From the Washington Post today we have this…
Q. Our living room has dark wood paneling that we would like to brighten. Should we paint or wallpaper it, and how do we do it? -Don
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From the Washington Post today we have this…
Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages rose slightly this week to an average of 4.23 percent, just above the lowest level in decades.
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RISMEDIA, October 29, 2010—The latest National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Remodeling Market Index (RMI) remained essentially unchanged at 40.8 in the third quarter, compared to 40.7 in the second quarter. An RMI below 50 indicates that more remodelers report that market activity is declining than report that it is increasing; so, on balance, it was the sentiment of remodelers that the market was still declining in the third quarter. The RMI has been running below 50 since the final quarter of 2005.
The overall RMI combines ratings of current remodeling activity with indicators of future activity like calls for bids. In the third quarter, the RMI component measuring current market conditions climbed to 43.4 from 42.6 in the previous quarter. The RMI component measuring future indicators of remodeling business declined marginally, to 38.1 from 38.9 in the last quarter. Again, index numbers below 50 mean that a preponderance of remodelers are reporting declining conditions.
“Consumers remain cautious about spending due to uncertainty in the economy, high unemployment, and scarce credit,” said NAHB Remodelers Chair Donna Shirey, CGR, CAPS, CGP, a remodeler from Issaquah, Wash. “Homeowners may be looking at remodeling, but they are scared to take the leap.”
The current conditions indices for the remodeling market remained stable in three regions: Northeast 41.6 (from 41.4 in the second quarter); Midwest 44.9 (from 44.7); and South 42.3 (from 42.4). The West showed more improvement with a jump to 49.3 (up from 42.0). Major additions increased modestly to 45.8 (from 44.2), as did minor additions to 46.4 (from 45.8) and maintenance and repair to 37.1 (from 36.6).
The indices for future remodeling business stayed mostly level. Calls for bids slipped to 42.9 (from 46.2). Work committed for the next three months grew to 30.3 (from 27.9). The backlog of remodeling jobs dipped to 37.2 (from 37.7), and appointments for proposals declined to 41.9 (from 43.7).
“The remodeling market hit the same mid-year stall that the rest of the housing market and the economy hit. Remodeling continues to remain weak as consumers hold off on investing in their home until they feel more confident about the overall economy,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “The economy is growing, but at a rate well below the level needed to reduce unemployment and ignite consumer confidence. For now, professional remodelers are concentrating on consumers’ requests for smaller home improvements until the economic recovery strengthens.”
For more information, visit www.nahb.org.
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From the Baltimore Sun today we have this…
It’s pretty much a given that foreclosures are a drag on home prices. But how much, exactly?
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RISMEDIA, October 28, 2010—U.S. house prices rose 0.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis from July to August, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s monthly House Price Index. The previously reported 0.5% decline in July was revised to a 0.7% decline. For the 12 months ending in August, U.S. prices fell 2.4%. The U.S. index is 13.6% below its April 2007 peak.
The FHFA monthly index is calculated using purchase prices of houses backing mortgages that have been sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
For the nine Census Divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes from July to August ranged from -0.6% in the Mountain Division to +1.5% in the West South Central Division.
For more information, visit www.fhfa.gov.
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RISMEDIA, October 28, 2010—The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 22, 2010. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 3.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 3.1% compared with the previous week.
The Refinance Index increased 3.0% from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 3.9% from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 3.5% compared with the previous week and was 30.3% lower than the same week one year ago.
The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 1.4%. The four week moving average is down 0.7% for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is up 1.9% for the Refinance Index.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 82.3% of total applications from 82.4% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 5.3% from 5.8% of total applications the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.25% from 4.34%, with points increasing to 1.0 from 0.81 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. The 30-year contract rate matches the rate from the week ending October 1, 2010, which was the second lowest ever observed in this survey. The effective rate also decreased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 3.67% from 3.74%, with points decreasing to 0.96 from 1.00 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The 15-year contract rate is the second lowest observed in this survey, with the lowest being 3.62% from two weeks ago. The effective rate also decreased from last week.
For more information, visit www.mortgagebankers.org.
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RISMEDIA, October 28, 2010—Home values continue to rise which is good news for central Ohio. The average sale price for the first nine months of the year is $161,204, up 7.4% from the beginning of 2010 according to the Columbus Board of Realtors®.
There were fewer homes listed for sale last month than is customary for September. Over the last five years, there was an average of 3,710 homes added to the market during the month of September. However, last month only 2,997 residential homes were added to the already elevated inventory in central Ohio.
Although slightly lower than August, the total residential listings in September (16,728) was still higher than it’s been since August 2008 when the inventory level rose to 16,975.
“Inventory levels had come down over the last year and a half, which is what we were working towards,” said Sue Lusk-Gleich, president of the Columbus Board of Realtors. “When inventory levels are too high, the increased competition forces some homeowners to sell at prices that are too low, which in turn often affects the values of other neighboring homes.”
“In order to re-balance the market, we either need the inventory to decrease or the number of buyers to increase. And since the tax credit incentives brought many buyers into the market earlier than we would have seen otherwise, we have a smaller pool of potential home buyers to absorb the inventory now.”
Home sales were down 28.4% in September and the number of homes that went into contract was also down almost 25%, which doesn’t bode well for October home sales.
“When comparing sales figures to the previous year, we need to remember that home sales have been elevated since April 2008 due to the tax credits,” adds Lusk-Gleich. “Even so, sales are still up four percent year-to-date.”
For more information, visit www.ColumbusRealtors.com.
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RISMEDIA, October 28, 2010—It is more important than ever that we find ways to stay positive, especially as we continue to make our way through today’s real estate market. Your success depends on your mindset, not on the economy or the marketplace. How do I know this to be a fact? I’ve interviewed hundreds of top producing sales people all over the U.S. and Canada, and when I asked them the secret to their success, unquestionably and without a doubt and independent of each other, they all said the same thing, “my mindset.”
These are top producing sales people that have been in the business for 10, 20, or even 30 years. They’ve been through up times, down times, and all kinds of different markets, and they said without a doubt it was their mindset .When times get tough, people start to look outside of themselves for answers and what they really need to do is look inside themselves and ask themselves the question, “How can I stay positive, how can I stay hopeful, how can I stay optimistic?”
Here are a few tools that will make it easier to create a positive mindset, no matter what the real estate industry throws at you.
The first tool is to really stop watching, or listening, or reading the news as the news is based on negativity. The news amplifies fear and negativity in order to capture more listeners, more readers, and more viewers. The media is a business like anything else and there’s a popular saying in the media industry that describes their approach: “If it bleeds, it reads.” So the more fear the media can instill in people, the more people will turn to newspapers or the television to find out what’s going to happen, or in some way stay fixated because they’re in fear. In order to create a positive mindset, it is crucial to not become fixated on what the media is reporting.
The second tool is to stop being around negative people. Your colleagues are going to want to constantly come and talk to you and tell you how bad things are. Maybe your clients or prospective clients are going to tell you how bad things are during phone conversations, and even your friends will do the same thing. You will go through a day and everybody will want to tell you how negative everything is. If you are looking to create a positive mindset, the first step is to avoid the negative people who surround you. If you are stuck talking to someone who is speaking negatively, simply tune them out and say: “Well that may be true for you, but that’s not true for me.” This is like an inner mantra which will help you create your own inner environment.
The third tool is a technique that I’ve used with my clients throughout the past 12 years as a successful business coach. It’s a very powerful tool called The Stop Technique, and there are three steps to it. The first step is just called Stop. If you start to notice your mind going in a negative direction such as, “I can’t succeed in today’s economy,” “I just don’t have what it takes to be successful or to make money,” “I have to work really hard and struggle and sacrifice,” your job is to simply catch these negative thoughts as soon as they pop into your head and say, “Stop.” Take a deep breath, and then put in a positive new thought.
You can put in your choice of however many positive new thoughts you have ready in your arsenal. If some of your negative statements are about yourself like, “I’m not good enough, or I’m not smart enough, or I’m not experienced enough,” an empowered belief that you can substitute in its place may be: “I love and approve of myself unconditionally.” Another kind of self-limiting belief is something that you continually tell yourself, such as: “To succeed, I’m going to have to really struggle, and sacrifice, and stress out, and work hard, and then I won’t have a life.” If this has been your primary belief, it is important to put a stop to it when you hear it coming. Instead, take a deep breath and replace this negative thought with a positive one such as: “I’m committed to working smarter, not harder.”
One of the things that is great about this technique is that it really forces you to become aware of what you’re thinking from moment to moment, and it’s what you’re thinking from moment to moment that will create a negative or positive mindset. If you’re continually thinking negative thoughts either about yourself, or the market, or about money, then you’re setting yourself up for a negative mindset. Then what happens is what you believe tends to come true, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. For example, if you tell yourself, “I don’t have what it takes to succeed in today’s market,” and you tell yourself that over, and over, and over again, your thoughts will create your reality and then you’ll find that you don’t have what it takes.
Henry Ford once said, “Whether you believe you can or you can’t, either way you’re right.” The way to create a positive mindset is to continue to bring your thoughts back to, “I can do it.” You need to have unwavering faith in your ability to be successful. The way you do this is to retrain your mind. The stop technique is the most powerful technique for retraining your mind, but you may have to use it a few hundred times a day at the beginning. Your mind has been going down that negative track in an undisciplined way for a long time, and now you have to reign your thoughts in, which is going to require a lot of vigilance at the beginning.
Dr. Maya Bailey, Master Business Coach for Real Estate Professionals, integrates her 20 years of experience as a psychologist with 14 years of expertise in marketing. Her powerful transformational work creates a Success Formula for Real Estate Professionals ready to double and triple their incomes.
To get your free report: “7 Simple Strategies to More Clients in 90 Days” and to apply for an Initial Complimentary Consultation, go to www.90daystomoreclients.com.
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RISMEDIA, October 28, 2010—The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury released the October edition of the Obama Administration’s Housing Scorecard (www.hud.gov/scorecard). The latest housing figures show continued signs of stabilization in house prices and high home affordability due in part to record low interest rates. The housing scorecard is a comprehensive report on the nation’s housing market.
“Over the last 21 months, the Obama Administration’s swift action in the housing market has kept millions of families in their homes and provided responsible borrowers with incentives to refinance or to become a homeowner,” said HUD Assistant Secretary Raphael Bostic. “But, with many unavoidable foreclosures still in the pipeline, it’s clear that we have a hard road ahead. That’s why we’re focused on successfully implementing the programs we’ve put in place—such as additional assistance on refinancing and helping unemployed homeowners stay in their homes—and ensuring that help is available to homeowners as soon as possible.”
“HAMP is not only an important part of the Administration’s efforts to stabilize the housing market, it has also redefined the loan modification standard for the mortgage industry overall. That has led to more than 3.5 million modification arrangements directly benefitting families in communities across the country still healing from the crisis,” said acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Tim Massad. “Early data shows that well beyond the trial phase, the majority of homeowners are maintaining their HAMP modifications, reflecting the rigorous standards the program uses to provide assistance to responsible homeowners.”
The October Housing Scorecard features key data on the health of the housing market including:
-Families continued to benefit from the lowest rates in history on 30-year fixed mortgages. Since April 2009, record low interest rates have helped more than 7.1 million homeowners refinance, resulting in more stable home prices and $12.7 billion in total borrower savings.
-As expected with the expiration of the Home Buyer Tax Credit, new and existing home sales remained below levels seen in the first half of 2010. At the same time, home prices remained level in the past year after 33 straight months of decline and homeowners added $95 billion in home equity in the second quarter.
-More than 3.52 million modification arrangements were started between April 2009 and the end of August 2010—nearly triple the number of foreclosure completions during that time. These included more than 1.3 million trial Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) modification starts, more than 510,000 Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loss mitigation and early delinquency interventions, and more than 1.6 million proprietary modifications under HOPE Now. While some homeowners may have received help from more than one program, the number of agreements offered nearly tripled foreclosure completions for the same period (1.3 million).
-At nine months, almost 90% of homeowners remain in their permanent HAMP modification, with 11% defaulted. Early data indicate that HAMP permanent modifications are performing well over time, with lower delinquency rates than those reported by the industry at large. At nine months, less than 16% of permanent modifications are 60+ days delinquent.
Data in the scorecard also show that the recovery in the housing market continues to remain fragile. For example, foreclosure completions continue to move upward and a large supply of homes are being held off the market. While the recovery will take place over time, the Administration remains committed to its efforts to prevent avoidable foreclosures and stabilize the housing market.
For more information, visit www.hud.gov.
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RISMEDIA, October 28, 2010—RealtyTrac, a leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties released its Q3 2010 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report, which shows that cities in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona once again accounted for all top 10 foreclosure rates in the third quarter among metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more, while cities outside those four states accounted for most of the biggest increases in metro foreclosure activity.
California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona cities also accounted for 19 of the top 20 metro foreclosure rates. The only exception was Boise City-Nampa, Idaho at No. 14, which was also one of only five metro areas ranking in the top 20 to post a year-over-year increase in foreclosure activity—along with the Florida metro areas of Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach at No. 7, Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond at No. 15, Naples-Marco Island at No. 18, and Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville at No. 19.
Among all 206 metro areas tracked in the report, however, 133 (65%) posted year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity. Eleven of the nation’s 20 largest metro areas posted year-over-year increases. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue led the way with a 71% increase in foreclosure activity from the third quarter of 2009, followed by Chicago-Naperville-Joliet with a 35% increase, Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown with a 26% increase, Detroit-Warren-Livonia with a nearly 23% increase, and Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta with a 20% increase.
“The underlying problems that are causing homeowners to miss their mortgage payments—high unemployment, underemployment, toxic loans and negative equity—are continuing to plague most local housing markets,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “And these historically high foreclosure rates will continue until those problems are resolved.”
Top 10 metro foreclosure rates
Las Vegas-Paradise continued to post the nation’s highest metro foreclosure rate in the third quarter, with one in every 25 housing units (3.98%) receiving a foreclosure filing—more than five times the national average. A total of 32,288 properties in the metro area received a foreclosure filing during the quarter, an increase of 1% from the previous quarter but a decrease of 20% from the third quarter of 2009.
Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., documented the nation’s second highest metro foreclosure rate, with one in every 35 housing units (2.84%) receiving a foreclosure filing during the third quarter—nearly four times the national average. A total of 10,352 properties in the metro area received a foreclosure filing during the quarter, an increase of 12% from the previous quarter, but a decrease of nearly 22% from the third quarter of 2009. The other Florida metro area in the top 10 was Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach at No. 7 (2.42%).
With one in every 36 housing units (2.76%) receiving a foreclosure filing during the third quarter, Modesto, Calif., posted the third highest metro foreclosure rate despite an 18% decrease in foreclosure activity from the third quarter of 2009. Other California metro areas in the top 10 were Stockton at No. 4 (2.59%); Merced at No. 5 (2.48%); Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario at No. 6 (2.46%); Bakersfield at No. 9 (2.25%); and Vallejo-Fairfield at No. 10 (2.23%).
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale posted the nation’s eighth highest metro foreclosure rate, with one in every 44 housing units (2.28%) receiving a foreclosure filing during the third quarter.
Metros with highest foreclosure totals
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach documented 58,624 properties receiving a foreclosure filing in the third quarter, the highest total nationwide among metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more. Miami foreclosure activity increased nearly 25% from the previous quarter and was up 9% from the third quarter of 2009.
A total of 48,849 properties in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana area received a foreclosure filing in the third quarter, the second highest metro total despite a 3% decrease from the previous quarter and a nearly 30% decrease from the third quarter of 2009.
Chicago-Naperville-Joliet documented the third highest metro total, with 44,732 properties receiving a foreclosure filing during the quarter, a 6% increase from the previous quarter and a 35% increase from the third quarter of 2009.
For more information, visit www.realtytrac.com.
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