Home Sweet Home, Insider-Tips on Minnesota real estate.

Swoon time: Post tax-credit, home sales plunge; trend or short-term phenomenon?

Residential real estate activity in the Twin Cities' region continued its post-tax credit deadline swoon as pending home sales for the week ending May 15 fell 32.8 percent from the same period a year ago, according the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors (MAAR)

It remains to be seen whether the large drop in activity is a temporary. post-credit blip or a harbinger of a longer-term demand ‘cool down,’”  the association said in its latest market activity report.

 . . . there are a myriad of “mixed signals” that make it difficult to tell how the residential real estate market will unfold

Full story by Scott Carlson in Finance and Commerce.

Modifying your mortgage? Rules change Tues.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Attention delinquent borrowers: If you want to get into the Obama administration's mortgage modification program, you'd better have your paperwork ready.

New Treasury Department guidelines go into effect on June 1 that will require loan servicers to verify applicants' income and financial hardship before placing them into trial modifications.

This will make it much tougher to get temporary relief from unaffordable mortgage payments.

Read the complete article by Tami Luhby,in CNNMoney

After foreclosure: How long until you can buy again?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Walking away from a mortgage you can still afford to pay has consequences; everyone knows that. Your credit score is shot and it can be impossible to get credit.

While homeowners who default due to economic hardship, such as a job loss or divorce, normally must wait two to five years before buying a home again, walkaways may face double that time.

Read the entire article by Les Christie published in CNNMoney

Weekly Mortgage Rates Continue to Decline

Interest rates continue to decline, setting new record lows in two weekly surveys. However, interest rates for five-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARM) increased.

These low rates will help to elevate home-buyer affordability and soften the effects of the sunset of the home-buyer tax credit.

Read the HousingWire article by AUSTIN KILGORE

Credit score tips for the best mortgage rates

Steer clear of strategies that end up doing more harm than good.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Question: Over the last few weeks, you have provided lots of valuable information about credit scores. How about an article on how to improve your score so you can qualify for the lowest possible mortgage rates?

Answer: There's so much to know about improving your credit score that you could . . . read the MarketWatch article By Lew Sichelman

Home prices in Twin Cities dip again

They're better than last year, but lower than they were last month. Some economists fear there's worse to come.

Unseasonably warm weather and a soon-to-expire tax credit failed to buoy Twin Cities home prices in March. Prices were 2.7 percent lower than they were in February, according to the widely watched S&P/ Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday.

The only housing market to experience a larger percentage decrease during this period was Detroit.

The complete story By KARA McGUIRE can be read in the StarTribune

Raving Fans, Dave & Julie said . . .

When it was just the two of us we never dreamed we could afford a home. Tom took the time to patiently explain how we could.

Five years later we again called Tom. We couldn't decide whether to refinance or move. We loved our neighborhood but our family outgrew the house. Once again Tom patiently showed us how we could afford a much bigger home.

After looking at many existing homes we decided to build. We are thrilled he was there to look out for us. Even after closing he seemed to go out of his way to help solve some lingering concerns.

We bought our first home, sold that one for more than we ever thought we could, and bought another through Tom.

Thank You!
David and Julie Cambridge, MN.

Nearly 75% of homes are affordable

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It's prime time for house hunters. Nearly anyone with a decent job and a good credit score can afford to buy in their home towns.

More than 72% of American families making the nation's median income of $63,800 a year, could afford to buy a home during the first three months of 2010, according to a report from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Wells Fargo (WF).

By Les Christie, staff writer CNNMoney

Think housing is recovering? Think again.

Fortune) -- Americans purchased homes at a surprising clip in April, but don't let that fool you into thinking the housing market is back.

Although economists were expecting a month-over-month increase of 5.5%, the National Association of Realtors reported yesterday that sales of previously owned homes rose an unexpected 7.6%. That continued a yearlong rise in housing activity and marked the highest number of sales recorded since November of last year.

by Kit R. Roane, contributor published in CNNMoney.com

 

Home buyers, get the most for your money

Best house deals will depend on the local market -- and your patience

Don't be fooled. Not all bank-owned foreclosures are sold at deep discounts. Not all builders are slashing prices. Short sales can be a crapshoot -- with some buyers enduring months of waiting and still not getting the property.

All things considered, it's possible that your best deal is purchasing a traditionally sold existing home, so don't count those out of the running either.

Amy Hoak's Home Economics in MarketWatch