Real Estate Insights

Current Market Outlook: 5/26/2010 (mostly National)

May 27, 2010 by George · Leave a Comment 

The stimulus plans for the housing market worked.  We’re not entirely out of the woods (think East and West Coasts), but money remains at/near 50 year lows.  My lender at Wells Fargo gave me a quote of 4.875% with a 1% origination fee.  That’ll be tough to beat going forward.  (If you’ve been thinking about refinancing, [...]

Great New Ideas and Home Trends

May 21, 2010 by George · Leave a Comment 

I didn’t know how to categorize this, so I didn’t.  Lifestyle and housing choices move with the times.  Several trends that might be of interest to you are:
1.  Induction Cooking  Trend: 30% more efficient than gas or electric
Similar to microwave cooking, but special pan used in the oven stays cooler to the touch.  Special cookware [...]

Denver’s Market Snapshot

May 6, 2010 by George · Leave a Comment 

Denver’s Market Snapshot
Point #1:
Properties that are currently Under Contract are at a 5 year high.  Did the $8,000 tax credit work?
All figures are “End of April’ for the year indicated (vertical blue bar)
From the 2009 value (7077) to the 2010 value (8592) there was a jump by 1,500 in the number of properties under contract.  [...]

PMI–What the Big Boys are saying about your property's value

March 31, 2010 by George · 1 Comment 

Do you wonder what the biggest and smartest money is saying about the housing market. 
PMI: Private Mortgage Insurance – aka PMI.  These are the Big Boys. These are the people who insure the 20% portion of an 80/20 loan.  Every month you probably pay them a fee (mortgage insurance) to insure that 20%.  They need to [...]

Mortgage Modification Caution!

March 8, 2010 by David · Leave a Comment 

Ann Dain of Wells Fargo sent this along…
I heard in the office last week about a family that had paid a “Mortgage Modification Company” $3,500 to help them with their loan modification. The company had told them not to make their mortgage payments and within 3 months they would have their modification. Instead, at the [...]

2009 Metro Denver Market performance:

February 26, 2010 by George · Leave a Comment 

I heard on the news today that NAR (the National Association of Realtors) reported that homes sales (number of homes sold) dropped by 7.2% in January. This is an interesting number, but be careful how you understand what it is saying. The 7.2% drop is for the entire United States.  Real Estate is a local [...]

Drivers of the National Housing Economy

January 30, 2010 by George · Leave a Comment 

I’m interested in the economics of the housing market. The downturn in the U.S. housing market left few unaffected. Huge amounts of money and assets were wiped away as prices ground downward. For many, the personal and professional distress associated with the downturn has encouraged a careful re-examination of property values, the re-consideration of numerous [...]