Mobile Austin Notary

AUSTIN NAMED 2ND HEALTHIEST HOUSING MARKET IN NATION
Five Texas cities swept the top spots on Builder magazine's list of "Healthiest Housing Markets for 2009." Houston ranked first, Austin second, Fort Worth third, San Antonio fourth and Dallas fifth.

1. Houston, Texas
2008 Total Building Permits: 42,697

They like to do things big in Houston. Now the metro area, home to nearly 5.8 million people, can lay claim to being the largest home building market in the country, with 42,697 building permits. The market is still benefiting from an influx of population and jobs and rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Ike.

Employment rose 2.2 percent last year, representing the addition of an incredible 57,000 new jobs. Home building activity in Houston has only fallen 31 percent since 2005. Also, existing home prices actually rose in Houston last year, 2.8 percent, to $160,200, still a very affordable level. Roughly one third of the home building action is in Harris County, followed by Houston proper and Fort Bend County. One of Houston's largest builders, Royce Homes, shut down last year, and Kimball Hill, one of the biggest builders in Texas, closed its doors this year after it failed to find a buyer.

2 Austin, Texas
2008 Total Building Permits: 14,250

Nine years ago, during the tech bust, some builders felt that Austin was too crowded and left. The bloom is back on Austin's yellow rose now; it moved up the leader board to become the sixth largest home building market last year. Job creation explains the move.

While other markets lost employment, Austin added 17,400 jobs last year, 2.31 percent growth rate. It helps that Austin is home to both a major university, The University of Texas, and the state capital. Existing homes cost a little bit more in Austin than other Texas markets, roughly $190,900, but that's still below the national average.

Also, Austin is one of the few metro areas in the country where median prices actually rose in 2008--1.4 percent through the first three quarters of the year. Amazingly, Austin now generates more home building activity than Chicago, which has six times more people. (WOW!)

3. Fort Worth, Texas
2008 Total Building Permits: 10,388

Fort Worth, always operating in the shadow of higher profile Dallas, nevertheless can currently claim to have a slightly healthier housing market, based on its employment growth, relatively strong permit activity, and inexpensive housing. Now the 14th largest home building market in the country, Ft. Worth's builders pulled 10,388 permits last year, roughly two-thirds of them single-family.

That may be half as many as 2005, but many other major markets showed much sharper drop-offs. The relative strength of the Fort Worth market in recent years stems from its ties to the oil and gas industries, which has fueled above-average job growth. The metro area added 17,300 jobs last year.

4. San Antonio, Texas
2008 total building permits: 10,261

San Antonio is another Texas market that is still adding jobs, about 15,000 new jobs last year. A city of more than 2 million people now, its population is also growing, at a 2.8 percent annual clip through the third quarter of last year. Existing home prices are barely declining in San Antonio, down only 1.8 percent in the last year, leaving the median price of an existing single-family home at an affordable $154,400, 25 percent below the national average of $200,500, according to the National Association of Realtors. The upper end of the housing market was hurt recently when AT&T announced it would be moving its corporate headquarters to Dallas.

5. Dallas, Texas
2008 total building permits: 26,145

In a year when permits declined 35 percent nationally, Dallas only experienced a 9 percent fall-off. With a population of 4.2 million, Dallas was the third largest home building market last year, as measured in permits pulled. Employers in Dallas, a popular place for corporate relocation and expansion, added 42,000 new jobs last year, a growth rate of 2 percent.

Existing home prices have held steady, falling a paltry 2.3 percent in the last year, Interestingly, the face of residential construction has changed dramatically in Dallas in recent years; 58 percent of the activity last year was in multifamily, compared to a five-year average of 23 percent. The relative stability of the market, though, wasn't enough to prevent Wall Homes from filing for bankruptcy earlier this year. On the other hand, former Meritage co-CEO John Landon recently started a new Dallas-based home building company.

Other real estate market numbers...fyi it's not pretty people!

In December, national housing prices fell 11.1% from a year ago. As of the end of 2008, the total value of residential properties was $19.1 trillion, down $2.4 trillion from $21.5 trillion in December of 2007.
Home price declines have accelerated the last few months due to the rapid geographic diffusion.

As of December 2008, more than 700 CBSAs or nearly three-quarters of all metropolitan markets were experiencing home price depreciation, up from 254 markets in December 2007 and 394 markets in June 2008. The number of metropolitan markets experiencing price declines is by far the highest ever.

Since US home prices peaked in July 2006, they have declined 19.3% on a cumulative basis and are currently back to the lowest price level since May 2004.

California continued to lead the way, declining 26.9 percent from a year ago, but Nevada (-26.5%) is closing the gap, followed by Arizona (-21.1%), Florida (-19.5%), and Rhode Island (-19.0%). The largest acceleration in home price declines during the fourth quarter of 2008 occurred in Maine, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Oregon and Rhode Island.

Thank God we live in Texas. :D
Hook'em Horns!

www.mobileaustinnotary.com
www.activerain.com/pecs29
"The Nicest Notaries in Texas, That Go To You 24/7!"

Hey everyone,

Does anyone know where we could purchase a update to do (important since so many companies are out of business now) and good Texas title companies list?. Then buy title company lists nationwide. Not looking for lists from InfoUSA or Sales Genie type of lists. Actual real estate industry people lists that are current and valid. Also like informaiton on like individual office locations and contact information for companies like Fidelity Title, LandAmerica Title and other big title companies.

Looking for at least:
- company name
- contact name/title
- phone
- mailing address
- website url
- *really would like email address, but that's tough to get alot of times.

If you have a list or know where I could buy one, please call or email us.

Thanks so much,

www.mobileaustinnotary.com
www.twitter.com/austinnotary
www.activerain.com/pecs29
"The Nicest Notaries & Process Servers in Texas, That Go To You 24/7!"

Obama pledges mortgage help

In his weekly radio address, the president said he will soon unveil a plan that will help lower mortgage costs and revive lending.

See all www.CNNMoney.com

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) -- U.S. President Barack Obama promised Saturday to help lower Americans' mortgage costs with a new plan, coming soon, that would revive the financial system and "get credit flowing again."

Obama, who has made fighting the country's economic and financial crises the top priority of his young administration, called on the U.S. Senate to approve an economic stimulus bill that the House of Representatives passed this week.

But as economic conditions get worse the president said new strategies were coming to address the country's ills.

"Soon my Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, will announce a new strategy for reviving our financial system that gets credit flowing to businesses and families," Obama, a Democrat, said in his weekly radio address. "We'll help lower mortgage costs and extend loans to small businesses so they can create jobs."

Obama did not offer specifics about the new plan or say when it would be unveiled.

His chief spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said on Friday that the White House would hold meetings next week about financial industry regulation.

Republicans, who opposed the president's stimulus package of over $800 billion largely because of its spending priorities, suggested mortgage help as well, proposing government-backed 4% fixed-rate mortgages for "any credit-worthy borrower," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said.

"The availability of these low-interest loans would increase demand for houses significantly and low-interest mortgages would boost household income," McConnell said in a separate radio address.

Cracking down on CEOs. Obama said his plan would ensure corporate chief executives do not siphon away tax dollars to fund big bonuses, expressing outrage again at reports of big pay-outs in 2008 despite massive job cuts, financial losses and government bailouts.

"We learned this week that even as they petitioned for taxpayer assistance, Wall Street firms shamefully paid out nearly $20 billion in bonuses for 2008," the president said. "While I'm committed to doing what it takes to maintain the flow of credit, the American people will not excuse or tolerate such arrogance and greed."

The president said he would insist on "unprecedented transparency, rigorous oversight, and clear accountability" for funds that went toward stabilizing the financial system.

He repeated his mantra that the country's economic picture would likely get worse before it got better and seemed to hedge a bit on how many jobs his proposals would create and by when.

In Saturday's address he said his stimulus package would save or create at least 3 million jobs "over the next few years." During his address on Jan. 10, before he had taken over the presidency from Republican George W. Bush, Obama said an analysis by his advisers showed up to 4 million jobs could be saved or created by 2010 through the package.

Obama said he would work with both political parties to ensure a strong stimulus bill eventually made it to his desk.

"Americans know that our economic recovery will take years -- not months," he said. "But they will have little patience if we allow politics to get in the way of action, and our economy continues to slide."

Presented by
Mobile Austin Notary
www.mobileaustinnotary.com
www.activerain.com/pecs29
"The Nicest Notaries in Texas, That Go To You 24/7!"

What do you think about this article and what it states? The pros, cons, good, bad, and the ugly. Give us your feedback for others to read and debate.

7 Ways for Obama to Save the Housing Market

By James Pethokoukis

The Great Housing Bailout of 2009 is coming. The recent announcement by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Citigroup that they plan to reduce mortgage payments for hundreds of thousands of borrowers facing foreclosures may well be just the beginning of help for homeowners. More and more economists now agree that falling prices and rising foreclosures are at the heart of the economic and credit crises-neither of which will end until housing stabilizes. If the new Obama administration is looking for ideas on what to do, here are some possibilities:

1) The Bair Plan. Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., wants the government to help as many as 3 million struggling homeowners by having Uncle Sam use some of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money to guarantee mortgages backed by private lenders. That could encourage them to restructure loans to troubled homeowners. Since the FDIC took over mortgage lender IndyMac this summer, it has modified loans held by IndyMac that were 60 days or more past due. This was the policy inspiration for the Fannie-Freddie-Citigroup plan.

2) The Blinder Plan. Alan Blinder, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton and a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, wants to kick it old school. He supports the creation of a 21st-century version of the New Deal-era Home Owners' Loan Corp. The HOLC basically bought mortgages from banks and then issued more affordable new loans to struggling homeowners. This plan might cost $400 billion, or about half the cost of the Paulson plan to bail out Wall Street, although in the end the HOLC made a small profit on its investment. Blinder would limit the plan to owner-occupied homes and to honestly obtained mortgages. And owners of homes the size of Wayne Manor need not apply.

3) The Hubbard Plan. R. Glenn Hubbard, dean of the Columbia Business School, says it's time to go big or go home. Help everyone. He suggests that the White House and Congress allow all mortgages on primary residences to be refinanced into 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages at 5.25 percent, the lowest mortgage rate in the past 30 years. Those mortgages would then be placed with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As for underwater mortgages, Hubbard, like Alan Blinder, would refinance them into 30-year, fixed-rate loans to be held by a HOLC-like agency. Hubbard thinks this could cost about $300 billion, but the subsequent economic rebound might essential pay for the whole thing.

4) The Lindsey Plan. Lawrence Lindsey, former director of the National Economic Council under President George W. Bush, says one way to boost housing demand is by creating more potential buyers. He advocates an immigration program that would give a provisional green card to anyone who invested at least $10 million in residential property and held it for five years. Each property could be worth no more than $1 million. Another option would be for the Fed to let inflation rise to encourage investment in housing, traditionally a financial safe haven from rising prices. Or, again, the government could start buying large amounts of distressed or foreclosed homes.

5) The Meltzer Plan. Allan Meltzer, professor of political economy at Carnegie Mellon University, says it's all about supply and demand. He thinks Washington should focus on helping existing homeowners by increasing the demand for housing. That would boost prices and reduce the number of defaults. Potential buyers would be allowed to use some percentage of the value of their down payment as a tax deduction. Another option would be to reduce the tax rate for buyers, even if they are buying a second or third home.

6) The Yardeni-Goldsmith Plan. Investment strategist Ed Yardeni and Carl Goldsmith of Delta Asset Management propose nationalizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Once that is done, the two entities could borrow at the same low rates as the U.S. Treasury. Then, Fannie and Freddie could offer 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages at 4 percent to all qualified borrowers to buy a new or existing home.

7) The Zingales Plan. Luigi Zingales, a business professor at the University of Chicago, says that Congress should pass a law making it super easy to renegotiate your mortgage if you live in an area where prices have plunged. Here is how it would work: First, you would have to live in a ZIP code where house prices dropped by more than 20 percent, as measured by the Case-Shiller index, since the time you bought your property. The homeowner could then have the face value of the mortgage (and thus his or her interest payments) reduced by the same percentage that house prices have declined since the homeowner bought the property. In exchange, however, the mortgage holder would get some of the equity value of the house when it eventually is sold.

"You Say Tomatoe, I say Tomatoe!"

We all have different names for things we see or have. For example being from the midwest I of course say the right terminology for pop. Yes, I said POP! You freaking southerns call it COKE, hello that's a brand people not a what you call all pops in the world! LOL! Or if your from the North East you probably call it soda or soda pop.

Same goes for the terminology people, banks, law firms, signing companies and title and mortgage companies call notaries and loan signing agents around the country. Here a few of the different titles.

Austin, Texas and Texas Notaries are also refered to as these various titles:
Notary
Notary Public
Notary Agent
Mobile Notary
Mobile Notary Public
Mobile Signing Agent
Mobile Notary Signing Agent
Certified Signing Agent
Certified Notary Signing Agent
Closing Agent
Loan Closing Agent
Notary Closing Agent
Witness
Signing Agent
Loan Signing Agent
Loan Closer
Loan Document Closer
Mortgage Closer
Mortgage Signing Agent
Real Estate Closer
Real Estate Document Closer
Document Closing Agent
Goddess of Loans (ok maybe not this one, but it sounds good on me! LOL!)

Mobile Austin Notary
Austin, TX
512-314-9164
www.mobileaustinnotary.com
"The Nicest Notaries in Texas, That Go To You 24/7!"