While housing markets across the country are recovering from the deepest throes of the foreclosure crisis, others are just stumbling into it — and they aren’t exactly the places you’d expect.
States like Maryland, Oregon and New Jersey, which maintained relatively stable markets after the housing bubble popped, saw new foreclosure filings climb by double- and triple-digit percentages in July, according to RealtyTrac.
If your home has gorgeous ocean views, sits on acres of land, or is in the most prestigious neighborhood in town, it’s pretty easy to know what to lead with in your marketing. But if you have a normal house in a normal neighborhood, it can be hard to know where to start. Some features that you take for granted might have major appeal to home buyers. Here are seven often overlooked home features to make your listing shine.
Rising mortgage rates aren’t the only problem house hunters are facing. Closing costs for loan origination and other fees have increased 6 percent in the past year, according to a survey by Bankrate.com.
Borrowers with stellar credit who are making a 20 percent down payment are still forking over an average of $2,402 in closing costs on a $200,000 loan.
With the great housing reform debate underway, the White House recently weighed in with President Obama’s plan for the future of housing finance in America. The President laid out a vision for housing finance, with key elements similar to those embraced by many stakeholders in the nation’s housing finance system. This is an issue that affects the well-being of every American, whether a homeowner or a renter, and we welcome the President’s attention and leadership.
In the dramatic world of the theater, they say “it ain’t over ‘till the fat lady sings.“ In the dramatic world of the real estate market, headlines touting multiple offers and appreciating home values can feel like a premature declaration that the recession is over to some homeowners.
As you’ve probably heard a million times, real estate is hyperlocal. And it’s true – in many, many markets across the country, a mood of exuberant recovery has eclipsed the recession era’s stagnation, doom and gloom. But the fat lady hasn’t sung for the 10 million homeowners who are still upside down on their mortgages, according to CoreLogic, or for sellers whose homes aren’t following the national trend of flying off the market after receiving dozens of contingency-free, cash offers.
Here are a few multiple personality market musts for smart sellers…
Middle-aged women have become the fastest growing group of single female home owners, according to a new study by the real estate brokerage Redfin. The number of 45- to 54-year-old single female home owners has soared 120 percent from 1982 to 2012.
The Redfin report revealed the top U.S. cities for single successful women, factoring in the percentage of women with four-year college degrees, percentage of women with a salary greater than $65,000, and the percentage of women who are single between 25 to 39 years old.
Read the rankings and more details…
And see where Seattle ranks!
The U.S. housing market can no longer be painted with one brush, as the housing recovery is playing out very differently across the country. Here are some anecdotes gleaned from a consulting team…
Until this year, landlords who earned profits from their rentals didn’t have to worry about whether they qualified as a “real estate professional” for tax purposes. The only reason to seek to qualify as such was to avoid application of the incredibly complex passive loss rules.
These rules are designed to prevent landlords from deducting rental losses from their other non-rental income. So if you didn’t have rental losses, these rules didn’t concern you and you could care less whether or not you were a “real estate professional.”
This has now changed. Qualifying as a real estate professional will now benefit many landlords who earn profits from their rentals because, by doing so, they won’t have to pay the Net Investment Income tax (NII tax) on them.
The housing recovery is juicing the jobs market, but the jobs market isn’t returning the favor, according to Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia.
Riding on rising home sales, residential construction employment has shot up 4.5 percent year over year, far outpacing the national employment growth rate of 1.7 percent, he said.
But a high unemployment rate is holding back housing demand, Kolko noted, saying 25 to 34-year-olds in particular are suffering from the still-weak jobs climate, with only 75 percent of that cohort employed.
Bernice Ross shares some secrets to success and how to shift from what you ‘could do’ to what you ‘should do.’
Managing The Real Estate Details 