Breaking Mortgage News

The US Senate voted 93-1 to back a bill that makes changes to current FHA loan rules. The house has already passed a similar bill. The cap was extended to $417,000 for maximum loan amount and the down payment amount required was reduced from 3% to 1.5%. This is good news for buyers as FHA loans are responsible safe loans and have more lenient qualifying guidelines. This is a far better product than sub-prime loans that many were turning to. This will not help everyone, but it will help some.

Rate Watch

Here are the today's rates from Burnet Home Loans. I'm not even going to print the ARMS because the fixed rates are the same or better!

Conventional Fixed
30 Year 6.125%
20 Year 6.00%
15 Year 5.75%

FHA/VA 30 Year
FHA 6%
VA 6%

Open Houses

If you are out and about this Saturday afternoon stop by and see Shari at 3435 40th Ave (Minneapolis) from 1:00 - 3:00. To search for other open houses visit our web-site and click on the 4th button down. Stay warm out there!

Market Activity Report - Dec 10th

Home sales perked up for the week ending December 1, as buyers returned following their annual football-and-turkey Thanksgiving holiday. While the number of newly signed purchase agreements (pending sales) grew to 533, it was still behind the same week last year by 10.6 percent. The total inventory of homes for sale continues its seasonal drop, with 4,000 fewer units on the market now compared to eight weeks ago.

This week's edition of the MAAR Weekly Market Activity Report features updated figures for several key metrics:
From the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors:

Average Days on Market Until Sale increased slightly to 148, a growth of 12.4 percent from one year ago. This figure should continue to grow through December before dropping in the first part of 2008 as more buyers return to the market.
The Percent of Original List Price Received at Sale dipped to 92.4 percent, indicating that seller willingness to negotiate continues to grow.
Mortgage Rates for the Twin Cities region fell slightly again to 6.2, which is having dramatic and positive effects on affordability.
The Housing Affordability Index (HAI) increased to 141 due to falling mortgage rates and home prices. This is the highest HAI mark since February 2005 and, if sustained, bodes well for the long-term health of our market.
Months Supply of Inventory decreased to 9.3 months, as seasonal declines in the number of homes for sale temporarily restrict inventory choice during the holiday season.

Cut down on Snail Mail

We both recently heard about a service for reducing the amount of mail we receive on Minnesota Public Radio. Catalog Choice lets you opt out of receiving catalog's you no longer wish to receive. I love LL Bean and even occasionally love looking at their catalogs, but I really do not love getting their catalogs every other day! I am much more likely to look on-line when I'm in a buying mood than to hunt down a catalog. All of those catalogs almost always go immediately into recycling at our house. I bet that LL Bean prefers to not send me those expensive catalogs if I'm just going to recycle them! It seems to me that stopping these catalogs for cluttering up my recycle bin will save a ton of gas, paper and ink. If you decide to check out Catalog Choice, have your stack of unwanted catalogs handy as they will ask you for numbers from the catalogs.

Neil and I are making the shift from snail mail to electronic communication. You will not see many things from us in your "snail" mailbox in the future. We will continue to send out our "handy hints" and our monthly contest via email. (We are also moving away from print advertising to on-line forms.) If you do not wish to receive these emails (I can hardly imagine it!) please let us know. If you don't want it, we don't want to send it!

We would love to hear and pass on your ideas for stopping snail mail. Please post your ideas in the comments section.

How Are Interest Rates Today?

Unfortunately today interest rates creaped up a little. Word on the street is that it was because of strong unemployment numbers - there were more jobs created than anticipated. Coming soon: a guest blogger to speak more about the relationship between interest rates and the economy! Here are today's rates from Burnet Home Loans:

Fixed Conventional
30 Year 6.25%
20 Year 6.125%
15 Year 5.875%

Conventional Arms - (GO WITH THE FIXED!!!)
5 Year 6.25%
7 Year 6.375%
10 Year 6.625%

FHA/VA
FHA - 6%
VA 6%

Market Activity Report - Dec 4th

From Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors

"It's the same old story, same old song and dance, my friend."

– Steven Tyler, lead singer of Aerosmith and noted housing economist

As expected, we are continuing to see a decline in home sales in the Twin Cities housing market. For the week ending November 24, there were 329 newly signed purchase agreements (pending sales), a decline of 32.2 percent from the same week last year. The severity of this sudden decline is abnormal enough to imply a statistical fluke caused by a small sample size and the vagaries of a major holiday week. How the market performs next week will provide a good indicator of its true direction.

This week's edition of the MAAR Weekly Market Activity Report features an updated Supply-Demand Ratio (SDR) for 2007. The figure increased to 13.44, which means that there are 13.44 homes on the market for every buyer in the month of December, an increase of 34.1 percent from last December. The SDR rises each year in the final months due to the dramatic decline in holiday season home buyers.

Here are the details.

Happy New Home Owners!

Meet Joe Riemann and Joni Horak, the proud new owners of a home in Longfellow. LOOK they are smiling big! We had a great time with their home search and purchase. There were many houses to choose from in their price range, they got an awesome rate on their City Living loan, they ended up with a wonderful home at a really wonderful price. One of the greatest things about buying now is that buyers are clearly in the driver's seat when it comes to negotiations. I'm not sure that they really believed my tales of what buyers went through a couple of years ago. Back in the day buyers had to decide immediately if they wanted to buy a house. More often than not buyers were in multiple offer situations. I wrote several purchase agreements on the hood of my car. I remember showing a home fist day on market when there were so many other agents showing the same home, folks on the street thought it was an open house! Joe and Joni had plenty of time to think about their decision and compare different houses and areas. Plus we got to write their offer at Longfellow Grill.... The abundant inventory, negotiation power of buyers, great prices and great interest rates makes now an incredible time to buy. If you have questions about the market or buying environment do not hesitate to contact us! 612.728.2236