Fannie and Freddie taken over, mortgage rates down sharply

September 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment

With the federal goverment seizing control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , it should be no surprise that mortage rates are down sharply.

Actions by the Treasury were meant to stabilize financial markets and ensure mortgage availability and affordability. Mark Zandi, Chief Economist at Moody’s Economy.com said, “Effectively, the federal government has now become the nation’s mortgage lender. This takes a major threat off the table.” He notes that 30 year mortgage rates, currently averaging 6.35% nationwide could dip to 5.5% because investors will be more willing to buy the debt issued by Fannie and Freddie – and at lower rates – since the federal government is now explicitly standing behind the debt.

I just got a new rate sheet from one of my preferred lenders quoting a 30 year fixed rate mortgage at 5.625% with a one percent origination fee and at 5.875% with no origination fee, both rates are down sharply from just last week.

Technorati Tags: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Mortgage / Finance

A look behind the numbers

September 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment

The doom and gloom headlines in foreclosure and mortgage delinquencies are being strongly influenced by what is going on in just two states, California and Florida.

“The national foreclosure numbers continue to be driven by the hardest hit states continuing to get much worse. The increases in foreclosures in California and Florida overwhelmed improvements in states like Texas, Massachusetts and Maryland,” said Jay Brinkmann, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Research and Economics. “For the quarter, a majority of the states saw relatively little change one way or the other. California and Florida alone accounted for 39 percent of all of the foreclosures started in the country during the second quarter and 73 percent of the increase in foreclosures between the first and second quarters.” (emphasis added)

Our new Mini Cooper

September 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment

… came in over the weekend and we didn’t take a Sunday drive, we went motoring. The best word to describe a Mini Cooper is cute.

Mini Cooper

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Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Just for fun

Charleston real estate market report, July 2008

August 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment

A recap of Charleston home prices by classification for the past 12 months compared to the previous 12 months continues to show surprising stability despite fewer sales than in prior years.

The chart shows home sales for single family homes under $600k (which represents the biggest share of the Charleston housing market at 70+%) over the past 3 years; the blue line represents 2006, the red line 2007 and the green line 2008.

Statistics compiled by Howard Arnoff using the Charleston MLS as the source of data, informtion deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Charleston South Carolina real estate home prices

Charleston home sales

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

Charleston home prices

August 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Average and median sales prices in the Charleston real estate market for the past 24 months shows much more price stability than you might think considering very high inventory levels and declining unit sales on a year over year basis in Charleston.

The blue line represents the period from August 2006 – July 2007 and the red line represents the period from August 2007 – July 2008. The first chart is average sales price and the second chart is the median sales price.

Average sales price for Charleston homes by month

Median sales price for Charleston real estate by month

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

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.

Technorati Tags: Charleston real estate, Summerville homes for sale

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?

Technorati Tags: Charleston real estate

Posted by Howard | Filed Under Blog, Charleston real estate

Sitting on the fence

August 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment

White picket fence It 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.

Technorati Tags: Charleston real estate

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 area This 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.