The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has been reporting great news recently. Last week’s Existing Home Sales Report and yesterday’s Pending Sales Report both showed consecutive months of increases in the number of homes sold. Finally, buyers are jumping off the fence and taking advantage of one of the most opportune times to purchase a […]
Predicting what will happen with interest rates is risky for a person’s credibility. Last year at this time, I (and the KCM Crew) believed rates would climb after June and for very logical reasons: the end of the Fed’s purchase of mortgage-backed-securities (MBS) and the end of the Tax Credit. What we didn’t anticipate was […]
As the states and the new Congress renew the debate about the Administration’s Health Care Bill, we are again getting many questions about a possible 3.8% tax on home sales that some claim is in the bill. To answer these questions, we have decided to re-run a blog post we did last year. – The KCM […]
Simon Cowell would have to be considered congenial compared to the critics of real estate in the last few years. But like the popular TV show, where the ultimate winner is not chosen by a select few but instead by the vote of the nation, homeownership again has proven to be the choice of the people. […]
We are beginning 2011 with much more positive news about real estate than we have had in several years. The pending sales numbers (houses going into contract) have been climbing for several months. Last month’s Existing Homes Sales Report from the National Association of Realtors showed an increase of over 12%. Demand definitely seems to […]
It seems that the housing market is finally showing signs of a recovery. We are not suggesting that it will come roaring back and we will see 2006 numbers again. However, the National Association of Realtors released their December Existing Home Sales Report yesterday. The report showed a 12.3% increase in closed transactions over the month before. […]
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama on July 21, 2010. The law’s far reaching impact will take years to understand, but as professionals we do know that Title IX (Risk Retention) will have a dramatic impact on consumers and the mortgage industry. What is Risk Retention? Risk Retention […]
We have been making two major points for several months. If you are selling a house, you must do it now AND if you are buying one, you must also do it now. This sounds crazy – but it is true. PRICE is the most important thing to a seller. With prices projected to fall […]
A major national television network called us a few weeks ago to do a live interview. To Steve Harney, our lead author, it was an honor to visit their Manhattan studios and meet Gerri Willis, the anchor of her own show – The Willis Report. She and all the people on her staff were both extremely […]
A number of pundits are saying that now is NOT the time to buy a home. They look at how prices have fallen over the last four years and claim that investing in real estate is too risky. However, we must also look at the gamble one takes in not buying to determine which is […]
Once a homeowner decides to sell their home and hire a professional agent to market it for them, most sellers will interview a few agents before signing on the dotted line. That’s a good idea. However, most sellers don’t have a clue on who is the RIGHT choice. Many sellers pick and agent based on a “connection” or […]
The big question facing real estate in 2011 is which direction are home prices headed. We agree with most experts who believe prices will continue to soften for the first half of the year. Supply and demand will determine this. Let’s look at where real estate sits entering this year compared to the beginning of […]
We believe that things are usually as they seem. We are not the type of organization that believes in conspiracies. However, there is something interesting in some of the housing price studies we are seeing in our research. It seems that some of the groups making the predictions are the same ones that have the […]
A court in Massachusetts voided two bank foreclosures this past Friday. The decision has already created a ripple effect across the banking community. Will other courts also decide to void local foreclosures? Does this put an added burden on banks when they are trying to complete a foreclosure process? What will it mean to the […]
We are starting to hear from real estate professionals that a growing number of purchasers are young adults being persuaded to buy now. Who are the people selling them on the American Dream? Their parents! It seems that parents of some adult children are strongly suggesting that their children take advantage of the low cost […]
Differentiating a home from the massive inventory is difficult. In a world of information overload, building excitement about a single home (when there are “three just like it” for sale on the same block) is a monumental task. Really, MARKETING a home is an agent’s primary job. I mean, agents don’t determine price (the buyer […]
Imagine you decided to get into great physical condition in 2011. It was your most important New Year’s resolution. Would you hire an out-of-shape trainer to help you achieve your goal? Of course you wouldn’t. You would want to take advice from a person that already is in the physical condition you hope to attain. […]
If you are thinking about purchasing a home right now, you are surely getting a lot of advice. And most of that advice is probably negative. Why buy now with prices still falling? Don’t you realize real estate is no longer a good investment? Don’t you know that people who bought five years ago lost […]
A new year brings changes. Some homeowners will decide that this is the year to move on with their lives in some way. Some will move south to join children and grandchildren. Others will move either east or west in search of a better career opportunity. Growing families may decide to purchase a larger home […]
Happy New Year, KCM Community! In some ways, 2010 was a very difficult year for sellers, buyers and real estate professionals. However, it made us a little stronger .. as adversity always does. It also helped us remember that the value of homeownership is so much more than just the price of a house. Let’s make […]
We have run this post before but want to make sure you still are asking the right questions of your loan officer. Here is a great list from Dean. – The KCM Crew More and more, consumers are learning that there is much more to getting a mortgage than just the interest rate and points. A good […]
For almost a decade now, every time we talked about real estate we immediately discussed money. We didn’t talk about the value of a home but instead about the price of the house. We didn’t worry about a roof over our heads but instead the ceiling on our interest rate. We didn’t care as much about […]
This past year has been very challenging for real estate. The market was defined by outside intervention. This intervention tugged at historic trends. Government involvment caused market fundamentals to be distorted beyond recognition. Unpredictability was the only thing we could predict. Modifications The administration’s announced goal of the modification program was to save 3-4 million families […]
Trying to negotiate the current housing market is difficult. There are so many external variables impacting real estate it seems almost impossible to project where sales and prices are headed. But, there were two people who saw the challenges we are currently experiencing back in 2005-2006. They looked at the market and predicted we were in […]
