Tidbits on Real Estate and Stuff

Reading articles this morning, came up with these tidbits.
     32% of all sales in March were cash.
     27% of all sales in March were investors.
     33% of all sales in March were first time home buyers.

Home inventories are low,  buyers are out, interest rates are low, and it appears now is the time to buy and buyers have decided that too.  Realtors have reported more people out seriously looking.

Average price in the south of a home was $146,500.  That's about the same in Amarillo, Texas of $146,301. 

Amarillo had 510 single family homes sold in the first quarter and 19 condo/townhomes.  The average price of a condo/townhome that sold was $132,108.   Single family homes sold in March in Amarillo were on the market 102 days, and townhomes/condos 114 days. 

Wildhorse Lake area of Amarillo had the cheapest sales with an average of $23.44 per sq. ft but a low days on the market of 56 (only 1 sale; not a very telling tidbit).

  My home subdivision of Olsen had an average sale of $77.12 per sq. with and average day on the market of 113, with 7 sales, and the average home price was $200,986.  106 days on the market $585,625 average price with 4 sales.

 Colonies won as most expensive at $146.11 with 4 sales averaging $585,625, and 106 days on the market.   Christy (where is that?) had the next most expensive per sq ft average at $129.24, 115 days and one sale at $255,000.

 Here's a surprise River Road West had second highest at $129.08, 40 days on the market sale of $95,000.  Again not very telling.  Lake Tanglewod was next at $128.68, 82 days, 5 sales, averaging $309.320.  Not a surprise there, as this is a great place to buy with a great atmosphere, golf, etc.

More tidbits after lunch. 

Can you stop paying for TV service?

Just read a great article about how to have t.v. without paying for a service.  Not sure I'm quite ready to cut the cord to my service, as they are also my internet and phone provider, but if  one of these gets to the point there's really no difference, why sure, I'd change.   Boxee sounds interesting.  Here's the article I got from a GEHA email and they got it from somewhere else.  Let's share the knowledge.

Cutting the ties to pay TV

As more and more consumers rely on their computers and smartphones for videos, movies and entertainment, some are beginning to change the way they view television. This includes saving money and cutting the cord on their paid TV service.

Could you and your family live without cable TV? And, if you were to make the switch to what’s often referred to as "streaming media," where would you begin?

Today there are some TV accessories that offer access to free services. Rather than pay on a monthly basis, you purchase the box once and then dial up what you want through the Internet.

Roku is a streaming box that, depending on the model, sells from $50 to $100. It offers a variety of content including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, HBO Go, MLB.TV, NHL Game Center and Flickr, among others. According to cnet.com, a leading source for technology reviews of all types, the core streaming functionality of the ROKU LT model makes it a great value.

Apple TV is another option. CNET reports that the browsing experience on Apple TV is "best-in-class for movies and TV shows." Plus, Apple TV provides "content portability." In other words, if you purchase (not rent) movies or TV shows, they are stored in a way that you can share that content with your iPhone or iPad.

Boxee is a small computer device that allows you to watch TV shows and Internet clips on your TV. You can buy a Boxee for about $200 or you can build your own using a new or used computer and free downloadable software. Most anything that’s on the Internet is available on Boxee, along with more than 40,000 TV episodes and movies. Plus Boxee allows you to play content you’ve personally recorded on your network or hard drive.

If you’re not quite ready to make the leap and cut the cord to your current TV content provider, consider calling them to see about paying a lower rate. Given the increasing competitiveness of the telecommunications industry, by taking a hard look at your TV package and those of other providers you just might be able to negotiate a lower fee for the paid TV service you have today.

Reprinted on April 6, 2012, courtesy of Yes, You Can. For more information, please visit yesyoucanonline.info

7 Reasons You Should Own Your Home

Great article from Realtors Magazine about owning a home, and why you should - including a calculator to figure the difference in renting and owning:

7 Reasons to Own Your Own Home

1. Tax breaks. The U.S. Tax Code lets you deduct the interest you pay on your mortgage, property taxes you pay, and some of the costs involved in buying your home.

2. Gains. Between 1998 and 2002, national home prices increased at an average of 5.4 percent annually. And while there’s no guarantee of appreciation, a 2001 study by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS^Ò found that a typical homeowner has approximately $50,000 of unrealized gain in a home.

3. Equity. Money paid for rent is money that you’ll never see again, but mortgage payments let you build equity ownership interest in your home.

4. Savings. Building equity in your home is a ready-made savings plan. And when you sell, you can generally take up to $250,000 ($500,000 for a married couple) as gain without owing any federal income tax.

5. Predictability. Unlike rent, your mortgage payments don’t go up over the years so your housing costs may actually decline as you own the home longer. However, keep in mind that property taxes and insurance costs will rise.

6. Freedom. The home is yours. You can decorate any way you want and be able to benefit from your investment for as long as you own the home.

7. Stability. Remaining in one neighborhood for several years gives you a chance to participate in community activities, lets you and your family establish lasting friendships, and offers your children the benefit of educational continuity.

To calculate whether renting or buying is the best financial option for you, use this calculator courtesy of Ginnie Mae:

http://www.ginniemae.gov/rent_vs_buy/rent_vs_buy_calc.asp?Section=YPTH

Real Estate News

1.  MIP goes up .75 upfront on April 9.  Get under contract and get a file number before then to save upfront money and annual, which goes up .1.  Obama to use this money for Medicaid.  Go figure.

2.  Texas has a new bond program to help buyers pay for closing up to $10,000 but they only put $600,000 in to the program, which is 60 loans.  Have you seen the size of TX.  This won't last a week.
Won't help the housing market very well.'

3.  Amarillo, TX, has a much better program.  Pays 75% of closing and downpayment, never to be repaid if you stay in house 5 years.  Designed to help first time homebuyers with lower credit scores.  Of course, you still have to qualify under FHA or Conventional standards.

4.  If you have collections on your credit report, you have to be paying on them for 3 months or get them paid off before you can qualify for a loan now. 

5.  Happy State Bank has 2 new loans programs that help buyers.  If you are having trouble getting a mortgage loan, check them out.

My personal news:  wrote a contract tonight.  Keeping fingers crossed its accepted tomorrow. 

More news:  New listing 5304 Albert in Amarillo, home + mother-in-law apt.  Both updated and cute.  Outstanding kitchens.  $149,900.

4414 Alicia, 2/2/2 townhome in Puckett, $102,900.  OWC.  New windows, great woodwork, huge bathroom upstairs with both tub and shower and utility.  2 closets in each bedroom, plus 3 other closets.  Bank of floor to ceiling cabinets in kitchen.

Short sale in Adrian, TX, Over an acre of land in the city limits, 3/1 with pole barn, mud room and utility, $39,000.

WOMEN DATE MEN WHO OWN A HOUSE!!

When it comes to dating, homeownership can be the ultimate aphrodisiac.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- When it comes to dating, homeownership can be the ultimate aphrodisiac.
In a survey of 1,000 single people, more than a third of women and 18% of men said they would much rather date a homeowner than a renter.

Only 2% of women said they preferred to date a man who rents, while only 3% of men said they would choose a woman who rents over one that owns her home, according to the survey, which was conducted by Harris Interactive for real estate site Trulia.

Both sexes also clearly prefer it when there's no roommate in the picture; 62% of survey respondents, men and women, prefer to date singles who live alone.

?? SHOULD INVESTORS GET LOANS TO IMPROVE PROPERTIES??

Just read an interesting article about 203K FHA loans and investors.  Investors at present are not allowed to get these rehabilitation loans to improve properties and make them more valuable.  But should they be allowed to?  Because in the past there were abuses, now no investor can get such a loan; but there are so many technological advances which would make it easier to monitor the system, maybe this is the answer to the glut of foreclosures sitting unsaleable on the market. 

Question 2:  Is selling these foreclosures in mass as rentals good.  Sounds good to me, but this article gives some thoughts there were new to me.  Like who wants to live in these type homes without modifications?  If Investors can't get the $$ for the remodel from an FHA 203K loan, will they just buy them and rent them as slumlords.

Read the article and come back and leave your opinion.  http://rismedia.com/2012-02-13/opinion-fha-should-reinstate-203k-loans-for-investors/

Why banks are scared Wells Fargo will change.

If you don't know what a correspondent lender is, its one that buys loans from other banks.  Here's a good article I found about BOA leaving that area and Wells Fargo doing 30% of all correspondent lending.  Read and get better educated about what goes on behind the scenes in mortgage lending.

Smaller Players Easing Squeeze in Third-Party

The greatest fear for small- to medium-sized nonbanks is that Wells Fargo—the “big kahuna” of mortgage finance—will exit the correspondent lending space. And what a fear it is: in the most recent quarter in which there are final numbers, Wells bought a stunning $41 billion of loans from others, giving it a market share of 30% in the channel.

Of course, there is nothing out there to suggest that Wells has any intention of leaving the correspondent channel or scaling back its presence in mortgage banking—though its wholesale production has been slipping for several quarters.
Recently, Bank of America (the second-largest buyer of closed mortgages) exited correspondent lending, which on the surface appears to be a major blow. But believe or not, there appear to be plenty of midsized lenders out there, looking to enter both the correspondent and wholesale channels, which is good news for the industry.

But the problem with these new entrants is that they don't have any “scale,” at least not right now.
Case in point is Banc of Manhattan Capital in Woodland Hills, Calif. In November the bank-owned company entered the correspondent channel, doing little business its first month, but in December its volume jumped to $50 million.

“We want to achieve scale,” said BMC EVP Dan Baruch, an alumnus of both Bank of America, and Countrywide Financial Corp.

Baruch's chief duty at the company is overseeing warehouse lending, a business he helped launch at CFC last decade. Baruch admits that his firm's warehouse volume is small but hopes that it will change for the better over time.

(BMC is a national lender in both warehouse and correspondent.)
Meanwhile, refinancings remain strong, accounting for about 70% of production. In a hot refi environment third-party lending (brokers/correspondents) tends to do better and figures collected by National Mortgage News bear that out.

In 3Q retail lending accounted for 52% of production nationwide compared to 8% for wholesale, and 40% for correspondent. The retail market share has been slipping steadily since the first quarter of 2011 when the channel registered a multiyear high of 56%.

It's long been said that wholesale and correspondent lending are cheaper than retail when it comes to counting costs—but during the housing/mortgage boom third-party lending produced lower-quality loans (or so it's been argued).

Unlike commercial bankers, mortgage bankers tend to be more entrepreneurial.
When a large player leaves a sector (such as correspondent or wholesale) almost immediately some company somewhere seizes on the sudden opportunity to pickup new business.

Last week's news that CitiMortgage was exiting the wholesale channel was received poorly in some sectors of the industry, until it was pointed out (by this newspaper) that table funding accounts for just 9% of Citi's overall residential production.

Will Citi be missed? Not according to some brokers I spoke with. “To tell you the truth their rates were nothing special,” said one New Jersey broker.

Who then might fill Citi's shoes? Maybe a firm like Cole Taylor Mortgage in Chicago. Two years ago Willie Newman, a former top executive at InterFirst Mortgage, joined the bank with the stated goal of growing its presence in residential finance.

A wholesale and retail lender, Cole Taylor funded $1.1 billion in 2011, more than doubling the bank's volume. In a few weeks it will receive its 33rd state lending license. That's not exactly in the same league as Citi, but it's a darn good start.