Buying a home. Realtors have extensive experience that will help. They have contacts with financial organizations, appraisers, home inspection companies, insurance brokers and more.Never underestimate the value of an experienced real estate professional. The second time you buy you will know more. Learning by trial and error is not a way to learn in buying real estate. The numbers are too large and the error factor can have enormous implications. Owning a home is nearly always a stretch for first-time buyers, but there are many creative ways to make it happen. Having good credit and a solid employment history will go a long way for initial buyers. Let the experts help you find a way. Click here to read more.
No panic greets housing slowdown. Conditions more likely for a rebound than in 1990s bust, experts say. After an even more remarkable seven-year housing boom, the slowdown is driving up resale inventory and triggering speculation about an uncertain future. But this sagging market isn't much like the 1990s version. Some analysts say the reasons help explain why the present downturn may be shorter and less severe. The differences between that market and this one? "We are having job growth. We are having population growth. We're still having in-migration from the Bay Area," said John Schleimer, a Roseville-based consultant for the home-building industry. But there's one big problem. "The prices got too high," he said. "When we cracked $500,000 for the median, we outstripped the ability of peoples' incomes to pay." Sacramento's 1990s real estate bust was marked not by impossible prices but by a lethal convergence of negatives: a statewide recession, local military base closings, job losses and higher costs of borrowing. Today's slowdown plays out amid mostly good news: a 4.2% unemployment rate in the capital region, a humming California economy and some of the lowest interest rates in a generation. Click here to read more.
Upwardly mobile. Priced out of the traditional housing market, some Orange County consumers are turning to more affordable manufactured homes. Bausch is one of many would-be Orange County homebuyers who have opted for more affordable mobile and manufactured housing rather than the steep down payments and burdensome mortgages of traditional real estate. Many of those buying manufactured homes say the stereotype of trailer parks has given way to clean, safe communities with pools, exercise rooms and community centers. And the homes have improved so much in recent years, buyers say, that they're indistinguishable from apartments, condos and, in some cases, single-family homes. Click here to read more.
In uncertain times, home sellers try new strategies. A year or two ago, pricing a house was simple. Sellers only had to look at what their neighbors were charging, add 10 percent and wait for the bidding wars to begin. Now that the market has grown uncertain, homeowners are at more of a loss when deciding what price tag to put on their property. So in an attempt to attract buyers, some sellers are experimenting with non-traditional strategies for setting prices. Approaches include starting high and cutting the figure every few weeks, dropping the price to a different bracket to attract new shoppers or giving a range of numbers rather than one set figure. A changing market can especially highlight the flaws of traditional pricing sources, including Web sites that list comparable home sales and estimates from real-estate agents. Agents may quote too-high prices to get listings, for one, and some Web sites have too few recent listings (within the last six months) to be useful. And while banks can access automated appraisal tools to determine prices, mostly used in calculating a home-equity line of credit or loan, consumers generally can't get those numbers. When times are slow, most agents recommend setting a price that's just at or 5 percent below the market. Yet not everyone takes that advice. Click here to read more.
Across California, buying a home remains illusory. Rents are soaring beyond the reach of many folk's incomes. According to a 2005 report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a minimum-wage earner must work 131 hours per week, 52 weeks per year, to afford the rent on a two-bedroom apartment. (In case you're not in the mood for math, that means 17-hour workdays, seven days a week.) The cost of homeownership is equally egregious. "We have the second-worst affordability rate in the nation," explained Janet Huston, director of communications for California's Department of Housing and Community Development, referring to the fact that only 11 percent of the state's residents can afford homes. "It's not going to improve." Of course, our beloved Bay Area boasts some of the least-affordable housing in the state. So despite the good news that the real estate market is softening, the bad news is that there's an underlying issue that's going to make housing unaffordable for years to come: California isn't building enough to meet the demand. Click here to read more.
Renters face tight apartment market. Easing real-estate market, condo conversions crimp apartment stock. The rental market is the complement to the housing market, Conway said. So when homeownership looks less attractive, renting looks more attractive. And buying a home is certainly looking less pretty these days for those on the fence between buying and leasing. Soaring appreciation rates in some markets have caused home prices to become less affordable; rising mortgage interest rates aren't helping either. Click here to read more.
~Tina Jan~
Coldwell Banker Kivett-Teeters
1655 E. Sixth St.
Beaumont, CA 92223
Work: 951-845-5520 Ext. 105
Fax: 951-845-4916
Cell: 909-446-2666
Toll-Free: 1-877-TINAJAN
tina.jan@coldwellbanker.com
www.tinajan.com
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for commenting!