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Lending Survey Indicates Tightened Standards, Lower Demand

The Federal Reserve has released the October 2007 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices which addresses changes in the supply of and demand for bank loans both to businesses and consumers over the previous three months which, we presume, corresponds to the third quarter of 2007. In this particular survey participating banks were questioned about changes in their lending policies for backup lines of credit for commercial paper and prime nonconforming residential mortgage loans. Banks were asked separately about changes in credit standards and demand for prime, nontraditional, and subprime residential mortgages. The report summarizes responses from 52 domestic banks and 22 foreign banking institutions, a respondent pool which accounts for the majority of the bank lending in the country.

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A Reference on Real Trends

Leaders of the residential real estate industry can find useful, timely and trusted information from REAL Trends, which for twenty years, have been able to give answers to business and strategy questions, either from newsletters, e-mail updates and conferences they organized. These have been combined now and can be accessed in the website, with contents as far back as 7 years ago. These include conference presentations, research reports from REAL Trends and other sources. Be updated and read the news of the day. One of the most important responsibilities of REAL TRENDS is do the research but deliver only information that are relevant to their readers, a promise to their clients, customers and friends.

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Getting the Edge in an Ugly Real Estate Market

It doesn’t really make a difference which survey you read, but similar to the annual poll done by Harris Interactive, real estate agents almost always find themselves at the bottom of the “most prestigious” occupations list.

The Ugly Truth
Why? It would seem that many of the best-paying jobs actually rank as the least prestigious -business executive, stockbroker and real estate agent – but to come in dead last with almost one-third of respondents rating real estate agents as having “hardly any prestige at all” is not good.
We need to collectively do something about it. And just changing our title from real estate agent to sales associates to Realtor(r) isn’t really going to make any meaningful difference.

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Real Estate Change: Bubble Trouble (Again?)

For real estate professionals there are lessons to be learned from every changing market condition; especially a housing bubble. The question is will they? For a great many agents who have never experienced anything other than the recent feeding frenzy this is the first time they�ll be learning them and for the rest who have �been there before�, it�s a time to reflect on the last time through the cycle and add the new lessons learned.

The housing bubble expanded in the first few years of the 2000s, especially in the costal areas, the southwest and the highly populous areas. The bubble is basically a period during which a mania for home buying occurs. In Read the rest…

US Commercial Real Estate Industry

Commercial real estate in the United States is a billion dollar industry. Each day brokers and agents provide thousands of transactions to investors and buyers in a market that fluctuates as the economy does. In the United States, alone, property values have suffered as the rise and fall of the global economy does. With outsourcing to minimize expenses, property used for commercial development has taken a major hit and has some experts wondering if there will be a rebound.

Every city or town has zoning laws that dictate what can be used as residential property and what is considered commercial real estate in an area. These areas can differ by only a few feet but the taxes and property value are drastically different. Whereas a 1200 square foot housing property might lease for nine hundred dollars, the same equivalent in a commercial area might go upwards of fifteen hundred. Real estate investors take this into consideration when searching for commercial real estate properties.

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Single-family starts, permits fall in November

The pace of groundbreaking for home construction in the U.S. fell in November after rebounding for the first time in four months in October, while building permits slid to the lowest level in 14 1/2 years.

Housing starts declined 3.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted 1.187 million annual rate in November, after rising 4.2 percent in the previous month to 1.232 million, the Commerce Department said this week. Year-to-year, housing starts during November were 24.2 percent below the level of construction in the same month of 2006.

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Existing home sales could hit 5-year low

Realtors forecast for year sees the outlook worsening in 2008

WASHINGTON – Sales of existing homes in the U.S. are forecast to decline to a five-year low in 2007, a trade group for real estate agents said Tuesday, and the outlook for 2008 is worsening.

The ninth-straight downwardly revised monthly forecast from the National Association of Realtors calls for U.S. existing home sales to fall 12.7 percent this year to 5.66 million, down from 6.48 million last year.

Last month, the association predicted a 10.8 percent drop from a year ago.

This year’s sales would be the lowest since 2002, when sales hit 5.63 million. The Realtors group forecasts sales will rise slightly next year to 5.69 million, but that is down from last month’s prediction of 6.12 million.

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Florida: Increased Market for Townhouses

The market for townhouses has increased throughout the state. This is because single family home prices have gone up.

Townhouse is a cross between a condo and a single-family home and offers the best criteria of both worlds. These units are detached with private entrance or gate and the owner need not worry taking care of a landscaping.

This type of units is not viewed same with the condo boom, but seen as a substitute to higher land and construction costs of a single houses.

Townhouses production has increasingly grown for the past five or six years in south Florida. Because of this boom and low prices, more family are buying or moving into townhouses.

(image source : brownstoner.com

Banks: Foreclosure Increases , Sales Decreases

Now days, foreclosure is alarmingly increasing in higher rate and because of this, lenders are acquiring homes faster than selling them off.

About 2% of home loans were foreclosed by the end of last year, and was noted as the highest foreclosure rate since the Mortgage Bankers Association started collecting data.

It was also mentioned that the heaviest concentrations of foreclosed loans are in Florida, Nevada, Ohio, Michigan & Indiana. Rallying in the foreclosure are California, Arizona & Georgia. And because of this increase, it is expected that about two-thirds of homeowners will lose their homes.

And some of these houses in foreclosure state will not totally be owned by banks. Because borrower will go into deals with the lenders on easing the loan terms and allowing them to catch up on payments.

(image source : howstuffworks.com

Dos & Dont’s : Perk Up Tips Before Selling Part II

Here are some more guides in making our homes more inviting and sellable to prospect buyers

1. Reduce Odors – do everything to minimize the odor in our homes caused by smoking, pets or cooking. People who walk in our homes never forget the smell.

2. Do minor repairs – Always take a good look around your home and view it in a buyer’s perspective, so try to oil doors fix handrails and other others

3. Change outdated light fixtures – using a new light fixtures help brighten the once boring old-fashioned overhead fixture, like a new wall sconces or pendant light

4. Clean the Carpeting – to avoid extra cost of replacing an old carpet, just have clean, sometimes buyers prefer their own carpet style.

5. Garage and Basement – clear away all the stuff stashed in that area, its ok if your not selling the place, but having it clean is a bonus points for a quick selling

(image source : rdblack.com)