Feeling Nosy About DC? MD? VA?

Ok, I know you're probably not planning on moving this very second, but here's this week's list of interesting-looking listings that have just come on the market. Mind you, they may not actually be my personal listings --- just intriguing properties I've come across that week.

Feeling nosy about the District of Columbia?
Feeling nosy about Virginia?
Feeling nosy about Maryland?

If you know someone who might be interested in this list, please forward it on to him or her. And if there's a listing that you're curious about yourself, just let me know ... and I'll show it to you ... just for the hell of it ... no obligation ... *I promise*. Really. (One of the perks of being the friend of a real estate agent ought to be that you get to freely snoop around other peoples' homes!

New-Home Sales Are Mixed Despite September Jump

By Reuters 25 Oct 2007 10:47 AM ET

Sales of new single-family U.S. homes rose 4.8 percent in September but sales in August were revised down sharply, painting a mixed picture of the battered housing sector.

New single-family home sales set an annual rate of 770,000 units in September, up from a downwardly revised rate of 735,000 in August, the Commerce Department said. Analysts had expected a 10,000 drop from the previously reported 780,000.

While sales were weak, the inventory of homes fell and the median sales price rose.

In September, the median sales price of a new home rose 2.5 percent to $238,000 from $232,100 in August, a month that saw the slowest sales pace in 11 years.

There were 523,000 new homes for sale at the end of the month, a 1.5 percent drop from August. It would take 8.3 months to clear that inventory at the current sales pace, down fromthe 9 months supply reported in August.

Sales for the month were off 23.3 percent from a year ago. Across the regions, sales were mostly down although the West did see a 37.7 increase. In the Midwest, sales were off 19.5percent and down 6.6 percent in the Northeast. Sales were up 0.5 percent in the South.

The report comes a day after a realty trade association said sales of previously owned homes fell 8 percent to a record low 5.04 million unit pace amid troubles in the subprimemortgage market.

Copyright 2007 Reuters.

Feeling Nosy About DC? MD? VA?

Ok, I know you're probably not planning on moving this very second, but here's this week's list of interesting-looking listings that have just come on the market. Mind you, they may not actually be my personal listings --- just intriguing properties I've come across that week.

Feeling nosy about the District of Columbia?
Feeling nosy about Virginia?
Feeling nosy about Maryland?

If you know someone who might be interested in this list, please forward it on to him or her. And if there's a listing that you're curious about yourself, just let me know ... and I'll show it to you ... just for the hell of it ... no obligation ... *I promise*. Really. (One of the perks of being the friend of a real estate agent ought to be that you get to freely snoop around other peoples' homes!

Feeling Nosy about DC? MD? VA?

Ok, I know you're probably not planning on moving this very second, but here's this week's list of interesting-looking listings that have just come on the market. Mind you, they may not actually be my personal listings --- just intriguing properties I've come across that week.

Feeling nosy about the District of Columbia?
Feeling nosy about Virginia?
Feeling nosy about Maryland?

If you know someone who might be interested in this list, please forward it on to him or her. And if there's a listing that you're curious about yourself, just let me know ... and I'll show it to you ... just for the hell of it ... no obligation ... *I promise*. Really. (One of the perks of being the friend of a real estate agent ought to be that you get to freely snoop around other peoples' homes!

Your Credit Score Has to Be Good, but Not Perfect

By Off The ShelfSunday, October 7, 2007; F06

Whether you're considering buying a new home or refinancing an existing mortgage, credit scores matter more than ever. To find out what consumers need to know about their credit reports and scores to get the best deals, The Post's Mary Ellen Slayter recently spoke with personal finance columnist Liz Pulliam Weston, author of "Your Credit Score: How to Fix, Improve and Protect the 3-Digit Number that Shapes Your Financial Future." An edited transcript of the conversation follows.

Q: What's the most important thing consumers need to understand right now about credit scoring and mortgages?

A: Higher scores are always better. It used to be that if you had a bad score, you could still get the loan, you just had to jump through a few hoops. That's not as likely now. Standards have tightened all the way across the board, but they also seem to be changing on a day-to-day basis. The minimum score is higher. Until very recently, subprime was 620 and below. Some lenders are now setting that minimum at 660.

What's the target number that consumers should be aiming for right now, to get the best loans?
Try to get over 720 if you can. Half of the American adult population has a credit score of 700 or above, according to Fair Isaac Corp., which calculates the most commonly used score. If your score is 720 or above, you practically have your pick of loans. That's really the sweet spot. For a home-equity line, the best deals go to those with scores of 760 or above.

Keep in mind that there are different scoring formulas, including those generated by the credit bureaus themselves. Those are not the same as FICO scores, which are the ones that matter in terms of lending.

Also, you don't need a perfect score, which would be an 850 on the FICO scale. About half the calls Fair Isaac receives are from people wanting to know why they don't have perfect scores. If you're over 720, you're golden. Don't lose any sleep over it.

Is there a number below which you would say flat-out that someone should stick with renting?
I used to think that there was, but now I think everybody's situation is a little different. If you are under 660, think about what you can do to improve your score and overall finances before buying. It's not that I don't think those people should buy, I just have a feeling that people in that bracket are going to wind up in much worse situations, with less favorable loans. We're seeing vividly what happens when someone buys a house he can't afford.

When the market was booming, people would quickly get priced out of the market. There was a real risk in waiting. The penalty for waiting now is simply being able to afford more house.
How about for borrowers of jumbo loans?

I wouldn't want to say absolutely stay on the sidelines, but they might want to. Waiting a few months might get them a better deal. But as long as their credit is in good shape -- not in the 600s -- they're probably okay. The loans I know have gone away are the jumbo, subprime, stated income, 100 percent financing -- the ones that never made sense in the first place.
If someone is looking to buy in the next six months, what's the most important thing to do?
Mainly, don't wreck your credit. That means no late payments. Pay any credit card balances down and use your cards lightly. Most people don't realize that their credit reports show the balances, even if they pay them off each month. If you're using a card heavily, such as for business expenses or to earn rewards, ask for higher credit limits or make two payments a month, just to get that percentage down.

One other option -- and I am not generally a big fan of these loans -- is to borrow against your 401(k) to pay down those debts. 401(k) loans don't show up on your credit report. They're kind of off the books, as far as your credit report is concerned. Retirement funds should really be left alone, but this is a technique that can work if it's used responsibly.
One thing you should not do is close any accounts. There's this huge myth that persists that closing accounts can help your score. It can't, and it may hurt it. There's this idea out there that if you have too much credit, lenders will turn you down, but if a lender wants you to close an account, it will tell you.

And definitely don't open any new accounts -- not even a Target credit card -- until the mortgage is closed. Then you can you can go out and have a credit spree.

Feeling Nosy about DC? MD? VA?

Ok, I know you're probably not planning on moving this very second, but here's this week's list of interesting-looking listings that have just come on the market. Mind you, they may not actually be my personal listings --- just intriguing properties I've come across that week.

Feeling nosy about the District of Columbia?
Feeling nosy about Virginia?
Feeling nosy about Maryland?

If you know someone who might be interested in this list, please forward it on to him or her. And if there's a listing that you're curious about yourself, just let me know ... and I'll show it to you ... just for the hell of it ... no obligation ... *I promise*. Really. (One of the perks of being the friend of a real estate agent ought to be that you get to freely snoop around other peoples' homes!

Short Sales Not for the Faint of Heart!

Last week I attended a presentation on Short Sales and Foreclosures, taught by settlement attorney Judith M. Nixon of the law firm of Darby, Nalls, Smyth, Nixon and Muldoon in Rockville, Maryland. I was amazed to learn that 9 months ago most lenders wouldn’t even entertain a short sale, but for the last 6 months or so they have changed their outlook and are now allowing for short sales.

What is a short sale you ask? A short sale is when a seller’s lender will have to accept less than the amount due on the seller’s mortgage. Right now there are many short sales showing up in the DC, MD and VA market. We can generally tell when a listing in the MLS is a short sale because the remarks will contain a disclosure that reads “subject to third party approval”.

Thus far none of our clients have approached us about selling their home in a short sale. However, our buyers are starting to find the listings as they search the MLS. Some have emailed and called to ask if they should pursue purchasing homes that are being offered as short sales. My advice is that it is not for everyone. If you are interested in a home that is being offered as a short sale the most important trait that the buyer must possess is PATIENCE.

Because lenders are bureaucracies, and because the number of short sale cases has increased, there are simply not enough people at the lender’s office to address all the short sales that need attention. For our clients, that means that once you decide to write a contract on a short sale property you could be looking at literally months of waiting just to see if your offer is even accepted. As anyone who has purchased a home can tell you, waiting to hear a response to a written offer can be a very anxious time.

With that in mind, I certainly wouldn’t recommend writing an offer on a short sale property to our first time buyers. I think the more appropriate buyer for a short sale is an investor or move-up buyer who is happy in the house they are in and has been through the process before and can sustain the extensive waiting. Of course, if a first time buyer came to us with a strong desire to write an offer for a short sale property we would do everything we could to assist them. However, we would want them to know from the very beginning of the process that they will need lots of friends to help them keep their sanity as they wait and wait for the lender to respond to their offer.

As the market continues to change, I am pleased to learn and share more and more about the different types of sales we can expect to encounter in this unique housing market. If you would like to learn more about short sales, feel free to email me at Michael@RealAstute.com and we will delve even further into this interesting topic.

Multiple Offers Sign of Faltering Buyers Market

By M. Anthony Carr

I've talked with four agents this week who have had contracts beat out by competing buyer offers. This news surprised me, but it shouldn't have. With last month's meltdown in the mortgage industry (actually, more of a purifying), it seems that buyers are starting to come out of the woodwork with good financing in hand to compete with other buyers for houses that are in good shape and priced right.

There are tales of multiple contract offers (when the seller actually gets to choose between offers, instead of beg for one); the use of escalation clauses once again; and sellers holding the line on subsidies to buyers.

This isn't across the whole market, but we're seeing pockets of neighborhoods where if a house comes on the market in great condition and priced at the last sale, the buyers are moving in like chickens after the proverbial flock of June bugs.

Is the buyers market over? Not yet. In fact, in the Washington, DC market area, where last year more than 22,000 houses sold around the District, Virginia and Maryland, there were plenty of homeowners who are walking away with large sums of gain from a market that has doubled in value over the last five years. Nevertheless, they are still having to price right and put the house in marketable -- nay -- “wow-ness” condition to sell them to a group of finicky buyers.

With that said, we are starting to see well-financed buyers put in full-price offers for homes that fit the definition of great condition and pricing. The challenge now is for those real estate agents who don't know how to survive in a buyers market to keep the lights on during this transition market -- which isn't disappearing just yet.

To determine if a market is turning from buyer to seller, you have to look at the same statistics you would research to see if the opposite is true -- a buyers market turning into a sellers market.

The first two stats would be for listings (inventory) and sales (how many sold). Is the inventory retreating over year-to-year numbers? If it is, then how are the sales holding up? With sales maintaining last year levels or moving upward, then the trek up the seller's market mountain has begun.

This doesn't mean sellers can now wait for a better offer, it just means the days on market will start tumbling, which is what has happened month after month in the DC market since February 2007 at 108 days to just 75 days on average in August. The days on market rate has been growing month after month for nearly two years, till it peaked in February, when it started its slow slide town to where it is today.

We'll have to see what happens with the DOM as a result of August's mortgage trials, but if this last week is any indication, the buyers who can qualify for a good mortgage are jumping off the fence, brushing off their jeans and hopping on the Bull.

We've been watching the market turn slowly but surely in the DC area for the last several months, starting with housing sales on Capitol Hill and moving out from there into the Virginia suburbs. The average home sales price in Washington has edged up from $416,000 in January of this year to $516,000 in August. Arlington County, the first county outside the District, is in a thriving market right now, as well.

In Arlington, the average sales price from August to August is up 18 percent, while days on market are clipping along at a spring-like pace at 49 days (barely a month). (The median sold price is up 25 percent).

Is it a buyers market? Yep. But not for long.