Most Sellers Estimate Home Value Well Above Recommended Listing Price.

Most Sellers Estimate Home Value Well Above Recommended Listing Price

Many home owners think their Home Value is worth a lot more than it really is, according to HomeGain’s third quarter 2012 National Home Values Survey Results of 300 real estate agents.

Seventy-seven percent of sellers say their home is worth more than their real estate agents’ recommended selling price.

Some home owners are overestimating their Home Value by up to 20 percent. Nearly 40 percent of real estate agents surveyed say that home owners believe their home is 10 to 20 percent higher than it really is, with another 40 percent reporting overestimates of 1 to 9 percent. Only about six percent of home owners underestimate the value of their home, believing it to be worth less.

Meanwhile, the majority of home buyers believe that the Home Value for sales are overpriced.

Twenty-three percent of real estate professionals say that buyers believe home prices are overpriced by 10 to 20 percent, and 36 percent say prices are inflated by less than 10 percent. About 28 percent say Home Value to prices tend to be fair.

The survey found that many homes sell for less than the price at which they are listed, about 77 percent. Nearly 60 percent of real estate professionals say that the average difference between listing price and sales price is less than 5 to 10 percent.

Source: HomeGain

Asking Prices Soar Nationwide.

Asking Prices Soar Nationwide

Asking prices posted their largest year-over-year increase since the housing slump began, a monthly report from Trulia shows. Home prices listed on the Trulia web site were up 2.5 percent nationally. When foreclosures are left out, asking prices were up 3.5 percent from year-ago levels.

Asking prices on listed homes rose in 74 out of the 100 largest metro areas Trulia tracked. From July to August, asking prices posted a 0.5 percent gain, marking the eighth consecutive month for price increases.

“Right now, Asking prices are recovering across the country, with few local markets left behind,” says Jed Kolko, Trulia’s chief economist.

The report, also including for-rent properties listed on Trulia, showed asking rents have increased nearly 5 percent from a year ago in September. The metros posting the largest asking rents in the past year were Houston (15.9%); Miami (10.4%), Seattle (9.6%), and Oakland, Calif. (9.2%).

Source: “Asking Prices Post Biggest Increase Since Bust Began,” Inman News (Oct. 4, 2012)

Study Finds Gaps in Online Real Estate Sites Listing Information.

Study Finds Gaps in Online Real Estate Sites Listing Information

Some home shoppers may not be getting a full or accurate picture when they view listing information on some popular Online Real Estate Sites, suggests a study conducted by the WAV Group on behalf of Redfin.

The study evaluated the accuracy of information contained in more than 6,000 listings among 33 ZIP codes on five sites: Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, and two regional real estate brokerages — Windermere and Long & Foster.

The Redfin study found that 36 percent of the agent-listed homes shown as active listings on Zillow and 37 percent of those on Trulia were no longer for sale on the local multiple listing service.

“Online Real Estate Sites do not dispute that their listings have some gaps and inaccuracies, though they dispute some of the particulars of the Redfin study,” The New York Times reports. “There’s a simple reason they don’t have everything their rivals do: Neither of them belongs to the local MLSs, which provide the most complete set of agent-listed properties.”

Online Real Estate Sites are not real estate brokerages. Real estate brokers can provide electronic feeds or add their listings so they appear on the real estate sites. As such, some agents that do provide feeds to the sites don’t take listings down quickly after the property sells, says Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin.

Some Online Real Estate Sites say it is forming stronger relationships with brokers so that it can improve the accuracy and completeness of its listing information, according to The New York Times. Zillow said it was making a similar effort.

“There is no gold standard for listings data, so comparing Zillow’s MLS-only listings to an MLS isn’t going to give you the whole picture,” says Cynthia Nowak, a spokeswoman for Zillow, adding that Zillow also includes items that aren’t often listed on the MLS, like for-sale-by-owner listings and new construction.

Source: “On Big Real Estate Sites, Study Finds Gaps in Listings,” The New York Times (Oct. 3, 2012)

Mortgage applications for refinancing Soar to 3-Year Highs.

Mortgage applications for refinancing Soar to 3-Year Highs

Mortgage applications for refinancing and home purchases posted strong gains this week following news of record low interest rates, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports in its weekly mortgage market survey. The gains were led by a surge in applications for refinancings.

Mortgage applications for refinancing rose to their highest level since April 2009, soaring 19.6 percent over the week.

Overall, the MBA reported that Mortgage applications for refinancing — including applications for refinancing and home purchases — soared 16.6 percent for the week ending Sept. 28.

Applications for home purchases — viewed as a main indicator for home sales — increased 3.9 percent last week, MBA reported.

Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s vice president of research and economics, says that the Fed’s latest move to boost the economy is putting downward pressure on mortgage rates and leading to the rising of Mortgage applications for refinancing. The Fed announced recently it would buy $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities each month until the job market improves. The program, known as “quantitative easing” or “QE3,” is causing mortgage rates to fall.

Source: “Mortgage Applications Jump as Low Rates Spur Refinancing Demand,” Reuters (Oct. 3, 2012)

Home Builders give Hopeful Buyers Financial Therapy.

Home Builders give Hopeful Buyers Financial Therapy

Home builders are conducting financial boot camps to help buyers qualify for home mortgages.

Home builders such as D.R. Horton Inc., Lennar, and PulteGroup Inc. are offering financial programs about repairing credit scores, creating budgets, and applying for loans to hopeful home buyers who are struggling to qualify for loans nowadays.

“These fiscal rehabs are one reason many Home builders are boosting sales, even though mortgage lending is tight,” Reuters reports.

For example, Home builders like D.R. Horton and Lennar have employed financial advisers that are helping potential home buyers with repairing their credit and developing strategies to help raise their credit scores. The buyers who go through the “financial bootcamps” are then typically able to get a mortgage from the builders’ in-house lending connections.

Some are leery about the financial bootcamps, however. Critics say that builders are helping buyers obtain government-backed loans that require no or low down payments.

“You have people applying for loans that there’s no way they can pay, but it doesn’t matter because the ability to repay isn’t the basis of the loan. It’s the ability to pass underwriting so the loan can be sold,” Brett Weiss, a bankruptcy attorney in Washington, D.C., told Reuters.

However, Home builders argue that the home buyers who go through their financial programs must still meet stringent underwriting standards for the government loans, and they insist that they are not putting people in homes they cannot afford. The builders say that buyers with enough cash and income actually are able to lower their monthly housing costs by buying a home than renting, since mortgage rates are so low and housing affordability so high.

Source: “Homebuilders Put Buyers into Credit Bootcamp,” Reuters (Sept. 28, 2012)