Tax Credits working in NW Indiana

NWI buyers snap up homes, tax credits:

Home sales head back to pre-recession levels (reprinted in it's entirety from the Times of Northwest Indiana)

Valarie Kubacki, a Realtor for 21st Century Pace Realty of Valparaiso, shows a couple the garage of a home for sale Tuesday in Valparaiso. Federal home buyer tax credits and historically low interest rates are credited with driving up home sales in November and this month. (Photograph by Kyle Telechan/The Times.)

The colder weather is not chilling home buyers, with existing single-family home sales in Northwest Indiana powering to a year-over-year 48 percent increase during November, according to figures from the Greater Northwest Indiana Association of Realtors.

Federal home buyer tax credits and historically low interest rates continued to drive sales in November and into this month, according to local sales agents.

“Usually, December is dead,” said Valarie Kubacki, a Realtor with Century 21 Pace Estates, in Valparaiso. “But so far this month, it has been just unbelievable.”



In the five counties served by the association, 710 homes were sold in November, as compared to 479 in November 2008.

Nationally, home sales also powered to year-over-year gains in November, with 42 percent more single-family homes sold this November as compared to last, according to the National Association of Realtors.

“This clearly is a rush of first-time buyers not wanting to miss out on the tax credit, but there are many more potential buyers who can enter the market in the months ahead,” said Lawrence Yun, National Association of Realtors’ chief economist.

The average interest rate on a 30-year conventional mortgage dropped to 4.88 percent in November from 4.95 percent the month before, according to Freddie Mac, which buys mortgages from lenders and repackages them as securities. The November figure is the second lowest on record.

Home sales
power up

Lake County

November 2009 homes sold: 421

November 2008 homes sold: 306

November 2009 median sales price: $120,000

November 2008 median sales price: $114,750

Porter County

November 2009 homes sold: 154

November 2008 homes sold: 108

November 2009 median sales price: $155,000

November 2008 median sales price: $153,950

Source: Greater Northwest Indiana Association of Realtors

Congress last month extended the $8,000 first-time home buyer credit, passed as part of the federal stimulus package this spring. It also added a $6,500 home buyer tax credit for existing homeowners looking to buy a new home.

Kubacki said sales are strongest in the under-$200,000 price range, where the home buyer credits offer the greatest bang for the buck.

The median selling price in the five-county area was $125,000 in November, up just 4 percent over one year ago, according to Greater Northwest Indiana Association of Realtors figures. The association serves Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Jasper and Newton counties.

The new incentives for home buying are giving relief to sales agents, who have suffered through one of the worst housing slumps in decades.

In 31 years in the business, Whiting Realtor Albert Minniti said he has never seen a downturn as severe as the one that began in 2007. He has been telling prospective buyers about both the federal tax credit and the city of Hammond’s Homebound program, which provides prospective buyers with up to $2,500 for the purchase of an existing home.

“When I explain all that to people, it often clinches the deal,” Minniti said.

Existing home sales are starting to approach levels not seen since the middle of the decade, when the housing boom was at its height.

The 575 sold in Lake and Porter counties last month compares to 617 sold in November 2006 and 651 sold in November 2005, according to Greater Northwest Indiana Association of Realtors figures.

Sales of all single-family homes nationwide were their strongest since February 2007, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Inventories of unsold homes also have declined, which should start to stabilize prices, according to association figures.

There was just a 6.5 month supply of homes available nationwide in November, which was the lowest inventory since April 2006.

Christmas - a time for peace and joy

Merry Christmas to all our readers, from our faithful real estate professionals who check in for updates on the market .... to homebuyers and homeowners who read dutifully for clues on interest rates or real estate market trends in Northwest Indiana.

2009 was a very blessed year in Northwest Indiana, and we at Sierra Pacific Mortgage - Residential Group are proud to call you friends and family. Christmas is a time for peace and a time for joy. Christmas is a time to celebrate family, and freedom, and mercy. We wish you a Merry Christmas.

Are you still on the sideline? Get in the game

Have you ever wondered why all the talk about the Federal Reserve during times like this? Right when the economy begins a recovery, all of a sudden all the news is what briefcase the Fed Chair is carrying and other seemingly ridiculous topics.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The Federal Reserve is going to opt for a strategy of playing its cards close to its chest after its closed-door policy meeting this week, unwilling to provide any meaningful insight into the road ahead for monetary policy out of a concern it would only roil financial markets, analysts agreed.

"A change in the Fed language at this time of year when markets are generally thin could lead to an outsized market reaction and hence be disruptive to the nascent economic recovery," wrote Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank in a note to clients, succinctly summing up what many analysts said in interviews and in notes to clients.

While the Fed does have -- in the immortal words of Ricky Ricardo, "some explaining to do" -- economists are not holding their breath.

I am not exactly where Marketwatch is, I think the Fed is going to start hinting at a rate increase early in 2010. This means all rates will go up, including your mortgage rates. If you've been sitting on the sidelines with rates at 4.75 in November and even with rates a bit higher now, you are going to want to get in the game.

Steve Dalton

Sierra Pacific Mortgage - Residential Mortgage Group

219-465-8352

Email

Other Posts Today:

• Put On Your Tax Caps - Indiana Barrister
• Bo Jackson To Invest in Crown Point Indiana
• Sierra Pacific - Facebook - Northwest Indiana Mortgage Quotes
  

USDA loans in Northwest Indiana

Contact me today 219-465-8352

(December 11, 2009) - Agriculture Deputy Secretary Merrigan Announces Over 84,000 Rural Families Have Achieved Homeownership Through Recovery Act Funding News Release

(December 4, 2009) - Secretaries Chu And Vilsack To Announce More Than $600 Million Investment In Advanced Biorefinery Projects News Release

(December 3, 2009) - Agriculture Deputy Secretary Merrigan Announces Partnerhsips With Fair Food Network News Release

(December 2, 2009) - Obama Administration Names Thomas Fern To Serve As State Director For Rural Development In Kentucky News Release

NW Indiana REALTORs - raising the bar

Kathryn Weathersby sent me a Facebook message asking if I knew of anyone looking for a home like the one she is listing in Dyer, Indiana. Looks like a great house from the photo, since I built for quite a few years I can see that the bonus room is finished and a third car garage has been added to the plan. I wonder how many people she sent that listing to?

Who cares? You should

If you are a homeowner looking to sell your home and take advantage of the current rise in values and unbelievably low mortgage interest rates ... will your real estate professional be going the extra mile? What are you getting for your selling commission? Is it really worth 3 or 5 or 7% of your home's value for a sign in the yard and a "listing" on the local multiple listing service? If your home sells for $100,000 ... do feel like you'll be getting $3,000 or $5,000 or even $7,000 worth of value from your professional?

I'm sure this post will find a way to tick off some agents, since they aren't comfortable with the subject. The really successful agents don't really want the other 80% to catch on, and many of the long term agents have no desire to change their ways anyway. A list of services you "should" be getting for your sales commission (IMHO)

• Sign in yard - or better yet multiple signs, directional signs leading to the home, have to love the radio signal program too where you can get information if you dial to a specific radio station for that house. I was talking to a technology geek the other day, what about an IPhone app that allows any Iphone user to get all the data about your listing just by pulling up and putting in a code from your sign? (Blackberry too of course)
  
• Put listing in MLS - well of course but that's circa 1970 technology. Online marketing has widened the need to put your home in the hands of millions of possible buyers. Is your listing on Active Rain, Google Base, do you have your own blog or website for your listing, can your home be found by searching any number of websites that advertise homes? How about Craigslist or Homes.com? The top agents are using literally 100's of sites to advertise and make your home searchable.
  
• Great photos - again this is the bare minimum, what about 360 degree video views of your home for out of town buyers that can't get to the open house? Are these photos and videos searchable for specific terms that consumers may use to find a home?
  
• Open House - oh the frustration of an agent sitting in your house for 4 or even 6 hours on a Sunday without seeing a single possible buyer. But, don't you get frustrated too if they never offer to hold your house open, and your house is sitting on the market with monthly price cuts? Sure you do. What's the open house plan for marketing your home, does your agent plan to wait for someone else to sell it, or do they actually sell alot of their own listings?
• Direct marketing to prospective buyers - what's the plan for direct mail, telemarketing, email marketing, and face to face networking to get your home in front of possible buyers? Does your agent work with buyers, does your agent's team work with buyers and keep an active and updated list of buyers in the market?
• Transaction assistance - when the offers start to criss cross does your agent easily fall for the old tricks? Like my favorite, the one where the offer comes back at full price, but the home inspection is used by the buyer to renegotiate the price a couple weeks later when you're stuck? How about all those closing fees that can separate a good deal for you, from a deal that costs you so much you'll wish you didn't accept the offer?
  
• I don't have all the answers - and I know some awesome real estate professionals read our site every day, what else "should" a seller be getting for their sales commission?

Face it, the buyers market of lowballing sellers and stealing a house is over in Northwest Indiana. I heard that one bank owned property this weekend had 8 offers, and sold eventually for more than the listing price! Does your selling agent go that extra mile?

Question from a real estate professional - reader

I was emailed a question from one of my regular readers, who happens to also be a real estate professional in Northwest Indiana. As always, I'd prefer to be transparent and let us all work and learn together.

Q - "Steve, you are active on twitter and facebook and blogging and tweetups and meetups ... the list goes on and on. Aren't you just wasting your talking online all the time? What's the purpose, if any, and what do you get in return?"

A - Mike, first let me say thanks for being a regular reader for the last couple years. I thoroughly enjoy writing and engaging about all things real estate and homeownership with readers in Northwest Indiana. If my answer was only the engagement, I would still do all th above social connecting because I enjoy it so much.

But, there is so much more that I gain. A few thoughts, and an idea to ponder if you're interested:

• Blogging is the best way I know to gain traction on search engines for keywords that matter to me, and that will help my customers find me. Because my customers are both real estate professionals like yourself and consumers, I have to carefully choose the keywords that I target and work to gain confidence from others online who will send me organic and legitimate links.
  
• Facebook and Twitter allow me to gain traffic, to gain connections with other active online networkers whom I can learn from, and to gain new subscribers like yourself who use our RSS code here to add to their reader (or use the email subscription service)
• Lastly, all this activity gives me some online credibility, so that when I meet customers and clients, they have a place they go and check me out. Our industry is often bad mouthed for being full of crooks and frauds, the best thing a customer can do is check out their mortgage advisor online in multiple places. Go ahead check me out! I'm a former home builder, in 2007 our home building company got decimated by the mortgage meltdown. We shut it down and I have refocused my efforts on helping people find homes and get them financed affordably.
  

Should you walk away from your home?

There is a debate brewing on the ethics and viability of people who are underwater on their homes walking away.

"Millions of Americans would be better off financially if they did walk away," says White, who authored the paper "Underwater and Not Walking Away: Shame, Fear and the social management of the Housing Crisis." via Tampa Bay Online

White suggests that those who decide to walk away should consider getting a new car or house before they default on their mortgage, which will constrain their credit.

Whoa, that's controversial at a minimum, and it's going to make a lot of people angry. But after some quick thinking, I do wonder if a lot of people will be better off if they buy a home and car now, and walk away from their over-leveraged home?

Doomsayer Alert - housing in full recovery

Market Watch December 3, 2009

Surprise! Pending home sales rise. Confounding analysts who had predicted a contraction, pending home sales rose for the ninth straight month in October. Pending home sales are considered by analysts to be an indicator of where the real estate market is heading in the near future.

According to the Pending Homes Sales Index posted by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) pending homes sales - which are based on sales contracts signed the previous month- rose once again in November by 3.7%. Economists had predicted a fall of approximately 1%.

This continuing surge in home sales suggests that the housing market, considered the main culprit in our recession, may be headed for recovery, following its 3 year decline. (As a side note for our local market here in NW Indiana - the recovery is on! If you aren't out looking, it's time to get out there, call your real estate professional and get moving)

The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index is also up almost 32% from its figures in October of 2008. NPR reports the largest increase in homes sales contracts occurred in the Northeast, where pending sales bulled their way forward by almost 20%. In the Midwest, numbers were up by 11.6%, and in the south, by5.4%. In a bow to the rugged individualism for which it is famous, the west declined.

Meanwhile, in an effort to keep the housing market hopping, the Federal Reserve says it will do its best to maintain near zero benchmark interest rates (at least sub 5% right now) for as long as is economically feasible. Currently a 30 year conventional loan is averaging 4.78%, which Bloomberg says is the lowest rate since 1972, the year Freddie Mac began its record keeping process.

The housing market continues to post impressive stats. Current sales figures for new and existing homes stood at 6.5 million as of October, a level that has not been seen since June of 2007. In addition, the Census Bureau says that there was a 3.9% increase in spending on new residential construction in October. As a result, Reuters reported that housing construction actually made a contribution to the economy. This has not occurred since 2005.

In better news, the number of unsold homes has dropped down to a 7 month supply. One year ago, real estate shelves held a 10.3 month inventory of homes, waiting for buyers to adopt them.

Call me today at 219-465-8352 or Email Northwest Indiana Real Estate Assistance - Mortgages and Finance

Let's get started today.

Dec 2, 2009 - Market Briefs

A quick rundown this morning, because for some reason (wink wink) we're swamped.

Interest rates were slightly higher yesterday, although stocks continue on a race back to 14,000 and gold saw all-time highs. Why did rates go higher? The dollar is still sliding ever so slowly into weaker territory, causing rates to have a natural push higher in anticipation of an eventual increase by the Fed.

Why would the Fed increase when we're still in the beginning stages of an economic recovery? Because their job is to keep a handle on inflation, and oil prices and commodity prices going into 2010 may put pressure on prices to increase.

Mortgage money basics for today:

• If a mortgage rate just under 5% works, and come on it is an incredible rate, lock so you don't have to worry about overnite markets
• If you are looking for a home, make that offer you've been thinking about. In Northwest Indiana though, prices have stabilized quite a bit. You have missed the chance to lowball or steal a house, sorry. Get out there and buy that house, and give me a shout so we can get your loan rolling along. (219-465-8352) or Email me at Sierra Pacific Mortgage - Residential Mortgage Group.
• Now if you want to talk home building, let's talk, there are still some great deals and I know of a few, let's talk right away though.
  
• Lastly if you put off refinancing while waiting for a 3% rate ... come on ... it's time already. Let's get your appraisal ordered and get your refinance done.
  

Century 21 Alliance - Keep it in our Community

Local effort - Keep it in our community

A great real estate office teams with one of my favorite local community groups, can't go wrong. Great work!

Jeanne Sommer/Century 21 Alliance Group donate to 'Keep it in our Community' program:

Jeanne Sommer of Century 21 Alliance Group presented two checks to Jennifer Peek and the Porter-Starke Services Foundation through Century 21's "Keep It inOur Community Program." Both donations are a percentage of Sommer's commission on real estate transactions conducted by Porter-Starke Services employees.

Lisa Lemmons, a day treatment specialist, purchased a Chesterton home brokered by Sommer. As an employee of Porter-Starke Services, Lemmons was able to take advantage of savings on closing costs and other perks offered by Century 21 Alliance Group. The partnership between Porter-Starke Services and Century 21 Alliance has shown a marked increase over the past few months.

'The Foundation has already received over $1700 through the Keep It in the Community Program,' Peek said. 'We are thankful for the ongoing support that Jeanne and the Century 21 Alliance Group has provided us and the programs that we serve.'

Porter-Starke Services is a not-for-profit community mental health center headquartered in Valparaiso, with offices in Knox and Portage. The Porter-Starke Services Foundation supports mental wellness initiatives throughout the community. More information about the Porter-Starke Services Foundation can be found atwww.porterstarke.org/foundation.

The Century 21 Alliance Group can be reached at (219) 476-4507. Further information about the 'Keep It In Our Community' program can be found at www.keepitinourcommunity.com.

Other posts of interest to Northwest Indiana residents:

PCBA and green building movement

Announcement - Joining Sierra Pacific Mortgage

Irene Tron - FC Tucker NW Indiana