OK – it’s only by 4 homes, but August 2010 sales have increased over sales in the same month last year. And it’s certainly better that the nearly 25% drop that happened in July. Total homes sales rose 3.7% to 113 last month, with an average sales price of just under $143,000. Those homes took an average of 140 days to sell, which was about 3 days less than August of 2009. Full details are available in our EGC Market Update – August 2010 (PDF).
The drop in July of this year was not totally unexpected, as the ending of the tax credit in April, 2010 brought a lot of demand forward. But remember when the NAR released their July Existing Homes Sales report on August 24th? It was not good (and reflected the same drop we talked about in our July Market Update), and everyone got nervous – the Dow fell by 134 points that day – and talks of a double dip recession seemed to be everywhere.
So maybe those predictions of the housing market dropping again were a bit premature. To see sales holding steady is a good sign, even with the inventory higher that it was this time last year. There were 1,966 homes on the market at the end of July this year, versus 1,733 at the end of last July – an increase of about 13%. And to make things even brighter, it looks like the inventory may have peaked in July, and is steadily dropping (See the chart below.)
For the year-to-date, home sales are still up about 13.6% (about 114 more homes) over 2009 at this time. The average sales price is also slightly up to $132,440.
The most active price range is the $100,000 to $200,000 range, with the Under $100,000 category second. Together these two categories account for over 80% of the homes sold and both are up over 10% from last year. But on the other hand, sales of homes over $200,000 were up even more (17%), although they included only 159 homes of the 954 sold this year.
The most active school district was the Hanna High area, with 280 homes sold for an average of $143,453. Second was the Westside High area, with 232 homes sold for an average of $112,680. Hartwell Lake waterfront homes continued their comeback from the depths of 2009, with sales up 80% to 102 homes sold with an average sales price of $277,666 (down 13% from last year)
So what does the future look like? It’s all about supply and demand, and right now supply definitely has the upper hand. In almost every price segment and area, there are lots more homes available to prospective buyers than ever before. But with interest rates at incredibly low numbers right now, it’s still a great time to lock in a mortgage. And with many experts predicting an upturn beginning in 2011, the old adage of “Buy Low” could be the best advice of all right now.
Holy Cow! Have you taken a look at where interest rates are these days??? There are Ten Year Mortgages in the 3.75% range for heaven’s sake! Yes, 3.75%!!!
What are some of the issues to consider as you (and all of America) contemplates a refinance?
1. Does it make financial sense?
If you are considering a “rate/payment reduction” refinance, we typically recommend that people do one simple calculation. Divide your monthly savings into the costs (out-of-pocket expenses AND any increase in your principal balance). That number will tell you how many months’ payments it will take to “break even”. Depending on how long you anticipate staying in the home, and comparing that to your “break even” month, will give some clarity to what is the right decision.
2. What about a refinance to shorten the term of a mortgage?
When examining the possibility of cutting years off your mortgage, you should take a good hard look at how such a move can affect your monthly cash flow. If your payment stays the same and you save a few years of payments, many people will choose that option (rather than the monthly savings of a “rate/payment reduction” refinance). However, if your payment is going up (in order to save years), take time to analyze the impact on your monthly activities. Will you be sacrificing too much to save payments 20 year from now?
3. What will my home appraise for?
This is the biggest challenge facing most people. With so many homes underwater, there are many people who won’t be able to refinance. If you have an FHA loan, there is some hope if you qualify for their “Streamline Refinance Program” because there is an option to close the loan without an appraisal. For others, loan-to-value issues can create the need for Mortgage Insurance when it didn’t before (making “savings” harder to achieve). Understand that most lenders require you to pay for an appraisal (and maybe an application fee too) when you submit your loan request, so do your best to have a real sense of what your home will appraise for.
4. Should I lock in?
Even though conventional wisdom is that rates are likely to stay low for a while, history has shown that when they do go up, they go up quickly and dramatically; therefore, our advice is that if you like the rate you are quoted, lock it and sleep well.
5. How will my income and credit be looked at?
Your refinance creates a new loan that will likely be bundled and sold in a new mortgage-backed security; therefore, this new loan will be underwritten to today’s guidelines (which are tighter than they were a few years back). What we’re saying is, you may have gotten a loan in 2006, made every payment on time, and still not get approved today. Maybe because, you have a “no income check” loan and your tax returns won’t support your stated income. Or maybe because you bought a car and your ratios are a bit higher. Or your FICO score is different. Or your appraisal is insufficient.
The most important thing is to speak with a solid mortgage professional and try to address any hurdles BEFORE you spend your money. Compare the proposed savings; honestly assess your home’s value; review your income, assets and credit; all ahead of time to improve the likelihood of a desired outcome.
Feel free to call us at (864) 225-2503 with any questions you may have!
Hopefully it’s a temporary trend, but sales of homes in Anderson County for the month of July, 2010 broke a 4 month trend of doing better than the year before. This July saw 101 homes sold, down 23% from last July’s 132 homes. The average sales price stayed about the same at just over $140,000. But July 2009 was a strong month, and actually ended up being the second best month that year (September was the best).
For the Year-To-Date ending July 31, sales are still up over last year. So far this year 834 homes have been sold in Anderson County versus 731 homes last year at this time. The YTD average sales price is $131,040, while last year it was $130,155 – an increase of less that 1%, but an increase none the less! The List-To-Sale ratio, which is the average percentage of the original list price obtained, is also steady at about 89%.
Viewed by price range, most sales continue to be in the “Under $100,000″ range, with about 41% of total sales falling into this range. But the middle ranges are starting to pick up again, as the $100-$200k range and the $200-$300k range both increased over 20% from last year’s numbers. And the sale of high-end homes – over $500,000 – doubled from 5 to 10.
Broken down by high school district, the Hanna district still has the most sales with 242 of the 834 homes sold being in this area. But this area also has seen the biggest price drop, one of over 10%. The Wren High School area also saw a large price decline while all other school zones have seen price increases.
This is really all a result of supply and demand, as the number of homes on the market in Anderson County has consistently increased all year long. As of today, there are 1,963 homes for sale in the county, well above last year’s 1,701. As more sellers put their homes on the market, downward pressure remains on prices. That’s why we see homes selling for 89% of their original asking prices – a number that back in the day used to be in the mid to high 90′s. Sellers are still having to make the adjustment to today’s market and being competitively priced is still the big key in getting your home sold. It’s also taking longer, as the average home that sold was on the market for about 145 days (although we’ve seen well-priced homes go much quicker).
Overall, while sales seem to be trending upwards, there will surely be ups and downs ahead. And pricing, along with condition, will continue to be prime factors in getting your home sold. That’s where a great real estate agent can be an invaluable help – and we’d love to help you like we’ve help over 30 families sell their homes this year even in a very difficult market. If you’d like to get an idea of the current value of your home, please give us a call at (864) 225-2503 or email us for a free, no obligation Market Analysis of your home.
Recently our team switched mobile phones from the old Palm Centros to the lastest Droid phones from Verizon. We love them so far, and they work great to sync email, contacts and more. Not to mention all the great apps that are available.
It also got us to thinking about using them to help home buyers search for homes. With the larger screens, they are much better for browsing websites that are made for them. So I took a few days and put together a mobile optimized website that I think would be great for buyers to use while they’re out driving around looking at houses. It should work on almost all the phones that have Internet access, including the Iphone, Blackberry and Droid phones. You can view photos, get details and view the home on a map complete with driving directions. This works especially great if you have the Google Maps app on your phone.
You can select from several ways to find homes, from doing a basic price range search, or by a particular neighborhood, or by the address. But the neatest way is by using your phone’s built-in GPS to find the homes that are closest to your current location.
Imaging driving by a house that you’re interested in. Just whip out your phone, access our website at www.CallElizabeth.com, and you can quickly find that house and the 9 homes that are for sale closest to it. Instantly get pictures and details about them all. And it automatically updates as you drive around, always showing the 10 closest homes for sale as you move around. (Just be sure and keep an eye on the road!)
The official mobile website is m.callelizabeth.com (no www), but if you visit www.callelizabeth.com on your phone, you should be automatically redirected to the mobile site.
So please take a look with whatever Internet phone you have, and please let me know what you think. I would love to hear how it works on different phones. Leave a comment or email me at Tom@CallElizabeth.com
I’m working hard behind the scenes to upgrade and enhance our website, and one of the main dilemmas I’m having is whether to create what’s called a VOW – Virtual Office Website? The biggest downside? Visitors will have to register. The upside? They’ll get access to more details about homes for sale and those that have closed.
A bit of background first. As members of the local MLS – the Western Upstate Multiple Listing Service – we have to abide by their rules on displaying listing information on websites. When the Internet first broke into the real estate world, many agents were worried about losing control of their listings and didn’t want their listings being shown on another agent’s website. We always felt that was shortsighted thinking – the more places a home is shown the better the chances of selling it! But back in the day, lots of agents were scared of what the web was doing to them. So the MLS responded with what was called IDX – Internet Data Exchange – that allowed any agent to show other agent’s listings only under certain conditions. Only certain fields could be shown (like Address, Price, etc) but others could not (like Days On Market, Year Built, Taxes, Room Dimensions, etc). Also you are required to show the listing agent’s name and company. And you couldn’t give much information about homes that have sold, been withdrawn or expired. Even more, agents could opt out of having their listing participate, and some have and still do. It’s about 3% of the total number of homes in the MLS. I’m not sure why any agent would want to do that, but I hope they have explained to their client what they are doing.
These are pretty much the same rules we are working under now, and sometimes I can get around them. For example, I’m not allowed to show you the actual “Days On Market” field, but I can remember the day a listing first showed up on the IDX daily feed and start counting from there and show you my own “Days On List” field, which is pretty close to the same thing. But I still can’t show anything ( and neither can anyone else) if the listing agent has decided not to allow it.
But the problem is, if you came in to our office and sat down with Elizabeth or Gia or Tina, they could show you everything we have about any home that is in the MLS – even homes that have been opted-out of the IDX feed. All the room dimensions, tax details, prior listing details and all the information about past sales too. They could even give you a print out you could take with you! But visit our website, and you get less than everything. That’s just crazy! But no matter how I complained, things just didn’t move fast enough.
So after years of only having access to IDX data, the National Association of Realtors finally approved a policy that would allow any agent to display all the MLS data on their website, just like you were in the office. They called it the Virtual Office Website Policy. But the biggest hitch is that you must first “establish a relationship” with the visitor, just like you would in a real office. And they determined that by having someone register, you would be doing that. Then you give them access to all that information.
So back to my dilemma. I don’t really like sites that make you register to see their information, but that’s the only way this is going to work. I only have to ask for name and email, so it wouldn’t be too intrusive. And of course we wouldn’t use it to spam you. So, would you register if you get more more details about the homes, as well as see the 3% of homes that are currently opted out of IDX?
The only thing that was good about the real estate market in 2009 is that it is making this year look great!
2009 ended up with sales just about what they were in 2005, and off nearly 30% from the highs of 2007. But if the trend from the first half of this year holds, that will have been the bottom as overall sales are up over 20% this year in Anderson County.
We’ve just finished up the Anderson County Real Estate Market Update (Download a PDF version) and it looks pretty encouraging. Almost everything is up, – total sales (from 598 to 729), average sales price (from about $128,000 to about $130,000) and even the average days on market is heading in the right direction (down 8 days to 141). And the trend seems to be in all geographic areas of the county (one exception is the downtown Anderson area) and in all price ranges except $300 to $400,000 for some reason. Also encouraging is the total number of homes sold on Lake Hartwell (in all SC counties) which more than doubled from 29 homes last year to 70 homes this year even though the average sales price dropped by $50,000.
On a month by month basis, every month this year has beaten the year before except February.
The only weak spot on the horizon is that the number of homes on the market has also been increasing, although not as fast as sales thankfully. But the increase in homes for sale is keeping downward pressure on prices (which has increased 1.7%). A quick look at this chart of Active Listings tells the story:
But overall we’re happy with the current trends. While we’d like to see more activity in the move-up buyer segment, and still fully 85% of the market is in the under $200,00 range, we’ll take what we can get. While last year was bad, this year is better and we like to look at the glass as half full.
It’s prime vacation time, so no doubt anyone with kids has heard the ominous cry “are we there yet?” “How much farther?” or ”How much longer?” This is what I’ve been asking for over a year now. Are we there yet? How much longer? When will we get there? Of course, I’m talking about the elusive bottom of the Real Estate market.
The real estate gurus say we will not know we are “there” until we start back up the charts. Well guess what we must be “there”! I never thought I would ever say it is exciting being at the bottom but I have to say I am ecstatic, happy, overjoyed! We are at the bottom! Hurray, we can only go up from here. (At least for now I am sticking to that)
Tom just ran the Market Update report for the first half of the year. We have seen a turn around in all areas in the real estate market, especially Lake Hartwell. It has had a huge spike in sales over last year. Sales have more than doubled from the first half of 2009. It went up almost 141% in number of houses sold! Wow, what an improvement. Don’t get over excited yet. In real terms it means that in the first half of 2009 we only had 29 sales compared to the first half of 2010 where we had 70 sales. Yes, this is a huge improvement but if you are one of the many that has a lake house on the market keep in mind there are 493 houses on the lake for sale right now. That is 492 houses that you are competing with to get the attention of those few precious buyers. If another 70 buyers come into the market over the next 6 months that will still leave 432 houses on the lake to sell starting next year. Bottom line is that we still have a long way to go, but we are headed in the right direction!
For those of you who have been “timing” the market to buy, the proverbial bell just rang. The swing just started back up. Don’t wait any longer if you want to be one of the ones that get to say “I got the best deal. I bought it when the market was down”. You won’t be able to sing that song much longer.
So, are we there yet? It certainly looks like we have hit the bottom of the charts for now and it’s uphill from here. Now, if we can just get the appraisers to understand this
Now that the Homebuyer’s Tax Credit offer has expired, you may think there’s less incentive to buy a home. But there’s another factor that still makes this a great time to make the decision to buy, and it’s found in the difference between the price of a home and the cost of a home. There is a difference – the price of a home is what you pay to purchase it, while the cost is what you pay every month in the form of a mortgage payment. So the cost is a combination of the original purchase price and the mortgage interest rates you will pay.
According to the Case-Shiller Price Index, an index calculated on repeat sales of single-family homes, home prices are now at the levels last seen in 2003.
But to make it even better for today’s buyer, interest rates are now a full point lower than they were in 2003. While the price is the same, it will cost you less! Take a look at this chart comparing mortgage payment amounts today and in 2003:
After you pay the 2003 price for this home, over the life of a 30-year mortgage you’ll save more than $52,000 in interest costs as well! So even if you didn’t find your next home in time for last weekend’s deadline, don’t wait to lose out when interest rates start to creep up from their historic lows and make the cost of owning a home rise. Start searching for your home now, or give us a call at (864) 225-2503 and we’ll help you get started.
The Western Upstate Multiple Listing service has finally allowed us to add the ability to seach for “bank owned” homes to our website!
This means you can now select the criteria “Bank Owned” in addition to any other search parameters you wish to select on our Advance Search page. Once this selection has been checked, you can see all the homes that are currently tagged by the listing agent as being owned by a bank, typically after foreclosure. You can use this along with any of the other choices to find, for example, all the Bank Owned homes priced between $125,000 and $175,000 in Anderson County.
While Craigslist is great for lots of things, it has its dark side and is fertile ground for those looking to fleece the unwary.
We’ve just been targeted ourselves, as we received several calls yesterday and today about one of the homes (300 Brittany Park) we currently have listed for sale as being for rent at a great price. Problem is, this home isn’t for rent, and neither us nor the seller was aware of it being advertised for rent. But there was an ad on Craigslist, complete with our photos and description, offering this home for rent along with an email to request more information.
So the next time we got a call, we asked the caller for more details. She said she had emailed the poster, and he had replied with an email saying that he was in West Africa on a mission trip and needed to rent the home out. He also included a “Rental Questionnaire” that asked several personal questions, obviously a phishing scam. A quick Google search found that other instances of a legitimate home for sale being hijacked with a “For Rent” listing on Craigslist. The bogus homeowner ends ups asking the potential renter to send him the first and last months rent via Western Union, and he will email the keys to them. Of course, that’ll never happen.
Here’s a link to the fake Craigslist ad and our real Craigslist ad. I assume they got the pictures and description from our website and just made their own post.
You just can’t be too careful these days!
UPDATE:
It looks like this happened to a couple in Simpsonville recently. WYFF-4′ s Mandy Gaither did a nice story about it.
UPDATE 2: After we contacted WYFF4 with this latest scam, Mandy Gaiter came out and did an interview with Elizabeth!
