Archive for the 'Twin Cities Real Estate Economy' Category
Twin Cities Buyers Seem to Have Borrowed Some More Time
October 30th, 2009 Categories: Mortgage Stuff, National Real Estate News, Real Estate News, Twin Cities Home Buyers, Twin Cities Real Estate Economy
Set to expire at end of November, plan will remain until end of April
My friend in the mortgage biz at Prime Mortgage sent me the latest news on the first-time home buyer credit:
Senators agreed Wednesday to extend a popular tax credit for first-time home buyers and to offer a reduced credit to some repeat buyers.
The tax credit provides up to $8,000 to first-time home buyers but is set to expire at the end of November.
Senators agreed to extend the existing tax credit for first-time home buyers while offering a reduced credit of up to $6,500 to repeat buyers who have owned their current homes for at least five years, said Regan Lachapelle, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
The tax credits would be available to home buyers who sign purchase agreements by the end of April. They would have until the end of June to close on their new homes, said a congressional aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the deal.
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That Little Gray House With The Black Shutters…With a Big Past!
June 11th, 2009 Categories: North Minneapolis, Real Estate News, That Flippin' House, Twin Cities Home Buyers, Twin Cities Real Estate Economy, Twin City Sellers
Don’t get me wrong, I like nothing more than to tell a “feel good” story without a past. Unfortunately, life doesn’t always swing that way.
Lucky for a few, my client, Jennifer, aka, Flipper Girl, makes dreams come true. Now, I’m not a Pollyanna-type blog writer and, trust me, Jennifer isn’t the Pollyanna type either, but she is all over making dreams come true.
This week, I had a reporter from the Star Trib call me for some info about a house that Jennifer rehabbed. Turns out, it was the very first house that was given up by the Greater Minneapolis Housing Corporation. That’s no easy feat. I had a few discussions with the powers-that-be over there. I had to send pics of the other homes that Miss Jennifer had rehabbed to make sure the they would accept her work on the FIRST EVER TJ WACONIA property to be turned over to the public.
They said, “OK”. That’s a BIG DEAL!
Here’s the story of the woman who purchased it from Jennifer that was written by the Star Trib in yesterday’s paper…
Program helps heal wounds of North Side housing fraud
The house sits on a quiet street across from a fire station. The gray stucco looks freshly painted and the front windows are framed by black shutters. Inside, hardwood floors gleam in the morning sun as Jackline Mukiibi, 25, shows off her home, the first home owned by anyone in her family.
Daughter Ava, 3, is away at day care, but her photos sit atop a shelf. Over by the stereo is evidence of a fledgling modeling career, a Target ad featuring the toddler.
It doesn’t look like a house with a notorious past, but it is. Mukiibi’s tidy home was part of the TJ Waconia real estate scam that washed through the North Side. Over a three-year period, developers Jonathan Helgason and Thomas Balko of TJ Waconia bought and resold houses for inflated prices to straw-buyer investors, triggering a foreclosure crisis that left many homeless and many homes abandoned. In April, Helgason and Balko were sentenced to eight and seven years in federal prison, respectively, for their crimes.
Mukiibi represents an effort to reclaim that part of the city, one house at a time. Hers is believed to be the first of the 141 homes from the scam to be sold.
Working through City of Lakes Community Land Trust and taking savvy advantage of several other programs that encourage home ownership, Mukiibi cobbled together a mortgage loan and down payment and moved from her tiny apartment in February.
Mukiibi paid $703 a month for her apartment. Now she lives in a three-bedroom, two-bath house with a finished basement, family room and a fenced yard for $728 per month.
Born in Uganda, Mukiibi came to the United States with her parents when she was 2 years old. “I dreamed of owning a house when I was a little girl,” she said. But she got pregnant at 21, which seemed to limit her ability to buy in the near future. Mukiibi works for a nonprofit and goes to school full time at Metropolitan State University, where she is earning a degree in ethnic studies.
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Minneapolis Area Real Estate Trends for 2009 Revealed by Mark Allen, CEO of MAAR
January 13th, 2009 Categories: Mortgage Stuff, Real Estate News, Twin Cities Home Buyers, Twin Cities Real Estate Economy, Twin City Sellers
The market is what you make of it. There are always opportunities in every economic situation. History demonstrates that real wealth is made in the worst of times.
I read that somewhere and copied it. I keep it in my desk drawer whenever I start feeling down about the recent real estate market.
Yesterday was a learning day for me. I was fortunate enough to hear Mark Allen, CEO of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, give us Realtors his take on the market for 2009 and beyond. The following are a few key points made by Mark. Read the rest of this entry »
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Long Story Short: Short Sales Take a Long Time!
January 3rd, 2009 Categories: Mortgage Stuff, My Listings, Real Estate News, Twin Cities Real Estate Economy
Short sales are commonplace these days and they are a force to be reckoned with. To be honest, I don’t care to delve into these transactions, but every once in a while it is inevitable.
Currently, I have a beautiful “short sale” listing in Minnetonka that clearly states in the agent remarks of the MLS there is a third party negotiator and to call my co-lister for more information. There are a team of professionals who assist me in working with short sales as well as other tedious and difficult transactions.
Here are the nuts and bolts of a short sale:
- A short sale means that you will sell your home for less than your mortgage amount.
- Sometimes you can work out payments with your mortgage company or bank, sometimes not.
- Sometimes your mortgage lender will not agree to even process a short sale.
- Short sales will have a negative effect on your credit score, however, less destructive than a foreclosure.
- There are third party negotiators, in some cases, who will take over the administrative portion of the sale, such as, ordering a broker price opinion (BPO) and coordinating the purchase agreements that come in for the property. This is coordinated through your Realtor.
- The process can be very long and it is important to let the sellers and the buyers know that they had better have some patience if they want to keep the transaction together.
- Get a good Realtor who has a strong team behind her to make the transaction as smooth as possible.
Even though short sales are an ugly part of life, the process can be made a bit more palatable when you have the people working for you and keeping you abreast of what is happening every step of the way. We know what we’re doing and are here to help!
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Plymouth, MN Real Estate - Current Housing Statistics - October, 2008
November 19th, 2008 Categories: Plymouth Current Housing Statistics, Real Estate News, Twin Cities Home Buyers, Twin Cities Real Estate Economy, Twin City Sellers
Here are the latest statistics from the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors for Plymouth. The chart explains itself, but in a nutshell, there were a whopping 8.4% less single family homes on the market by the end of October this year than last year.
The housing affordability has not been this good since 2004, according to the association. I believe that we’re near the end of the price cuts, too. Plymouth’s average sales price for October alone was 9.5% below last year’s average sale price.
Ready, buyers?
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No Idle Threat Here in North Minneapolis
November 19th, 2008 Categories: Minneapolis Home Buyers and Sellers, North Minneapolis, Real Estate News, That Flippin' House, Twin Cities Real Estate Economy
Something’s fishy in North Minneapolis.
My client who does the beautiful rehabs in North and I made an appointment to see a new listing on the 3600 block of Logan last Thursday. I got the “OK” and was told the lock box code and other general instructions to show the property. We showed up on time and opened the lock box only to find the key was missing. This house had been on the market for a total of two days when we went to see it. I called the listing agent and she apologized and said that she would call the last Realtor who visited to see if she could get the key back in the box. She said there had already been a showing that day. She also said that the key would be in the box on Friday and go ahead and schedule another showing.
OK. I did that. Saturday we trucked over to the property again. We had a couple of other homes to look at in addition to the one on Logan. We walked up to the door, opened the lock box and there the key was…GONE! Doggone it! I called the listing agent again and told her that we would be in the area for another 45 minutes or so and we would like to have the key to see the inside of the house. I told her that if she didn’t call me back, I was going to call her broker on Monday.
She didn’t call me back. I called her broker on Monday.
Her broker said that it wasn’t the first complaint that she had about this Realtor today and that she’d call me back with a solution. Later that day she called back to say that the agent was working on getting her management company out there to get a key in the box but there were two offers already on the property. Apparently, they made offers “sight unseen”.
Oh really? Huh. I don’t buy it. Why wasn’t I told about that in the first place? The Realtor must have known.
Something’s fishy, I tell ‘ya!
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Plymouth, MN Real Estate - Current Housing Statistics - September, 2008
November 2nd, 2008 Categories: Plymouth Current Housing Statistics, Real Estate News, Twin Cities Home Buyers, Twin Cities Real Estate Economy, Twin City Sellers
Here are the latest statistics from the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors for Plymouth. The chart explains itself, but in a nutshell, there were a whopping 8.4% less single family homes on the market by the end of September this year than last year.
The housing affordability has not been this good since 2004, according to the association. I believe that we’re near the end of the price cuts, too. Plymouth’s average sales price for September alone was 3.6% about last year’s average sale price.
Ready, buyers?
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Digesting the Hawthorne Neighborhood Real Estate in North Minneapolis - Literally!
October 17th, 2008 Categories: Cool Guys, North Minneapolis, Real Estate News, Twin Cities Home Buyers, Twin Cities Real Estate Economy, Twin City Sellers
It’s a sad day when you watch a beautiful home that once had a family living in it that cared for it and took pride in it get taken out by a digger. (Not sure if that’s what that’s called. I should…I had three boys. They played with this stuff.)
I didn’t have the opportunity to view the inside of this historic home. I wish that I had.
Johnny Northside got a take on it for us to see before it was totally razed. It was a crack house, among other things.
One Realtor who viewed it on Johnny’s website said she “felt like crying”. Me too. There were some really cool features about this home. The dentil molding on the outside is the first clue.
What’s This?
It looks as if we have someone who knows this particular property and has a sense of restorative vigor about him. His name is “Kevin”. He told Johnny about Bauer Brothers Salvage. So far, there’s a clawfoot bathtub that sounds quite interesting!
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Twin Cities Area Real Estate Pending Sales 40% Above 2007
October 10th, 2008 Categories: Minneapolis Current Housing Statistics, Minneapolis Home Buyers and Sellers, Mortgage Stuff, Real Estate News, St. Paul Current Housing Statistics, Twin Cities Home Buyers, Twin Cities Real Estate Economy, Twin City Sellers
Pending sales skyrocket over 40 percent as prices decline
Here’s the latest from the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors just out today:
Minneapolis, Minnesota (October 10, 2008) – Buyers flocked to the Twin Cities housing market in September to take advantage of attractive home prices and a sunsetting federal loan program, according to the Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS® (MAAR) based on data from the Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota, Inc.
There were 4,036 pending sales in September, which represented a whopping 42.2 percent increase over September 2007’s mark of 2,839. Closed sales, too, were up dramatically—34.9 percent higher for the same time period comparison. The last time there was a year-over-year pending sales increase even close to this large was in March of 1998 when the increase over March of 1997 was 38.6 percent.
“There really are some incredible buying opportunities out there and this is the surest sign yet,” said Kevin Knudsen, MAAR President. “But we also need to keep in mind that September of last year was extremely slow, which makes these figures pop a little more.”
Also adding to the influx of September buyers was “last call” activity before the October 1 dissolution of the FHA-sponsored seller-funded downpayment assistance program, which was the last of a dying breed of zero-down loan programs remaining on the market.
A hearty 41.6 percent of September’s pending sales were lender-mediated foreclosures and short sales, up from 17.5 percent in September 2007. The increased market share of these bargain-priced properties led to further declines in home prices. The overall September median sales price of $189,900 fell from last year by 15.6 percent. Lender-mediated homes posted a median sales price of $146,000, a decrease of 11.5 percent from last year. Traditional properties had a September median sales price of $212,500, a decrease of 8.6 percent.
Due to the decline in home prices and another downtick in mortgage rates, the October Housing Affordability Index jettisoned upward from last month to 159, which is 21.4 percent higher than this time last year, and back up at extremely healthy levels following a few years of unsustainably low affordability. While challenging for sellers, this means a more accessible market for potential home buyers, thus the resurgence in sales activity.
“With all the uncertainties in the economy, it’s hard to predict right now if the sales upturn will continue,” said Steve Havig, MAAR President-Elect. “But the affordability and inventory choice picture is still very attractive, which bodes well for our long-term picture.”
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BNI Breakfast of Champions! Why Our Chapter Is So Successful and How Yours Can Be, Too!
October 9th, 2008 Categories: BNI Full Circle Chapter, Real Estate News, Twin Cities Real Estate Economy
Being a real estate professional can be challenging when the economy gets rough. Being in ANY business right now can be challenging when the economy gets rough! We have a networking group, BNI Full Circle Chapter, that meets every Wednesday morning at 7:30 a.m. in Minnetonka. We refer business to each other and, at the present time, we have passed over $325,000 to each this year alone!
Once a month we meet for breakfast at Woody’s Grille in Plymouth to learn about a new technique or to brainstorm on how to be the best in the business in our profession. We call it The Breakfast of Champions and for good reason! This is one way of honing my skills as a Realtor.
I’m proud of my friends in BNI and I thank them for all of the business they have referred to me this year!
In the picture from left front and around the table:
Luke Carlson, Discover Strength
Stan Glasoe, StanLan Computer Support
LuAnn Svendsen, American Family Insurance
Amy Rogahn, Signature Bank
Pat Trumbell, Mary Kay Cosmetics
Kristi Thompson, Vision Mortgage
Me
Matt Anderle, MidAmerican Financial Group
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