David's Blog

In the July 29 edition of the Austin American-Statesman, there was an article about June home sales dropping for hte first time in five years.  While I certainly can't dispute the facts, we need to look at this information in context.  Even though sales were lower than June of 2006, they were still at the 2nd highest in many years.

The Central Texas real estate market has had record-breaking home sales for the past four years, so I am still very confident in the market right now.  You may read how, nationally, the real estate market is struggling, and in many places that is true, but some of the country's best real estate investments are still right here in Central Texas.

Employment opportunities are increasing in many areas around Austin with additional retial developments popping up, and companies are moving people into the area.  In Williamson County we are looking at several new medical facilities that are going to be needing doctors to come here from somewhere.  Traditionally, where there are employment opportunities, housing sales will remain strong.  I am working right now with two couples moving here from outside of Central Texas, with another couple coming in a few months.  So people ARE out there buying right now!

According to the Mortgage Brokers Association borrowing costs on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, excluding fees, had averaged 6.65 percent and dropped 0.04 percentage points to 6.61 percent.

Long-term mortgage rates since early June have been hovering at their highest rates since last summer, crimping affordability at a time when lenders are also making it more difficult for buyers to get mortgages approved.

U.S. home builder sentiment this month sank to its lowest level in about 16-1/2 years, the National Association of Home Builders said this week. Builders are still grappling with huge stockpiles of unsold homes, even after months of slicing prices and throwing in incentives to sweeten the deals.

Later on in the week, the Commerce Department will report further erosion in housing starts and permits to build homes, based on surveys of economists by Reuters.

New construction likely dropped in June because of the already unwieldy supply of unsold homes and tighter lending standards that further squeezed affordability and access to credit, economists said

Despite government calls for tougher regulation in the subprime mortgage market, brokers and lenders don't seem to be getting their guidance from Washington. Instead, they're turning to Wall Street.

It's not that mortgage originators are ignoring new Federal Reserve guidelines for subprime lending. It's just that they're guidelines -- not enforceable regulations. The situation is closer to "what-the-market-will-bear" -- or rather -- what it will put up with.  It's more the market that's been dictating what kinds of loans are made. Lenders are reacting to what investors will buy.

Mortgage loans are packaged by lenders and sold on Wall Street into secondary markets to hedge funds, pension funds and other investors.

So when regulators tightened subprime lending guidance in late June to try to curtail risky practices that led to record foreclosures - such as loans with little or no proof of earnings, loans with prepayment penalties and lax underwriting standards - all it did was reinforce a trend that Wall Street had started long before. 

 written exclusively for my blog by Kevin Finch, Team Mortgage,

512-218-4855; 512-914-2033;      http://www.1teammortgage.net/.

Family Circle magazine has named Cedar Park as one of the top 10 towns for families, combining big-city opportunities with a suburban lifestyle.  The town will be featured in the August 2007 issue of the magazine.  I'll be buying that one for sure!  It hit newstands Tuesday (7/10) so I'll need to go pick up a copy of it today to read the whole article.  Congratulations to the people of Cedar Park and their leaders for working hard to provide a great place to live for Central Texas families!!

I found a great article from Realtor Magazine Online by Christina Hoffman Spira about staging your home for sale.  It features 3 different realtors in the Chicago area that were given $250 and 2 hours to stage a room in a home for sale.  They were able to accomplish a lot for a just little bit of money, using a lot of what the homeowners already had, to completely change the perception of a room.  If you are thinking that spending a little time, effort and money to stage your home for sale is a waste - take a look at this article and watch the attached videos - it will change your mind!  Sometimes it's hard to remember that the way we live in our homes is not necessarily the best way to present them for sale.  We take our homes personally, and when your home is on the market, it's not personal, but a piece of property to sell.  Let me know what you think of the article and if you are looking for a stager in the Austin area to help you out - give me a call.