Ultimate Open House

From Forbes 

Money goes further some places in the United States than it does in others.

Housing, in particular, has remained most affordable in the South and the Midwest. That’s because of less stringent building, an abundance of land and growing populations in the South, says Daniel McCue, a research analyst at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

To determine the cities that offer the best quality of life for the least amount of money, Forbes magazine calculated the ratios between a city’s median home price and its median household income. It also factored in projected job growth. And it compared median income to Moody’s Economy.com’s cost of living index.

Here are the 10 cities that it found to offer the best value.

Cities Where Residents Get the Most for Their Money

1. Austin, Texas
2. San Antonio, Texas
3. Indianapolis, Ind.
4. Houston, Texas
5. Charlotte, N.C.
6. Columbus, Ohio
7. Dallas
8. Minneapolis/St. Paul
9. Denver
10. Portland, Ore.

Home buying and homeownership professionals will lead workshops for future homeowners, current homeowners and seniors. Free ice cream and activities will occupy the kids. Emanuel Hospital Atrium (501 North Graham), Saturday, October 25, 10:00 am to 2:30 pm. For more information, visit the event website.

Also, don’t forget about the Remodeling 101 seminar which is also tomorrow, Saturday, October 25.

From the Portland Tribune by Peter Korn 

You can call it the New Seasons Effect, or the Whole Foods Effect, but developers and city planners have talked about it for years. In short, nothing says you’ve arrived as a neighborhood quite so emphatically as a New Seasons specialty grocery store down the block.

And now there’s evidence showing how much that upscale grocery means to Portland-area property values – an extra 20 percent or so for homes within a block and a half, according to a study by local economic consulting firm Johnson Gardner.

Everything else being equal – same home, same neighborhood – if a specialty grocery store sits within a block and a half of your house, your property values should be 20 percent higher than if you don’t have the store nearby.

And specialty groceries aren’t even No. 1 on the list of shops that will elevate the value of nearby homes. That distinction belongs to small neighborhood movie theaters, according to the Johnson Gardner report.

All things being equal, a small movie theater can raise property values somewhere between 14 and 30 percent, according to the study. Wine bars and garden shops also provide a boon to homeowners. Bookstores, fitness centers and bike shops do the same, to a lesser extent.

Read the rest of the story at the portlandtribune.com.

Read more about the Johnson Gardner urban living study.

First-time home buyers are primarily concerned with affordability when choosing a new home, but their expectations may be too high relative to their current financial buying power, according to a recent Coldwell Banker® survey conducted among its brokers. While nearly half of the Coldwell Banker broker respondents reported that affordability was the No. 1 concern for this group, 81 percent said today’s first-time home buyers consider move-in conditions to be very important when searching for homes. In contrast, only 7 percent are looking to purchase “fixer-upper” homes that they could buy at a lower price and renovate themselves. 

Read more of the report here….

Consumer interest in real estate surged in July with significant month-over-month increases in both traffic (29%) and time spent on site (26%) on Realtor.com, the #1 homes-for-sale-site. In fact, year-over-year page views on Realtor.com increased by 22% as consumers spent more time this year searching properties in popular and unexpected metro areas than they did this time last year.

Read more on Market Watch.

Attractive resale value!

Life happens. You might have to relocate or you make a lifestyle change a couple short years after you move in. The good news is that newer homes are more attractive to prospective homebuyers because it’s their opportunity to buy a newer home without the price premium associated with new construction. Better yet, you’ve already purchased all the appliances and upgrades for the home and many parts of the home are still under warranty, making the home a great inclusive value. This will compare favorably to older resale homes that may require renovation or updating to make it livable for the modern homebuyer.

The average sales price of a Portland home is currently $342,600, up $15,900 or 4.7% over last year where the average sales price was $326,700. Currently, the median sales price of a Portland home is $280,000. Compare that to a year ago where the median sales price was $279,000.  read more

For a baby boomer, driving through the residential streets off Southwest Dosch Road in Portland is a nostalgic trip through time. Low-slung ’50s-era ranches and split-level homes, big yards, tall trees and a well-established park combine to paint a rose-tinted picture of growing up.

Builders Sam Grosz and Jason Zidell, partners in the Argonaut Group, found a lot at 3640 S.W. Boundary St. in this area of the Bridlemile neighborhood, and are in the final stages of building what they call the “More Than Green” home.

A joint effort with Paolo Scardina, owner of Paolo Design Group, the home is one of more than 90 properties featured in the 2008 Ultimate Open House home show.  read more

When the Fed cuts the short term fed funds rate, as it has done with great frequency lately, my phone begins to ring off of the hook. Some calls are from clients who locked in their interest rate days or weeks prior, and are worried that they’re going to miss out on lower rates. And the rest of the calls are mostly from those looking to refinance…because the Fed cut rates, so mortgage rates are going to plummet now, right?

The short answer is: Probably not.

Mortgage interest rates are primarily determined by long-term bond yields, which are driven by the broader capital market. So whether or not a Fed rate cut will have an affect on mortgage interest rates really depends on how the market reacts.

In addition, this action is a cut on short-term rates, which are very loosely tied to the long-term rates of mortgage loans.

Lastly, if a Fed rate cut is going to have any affect at all on mortgage rates, it is usually anticipated and already reflected in the pricing, before the cut occurs.

There are many articles out there that explain how a Fed rate cut does or does not affect mortgage rates, but there really isn’t a stead-fast rule or formula that allows us to measure this affect. One article that I recently read actually showed a correlation between a Fed rate cut and mortgage interest rates that illustrated an inverse relationship. When the Fed cuts short term rates, the long term mortgage rates have often increased.

Currently interest rates remain historically low, and right now is an excellent time to buy your next home.

Jeff Irving is a Mortgage Loan Officer with Bank of America. Visit him Online.
This article was written by Jeff Irving. These articles are the ideas, thoughts and opinions of Jeff and are in no way endorsed by Bank of America or meant to represent Bank of America’s policies, ideas, thoughts or opinions.

Jeff Irving of Bank of America has been very successful nationwide with Blogs. In fact he’s closing mortgage loans all over the US! Check the blog regularly under the category “Your Home Your Money” for special interest stories and insights from this mortgage expert.