Survey Reveals Top Regrets Among Buyers, Renters

from dsnews.com

Slightly more than half of Americans harbor at least one regret about their current home, according to Trulia’s Real Estate Regrets survey. In today’s seller’s market, Trulia says buyers are especially vulnerable to making decisions they may regret in the future.
“Faced with limited inventory, many buyers will feel pressure to act fast—but snap decisions often end in regrets,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia.
One of the common missteps of new homeowners, according to Kolko, is buying before reaching financial stability. “Many buyers would have fewer regrets if they waited until they were in strong enough financial shape to afford a house that really meets their needs,” he said.
The top regret listed among homeowners is not choosing a larger home. Thirty-four percent of homeowners cited this regret in Trulia’s survey.
The second most common regret among homeowners is not remodeling more when they purchased their current homes.
Among renters, the top regret—listed by 42 percent of respondents—is the decision to rent rather than purchase their current homes.
Overall, renters are more likely to harbor regrets of any kind toward their current living situation than are homebuyers. Fifty-six percent of renters shared regrets, while 50 percent of homeowners admitted to regrets about their current homes.
Trulia also found older homeowners are less likely to regret their home choices. About 75 percent of homeowners ages 18 to 34 have regrets about their homes, while 36 percent of homeowners at least 55 years of age have regrets about their homes.
Homeowner regret has declined in recent years compared to about a decade ago. Those who purchased homes between 2003 and 2009 have a 63 percent regret rate, while those who have purchased homes since 2010 have a 55 percent regret rate.
With three-fourths of Americans believing now is a better time to buy a home than next year and less than one-third of Americans believing now is a better time to sell a home than next year, the current market is set for a disconnect, which may lead to more buyer regret, according to Trulia.
Foreclosures are no longer flooding the market. New construction is still meager, and hopeful sellers are willing to wait for favorable prices.
“This year’s housing season will likely cause aggressive buyers to scramble in order to try to win bidding wars and overcome stiff competition—putting them at risk of making real estate mistakes they will regret,” Trulia stated.

The $810,000 Home You Can't Live In - Why Using A Realtor Pays Off...

from voiceofsandiego.org blog...

I had a weird moment today where two things I've been working on -- a story about short sales, and the unfinished construction stuff we were looking at last week -- collided.
Remember that half-built Leucadia subdivision called Nantucket I wrote about in 2008?Somebody bought a home there last month at a foreclosure auction for $810,000, and apparently didn't know that the city of Encinitas has not granted the property a certificate of occupancy, meaning no one can live there. Homes sold at trustee's sale -- usually auctioned off on the courthouse steps -- are sold as-is without any of the disclosures you would get if you went to buy a house from a normal seller.
It's a big risk. This case yields a good look at why you should do everything you can to research the property you're planning to buy.
This house has provided us a good case study for a lot of the trouble in the market -- and the lessons keep coming. The development provided a kind of snapshot of market trouble in some upper-end areas and of the damage sustained by one of the region's most prominent homebuilders.
Now it shows the pitfalls for the second wave -- the buyers or investors who snap up what looks like a good bargain but may carry some lingering issues.
The Nantucket subdivision is in coastal Encinitas. When I went to visit in 2008, eight brand new, $2 million, luxury, 4,000-plus-square-foot homes were sitting next door to what was supposed to be phase two of the Barratt American project. Instead, there were half-finished, papered-up houses, weeds and some empty foundation slabs, surrounded by a chain-link fence.
There was a short sale in the subdivision, a house listed for $1.2 million even though the owners had a $1.5 million mortgage. A group of investors had purchased the house but couldn't afford to pay the mortgage when Barratt stopped leasing it from them to use as the development's model house.
But they couldn't just simply sell it, because it didn't have a certificate of occupancy, remember?
Here's a bit of the back story:
When Barratt submitted plans to build the luxury development, the company signed an agreement with the city of Encinitas to build two price-restricted affordable homes, for sale or rent to a household earning 50 percent or less of the area median income. For a family of five, that's $44,600.
To make sure they followed through on that deal, the city withheld one certificate of occupancy from the development, meaning Barratt couldn't sell that one house until it built the affordable unit.
The city told me in December 2008 it was working with the parties to resolve the situation.
Realtor John Kline spent 16 months trying to sell this house. He fought the city over this issue for months. Ultimately, the owners gave up and let the house fall all the way into foreclosure.
The bank repossessed the house, and it went to trustee's sale. Kline thought he'd heard the end of it.
On Feb. 4, Little Point LLC purchased the house for $810,000, according to public records -- paying less than half what the investors had initially hoped to sell the house for.
About a month ago, Kline got a phone call from someone who said he was the new owner. The man on the phone said he understood Kline knew some things about the Nantucket house.
He told Kline he'd paid $807,000 cash for the house at the auction, but had learned later that the house doesn't have the certificate of occupancy.
He asked Kline what his chances were of persuading the city to grant the certificate.
"I told him, 'Slim to none,'" Kline said. "He said, 'You're making me sick. I'm so sick to my stomach. I feel like I'm going to throw up.'"
Kline didn't catch the owner's name. I left a message for the person listed in state business records for the Little Point group, but didn't hear back this afternoon.
"I guess it's buyer beware when you buy a foreclosure," Kline said. "Even the sophisticated ones -- this guy had $800,000 cash! He just put $800,000 into a dark hole, thinking he got a smoking deal."
-- KELLY BENNETT

Offer Accepted: What Happens During Escrow?

interesting zillow blog post

So the past few months you’ve shopped properties, submitted offers on many and gotten your hopes up, only to be let down. But you haven’t given up, and finally you get the call from your real estate agent: Your latest offer has been accepted!
You might think it’s the end of the road to property ownership. But really, it’s just the beginning of the hard work.
Once you go into escrow, many items still need to be reviewed, discussed and inspected as you move forward in the process. Here are several that you’ll encounter for the next 40-50 days until you finally close escrow.

Home inspection & renegotiations

First you’ll need to schedule a home inspection and have an independent, licensed and insured inspector go through the property to look for problems. Make sure to join the inspector at the inspection and ask a lot of questions, write down everything that needs to be addressed and get with a contractor to determine how much it will cost to make all those repairs. Then have your real estate professional negotiate with the seller for, hopefully, some additional fixes and/or cash credits at closing.

Mortgage financing

Hopefully you’ve kept your lender apprised of where you are in the process. Now it’s time to get into full-speed motion. Get your appraisal ordered and start resubmitting pay stubs, mutual fund statements and other document the lender requests. And lock in your interest rate, points and loan terms — and get those terms in writing.

Title insurance, plat/survey, schedule of exclusions

You’ll also get a thick packet of documents that you’ll need to review. Most people do not review them, and that’s a really bad idea. You need to look through the estimated HUD-1 costs, the title abstract, the title insurance policy schedule of exclusions and all other documents. Also review the plat or have a survey done and then walk the property to see if there are any encumbrances (get the title company to plot the easements). This is the time, before you close escrow, to figure out if there are title or physical property issues that pose a problem.

HOA documents review

If the property is in a common interest development, you’ll need to review all the relevant homeowners association documents — board of directors meeting minutes and notes, financial statements, state disclosures, reserve study, bank condominium certification, HOA unit demand statement, etc. This is a really time consuming, confusing and tricky process. Many people fail to do even the most basic HOA analysis, and if you don’t adequately review the documents, you might feel some pain down the road when issues occur — and they will occur.

Property and liability insurance

You also need to get with an insurance agent and make sure to discuss and procure the proper type and amount of insurance that you’ll need. This is especially true if you’re paying cash, as you don’t have the bank personnel to double-check that you are properly insuring yourself. Your best bet is to go meet with your insurance agent and get the appropriate coverage.

Sign documents, fund down payment, verify GFE

As items move forward, you will eventually be ready to sign documents, fund the down payment and verify the lender costs match the good faith estimate you were given. Make sure to read and review all these documents before you sign off that they are acceptable to you.

Close escrow

Finally, you will fund your down payment, the bank will fund the mortgage loan, escrow and title will prepare all documents, properly account for all the funds, then go record your purchase documents at the county courthouse. And you are now the proud owner of a nice piece of dirt!

Mortgage Rates Move Lower Again, Near Record Lows

interesting article from RIS Media

Freddie Mac recently released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing average fixed mortgage rates moving lower this week amid data showing weaker consumer spending. This marks the third consecutive week fixed-rate mortgages have moved lower as the housing market continues to recover.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.41 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending April 18, 2013, down from last week when it averaged 3.43 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.90 percent.
Additionally, the 15-year FRM this week averaged 2.64 percent with an average 0.7 point, down from last week

The Vacation Home Makes a Comeback

interesting article from Business Outlook/RIS Media...

As the market continues to shift, one industry trend seems to be making continuous waves: vacation homes.
With low prices and mortgage rates still available in most parts of the country, affluent buyers—or those who have always dreamed of a cabin on a lake—are making their move and purchasing second homes in exotic locations to be used as vacation getaways.
According to the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), sales of investment and vacation homes jumped in 2011, with the combined marketshare rising to the highest level since 2005.
NAR’s 2012 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey, covering existing- and new-home transactions in 2011, showed vacation-home sales rose

First-quarter residential sales rise 16 percent in Colorado

another Denver Post article I'm seeing similar trends for the most part.

First-quarter 2013 sales of single-family homes, condominiums and townhouses increased 16 percent year over year in Colorado to 18,343 units, according to a report released Wednesday by the Colorado Association of Realtors.

New listings dropped slightly more than 7 percent statewide, primarily because of drops in metro Denver and the mountains, while the median sales price rose nearly 15 percent to $225,000 compared with the first quarter of 2012.

Days on the market continued downward, dropping 22 percent to 90 days on average.

The statewide number of active listings for the first quarter was 30,114, representing a 4.1-month supply.

"These figures are quite similar to what we reported last quarter and demonstrate consistent patterns that speak to a steadily recovering market in Colorado," said CAR spokesman Michael Welk.

Welk said the association is seeing more sales, increasing median pricing and fewer days on the market consistently over the past three quarters compared with previous years.

"In many areas of the state, sellers are receiving as much as 98 percent of the asking price on average and seeing their homes sell very quickly," said Welk. "Similarly, buyers continue to face significant competition in most areas."

In metro Denver, which includes Denver, Jefferson, Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield and Douglas counties, sales rose 18 percent, while the median price jumped more than 16 percent to $240,000.

Prices rose consistently throughout 2012, a trend that continued into the first quarter of this year in metro Denver.

Homeowners can expect continued decline in assessed property values

interesting Denver Post Article...

 

The majority of home owners in the state should see lower property values when county assessors mail out notices on May 1.

"Property owners are still getting the advantages of the downturn in the economy," said JoAnn Groff, the state's property tax administrator at a press conference Wednesday.

Although rising home prices driven by a shortage of homes for sale have dominated headlines in recent months, the trend gained steam after the June 30 date last year that assessors used as the cut-off in determining property values.

Overall residential valuations in the state are down 2.5 percent as of June 30, 2012, versus two years earlier, Groff said. In the metro area, residential valuations were down 1 percent in Denver, down 1.4 percent in Arapahoe County, and up 0.3 percent in Jefferson County.

Property values, calculated every two years, are part of the equation that determines the amount of property taxes owed the following two years.

Declines in residential values are being balanced by a sharp increase in agricultural land values, up 8.5 percent, and a 2.2 percent increase in commercial, driven in part by a jump in the value of apartment buildings, the state's Division of Property Taxation reports.

"Apartments were uniformly across the metro area very strong performers, " said Jim Everson, Jefferson County's assessor.

Assessors said it is important to note that even within counties there were wide variations.

Overall, about 60 percent of Denver homeowners can expect to see decreasing values, while 40 percent can expect to see increases, Denver County assessor Paul Jacobs said.