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Real Estate News Brief....

Buying - Selling - Investing - Professional Property Management Services - Vacation Rentals & Leasing: Contact The Marion Group - Marion Real Estate Services at 773-384-7256.
Record Streak Continues for Pending Home Sales...
Pending home sales continue record streak; up for seventh straight month...
Pending home sales have increased for seven straight months, the longest in the series of the index which began in 2001. The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in August, rose 6.4 percent to 103.8 from a reading of 97.6 in July, and is 12.4 percent above August 2008 when it was 92.4. The index is at the highest level since March 2007 when it was 104.5.

30-YEAR FIXED-RATE MORTGAGE LOWEST IN FOUR MONTHS, NEARING ALL-TIME LOW SET IN SURVEY IN APRIL...
5-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates Are The Lowest Since Freddie Mac Records Began In 1991; 5-Year ARM Rates Also Hits Record Low....Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.94 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending October 1, 2009, down from last week when it averaged 5.04 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.10 percent. The last time the 30-year FRM was below 5 percent was the week ending May 28, 2009, when it averaged 4.91 percent.
The 15-year FRM this week averaged 4.36 percent with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.46 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 5.78 percent. This is the lowest the 15-year FRM has been since Freddie Mac started tracking it in 1991.
The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 4.42 percent this week, with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.51 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 6.00 percent.
The one-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 4.49 percent this week with an average 0.5 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.52 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 5.12 percent...more


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Buyers:
Six tips that tell you it's time ... 1. familiar with the market.. Contact Us... 2.Have the money for a down payment and closing costs 3.Know how much you can afford. 4. Know what additional expenses will come with owning a home. 5.Have your credit in good shape and make sure your credit report is accurate. 6.You haven't made any recent major purchases, particularly a vehicle.

Mortgage news Mortgage loan now requires higher down payment, credit score
You may think that having a credit score of at least 700 and a down payment of almost 5 percent will help you buy a home in this home buying environment. But lenders have tightened credit requirements for obtaining a mortgage when you're buying a home.You may still be able to get an affordable mortgage through the FHA, which has lower down payment requirements, or that you're better off waiting until you have improved your credit score and saved more money for a down payment.more...
When you decide to purchase property now, speak with a mortgage lender to see what options you may have. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that you will qualify. Then, contact The Marion Group-Marion Real Estate Services,and speak with one of our agents!

Sellers: Contact Marion Real Estate Services to list your property to Sale! 773-384-7256. ( Services also include professional property management, leasing, vacation rentals.)
Step 1. Plan & prepare to sell your property 2. Get A Skilled, Experienced & Knowledgeable Brokerage, Diannah Evans, Broker, GRI 3. Set the price 4. Market It 5. Sell It 6. Closing!

Have the advantage and access to state of the art inventory that consists of buyers, sellers & investors. Contact 773-384-7256 and speak with one of our agents today about services customized to fit your real estate needs.

Memberships: National Association of Realtors (NAR), Graduate Realtor Institute (GRI), Illinois Association of Realtors (IAR), Chicago Association of Realtors (CAR), REBAC, Cambridge Who's Who

Real Estate News Brief...

The Marion Group - Marion Real Estate Services...
Thinking of buying, selling, or investment? Interested in vacation rentals, leasing? Contact us today for a professional, consultation, at 773-384-7256.
www.buyinchicago.com
www.marionpropertymanagement.com
The Marion-Chicagoland Real Estate Notes
For a limited time, owners can list their property for free on our website(s). Whether you are a seller, buyer, investor, interested in rental, vacation rentals or property management. www.marionpropertymanagement.com Contact us for details!..

Sellers:A federal tax credit of up to $8,000 is nudging many Americans into buying a home for the first time -- good news for those trying to sell one. . more

Buyers: Home Ownership: Buying a home is the largest purchase most people will ever make. Homeownership has great benefits. Homeownership also comes with certain responsibilities. more ..

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 features $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit for first-time buyers who purchase a home on or after Jan. 1, 2009 and before Dec. 1, 2009.more

Mortgage Rates: Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.38 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending June 18, 2009, down from last week when it averaged 5.59 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.42 percent. more ..

If you are interested in Selling, Buying, Investing or need Professional Property Management Services, including leasing and vacation rentals, Contact Marion Real Estate Services at 773-384-7256 for a free market analysis and consultation to meet your specific real estate needs.

* Buyer/Investment Division *Sales Division * Property Management Division including leasing and vacation rentals

Memberships:
National Association of Realtors
Illinois Association of Realtors
Chicago Association of Realtors
Graduate Realtor Institute (GRI)
Cambridge's Who's Who
REBAC

Marion Real Estate Services - Your Premium, High Performance Real Estate Brokerage!

U.S. Median House Price Declines 14%...

The median price for a single-family house fell 14% to $169,000 in the first quarter from a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors reported.
The trade group said first-time home buyers accounted for half of all purchases in the quarter, and many of them zeroed in on foreclosed homes. The median price for the latest quarter is down 26% from a peak of $227,600 in the third quarter of 2005. The latest median price was down from a year earlier in 134 of the 152 metro areas included in the survey.
The biggest increase was in the Cumberland area of Maryland and West Virginia, where the median price climbed 21% to $114,900. Debbie Grimm, manager of the Long & Foster real-estate brokerage in Cumberland, Md., said the area is attracting retirees and second-home buyers, particularly from Washington and Baltimore.
The lowest median price among the metro areas was $30,300 in Saginaw, Mich., and the highest was $570,000 in Honolulu. Most of the areas with the lowest prices are in troubled parts of the industrial Midwest. But a glut of homes in Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., pushed the median down 59% from a year earlier to $87,300 -- ranking it just below Gary, Ind., which, at $92,000, was down 26%.
Sales of single-family homes and condominiums declined 6.8% from a year earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.6 million units. But sales were up sharply in some areas hardest hit by the housing bust, largely because bargain hunters were out in force. States with big sales increases from the depressed levels of a year before included Nevada (up 117%), California (81%) and Arizona (50%) and Florida (25%)....more

Challenges rise in developing Olympic Village..

Real estate developers are starting to get a glimpse of the challenges they’ll face in developing the athletes’ village if Chicago is chosen to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Among them is building up to 2,500 residential units that will hit the market all at once, obtaining financing and meeting the needs of the Olympics and those of the private market, which is the final destination for the project. Cassandra Francis, who is spearheading the project for the Chicago 2016 bid committee, offered some details during a luncheon Wednesday sponsored by the Chicago School of Real Estate at Roosevelt University.

The village is the highest-priced item to be built for the games. It’s a nearly $1-billion project on the site of the former Michael Reese Hospital on the city’s South Side. Although Chicago is buying the site for $86 million, the city and the Olympics organizing community are counting on private developers to construct and finance the housing project. That has become an increasingly dicey proposition since London and Vancouver, British Columbia, sites of the next two Olympics, have needed government help to keep privately developed villages on track.
Financing could be hard to line up because banks are no longer lending as generously as they did before, raising questions about whether private developers can handle the project alone.

“That’s one of the concerns the (International Olympic Committee) has,” Ms. Francis said. “We do believe we can get traditional financing.” She said the bid committee also is looking into federal financing for portions of the project that involve affordable housing, housing for seniors and student housing. ..more

Federal Housing Rescue Plan Launches ...

The Obama Administration’s program to rescue distressed home owners got off the ground this week. The program was announced on Feb. 18, but it took several weeks to put the bureaucracy in place.Six of the nation’s largest banks signed up to participate, the Treasury Department announced Wednesday. They are JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, GMAC Mortgage, Saxon Mortgage Services, and Select Portfolio Servicing.Treasury says it is allocating $50 billion to the program. The Department of Housing and Urban Development will provide the rest.The plan calls for loan servicers to reduce interest rates so a family’s monthly mortgage obligation is no more than 38 percent of its pre-tax income. Loan servicers also can reduce loan balances. After the loans are modified, the government then provides enough money to reduce payments to 31 percent of income.Participating servicers get $1,000 a year for each modification and another $1,000 a year for three years if the borrower remains current. Servicers get an extra $500 if they do the modifications before the borrower falls behind in his payments—and the borrower gets $1,500. Also, homeowners get $1,000 a year for five years if they remain current on their payments. The money must be used to reduce their principal balances.
Source: CNN, Tami Luhby (04/16/2009)

10 Happiest States in the U.S. ...

MainStreet.com’s Happiness Index examined household income, debt, employment, and foreclosures to choose the states that are surviving the current economic crisis with the most panache.The analysis discovered that despite disastrous conditions in parts of Michigan and Ohio, overall, the Midwest is navigating the financial meltdown with the highest average salaries, lowest unemployment, and fewest foreclosures. In fact, Nebraska, in the center of the corn belt, scores highest on MainStreet’s Happiness Index.Here are the rest of the top-10 happiest states:
Nebraska
Iowa
Kansas
Hawaii
Louisiana
Oklahoma
Wyoming
South Dakota
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Source: MainStreet.com, Stephen Dalton (04/06/2009)

10 Riskiest U.S. Housing Markets...

Even with hints of a housing recovery in some places, risky markets, dominated by nonprime mortgages, still prevail in a number of areas. Forbes magazine and Moody’s Economy.com surveyed the 200 largest metropolitan areas, adding up the number of loans to low-rated borrowers and dividing that sum by the total number of mortgages to calculate the percentage of each area’s market that is below prime. Here are the 10 metro areas with the highest percentages of nonprime mortgages, which makes them susceptible to defaults as unemployment rates continue to rise.
Mission, Texas
Detroit
Miami
Brownsville, Texas
Merced, Calif.
Lakeland, Fla.
Bakersfield, Calif.
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
San Bernardino, Calif.
Visalia, Calif.
Source: Forbes, Maha Atal (03/31/2009)

Big Improvement to First-Time Buyer Tax Credit ...

Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, on Tuesday said that the Federal Housing Administration is going to permit its lenders to allow home buyers to use the $8,000 tax credit as a down payment.Previously, most buyers wouldn't receive the funds until after they filed their tax return, and that deterred some people from using the credit. The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® has been calling for the change. “We all want to enable FHA consumers to access the home buyer tax credit funds when they close on their home loans so that the cash can be used as a down payment.” Mr. Donovan says FHA’s approved lenders will be permitted to “monetize” the tax credit through short-term bridge loans. This will allow eligible home buyers to access the funds immediately at the closing table.
courtesy NAR

Thirty-Year Mortgage Hits a Low of 4.85% ...

The average rate on 30-year fixed-rate home mortgages hit a record low this week, after the Federal Reserve announced it would purchase Treasury securities over the next six months, Freddie Mac's chief economist said on Thursday.
The 30-year mortgage averaged 4.85% in the week ended March 26, the lowest point since Freddie Mac's weekly survey began in 1971. Last week, the mortgage averaged 4.98%; the mortgage averaged 5.85% a year ago.
Fifteen-year fixed-rate mortgages and five-year adjustable-rate mortgages also hit record lows. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.58% and hasn't been lower since 1991, when the survey began tracking the mortgage. The 15-year mortgage averaged 4.61% last week and 5.34% a year ago.
Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 4.96%, the lowest since the survey began tracking the ARM in 2005. The ARM averaged 4.98% last week and 5.67% a year ago.more...

FAQ’s Regarding the 2009 Federal First-TimeHomebuyers Tax Credit...

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was signed on February 17, 2009. The Act includes a few revisions for the First-Time Homebuyers Tax Credit.
The bill provides for a $8,000 tax credit that would be available to first-time home buyers for the purchase of a principal residence on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009. The credit does not require repayment. Most of the mechanics of the credit will be the same as under the 2008 rules: the credit will be claimed on a tax return to reduce the purchaser's income tax liability. If any credit amount remains unused, then the unused amount will be refunded as a check to the purchaser.

Q What is the amount of the new tax
credit?
A $8,000
Q Who is eligible for the $8,000 tax
credit?
A First time homebuyers who closed (or will close)
on homes between January 1, 2009 and November
30, 2009.
Q What are the details of the new tax
credit?
A Thenewtaxcredit isan $8,000 refundabletax credit
(orupto10%of thepurchaseprice). Thismeans that if your
total tax liability in the given year is less than $8,000 the IRS
will send a refund for the balance.
Q Do I have to pay back the credit?
A If you occupy your home for three years you will
not have to pay back the credit.
Q Who qualifies for the credit?
A •First-time homebuyers (Taxpayers who owned
a main home at any time during the three years prior
to the date of purchase are not eligible).
• Purchasers of a “main home.” i.e. principal
residence. The home must be a home located in the
United States and is generally considered to be the
home where you spend 50% or more of your time. It
can be a condo, single family detached, co-op,
townhouse or something similar. Vacation homes and
rental properties are not eligible. For new
construction, the “purchase date” is the date you
occupy the home.
Q What if I purchased a home between
April 8, 2008 and January 1, 2009?
A Purchasers who bought between 4/8/08 and
1/1/2009 are subject to the terms of the $7,500
repayable credit.
Q What are the income limits?
A The credit is reduced or eliminated for higherincome
taxpayers. Joint filers with a MAGI of $170,000
and above and single filers with a MAGI of $95,000 and
above are ineligible for the credit. Singles making
between $75,000 and $95,000 and joint filerswith aMAGI
of between $150,000 and $170,000 are in the “phase-out”
range, meaning you will only receive a fraction for the
$8,000 tax credit.
Q When/How can I claim the credit?
A It can be claimed on your 2008 tax return (to be
filed by April 15, 2009), an amended 2008 Tax Return,
or your 2009 Tax Return.
Q Who do I contact if I have more
questions about this credit?
A Contact your tax preparer, or
call the IRS toll-free at (800) 829-1040 for more
information on the tax credit. This information is
accurate based on the information available as of
February 19, 2009. As with any tax law change, check
with a tax advisor if there are any question regarding
using this provision.
courtesy, CAR

Low Mortgage Rates Will Cost You ...

Mortgage rates are low, but getting a home loan is going to cost you.
New rules by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are upping the fees for borrowers with less than perfect credit, those in the mortgage industry say. Other increased costs reflect the uncertainty in the mortgage market as lenders try to reduce their risk and anticipate rates.
"It's an interesting time, in that mortgage rates are historically low," says Amy Bohutinsky, vice president of communications for Zillow.com, a real-estate Web site. "But at the same time, while rates are low, lending standards are still really tight. What that means is that people who qualify for these really good rates … fall under a strict set of guidelines."
Even borrowers with decent credit aren't immune to higher fees and mortgage costs. In general, to get the low rates that make the headlines, borrowers also are often paying more points, or prepaid interest, that bring the mortgage rate down.
Pricing Changes
If you look at where mortgage pricing was a year and a half ago, and where it is now, "there have been a slew of changes, mostly negative from a borrower's perspective," says Rick Allen, vice president of MortgageMarvel.com, a mortgage Web site.
The most recent changes started to show up in lenders' rate sheets this year. New risk-based pricing from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae adds fees to mortgages based on a borrower's credit score. In order to avoid the extra fees, borrowers need to have a FICO score of 740 or higher, says Dan Green, loan officer with Mobium Mortgage in Cincinnati and author of TheMortgageReports.com.
The new rules take effect in April at Fannie and Freddie, but many lenders have already incorporated them.
The new fees, called loan-level price adjustments, have been an unwelcome surprise for some homeowners interested in taking advantage of low rates. "It has created a different pricing scenario from one consumer to the next," Mr. Allen says. "What you see in the Sunday paper could be perfectly close for one borrower. The guy next door could be 1% higher."
Charges have also gone up for those who extract equity from their home through a cash-out refinance. Condo financing could also cost more.
According to Freddie Mac's weekly rate survey, the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate conforming mortgage was 5.05% in January, and a payment of an average 0.7 point was required to obtain the rate. A year ago, the average rate was 5.76%, but it took just 0.4 point to get it.
There's an inverse relationship between points and rates; the more points you pay, the lower the rate becomes. A point is 1% of the mortgage amount, charged as prepaid interest.more...

Prices to fall here less than other cities: forecast..

Prices of single-family homes in the Chicago-area will hit bottom in early 2010 after a three-year, 17.1% drop, according to a new forecast. That may not sound like good news, but it is considering how much more prices are projected to plunge in other big metropolitan areas. And prices here had already declined by 13.3% through the third quarter of 2008, meaning they don’t have much further to fall, according to the forecast by Moody’s Economy.com.
Still, it could be a while before prices here and nationwide rebound as the economy struggles to get back on its feet after the worst recession in a generation.
“We’re not really going to see a recovery before 2011 or 2012,” says Sophia Koropeckyj, managing director of industry economics at Moody’s Economy.com.
The West Chester, Pa.-based research firm developed its price forecast by using projections for key economic indicators, like unemployment and foreclosures, to estimate the future direction of the S&P/Case-Shiller index, a widely cited home-price survey based on repeat sales of the same properties. The study looked at 369 U.S. metro areas, focusing only on single-family homes. more...

Report: Some Home Prices to Bottom Out in 2009 ...

House prices in much of the U.S. will bottom out in this year's fourth quarter, Moody's Economy.com says in a new report.
In some of the hardest hit markets, however, prices won't reach a bottom until 2010 or 2011, the research firm says in a report written by its chief economist, Mark Zandi.
"Despite the darkening national economic outlook and the weak conditions in the housing market, some positive signs give hope that a bottom in the housing market is coming into view," the report says.
It cites signs that home sales are stabilizing as people snap up bargains on foreclosures, a decline in the supply of unsold homes in many areas and expectations of moves by the Obama administration "that will help place a floor under the housing downturn." Those measures could include lowering mortgage rates further, preventing more foreclosures and generating jobs through higher federal spending.
On average, house prices nationwide will hit bottom in this year's fourth quarter at a level 36% below the peak reached in the first quarter of 2006, the report says. The price measure is based on the Fiserv Case-Shiller index.
But some areas will be hit much harder. For instance, the Naples-Marco Island, Fla., area is expected to bottom out in the fourth quarter of 2010 with prices 70% below the peak. The report projects that peak-to-trough declines for metro areas will be 66% in Miami, Fla., 63% in Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., 58% in Phoenix, 56% in Las Vegas, 53% in Los Angeles, 38% in Washington and 33% in New York. Within those metro areas, different neighborhoods are likely to show very divergent performances; the most desirable areas near good schools and jobs are faring much better than other places.more...

Chicago home prices down less than U.S. in Nov

Chicago home prices fell in November but not as much as prices nationwide, which a widely watched index shows dropped by the sharpest annual rate on record.
But the silver lining might be that more families can finally buy a home for the first time in years. Falling home prices coupled with lower interest rates have shaved hundreds of dollars off monthly mortgage payments, and that is luring buyers back into the market, new data this week showed.
The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index released Tuesday tumbled by a record 18.2 percent from November 2007, the largest decline since its inception in 2000.
Chicago prices fell 12.5 percent compared with November 2007 and 2.8 percent compared with October 2008, the S&P/Case-Shiller data show.
Both the 20- and 10-city indices have recorded year-over-year declines for 23 straight months. Prices are at levels not seen since February 2004.
But the numbers may not be as ugly at second glance, according to Patrick Newport, an economist with IHS Global Insight.
"If you adjust for inflation, they're not record declines," Newport said. "Home prices are still dropping at about a 20-percent clip, but it's not as bad as it's been in last six months."
But the recession and sweeping job losses don't bode well for a near-term turnaround in housing prices. Newport estimates prices will drop another 10 percent to 15 percent this year.
In fact, Americans' mood about the economy darkened further in January, sending a widely watched barometer of consumer sentiment to a new low, the Conference Board said Tuesday.

The National Association of Realtors said Monday that the median home price fell a record 15 percent last month to $175,400, down from $207,000 a year ago. That led to a surprising jump in sales from November's level.
With current interest rates and a 10 percent down payment, anyone who buys a median-priced home now would save $254 a month compared with the median price and interest rate of a year ago. more...

10 Cities Boasting Mini Sales Booms ...

Some cities that were hardest hit by the real downturn are experiencing mini sales booms.Las Vegas real estate properties are down 28 percent in price, but sales of homes are up 15 percent.Motivated buyers accounted for 64 percent of Las Vegas sales in October, says Radar Logic, a derivatives firm. That’s the highest rate in the country."There's a pretty active housing market, it's simply at a lower-priced inventory," says Michael Feder, chief executive of Radar Logic. "And there are now bidding wars taking place over homes in foreclosure."Phoenix and San Diego are reporting similar experiences. "We're clearing out the bad news," says Kiva Patten, a director at Merrill Lynch specializing in housing derivatives."By the end of 2010 – that's where we're calling the bottom in the forward market. You're going to get a small price appreciation in 2011," says Patten. "It's not like the turn is 10 percent per year, it'll be something like 3 percent or 4 percent."Here are the cities where experts say it makes the most sense to buy now.
Las Vegas
Sacramento, Calif.
San Diego, Calif.
Los Angeles
Detroit
Phoenix
San Francisco
Washington, D.C.
San Jose
AtlantaSource: Forbes, Matt Woolsey (01/12/09)

Short Sale v. Foreclosure

Both short sales and bank-owned homes you are negotiating with lenders rather than sellers. In a short sale, the seller might be desperate to accept any offer to avoid foreclosure, but that doesn't matter if the primary and junior lien holders don't agree to it. With bank-owned properties, you will be dealing with the "real-estate owned" or REO department of the lender who took ownership of the house at the auction. In both cases, you should be prepared to be patient, since lenders are overwhelmed with distress sales these days and may take weeks to respond to your offer. According to a survey of real-estate agents conducted in November by Campbell Communications the average wait time to get an answer from a lender on a short sale is 8.1 weeks, up from 4.5 weeks in a survey conducted earlier in 2008.
While it isn't unusual to see both short sales and bank-owned properties listed at prices far below those offered by traditional sellers, don't expect them to sell for much more than 20% below asking price, says Fort Lauderdale, Fla., broker Scott Coloney, who has assembled a "foreclosure response team" of financial and legal partners to facilitate distress sales. In fact, properties in good condition and in desirable locations may even spark bidding wars...more