Has housing reached the 'new normal'?

Big home-sale and housing-start increases are sparking optimism, but will the good news last through the winter?

It was a great day for the Real Estate market the moment news about home sales increasing 7.8% in August and housing starts rising to 2.3% came out.

According to The Wall Street Journal, those were the latest numbers in a series that showed that the housing market seems to be finally making its way out of the doldrums. And the numbers are real.

But tucked into the bottom of most of those happy little stories are the hurdles that housing still needs to leap before this becomes any kind of a normal market. And just what will the new "normal" look like? It's safe to say it won't look like the go-go market of the mid-2000s.

The number of existing homes sold in August was 9.3% above the same time last year, the highest rate since May 2010, when a tax credit spurred sales, the National Association of Realtors reported.  The number of single-family homes upon which construction started was up 27% from last August and at its highest rate since April 2010, according to figures from the Census Bureau.

• Feds' move and the housing market? Ho-hum

The trends look good, but will the trends hold? One looming question is whether the gains of the summer will all be lost during the winter, historically a slower time for home sales.

 Then there are the problems that are lingering nationwide: tight credit, job insecurity, high unemployment. In many cities, there are actually more buyers than there are homes to buy, which could also put a dent in some of those happy numbers in upcoming reports.

• Trulia: Buying costs 45% less than renting

"Total sales this year will be 8% to 10% above 2011, but some buyers are frustrated with mortgage availability," NAR President Moe Veissi, broker-owner of Veissi & Associates in Miami, said in a news release. "If most of the financially qualified buyers could obtain financing, home sales would be about 10% to 15% stronger, and the related economic activity would create several hundred thousand jobs over the period of a year."

• Number of improving markets up almost 25%

The national median price for an existing home in August was $187,400, an increase of 9.5% from August 2011.  

A few highlights from home-sale numbers:

• The percentage of distressed homes (foreclosures and short sales) was down from 31% of all sales in August 2011 to 22% this past August.
• First-time buyers accounted for 31% of sales, compared with 32% in August 2011.
• A total of 27% of transactions were all cash, up from 22% in August 2011.
• Investors bought 18% of the homes sold in August, down from 22% in August 2011.

So, what do you all think the NEW NORMAL would look like?

Source: realestate.msn.com

Do you want to work with a Realtor who never fails to keep his clients updated about Real Estate trends? Call me, Mynor Herrera, today for expert help buying or selling in the DC, MD, & VA areas! I also specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the subdivisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda and Whitehall Condominium. 

Buying vs Renting: is it really a tough choice?

One of the most difficult real estate dilemmas for consumers is making THE choice between renting and buying. Jed Kolko, Chief Economist  wrote in a Trulia article and supported through several market factors how buying is 45% cheaper than renting a home. It was stated that you can save hundreds of dollars a month by buying a home instead of renting – especially if you can get today’s low mortgage rates, itemize your tax deductions and plan to live there for 7 years.

 

There are several key factors that could help the still indecisive consumers to finally secure a goal.  Recently, asking home prices have rebounded and risen by about 2.3%. Running away from purchasing your own property? Hold that thought. Rents have increased more by about 4.7%.T his means that prices are lower relative to rents than they were a year ago.  

“Based on asking prices and rents during the summer of 2012, buying is now 45% cheaper than renting in the 100 largest U.S. metros, on average – that’s a savings of $771 a month. If you plan to stay in a home for 7 years, which is the average time that Americans traditionally live in a home before moving again, it is more affordable to buy than to rent in ALL of the 100 largest metros in the U.S.”

House costs aside, choosing between renting and buying is very personal. It all boils down to a consumer’s personal preference and interest. Some would prefer the security that comes along with homeownership, others would simple want freedom being the freebie of renting. It is indeed very personal to decided between buying and renting because it depends on these factors:

1. Can you qualify for a mortgage at the best rate available?
2. Which tax bracket are you in, and do you itemize your deductions?
3. How long will you stay in your home?

Selecting between these two has sparked considerable amount of debate among economists, Realtors and consumers.  At the end of the day, we have this one big question in mind: If buying is cheaper, why is everybody not doing it? Some people just don’t have the ability to save the amount of money needed for the down payment, some can’t even qualify for a mortgage.  Buying may beat renting in every major metro by a wide margin, saving consumers thousands of dollars a year, but buying still remains out of reach for many would-be homeowners.

Do you want to work with a Realtor who never fails to provide his clients about pertinent Real Estate information and market trends?  Call me, Mynor Herrera, today for expert help buying or selling in the DC, MD, & VA areas! I also specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the subdivisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda and Whitehall Condominium.

How to Clean Up Your Garden for Fall & Winter

Tidy your garden for fall and winter before the first frost to keep it comely even after the growing ends.

Growing season is winding down, but your garden still needs your love. Spent vines, stubborn weeds, greens gone to seed are making your garden look sloppy and tired.

Here are some fall vegetable garden cleanup tips:

Bury the dead

Nothing looks sadder than leggy tomato vines, yellow zucchini leaves, and dried-up perennials that long ago displayed their last bloom. So pull and prune the dead or dying plants in your garden.

Bury spent plants in your compost pile; double-bag diseased and infested plants and place in the trash. (Empty mulch bags are great final resting places for these plants, so be sure to stockpile them in spring.)

If your tomato vines are still bearing fruit, keep staking and pruning them until the first hard frost, when they’ll likely die. And give the birds a break and leave some seed-bearing but spent blooms for them. They love sunflowers, cone flowers, berries, and black-eyed Susans.

Pull weeds

This is the last time this season to pull weeds. Pluck them before they flower and send seeds throughout your garden that will rest in winter and sprout in spring.

If you have a mulcher, chop the weeds and throw them on your compost pile. If you want to be extra sure that weed seeds are dead, bag weeds in black plastic and place in a sunny place for a couple of months. The heat will kill the seeds. Then throw the cooked weeds on your compost pile.

Harvest seeds

One way to cut garden expenses is to harvest and store seeds. One large sunflower, for instance, can provide seeds for hundreds of plants next spring. Here are some seed guidelines.

• Harvest seeds from heirloom vegetables and standard plants.
• Disease can spread through seeds, so only harvest seeds from your healthiest plants.
• Don’t harvest seeds from hybrid plants, which often are sterile or will look nothing like the parent plant.
• Only harvest mature seeds from dry and faded blooms and pods. Mature seeds are often cream colored or brown.
• After seeds are dry, store them in envelopes or glass jars in a cool, dry place.

Gather supports

Stack and cover metal tomato cages. Bundle wooden or bamboo stakes, and store in a dry place so they don’t rot over winter. And retrieve panty-hose vine ties that you can re-use next spring.

Instead of throwing out broken cages and stakes, repurpose them. Snip off remaining cage legs to use for pepper supports. Broken tomato steaks will support smaller plants if you whittle one end into a point, so it easily slips into the ground.

Source: Houselogic.com

Would you like to work with a Realtor that provides you with valuable information on home improvement? Call me, Mynor Herrera, today for expert help buying or selling in the DC, MD, & VA areas! I also specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the subdivisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda and Whitehall Condominium.

Tactics for a Successful Home Staging

After months and months of pondering about the pros and cons of selling your home, you have finally decided to put it on the market. Huge weight off your shoulders? Hardly. This is the point where you actually get in the game. Stepping into the labyrinth of our current real estate market needs strategic approach to secure a sale --- or your house will be sitting out in the open for months, or even years.

The best way to put up a good fight: a well-priced, beautifully-staged home.

A lot of potential home-sellers begin feeling adamant or at certain times ambivalent when it’s time to stage their homes. Understandable --- staging can become extremely stressful. Your house can become a sitting duck for criticisms (good and bad) so a great working relationship with your trusty agent is definitely a big plus at this point. An open communication with someone who understands real estate more than anyone, who knows what the place needs to get it ready for listing, will make things a lot easier.

So now that you’ve reach the point of no return, leave your emotions at bay and start getting technical --- and hardcore. A Trulia article shares 7 tactics to win the game.

• Conduct a recon mission. Jargon, that’s right. But it simply means scope out the competition. The moment the thought of selling comes into mind, go out and visit other homes being sold in the area during their Open Houses. That way you’ll be able to gather ideas about what potential buyers look for in a quality home.

• Create your plan of attack. Home-selling should be dealt with a scientific approach. Write down everything, be systematic. Comprehensively plan out your steps.

• Deploy the stealth tactic of demolition. It always seems like a great idea to buy new things for a more polished home pre-staging but with a very limited budget, bear in mind that the most powerful staging techniques are the basics: removing and getting those unsightly features out.

• Pre-pack. Taking the pre-packing approach harnesses the power of momentum toward the end of putting everything but the items you actually need to live your daily life in boxes and putting those boxes in storage or - neatly - in the garage, so they’re ready to go when your home sells.

• Wash, rinse and repeat. The kind of cleaning we are talking about is not the friends-are-coming-over type. No, no. You will be covering the entire home, corners, surfaces – even the places you haven’t thought existed. To achieve efficiency, clean from the outside in. It would also be a wise idea to hire a professional, a local cleaning crew for example.

• Fixate on trims and details. The scope of the whole homestaging process can be overwhelming so you will naturally think of the bigger things to do: house painting, floor stripping, moving furniture etc. Be aware that these things are just mere distractions that will knock you off your focus. Think of DETAILS. Concentrating on these little details will help you save both money and energy. 

One pattern you might note on your recon mission is that the homes that show as the most pristine, the most polished, are often the ones which were prepared with the most attention to detail. On the outside of the house, this involves making sure details like mailboxes, window shutters, eaves and even shrubbery are meticulously painted, trimmed and even replaced. Adding attractive flowers, door kick plates and knockers and house numbers are some inexpensive ways to add visual detail and a polished, cared-for look to an otherwise plain property.  Inside, window trims, door casings, moldings and baseboards have the same effect, as does ensuring that drawers and doors operate smoothly and that walls are scuff mark-free.

• Be brutally honest with yourself. After all the hard work, it’s time for evaluation. This may seem to look like the easiest of all the tactics but NO, it is not. This entails a high level of self-awareness. Have you done everything right? What else can you do? Go visit some more Open Houses and see for yourself. You think you do not have the technical observational skills, talk to your agent.

Do you want to work with a Realtor who provides quality home staging tips to his clients to help them save time, energy and money? Call me, Mynor Herrera, today for expert help buying or selling in the DC, MD, & VA areas! I also specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the subdivisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda and Whitehall Condominium.

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ADDITIONAL PHOTOS Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 Photo 5 Photo 6 Photo 7 Photo 8 Photo 9 Photo 10 Photo 11 Photo 12 Photo 13 Photo 14 Photo 15 Photo 16 Photo 17 Photo 18
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Posted: Sep 5, 2012, 6:44am PDT