The State of the Market for Buyers in Orlando FL - May 2016 - by Eugene Hoffman

The State of the Market for Buyers in Orlando FL

Is it still a buyer’s market today in Orlando?

As experts in the Orlando real estate market, we get asked this question a lot.

The answer isn’t as simple as yes or no.

Median price up 12% year-over-year

First off, it really depends on the property type and location.

Single-family homes in great locations that are priced well have been flying off the shelves. There’s a lot of demand in the market for certain areas, while others can seem like ghost towns.

Buyers are often looking for the same thing – good neighborhoods, access to transportation, shopping, good schools, close to work, etc. Properties that deliver all these are definitely a hot commodity. Sellers with a highly desirable property are in control of the market.

But for condos and townhouses – especially those a little off the beaten path, or with some funky features – it can be quite a different story. Prices were down in certain areas of Orlando but seem to be rebounding as the rental market increases.

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How to Find a Good Real Estate Agent in Orlando - Written by Eugene Hoffman

How to Find a Good Real Estate Agent in Orlando

Realtors follow the 80 /20 Rule. Twenty percent of the Realtors make eighty percent of the sales. Eighty percent are like the guy above in the picture.

Hiring a real estate agent in Orlando can be frustrating. So what are the steps on how to find a good real estate agent in Orlando?

Many local large real estate brokers will spend thousands of dollars each month to ensure that their agents are the most visible, whether it be online, in the Yellow Pages, or by erecting giant billboards in the most trafficked sections of Orlando.

However, the agents backed by the most promotion dollars aren’t always the best, and may not be a good fit for your circumstances. In today’s piece, we’re going to look at how you can find a good real estate agent in Orlando.

[NOTE: If you need to sell your Orlando house fast and can’t wait the 3-6 months+ it is taking to sell a home on the local market… we may be able to help by buying your house from you. We can make you an all-cash offer within 24 hours on your house in as-is condition. ]

How To Find A Good Real Estate Agent In Orlando – Get Reviews… Real Reviews

Online reviews of real estate agents are easily manipulated, and can be often times little more than paid advertisements. It’s important to get honest reviews from any agent that you’re considering, and any reputable agent will be glad to provide you with recent clients.

Also, reviews are one of the best ways to see how any real estate professional does out in the marketplace.

As a last way to check out the agent… hit Google and type in “[name of agent] reviews” and see what pops up in the Google search. If you see a bunch of bad reviews on websites like yelp and others… see if the agent tried to engage with those negative reviewers online to resolve the situation.

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Rent Increases have outpaced Income growth 2 to 1 by Zillow

If rent is rising much faster than the growth of income there is only two possible outcomes in the long run. Either income will have to catch up with the debt load American families are taking on or the economy will force deflation to occur at a quick pace. Families will not be able to pay for the curent American lifestyle.

The world is facing a slow down. The economist say the main reason for the falling price of gasoline is because of slow down in demand world wide. The falling price of gasoline is not enough of a stimulus to drive an increase in spending in most parts of the world. Debt loads are way up everywhere. Because of the deflation and lower demand soon American exports will decrease and jobs lose will occur.. Very soon many oil well rigs will begin shutting down and a large number of people will loose high paying jobs. There are 1500 rigs drilling for oil in America today, but according T. Bone Pickens more than 30 percent of wells will lay down and layoff crews.

The question of the day is what will happen to rising house prices and will families and communities be able to cope with a decline in revenues?

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Investors closely monitoring Pimco after internal strife

The thirty year bull market for bonds maybe ending soon. The bond market is a huge market. Currently billions of dollars are leaving bonds. Soon interest rates rates will creep up because people will want their money to work for them. The dollars will chase higher returns and interest rates will go up. Many people believe the stock market has peaked. I am suggesting this will have a domino effect in the next two months. Get out while you can and find a safe place for your money.

The investors, including retirement systems, have formally put Pimco on "watch lists," a signal that they will keep a much closer eye its performance than usual. It could eventually lead to reductions in the amount of money they allocate to funds at the firm, whose full name is Pacific Investment Management Co and which has $1.91 trillion in assets.

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U.S. Housing Market Mortgage Purchase Applications Running Out Of Time by Doug Short

The article and chart from Doug Short shows that wages have been declining. In Fact it shows median wages have declined to 2005 level. following the decline is mortgage applications. Both wages and mortgage application peaked at the end of 2006, What the chart doesn't show is the huge rise in the median price of a house. The median price of a house has rose 14% nationally. In Florida where I live prices rose over 20% in 2013. With house prices rising and wages on the decline house sales will decline in 2014 if one of two things do not happen soon. Either the twenty percent of people who are not looking for a job anymore find a good job or prices of houses must decline. If income remains the same most sellers will bot be able to find enough qualified offers to float the market.

by Gene Hoffman

U.S. Housing Market Mortgage Purchase Applications Running Out Of Time by Doug Short

For 2013, one of the main stories in housing was the cool down in existing home sales numbers over the second half of the year, in spite of the relative strength in GDP. What was the main reason for this? Follow the data and the answer appears. When interest rates spiked we did not see the mythical sideline home buyer rush to the market place. Rather what we saw was a collapse of the mortgage purchase application index.

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Immigration Minister Chris Alexander reveals contradictions in citizenship law by Jenny Uechi

Should I or should I naught by Gene Hoffman

Should I or should naught get my Canadian citizenship. I had the choice to have dual citizenship before I was eighteen, but then the law changed. Now the opportunity has arisen once again. I would love to live in Vancouver or better yet Victoria Island. It is above my pay-grade because all the rich Chinese have moved there and they bought up all the nice homes. Their houses are now priced as the second highest in the world(I have an article on my blog site).

Read about the new Canadian immigration policy by Jenny Uechi

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Christopher Alexander tread a fine line between sympathy and sticking to government script when speaking about the overhaul to citizenship law proposed by the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act.

Speaking at the Sutton Hotel ballroom on Tuesday at an event hosted by the Canadian Club of Vancouver, Alexander spoke about the injustice suffered by Lost Canadians: legitimate Canadians whose citizenship was removed due to archaic and often blatantly discriminatory provisions of past laws. While the majority of Lost Canadian cases were resolved in 2009, it continued to exclude people born before 1947, as well as creating a whole new category of stateless children born abroad.

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The Vampire Squid Strikes Again:by Matt Taibbi Rolling Stone Magazine

Call it the loophole that destroyed the world. It's 1999, the tail end of the Clinton years. While the rest of America obsesses over Monica Lewinsky, Columbine and Mark McGwire's biceps, Congress is feverishly crafting what could yet prove to be one of the most transformative laws in the history of our economy – a law that would make possible a broader concentration of financial and industrial power than we've seen in more than a century.

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Cost of owning a home is spiking in 2014 By: Diana Olick CNBC

Supply and demand will balance out soon and I believe home prices will decline a small amount in the next two years before the next election. In order for a seller to find a qualified buyer two things must happen. A seller must be willing to a sell at both an affordable price and the home must appraise at the selling price. Second item the market must be big enough to attract dozens of qualified buyers with strong incomes and having good, well paying jobs.

Article by:  Diana Olick    CNBC

The sharp rise in home prices in 2013 caused two conflicting results: The return of positive home equity for hundreds of thousands of borrowers and considerably weaker affordability for an equally Read More... large pool of potential homebuyers.

While positive equity allows more borrowers to move, weaker affordability keeps them in place. So which will be the greater driver of housing this spring?

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‘Boomerang buyers’ could boost market by Kimberly Miller

JUPITER, Fla. — Some housing experts are trumpeting changes that allow foreclosure sufferers to buy back into the American Dream sooner than they probably imagined, calling 2014 the year of the “boomerang buyer.”
Revisions made over the summer to Federal Housing Administration guidelines and technical updates in November to Fannie Mae loan approval systems have opened the door for some former homeowners to buy again just one year after foreclosure.
Founders of the San Diego-based company AfterForeclosure.com said last month that millions of banned borrowers nationwide will be eligible for a mortgage this year, while Jupiter, Fla., mortgage broker Skip McDonough said his firm is already doing deals with homebuyers who were forced into default during the housing bust.

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Housing market pits younger buyers against older homeowners flush with equity by Wall Street Journal

Housing sales will continue in 2014 much like sales were in 2013 with one difference. First time home buyers are through. Cash buyers will make up a larger portion of the market.

GeneHoffman


HOUSTON, Feb. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- While rising home prices are leaving older homeowners flush with increased equity so they can buy new or second homes -- increasingly outright with cash -- younger people are finding it more difficult to buy into the American dream of homeownership with price tags that outpace their income growth, according to the latest BBVA Compass research.
"For these prospective homebuyers, home prices have risen faster than their incomes during the recovery," BBVA Compass economist Jason Frederick wrote in his 2014 housing outlook. "Currently, home prices are now on the high end of a historical relationship between median home prices and median family income, and young families will need to see faster income growth and save additional money to make a larger down payment."

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What is the qualified mortgage? By Jim Gay

Oh boy, more government regulations affecting consumers seeking mortgage loans that are eligible for Fannie Mae, FHA and Freddie Mac pricing. Could this be the last? We can only hope. However, for now the letters QM or qualified mortgage need to be understood and dealt with, like it or not. It is one of the final pieces of the Dodd-Frank Act. Whew!
On Jan. 10, QM went into full swing. It contains two main terms we all need to understand: “ability to repay” and “qualified mortgage.” Ability to repay is merely a refocus, once again, on the borrower’s income, credit and liabilities. If you have a mortgage, you surely went through this taxing scrutiny. It is the name of the game. So, what’s new? Extra scrutiny on the borrower’s income calculations and a new limit of 43 percent debt-to-income ratio.

A qualified mortgage is defined somewhat differently than mortgages have been for the last three decades. Negative-amortization loans, interest-only loans, loans exceeding 30 years, and balloon loans are not allowed. Also, a limit has been set on the fees normally paid to the mortgage companies or banks and may not vary even for the benefit of the borrower. Generally, under QM, the limit of points and fees associated with a home loan is now 3 percent of the total loan amount.

What is wrong with this? It sounds like these new QM rules will keep consumers from making unwise mortgage decisions. Yes and no. Qualified borrowers have long enjoyed the options of interest-only loans, balloon loans with lower rates, and amortizations longer then 30 years, but not any more.

Remember, also, that these rules are only for loans eligible for Fannie Mae, FHA and Freddie Mac, which means that jumbo loans are not part of the QM definition.

Most of the details in the QM regulations test the resolve of lenders and homebuyers will never see the complexity involved. So what is the bottom line for the consumer? Associate yourself with a lender possessing experience and knowledge to guide you through any new regulation.

All regulations that make the lending world more complex have the result of shrinking the available lenders that can complete your home loan. For the last three to five years, mortgage companies and loan officers have been leaving the business. Eventually, this trend may result in higher costs for loans because of less competition.

For the family looking to buy or refinance, my continued advice is to find a trustworthy and knowledgeable loan officer as an ally and proceed to accomplish your goals. Ignore the new QM regulations implemented on a national level. Let your chosen loan officer deal with any changes in the mortgage world.

The Nation's Housing: Mortgage experts sound alarm at massive identity theft, data breaches by NewsOK

Downward pressure is being applied to home prices, however because new home starts have been at historically low levels prices may push higher. When new construction picks up in class B apartments in 2015 we may see a stabilizing effect. FHA buyers may take longer to get an approval in 2014.

Eugene Hoffman

The Nation's Housing: Mortgage experts sound alarm at massive identity theft, data breaches

  The numbers of affected consumers are as yet impossible to predict, but mortgage credit experts warn that the recent massive data breaches at Target, Neiman Marcus and other retailers could have significant side impacts on some real estate transactions in the coming months, as damaged credit files depress scores and jeopardize loan applications and home sales.
The Target breach alone could touch as many as 70 million credit and debit card customers, according to the company. Neiman Marcus said that data on 1.1 million of its customers may be vulnerable to fraud. Data security researchers report that at least six other merchants have experienced data breaches from point-of-sale malware similar to what was used in the Target thefts.

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Western Gold bars have disappeared. Why Germany wants its gold back

Peter Krauth

After spending more than 50 years in foreign hands, Germany's gold is finally going home.
In a recent watershed decision the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, has decided at least half of its gold should be held in its own vaults.
Since the Bundesbank is the second-largest gold holder in the world, that's going to mean moving 54,000 bars of the shiny metal.

So why does Germany want its gold back, and why now?

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