I missed the parade but was very excited to learn about this and I figured I would share this tidbit of info with my readers in the event they missed it too.
WASHINGTON, January 02, 2009
The National Association of Realtors® inaugural float won the Isabella Coleman Trophy for “Best Presentation of Color and Color Harmony Through Floral Use,” at the 2009 Tournament of Roses Parade. The Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association selected the Realtor® float from among 45 other entries. The float, titled “Celebrating the Dream of Home Ownership for 100 Years,” is a salute to NAR’s Centennial celebration currently under way through May 2009. Hundreds of Realtors® volunteered over 10,000 hours to help with decoration.
“As the leading advocate for home ownership, Realtors® take pride in helping people achieve their dream of owning a home,” said 2008 NAR President Dick Gaylord, a broker with RE/MAX Real Estate Specialists in Long Beach, Calif. “Winning this award symbolizes the incredible resiliency and commitment our members possess.”
The Realtor® float depicted a fantasy floral representation of the Swiss Family Robinson tree-house-home. The Swiss Family Robinson story was published in 1812, yet still epitomizes the traits Americans have come to value highly: resourcefulness and adaptability. Today, about 70 percent of all families in the United States own their own home.
The float was created from creamy ecru colored ironed cornhusk and sesame seeds with accents of white coconut flakes. The roof tiles were fashioned from peach lentil seeds edged in white sweet rice. Over 20,000 stems of purple Madame Pompadour and lavender Bombay orchids were used and tropical foliages and ferns complement the 30,000 Neon pink roses that comprise the exotic gardens.
This is the 120th year of the Rose Parade Tradition, an American classic that began as a way to promote Southern California real estate, and has marched through wars and the Great Depression. Millions of spectators from around the world watched the beautiful pageantry of floats. The parade is seen in more than 200 countries.
© Copyright NATIONAL ASSOCIATION of REALTORS® Headquarters: 430 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611 DC Office: 500 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20001-2020 I 1-800-874-6500
Friday, January 9, 2009
Fannie Tries Short Sales Over Foreclosures
Daily Real Estate News January 9, 2009
Fannie Mae has launched pilot projects in Phoenix and Orlando intended to reduce foreclosures by pre-approving short sales, agreeing on a price and the loss it will take prior to a deal even being made. It is hoped the program will improve the popularity of short sales among real estate agents.
Property professionals initially had welcomed short sales but soon found the process to be a frustrating one--due to squabbling about the sale price and slow approval times by the mortgage companies--that often ended with no sale at all. "Short sales have received such a bad reputation among real-estate agents that, as a portion of the overall mortgage market, they have gone down," says Tom Popik of the research firm Campbell Communications, whose November survey of realty practitioners found that agents had to wait as long as 8.1 weeks to receive a response from the lender on a short sale. That was nearly double the 4.5 weeks the process took earlier in the year.
Fannie Mae's pilot will focus on homes that are listed at less than the mortgage balance and carry a Fannie Mae-backed loan serviced by Countrywide Financial Corp. If it proves successful, the concept could be expanded to other geographical areas and additional lenders. There are concerns, in the meantime, about the program's success, with real estate agents noting that property prices could decline before the pre-approval is issued.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, Nick Timiraos (01/09/09)© Copyright 2009 Information Inc.
Fannie Mae has launched pilot projects in Phoenix and Orlando intended to reduce foreclosures by pre-approving short sales, agreeing on a price and the loss it will take prior to a deal even being made. It is hoped the program will improve the popularity of short sales among real estate agents.
Property professionals initially had welcomed short sales but soon found the process to be a frustrating one--due to squabbling about the sale price and slow approval times by the mortgage companies--that often ended with no sale at all. "Short sales have received such a bad reputation among real-estate agents that, as a portion of the overall mortgage market, they have gone down," says Tom Popik of the research firm Campbell Communications, whose November survey of realty practitioners found that agents had to wait as long as 8.1 weeks to receive a response from the lender on a short sale. That was nearly double the 4.5 weeks the process took earlier in the year.
Fannie Mae's pilot will focus on homes that are listed at less than the mortgage balance and carry a Fannie Mae-backed loan serviced by Countrywide Financial Corp. If it proves successful, the concept could be expanded to other geographical areas and additional lenders. There are concerns, in the meantime, about the program's success, with real estate agents noting that property prices could decline before the pre-approval is issued.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, Nick Timiraos (01/09/09)© Copyright 2009 Information Inc.
Mortgage Rates Continue Falling
Daily Real Estate News January 9, 2009
Mortgage Rates Continue Falling to Record Lows For the fourth consecutive week,
mortgage rates have fallen to all-time lows. The 30-year mortgage rates averaged 5.01 percent this week, which is a drop from last week's 5.1 percent. Last year at this time, rates averaged 5.87 percent.
"Interest rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell for the 10th week ... due in part to the Federal Reserve's recent purchases of mortgage-backed securities issued by Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Ginnie Mae," says Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft.
Other rates also dropped for the week:
15-year fixed rates: dropped to 4.62 percent from 4.83 percent last week. Last year at this time 15-year mortgage rates averaged 5.43 percent.
5-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 5.49 percent, a drop from 5.57 percent last week.
The only slight increase in rates this week was in 1-year ARMs, which were 4.95 percent, up from 4.85 percent last week. Overall, 1-year ARMs were still down for the year from last year's 5.37 percent.
Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, Amy Hoak (1/09/09)
Mortgage Rates Continue Falling to Record Lows For the fourth consecutive week,
mortgage rates have fallen to all-time lows. The 30-year mortgage rates averaged 5.01 percent this week, which is a drop from last week's 5.1 percent. Last year at this time, rates averaged 5.87 percent.
"Interest rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell for the 10th week ... due in part to the Federal Reserve's recent purchases of mortgage-backed securities issued by Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Ginnie Mae," says Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft.
Other rates also dropped for the week:
15-year fixed rates: dropped to 4.62 percent from 4.83 percent last week. Last year at this time 15-year mortgage rates averaged 5.43 percent.
5-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 5.49 percent, a drop from 5.57 percent last week.
The only slight increase in rates this week was in 1-year ARMs, which were 4.95 percent, up from 4.85 percent last week. Overall, 1-year ARMs were still down for the year from last year's 5.37 percent.
Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, Amy Hoak (1/09/09)
Friday, October 31, 2008
Pending Home Sales in August
Economist's Commentary: October 8, 2008
Pending Home Sales in August
By Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist
The pending home sales index made a surprisingly strong leap in August. The biggest sales contract gains were in markets that had overheated and are now undergoing a sharp reduction in home prices. The upswing in activity occurred prior to the Treasury takeover of Fannie and Freddie in early September, which had lowered mortgage rates by about 50 basis points. So buyers were evidently entering the market to take advantage of sharply lower home prices.
The latest pending home sales index of 93.4 is a jump of 7.4 percent from the previous month and the highest reading since June of 2007. Compared to a year ago the index is up 8.8 percent.
All four regions notched up gains. The West region was the strongest with a surge of 18 percent - with California, Arizona, and Nevada all showing solid gains. These states are also the ones with marked price declines and rising foreclosures. Florida also has been showing consistent gains over the past several months for the exact same reasons of buyers snatching bargain-priced homes. Southwest Florida regions (Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Sarasota, and Naples) had been early gainers, but the Miami area, Space Coast, Tampa, and Orlando are showing year-over-year gains and may have turned the corner as well. Rising momentum is occurring in the Washington D.C. suburbs. Rhode Island and Minneapolis are also showing early life signs.
There are still many local markets with continuing year-over-year declines, but the pace of declines have measurably slowed. Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Oregon, and Washington states are notables among the markets with continuing soft activity. The job market in all of these states has been holding up much better, but home prices have not fallen to attract buyers.
Meanwhile, many would be buyers are no doubt facing challenges in obtaining a loan.
Pending home sales measures contract signings and not actual closings. So the August pending sales trend generally translates into closing figures in September and October. It is possible that some of the contracts may have fallen apart, even temporarily, given the credit market turmoil in September. The data coverage on pending sales is less extensive than closed sales as reported in Existing Home Sales. Therefore, one should not expect a direct one-to-one trend from pending to closing, though past trends have shown high correlations between the two.
Pending and closed sales both reflect distressed sales of short-sales (those home sales where the mortgage loan cannot be fully repaid) and foreclosures. If it is in the multiple-listing service (MLS) then it is captured. If sales are occurring outside the MLS such as some of the auction sales and bank-owned REOs then it is not captured in our data. Based on a survey of REALTORS® in August regarding their most recent transaction, we estimate that about 40 percent of home sales are distressed sales. We are conducting survey now about who the buyers are. Investors, first-time buyers, vultures, or who?
Given all the focus on the U.S. housing market, mortgage availability appears to be improving despite the turmoil in the stock market and banking stocks. The Treasury, since the takeover, is forcing Fannie and Freddie to be not as overly stringent including the removal of fee on declining markets. It is a move not to lax standards, but to normal healthy underwriting criteria. The Treasury clearly and rightly understands that the global economy will not recover without a recovery in the U.S. housing market. The danger to the global economy of a U.S. housing market shooting downward is all too real and far too risky. Therefore, expect continued mortgage flow into the market place.
As the recession of 2001 showed, low mortgage rates can be a powerful driver in bringing up home sales even as jobs are being cut. The unemployment rate of 6.1 percent still means that about 94 percent of job holders are able to respond to favorable mortgage rates.
This is one in a series of commentaries by the Research staff of the National Association of REALTORS®. Read more commentaries >
.
Pending Home Sales in August
By Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist
The pending home sales index made a surprisingly strong leap in August. The biggest sales contract gains were in markets that had overheated and are now undergoing a sharp reduction in home prices. The upswing in activity occurred prior to the Treasury takeover of Fannie and Freddie in early September, which had lowered mortgage rates by about 50 basis points. So buyers were evidently entering the market to take advantage of sharply lower home prices.
The latest pending home sales index of 93.4 is a jump of 7.4 percent from the previous month and the highest reading since June of 2007. Compared to a year ago the index is up 8.8 percent.
All four regions notched up gains. The West region was the strongest with a surge of 18 percent - with California, Arizona, and Nevada all showing solid gains. These states are also the ones with marked price declines and rising foreclosures. Florida also has been showing consistent gains over the past several months for the exact same reasons of buyers snatching bargain-priced homes. Southwest Florida regions (Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Sarasota, and Naples) had been early gainers, but the Miami area, Space Coast, Tampa, and Orlando are showing year-over-year gains and may have turned the corner as well. Rising momentum is occurring in the Washington D.C. suburbs. Rhode Island and Minneapolis are also showing early life signs.
There are still many local markets with continuing year-over-year declines, but the pace of declines have measurably slowed. Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Oregon, and Washington states are notables among the markets with continuing soft activity. The job market in all of these states has been holding up much better, but home prices have not fallen to attract buyers.
Meanwhile, many would be buyers are no doubt facing challenges in obtaining a loan.
Pending home sales measures contract signings and not actual closings. So the August pending sales trend generally translates into closing figures in September and October. It is possible that some of the contracts may have fallen apart, even temporarily, given the credit market turmoil in September. The data coverage on pending sales is less extensive than closed sales as reported in Existing Home Sales. Therefore, one should not expect a direct one-to-one trend from pending to closing, though past trends have shown high correlations between the two.
Pending and closed sales both reflect distressed sales of short-sales (those home sales where the mortgage loan cannot be fully repaid) and foreclosures. If it is in the multiple-listing service (MLS) then it is captured. If sales are occurring outside the MLS such as some of the auction sales and bank-owned REOs then it is not captured in our data. Based on a survey of REALTORS® in August regarding their most recent transaction, we estimate that about 40 percent of home sales are distressed sales. We are conducting survey now about who the buyers are. Investors, first-time buyers, vultures, or who?
Given all the focus on the U.S. housing market, mortgage availability appears to be improving despite the turmoil in the stock market and banking stocks. The Treasury, since the takeover, is forcing Fannie and Freddie to be not as overly stringent including the removal of fee on declining markets. It is a move not to lax standards, but to normal healthy underwriting criteria. The Treasury clearly and rightly understands that the global economy will not recover without a recovery in the U.S. housing market. The danger to the global economy of a U.S. housing market shooting downward is all too real and far too risky. Therefore, expect continued mortgage flow into the market place.
As the recession of 2001 showed, low mortgage rates can be a powerful driver in bringing up home sales even as jobs are being cut. The unemployment rate of 6.1 percent still means that about 94 percent of job holders are able to respond to favorable mortgage rates.
This is one in a series of commentaries by the Research staff of the National Association of REALTORS®. Read more commentaries >
.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Fall home maintenance checklist
Tips sent to me by my friends at Old Republic Home Protection:
Check all window and door locks for proper operation.
Check your home for water leaks and repair as necessary. Read more at Preventing water damage at your house.
Review your fire escape plan with your family.
Make sure there are working nightlights at the top and bottom of all stairs.
Have a heating professional check your heating system. Wood burning stove connector pipes and chimneys should be inspected by a certified chimney sweep annually.
Protect your home from frozen pipes. Read more at No Frozen Pipes.
Replace or clean your furnace filter monthly.
Run all gas-powered lawn equipment until the fuel is gone before storing. This removes flammable liquid storage from your garage. At the same time, make sure you aren't storing dirty, oily rags in a pile; they can ignite spontaneously.
Test your emergency generator if you have one.
Have a certified chimney sweep inspect and clean the flues and check your fireplace damper. Soot and creosote, which build up inside the chimney, can ignite when a fire is lit in the fireplace.
Remove any bird nests from chimney flues and outdoor lighting fixtures as they are a fire hazard.
Inspect and clean dust from the covers of your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and replace batteries. Read more at Smoke alarms save lives.
Re-caulk around doors and windows to reduce heat/cooling loss.
Check for cracked or missing caulk around the base of your toilet, bathtub, and bathroom cabinets. Properly sealing gaps between your bathroom fixtures and flooring material can prevent damage to the sub-floor.
- Excerpt 2008, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. Home Office, Bloomington, Illinois
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Staging Tip of the Month - Lighting
With the days shortening, it won't be long before gloomy days settle in the valley. But even on bright sunny days, all lights should be turned on when showing a house. And all those lights should have working light bulbs. This is easy for the home-owner to overlook (I know - I've had a burnt out bulb in my bathroom for over a week!) and often it's up to the agent to stress the importance. In fact, we suggest that agents take a few 60 watt bulbs along with them when they're doing open-houses. In addition to providing illumination, light fixtures can date a home. Swapping out dated light fixtures is often an easy and inexpensive way to make an older home more contemporary. A new vanity fixture can be purchased at a big box store for around $30 and a dining room light can be found for under $60. The transformation can be amazing
Monday, September 15, 2008
Keller Williams ranked #1 with buyers.
http://www.inman.com/news/2008/08/27/study-sets-benchmarks-customer-service
Check out the article at the link above. Gooooo Keller Williams woohoo.
Check out the article at the link above. Gooooo Keller Williams woohoo.
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