3rd quarter 2009 real estate news
General real estate news is pretty darn good in many areas of Boulder County. Again, Louisville was named by Money Magazine as one of the top places to live in the country and Boulder was one of the “hottest” (most active) real estate markets.
Some other real estate news is that there are still thousands of home files sitting on desks at banks waiting for short sale negotiators to be assigned. Even if there was a full price offer, there is no one to make a decision to sell. The result is a large inventory of home owners who are up-side-down on their mortgages, who cannot sell the property and will be heading into foreclosure.
Then you will hear the news that Colorado Foreclosure rate has jumped up. Short sale transactions would prevent a foreclosure, although neither is good for future credit scores. With a short sale, the bank agrees to take less money than the mortgage amount, and the bank writes off the loss. Because these files are not being handled in an expeditious way, now many buyers who are trying to take advantage of the $8000 tax rebate will be forced to move on and buy a house on which they can actually close in 2 months. Because the $8000 tax rebate is for a limited time, the buyers have to be under contract by 9/30/2009 in order to close by midnight 11/30/09 when the program expires. They can no longer afford to wait for months until a bank negotiator is assigned. At this time no announcement has been made as to the continuation of this program or any new, improved program.
What is happening in the divorce & real estate world? I still see plenty of marital homes being put on the market and sold, but there has been a slight reduction due to the extra cost in maintaining 2 residences. Some couples are waiting to sell houses until the market turns around with husband and wife living in different parts of the house. This week I heard of a husband who decided to now travel for his job in order to stay away from home.
Just like the scenario above, if the house is in short sale position is very difficult to sell. Options might be
- Borrow the money from someone, sell the house and come to closing with money. Then one or both parties through the division of assets in the separation agreement will repay the loan. At least the house got sold and the couple can divorce.
- Meet with and try to negotiate with the lender prior to the contemplation of the sale to see what options are. Get a firm commitment as to the steps, the negotiator.
Not such new real estate news: I have been preaching to my sellers to make and keep their house in show condition for potential buyers. When I work with buyers, we are often looking at 5-10 homes in a day. The houses that stand out favorably are the houses in which we actually sit down and discuss the attributes. If we can’t even sit down, how can the buyer feel like they can make this house their home!
Real estate is still a very good investment. With all the scares in the stock market, this might be the perfect time to diversify and add real estate into your portfolio. If nothing else, invest in your home by making sure basic repair work is done. There are two mindsets on renovations. 1) I want to live in this house the way I want and don’t care if I get my money back out when I sell. Or 2) I want to resell this house and I’ll do renovation to resell it. Either way talk to a Realtor to make sure you know the real cost of your renovation in the future. Sounds crazy, but if you decide on Lime Green countertops, you probably will have to redo them prior to selling in the future. You might as well figure that into the cost now!
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