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New Year's resolution #1: Clean up your credit - 12/27/07 10:11 AM
December 26, 2007
Beginning with today’s post, I’ll be writing a series of New Year’s resolution posts – since we’re all sitting down right now to make those resolutions, let’s add some that will help us buy or sell homes better – or just save money everyday.
Today’s New Year’s resolution will help you if you’re thinking of buying a home, refinancing your current mortgage – or asking for any kind of loan. So let’s all resolve to clean up our credit or – if it’s already spick-and-span, to keep it that way.
Whether you have poor credit or excellent credit … (1 comments)
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It's not personal: How to handle low-ball offers - 12/27/07 10:09 AM
December 24, 2007
It’s a day to celebrate in a slower housing market: you get an offer on your home. But then you look at the number and your face turns red – it’s so low, you can’t believe anyone would dare suggest that your precious home is worth so little.
Take a deep breath, step back, and remember: it’s not personal.
Just as you want to get the best deal – the highest price for your home – so does the buyer want to get the best deal, which for him means paying the lowest possible price.
Sometimes savvy … (1 comments)
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Mortgage Forgiveness Act offers more relief for some families - 12/27/07 10:08 AM
December 21, 2007
Last month, I wrote a post, called “Maybe the IRS isn’t so bad after all? Oh wait, never mind” about the IRS rules on taxation of cancelled debt as income. Basically, the rules say that with a few exceptions, if a homeowner’s lender agrees to a short sale instead of a foreclosure, and forgives any excess debt that the sale didn’t cover, the IRS can tax that forgiven debt as income – even though the homeowner never sees a dime of actual cash.
This week, President Bush signed into law an act that would temporarily suspend those rules.
… (0 comments)
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Why the dip in housing starts and permits is actually a good thing - 12/22/07 01:26 AM
December 19, 2007
When I heard on the news yesterday that housing construction starts had fallen in November – down 3.7% across the U.S. from October and off 24% from November of last year – I was happy. That’s right. The dip in housing construction starts and permits is actually a good thing.
Here’s why: there are more homes on the market in Phoenix right now than there are buyers. If builders keep building new homes, those excess homes already sitting on the market continue to sit there – and that keeps prices down.
If, instead, builders cut back on … (3 comments)
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Is it really "so easy" to sell a house? - 12/20/07 01:05 AM
December 17, 2007
I came across an interesting discussion yesterday, in response to an article in the Arizona Daily Star, “Real estate agents strive to cope in slow market.”
One commenter said, “The only advantage an agent adds to the process is the ability to use the Multiple Listing Service. Any ‘special’ service or skill claimed by any real estate agent is just marketing jive. It is so easy to sell a house. . .”
Certainly, being a real estate agent isn’t rocket science. But neither is financial planning, or accounting, or any of the other professional service jobs we use … (0 comments)
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Subprime rate freeze: who will it help? - 12/20/07 01:04 AM
December 14, 2007
Last week, the Bush Administration, mortgage lenders, and investors together agreed on a plan to freeze certain subprime rates for 5 years. The negotiations, between Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and mortgage industry executives, came in the face of 2 million looming mortgage adjustments.
The plan, proponents say, will help avoid some future mortgage defaults, which have so far led to billions of dollars in losses for big banks, hedge funds, and other investors (not to mention homeowners who have lost their homes).
The plan applies to:
Subprime mortgage loans made between January, 2005 and July 30, 2007 and … (0 comments)
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Citing slowing economic growth, the Fed cuts rates again - 12/14/07 01:11 AM
December 12, 2007
Yesterday the Federal Reserve decided again to lower the federal funds target rate by another 0.25% -- to 4.25%. From the Fed’s press release:
“Incoming information suggests that economic growth is slowing, reflecting the intensification of the housing correction and some softening in business and consumer spending. Moreover, strains in financial markets have increased in recent weeks. Today’s action, combined with the policy actions taken earlier, should help promote moderate growth over time.
Readings on core inflation have improved modestly this year, but elevated energy and commodity prices, among other factors, may put upward pressure on inflation. In … (1 comments)
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Is It Better to Take My Home Off the Market During the Holidays? - 12/11/07 09:36 PM
December 11, 2007
There are presents to be bought, decorations to be hung, cookies to be baked. Who has time to buy or sell a home during the holidays? If you’re trying to sell your home right now, you may be inclined to take a “break” during this holiday season. Pick things back up in January.
But if you do, you’ll probably be making a mistake. Why? Here are a couple of reasons:
You’re already fussing over how your house looks for company – decorating, picking up, and making sure everything’s clean. How much extra work would it be to keep … (2 comments)
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National Association of Realtors Phoenix Market Report, Part 3 - 12/11/07 09:34 PM
December 7, 2007
A recently released National Association of Realtors (NAR) market report for the Phoenix area talked about the housing market in the Valley. This is the third in a series of posts explaining some of the NAR’s findings.
One of the most commonly cited housing market statistics is price. Recent attention has focused on the divergence of incomes and home prices in the Phoenix area since 2004. The graph below, from the NAR, illustrates that trend.
But according to the NAR report,
“However, such a reliance solely on price and income growth is inappropriate. For a homebuyer, what … (0 comments)
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Experts at the Economic Forecast Luncheon Say: Cloud of Uncertainty Hangs Over the Economy - 12/07/07 01:28 AM
December 5, 2007
As part of my series of posts on the Phoenix housing market and the Arizona economy in general, today I’m writing from the 44th Annual Economic Forecast Luncheon.
Experts at the 44th Annual Chase/W. P. Carey Economic Forecast Luncheon (including S&P’s Chief Economist, JP Morgan Chase’s Senior Economist, ASU Economics Associate Dean, and local Economist) said that a dark cloud of uncertainty hangs over Arizona’s economy, despite strong economic indicators (including record-low unemployment) in 2007.
According to Knowledge@W. P. Carey’s coverage of the luncheon, these were the key points:
The subprime mortgage collapse and problems in credit markets … (1 comments)
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National Association of Realtors Phoenix Market Report, Part 2 - 12/05/07 02:29 AM
December 3, 2007
A recently released National Association of Realtors (NAR) market report for the Phoenix area talked about the housing market in the Valley. This is the second in a series of posts explaining some of the NAR’s findings.
According to the report, prices in the Phoenix region decreased an average of 2.7% in the second quarter of 2007 over the same quarter in 2006. But prices in the second quarter of 2007were up 59.9% over the same quarter of 2004. The moral of the story: if you bought in 2006, you’re down a little bit (which doesn’t really matter … (1 comments)
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National Association of Realtors Phoenix Market Report - 12/05/07 02:28 AM
November 30, 2007
A recently released National Association of Realtors (NAR) market report for the Phoenix area summed up the situation quite nicely: there are certainly some negative factors affecting the Phoenix-area housing market, but there are also a lot of positive factors. We won’t be in a slump forever.
The housing market news has been dominated lately by two topics: sales declines (in numbers of homes sold and price) and foreclosures. In a new series of posts, I’ll address both issues and talk about the housing market and Arizona’s economy in general.
The bad news: negative factors affecting the … (1 comments)
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Bob Stahl
Phoenix,
AZ
More about me…
Keller Williams Arizona Realty
Address: Scottsdale, AZ, 85258
Office Phone: (480) 767-3000
Cell Phone: (602) 318-1114
Email Me
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