Why Now Is A Good Time to Buy

We all know of that the economy is a mess (thank you Wall Street & Congress), however I find that I've been Very Busy over the past 2 weeks.  I've been negotiating offers in the $200K range all the way up to the High $800K range (with a few in between).  You may be wondering Why anyone is buying right now.

Well, think about this:

First, let me go through the assumptions:

30 Year Fixed Rate Conforming Loan (Principal & Interest Only)

A $300,000 loan at 6% is approximately $1,798 per month.

A $300,000 loan at 8% is approximately $2,201 per month.

Guess how much the value of a property would need to drop in order to get the payment back to what is would have been at 6% instead of 8% in this example.

Approximately $55,000!

$245,000 at 8% over 30 years is just over $1 per month in payment.

So... Given all of the economic BS going on out there, do you think Mortgage Rates will be going up or down?

Remember Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac?  Do you think investors are lining up to buy Mortgage Backed Securities right now? If the demand for MBS's goes down the return must go up in order to lure the investors back in (supply/demand).

Not to mention that it is harder to get a mortgage right now than it was before, and it appears that it will continue to get more difficult.

So if you are looking to buy a home to live in (not to flip) then Now may be one of the best times.

What do you think??

Tough Economic Times - but for how long?

So maybe there is good news soon after the bad times we are in.

Here is a link to a study from the Harvard Business School Recession Chart !

Let's hope that history repeats itself...

Who Cares About Data Integrity?

First Off, I am irritated  - so bear with me.

Is it just ME or doesn't anyone care about the integrity of the Listing Data that is out there online?  Maybe consumers don't know, or understand, that some Real Estate sites that are found online only have Some of the lisings but are lacking All of them.  They only place the listings of their 'Advertisers' on their sites.

Other sites update only weekly.  And some have listing data that is Years old (Really!  Years old). 

Many of the 'National Aggregator' sites don't update photos either (5 months on market and 'No Photo' even though the photo has been in the MLS since day 3). And yes, the MLS is where almost all of the sites pull their data from. 

And some pull from multiple sources, so the consumer gets to see 5 of the same listing (and ironically, not all with the same data).

So where am I going with this?  The most accurate listing information you will find is from your local Realtor (office or agent) which has their site updated with the Full Feed from the MLS.  Like http://www.realtyman.com/ for instance.

If you only want SOME of the listing data, then feel free to search several sites.  If you want ALL of the listings, your best bet is the Local Realtor.