1st Home Downpayment Assistance!!!

Here's an INCREDIBLE opportunity that is available to 1st time homebuyers. It is possible for you to receive up to $7500.00 toward a downpayment on a home.

The program is for people that have not had any interest in a home for at least three years. They must have a FICO score of 620. Be prepared to have a copy of your credit report and one score (Trans Union preferred) in order to qualify.

In St. Louis County, the program is offered through the St. Louis HOME Consortium.

In St. Charles County, interested parties should contact Irene York at: 1-800-748-7636. Irene will explain the program, and have you complete an application to be qualified to participate in the program.

If you are approved, three 3-hour courses given at St. Peters City Hall are required to be taken.

Once the courses are completed & if you are eligible, Home St. Charles will provide a check for up to $7,500 in St. Charles and O'Fallon and $5,000 in St. Peters at the closing.

To learn more, feel free to contact me anytime.

New credit scoring system

Talk about change. Here’s a shocker!

Did you realize that the credit scoring system is about to be revised? “VantageScore” was introduced on March 14th as a new credit scoring system to be used by the three credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Rather than sticking to the SAT-like score where anything close to 800 is a homerun, they've introduced a scale that starts at 501 and ends at 990. They believe it should be easier to understand because it works like grades in a classroom:

A — 901-990

B — 801-900

C — 701-800

D — 601-700

F — 501-600

No word yet on how this will effect consumers. The new score doesn't address is the issue of consumers having access to the same scores that lenders use. Right now, 75 percent of mortgage decisions are based on an actual FICO score.

Buyers Market

Right now... although existing homes and condo sales were up in February:

1. New Construction home sales are down locally and nationally.
2. Some resale single family homes have been sitting on the market since the new year.
3. A plethora of newly listed resales are hitting the market every second of the day.

If you are a buyer, this is your time. Lots of fishermen and not many bites. Rates are still low enough so, buy, buy, buy!!

Here's your chance to remaster an old negotiating tactic - the art of the lowball offer.

National Home Sales on the Rise!!!

Warm weather reverses months of slowing demand, and condo sales are up sharply.

The pace of home resales in the United States picked up by 5.2% in February, defying forecasts for a slowdown, as warm weather boosted single-family and condo sales, according to trade group data on Thursday that showed a pause in the market‘s cool-down.

The increase in total existing home sales -- the biggest in two years -- was driven by a 4.7% gain in the pace of single-family sales and an 8.8% jump in condo sales in February.

But inventories also climbed 5.2%, leaving 3.03 million existing homes available for sale. That equates to 5.3 months‘ supply at the current sales pace.

Remodel Boom still going strong!

When it comes to remodeling, the Baby Boom generation will keep on booming. And they'll be followed by spendthrifts known as GenXers.

The new construction market is beginning to slow, while the remodeling sector will keep on growin'.

The National Association of Home Builders' convention "Building for Boomers and Beyond", will be held in Phoenix next month. Home builders nationwide are targeting the Boomer generation by building Villas and condo communities. However, according to studies, it seems the Boomers prefer individuality when selecting retirement housing.

"Boomers aren't done in terms of remodeling activity," said William Apgar, a former federal housing official who is now senior scholar at Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. Normally, spending on remodeling tends to fall off when home owners reach age 50. And by age 70, they're down to "doing only basic stuff," Apgar told a press briefing.

But the huge Baby Boom generation, members of which begin turning 60 this year, have been spending twice as much as the 50 to 70-year olds that have come before them, he pointed out. And there's no reason to indicate they are likely to stop.

Boomers "are outspending their predecessors, and that's likely to continue," the former FHA Commissioner said. "And when that generation finally does begin to tail off, pretty active GenXrs are coming right behind them. So there's not going to be any substantial fall off in remodeling activity far into the future."

Gopal Ahluwalia, staff vice president of research in NAHB's economics group, is expecting spending on remodeling to grow by about 5 percent annually for the foreseeable future.
Despite the recent refi booms, he pointed out, owners still have $10 trillion in equity left in their homes, and they'll spend lots of it on their houses in an attempt to keep up with the Joneses.

"As home prices rise, owners want to improve the value of their real estate," Ahluwalia said. "They'll want larger homes and better features as they try to keep up with the new houses that are being built bigger and better every year."

Get your Home Show on!

YAY! It's Home Show time again! Time to get some great ideas and motivation for dressing up the old homestead.

For a fistful of 8 one dollar bills, you too can enter the gates of the combined America's Center and Edward Jones Dome and browse nearly 500,000 square feet of home improvement vendors.

And looky here! A $2 off coupon for entry!!

Don't worry if you can't make the gig. The smaller Saint Charles County version is being held April 28-30 at the spankin' new St. Charles Convention Center .

Before you go to either event, here's a handy little guide to assist you in deciding which home improvement projects will earn you the highest rate of return when you decide to contact me to sell your home:

Is your property OVERpriced??

More and more home owners are overestimating their property's worth.

One reason property owners may be overestimating is because they may have refinanced their property during the nation’s recent surge in appreciation rates. Lenders have been pressuring their appraisers to illegally inflate property values when it comes to home equity.

Too many home owners risk financial ruin because appraisal fraud will allow them to borrow more than their home is really worth.

Another reason property owners over inflate the value of their property is they are witnessing home values sky-rocketing in areas other than their own and assume their neighborhood should bring the same values and one in another town or even state for that matter.

Sometimes home purchase contract prices come in under appraisal at closing. This forces the lender to approve a mortgage for not more than the appraised value. If the buyer is adamant about purchasing the property for a price above the appraised value, then they must either pay the difference in cash, or they can dispute the appraisal and pay for a second appraisal.

A cause of a low appraisal could be that the rate of appreciation is so rapidly increasing; the recent area sales have not yet been recorded. Appraisers aren't using those recent price points in their comparison calculations.

With home prices climbing at a double-digit pace in many parts of the country, lenders are increasingly worried about over inflated appraisal values -- and some are taking steps to clamp down. Over inflated appraisals now will put the appraisers license at risk.

Lastly, there are those property buyers that specifically purchase a property to quickly sell it at a significantly inflated price for profit in a hot market – or “FLIP” the property. A flip requires the involvement of an appraiser, an irresponsible real estate agent or broker, a greedy seller, and possibly a common settlement agent who is aware of the large increase in value and quick change in ownership without properly notifying the lender.

Of course, the risk of flipping properties is that the over-priced home may not attact any buyers. You may end up stuck with the property until you decide to lower the list price enough to where the property will sell - which may very well be equal to or less than what it was originally purchased for.

If you are seling and have questions about your property’s value, please contact me and we can go over recent home sales in your area to price your home properly. This is the quickest way to get top dollar for your home.

Spring is about to be sprung!

As the weather continues to warm-up, the real estate market is continuing it's cooling trend. Mortgage rates have been holding steady for the most part, but applications are down according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Even though the NAR projects a 5% decline in existing-home sales this year, that prediction was made for the country as a whole. California, Florida, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Seattle and other parts of the country should be more concerned than the Mid-Western states.

The St. Louis Metropolitan area has experienced an increase of housing prices up to 9% in some parts of the outlying areas last year. Although the increase is the highest the St. Louis area has seen in 22 years, it is a drop in the bucket compared to the National Average increase of 13%. And consider cities like Phoenix, where prices rose on AVERAGE 39.7% and in some areas as high as 53.7% in 2005 alone!!!!

But St. Louis’s lagging economy over the winter months, an abundance of houses on the market, and increasing interest rates and energy prices could slow our real-estate market down like it has for the past 5 months.

Along with the re-birth Spring brings, the economy will start it's own rebirth.

Mortgage rates are expected to rise only slightly. Economists' predictions for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage -- averaging 6.24 percent last week, according to Freddie Mac -- range from 6.4 percent to 6.9 percent by the end of the year.

So no worries. Our real estate market will once again be strong this summer. After all, the Midwest, has not had anything close to the annual appreciation experienced in Boston, San Francisco, portions of Florida and other areas of the Northeast and the West Coast.