Here is some good news for ones that got caught up in the mortgage melt down and foreclosure non-sense if the last 6 years. Read this then Call a mortgage professional like Brett Stacy of Banc Home Loans at 760-220-9560 and get yourself on the road to home ownership again. 

Foreclosed Owners Get Second Chance Sooner

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | MONDAY, DECEMBER 02, 2013

Those who lost their home due to financial hardships may get another shot at being home owners again soon. The Federal Housing Administration recently announced that they would shorten the waiting period for qualified borrowers who’ve had a bankruptcy, foreclosure, deed in lieu of foreclosure, or short sale who want to buy a home again. Under the FHA's Back-to-Work program, home owners must show that they have their finances back in order and they must receive counseling from a HUD-approved agency. Those who meet the requirements can apply to buy a property in as little as a year.

“The Back to Work program is a great opportunity for us to help those impacted by the recent housing crisis,” Heather Shanahan, a representative with a HUD-approved housing counseling agency called Springboard, told HousingWire. "Our goal in our counseling sessions is to enable the borrower to better understand their loan options and the obligations.”

Counselors provide borrowers with a customized action plan that reflects household budgets and shows borrowers how they can meet their financial obligations to prevent default again in the future.

The Back-to-Work program is also helping borrowers purchase their first homes, in some cases.

Source: “Springboard helps formerly distressed borrowers get back on track,” HousingWire (Nov. 19, 2013)

Our New direction

I started this blog as away to increase awareness of who Antonina Erbst and Zachary Betts are in respects our to real estate business. The A to Z Group was a Great partnership that had an incredible run, now that run is over. I have started a new.  Our focus before was short sales and market conditions. My focus will still be market conditions.
The market now is really different, prices are increasing, cash buyers are still buying, finance buyers going strong, people that lost homes are getting back into the market. This is the first time we have really 3 market segments, Short sales, Traditional sales (home owners with equity selling their home), and foreclosures.What does this all mean for you? If you are thinking about selling or buying do it. Interest rates are still down, prices are not astronomical, and the majority of properties now have equity.
If you are thinking about moving up do not hesitate. If you need to down size make a move don't sit there. If you are just thinking of buying first time or you lost your home in the recent past jump off the fence and get back into the market. If you are afraid of not being able to qualify work with a good professional loan officer, I know several. A good loan officer will give you the road to being able to qualify if you don't. You have nothing to be ashamed of particularly if you have and are taking steps to getting qualified to repurchase. Very few of us have had a perfect anything let alone a perfect credit history. Get back in the game.
Investors are still buying, some are holding others are flipping. Money is being made, not quite as much as before because now there is more competition for the homes.
My point to all of this is if you are interested in buying or selling real estate, I will do my best to provide you with current and up to date data so you can make the best decisions. The ultimate goal is to become your real estate agent of choice for life.  

Real Etate Today

Real eatate today is an interesting business. This is the first time I have seen Short sales, Standard sales and Bank owned all at the same time. Is now a good time to sell?  Prices are up buyers are in the market, the answer is yes now is a good time to sell.
Is now a good time to buy? Interest rates are down, inventory is low however there are plenty of properties to choose from.
Should I invest in real estate? Yes there are more than one way to invest we can help with helping you to decide the best path for you.
What really is my point? Never has there been so many ways to take advantage of the real estate market to invest, buy up, or down size your home.

Real Estate Market Report for November 2013

I made a video of the market report for the Victorvalley area. http://youtu.be/zgT4UEOIlAM

Market condition report.

Sales of new single-family homes posted the first annual gain in seven years as median prices continued to rise. The median price of new homes increased to $248,900 last month, a 1.34% increase compared to November. The median price of new homes sold was up 13.86% compared to a year ago.
New home sales volume increased nearly 20% from 2011 to 2012, and although the gains were large, sales last year were still the third worst on record. For all of last year 369,000 new homes were sold – about a third of the record number of sales reached in 2005. In December alone – the latest month available – new home sales dropped 7.29% compared to the previous month.

Sales Volume & Median Prices

• New Home Sales
• New Home Prices
• Existing Home Sales
• Existing Home Prices

 

Existing home sales tell a similar story with volume easing December but remaining well above a year ago. Meanwhile, very limited inventory maintained the upward momentum in home prices. Total existing home sales declined 1.00% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.94 million in December from 4.99 million in November.
Despite the minor down-tick in December, annual volume was still 12.76% above the 4.38 million-unit level attained in 2011. It was the highest volume since 2007 when it reached 5.03 million and the strongest increase since 2004.
The national median existing home price for all housing types was $180,800 in December, which is 10.97% above December 2011. This is the 10th consecutive month of year-over-year price gains and was the strongest annual price gain since 2005 when the median price rose 12.40%.

28 January 2013  •   Filed Under Market Reports  •   Relates To New Housing Starts

Housing Starts Surge Dramatically In December

Housing is on the march once again, particularly in new construction starts which saw a strong upsurge in housing starts in December. Specifically, new construction jumped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 954,000 units. That was 12.1% above the November estimate of 851,000 home starts. In addition, the most recent figure was 36.87% higher than the December 2011 level of 697,000 homes.

For comparison purposes, though, the figure was still more than 30% below the average level of housing starts over the past 50 years. Thus, while housing is definitely on the mend, it still has further to go. For the most recent year, as a whole, an estimated 780,000 housing units were started. That was up 28% from the comparable 2011 full-year estimate, keeping in mind that about 1.5 million starts annually are needed to keep up with population growth.
In addition to new starts, privately owned housing units authorized by building permits came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 903,000 homes in December. That metric, too, was up, albeit nominally, from the estimated 900,000 permits issued in November. The year-to-year swing however was dramatic, with a 28.82% increase in building permits overall for 2012.
Housing completions, which have vacillated up and down consistently throughout 2013, also finished the year strong reporting a 13.20% increase at 686,000 completed units, up from 675,000 in December 2011.
Meanwhile, in a rare bit of uniformity, starts were up in every region of the country in December. Specifically, building was higher by 21.4% in the Northeast, where building had earlier been limited by the ravages of Hurricane Sandy. Moreover, starts jumped by 24.7% in the Midwest, by 3.8% in the South, and by 18.7% in the West.
Taken as a whole, there was little not to like in this report, which was materially better than forecast, and should set this sector up for a stellar 2013. The housing data may not be a game changer at this point, but the December increase in building gives us some confidence that the nation’s gross domestic product will in fact rebound higher in 2013.

18 January 2013  •   Filed Under Market Reports  •   Relates To Selling Your Home

Take Advantage Of Today’s Market Conditions

Springtime belongs to the real estate market. It is the season that brings out the best in buyers looking for a new home. Market activity will be high and new home sales will soar. With all this going on, when should serious home sellers list their homes? The answer: right now.
With continued historically low interest rates, buyers have jumped off the fence and began to seek out available properties for sale. That is why the smartest move you can make is to list your home as soon as possible.
Since housing inventory is low during the winter months, homes that are listed now have less competition. Your home can be a stand-out instead of being buried under the influx of inventory will come later in March and April. Take advantage of this crucial exposure because when summer hits, the volume of homes for sale will skyrocket.
This year is going to be one of the strongest years in recent memory for buying real estate. When a slumping housing inventory is coupled with high buyer demand, home prices are bound to rise. Since buyers wants to pay the best price possible, they will be motivated to buy now – before prices go up.
Rising home prices can also means a corresponding increase in interest rates. Today’s buyers have the lowest interest rates available in decades which give them the power to buy “more home” without an increase in their monthly housing payment.
If a buyer purchased a $200K home with a 4.65% interest rate, their mortgage payment would be around $1013 per month. Now with rates as low as 3.65%, they would be able to buy a home worth $225K, with no increase in their monthly payment. This gives buyers an extra $25,000 of buying power without increasing the monthly cost of their home.
With the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing policy put in place September of 2012, home lending rates dropped again to historically low levels. At the current rate of 3.32%, home buyers are shopping aggressively before this QE3 policy comes to an end.
Recently several Federal Reserve board chairmen raised concerns regarding the financial stability of this economy as a result of this plan of pouring over $40 billion dollars a month. With these concerns in the air and the possibility that this most recent stimulus may come to a halt, it can be expected that interest rates will increase affecting the requisite buying power of those seeking to purchase a home.
A record number of homeowners, having lost their home due to foreclosure, are now choosing to rent instead of buy property. The high demand for rentals, and a general lack of supply, has actually increased rental rates beyond a typical monthly mortgage payment would be. With the market dynamic being that it is cheaper to buy than to rent, you have yet another solid reason to list your property for sale. If ever there was even a time to put a home on the market, it is right now.
This unique combination of market conditions, including extremely low interest rates, buyers in the marketplace with more buying power, low housing inventory and mortgage payments being cheaper than rent, should be the greatest motivators for you, the home seller, to list your home sooner rather than later. If you take advantage of today’s market conditions you will sell your home in no time at all.

← Previous Entries

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• Mortgage News

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  Fixed mortgage rates remained unchanged from the previous week and maintaining near record lows as they continue to support housing demand, translating into a pick-up in home prices in most markets. Meanwhile, homeowners are waiting for Congress to pass a law to make it easier to refinance mortgages with the hope that low rates will [...]
  

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• Insider Quotes

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  “Although affordability in 2012 was highest on record, the excessively tight underwriting precluded many would-be homebuyers from locking-in generational low interest rates. Rising home prices and a gradual uptrend in mortgage interest rates will offset improvements in family income, still 2013 likely will be the third best on record in terms of household buying power. [...]
  

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• Useful Links

  National Association Of Realtors Local Market Reports

  

  To help analyse and understand the plethora of data that is available, the National Association of Realtors produces a series of Local Market Reports (LMRs) to provide insight into the fundamentals and direction of the nation’s largest metropolitan housing markets. To find a local market report in your area please visit the National Association Of [...]
  

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• Contact Info

  Zachary Betts

  Keller Williams

  
  

  http://zacharybetts.realhometrends.com

  zachb@kw.com

  
  

  Phone: (760) 605-1632

  
  

  8193 svl box

  Victorville, CA 92395

What is up in Real Estate?

What is up in real estate today? Prices and interest rates. On May 28th the rates jumped 1 full point. Over the last 12 months in the Apple Valley, Hesperia, Victorville area prices have gone up $18-25.00 per sqft. What does that mean? If you own a 2000 sqft home and it was worth $120,000.00 last year it would not be worth $160000.00. That is great appreciation.
Why are interest rates going up? Because values have gone up so much and very quickly. One way to slow it down is take a few buyers out of the market. Will this really help? Not a lot since 35% of all the transactions are cash. What is the solution? Who knows. What does this mean? If you wanted to down size or move up now is the time and do not wait. What does this mean for short sales? They are going away however they are not gone. Particularly in our market. Orange County in California for the most part is done with short sales we are not. If you know anyone that needs to do a short sale have them call.
If you know of anyone thinking of buying or selling have them call. Better yet call me so I can call them. 760-605-1632 thanks.

up date on Real Estate Market

Short sales, why still do a short sale

Now is the time to sell or buy.

Should you Sell Now?

Instead of putting up stuff for you to read here is a Video on short sales.http://youtu.be/wzl1rg_HO48

Why should you list your house today?

Many homeowners are waiting until the Spring ‘buying season’ to list their homes for sale. Here are five reasons why that might not make sense this year: 1.) Demand Is High Homes are selling at a pace not seen since 2007. The most recent Existing Home Sales Report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) showed that annual sales in 2012 increased 9.2% over 2011. There are buyers out there right now and they are serious about purchasing. 2.) Supply Is Low The monthly supply of houses for sale is at its lowest point (4.4 months) since May of 2005. The current month’s supply is down 21.6% from the same time last year. Historically, inventory increases dramatically in the spring. Selling now when demand is high and supply is low may garner you your best price. I listed 3 houses on Saturday the 25th and 2 are in escrow on the 28th. One is at 20k over list the other is 5k over list. 3.) New Construction Is Coming Back Over the last several years, most homeowners selling their home did not have to compete with a new construction project around the block. As the market is recovering, more and more builders are jumping back in. These ‘shiny’ new homes will again become competition as they are an attractive alternative to many purchasers. 4.) Interest Rates Are Projected to Inch Up The Mortgage Bankers’ Association has projected mortgage interest rates will inch up approximately one full point in 2013. Whether you are moving up or moving down, your housing expense will be more a year from now if a mortgage is necessary to purchase your next home. 5.) Timelines Will Be Shorter The dramatic increase in transactions caused many challenges to the process of buying or selling a home in 2012. We waited for inspections, dealt with last minute appraisals and prayed that the bank didn’t ask for ‘just one more piece of paper’ before issuing a commitment on the mortgage. There are fewer transactions this time of year. That means that timetables on each component of the home buying process will be friendlier for those involved in transactions over the next 90 days. Banks are starting to learn that Short Sales cost them less than foreclosures. These are five good reasons why you should consider listing your house today instead of waiting.