Economy, affordability to drive home sales growth

WASHINGTON – May 16, 2011 – Home sales are on track to outperform last year, even though the market doesn’t have the benefit of the homebuyer tax credit, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun told a packed room on Thursday during the Residential Economic Update at the 2011 Realtors® Midyear Legislative Meetings.

Yun credits sustained economic growth, the slowly recovering jobs picture and historically high affordability conditions. Although unemployment remains high at about 9 percent, the country is seeing steady job growth. More than 100,000 jobs are being created a month, and the U.S. could see 1.5 million net new jobs this year, Yun said.

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There are jobs coming to Cenral Florida.

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?p=3&id=259981

In tougher new mortgage reality, preparation is key

WASHINGTON – May 16, 2011 – All you needed was a pulse. In the not-so-distant past, that’s practically all it took to qualify for a mortgage. Now an exhaustive array of paperwork awaits potential borrowers.

Call it the new mortgage reality. Lenders that got burned when the housing market collapsed are taking extra steps to protect themselves and are requiring more financial documents than ever.

But these tougher requirements don’t mean getting a mortgage has to be too stressful, as long as you’re prepared.

Here are five ways to cut down on the hassles and help you anticipate the records you may need:

1. Start by requesting your free................


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Build an action plan – how to attract global buyers

NEW YORK – May 17, 2011 – Real estate agents who want to attract global buyers need only consider ethnic immigrant communities and foreign residents with extended visas. To reach out to multicultural buyers, they must determine which groups live in their market and educate themselves about the culture, traditions and value systems of those groups.

Agents can provide educational materials, such as homebuyer seminars or information about the workings of the U.S. real estate market. With advertising, they should determine which foreign-language television and radio channels provide the most return on investment; submit articles on buying and selling or the local market to foreign-language newspapers; and take care not to offend multicultural buyers with the use of certain colors in their printed marketing materials.

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Find out how to attract buyers of another country

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Construction of new homes dropped in April

WASHINGTON – May 17, 2011 – Construction of new homes dropped in April, another troubling sign for the battered housing market.

Builders broke ground on 10.6 percent fewer new homes last month from the previous month. The seasonally adjusted rate fell to 523,000 homes per year, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That’s down nearly 25 percent from one year ago and less than half the 1.2 million homes per year that economists consider a sign of a healthy market.

Tighter lending standards and high unemployment are weighing on the housing sector, which is in the midst of one of its worst years in history.

Builders are also struggling to compete with millions of foreclosures, which are forcing down prices for previously occupied homes. The median price of a new home was about 34 percent higher in March than the median price for a resale. That’s more than twice the markup in healthy housing markets.

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Bondi: Don’t cut homeowners’ mortgage principal

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – May 17, 2011 – The Attorney General of Florida, a state where almost half of all mortgaged homes are underwater – opposes efforts that would force the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers to reduce the principal on loans owed by struggling U.S. homeowners.

Attorneys general in all 50 states are part of a group now negotiating a settlement with the five lenders, which are accused of falsifying and otherwise mishandling loan documents and mortgage modifications. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is one of seven members of the group who oppose a key negotiating point: Cut the mortgage principal for qualified homeowners.

For example, a delinquent homeowner who owes Bank of America $200,000 on a house now worth $100,000 could find the mortgage’s principal amount reduced by an as-yet-undetermined amount through the general proposal under discussion – an appealing proposal for the 2 million Floridians with such “underwater” loans.

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Secondary markets give commercial a boost

MINNEAPOLIS – May 17, 2011 – The commercial market’s rebound is starting to extend beyond just coastal regions and into secondary markets as credit availability continues to improve, Bloomberg News reports.

Minneapolis, Dallas and Denver have posted some of the largest gains in sales by dollar volume among major metro areas outside the coasts in the first quarter, reports CoStar Group Inc.

In Minneapolis, sales rose 127 percent from a year earlier. In Dallas, sales rose 108 percent and 89 percent in Denver. For the country, sales in commercial property increased 47 percent.

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Money is out there is the deal is right.  People are buying Commercial deals.

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As vacation rentals gain popularity, online sites increase listings

ORLANDO, Fla. – May 9, 2011 – Vacation rentals, once an ugly duckling of the travel industry, are getting their turn at the spotlight.

With more vacationers considering rental homes, investors are pouring money into online portals that match homeowners with travelers struck with hotel fatigue.




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