Home Buying and Home Selling News Archive of January 2007

Adjustable Rate Mortgages Present Continuing Risks for US Housing
dBusinessNews Sacramento (press release) - Sacramento,CA,USA
According to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation and other real estate companies such as The Home Buying Center.com more than $1 trillion in adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) will reset this year bringing higher monthly payments and a corresponding increased risk of foreclosure to thousands of homeowners ...

Home prices grow at slowest pace in 10 years
MarketWatch - USA
Home-price appreciation weakened to its slowest pace in more than 10 years in the 12 months ending in November, MacroMarkets and Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday....

Beware of reverse mortgages and titles of those selling them
Palm Beach Daily News - Palm Beach,FL,USA
A reverse mortgage is a loan or credit line secured by your home. You never have to repay the balance unless you move, sell the home or die. ...

44 things that make a house a home
St. Petersburg Times - St. Petersburg,FL,USA
7 Don't buy art to match the sofa - buy it because you connect with it. 8 Break down cleaning chores and do one or two every day - that way your house will ...

How to sell your house no matter what the market
News 10 Now - Syracuse,NY,USA
It may or may not be a seller's market, but New Yorkers who are putting their house or apartment up for sale still want to make a profit. ...

How To Switch Houses Without Losing Your Shirt
Personla Finance Weblog - Palo Alto,CA,USA
This of course closed us off to some potential buyers who needed a house faster. On the other hand, it was appealing to others who wanted some time to sell ...

How To Switch Houses Without Losing Your Shirt
Personla Finance Weblog - Palo Alto,CA,USA
This of course closed us off to some potential buyers who needed a house faster. On the other hand, it was appealing to others who wanted some time to sell ...

Slump in Housing Demand Prompts Owners to Improve Properties
Emediawire (press release) - Ferndale,WA,USA
Home improvement and construction businesses are booming as homeowners opt to improve their home, rather than purchase a new one. According to a Fitch Ratings' forecast, home renovation spending in the United States will grow as homeowners continue to customize their homes, improve kitchens and bathrooms and add more living space ...

Real estate: Who's buying now
CNNMoney.com - USA
The biggest group of home buyers by far is still married couples, accounting for 61 percent of all homes bought, according to the National Association of Realtors. But single women now purchase 22 percent of all homes. Single men accounted for only 9 percent of purchases ...

Home foreclosure aid available
Cincinnati Enquirer - Cincinnati,OH,USA
Many foreclosures in Hamilton County result from home-selling or "flipping" scams involving the sale of superficially rehabilitated houses with inflated ...

Rent or Buy?
MSNBC - USA
When considering whether it's better to remain a renter (and let your landlord fix the plumbing leaks), your area's real estate market should be one consideration. But it's not the only one, and it may not be the most important one ...

How to showcase a home so it will sell
Rutland Herald - Rutland,VT,USA
Home staging, also called "home showcasing," is the home seller's secret weapon in a market where buyers are in control. The purpose: to camouflage faults...

Homeowners making changes instead of selling as market cools
East Valley Tribune - Mesa,AZ,USA
Now, the housing market may be slumping, but Valley remodelers say business is brisk partly because homeowners like Baker are staying put ...

Real estate 2007: What's in and what's out
Minneapolis Star Tribune (subscription) - Minneapolis,MN,USA
Before you list your house for sale this spring, better check out this list of what's in and what' out for real estate this year ...

Some Home Fixes Pay, Others Don't
Lakeland Ledger - Lakeland,FL,USA
Selling a home is never easy, but in this housing market it's going to be even more difficult. All is not lost, however. There are ways to make your home more appealing to buyers, which could result in a faster sale ...

Discount brokerage is an alternative way to sell a house
St. Louis Post-Dispatch - St. Louis,MO,USA
Realtors are changing from the old brick-and-mortar way of doing business to more Web-based discount brokerages or even virtual offices that only generate online leads ...

Selling or buying a house? Schedule closings carefully
Scripps News - Washington,DC,USA
Selling one house and buying another is like putting yourself between a rock and a hard place. If you set both closings within the same basic time frame, you run the risk of ending up with two mortgages or much worse. If you schedule them with sufficient time between to solve any closing problems, you face the prospect of renting and moving twice...

Homebuilders: Will '07 Be a Rebuilding Year?
MSNBC - USA
Maybe 2007 won't be such a bad year for homebuilders after all. As industry players fight back against a difficult market, investors appear to be sensing some progress. Case in point: Lennar (LEN) shares climbed Jan. 17 after the company announced that its earnings in 2007 could top those of 2006 ...

Single Women Account for 22% of Home Buying Market
VillageSoup Belfast - Belfast,ME,USA
According to a recent study by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), single women between the ages of 25-34 now account for 22% of the home buying market. Women bought 1.76 million homes between July 2005 and June 2006, up nearly 14% from a decade ago ...

Outlook strong for real estate
Kansas.com - KS,USA
A strong Wichita economy means a good 2007 for commercial real estate, according to a forecast released Wednesday by Grubb & Ellis Martens Commercial Group ...

Bay Area Home Prices Flat, Home Sales Lowest Since 1996
KTVU.com - San Francisco,CA,USA
The December sales pace for Bay Area homes was the slowest in a decade and prices remained flat, a real estate information service reported today ...

Low-income families can get help buying home
Victorville Daily Press - Victorville,CA,USA
It’s called the Downpayment Assistance Program. It helps low-income families like the Weavers qualify for the down payment — up to $65,000 — to purchase their first home ...

Proposal: Lower insurance rates but bigger risks
Miami Herald - FL,USA
In a gamble to lower premiums for hurricane insurance, Florida legislators are ready to let homeowners take bigger risks: Buy coverage for less than a home's value, accept steep deductibles -- or even go without windstorm insurance at all ...

Reason for selling is none of buyer's business
Upstate House - NY,USA
It is the buyer's business why the seller is selling. As a longtime (40-years-plus) real estate investor, I've learned it pays to know why the seller is selling so I can tailor my purchase offer to meet the seller's needs ...

Predictions for Las Vegas real estate in 2007
Stuccoed.com - Las Vegas,USA
Recent statistics show that approximately 7,000 people a month are moving in to the Las Vegas Valley. In addition, Nevada’s Department of Employment predicts that the state’s employment will grow 5 percent in 2007. Those statistics point to an increase in property value in 2007 ...

New York Real Estate Still Plenty Warm
WNBC - New York,NY,USA
That's up almost 10 percent from the previous year -- reflecting that the city's real estate market, while it might not be white hot, is still plenty warm ...

8 trends to help you sell your home
Buffalo News - Buffalo,NY,USA
Mark Nash, author of "Real Estate AZ for Buying and Selling a Home" and "1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home," says that sellers should consider the ...

Houses Go From Selling in a Day to an Average of 9 Months
The Ledger - Lakeland,FL,USA
"Previously, buyers would rather choose to purchase the home and fix or change the minor detail they did not like. If you are selling your home, ...

Pay now or pay later?
Miami Herald - FL,USA
They include allowing homeowners to buy less coverage, perhaps just enough to cover their mortgages, or take on bigger deductibles, or forgo windstorm ...

Makeover tips help sell houses
Miami Herald - FL,USA
An example he shares was a seller who spent $20000 remodeling his kitchen to make the house more attractive. Although the home sold quickly, when he stopped ...

Housing market pain not revealed by stats
CNNMoney.com - USA
A Gulf Breeze, Florida reader reports, "The market here went sky high and now went down - houses are selling cheap and people are not buying." ...

Smart Moves: Small upgrades lead to big sale
Novato Advance - Novato,CA,USA
“People who stubbornly refuse to make minor fixes get bitten badly in the home-selling process,” says Davis, author of the new book: “Home Makeovers That ...

Do I qualify for $250000 home-sale tax break?
Upstate House - NY,USA
Thanks to Internal Revenue Code 121, millions of US home sellers enjoy these tax-free benefits each year when selling their principal residences ...

Three Agent Teams Offer their 'Most Creative Ideas for Selling a Home'
RisMedia.com (press release) - Norwalk,CT,USA
RISMedia recently interviewed three agent team leaders from around the country on the most creative idea they've used to sell a home, recruiting new team ...

A flinch in house flipping
Daily Breeze - Torrance,CA,USA
When HomeSmartReports.com began tracking flipping, the practice of buying then quickly selling a home, it accounted for 2.4 percent of resales ...

Why Real Estate Is A Good Investment
Luxist - Santa Monica,CA,USA
There are entire books written on the subject of what makes real estate a good investment, so we won't go into that here. Instead, we will simply give you ...

Orders still down sharply, home builder says
USA Today - USA
Nationwide, Horton's average selling price fell 5.4%, with the sharpest declines in the Southwest (22.2%) and the Southeast (10.2%). Prices edged down 1.9% in California, where net orders fell 18.1% ...

Realtor ads to push home buying
MarketWatch - USA
NAR President Pat Vredevoogd Combs said Tuesday at a press conference that now is a good time for consumers to buy a home, given low interest rates and high ...

Has the real estate market 'correction' just about run its course?
Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Sarasota,FL,USA
What's the shape of a post-bubble, post-correction real estate market? And more to the point: What does that mean for you in the new year? Those questions are becoming increasingly relevant as the latest sales data show a small but unmistakable uptick in activity and declining unsold inventories ...

Gauging where housing market is headed
Upstate House - NY,USA
David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, recently said that the home sale market has started to stabilize and could even turn around by spring 2007. Other economists are less optimistic ...

Commercial Real Estate Still Performing Well
Black Enterprise - New York,NY,USA
Although residential real estate markets have struggled, commercial real estate investments have continued to prosper ...

2007 Year of Alarm for Adjustable Mortgages and Sacramento Foreclosures
dBusinessNews Sacramento (press release) - Sacramento,CA,USA
As the new year begins thousands of local homeowners will find it difficult to shape up their finances because they will see their adjustable rate mortgage payments increase dramatically ...

Do your homework on lease-options
HeraldNet - Everett,WA,USA
That's why it's usually best to limit the lease-option period to one year if you truly want to sell the house. The longer you wait, the greater the odds ...

Buying in a soft market
Marketplace - Los Angeles,CA,USA
According to some real estate experts, there's no better time than now to purchase a home. But a soft market doesn't necessarily make it a comfy one, as Janet Babin reports ...

Advice for First-Time Home Buyers
Kiplinger.com - Washington,DC,USA
Feeling that he "needed to get started in life," he began checking out his options for buying a home. Because he had so much debt and no down-payment money ...

Home buying, selling made easier with hybrid agents
Arizona Republic - Phoenix,AZ,USA
Some Valley Realtors are on the cusp of a new trend to simplify the process of buying a home, selling one, securing loans and setting up mortgages ...

Setting the stage to sell Tips from the experts on making your home appeal to buyers
SalemNews.com - Salem,MA,USA
December is a tough month to sell a house. This year in particular, as homes languish longer on the market, it seems even harder to find a buyer ...

Home prices, employment at risk in 2007
North County Times - Escondido,CA,USA
Most economists studying North County say the economy won't be as good next year as the last few years. The question is really how much it will slow down ...

Will '07 housing surprise us all?
OCRegister - Orange County,CA,USA
Orange County home values will simply slip - but not tumble - in 2007. Even somewhat outside observers draw largely similar conclusions ...

Real estate funds remain a solid investment
Albany Times Union - Albany,NY,USA
Real estate-focused mutual funds are shaping up as the best U.S. stock-investing story for 2006 by far -- a fact that's surprising even some top managers given that they've already seen big gains for several years ...

'Curb appeal' counts when selling a home
Lansing State Journal - Lansing,MI,USA
Experience shows that this is the season for the serious homebuyer. And with so many listings for that buyer to look at, the successful seller will be the one whose house stands out in the crowd ...