17December

National Home Price Index Down—Buyer Affordability Up

According to the S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Index, US home prices edged downward by 2% during the 3rd Quarter. This is in contrast to a 4.7% increase during the 2nd Quarter.

The study reviews stats for only 10 Cities and 20-“City Composites”. Both saw slower annual price growth than in recent months. Cleveland, OH posted the largest month over month decline at 3.0%. (Data published Nov. 30, 2010)

Five Trend Setters
There are Five cities defied the trend and posted positive gains over the prior year.
• San Francisco …… +5.5%
• San Diego .. ……… +5.0%
• Washington D.C. … +4.5%
• Los Angeles …….. +4.4%
• Boston .……..…….. +0.4%

The Bottom Line
Housing prices are still superior to Q2-2009 lows. Month over month declines were modest at 1-3%. Lower prices increase “affordability” for qualified buyers.

Conclusion
While the report captures key trends, it does not cover every city or every metropolitan market area. Remember the old adage, “all real estate is local”.
Knowing and sharing accurate and objective market data generates huge ‘value-added’ to prospective buyers.

14December

HomeTelos Express – More Salt Lake visits!

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Have you ever been to Salt Lake, Utah? We loved visiting our brokers there and taking in the sites! We met Dimension Realty and Team Utah offices on our visit.

10December

Big Help for Small Business Owners: Small Business and Credit Act of 2010

Attention Real Estate Brokers…Do you know about the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act? According to CIT Group, only 48% of small businesses have even heard of the legislation despite the US Small Business Administration (SBA) statement that it is “the most significant piece of small business legislation in over a decade”.

There are two important “power tools” hidden in the act that we want to make sure you don’t miss.

1. More Cash
“The new law puts more capital in the hands of Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners.” (SBA) The maximum loan size for small business loans has more than doubled from the previous limit! There are temporary increases to loan limits, as well as permanent increases in the maximum size for SBA’s loan programs. Read more

10December

Making Room for the Echo Boom

Are you maximizing your marketing to the powerhouse demographic responsible for the wave of first time homebuyers? According to early examination of the Urban Land Institute Survey, most first time homebuyers are members of the “Echo-Boom” generation also referred to as Millennials or Gen Y.

Generation Y is made up of 18-32 year olds and is actually larger than the post war Baby Boom generation. In fact, they make up 25% of the total population at 77.4 million individuals across the United States.

Additionally, this generation is responsible for 50% of first time home purchases from July 2009-June 2010. If that’s not surprising enough, 15% of the 18-24 age group already owned homes!

Here’s another little known fact about GenY…most of them do not want to live in an urban center. Approximately 33% label themselves “city people,” another third prefer the burbs, and the remaining third self-identifies as “small town people” or “country folk.” Therefore, 66% of the current wave of potential first time homebuyers expect to reside outside “big city limits” and would prefer to return to where they grew up.

“Once housing begins to recover, GenY will drive housing development patterns. These people deserve more attention than they are getting,” says Patrick Phillips, ULI chief executive officer. “Real Estate professionals should continue to market to this generation specifically. “

Currently, 53% of the 18-24 sub group expect to be home owners within the next 5 years. The percentage balloons to 73% for those 25-29, and 78% for those 30 or older expect to buy.

Are you targeting this age group as potential home buyers?

3December

Rising Mortage Rates: Are potential home buyers about to miss their opportunity?

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The lowest mortgage rates in history are for now, a thing of the past. Rates rose sharply last week for the second week in a row.

Freddie Mac’s nationwide interest rate survey indicates that 30-year fixed rates are up from 4.17% to 4.39% during the week of November 18th. Rates are now perched at the highest point since early August. Fifteen year mortgage rates increased from 3.57% to 3.76%, leaving many prospective homebuyers on the sidelines and wondering what’s next. Read more

22November

What Recession? Hot selling zips defy gravity…

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Did you know that there are areas of the country with homes selling at our near 5% ABOVE the asking price? That’s right. Despite the general “perspective” on the housing market, there are many areas of the country with record growth and California holds 5 of the top 10 spots according to ZipRealty.

homes for sale

Chicago

Top Seller
The country’s “hottest selling ZIP” is found in the Greater Grand Crossing community in Chicago, Illinois. In Greater Grand Crossing it is common to see homes sell for 9 percent above list price. Other listed bright sites include, North Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Covington, Washington.

homes for sale

Durham

Coldest Seller
In case you’re curious, the coldest ZIP in the country was located in Durham, North Carolina. Homes in this city sold for an average of 81% of list price during 3rd Quarter.

Are you seeing any of these trends in your market?

22November

HomeTelos Express: Our visits to Pueblo and Durango CO

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On this round we visited Muldoon and Associates and Trend Equity Group. We even had time for a quick Pikes Peak sighting and put our lives at risk on the Royal Gorge Bridge!

16November

September Housing Sales Points to Hope

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Don’t look now but people are buying homes again. REALTOR Magazine’s October 25th issue reported that existing home sales increased in all four regions of the country, for the month of September. Here are some facts that should get you excited…

• The rate of increase ranged from 5% in the West to 14.5% in the Midwest
Read more

10November

Paying it Forward: First Preston is investing in their local community

As a business, our job is to empower communities all over the nation. We live out that principle through getting involved in our own community here in Dallas by supporting several amazing organizations. One of our favorites is the Dallas Women’s Foundation.

The DWF strengthens the entire community by increasing the investment in women and girls and empowering women’s philanthropy. In addition, they have poured more than $13 million into 950 community service organizations in North Texas. This has made it possible to lift the hopes and lighten the load of 250,000 “at risk” women and girls in the area. Read more

10November

Warren Buffett: Bullish on real estate

We’ve been in the REO services industry since the late 80’s and we’ve seen a lot of things come in go in those years. But we’ve discovered something new that we wanted to make sure that you knew about.

Warren Buffett has built the 2nd largest Real Estate Brokerage chain in the country.

That’s right, while you were looking the other direction one of the world’s most prominent investors has decided that real estate would be a good asset and pushed his chips in that corner.

His company is called Home Services America and is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a subsidiary of Berkshire – “controlled” Mid-American Energy Holdings. The umbrella of amenities for HAS includes a plethora of settlement services, such as mortgage, title and escrow, relocation and insurance..and they are on pace to add 4-6 regional chains this year.

Here’s the other interesting wrinkle to the company. After acquisition, the local Brokerages are encouraged to keep their company names and the owners must remain involved in the business. Homes Services of America provides well thought out business systems and backend tools in to support the local brokerage. Financially, it’s like putting the best regional brands on steroids.

If Warren Buffett thinks that real estate is a profitable investment, we think that indicates something that we’ve known all along. The future for the real estate industry is bright.

What do you think?