Staging to Sell: Kitchen Office
What you should think about when staging your breakfast room/home office. Removing the clutter and depersonalizing the area will help a buyer visualize the space as his/her own.
Mortgage rates beat tax-credit benefits – The Denver Post
Excellent article here by the Denver Post and it is true. Now is an even better time to buy. Interest rates, of course, are at a histoic low, but prices have also adjusted downward and the condition of homes coming on the market today is better.
Homebuyers today can potentially save several times more money in interest costs than buyers who took out a mortgage in early April and claimed an $8,000 homebuyer tax credit.
Yet buyers, who rushed to meet the April 30 deadline for the federal tax credits, appear much less eager to borrow at the lowest interest rates in 60 years.
Mortgage applications for home purchases are 42 percent below the pace seen in April, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Home resales dropped 27.2 percent in July from June, according to a report Tuesday from the National Association of Realtors.
Someone taking out a $240,000 mortgage today at a 4.42 percent interest rate could save $33,287 in interest costs over the life of a 30-year loan. That’s four times the $8,000 credit used by a first-time homebuyer who financed at 5.21 percent in early April.
via Mortgage rates beat tax-credit benefits – The Denver Post.
Staging to Sell: Living Room
The living room. The heart of the home. Rearranging, repurposing and decluttering your items is key to transforming the space to an inviting room. Determine the focal points of the room, such as a fireplace, and arrange the furniture around them.
Mortgage Rates: 30-Year Mortgage Rate Hits Another Record Low – CNBC
In Charlottesville, Virginia we are seeing a pick up in activity as buyers are paying attention to therse low rates and prices have come down as well. Great time to buy!!
Mortgage rates fell to the lowest level in decades for the ninth time in 10 weeks as concerns grow that the economy is weakening.
Mortgage rates once again fell to their lowest level in decades this week.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate for a 30-year fixed loan was 4.36 percent this week, down from 4.42 percent last week. That’s the lowest since Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971.
The average rate on 15-year fixed loan dropped to 3.86 percent from 3.90 percent the previous week. That’s the lowest on records starting in 1991.
Rates have fallen since spring as investors shifted money into the safety of Treasury bonds, lowering their yield. Mortgage rates tend to track those yields.
The low rates have fueled borrowers to refinance their home loans. Refinancing is at its highest level since May 2009 and made up 82.4 percent of all new loan activity.
via Mortgage Rates: 30-Year Mortgage Rate Hits Another Record Low – CNBC.
Are Location-Based Services in Real Estate All Hype or The Next Big Thing? (Part 1) | Clean Slate
The foursquare app is very useful in real estate for agents and clients to stay “connected”. I think you will see this concept grow in the future. I have been using this for about 4 months and enjoy seeing the “tips” part of the app. It is also helpful in that foursquare can connect directly to Twitter and Facebook. Check out this article from Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate:
Location-based services are what’s hot in social networking right now and for good reason. By using a simple app on your smartphone you can share where you are and what you’re up to with others in your network (updates can be automatically sent to your Facebook and Twitter accounts) which fosters more frequent communication and awareness of common interests.
via Are Location-Based Services in Real Estate All Hype or The Next Big Thing? (Part 1) | Clean Slate.
Feds best move: Dont be a hero | Daily Progress
Interesting article here, but the reality is that this year, the market got off to a fast start with the tax credit. Then we had a “90 day exhale” and the market slowed down. At the end of July 2010 sales in Charlottesville ? Albemarle County were still ahead of 2009 sales for “contracts written”. Today we have a new market emerging with an uptick in activity. It feels like sellers are being much more realistic with pricing and there is some “pent up” demand. The good stuff that comes to the market today is being gobbled up and some of the inventory has been around for 12 months or longer. Lets hope it continues into the fall market.
“Meanwhile, along with commodities such as gasoline, home prices are continuing to decline. The latest report this past week shows median sales price for a home in July was $204,000, down, gulp, 6 percent from June and 4.8 percent lower than July a year ago.What will it take from the marketplace to turn this around? It’ll take a mood swing from the inertia of pessimism to the action that optimism spurs. That optimism can arise from a perception in the market that prices have become fairly reflective of value. At the moment, this is problematic. Investors aren’t sure about the value of bonds, much less stocks. Prospective buyers are not sure about the value of real estate, either commercial or residential.”
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Jeff Gaffney,
Chairman & CEO
Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate III
