First Time Home Buyer Grants in Texas

Complete Texas First Time Home Buyer Grant Information.

Are you thinking of buying your first home in Texas? Would you like a free gift of money to help you purchase that first home? If you answered yes to these two questions, there is great news for you. The state of Texas provides free money for its residents who are first time home buyers and need help with the down payment and closing costs. This money comes in the form of state grants. This is free money that shouldn't be passed up! The grant awards can be in the thousands of dollars. It will be well worth your time to educate yourself about the first time home buyer grant programs that the State of Texas provides.

http://first-time-home-buyer-s.com/first_time_home_buyer_grant_texa.htm

How New FHA, GSE Loan Limits Impact You

Last week, President Bush signed into law a $152 billion economic stimulus bill that includes temporary increases in loan limits for the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — and the Federal Housing Administration until Dec. 31. But what does this mean for you and your clients?

"The importance of immediately implementing the new limits cannot be overstated," said NAR President Richard Gaylord last week in a public statement. "Mortgage markets throughout the country need liquidity. Our research indicates that the increased FHA loan limits will help an additional 138,000 Americans achieve the dream of homeownership and will allow nearly 200,000 homeowners to refinance and potentially keep their homes.”

The FHA limit will increase to as much as $729,750 in high cost areas (to 125 percent of local median home prices). The GSE limit will jump to $729,750 for loans; currently Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans are capped at $417,000.

Eligible loans from FHA include mortgages that were issued for credit approval on or before Dec. 31, 2008. GSE loans that are eligible include loans that originated after July 1, 2007 to Dec. 31, 2008.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is required to publish the new mortgage limits by March 14; the limits will be effective for FHA immediately upon publication.

Estimated temporary single family GSE & FHA loan limit for DFW Counties:

CURRENT FHA LOAN - $200,160

NEW FHA LIMIT - $271,050

NEW GSE LIMIT - $417,000

Ignore the Headlines

Famed Money Manager is perhaps best known for his timeless wisdom that you can beat the pros by focusing on stocks of companies where you either work or shop or have some other edge. But a more relevant Lynchism today is this gem: Ignore the headlines.

That's no easy thing. How do you tune out all the chatter and ink on recession, housing, subprime woes, the credit crunch, rogue traders, insolvent bond insurers, $100 oil and nukes in Iran? It's enough to make you sit on your thumbs and wait before making any big moves. But what, exactly, are you waiting for?

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1713483,00.html

Smart Time to Buy

Despite all of the negative commentary about the housing and credit markets, 64% of Americans believe that for those with good credit and a down payment “this is an ideal time to buy a home,” according to a study commissioned by Beazer Homes, one of the country’s top-10 homebuilders. Perhaps with an eye toward the future, 24% of survey respondents-from Gen Y to Baby Boomers-say they plan to buy a new home in the next two years either as a primary residence or second/vacation home.

According Ian McCarthy, president and CEO of Beazer Homes. “Savvy consumers realize that housing is a cyclical industry and some appear to be waking up to the opportunities that do exist in today’s marketplace. Whether they act on this conviction remains to be seen, but the underlying sentiment bodes well for the industry.”

Indeed, 65% of survey respondents agree that given the current supply of homes for sale and special incentives this is “truly a buyer’s market.” And, 39% believe that tentative buyers who are waiting for home prices to go lower risk “missing out on one of the greatest home-buying markets in recent history.”

Regarding the survey 70% of experienced home buyers-those who have purchased at least one home-urging renters to purchase a home as soon as he or she is financially able to do so.
The company says that this sentiment seems to resonate with prospective first-time buyers, with 30% citing they are “looking to make an investment” as their primary motivation for purchasing a new home. This is followed by the desire for a better location (22%) and the need for a bigger home (21%). Experienced buyers, on the other hand, ranked a ‘desire for less maintenance and up-keep’ (35%), better location (27%) and investment (14%) as the primary motivations for their next home purchase.

Across the board, consumers appear optimistic about the availability of home mortgage options. For experienced buyers, 75% believe there are plenty of mortgage options available for those with good credit compared with 53% of first-time buyers. When it comes to securing a home mortgage, 24% of total respondents report they are currently saving for a down payment.

Time to buy, time to sell.

As I mentioned previously, regarding the rule of demand and supply, there are two kind of markets, appreciating and depreciating market. We can always tell whether the market is appreciating and depreciating by measuring the amount of inventory coming on and going off the market.
On appreciating market inventory is going off the market faster than it is coming on – then prices have to go UP
On depreciating inventory is coming on the market faster than it is going off – then prices have to go DOWN.

Looking at the last 25 years in real estate there have been fluctuations, but overall prices have increased. We had times of price depreciations from 1988 to 1995 when the inventory of homes increased significantly. Inventory has been low since 1995, and therefore prices have increased. We currently are beginning to se signs of similarity to the 1988-1995 era showing high inventories compared to sales. Home prices move up or down depending on the supply of houses.

What is the current situation on todays Collin County Real Estate market regarding the last trends below.

Click on on the graphic to see it in full size



Compare with January 2007 the units on the market havent increased a lot (only with 99), but on other hand we see significant increase on time that inventory stays on the market 9.5 months vs. 7.6 months last year. The number of "Sold" and "Pending" properties has decreased as well. Based on this information I would say that Collin County real estate market currently is tipical buyer's, depreciating market, good for long turm investment and great for buyers to buy.

For more detiled report on trends you can contact me any time on my email viktor.taushanov@cbdfw.com and I will be glad to provide it to you.

America's Rapidly Rising Foreclosure Areas

Though delinquencies continue to mount in Detroit, Stockton, Calif., and Las Vegas, markets where the number of foreclosures are relatively low, but rapidly rising, are also causing concern.

Take the Washington, D.C., metro, the Baltimore metro and many spots that fall between the two. While the sheer number of foreclosure filings in Bethesda, Md., (a metro that includes Frederick and Gaithersburg) are about a quarter of those in Detroit, they're up a whopping 1,288% in 2007, according to a RealtyTrac's year-end report, released today. In addition, they're up 574.9% in Washington, D.C., which includes the Maryland and Virginia suburbs, and up 544% in the Baltimore metro.

To read the the entire article click on the link below:
http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/12/rates-foreclosure-housing-forbeslife-cx_mw_0213realestate.html?partner=alerts

In Depth: America's Rapidly Rising Foreclosure Spots

How to sell your house in depreciating market?

I am sure there are a lot of angry and frustrate sellers out on the market. They are wondering why there house does not sell for the money they want. Answer is simple, just stop treating your house as a product, because your house is not a product, it is commodity. Once you change your attitude to your hose, you will stop losing money. I hope the published bellow will help you to sell your house faster for more money.

The product vs commodity concept is a paradigm shift. (paradigm shift = looking at something in a different way than we used to). In real estate there are two markets – “good markets” when everything is selling and “bad markets” when nothing sells. Most people market real estate as if it were a product. With a product the seller establishes the price and there is a direct relationship to advertising and the marketing of that product. The seller or manufacturer establishes the cost of the product, based on packaging, promotion/ advertising costs, etc. and the public either buys the product or it does not. Example: Gardenburger spent 2/3 of its annual advertising budget on one Superbowl ad in order to reach a wide audience to introduce its new product and that one ad put them on the map!!!!! Here’s the paradigm shift. Real estate is not a product. It is a commodity. It is the buyer who establishes value and there is no relationship to advertising. Real estate is like a stock – IBM never stops trading, it’s the buying public who pushes the price of IBM up or down every day of the week. It’s not a question of what the seller wants or has to get, it’s the buyer’s perception of value that determines whether your home sells or it doesn’t. There is one big difference between real estate and other commodities and that is that real estate is an emotional purchase –buyers fall in love with your home, but they don’t fall in love with IBM. It’s that emotionality that causes people to want what they can’t have, pushing prices up. In summary - with a commodity it’s the price point which creates positive or negative energy – turning the buyers on or off. It is my responsibility to turn buyers ON!

Foreclosure proceeds stopped for for 30 days

The government just announced the Project Lifeline plane to help homeowners faced on foreclosure. The all legal foreclose proceeds will be stopped for 30 and will give time to lenders and borrowers to negotiate the loans. All subprime borrowers with more than 90 days past due payments will have a chance to negotiate their loans and try to work it out with their lender.

"Project Lifeline is a valuable response, literally a lifeline, for people on the brink of the final steps in foreclosure," Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, said at a joint news conference with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

A foreclosure procedure costs the banks around $50,000 and that will be a will be a good opportunity for both sides to negotita better terms on the loans.

The participants are: Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Countrywide Financial Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Washington Mutual Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co.

Aren’t these the largest subprime lenders on the mortgage market during the past few years?

Real Estate: Product or Commodity

Have you ever thought about a real estate as a commodity? What is the difference between a Product and Commodity?

Changing the way of thinking in this direction will change your approach to real estate. It will help you to invest better, and will turn around you understanding about selling real estate and for sure will save you a lot of money.

CNN just announced that the government has a recuing plan for homeowners facing foreclosures. Stay tuned for more details.

Celebrity Real Estate Losers

Even Hollywood's rich and famous can't avoid the housing downturn.

LOS ANGELES - Even Hollywood's rich and famous can't avoid the housing downturn that's sweeping the nation. In Los Angeles, only 4,430 homes were sold in December, down 48% from the previous year. And prices fell 11% to an average $470,000.



Click the link below to read the full story:

http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/05/hollywood-economy-housing-biz-media-cz_dp_0206realestate.html?partner=alerts

U.S. Housing Finds Another Low

Expectations may be low, but America's housing industry continues to disappoint. New data released Thursday showed homebuilding plummeted last month, as builders tried to weather a vicious housing slump.

To read the entire article click on the link below:

http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/17/housing-december-update-markets-equity-cx_af_0117markets32.html?partner=alerts