mid-$500,000 to $2 million, which is not a bargain in my humble opinion. One thing I can agree is that "he isn't worried about interest rates going up because 65 percent of his customers are second-home buyers who pay cash." Cook also says that he "weeds out" those who won't close, so very few flippers are able to buy his units.
Well, this guy makes sense, I only hope he has enough second-home buyers who can afford to pay $1,000,000 cash for hurricane prone Florida and consider this a bargain. Unless Daytona doesn't get hit too much by mother nature. Another question is how many more Cooks are banking on the same bargain hunters in Florida and elsewhere?
The others point on the fact that many of the expensive condos and homes are bought by foreigners from Europe and Latin America. Also, area's population will likely double in 20 years sustaining the housing demand.
I think that there are so many properties built in Florida already, it can accommodate most of foreigners who wish to buy and live there. Or may be I am wrong. As far as doubling population in 20 years, that is not that much for such long time period.
We shall see...
Posted at 02:35 PM
Real estate investors don't buy very much these days in some areas
In the hottest markets where real estate still seems unstoppable and expensive, many investors are taking hard look and reevaluating their positions. Many are simply getting away and if this trend continues, it can speed up significantly the cooling of the housing market.
This trend is very recent and has not been reflected across the nation, but in such markets as Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix, San Diego and Washington, D.C., where bidding wars for new condos were common, with people sleeping on the streets the night before the sales office opens, much fewer people are competing to buy properties as an investment, according to the local real-estate brokers and housing analysts.
The seminars on how to buy and profit by investing in real estate just recently filled up instantly with people eagerly waiting for the next one. Now they are half empty and many "real estate academies" are advertising heavily to attract new students and subsequent clients.
In San Diego, cancellation rates for new condominium units climbed 47% in the third quarter over the second with many investors backing out of pre-construction properties they bought, according to the San Diego County Building Industry Association .
In many markets, investors own large percentage of properties. Some individual investors own 10 properties and more, and are quite stretched financially waiting to sell. As the unsold inventory grows, prices can decline somewhat. Many then will be forced to sell fast and for less, to minimize their losses, further accelerating price decline.
The real estate markets where investors bought the most through September are:
Redding, Visalla-Tulare-Porteville, Fresno of California with approximate investor shares at 22%, 21%, 21% respectively, followed by Boise City of Idaho and Medford-Ashland of Oregon at 20.5% for both. The list goes on ... , see the page bottom.
Posted at 01:31 PM
December 07, 2005
New conforming mortgage rates will have an immediate effect
The very high 2006 conforming mortgage limits are just what the real estate market needs as it should lead to an increase in real estate and mortgage transactions.
The increase for the conforming loans from last year limit is quite bold and dramatic. For a single family home new conforming mortgage is $417,000, up from $359,651 in 2005. That is $57,350 or whopping 16 percent increase. That's the biggest increase since 1979 which was 16.2 percent. Compare it to the following conforming mortgage increases for two previous years:
In 2005, the increase was $25,951, to $359,651 from $333,700 in 2004, just under 8 percent.
In 2004, the increase was $11,000, to $333,700 from $322,700 in 2003, just under 3.5 percent.
Conforming mortgage is the one that conforms to the limits and guidelines set by main secondary agencies, the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC), also known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, respectively. More importantly, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide liquidity by buying conforming mortgages from the lenders, so the lenders can fund new loans. These conforming mortgages then bundled in different portfolios and sold to investors.
Jumbo mortgages are either held in lenders portfolios or sold to private or institutional investors. The investors have very strict guidelines since they don't want to tolerate much of a risk, so it has been traditionally more difficult to qualify for jumbo loans than for conforming ones. That is why jumbo carries higher interest rate.
By setting those conforming mortgage limits, government will hopefully revitalize recently sluggish real estate and mortgage markets in several ways.
Another important and often overlooked benefit of such high conforming mortgage limit, is that super-jumbo loans are practically thing of the past. Super-jumbo is usually referred to the mortgage amount over $650,000 and would carry even higher rate than regular jumbo, by up to .375%. Now many lenders pushed jumbo mortgage up to rather considerable $1,500,000 amount. Anything above that will carry interest rate hike from .375 to .50%. So unless you are buying something like this, you don't have to worry about super-jumbo mortgage rates. And if you are, well, then you don't worry about interest rates, period.
It will make even greater impact in those regions where home prices haven't increased as high as in California and New York as more homes will fall under conforming limits categories.
It is also important for those who want to buy homes without a down payment as lenders look less favorably on jumbo purchases with no money down.
Refinance market will have a positive bounce as borrowers will try to get conforming rates for their previously jumbo mortgages. How big the refinancing volume will be, is difficult to judge, but it can get quite large because many bought homes on the temporary hikes of the interest rates which have been jumping up and down for the last 12 months.
In addition, many jumbo borrowers who opted for adjustable rate mortgages will certainly look into fixed conforming mortgage products. Needless to say, interest rates going down, would give refinancing market a nice spark.
Large number of borrowers will be refinancing and digging further into home equities, as many stopped at $359,000 because that was the conforming mortgage limit. Now they can take more cash out all the way up to $417,000 giving themselves a nice free debt consolidation loan or a large extra chunk of spendable cash.
Second mortgage limit was raised to $208,500, giving people with enough home equity a significant boost.
FHA loan limits were raised accordingly, with base limit at $200,160 and high cost limit at $362,790 for a single family home, greatly expanding possibilities for the first time buyers, buyers with somewhat bad credit and buyers who have little or no down payment, to obtain excellent interest rates.
Posted at 01:09 PM
December 05, 2005
The most and the least affordable metro areas
Indianapolis took the first place as the most affordable among major metros with populations over 500,000.
Astonishing 89.7 percent of new and existing homes sold in the third quarter with median price of $125,000. The area’s median income was $64,000.
And the least affordable was Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, California. A puny 2.4 percent of all homes sold were affordable with the median sales price of $495,000. The median income stood at $54,500.
California continuous to be the most expensive, with four out of five least affordable metro areas - Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, followed by San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos and Stockton. New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J. was the only non-California entry in top five costliest areas.
Posted at 04:17 PM
Where condo market is hot
Last year US median condo price exceeded that of a single family house, and the condo market still sizzles this year, albeit not every where. According to the Real Estate Journal, the median condo price reached $213,600 last September, up 9 percent from a year ago.
New York and Florida's Fort Lauderdale are the two hottest condo market with respective price gains of 156 and 149 percent from 2000 to 2005. In Fort Lauderdale most desirable districts, condo sells from $425 to $500 per square foot. In New York, you can find condos for about $940 per foot. That is cool $940,000 for a 1,000 square foot hole. You may think that it has golden faucets and platinum towel hooks, but no.
The NY and Ft. Lauderdale follow by San Diego, Miami and Washington DC. Interesting that Las Vegas didn't make top five.
Interesting that Las Vegas didn't make top five.
Posted at 12:03 AM
November 29, 2005
New home sales set record high, but ...
not everyone is overly excited about it. The important factor, the prices of new homes have flattened. What it means is that builders having smaller profits as cost of labor and building materials has risen significantly, will likely build even more units, trying to compensate for each unit price decrease. And eventually, it will lead to even lower prices. Sounds wrong? Will see ...
More importantly, the record sales were due mostly to the increased sales in less expensive South of the country, where number of new homes sold, jumped roughly 27 percent from October 2004 to October 2005. Western region also registered higher numbers by about 9 percent.
However, Midwest and Northeast sales dropped by about 19.8 percent and 16.5 percent respectively.
So, you have to read the headlines with a grain of salt. I think that many areas have been simply overbuilt. Is there still demand for the housing? Sure, you can see the huge number of rental vacancies and realize, that many people are still buying. But to deny that there has been an overall slowdown in housing market is quite silly. And this slowdown still have some room to grow, in my opinion.
Posted at 05:03 PM
Florida real estate prices are strong in October
Florida real estate values shot up quite higher last October compare with the year ago. Not even hurricanes could stop it. The state's median home price rose to $241,000. A year ago, in 2004, it was about $188,800. It is hefty 28 percent increase. Interesting enough, in October 2000 the same median home price was $116,000.
On the other side, sale prices dropped a bit compare with September, when the median price was $247,800. Also the number of sold houses fell from 16,844 homes sold a year ago, to 16,029 existing single-family homes sold last month, meaning a higher unsold inventory of homes. More on Florida real estate is here ...
Posted at 04:40 PM
November 08, 2005
Toll Brothers cuts 2006 forecast
I hate being the bearer of bad news, and I never like to say "I told you so", but Toll Brothers just announced that they won't meet the company 2006 goals due to "fewer than expected selling communities and weakened demand in several markets."
The question that begged to be asked is, do those people forget the simple supply and demand formula? Do they think that they can build indefinitely and people will continue to buy? Almost every one whom I know is either buying rental properties or, better yet, has become a general contractor. And few are into condo conversion.
I wrote on October 11th about quite massive insider selling in home building companies. The insiders were dumping stocks with alarming consistency over a rather prolonged period of time. Toll Brothers was the featured company, by the way.
The rest of home building stocks has followed, but as you can see, they still have a long way to go, and that is down.
Depressing ..., I will try to focus on more positive news ...
Posted at 12:34 PM
November 07, 2005
Pending home sales index is the second all time high
Pending home sales index is an important indicator for the health of real estate. Based on September contracts, it is only slightly below the all time high reached in August. The index is based on the pending sales, meaning under contract but not yet closed. Closing usually takes 1 to 2 months from the date of the contract because the buyer needs to obtain financing and perform inspection.
Posted at 02:54 PM
Real estate price break for celebrities is the latest marketing tool
Will you buy your condo if the would be next door neighbor is Mickey Rourke or Leonardo DiCaprio? How about Jessica Simpson or Naomi Campbell? Hmm, Naomi Campbell might just do it for me.
Developers around the country try to lure celebrities with nice discounts. Then hopefully an average Joe with enough dough will jump in. You need just to match the right celeb with the right town. From Dan Marino in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Billy Crystal in Long Island, New York, condo builders and marketers are banking, this is one of the tricks that will help to ride the inevitable real estate slow down.
It goes way back though, "in 1912, developer Douglas Elliman (who started the eponymous New York brokerage firm) gave Nobel Peace Prize winner Elihu Root about 50% off the rent to move into 998 Fifth Avenue, one of the city's first fancy apartment buildings. More recently, Donald Trump says he gave Johnny Carson a discount on an apartment in Trump Tower in 1983 "because it was good for the building."
Posted at 02:33 PM
November 02, 2005
Ohio real estate market has high inventories in some areas
Ohio real estate market has done relatively well in the last few years, but now Central Ohio real estate sales appears to be slowing.
There are many homes sitting on the market longer than usual and sellers are lowering the prices. Home for sale were averaging 82 days on the market in September, up 7.9 percent from 76 days a year ago.
Posted at 12:00 PM
Some Manhattan real estate sizzled in the third quarter
Manhattan condos median prices jumped by 22 percent compared to a year ago, and were at $814,000. Northern Manhattan coops median price surged staggering 54 percent to $470,000, and 50 percent for condominiums to $349,000.
In the same time, certain condos and coops declined in price. Overall median prices for coops were down 2 percent to $650,000, notwithstanding Northern Manhattan coops huge jump.
Rest of the report in Inman Real Estate news.
Posted at 11:48 AM
October 31, 2005
Boston area real estate has cooled down considerably
Boston real estate prices have gone down considerably since spring, with many listed at 10 percent below of what very comparable single homes and condos sold just several months ago. Main factors are rising interest rates, fuel prices and slower than expected job market.
Many properties are staying on the market long enough to push sellers to cut the price more aggressively. Boston real estate market was very hot for an extended period of time, as the rest of the country.
Posted at 06:09 PM
October 28, 2005
Many military bases marked for closure are hottest real estate properties
The closure of military bases is very painful in some places with jobs lost and flow of spendable cash greatly diminished. But others have real estate developers waiting in the wings to jump on what in some places is considered the hottest property. Certain towns actually ask to close Army and Naval bases within their limits so they can develop the land.
In California, the city of Concord located about 20 miles from Oakland, did ask federal officials to close down the Concord Naval Weapons Station, hoping to develop the land. The Defense Department agreed, and now the roughly 5,200 acre property gets every one excited.
In Illinois, the northern Chicago suburb of Glenview redeveloped Naval Air Base that was closed in 1995 into sprawling new mini suburb called Glen. Now in 2005 Glen has one of the most expensive real estate in the state with single homes going for well over a million dollars. It has beautiful shopping mall, several museums and parks.
More on some of the hottest real estate
Posted at 12:18 AM
October 23, 2005
The guru of real estate investing is getting rid off his U.S. real estate holdings, should you pay attention?
The Warren Buffett of real estate is "methodically selling off his U.S. real estate holdings". Tom Barrack, the Chairman, and CEO of Colony Capital thinks that "there's too much money chasing too few good deals, with too much debt and too few brains." Pretty harsh, isn't it, he goes on saying the amateurs are going to get trampled. The seasoned pros should watch out before being taken down with them.
Remember Mr. Buffett telling everyone who cared to listen, how he didn't understand internet and technology stock lunacy and refused to buy them for his funds. Many shareholders got upset and he even apologized for missing some opportunities, many laughed that old man couldn't comprehend the stock market changes, but in the end, when bubble broke, Warren Buffet was the one laughing last.
Going back to Tom Barrack, I can't help but quote him some more - "I feel totally safe playing polo on a field full of pros. But when amateurs are all over the field, someone can get killed. They have more guts than brains. They charge after every ball and don't know when to hold back."
Interesting enough, Mr. Barrak thinks that the rising cost of labor and construction materials is the main accelerating factor, that will bring a real slowdown in real estate. He points out that construction costs have gone up 20 percent just in the last nine months, due to shortage of qualified labor and prices on lumber and oil. Oil is needed for pretty much everything from plastic piping to insulation to roof shingles.
Posted at 12:08 AM
October 11, 2005
Massive insider selling in the homebuilding stocks signals real "real estate" slowdown?
Since the beginning of this year many CEOs and other insiders have been dumping their shares. Overall, the insiders from the 10 largest residential builders sold close to staggering one billion worth of their companies stock.
Leading the way was the CEO of Toll Brother, Robert Toll, who so far has unloaded about $220 millions of his stock holdings. Another Toll, Bruce, who is the company director, sold just under $159 millions worth of stock.
The stock meanwhile is around $38, down from $58.67 in mid June.
The other home builders where insiders have been selling very actively are DR Horton, Centex and Ryland Group. Ryland insiders sold almost 50 percent of their total holdings. Company stock that touched $83.25 just several weeks ago is trading almost 25% lower.
Interesting caveat is that many shares sold, were hold indirectly, by spouses and various trusts. With those who see what is coming, it is high time for an average Joe to become extra cautious.
Posted at 03:54 PM
October 06, 2005
Is real estate market in U.S. losing some steam?
Some people certainly think so. Consider the following points:
- in Manhattan, the average sale price fell almost 13 percent in the third quarter; the amount of time it took to sell a home was also up 30.4 percent over the previous year
- in Fairfax County, Virginia, near Washington, the number of homes on the market rose nearly 50 percent from August 2004, to August of this year
- in the Boston suburb of Brookline, Massachusetts, where typical three-bedroom houses cost about $1 million, the inventory of homes for sale has increased in just the past few weeks
- in the San Francisco area, number of homes for sale has increased 16 percent in the past year
This has happened in the last two years, and each time real estate market would bounce back with the vengeance. This time, however, the slowdown could be for real. The reasons are the highest cost of fuel in decades and higher mortgage rates. Add to this homeowners who expect to make $100,000 in 6 months and ask exuberant prices, and more cautious buyers who refuse to pay them, and that explains why certain people think that housing market is about to cool off considerably.
Also read real estate bubble analysis from CEPR.
Posted at 09:50 PM
September 30, 2005
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger supports home ownership
The good governor told the California Building Industry Association (CBIA) which claims on its website to be "The Voice of Housing in California", that the cost of housing is way too high and reforms are needed to "remove the barriers that drive up housing costs for all Californians", whatever it means.
CBIA wholeheartedly agreed with the governor and announced that it already diligently working on removing those barriers. You can find few interesting things in "How government is taxing home ownership". This paper says that "it’s not unusual for the first $100,000 of a home’s cost to go to government." I wonder if Mr. Schwarzenegger agrees.
And of course the best remedy is to build more homes.
Posted at 01:00 PM
Few consumers plan to buy homes
Several years of sky high real estate prices coupled with few recent natural disasters and expensive gasoline, put a rather solid dent in consumer confidence. According to Inman, "Home-buying plans sink to 10-year low".
"Consumer confidence plunged in September to its lowest level in more than 12 years, while consumer home-buying plans also fell to 10-year lows, according to the survey. The decline in home-buying plans was due to an increasingly negative reaction to high home prices, as consumers expressed in September the least favorable assessment in nearly a quarter century."
The article goes on saying that in previous 50 years, a similar sentiment would inevitably trigger recession. Last time it happened August of 1990.
We can only add the few following points:
Wait till you see the heating bills this winter. The shortage of natural gas will be severe, since most of the gas production is the areas hit by Katrina and Rita. And we have very few facilities to handle liquified gas which can be purchased overseas and transported here.
Another point is that home ownership has become ridiculously expensive. Forget the price tags on those homes. All the side expenses are very high and will increase. With $700,000 house often come $15,000-per-year real estate tax. That is another $1,200 a month. What makes the matters worse is that these taxes often are going up every year by at least 3 percent.
Association fees have gone up very steadily, especially if heating gas is included. On of the least expensive complexes in very desirable Chicago suburb boast monthly assessment of $330. The 2 bedroom condo there sells for about $190,000.
So there is no surprise in the Inman story.
Posted at 12:31 PM
September 18, 2005
California real estate buyers spend too much on their mortgages
The average single home price in California was $522,590 as of last May. If you think this is high, consider that San Francisco homes were on average selling at $765,000. Now California real estate is the most expensive in the nation leaving ever leading Hawaii at the second place.
The prices have been going only up for the last several years. What makes it simply astonishing is that according to California Association of Realtors, only 16% of households could afford homes at these levels. Many people are considering moving out of state and many have been doing just that. This is what fueled Las Vegas housing boom to the large extent. Still, in spite of all this, sale volumes are at record levels.
How is that possible? We attribute it to two main factors, willingness to sacrifice other expenses to become a homeowner, and availability of seemingly affordable mortgages in today's market, especially Interest Only and Option ARM mortgage programs.
Read the entire article from California Public Policy Institute
Posted at 11:11 PM
Baton Rouge, the normally sleepy Louisiana state capital is filled by the rescuers coming to help and the evacuees trying to start rebuilding their hurricane shattered lives. Demand for commercial property is also sky high. Posted at 01:01 PM
In July, the Kentucky Real Estate Commission stopped enforcing its ban on inducements and rebates that real estate agents can offer perspective clients to get business. Realtors can now legally offer all kinds of kick backs. Here are some of the most common perks: - up to $1,500 in moving costs In other states, Illinois for example, it has been the way to do business for the last 10 or so years. Many Realtors simply offer to split their commissions in a form of cash back on the closing. They call it promotions. Some will pay up 20 - 30% of their commissions to repeated clients. And if you want to sell your house, you can list it for as little as 3.5% total commissions. The listing agent takes only 1.00 - 1.25% hoping that you would buy your next house with him. The rest goes to the buyer's agent. There are so many discount brokers these days willing to work for a very little money, that one might start wondering what will come next. Posted at 11:33 AM
Some people think so. You can read all of it in The Coloradoan, but here are the main points: The bottom line is that banking and mortgage industry have been going out the way to come up with more affordable products. Plus, it is much easier to qualify today for a home mortgage. Stated Income, Stated Assets and True No Doc loans will get everyone a mortgage. It has fueled home prices even further. Is bubble nearing the breaking point? Posted at 05:01 PM
The man who wrote "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and "Cashflow Quadrant" among other bestsellers warns that we may be close to a real estate bubble. As San Francisco Chronicle reports, on his Web site, www.richdad.com, Mr. Kiyosaki has begun posting articles that caution against what might be called "surreal estate exuberance." He is worried that upcoming real state bubble could be a financial disaster. He has been selling some of his real estate that does not produce positive cash flow and buying oil and gold. Mr. Kiyosaki still buying and in the process of acquiring seven properties. But these properties must bring positive cash. One of his biggest worries is that so many homeowners over-leverage their homes. They use them as ATM machines to buy more homes or expensive cars. Posted at 11:39 AM
If there was a fear of slowdown in real estate market in 2005, fear not. The median single-family home price increased to $203,800 in April. That is up 15.1 percent from a year earlier. Regionally, the home resale pace in the South jumped 7.4 percent from March. The median price of an existing home in the South was $176,000, which was 8.0 percent higher than April 2004. Total existing-home sales in the Midwest rose 5.8 percent, up 3.8 percent above April 2004. The median price in the Midwest was $166,000, up 12.9 percent from a year earlier. Existing-home sales in the Northeast increased 4.3 percent, up 7.1 percent above the level of a year ago. The median existing-home price in the Northeast was $243,000, up 15.2 percent from April 2004. Existing-home sales in the West held even and were 2.5 percent higher than April 2004. The median existing-home price in the West was $305,000, up 21.0 percent from the same month a year ago. Posted at 11:07 AM
Everyone knows someone who was unemployed and switched to selling real estate. Then made it rich, rather quick. The grass is always greener on the other site. You can become a real estate agent quite easy and today, you can even become a broker without working as an agent a single day in some states. Take few more classes, pay few more dollars, pass few more tests and voila, you can work from your own home. I know quite a few real estate professionals who are very successful. They earn high six figures a year and I mean, HIGH. They all say that on every one of them there are at least several dozens who barely make it. The Florida Association of Realtors, the state's largest organization for real estate professionals had 72,670 members in 2000. In 2004 over it had over 126,000 members. This number will be very likely growing as Florida’s home sales were up 7 percent last May with median price rising 27 percent to $230,800 from $181,900 just a year ago. Nationwide there are about 1.2 million real estate agents. In 2003 there were just under 980,000. The competition is stiff but there are quite a few that are succeeding. Posted at 11:37 PM
Corporate employees haven't had any opportunity to invest into real estate thru self sponsored retirement plans. The only available investments were pretty much confined to stocks, bonds and money markets. Real estate investment trusts or REIT are very popular investments today and offer excellent opportunity for 401k plan participants to buy into real estate. REIT is a company that manages a portfolio of real estate investments, similar to closed end mutual funds. REITs invest in everything from shopping centers to office buildings to apartment complexes and hotels. REITs must distribute often up to 90% of their income in form of dividends. Since stocks have been very erratic and unpredictable to put it mildly since 1999 or so, and real estate has been booming, it is natural for many 401K sponsors to look at REITs. Some Real estate investment trusts have returned 8.65 percent so far this year. Over the last five years the return is more than 20%. Still many companies are reluctant to let their 401k invest into REITs. According to the Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America, only 15.6 percent of plans made real estate options for employees. The two large 401(k) plan vendors with several real estate investment options available are Principal Financial and Fidelity Investments. You still have to check with you employer if you 401k plan has those REIT funds. Posted at 10:28 PM
September 11, 2005
Katrina creates real estate boom in Baton Rouge
This created an unbelievable real estate crunch with people bidding on every available rental property. There is no vacancies in Baton Rouge, period.
When buying, people pay cash for the properties they haven't even seen. Inspections are simply waived.Kentucky real estate agents can now offer many perks to their clients
- $500 rebate to the seller if a house isn't sold within 90 days under certain conditions
- different types of gift cards available from RealEstate.com, up to $1,000 per listing
- frequent flyer miles for several airlinesAugust 08, 2005
Does high number of interest-only adjustable mortgages indicates coming housing bubble?
1. The number of interest-only mortgages and ARMs are on the rise.
2. In some cities interest only mortgages have taken over 40% of the market.
3. Option ARM loans are very popular. These are the loans that offer options such as negative amortization, interest only payments and flexible amortization period, now up to 40 years.
4. The number of refinances are still rather high, even with interest rates steadily inching higher. More than often those are cash-out loans for the sake of debt consolidation.July 25, 2005
Robert Kiyosaki warns on real estate bubble
Sales for existing homes was record high in April
According to National Association of Realtors sale of existing single family homes went up healthy 4.5 percent compare to that in March. Staggering 6.28 million single family homes were sold, up from 6.01 million in March.
July 23, 2005
Booming real estate creates more agents
I personally know a former computer programmer whose face is on a few billboards in Las Vegas. Out of work dot-commer from Minneapolis now is one of the hottest real estate agents in Sin city. Las Vegas, Miami and Phoenix are three cities that have generated many new real estate agents. San Diego has been hot for a while.Real Estate is becoming a part of 401K plans
Welcome
Bad Credit Advisor online magazine provides daily news about credit, debt and mortgage. We aren't paid to mention specific deals or products. We cover what we think is interesting as industry professionals ourselves.
Categories
Archives
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
Recent Entries
- Manhattan condo prices up 20 p...
- Twin Cities real estate sales ...
- Condo for sale market is cooli...
- Home sales dipped in November,...
- Orange county has the second m...
- Daytona Beach condos are still...
- Real estate investors don't bu...
- New conforming mortgage rates ...
- The most and the least afforda...
- Where condo market is hot...
