Team Thayer Property Servicing

If you thought about selling your house this year, now may be the time to do it. The inventory of homes for sale is well below historic norms and buyer demand is skyrocketing. We were still in high school when we learned the concept of supply and demand: the best time to sell something is when supply of that item is low and demand for that item is high. That defines today’s real estate market. Jonathan Smoke, the chief economist of realtor.com, in a  recent article  revealed: “Our preliminary review of April activity on realtor.com shows that traffic, searches, and listing views are up more than 35% over last year. With 3 million jobs created and close to 1.5 million new households formed in the past 12 months, many more people want a new home of their own, and they want it bad. Their patience will be tested with tight supply—indeed, the No. 1 impediment of active shoppers in April was not being able to find a home that meets their needs.” In this type of market, a...

Non-foreclosure solutions continued to outpace completed foreclosures by a rate of approximately five to one in April while serious delinquencies continued their steady decline, according to  data released on Wednesday  by  HOPE NOW , an industry-created private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, counselors, and other mortgage market participants. The number of non-foreclosure solutions, which include loan modifications, short sales, deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure, or other workout plans) completed by the industry totaled 153,000 for April, compared to 32,000 completed foreclosure sales during the month, according to HOPE NOW. April's total of non-foreclosure solutions represented a slight increase over the monthly average for the first quarter (148,000). April's total of foreclosure sales was unchanged from the Q1 three-month average of 32,000. "HOPE NOW continues to see declines in overall serious delinquencies each month," HOPE NOW executive d...

Existing homes sales this year are expected to hit levels not seen since just after the peak, in 2006, driven by strong job growth, low interest rates and a gradual loosening of lending standards, according to the National Association of Realtors. Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the realtor association, said in his mid-year forecast on Thursday that he expects home sales to end up around 5.3 million in 2015, a significant pick-up from 4.9 million sales in 2014. Last year, economists also anticipated robust growth in the home sales, but were disappointed when a spike in interest rates early in the year and poor wage growth dampened the market. Mr. Yun said that early results this year point to a pick-up in home sales, including sales in the first few months, foot traffic at homes on the market and strong job growth. Buyers who have been kept out of the market by low wages and strict lending standards are likely to start coming back. “There is sizeable pent-up demand,” h...