Real estate is local

August 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment

… and real estate prices reflect that.

I wonder how the National housing price indexes would look if California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona were excluded. After all, the Charleston real estate market and Charleston real estate price have very little to do with Los Angeles or San Diego, Miami or Orlando.

home price index from Core Logic

Home price map from OFHEO

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Charleston real estate 

Motivated sellers

August 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment

“If your client is at all interested in this home, the sellers are very motivated!”
 

If you are selling your home in today’s Charleston real estate market, you had better be a motivated seller.

Or you shouldn’t be selling.

There are a whopping 464 active listings within a $50,000 price range that your home is competing with in just Summerville. If you aren’t motivated, another seller most likely is.

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Buyer Tips, Charleston real estate, Seller Tips 

Whatever happened to

August 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment

… this potential client.

From my email:

Dear Howard Arnoff:

Today, your prospect, ZZZZZ, was automatically expired by LIST-IT. He or she was inactive for at least 1 month.

A couple of quick points. LIST-IT is the name that Solid Earth, the Charleston MLS provider uses to send emails. This potential client had signed up for listing alerts and looked at them for a while. Then they stopped.

So whatever happened to ZZZZZ?

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Charleston real estate 

Sitting on the fence

August 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment

White picket fenceIt seems to me that a lot of people are sitting on the fence these days not quite knowing what to do about buying or selling in the Charleston real estate market.

Turn on the television, read the newspaper (does anyone still do that) or read the news online and news about the problems in housing and financial institutions has to make you take pause.

And yet, while no one wants to make a bad investment, your house is more than just a financial investment, it is also your home, where you live, raise your family, entertain friends and family, create memories and much more.

Whether you realize it or not, even if you are renting, you are making a mortgage payment; but it is your landlord’s mortgage payment, not yours.

Photo courtesy of Flickr by pbo31.

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Buyer Tips, Charleston Market Trends, Charleston real estate 

Back to school

August 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Back to school in the Charleston areaThis week, all the school districts in the Charleston area return to school and the cars and school buses will be on the roads once again. Drive safely and yes, a bit more congestion is to be expected as always.

Berkeley County kicked off the school year yesterday, Charleston County starts today and Dorchester County, District II begins on Thursday.

Links to school district websites:

Berkeley County

Charleston County

Dorchester County (District II)

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Helpful hints 

Loan modification

August 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment

… is a big buzzword today. The government has been wanting lenders to rework the loans of many troubled homeowners so as to avoid additional foreclosures. The problem is that thus far very few loans have actually been modified.

So what gives. Let’s say you feel like the value of your home has declined somewhat and you’d like to modify your loan. Will the lender just happily lop tens of thousands of dollars from your balance and call it a day. Not really.

But if you are facing a hardship, that might be another story and loan modification could be a potential solution. If your interest rate increased because you took out an adjustable rate mortgage and “didn’t know” that an adjustable rate meant that your payment might increase over time, you can join the chorus of the many who seem to fall into that situation. Even if you did know how an adjustable rate mortgage worked, today’s lending problems work to your advantage because you can probably claim ignorance because you still face financial hardship.

If you or your wife got divorced, lost your job or had unexpected expenses from an illness, you most definitely are facing a financial hardship and should seek a loan modification program with your lender.

Some lenders are more open to the process than others and it might not be easy. Please take note, you’ll have to prove you are facing a financial hardship, not just feeling like you’d like to lower your interest rate or monthly payment.

It will be better than just waiting to be foreclosed but don’t wait until it’s too late. 

Read more from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Charleston real estate, Mortgage / Finance 

The Boss comes to Charleston

August 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Bruce springsteenBruce Springsteen will be in Charleston Saturday night playing to a sold out crowd at the North Charleston Coliseum. Tickets sold out in nanoseconds for what will likely be the concert of the year in Charleston.

I noticed some positives with ticket resales, additional proceeds being donated to charity. And some businesses are using the highly coveted tickets to thank their best clients.

It should be a great show.

Photo courtesy of flickr by Alex Hempton-Smith.

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Charleston, Just for fun 

Foreclosure news July 2008

August 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment

The latest foreclosure news is out and no significant changes are reported by RealtyTrac. A few more than last month, about double this month last year and South Carolina remains much better than the rest of the country ranking 34th.

While the Charleston real estate market has some foreclosure activity, it is thankfully still few and far between compared to markets with most housing activity focused on foreclosures.

Foreclosure map July 08

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Charleston Market Trends, Charleston real estate 

Long term thinking

August 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment

prices upprices downwhat does the future hold for Charleston real estate prices

Last week when the stock market was as volatile as I can ever remember, I started thinking about the many comments regarding the housing market. There is no doubt that many people are postponing the purchase of a home because they are quite simply scared that prices may go down.

While sharp price declines have not really been the case in the Charleston real estate market, all the attention by the national media can’t help but impact your thinking.

But I wonder, why is it seemingly OK for stocks to go up and down by 2% or 3% in a day causing the value of your stock portfolio or your 401k to go up or down accordingly but everyone seems to hate the idea that the value of your home might go down by 2% or 3% in the next year.

Nothing goes up or down in a straight line and both stocks and housing have gone up over the long term. It requires long term thinking when buying either stocks or a home. And the best thing is … you can actually live in your home, you don’t even get a stock certificate to paper the walls in your home any more.

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Buyer Tips, Charleston Market Trends, Charleston real estate 

8808

August 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment

8808

August 8 2008

8.8.2008

This is a fascinating day for numerology and I just noticed and wanted to share this fascinating article by Christine Delorey, The Power of 8.

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Just for fun 

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