Home Staging

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Tesla to Partner with Home Depot for Solar Tile Installation

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/02/01/tesla-solar-energy-kiosks-coming-all-800-home-depot-locationsnow-pitching-its-solar-products-home-de/1086956001/

Souring Confidence in Economy and Housing

Consumer Confidence in Economy & Housing is Soaring
http://www.simplifyingthemarket.com/en/2017/03/30/consumer-confidence-in-economy-housing-is-soaring/?a=21372-d15d57ebc8a5cafd3fb1bb719f2cb1f3

The Rent Trap

Don’t Get Caught in the Rental Trap!

There are many benefits to homeownership. One of the top ones is being able to protect yourself from rising rents and lock in your housing cost for the life of your mortgage.

Don’t Become Trapped

Jonathan Smoke, Chief Economist at realtor.com, reported on what he calls a “Rental Affordability Crisis.” He warns that,

“Low rental vacancies and a lack of new rental construction are pushing up rents, and we expect that they’ll outpace home price appreciation in the year ahead.”

In the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University's 2015 Report on Rental Housing, they reported that 49% of rental households are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing. These households struggle to save for a rainy day and pay other bills, such as food and healthcare.

It’s Cheaper to Buy Than Rent

In Smoke’s article, he went on to say,

“Housing is central to the health and well-being of our country and our local communities. In addition, this (rental affordability) crisis threatens the future value of owned housing, as the burdensome level of rents will trap more aspiring owners into a vicious financial cycle in which they cannot save and build a solid credit record to eventually buy a home.”

 “While more than 85% of markets have burdensome rents today, it’s perplexing that in more than 75% of the counties across the country, it is actually cheaper to buy than rent a home. So why aren’t those unhappy renters choosing to buy?”

Know Your Options

Perhaps you have already saved enough to buy your first home. HousingWire reported that analysts at Nomura believe:

"It’s not that Millennials and other potential homebuyers aren’t qualified in terms of their credit scores or in how much they have saved for their down payment.

 It’s that they think they’re not qualified or they think that they don’t have a big enough down payment.” (emphasis added)

Many first-time homebuyers who believe that they need a large down payment may be holding themselves back from their dream home. As we have reported before, in many areas of the country, a first-time home buyer can save for a 3% down payment in less than two years. You may have already saved enough!

Bottom Line

Don’t get caught in the trap so many renters are currently in. If you are ready and willing to buy a home, find out if you are able. Let’s get together to determine if you could qualify for a mortgage now!

If I Had a Hammer...

If you are planning on selling your home over the next two years, now may be the time to act. Demand is high, supply is low and many homeowners are benefiting from an almost auction atmosphere with several buyers fighting for their house in the current multi-bid environment. Higher prices and less stringent contingencies are making it easier for the seller and their family.

Why Rates Matter

 Even a small increase in interest rates drastically impacts your budget.
 Securing a mortgage now while rates are still low means you can get more house for your money.  Spend your money on your dream home, not on interest.

Priorities

At the same time, Tim Rood, chairman of the business advisory firm The Collingwood Group, explained that real estate is:

 “…one of the last legitimate wealth creation opportunities…The leveraged return if you put down 10 percent on a house, the trajectory of appreciation lately is you’re going to get your money back inside of a year and then after that 5 to 10 percent appreciation rates. It's phenomenal."

Extracting Teasures from the "Trash" of Home Rennovations

 Grist.com's "Ask Umbra" column provides some great suggestions for re-cycling the byproducts of home renovations:

....But if you don’t have a new home for it, someone else probably does (especially if you slap a “vintage” label on it). Renovators may be able to sell their old pieces on eBay or Craigslist to other thrifty builders – so if your neighbors have some particularly cool trash, it’s worth a shot.
 An even better option might be donating their unwanted tubs, lights, and flooring, though: This helps support worthy causes and may translate into a hefty tax write-off.
The biggie here is ReStore, Habitat for Humanity’s nationwide chain of resale shops for building materials, furniture, and the like. These outlets accept donations of all kinds of stuff, either for drop-off or pickup, as long as it’s in good shape.  Other local organizations or secondhand outfits might also accept the salvage from remodeling projects, so it’s worthwhile to ask around.
Bonus: Keeping supplies in circulation means other builders have access to local goodies, reducing shipping and transport costs for their projects. Yet another one of my favorite things! This robust secondhand market underscores why it’s important to do your home makeovers carefully, by the way. Smashing cabinets with a sledgehammer might sound like fun for a few minutes, I suppose, but carefully removing them for resale yields years of décor satisfaction for someone else. This practice even has a name: deconstruction, as opposed to demolition, and it can be applied to everything from counters to plumbing fixtures to roofing to molding. You can hire professionals who specialize in just this kind of mindful renovation (and local ReStore outlets can often hook you up with their own deconstruction crews).

Vacation Homes Surge

Lenders Lowering Mortgage Hurdles

There has been a lot of discussion about how difficult it is to get a home mortgage in this market. There is no doubt that the process is not as easy as it was eight to ten years ago and that’s probably good news. However, it does appear that availability to mortgage money is increasing with each passing day.

The Mortgage Bankers’ Association publishes the Mortgage Credit Availability Index(MCAI). According to their site the index is “a summary measure which indicates the availability of mortgage credit at a point in time”. As we can see from the graph below, mortgage availability has been increasing dramatically over the last six months.

The True Cost of Sprawl

Two new studies demonstrate the true costs of sprawl, and attempt to show that if new development was built at higher densities and with proper public transit, billions of dollars could be saved. Read more at TreeHugger.com

NAR Home Sales Updates

Tiny Houses Evolving into Bed and Breakfast Biz

Breaking treehugger.com news from the rapidly growing movement towards tiny houses is this custom built house from Nashville. The 185 square ft. home uses a restored trailer, and the windows were sourced from the local Habitat Restore.

The owners reportedly built this small home as a way to generate extra income (they are currently renting it out on AirBnB), but plan to live in it in the future.

A Snapshot of Homebuyers

Serious Investors Still Flip for Flipping

Despite steadily rising rents, experienced investors still prefer fixing and flipping houses as opposed to buying a house for the purpose of renting it out, according a new report from Auction.com.

 The results come courtesy of Auction.com’s February 2015 Real Estate Investor Activity Report, a nationwide survey of real estate investors bidding on properties offered for auction during the period.

According to Auction.com’s survey, 57.3% of respondents who identified as full-time “real estate investors” are looking to flip a property, compared to 41.5% that are buying to rent.

On the other hand, survey respondents who said that they were just making a “one-time purchase” were much more likely to be buying to rent (64.5%) than buying to flip (34.6%).
More details via Housingwire:

The Difference an Hour Makes

Understanding Points In A Home Mortgage Loan - When Is It Best To Use Them?

When determining the best interest rate option to choose, when doing a refinance or buying a new home, there are essentially 3 options that one should consider in order to come up with the best strategy for your loan situation.

• PAY POINTS AND LOWER THE INTEREST RATE
• GET THE BEST INTEREST RATE WITH NO POINTS ADDED
• PAY A HIGHER INTEREST RATE AND PAY NO CLOSING COSTS  

Dan White has given us a breakdown of the advantages and disadvantages of each scenario.

Making Homes Affordable With Shared Equity

State and local governments are putting home ownership within reach of moderate and low-income families through a program called Shared Equity.

Under the program, homebuyers that earn $80,200 or less annually, do not own another home, or have significant assets beyond savings and retirement accounts, may qualify to receive funds for a down payment on a home.

According to the National Housing Conference, “In return for this investment, the government entity shares in the benefits of any home price appreciation that may occur.

The public’s share in the benefits of any home price appreciation may be used in two ways; it can either be returned to the government in the form of cash payment that can be used to help another family, or it can stay with the home, reducing the cost of that home for the next family.”
More details at cnn.com

the 2020 Outlook for Home Prices

With inventory presently below historically normal levels, current & future home prices have been the topic of many real estate conversations. The most recent Home Price Expectation Survey was just released; giving insight into where experts believe prices will be leading up to 2019.

Every quarter, Pulsenomics surveys a nationwide panel of over 100 economists, real estate experts and investment & market strategists about where prices are headed over the next five years. They then average the projections of all 100+ experts into a single number.

Here are some highlights from their latest survey:

• Home values will appreciate by 4.4% in 2015.
• The cumulative appreciation will be 19.3% by 2019.
• That means the average annual appreciation will be 3.6% over the next 5 years.
• Even the experts making up the most bearish quartile of the survey still are projecting a cumulative appreciation of 11.7% by 2019.

Individual opinions make headlines. We believe the survey is a fairer depiction of future values.

Protecting Your Pipes From Sub-freezing Temps

Depending on where you live, frozen pipes resulting in damage to your home and your belongings can be a very real threat. Here are a few tips to help prevent frozen pipes:

1) Disconnect all outside hoses. This is the most common cause of frozen pipes. One way to reduce this risk is by putting your hoses away in the shed or garage for the winter. That way, if someone connects a hose they will hopefully disconnect it to put it back in its place. Also, if you see a hose out of storage it will be a red flag that someone connected it. 

2) Blow out sprinklers. This will prevent the system from freezing. If you realize you’ve forgotten to do this or if cold weather comes in early, at least be sure to turn the sprinkler water valve off. That way if it freezes your home won’t flood.

3} If you’re leaving town during the winter, one way to protect your home is to turn the main water valve inside the home off while you’re gone.

4) Even though this is not a frozen pipe, clogged gutters can fill with ice and cause roof leaks from water damming. Another problem is the gutter can become heavy and rip off, causing other damage.

5) Occasionally in older homes or in areas with extreme low temperatures it’s possible for the pipes inside an exterior wall to freeze. If you know the temps will be extreme you can keep a faucet at the end of this pipe running very slowing to prevent freezing. -
 See more at:             http://www.trinitytitletx.com/trinity-daily/avoid-frozen-pipes-this-winter/#sthash.iXvcKBR8.dpuf