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Home Lee Forbes - with The Cegnar Team! #1 Preferred Agent! CRS, GRI, ABR, E-Pro

Lee Forbes - with The Cegnar Team! #1 Preferred Agent! CRS, GRI, ABR, E-Pro

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INFO THAT HITS US WHERE WE LIVE

10-06-08
Lee Forbes - with The Cegnar Team! #1 Preferred Agent! CRS, GRI, ABR, E-Pro

Perhaps the most important thing to talk about in the housing market is the potential effect of all this talk about threats to our economy. There is no question the credit markets need help--or their troubles could negatively impact the overall economy. That's why Congress, despite all the political posturing, ultimately did what needed to be done. But the truth is, the credit market problems were not caused by a bad economy. In fact, during the year of this "credit market crisis" real GDP GREW by 2.1%--3.1% if you take out housing. So we all need to get the word out: this rescue plan is needed, but the underlying economy is OK. 95% of the mortgages in this country are current in their monthly payments and will be paid off just fine.

We all know home prices need to rebound before things get back to normal. Uncertainty in the financial system was clearly hindering the housing recovery, so a rescue plan should help. Meanwhile, last week a closely watched home-price index showed a slowing in the pace of price declines for July. Even better, seven of the 20 regions surveyed posted NO DECLINES, led by Minneapolis with a 1.3% price RISE! Another survey of 25 metropolitan areas showed 24 had price drops for the year ending July 31. But Milwaukee had a 2.9% INCREASE. And some price declines were negligible--a 1.2% drop in Chicago and 1.5% for Columbus, Ohio--for the year!

Lee Forbes,

www.LeeForbes.com

www.Gulfsideland.com

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INFO THAT HITS US WHERE WE LIVE

03-10-08
Lee Forbes - with The Cegnar Team! #1 Preferred Agent! CRS, GRI, ABR, E-Pro
On Thursday, the Department of Housing and Urban Development published new conforming loan limits that take them above $417,000, to a maximum of $729,750, depending on the median home price in a market. HUD also implemented temporary increases in FHA loan limits. Based on the area's median home price, these range from a new floor of $271,050 to a cap of $729,750 in the 75 highest-priced markets. Go to the HUD website for a new page that gives conforming and FHA loan limits for every area of the country.

These new limits should now motivate homebuyers who didn't want to deal with higher jumbo rates. Plus, existing loans can now be refinanced to the new limits no matter when they were originated. But the higher limits are only in place until the end of this year!

Also last week, Treasury Secretary Paulsen pointed out that the single most significant factor benefiting all ARM borrowers is the recent decline in short-term interest rates, which he said "are very significantly mitigating the effects of mortgage resets." For subprime ARM resets, Paulsen said this improved picture could stem foreclosures. Even though such loans are only 6.5% of all mortgages, they made up 40% of foreclosure starts in Q3 of 2007, according to the Treasury head.
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