Real Estate Blog Atlanta

READ THIS WARNING FROM THE COBB COUNTY POLICE!

West Cobb Residents,

We are at the time of year when folks all over the county are considering fresh paint and all of the other home repairs that are associated with home ownership. This brings us to our topic of the month.

First, let me say most building contractors, plumbers, electricians and roofers are ethical people who perform quality work. But, there ARE scammers roaming the county in search of a quick buck. As a result, we have recently investigated several cases in which home owners were scammed by contractors.

It's easy to get ripped off by seemingly sincere contractors. Beware of the following as they may help you avoid becoming the next victim:

VANGUARDS Economic Week in Review:

Fed maintains firm grip, but flexible stance.

MARCH 22, 2013

The Federal Reserve offered no big surprises when it released its economic and employment outlook as part of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged the economy's improvement but said current policies will remain in place until more progress is evident. The week's economic reports did show positive movement, but nothing that would seem to prompt Bernanke to shift course. New residential construction and existing-home sales both increased along with the leading economic indicators

Existing-home sales rise again

This is great news for sellers and listings facing the unfortunate circumstance of short sale:

Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act extended through December 31, 2013.

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 has been extended through 12/31/2013, as part of the Fiscal Cliff legislation.

This Act allows qualifying taxpayers to exclude taxable income from the discharge of debt (through a short sale, foreclosure, or restructure or a mortgage) on their principal residence. Click "Continue Reading" link below for more information and a reference to an alleged IRS publication.

In the current market houses are selling by the square foot! Fancy trim and many "upgrades" don't count for much. The chart below shows the average for Cobb County. NOTE: The numbers seem to be creeping up!

FHA to tighten underwriting, raise premiums

Bid to boost capital reserves also includes changes to reverse mortgage offerings.

By Inman News
Inman News®

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The  by Coupon Companion Plugin">Federal Housing Administration will issue a series of changes to FHA mortgage programs this week designed to bolster the agency's capital reserves in the hopes of avoiding a taxpayer bailout.

The changes will limit the ability of some borrowers with low  by Coupon Companion Plugin">credit scores to qualify for loans, and raise minimum down payment requirements and premiums for borrowers taking out mortgages larger than $625,500. 

The agency reported a $16.3 billion deficit in a report to Congress in November, raising the specter that FHA will require a taxpayer bailout next year for the first time in its 78-year history. TO CONTINUE READING CLICK "Continue Reading" in lower right hand corner.

DOES A BUYER NEED TITLE INSURANCE?
By: Sig Hoyer - SIGN with SIG!

First of all, if the Buyer is getting a loan the Lender will require Title Insurance.  It can only be purchased one time and that is at closing.  This will protect the Lender in case any issues, liens, or discrepancies show up later down the road.

Does the Buyer need Title Insurance?  Absolutely and if it is a cash deal then this is sometimes not taken care of.  In this market ,especially with the amount of mortgage fraud, foreclosures and equity lines , the Buyer needs protection.  

Here are a few true to life examples.  A Buyer closed on the house.  The closing attorney did not close on the Seller’s Home Equity line.  The Seller kept spending and charging on the Home Equity line to the tune of $50,000.  Then they put a lien on the house even though the current owner had nothing to do with the loan. This was also three years after the purchase.  What do you do?  The new owner had title insurance, the lender had title insurance and the problem was resolved through the title company.

Second example, a foreclosure can cancel all liens on a property.  But what if a lien shows up after closing?  In one case a builder filed a $90,000 lien and it wasn’t recorded until after closing.  Title Insurance was in place and problem solved.

Can you imagine the cost to the Lender or to the Owner if Title Insurance was not in place?

Months of Inventory in Cobb County. Normally a 6 month inventory is considered a stable market with stable prices. At 4 months that should mean increasing prices. Prices a creeping up but so far not by much. I would not be surprised if at some point in time this year we will see a more sudden and relatively steep increase in prices! It is not what is generally expected - but I believe it could happen!

People keep asking me, will we see a flood of foreclosures on the market depressing prices? I have for a long time been saying that I don't see that as a problem. The statistics shown below for Cobb County support that view. Agents that used to "live" off foreclosures have seen their business vanish, or nearly so. Apparently investors are buying properties before they come on the market. So "chill out" we will not be buried in foreclosures, far from it! -- Will prices start going up? I think so, the question is how fast.

'Zombie Titles' Plague Home Owners

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2013

Some refer to “zombie titles” as a little-known horror in the fallout of the foreclosure crisis. Thousands of home owners are discovering they may be legally liable for a home they thought they no longer owned. 

In some of these cases, home owners receive a notice of a foreclosure sale and move out to give the home to the bank. But then the bank never completes the foreclosure. 

"The banks are just deciding not to foreclose, even though the home owners never caught up with their payments," Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, told Reuters. 

According to housing experts, the problem of “zombie titles” is worsening, although no national databases track such titles. 

Finally we see a POSITIVE trend!

PRICES ARE STARTING TO CREEP UP IN COBB COUNTY!!

Economic Week in Review: Growth revives, but will it last?

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

The long-struggling U.S. economy appears to be strengthening as new third-quarter data indicated that growth reached its fastest pace in nearly a year. Despite the encouraging news, unemployment remains above historical norms. Economists speculate that the impact of Hurricane Sandy coupled with uncertainty over the "fiscal cliff" could restrain growth in the fourth quarter.

Real estate rebound may be for real - news from VANGUARD's Economic Week in Review

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

In a light week for economic news, positive developments on the real estate front dominated the headlines. Numbers were up for existing-home sales and new-home construction. In the only other report issued this week, The Conference Board's index of leading indicators fell slightly.

For the week ended September 21, the S&P 500 Index decreased 0.4% to 1,460 (for a year-to-date total return—including price change plus dividends—of about 18%). The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 11 basis points to 1.77% (for a year-to-date decline of 12 basis points).

Existing-home sales show improvement

Sales of previously owned homes jumped 7.8% to an annual rate of 4.82 million, an indication the housing market's long-awaited rebound may be under way. Lawrence Yun, National Association of Realtors chief economist, said buyers are reacting to better conditions. The national median existing-home price rose to $187,400 in August, the first time prices climbed six straight months since December 2005 to May 2006. Sales were up in all four of the nation's regions. Single-family home sales advanced 8%, while condominium and co-op sales increased 6.1%. Housing inventory grew 2.9% in August, but the number of months it would take to sell the entire inventory of homes at the current sales pace fell to 6.1 months from 6.4 months.

Housing starts resume rise

Construction of new residential homes climbed 2.3% to an annual rate of 750,000 in August, although the dip in July's numbers was revised downward by almost 2% more. Housing starts are 29% higher compared with a year ago, but they are still well below levels seen before the downturn.

"Housing starts reflect both the deep adjustments the housing market has gone through and how much progress has been made since the crash," said Roger Aliaga-Díaz, Vanguard senior economist. "The growth in housing starts since last year is great news, but at 750,000 we're still only half of the way to the normal pace of housing construction."

All of August's gains came from single-family housing starts, which rose 5.5%, while multi-family starts declined 4.9%. The Midwest led the gains on a regional basis, with starts also up in the South but down in the Northeast and the West. Housing permits, an indicator of the pace of future construction, fell 1% from July but are ahead nearly 25% from a year ago. Completions increased 0.7% from July and 11.7% from a year ago. Click "Continue Reading" for the rest of the story.

10 tax tips for home sellers

Real Estate Tax Talk

By Stephen Fishman
Inman News®

The IRS has recently issued a helpful list of 10 tax tips all homeowners should keep in mind when selling a home:

1. You are usually eligible to exclude the gain from income if you have owned and used your home as your main home for two years out of the five years prior to the date of its sale.

2. If you have a gain from the sale of your main home, you may be able to exclude up to $250,000 of the gain from your income ($500,000 on a joint return in most cases).

3. You are not eligible for the exclusion if you excluded the gain from the sale of another home during the two-year period prior to the sale of your home.

4. If you can exclude all of the gain, you do not need to report the sale on your tax return.

5. If you have a gain that cannot be excluded, it is taxable. You must report it on Form 1040, Schedule D, Capital Gains and Losses.

6. You cannot deduct a loss from the sale of your main home.

7. Worksheets are included in Publication 523, Selling Your Home, to help you figure the adjusted basis of the home you sold, the gain (or loss) on the sale, and the gain that you can exclude.

8. If you have more than one home, you can exclude a gain only from the sale of your main home. You must pay tax on the gain from selling any other home. If you have two homes and live in both of them, your main home is ordinarily the one you live in most of the time.

9. If you received the first-time homebuyer credit and within 36 months of the date of purchase the property is no longer used as your principal residence, you are required to repay the credit. Repayment of the full credit is due with the income tax return for the year the home ceased to be your principal residence, using Form 5405, First-Time Homebuyer Credit and Repayment of the Credit. The full amount of the credit is reflected as additional tax on that year's tax return.

10. When you move, be sure to update your address with the IRS and the U.S. Postal Service to ensure you receive refunds or correspondence from the IRS. Use Form 8822, Change of Address, to notify the IRS of your address change. Click "Continue Reading" for the rest of the information.

VANGUARD's Economic Week in Review: Job results dash expectations

SEPTEMBER 07, 2012

The job picture in August was weaker than expected. The glum picture, which included an apparent slowdown in manufacturing, raised expectations that the Federal Reserve (perhaps next week) might take additional actions to stimulate the economy. Also weighing on the U.S. economic outlook and the financial markets has been Europe's complex fiscal dilemma: Some relief may have come from the European Central Bank's announcement of an unprecedented bond-buying plan to backstop the euro.

For the week ended September 7, the S&P 500 Index rose 2.2% to 1,438 (for a year-to-date total return—including price change plus dividends—of about 16.1%). The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose 10 basis points to 1.67% (for a year-to-date decline of 22 basis points).

"Job growth continues in muddle-through mode, due to policy uncertainties in the United States and in Europe," said Roger Aliaga-Díaz, Vanguard senior economist. "The Fed may help at the margin, but by itself it cannot offset the effects of Europe's debt crisis and the potential 'fiscal cliff' faced by the United States."

An optimistic housing story is built into construction's drop

Construction spending declined in July by 0.9%, despite expectations of an increase. Each of the three broad components of construction spending—private residential, private nonresidential (such as factory and utility structures), and public—declined. Masked within the residential category, however, was growth in single- and multi-family housing; the decline in the overall private residential category was due to lower spending on home improvements.  -  For the rest of the story click "Continue Reading" below.

Will the Rental Market Cool Down?

REALTOR - DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2012

The latest housing reports are showing housing on the mend and many are reaching the conclusion that the worst is over. So what does this mean for the booming rental market?

The pick up in home sales has many analysts questioning how much longer the multifamily sector will see this kind of rapid growth. 

Apartment rents are soaring in many markets and vacancies are falling. Also, multifamily housing starts climbed 30 percent in July over year-ago levels. 

“The apartments have had spectacular growth since the depths of the recession, and at a certain point that growth has to moderate,” David Toti, a mulifamily analyst, told CNBC. “You can only raise rents so much before you force people out.” --  Click Continue Reading for the rest of the story.