East of the River Real Estate

Looking for something to do in Glastonbury this weekend?  I would highly recommend attending the Evening Under the Strawberry Moon: A Taste of Glastonbury on Saturday June 26th from 6pm to 10:30pm. It is a great event and fun to get out and meet many people in our community.

Main Street and Hebron Avenue will be closed to traffic around the Fountain Green to allow for dancing in the streets, while Glastonbury Restaurants highlight a variety of their best food for diners to purchase. This year’s restaurants include – J. Gilberts, 2 Hopewell Bistro, Sakura Garden, Bricco Trattoria, Giovanni’s Pizzeria, Plan B Burger Bar, Tango Restaurant, Wang Palace, Angelico’s on the Boulevard, Bagelz Café, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Max Fish, and Gelato Giuliana.  Come on down and join in the FUN!!

I read an interesting article the other day on www.msn.com called “10 savvy homebuying tips for 2010.  The article was written by Holden Lewis of Bankrate.com.  Here are the high level tips:

     1. Consider an adjustable-rate mortgage.
     2. Get your loan early in the year.
     3. Know your credit.
     4. Ask for three or four loan scenarios.
     5. Refinance for the remaining term.
     6. Know your numbers.
     7. Small down payment? Go FHA.
     8. No down payment? Go VA or RHS.
     9. Check rates on jumbos.
    10. If you fall behind, consult a counselor.

I would recommend reading the complete article to delve into more detail; the article is located at http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=23305541&gt1=35000.

The article brings up many good points.  As a consumer you need to ask questions, listen and explore all the options that are available to you.  Being educated will allow you to make the best decision for your goals, both long term and short term.

In today’s day and age, the consumer has access to more information that they have ever had in the past.  Information overload can be a dangerous place and I would advise consumers to take the time to fully educate themselves.  Ask questions.  Engage with trusted advisors, whether that is mortgage broker, banker, real estate agent, financial planner, etc.  Each might have a different opinion and be able to guide you to the pros and cons.  Ask, listen and learn … then you will be armed with the best information to make a solid decision.  Good luck and happy homebuying! 

 

Prudential CT year end Market Report for 2009 is out.

Lots of great and accurate data regarding single family and condominium sales in the state of Connecticut broken down by county and town. 

Look for your town, whether you live in Glastonbury, Westport or East Hartford, we have statistics on your town.

http://www.prudentialct.com/downloads/market-report/09Q4.pdf

While 2009 was an interesting year for real estate, 2010 is shaping up to be just as interesting.  As we head towards the spring market, Hartford county is facing a balanced market which means that the current inventory of properties on the market is in the 5 to 7 month range. 

Take a look and feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

Looking for something to do this week?  Check this out ...

NEW! Taste of Hartford Winter 2010

The Summer 2009 Taste Of Hartford was an incredible success and, based on the feedback from the majority of our participants, there is now a Winter version!

Monday, Jan. 18 to Sunday, Jan. 24, 2010

.25 cents of every Taste of Hartford purchase will be donated in support of the Greater Hartford Arts Council's United Arts Campaign.

Only $20.10 for 3-course gourmet dinners.
Visit the individual restaurants to take advantage of this special price. No tickets necessary.

Use this link to visit their site and learn which establishments are participating ... Taste of Hartford, Winter 2010

If you are thinking about buying or selling real estate in the next 12 months, then I highly recommend that you read this very interesting article below about how the real estate market & mortgage market (FHA LOANS) are predicted to be in 2010.

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10 Things to Know About Real Estate in 2010
by Luke Mullins
Tuesday, December 29, 2009provided by USNews

Is 2010 the year to buy a house? It certainly looks that way: After a steep run-up in prices during the first half of the decade, home values have plummeted back to 2003 levels. Fixed mortgage rates are sitting near record lows. And the foreclosure epidemic--while painful for many home owners--has created some wonderful opportunities for bargain hunters. If that's not enough, Uncle Sam is handing out thousands of dollars in tax credits to nearly all first-time buyers and the bulk of existing home owners who close a purchase by June.

That said, here are 10 things to know about real estate in 2010:

1. Prices to bottom: After more than three years of falling, real estate values have shown signs of stabilization in recent months. At the national level, home prices slid nearly 9 percent between the third quarter of 2008 and the same period this year, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price report. That's a notable improvement from the second quarter's nearly 15 percent annual drop and the first quarter's 19 percent decline. This improvement will give way to a bottom in home prices--finally!--in 2010, but not before additional declines, Zandi says. Zandi projects home prices will hit bottom in the third quarter of 2010 after logging a peak-to-trough decline of roughly 37 percent, based on the S&P/Case-Shiller national home price index. "That means we've got another roughly 10 percent [decline] to go," Zandi says.

2. Mortgage delinquencies up: Amid falling home prices and a nasty labor market, roughly 1 in every 7 mortgages was either past due or in foreclosure by the end of the third quarter--the highest delinquency rate in the 37-year history of the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Delinquency Survey. Two factors are expected to drive delinquencies even higher next year. First, nearly 1 in 4 homeowners currently owes more on their mortgage than the property is worth, which increases their odds of default. And secondly, the national unemployment rate--which already stands at 10 percent--will peak at about 10.5 percent in the first quarter of 2010, says Patrick Newport, an economist at IHS Global Insight. Additional job losses mean more borrowers won't be able to pay their mortgage bills. "The [delinquency] rate is going to stay up there for quite a while because the job market is going to be really weak for a while," Newport says.

3. Foreclosures move upstream: The number of foreclosure sales will increase to about 1.9 million in 2010, according to Moody's Economy.com. And while we've already seen a growing number of more expensive homes heading into foreclosure, Heather Fernandez, vice president of marketing at the real estate search engine Trulia, expects the trend to pick up steam next year. (Trulia is a U.S. News partner.) "We are poised in 2010 to see a surge of foreclosures from prime borrowers. Hundreds of billions of dollars in option [adjustable rate] mortgages are set to be recast" next year, Fernandez says. Option adjustable rate mortgages allow borrowers to make lower monthly payments for an initial period, after which the payments adjust--or "recast"--higher. For some borrowers, the new payments can be more than twice their initial payments. Combined with other factors, like the loss of a job, a recasting option adjustable rate mortgage can make borrowers more likely to default. "These are [properties] at higher price points [and] potentially in more desirable neighborhoods," Fernandez says.

4. Mortgage rates to rise: Anyone who purchased a home in 2009 was presented with some extremely attractive mortgage rates. Rates on 30-year, fixed mortgages fell to an average of 4.88 percent in November, down sharply from 6.09 a year earlier. A key factor behind the plunge was a Federal Reserve program, first announced in November of 2008, that purchased debt and mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But the program is slated to expire at the end of the first quarter, and if private investors don't step up, fixed mortgage rates could jump. (The Fed, of course, could always decide to extend the program.) The unwinding of this Fed program, the improving economy, and mounting concern over government deficits could push rates on 30-year, fixed mortgages to roughly 5.5 percent by mid-2010 and close to 6 percent by the end of the year, says Mike Larson of Weiss Research. "Almost all signs to me point higher," Larson says.

5. Buyer's market remains: With prices still falling, mortgage rates remaining historically attractive, and additional homes hitting the market in the form of foreclosures, the dynamics of the real estate market will continue to favor buyers over sellers in 2010. That means those looking to buy a home next year should not feel pressured to act impulsively. "You don't need to have a sense of urgency, but understand that as time progresses the balance of power as we get into 2010 is going to slowly but surely shift away from [buyers]," Larson says. "It is not going to be a strong seller's market, but it will be more evenly distributed as the year goes on." Data from the real estate firm Zillow show that home buyers are already losing the leverage they once enjoyed. While home buyers landed a median discount of 4.6 percent off listing prices in January, the size of the gap fell to 2.7 percent by October. Expect this gap to close further as 2010 marches on.

6. Modification plan could be modified: While the Obama administration has put nearly 700,000 borrowers into temporarily restructured mortgages, it had found permanent fixes for just 31,382 struggling homeowners through November. What's more, critics have identified two key shortcomings of the government's $75 billion antiforeclosure plan. First, the program isn't much help for borrowers struggling to stay in their homes as the result of a job loss. And the rickety labor market is a key factor behind rising delinquencies. At the same time, the plan does not sufficiently address the issue of negative equity--owing more on your home loan than the property is worth--which also works to increase foreclosures. "The current modification program does not address negative equity and is therefore destined to fail," Laurie Goodman, a senior managing director at Amherst Securities Group, told a congressional committee in written testimony on December 8. "It must be amended to explicitly address this problem." Zandi says the government may move next year to overhaul the modification program in two ways: improving troubled borrowers' negative equity positions by writing down some of the mortgage principal, and helping to turn troubled homeowners into renters.

7. FHA lending standards may increase: While banks have jacked up lending standards in the face of mounting delinquencies, mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration--which come with a minimum down payment of just 3.5 percent--have remained accessible to a wide swath of borrowers. The FHA guarantees nearly 30 percent of new-home purchase mortgages today, up sharply from just 3 percent in 2006. But the rapid growth has occurred alongside an increase in mortgage delinquencies. As a result, the FHA's reserves have dipped below congressionally mandated levels. The development has put pressure on the Obama administration to beef up its requirements for agency-backed home loans. In early December, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it would make several changes to FHA mortgage requirements: raising up-front cash requirements, boosting minimum credit scores, and perhaps charging more for insurance premiums. Additional new restrictions may be in store. Taken together, the developments could work to choke off the supply of mortgage credit to borrowers who can't get financing elsewhere.

8. Tax credit available through June: On top of lower prices and cheap mortgage rates, Uncle Sam is offering an additional incentive to get buyers into the market next year. In early November, President Obama signed a bill extending and expanding a popular tax perk for home buyers. The legislation gives qualified first-time home buyers a tax credit of up to $8,000 if they close the purchase of a primary residence by the end of June. Meanwhile, qualified current home owners are eligible for a credit of up to $6,500 when they buy their next principal residence. But while the tax perk may make a home purchase more tempting, would-be buyers should make sure they have the job security and financial wherewithal to handle the transaction before going ahead.

9. Markets will vary a great deal by region:

10. Mobile maps can help: Advances in technology have enabled would-be home buyers to increase the efficiency of their searches.

(click on link below or copy and paste it to your browser for the full article)

Copyrighted, U.S.News & World Report, L.P. All rights reserved.
Article was found at: http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/108487/10-things-to-know-about-real-estate-in-2010?mod=realestate-buy

As we ring in the new year many people are asking about the overall health of the economy and what can we expect for the new year.  The question inevitably comes around to real estate, "Mike, what are you seeing?" or "Mike how is the market here in town?".  Well, what I am seeing is an increased activity in the general market.  My feeling is that there is some pent up demand.  In fact, you could say we are having a sale!  Pricing is still the key factor.  Sellers want more and buyers want less but prices are attractive and interest rates are still extremely low.  The government has helped by extending the $8000 tax credit to first time buyers and offering a $6500 tax credit to repeat buyers.  (More info in the NAR press release can be found at NAR-Tax-Credit_Release110509)  So if you are thinking about making a move, please contact a local Realtor and learn more about your specific market conditions.