What If You Could Rent the White House?

American families have gotten pretty creative in coming up with ways to trim the budget on vacations. So here’s a vacation idea that could save the whole country money. HomeAway, a company that arranges vacation stays in private homes, crunched the numbers and came up with this fun factoid: If the First Family rented out [...]

Standard Sellers…Your Real Estate Market Awaits

Ok, a show of hands please.  How many normal, standard homeowners (homeowners with equity) out there are under the impression that the real estate market stinks, there are no buyers for your regular, good looking home, and that your best bet is to just sit tight and wait for all the bank repos and short [...]

What Does the Bank Need to Disclose to a Repo Buyer?

Southern Riverside California…Most people realize that in today’s real estate world, there is a duty on the part of the seller of a home to provide to a buyer a disclosure statement that essentially tells the buyer everything about the home.  This disclosure covers the known condition of the home, neighborhood issues, past repairs, permitted [...]

Real Estate Trends of the Baby Boomers

A rather lengthy but very interesting infographic from Coldwell Banker on how Baby Boomers are looking at real estate as they hit their golden years. What caught my eye is how the younger baby boomers look at real estate differently than the older part of the generation… See a larger version here at the Coldwell Banker site.

Obama’s new plan allows more “underwater” homeowners to refinance, reduces fees

During his stop in Nevada, President Obama will announce major changes to the Homeowner  Affordable Refinance Program (“HARP”) designed to help more homeowners refinance to today’s  lower rates even if they owe more than their home’s worth. Here’s what we know so far: The program will now be available regardless of how “upside down” the homeowner is. Borrowing requirements will be [...]

Really? Housing slump at an end?

Real estate news and views from around the globe that make you go, “Really?” A look at some of the coverage from today’s National Association of Realtors conference in Anaheim … Gradual Recovery for Housing and the Economy Expected in 2012 — MarketWatch Housing to gradually improve in 2012, NAR economist says — Housing Wire [...]

Low mortgage rates expected to last 2 more years

One of the key reasons real estate agents and others often cite for buying a home now is that historically low mortgage rates won’t last forever. And they’re right. But if a recent UCLA Anderson Forecast is to be believed, low rates will last for another two years. The forecast, issued earlier this month, predicts that U.S. [...]

Moderate housing recovery forecast for next year

National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun forecast Friday that U.S. home prices will go up from 2% in 2012, part of a gradual improvement that will continue through 2014. In addition, Yun told reporters at the NAR annual conference in Anaheim that he now pegs the probability of a new recession at 10% [...]

Jobs Still Key To Housing’s Recovery

Orange County broker Gary Thomas is president-elect of the National Association of Realtors and will serve as NAR’s president in 2013. In 2001, Thomas served as president of the California Association of Realtors and has been a board member of the state association since 1985. At the national level, he has been a NAR board [...]

Home Sales Up – Barely – From A Year Ago, Median Price Dips Again

Slight Increase In Prices Over The Past Year Southern California home sales dropped last month from August, as they normally do, and eked out a tiny gain from a year earlier as bargain hunting below $300,000 remained relatively strong. Home prices continued their sideways-to-downward slide, with the region’s median sale price falling below the year-ago [...]