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.

Both domestic and foreign institutions said they had tightened their lending standards and terms for commercial and industrial loans (C&I) over the previous three months and also reported a tightening of lending standards on commercial real estate loans. Domestic banks generally reported that the demand for C&I loans had dropped over the reporting period but foreign banks reported little change in the demand. According to both domestic and foreign institutions there was about a 35 percent lower demand for commercial real estate loans.

Learn more: mortgagenewsdaily.com

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.

Find out more from realtrends.com

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.

As an industry we have to get out of the “selling,” “deal making” and “quick sale” mentality. We need to transform our image into that of home and lifestyle planners, real estate professionals, advisors and/or consultants.

Paradigm Shift
Remember that at one stage insurance agents sold us “death” policies. Now twice reengineered they are financial planners providing life insurance and estate planning. It may only be words but using the correct ones can and will significantly contribute to changing the perception of who we are, what we do and how much we should be paid for providing that service.

Real estate leaders and brokers need to drive this paradigm shift otherwise it may never occur. Concurrently this period of change needs to be accompanied by a significant increase in the level of education. During the last five years, with the influx of more than a million new agents, not enough time was allocated to education. Throughout the hectic hot property market the industry’s overall lack of emphasis on education has caused its already low perception and poor image to ashamedly become the “dumbest” bunch of agents ever. At the same time consumers have expanded their knowledge of buying and selling homes and so for the first time we find ourselves at the crossroads of being outsmarted on two sides – a more technology savvy consumer and by a new crop of smarter industry entrants.

Continue reading from retrends.com

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 this instance in included a rapid increase in housing prices due to historically low interest rates and generally poor lending standards.

Bubbles are usually hard to identify beforehand, not widely accepted during the upswing but easy to detail with hindsight. Retrospection is remarkable, isn�t it?

So in light of the current declining real estate market including overall lower sales, rising inventories, longer time on market and increasing foreclosure rates, we can easily look back and summarize the housing bubble as follows:

1995�2001: The Internet Dotcom Frenzy
Life was changing and fast. Innovation was excitingly confusing. Technology drove the stock market to dizzy new heights and minted thousands of newly-made stock market experts and millionaires.

Continue reading from retrends.com

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.

As property lines dictate costs and values, so too does the area that the commercial real estate in the US is located. Areas in the Northwest, such as in and around Seattle, will command higher prices due to the location of prominent corporations such as Microsoft and Starbucks.

Learn more from blog.worldvillage.com

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.

Building permits decreased 1.5 percent to a 1.152 million annual rate in November, the lowest level since June 1993. Economists had expected permits to edge up 0.5 percent to a rate of 1.164 million.

November single-family housing starts decreased 5.4 percent to 829,000, the lowest pace since April 1991. Construction of housing with two or more units rose 0.6 percent to 358,000; within that category, groundbreakings of homes with five or more units – or multi-family – were 4.4 percent higher at 332,000.

Regionally, housing starts fell 16.3 percent in the Northeast, 1.5 percent in the Midwest and 6.9 percent in the West. They rose 0.3 percent in the South.

Source: realtrends.com

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.

The trade group’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun, said the housing market is likely to experience a “modest” recovery next year as mortgage markets stabilize.

“It is possible for even higher home sales activity than we’re forecasting if buyers regain their confidence,” he said in a prepared statement.

The trade group also said its index that forecasts near-term home sales inched upward in September. The trade group said its seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes rose 0.2 percentage points from August , but was down 20.4 percent from a year ago.

September’s reading of 85.7 came after the index hit a record low in August.

The pending home sales index is designed to predict sales levels over the following two months. A reading of 100 is equal to the average level of pending sales activity in 2001, when the index began.

Source: msnbc.msn.com

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

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

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)