There are no great surprises in the National Association of Realtors® 2009 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, but, as in the past, the annual survey contains information useful both for consumers and for brokers and agents. The survey consisted of an eight-page questionnaire sent to 120,038 consumers who had purchased a home between July […]
Entries Tagged as 'Home Buyers'
LOTS OF USEFUL INFORMATION CONTAINED IN 2009 SURVEY OF HOME BUYERS AND HOME SELLERS
November 29th, 2009 · No Comments
Tags: Home Buyers · Home Sales · National Association of Realtors · Buying A Home · NAR · Bob Hunt
MOVE-DOWN BUYERS CAN BE ELIGIBLE FOR TAX CREDIT TOO
November 23rd, 2009 · No Comments
Move up, move down, move sideways; it just doesn’t matter. Whichever direction you move, financially, you may still qualify for the new tax credit available to current homeowners. It is unfortunate that the credit has too often been characterized as a credit for “move-up” homeowners. The phrase carries the implication that the new home must […]
Tags: Home Sales · Home Buyers · Buying A Home · Bob Hunt · Home Buyer Tax Credit
DEED FOR LEASE PROGRAM IS ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO MAKE THINGS BETTER
November 9th, 2009 · No Comments
The world has not turned completely upside down, but, believe me, it is leaning precariously. Remember all those programs that were designed to turn renters into homeowners? Now we have a program to turn homeowners into renters! I refer, of course, to the Deed For Lease program rolled out by Fannie Mae on November 5, […]
Tags: Home Buyers · Home Sales · Median Prices of Homes · Buying A Home · Loan Modifications · Bob Hunt · Fannie Mae · FNMA · Foreclosures
HELPFUL TIPS FOR REO AGENTS TO ENSURE A SMOOTH CLOSING
November 5th, 2009 · 1 Comment
Everyone knows the market has been flooded by Real Estate Owned (“REO”) Properties. The challenge for real estate professionals today is not just to get the REO business but also to provide a level of service to their clients that ensure the property will close on or before the close of escrow date. One of […]
Tags: Home Buyers · Ryan P Spitalnick · Escrow · Buying A Home · REO's · Foreclosures
NEW LOAN DISCLOSURE RULES MAY CAUSE ESCROW DELAYS
July 27th, 2009 · No Comments
Under new rules adopted by the Federal Reserve Board, beginning July 30, 2009, mortgage lending will be subject to expanded disclosure requirements. This may well be a good thing. However, until everyone gets used to it, it also may cause occasional delays in closings. First, some background.
More than a few times home purchasers have been […]
Tags: Mortgage Disclosure Improvement Act · Origination Fee · Nominal Rate · Regulation Z · Truth in Lending Act · Good Faith Estimate · RESPA · Note Rate · Interest Rates · Mortgage Funding · Mortgage Lending · Bob Hunt · Federal Reserve Board · Home Buyers · Annual Percentage Rate · Loan Fees · Disclosure
CONGRESSMAN CALVERT SUGGESTS WE FIX THE HOUSING MARKET BY INCREASING DEMAND
March 16th, 2009 · No Comments
Markets are governed by the laws of supply and demand. We have learned that in school, read it in the newspapers, and experienced it in real life. The problem with the housing market today, we know, is not a lack of supply. There are plenty of homes available. The problem is on the demand side.
In […]
Tags: Home Sales · Home Buyers · Bob Hunt · The Market
THANK THEM FOR THEIR SERVICE
March 9th, 2009 · 1 Comment
The news these days is all about the economy. All day every day. It overwhelms us. One unfortunate side effect of this is that lots of other items that would normally receive our attention are pushed to the back pages, if they are covered at all.
One of those back page items is coverage of our […]
Tags: Home Sales · Home Buyers · Bob Hunt · The Market
WHITE HOUSE PLAN FOR “RESPONSIBLE HOMEOWNERS” LEAVES YOU WONDERING
February 23rd, 2009 · No Comments
On February 18 the White House released an executive summary of the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan. Details to follow. The plan targets two groups: (1) Four to five million “responsible homeowners” who are current on their payments, have seen their property values fall, and who are now unable to refinance at lower mortgage rates. […]
Tags: Home Buyers · National Association of Realtors · NAR · Bob Hunt · The Market
BUYERS, SELLERS, AND AGENTS ARE ALL PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL
February 17th, 2009 · 1 Comment
Predictably Irrational sounds like a book about the real estate market. But it’s not, at least not directly. It is certainly relevant reading for real estate agents, brokers, and managers. The full title of the book is Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions (HarperCollins, 280 pp.). It is written by Dan Ariely […]
Tags: Home Sales · Home Buyers · Bob Hunt · The Market