Posts from — January 2010

Az Luxury Home Short Sales continue to be a hot topic even though most of the homes being sold in Arizona are under $400,000.

Since the market above 400k is so slow there is a surplus of luxury home inventory and because of that pricing has fallen. Even those that felt they had a lot of equity in their properties are starting to see that equity erode and in some instances disappear altogether.

This makes a short sale or foreclosure inevitable if it becomes difficult to keep up the payments.

If you have a luxury home and are upside down please give us a call at 480-241-4406 and we’ll evaluate your situation and explain to you your options. As always all of our consultations and services are free!

FHA has announced some new changes to FHA loans which may affect home sales.

The new policy reduces the amount of money sellers can provide home buyers from 6% to a maximum of 3% of the purchase price. Home buyers usually use this money to help with closing costs.

Credit score down payment qualifications will also change. In order to qualify for the 3.5% downpayment program you will need to have a credit score of at least 580. Anything less will require home buyers to put at least 10% down to purchase a home.

More changes may be on the way, we’ll keep you up-to-date!

Fannie Mae Offers New Closing Cost Assistance and Appliance Incentive for Homebuyers

Fannie Mae is offering a 3.5% incentive for buyers who purchase and close on a Fannie Mae-owned home between January 28 and April 30, 2010. Buyers purchasing properties listed on HomePath.com that are closed within this period may receive up to 3.5% of the final sales price for:

· Closing costs;

· The purchase of new Whirlpool® appliances by Fannie Mae; or

· A mix of closing costs and appliances, at the buyer’s discretion, up to the maximum 3.5%.

To be eligible for this incentive:

· Offers must be accepted on or after January 28, 2010;

· Property sales must close before May 1, 2010

· Buyers cannot be investors and must be owner-occupants

Home sales have risen however what will the future hold?

The Feds have said that they will stop buying mortgage backed securities this March which means a probable increase in mortgage rates. Couple that with the expiration of the first-time homebuyers credit and the buying power of the homeowner drops substantially.

If the government wants to continue a forward motion of home sales (and they should to keep this economy from totally tanking) then they will need to step in and find a way to keep our mortgage rates low and maybe even discuss extending the credit again.

We can’t continue to rely on government programs to bail us out though and eventually we’ll hit bottom, stay stagnant for a while, then start back on the road to recovery.

Chances are though with a HUGE number of 5 year ARM resets coming up this spring we will probably see another large wave of foreclosures throughout the summer and into the fall.

Short sales & foreclosures should be a mainstay in todays local Arizona real estate market throughout 2010 and into 2011.

Wonderful new short sale listing in Mesa with HUGE lot, pebbletech pool, tons of storage, and a great floor plan!!