Team Thayer Property Servicing

CNN Money: Real Estate Special Report: Americans are scooping up real estate bargains... overseas Yours truly quoted in CNN.  CNN Money: Real Estate Special Report: Americans are scooping up real estate bargains...overseas  http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/07/real_estate/cheap-real-estate-overseas/   More Americans are taking the leap to buy that overseas pied-a-terre they've been thinking about.  "The U.S. dollar is still strong and the economy is good and the rest of the world is a little softer," said Jason Kumpf, a real estate specialist at USForex. "It's a great time to increase your pieces on the international Monopoly board."  Property prices in some European markets fell 40-50% during the financial crisis and haven't fully recovered, according to global real estate consultancy Knight Frank.  Combine that with the strength of the U.S. dollar creating favorable exchange rates, and deals abound. For example: A €500,000 home cost around $683,000 last...

As buyers reach their price limits and show less interest in homes, housing demand lowered for the fourth consecutive month. According to  Redfin's Housing Demand Index , homebuyer activity fell 5 percentage points from 113 in June to 108 in July. "Redfin real estate agents report that the market is rapidly cooling, with buyers reaching their limit on prices and showing less interest in hot home listings," the report said. In a hot market like Denver, where half of new listings sell in six days or less, Redfin agents and their customers are witnessing the slowdown first-hand. “It feels like the market is at a standstill,” said Michelle Ackerman, a Redfin agent. “Showings have dropped off significantly.” In July 2013, homebuyer activity had reached 119, and 99 in July 2014, Redfin reported. Still, homebuyer demand was up 9 percent year over year in July, leading Redfin’s Forecast Model to project that in August, home prices across 15 major metro areas will...

Where do you see the housing market right now in terms of recovery, and what more, if anything needs to be done to have a complete recovery? In terms of where we stand, there's actually two ways to look at it. If you look at it from the perspective of home prices, we're pretty much fully recovered. Home prices are approaching their pre-bust peaks, and that's looking at it across the various gauges of home prices. If you look at it from the perspective of sales, it's not a complete recovery and not moving into expansion yet, but that's probably because we're not likely to revisit the kind of sales pace that we saw in the peak parts of the housing boom. Maybe we're halfway back from the perspective of sales, but if you think back to prices being richer, that can actually, oddly enough, can help sales because what it's likely to do is bring more supply into the market, then people see that the prices are higher and they start listing their homes, ...

Home prices rose in almost all metro areas in the U.S. mostly due to the increase in home sales during Q2, according to the  latest quarterly report by the  National Association of Realtors  (NAR). Despite low inventory levels, the median existing single-family home price increased in 93 percent of measured markets, with 163 out of 176 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) showing gains based on closings in the second quarter compared with the second quarter of 2014. Meanwhile, only 13 areas recorded lower median prices from the previous year. "Steady rent increases, the slow rise in mortgage rates, and stronger local job markets fueled demand throughout most of the country this spring," said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist. "While this led to a boost in sales paces not seen since before the downturn, overall supply failed to keep up and pushed prices higher in a majority of metro areas." According to the NAR, price gains were recorded in 85 percen...

With nearly a 30 percent year-over-year decline in June, the nation's foreclosure inventory rate—the share of residential homes with a mortgage in some state of foreclosure—is at 1.2 percent, the lowest level since 2007, according to  CoreLogic 's  June 2015 National Foreclosure Report  released Tuesday. The foreclosure inventory rate has now declined year-over-year for 44 consecutive months, including June. The 1.2 percent foreclosure inventory rate represented about 472,000 homes, down from 664,000 in June 2014. Although the national foreclosure inventory rate is back to pre-recession levels, the rate remains high in select areas hit hardest by the crisis, such as Florida and New Jersey. "The foreclosure rate for the U.S. has dropped to its lowest level since 2007, supported by a continuing decline in loans made before 2009, gains in employment, and higher housing prices," said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. "The decline has not been un...

Water Quality Considerations The requirement for testing well water quality during a property transaction varies from location to location; therefore, it is important to check what your local requirements are for well testing. Most property sales that involve water wells include testing for bacteria (i.e. Coliform and E.Coli)as a minimum. If bacteria are found in test results, a qualified specialist should complete a further review of the well conditions. However, there are several wellhead conditions that can be visually inspected. These Include: The well's proximity to a septic field.  Septic fields (if present) are areas of high bacteria concentrations. A minimum separation distance of typically 15m for cased wells and 30m for uncased wells is necessary. This distance should be provided between the well and the tile bed to prevent contamination of the well, from the bacteria in the vicinity of the tile bed. The conditions around the wellhead.  A low-lying well h...

The housing market is slowly but surely inching closer to normal levels with the help of economic and job growth. According to the  National Association of Home Builders  (NAHB)/ First American Leading Markets Index  (LMI) released Thursday, markets in 75 of the approximately 360 metro areas nationwide have returned to or exceeded their last normal levels of economic and housing activity in the second quarter of 2015. This is an increase of 13 markets year-over-year. “The markets are gradually improving and economic and job growth continue to strengthen, which bodes well for housing for the remainder of the year,” said Tom Woods, NAHB chairman and a home builder and developer from Blue Springs, Missouri. The NAHB reported that the index's score increased on point to .92, which means that the nationwide average is at 92 percent of normal economic and housing activity. Although this increase may seem marginal, this one point rise up places the market closer to the...

California-based online real estate marketplace, Auction.com , LLC has revised its July Real Estate Nowcast do wnward. According to the Auction.com Nowcast report released Monday, existing-home sales in July are now projected to fall between seasonally adjusted annual rates of 5.39 and 5.75 million annual sales with a targeted number of 5.57 million. Although this is an increase of 1.4 percent from June, it is a more modest increase than the Nowcast had previously predicted for July. Auction.com reported that the projected median sales price for July reflected in the company’s original Nowcast released on July 22 remains unchanged at $239,126. The company blames the downward revision on a shift in online traffic patterns over the last half of July. Originally, Auction.com predicted the total number of existing-home sales to fall between 5.49 and 5.84 million annual sales with a targeted number of 5.67 million. “While we believe that the housing market con...

Freddie Mac 's net income soared for the second quarter of 2015, totaling $4.2 billion—nearly nine times the GSE's Q1 net income of $524 million, according to an  announcement from Freddie Mac  on Tuesday. Also for Q2, Freddie Mac reported $3.9 billion in comprehensive income, a five-fold increase from Q1's total of $746 million. With the inclusion of September 2015's Dividend Obligation of $3.9 billion, Freddie Mac will have returned $96.5 billion to taxpayers, about $25.2 billion more than the $71.3 billion Freddie Mac received in a bailout from Treasury in 2008. Q2 was the 15th consecutive quarter of profitability for Freddie Mac, which became profitable again in Q4 2011, a little more than three years after the bailout. "Our very solid financial results show that Freddie Mac, while in conservatorship, is building a strong operating business model that represents taxpayers well and is efficiently serving U.S. homebuyers and renters. We continue to inve...

Fannie Mae's Economic, Strategic & Research Group  has pointed out on multiple occasions that housing market growth has been slowed by tepid growth of household income. In a  new analysis released Monday , the Fannie Mae ESR Group announced that homeowners underestimating their home equity may also be a factor in weighing down housing markets. The commentary was written by Steve Deggendorf, Director of Business Strategy for Fannie Mae's ESR Group, and Professor James A. Wilcox of the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkley. The  National Housing Survey  from Fannie Mae contains data that suggests that homeowners who are underestimating how much equity they have in their homes may also be underestimating in other areas, such as how large of a downpayment they could make with that equity; their chances of qualifying for a mortgage, assuming they need a large downpayment; and their opportunities for selling their house and buying another...