Archive for the ‘Home Owner’ Category

Wow! One in Four Homes is Underwater

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

One in every four homeowners in the United States is 'underwater', meaning they owe more on the home than it's actually worth. And you can expect that number to rise. It's actually amazing to believe that such a high number of houses fall into this category. It was recently estimated that ...

Home Prices Rise for 5th Straight Month

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Home prices rose again but in only 11 of the 20 regions tracked by the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index. The index is off of it's lows from May of this year but is still well below it's all-time highs in April 2006. On Monday it was reported that ...

Loan Modifications Falling Short of Goal

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

As expected (by myself, not the Obama camp), the housing initiative that allows borrowers to modify their home loans to avoid foreclosure is not going so well. The original goal was set at helping out between 3 and 4 million homeowners. Everyone cheered at the proposal and the 'promise' but ...

The Price is Right

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

"You never get a second chance to make a first impression" You see the phrase used in marketing quite often. So it's no surprise this holds true when setting the listing price for your home. Setting the right listing price from the first day you put your home on the market is ...

Upbeat Housing and Mortgage News

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

Much positive news has surfaced thus far this week, hopefully signaling a turning point in what has been a rough market. Two news bits should help brighten housing sentiment. Housing Starts Jump in February - construction of new homes and apartments jumped 22.2 percent in February compared with January. Furthermore, starts rose ...

Mortgage Rates Fall to Historic Lows

Saturday, January 17th, 2009

The national average on Mortgage rates has fallen below 5% for the first time on record, according to Freddie Mac. This is good news for those trying to refinance, if you're able to. Applications are flooding in but the truth remains that lending standards are still strict. Nevertheless, everybody's situation is unique ...

Foreclosures Could Reduce with Proposed Law Change

Friday, January 9th, 2009

Legislation is currently moving around Washington that could greatly reduce the number of foreclosures. The law change would allow homeowners who are filing for bankruptcy the opportunity to restructure their mortgages. A bankruptcy judge could modify terms to let homeowners keep their homes. Now, keep in mind that this would change ...

Pending Homes Sales Rise

Monday, October 13th, 2008

A bit of good news was released last week from the NAR. The National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index rose 7.4 percent in August to 93.4, up from 87.0 in July. This index is a measure of homes under contract across the country. This news ties in with an earlier ...

It’s As Simple As Supply And Demand

Saturday, October 11th, 2008

So Supply vs. Demand is an easy concept. It applies to nearly everything when it comes to prices and quantities sold. This is no exception. You have a product, in this case Real Estate, i.e. a house, a condo, a piece of land, etc, etc. The corresponding price of the product ...

Bailout’s Trickle Down Effect to Help Staten Island

Monday, October 6th, 2008

If case you haven't heard about the $700 billion bailout that just passed, I'll give a quick rundown. The bill was heavily opposed by Main Street (small and/or locally owned businesses) as they felt they were left out and not being helped at all. While that is an issue in and of itself, Staten Island falls ...