Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Lock in Super Low Rates Today, Not Tomorrow

Borrowers eager to lock in a very low-rate mortgage should apply in the next day or two, says Bankrate.com mortgage analyst Holden Lewis.

Rates haven’t been this low since the 1950s, he says, adding that rates are unlikely to fall further.

“You can float, but that's not a smart strategy. It's like asking for another card when you have 19 in blackjack. Stand and take your chances,” he advises.

Source: Bankrate.com (5/26/10)

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Salt Lake City ranked one of the most livable places in the country

Salt Lake City ranks high for health, livability
May 25th, 2010 @ 11:29am

SALT LAKE CITY -- Salt Lake City has been ranked as one of the most livable places in the country.

Business news site Portfolio.com ranks the Salt Lake metro area as the nation's fifth highest when it comes to quality of life.

Cities were ranked on the number of self-employed workers, education levels, traffic flow and population stability. Raleigh, N.C., claimed the top spot.

According to the report, "No market has a lower jobless rate for workers between the ages of 25 and 64 than Salt Lake City. Only Washington has a larger share of homes with at least nine rooms. One fifth of Salt Lake City's houses are that size."

Not only is Salt Lake livable, it's also healthy.

The American College of Sports Medicine's latest fitness index ranks Salt Lake No. 15 on a national list. That measure weighs factors such as exercise, smoking, disease rates, playgrounds, pools and other diversions that keep us outside for recreation.

Washington, D.C., earned top honors in that index.

Article published by KSL.com

Friday, May 21, 2010

Fewer Buyers Consider Foreclosures

Fewer Buyers Consider Foreclosures

Fewer U.S. homebuyers are interested in foreclosed properties than they were a year ago, according to a
survey conducted for Trulia.com and RealtyTrac.

About 45 percent of U.S. adults age 18 say they are at least somewhat likely to consider purchasing a foreclosed home, down from 55 percent of people surveyed in May 2009.

Most home owners – 98 percent – expect to pay less for a foreclosure, but 36 percent expect a discount of 50 percent or more. Only 18 percent say they would be satisfied with a discount of less than 25 percent.

Some 92 percent of potential buyers were realistic about the likelihood that a foreclosed property will need improvements, but 65 percent wanted to spend less than 20 percent of the purchase price on fixing the place up.

Among U.S. adults who say they are at least somewhat likely to purchase a foreclosed home, 62 percent said they would use the property for their primary residence, 19 percent said they would use it as a rental investment, 8 percent said they would use it as a second home or vacation home, and 6 percent said they would buy and quickly resell.

Source: Trulia.com (05/20/2010)

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Owners Think Their Home Value is Up

Half of Owners Think Their Home Value is Up

The
confidence of U.S. home owners in the value of their homes increased in the first quarter, online home site Zillow says based on a survey it conducted.

About 50 percent of home owners surveyed by the Web site think their home's value declined in the past year, according to Zillow.com’s first quarter survey of home owner confidence. In contrast, Zillow thinks that 65 percent of U.S. homes actually declined in value based on its own calculations of value.

To the extent home owners are overconfident about the value of their home, Zillow says, they could feel encouraged to put their home on the market. If a lot of them did so and their home values aren't as high as they think they are, it could have the effect of pushing down prices, says Zillow’s Chief Economist Stan Humphries.

In its survey, Zillow found that 7 percent of home owners – or 5.3 million homes if the survey results were applied to all home owners – would be “very likely” to put their homes on the market in the next 12 months if they believed the market was improving. An additional 8 percent in the Zillow survey said they would be likely to list their homes, while another 14 percent would be somewhat likely.

Source: Zillow.com (05/20/2010)

Now is the Time to Buy...

Now is the Time to Buy, Investment Firm Says

When you compare the real estate downturn to the real estate market in the 1980s, Blumberg Capital Partners, which provides real estate investment management, finds similarities that lead the company to think now is an optimal time to buy.


Its analysts point out that the recession of the 1980s lasted 16 months, running from July 1981 to November 1982. Unemployment peaked in November of 1982 at 10.8 percent. From that point it took 38 months for the economy to recover fully and for unemployment to fall below 7 percent. It was another 10 months before unemployment was consistently below 7 percent.

Philip Blumberg, CEO of Blumberg Capital Partners, said in a note to investors that the real estate cycle is still three or four years from an optimal selling period, so now is the time for investors to buy.

Source: Blumberg Capital Partners (05/19/2010)

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Total Foreclosures Fall

Total Foreclosures Fall, But REOs Rise

Foreclosure marketer RealtyTrac reported today that properties in all stages of foreclosure from default notices to auctions and repossessions were down 9 percent in April compared with March. They fell 2 percent compared with April 2009. Also, default notices were down 27 percent year over year.


RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio predicted that foreclosures are plateauing, but won’t drop off dramatically any time soon. He pointed out that although default notices have dropped, repossessions are at a record level, indicating that banks are working through their backlogs.

Five states account for 52 percent of the total number of foreclosures: California, Florida, Michigan, Illinois, and Nevada. The states rounding out the top 10 are Arizona, Georgia, Texas, Ohio, and Virginia.

Source: RealtyTrac (05/13/2010)

Housing Starts Rise 5.8 Percent


Housing Starts Rise 5.8 Percent

Housing starts rose 5.8 percent in April to an annual rate of 672,000 units, the highest level since October 2008, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.


Single-family home starts rose 10.2 percent, while multifamily starts declined 18.6 percent, reversing the trend from previous months.

New building permits, a gauge of future activity, declined 11.5 percent to an annual rate of 606,000, the lowest level since October 2009, Commerce also reported.

Source: Reuters News, Lucia Mutikani (05/18/2010)

Friday, May 14, 2010

Forbes Ranks Provo UT #2 Best Place For Business And Careers

The top 5 most livable cities

3. Provo-Orem, Utah

Low unemployment rank: 22

Low crime rank: 11

Income growth rank: 1

Low cost-of-living rank: 76

Arts & leisure rank: 104


Rank
Colleges1113
Cost of Doing Business220
Cost of Living377
Crime Rate417
Culture and Leisure5122
Economic Growth Projected721
Educational Attainment638
Income Growth*1
Job Growth*10
Job Growth Projected739
Net Migration*39
Subprime Mortgages8137
Education
College Attainment633.8%
High School Attainment93.5%
Income
Median Household Income$63,111
Income Growth*5.2%
Employment
Job Growth*2.1%
Job Growth Projected71.9%
Unemployment (2009)5.3%
Housing
Subprime Mortgages813.7%
Median Home Price$150,900

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Realtors Pushes Back on Private Transfer Fees and Protecting Your Rights

Private transfer fees requiring sellers to pay a sum to developers — usually 0.5 percent to 1 percent of the sale price of a home — are meeting with increasing resistance around the country.

Gerry Allen, communications manager for the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® Community and Political Affairs group, told the State and Local Issues Committee Wednesday at the 2010 Midyear Legislative Meetings & Expo that eight states (Florida, Missouri, Kansas, Oregon, Arizona, Iowa, Maryland, and Utah) have passed laws banning the fees. Fourteen additional states have legislation pending that would prohibit the fees.

"We are on the front end of this issue," Allen says. "Our goal is to get legislation passed in all 50 states as soon as possible."

Transfer fees are different from transfer taxes paid to state and local governments. These fees are paid to private corporations or investors seeking to create a long-term revenue stream. In some cases, the fees are on the books for 99 years. Allen noted that the fees serve to “drive up the cost of housing.”

The NAR Board of Directors formally opposed the fees in 2008. Since then, the association has been offering technical assistance at no charge to state associations interested in introducing legislative bans on the use of the fees.

NAR has also sought and received clarification from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on its position on the use of private transfer fees for FHA-insured mortgages.

In April, HUD noted that such fees attached to a property insured by the FHA would be a violation of HUD regulations. NAR is awaiting word from the Federal Housing Finance Agency for clarification of its position on the use of the fees for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Federal Home Loan Bank mortgage purchases.

— Wendy Cole, REALTOR® Magazine

More People Living Under One Roof

The number of people sharing a home is rising, and that could cause the United States to end this decade with as many as 4 million more housing units than it needs.

In 2008, 49 million, or 16 percent of the population, live in a home with more than one adult generation, up from 28 million, or 12 percent, in 1980.

Three factors are driving this change, says Arthur C. Nelson, director of the Metropolitan Research Center at the University of Utah:
  • More older adults moving in with their children or grandchildren.
  • High unemployment keeping young adults from establishing their own households.
  • Increasing numbers of immigrants who come from cultures where extended families living together is expected.

Will the change be permanent? Eric Belsky, executive director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard, says it's anybody's guess. “There are so many conflicting piece of information,” he says.

Source: USA Today, Haya El Nasser (05/06/10)

Ruling Could Get Condo Buyers off the Hook


Condo buyers nationwide are watching a court case in suburban Washington, D.C., that could release them from their obligation to complete a transaction where the developer fails to live up to its original promises.

The law in question, the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, or ILSA, requires developers of subdivisions with 100 or more units to provide buyers with a list of features and disclosures. If the developer fails to meet the requirements it has promised, buyers are entitled to back out of the deal and regain their deposits. The law was originally written to reduce fraud in situations like the sale of swampland in Florida.

The stumbling block for buyers has long been whether a development actually has 100 or more units. Earlier court cases have said that if fewer than 100 units were actually sold, the disclosure rules don’t apply. But the current case in suburban Virginia argues that if the developer intended to market 100 or more condos, the law applies, no matter how many are actually sold.

If the court sides with that interpretation, unhappy condo buyers all over the country could have an out. But some developers aren't too happy about the precedent the case would be setting.

Gary Barnett, CEO of Extell Development Co., which is embroiled in a similar dispute in New York, says, “Buyers are twisting a law intended for something completely different in an effort to obtain a terribly unfair result.”

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Robbie Whelan (05/11/2010)

Monday, May 3, 2010

propertytax.jpg Salt Lake City Council not ruling out property tax hike


May 3rd, 2010 @ 7:36am

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The Salt Lake City Council says it isn't ruling out the possibility of a property-tax increase to fill an $18 million budget hole.

Council Chairman JT Martin says all options are on the table.

The comments come despite Mayor Ralph Becker's plans not to raise any taxes in his proposed $186 million budget. Becker's budget calls for service cuts and layoffs.

The council will spend the next six weeks completing a spending plan.

Becker consistently has vowed to avoid a tax hike, opting instead for fee increases and early retirement offers.

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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune

Provo makes ‘Most Livable Cities' list


May 3rd, 2010 @ 3:34pm

SALT LAKE CITY -- Ogden and Provo have made the top of the list of America's Most Livable Cities.

The Utah college towns ranked No. 2 and No. 3 in a list of 200, compiled by Forbes magazine using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and crime reports. Pittsburgh, Pa., ranked No. 1 on the list.

Cities were ranked based on the last five years of income growth, current unemployment rates, cost of living, crime rates and arts and culture ratings.