Jerry Wright's (jerrywright) Blog

4 Home Improvements That Will Save You Money

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 02:53:00 -0700

Judging by the TV commercials, most home improvements are a blast. You waltz into a store, throw a bunch of new faucets and buckets of paint in your shopping cart, without sweating about the cost, then transform your dingy kitchen into something out of, well, a TV commercial. Frequently, those TV spots are spot-on. It is fun to have a new kitchen or to show off your newly installed hardwood floors to your friends and family. But it's all too easy to forget about home improvements that will only get you a polite nod when showing them off - and yet if you ignore them, they could cost you serious money. Read more here.

Buyers fighting for homes as mortgage rates rise

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 02:27:49 -0700

June was only just a little less hot than May, at least as far as the area's real estate market was concerned, according to a new report. Sales of houses and condos were up 14.1 percent in King County and 8.5 percent in Seattle from a year earlier, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported Wednesday. That's a lot, but less than May's increases of 19.3 percent and 21.4 percent, respectively. New listings and slightly lower sales boosted the county's inventory of homes for sale to 1.7 months (that's how long it would take to sell all the homes listed at the current sales pace), up from 1.5 months in May. That's still down from 2.4 months of inventory a year ago and way below the 6 months generally considered the balancing point between favoring buyers and sellers. Read more here.

Why I’m Draining My Savings to Stimulate the Economy

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 02:15:07 -0700

For several years, the economy limped along because of me. I scrimped on everything, did it myself if I could do it myself, and hoarded money out of fear that the recent recession had another dip or two left in it. Things are different now. I’ve turned my savings into spending, rung up thousands of dollars’ worth of purchases on my credit cards and in the process paid a lot more in taxes. And I’ll probably keep spending like this until I nearly run out of money. In other words, I’ve bought a house. Since the recession materialized in 2008, policymakers in Washington have been urging Americans to buy homes, because no single purchase does more to generate economic activity. The housing market and everything associated with it accounts for around one-sixth of the entire economy, which is why a housing bust can drag the whole nation into a recession (basically what happened starting in 2007) while a housing boom can make nearly everyone better off, including people who don’t even own homes. Read more here.

Is Your Credit Score Sexy Enough?

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 05:20:34 -0700

Money can't buy you happiness, but can knowing how to handle money get you a spouse? That's the theory behind a couple of dating sites that use credit scores as a way for people to find Mr. or Ms. Right. This is just the latest way credit scores -- which are based on a person's outstanding debt and payment histories -- have morphed into applications different from their original purpose: Financial institutions first used them as a means to determine whether they should make a loan to someone. Some companies now use them when doing background checks on job candidates. Landlords use them to vet potential renters. And insurance companies use them to set rates on auto and home insurance. Read more here.

Interest rate surge hammers US mortgage apps

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 03:35:59 -0700

An unrelenting surge in interest rates for home mortgages pushed borrowing costs to their highest level in two years, stymieing demand from potential homeowners, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday. Interest rates on fixed 30-year mortgages rose for the ninth week in a row to average 4.68 percent in the week ended July 5, the Mortgage Bankers Association said. It was the highest level since July 2011 and a 10 basis point increase over the week before. The surge in costs has been expected to push some undecided buyers into the market as they rush to lock in rates before they rise even more, but MBA's seasonally adjusted gauge of loan requests for home purchases fell 3.1 percent, the second-straight week of declines. Read more here.

Real-world price tags for fictional dwellings TV shows call ‘home’

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Fri, 12 Jul 2013 02:38:30 -0700

When it comes to home sweet home, sometimes TV gets it just right. And other times, the small screen is oh-so-wrong. Face it: The titular “2 Broke Girls” couldn’t afford the rent on their apartment in a trendy neighborhood of Brooklyn (if they paid the rent, that is). So what would it cost to snag some of today’s popular TV homes? And how practical are the settings for the characters who live there? From sitcoms to dramas, check out the real-world price tags for the fictional dwellings that six hot TV shows call “home.” Read more here.

Better to talk more and text less when buying a home

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 03:31:12 -0700

Millennials are the most connected generation in history. In fact, The Pew Research Center calls them "history's 'always connected' generation, treating their handheld devices 'almost like a body part.'" So when it comes to buying a home, Millennials (those born after 1982) are more likely to do most of their research online as well as communicate electronically. This extends to communicating with real estate agents. But real estate appraiser Richard Hagar says if you're buying a home, "talking" through texting is useful only up to a certain point.  "Once a potential buyer has established initial contact, then an agent can start to help that person. But you need more than communication through thumbs and fingers." Read more here.

Seattle housing market one of the most competitive in the U.S.

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 01:47:10 -0700

Low inventory and interest rates are why realtors call Seattle one of the most competitive housing markets in the country. “Seattle is just crazy bonkers. Most of our listings are going in 30 days,” said Al Uyeno, a local realtor. According to Uyeno, a declining unemployment rate of 5 percent and an uptick in hiring has increased the number of buyers in an already tight market. “We’ve got Amazon, we’ve got Boeing, we’ve got Microsoft all hiring and all these people are coming here from out of state so they have to have some place to live,” said Uyeno. According to the Northwest Listing Service, The median price of homes in Snohomish County is up 14 percent, and up 10 percent in both King and Pierce Counties. “Good houses are disappearing instantly, you look at it one day online and say honey maybe we should look at this Sunday. By then, it’s already pending,” said Charles Harper, a home buyer. Read more here.

How to Make a Budget From Scratch

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 02:24:17 -0700

The difference between people who are financially secure and those who are not often comes down to one thing: Whether or not they make a budget — and stick to it. Of course, there are many other factors, but that is a consistent one. Not only does budgeting lead to security, but it also can play a role in helping you pay off debt and raising your credit score over time. So let’s say you don’t have a budget. You don’t even have an inkling of how to start a budget. But you want to get started. It can be intimidating, but don’t worry — in this article we’ll explain how to make a budget from scratch. In no time, you’ll be taking better control over your finances! Read more here.

7 Real People Who Are Winning Their Fight With Debt

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 01:55:11 -0700

As human beings, there are some traits that we all have in common — two hands, one heart, red blood, and, unfortunately for most of us, a wealth of debt. The average American carries a $47,000 debt load, and as a nation, nearly $2 trillion of our collective debt is either delinquent or 90 days past due. Part of the problem in figuring out where to begin getting out of the red is knowing who to turn to for help. Maybe you're too embarrassed to fess up to your issues or you can't afford a financial advisor. So you might pick up a $20 self-help book or enroll in a $200 debt makeover course online. Save your money. Some of the greatest advice out there can come from the person standing next to you in line at the grocery store. To prove our point, we've rounded up 7 truly inspiring stories of real consumers who faced their debt head-on and managed to come out on the other side. Read more here.

10 Things Social Security Won’t Tell You

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 02:13:27 -0700

1. “Long-term deficit? We can hardly afford our bills today.” About a third of workers in their 50s expect Social Security benefits to be their primary source of income in retirement, according to the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. That reliance gives pre-retirees reason to worry about the future of the program. The Social Security Administration itself has said that unless something is done to reform the system, it will have to reduce benefit payments to retirees within the next few decades. Less talked about, perhaps, is the concern that the program is having a hard time paying its bills today. In 2010, the Social Security Administration began collecting less revenue in taxes than it needs to cover benefit payments, forcing the agency to tap its $2.7 trillion trust fund sooner than some had expected. It was the first time since 1983 that expenditures had exceeded noninterest income, and the shortage is expected to continue. “It’s almost like a family running huge deficits throughout their budget,” says Eugene Steuerle, an economist with the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. Read more here.

Why It’s Hard to Build Emergency Savings

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 02:12:57 -0700

Despite improvement in the economy, more than a fourth of Americans have no emergency savings. And those who do manage to sock away some money in basic savings accounts get abysmal interest on their funds and sometimes have to pay excessive fees. Half of Americans have less than three months of expenses saved up, and just a quarter have six months saved, which is the typical recommendation for emergency financial reserves, according to a report from the financial Web site Bankrate.com. The survey by Princeton Survey Research Associates International queried 1,004 adults from June 6 to 9 using landlines and cellphones. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points. Read more here.

Rising Mortgage Rates Cause 'Rush to ARMs'

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 02:15:17 -0700

After hovering around record lows for the past few years, mortgage rates are rising dramatically. That has consumers not only shopping more but also considering adjustable rate mortgages, which offer lower rates and lower monthly payments. These ARMs, many requiring interest payments only, were popular during the latest housing boom but quickly fell out of favor when safer, fixed-rate loan rates fell to record lows. ARMs accounted for 36 percent of mortgages in 2006 but just 4.5 percent today, according to Lender Processing Services. The shift to ARMs is not visible on a grand scale yet, but it is beginning. Read more here.

Open houses are a great source of information about the property, neighborhood and local markets. Nearly half of real-estate buyers go to one.

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 02:09:42 -0700

1. Look past window-dressing A full 94% of sellers do some "staging," such as repainting or bringing in new furniture, says Coldwell Banker. "You can be so wowed by staging that you overlook important things," says San Jose realtor Carl San Miguel. To focus on what matters, lift rugs to look at floors, ask the agent to turn off music so you can listen for nearby noise, and beware of any smells masked by candles. Also request a disclosure sheet, which lists known structural issues. 2. You can learn a lot from the crowd Nearly half of buyers visit open houses, says the National Association of Realtors, so pay attention to your fellow shoppers' comments; they may have insight into how this home stacks up. Locals often pop in too, so if someone sounds like a neighbor, ask about the area. To get a feel for demand, visit in the last hour and peek at the sign-in sheet. A full sheet could mean the home will sell quickly, says Paul Reid, a California-based agent. Read more here.

Seattle is 5th-most competitive housing market

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 01:56:16 -0700

Seattle is the fifth-most competitive housing market in the country right now, according to new stats from real estate website Redfin. It also shows the market has reached a point in which you need to be willing to pay more than the seller is asking and you need to make it personal by writing a letter to the seller. Redfin’s so-called “Bidding War Report” shows 74.6 percent of offers on homes in Seattle faced competition in April. That’s up from 68 percent a year ago. Of those homes, 67.9 percent of the winning offers were higher than the seller’s asking price. What were the features of winning offers in Seattle? According to Redfin: 2.4 percent were paid in cash 63.1 percent used a conventional loan 4.8 percent used an FHA/VA loan 10.7 percent waived financing contingency 14.3 percent had a pre-inspection 19 percent waived inspection contingency 17.9 percent used a cover letter Read more here.

How buyers can navigate tight housing market

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 02:45:32 -0700

SEATTLE -- Home prices around Western Washington in May were up around 13 percent from a year ago, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. It's a seller's market again, so its buyers that need to do their homework. The lack of inventory is driving up a competitive market and homes are getting multiple offers. “What that really means is we have half-months of inventory. A healthy market is somewhere between 3 and 6 months. With a half-months of inventory, that means if no new homes come on the market, we’re going to sell out of inventory in about two weeks,” said Stephanie Imsande, a Windermere Real Estate realtor. With many open houses on weekends, Imsande advises buyers check out a home thoroughly. She looks at the home’s foundation, roof and windows to see if they need repairs. When a buyer is ready to submit an offer, there are ways to get a leg up on the competition. "A buyer can stand out by being as competitive as possible. What that really means is having the least amount of contingencies in their offer as they can. Houses are coming on and sellers are setting review dates, which means they’re allowing a few days for buyers to complete pre-inspections and do whatever investigations on the house they need to do prior to submitting an offer." Read more here.

Surging home prices fuel fears of a new bubble

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 02:26:41 -0700

Shoppers fighting over the few homes listed for sale in the Seattle area pushed up prices again in May, prompting fears of a fresh housing bubble, according to a new report. The median sales price of a King County house in May was $417,500, up 15.3 percent from a year earlier and 4.4 percent from April, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported Wednesday. Seattle's median house price was $460,000, up 8.1 percent from a year earlier and 1.4 percent from April. "We certainly can't sustain 15 percent annual price increases," said Glenn Crellin, associate director of the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies at the University of Washington. In a listing service news release, Frank Wilson, Kitsap district manager at John L. Scott Real Estate and branch managing broker for its Poulsbo/Kingston office, said: "We do not want a market that escalates too fast and topples again." Read more here.

More buyers than sellers push King County home prices up

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 03:57:53 -0700

Peter and Myrna Hillyer opened their North Seattle home of 45 years to potential buyers Wednesday. One was Meaghan Frisbee. She and her husband are trying to decide between adding a second floor to their house in Phinney Ridge or moving. They’ve seen 20 homes in the last month. “All the houses are getting snapped up,” said Frisbee, cradling her 3-month-old daughter in her arms. “It’s hard to find a house.” The Hillyers are in a good spot. They put their home in the Bryant neighborhood on the market a week ago at $650,000 and already are mulling an offer. “We don’t need a large home like this with six bedrooms,” said Myrna Hillyer, standing next to the spread of crackers, cookies and meat-and-cheese platters in the kitchen of the home the couple bought for $23,000 in 1968. “We’re planning to move back to Mercer Island.” Read more here.

Homes Get Less Affordable as Prices, Rates Rise

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Thu, 30 May 2013 01:55:10 -0700

If you’re a homeowner, recent news about double-digit price increases sounds terrific. But for buyers hoping to get a great deal on a house, the window of opportunity may be starting to close. For the past several years, housing affordability has been at or near record levels. Three basic factors determine affordability: home prices, mortgage rates and household incomes. The optimal moment for buying a home now appears to have occurred in early 2012, when the median price was about $156,000 and the average interest rate on a 30-year mortgage was 4.2%. Mortgage payments for a typical family totaled just 12% of income back then, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) — the lowest portion since 1970, when the NAR started tracking such data. In the first quarter of 2013 it took about 13% of income to make monthly mortgage payments, still a very low percentage. But two recent developments are pushing that number substantially higher: rising prices and rising mortgage rates. “Affordability will weaken because higher home values are not good for buyers, and higher mortgage rates are not good for buyers,” says Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the NAR. “And people’s incomes are barely rising.” Read more here.

Housing is back! Best moves for homebuyers

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 02:08:25 -0700

Real estate has finally started to bounce back across the country -- even roar back in some places.  Low mortgage rates and pent-up demand have coaxed buyers back into the market, and homeowners who list their houses are seeing more traffic. That quaint relic of the bubble, the bidding war, has even started to reemerge in some cities. Consider the mounting evidence that the long national real estate nightmare is over: During the past year, home prices increased in 92 of the country's 100 largest metropolitan areas, according to data provider CoreLogic, with prices rising as high as 23% in Phoenix and 17% in San Francisco. Sales volume rose in 69 of the top 100 markets, and 35 of those showed double-digit gains. Yet while most economists agree that the bottom is behind us and the five-year outlook for housing is on solid footing, the shorter term is shakier. "Two thousand thirteen and 2014 are going to be transition years," says Mark Fleming, CoreLogic's chief economist. "The market's improving, but it's not totally healed." Read more.

Home-staging tips: Scents and songs may snag you a buyer

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 01:57:32 -0700

We’ve all done it: Baked cookies or lit a scented candle before dinner guests arrive. Maybe you even turned on some Frank Sinatra to set the mood. But new research shows that while popular scents or songs may elicit positive emotions, they can distract from our ability to make decisions. “If you’re trying to sell your home, having the wrong smell or music playing is worse than having none at all,” said Eric R. Spangenberg, dean for the College of Business at Washington State University and longtime professor specializing in environmental psychology. “There is a lot of cognitive processing involved in a home purchase. A 30-year mortgage is a big decision.” Click here to read the full article.

What every home seller should know

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 02:20:46 -0700

WASHINGTON —Architect Chris French and his wife, Anya Landau French, turned up the volume on their vacant condominium apartment with designer-inspired contemporary furnishings — leather living-room furniture, glass and metal side tables, a black dining-room table and a fake TV. The aim of the makeover was to draw a buyer who would snap up the property — a person their professional stager imagined would be in his or her late 20s or early 30s, seeking the stability of homeownership. Click here to access the full article.

Existing home sales touch three-year high

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 02:15:25 -0700

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Home resales hit a three-year high in February and prices jumped, adding to signs of an acceleration in the housing market recovery, even though the supply of properties on the market increased. The National Association of Realtors said on Thursday existing home sales increased 0.8 percent to an annual rate of 4.98 million units last month, the highest level since November 2009. The January sales pace was revised up a 4.94 million units from the previously reported 4.92 million units. Economists polled by Reuters had expected home resales to rise to a 5 million-unit rate. Homes took about 74 days to sell in February, according to the median estimate, down from 97 days from a year ago. Click here to access the full article.

10 ways to control your home insurance costs

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 01:24:53 -0800

Click here for tips to reduce and control your home insurance costs.

Housing market signals its recovery is going strong

Jerry Wright, MLO 181458 (Absolute Mortgage) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:58:08 -0800

Taxes are higher, gas prices are rising, and Washington is in budget gridlock again, but the nation's housing market is viewing the world through rose-colored glasses. Click here to access the full article.