rental market trends - 09/27/10 09:37 AM
below are two graphs the first shows availability of apartments in Yellowstone county. the second shows the pricing. it appears to be a dichotomy with less unit available yet the pricing is also down. what has occurred is the high rental market has softened due to the tax credit and historically low interest rates. the high end competes with home purchasing so it has softened in terms of pricing therefore the average price has moved down . the median has moved also but you can see not as much as the average since the average is affected more by the higher … (0 comments)

minimum credit scores from FHA - 09/24/10 02:06 PM
the is an excerpt from Mortgagee Letter 10-29 outline FHA's minimum credit score and loan to value ratio. the infromation was realeaed spetmebr 3rd 2010 thought it might be of use.

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short sale property - 09/24/10 01:44 PM
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els drive in laurel montana - 09/24/10 01:41 PM
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new single family homes sales - 09/24/10 11:02 AM
know it is broken record time, yet if the "great recession" is over and dancing in the streets should begin how you reconcile the depression that is occurring in the new home construction business. While I have no doubt the government has spent trillions of dollars "saving" us, the powers that be do not understand a new swimming pool in Mississippi does not produce long lasting changes in employment.  The chart and graph show the performance of new home sales in August traditionally one of the highest months of sales in the year not tying the lowest sales in record keeping. … (0 comments)

EXISTING HOMES SALES - 09/23/10 01:10 PM
FIRST YOU READ THE HEADLINE AND THINK WOW GREAT NEWS, THEN LOOK AT THE ACTUAL PERFORMANCE IN AUGUST AND YOU CAN SEE EXISTING HOME SALES IN AUGUST ARE BELOW EVERY YEAR ON THE GRAPH FOR AUGUST. THE SAME IS TRUE FOR JULY. THE 2010 MONTHS ABOVE 2009 HAD THE TAX CREDIT TO PUNCH THEM SOOOOOOOOOO THE THOUGHT TO PONDER ARE WE SELLING SWAMP LAND OR ARE SELLING MORE HOUSES
Existing home sales bounce back in August (CNN HEADLINE TODAY 9/23/2010)

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housing starts and permits - 09/22/10 11:10 AM
Headline on construction yesterday on yahoo
Home construction jumps 10.5 pct in August
Below are graphs and charts showing both permits and starts for both single family and all permits which include multi family, notoriously volatile. The number in the head line is true, the question to ponder does it actually have any significance? I can say I increased my savings by 20% by going from $10 saved to $12 saved but does the actual amount have any real out come on my well being. The chart below defines the actual market performance from peak, the average for the last five … (0 comments)

positive trends? - 09/21/10 08:13 AM
below are tow charts the first being the inventory on homes on the market while still substantially above last year (18% higher) it appears that inventory has peaked and is heading for its traditional slow decline through the end of the year. the second is pending sales again the number of pending sales seems to have found s solid floor which is a positive yet we are still substantially below last year at this time . pending sales are 30% below last year at this time. the two trends taken together indicate that we should see stabilization within the market place … (0 comments)

title and forclosure - 09/18/10 10:09 AM
While the following is not a huge risk, I can see scenarios where back end vulture investors collect rights of lenders on prime properties and then force the issue into court on the unsuspecting property owner and hold them hostage to endless litigation unless they conveniently pay the vulture investor to go away. Remember it is not necessarily the validity of the claim that forces payment it is the threat of endless litigation that prompts payment from the new owner.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Latest Real Estate Time Bomb: Title of Foreclosed Properties Clouded; Wells Fargo Dumping Risk on Hapless Buyers … (4 comments)

1057 GINGER BILLINGS MONTANA - 09/17/10 08:03 PM
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house hold formation - 09/16/10 09:34 AM
the issues we have in housing employment and household formation are key. below is a quote from the street level about house hold formation which leads to the the conclusion we are not going anywhere fast
Time Warner Cable ... CFO Robert Marcus said "subscriber environment very, very weak," thanks to high unemployment, high ... vacancies and "really anemic new home formation."
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airport infromation from around montana - 09/08/10 09:19 AM
Below is commercial flight information from the major airports in Montana. The report is numbers by the city name. I have calculated the number of passenger per flight per departure. Bozeman has the highest number of passengers per departure, yet one thing that would effectively lower Billings per departure passenger load would be the number of essential air service flights that leave Billings for eastern Montana.  With 53,000 more passengers departing from Billings, it is by far the largest travel airport in the state. Also note worthy is the increase in the number of departures 14.23% as compared to declines at … (0 comments)

unemployment and housing around the country - 09/07/10 08:11 AM
The question you may ask yourself, why the powers that be do they not learn Tax credits and the Federal Reserve buying mortgages do not solve the housing problem. Until the powers at that be learn that the people that sign check on the front think they can be profitable by hiring people we are destined to struggle. All the trillions spent to this point as you can see do not add up to a very positive housing report. If you think prices can survive housing sales declines like shown below then get in line to buy that expensive swamp land … (1 comments)

FIVE YEAR MARKET PERFORMANCE RVEVIEW - 09/03/10 08:09 AM
NUMBERS IN AND OF THEMSELVES ARE MEANINGLESS WITHOUT PERSPECTIVE. THE CHART BELOW SHOWS THE YELLOWSTONE COUNTIES RELATIVE MARKET PERFORMANCE THROUGH AUGUST OF EACH YEAR AND THE CLOSED TRANSACTION FOR EACH AUGUST. THIS THEN GIVES A SENSE FOR THE MARKETS RELATIVE STRENGTH OR WEAKNESS OVER TIME. UNFORTUNATELY WHAT IT SHOWS US IS RELATIVE WEAKNESS OVER TIME. THE MONTHLY SALES YEAR OVER SHOW A 27.16% DECLINE AND THE YEARLY SHOWS A 30% DECLINE FROM THE PEAK YEAR OF 2006. I WOULD SURMISE BASED ON THE MARKET PERFORMANCE SO FAR WITHOUT THE TAX CREDIT AND APPROXIMATELY 4.25% INTEREST RATES THAT UNDERPERFORMANCE FOR THE REST … (1 comments)

total market performance yaer to year comparision - 09/01/10 10:26 AM
below is the relationship by year of active ,pending  closed sales. based on the rate of sales so far this year and the amount of the market that occurs in the last third of the year it indicates unit volume for sales should end up approximately 10% below last year. i not sure we will get quite that close because last year we had the tax credit rush in September and October which we will not have have this year. which would leasd me to belive a lower rate of sales through the end of the year  
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makert stats throughaugust 31st 2010 - 09/01/10 08:36 AM
here are the numbers for august . there are still some closed transaction to come though ,but they will not change the numbers very much. the most significant is that are closed as compared to last year is NOW below instead of above. again the result of the tax credit disappearing

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