It's Buying Time Again, Big Time

by Broderick Perkins

If you've got the income. If you've got plenty of tenure on the job. If your credit is solid. If you can otherwise past muster at the mortgage loan desk. If it's cheaper for you to buy than it is to rent.

To witYes, there are lots of "ifs," but it's one of the best times in America to buy a home. And it won't last forever.
• Distressed homes – foreclosures and short sales sold at deep discounts – accounted for 34 percent of February sales, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The bargain basement is open for business.
• Investors know a party when they see one. They snatched up 64.5 percent more homes in 2011 than in 2010 and now account for nearly one in every four homes sold, NAR reported.
• The second home market is back with a vengeance. Both investors and playhouse buyers are jumping on this bandwagon. They pushed vacation/second home sales up 7.0 percent in 2011.
• Meanwhile, owner-occupied purchases fell 15.5 percent last year.

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Posted at 10:06 AM ET, 04/12/2012

Mortgage rates take a dive, 15-year hits all-time low

By J.D. Harrison

Fixed mortgage rates plummeted a full tenth of percent this week, marking their third consecutive week of decline in the wake of disappointing jobs numbers, according the data released Thursday by Freddie Mac.

The 15-year fixed rate average hit a new record low this week of 3.11 percent. (LARRY DOWNING - REUTERS) The 15-year fixed-rate average dropped to a new all-time low of 3.11 percent, down from 3.21 percent last week and far lower than its mark of 4.13 percent one year ago. The previous low for the 15-year came in March when the average hit 3.13 percent. The 30-year also approached its record low of 3.87 (set in February), averaging 3.88 percent this week after hovering just below 4.00 percent the last two weeks. This time last year, the 30-year averaged 4.91 percent.

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Posted at 05:30 AM ET, 04/11/2012

For lower-priced homes, a seller’s market

By Lisa A. Sturtevant

Special to The Washington Post

The number of for sale signs in yards and the advertisements of weekly open houses indicate that there are homes out there for would-be buyers. But buyers in the Washington region are facing a limited supply of homes in lower price ranges, particularly in the closer-in jurisdictions. It is a sellers’ market in the lower price ranges, which will put upward pressure on prices and may lead some potential first-time homebuyers to remain renters. According to data from MRIS, there are about 27,000 homes listed for sale in the Washington metropolitan area. (The Washington metropolitan area includes the District and 21 counties and cities in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.) In recent months, inventories have been falling as sales activity has picked up. Demand has been particularly strong for lower-priced homes, and the data suggest this is where supply is becoming more limited.

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Posted at 10:00 AM ET, 04/10/2012

Low inventory drives up Washington area house prices

By Olga Khazan

Spring home-buying season may be heating up, but the Washington region is still a seller’s market. According to a report released Tuesday morning by RealEstate Business Intelligence, there’s been an increase of buying activity, but low inventory in the D.C. area continues to drive up prices.
Traditional sales were up 43.2 percent month-over-month in March. Meanwhile, the active inventory of homes is down 26 percent from March of last year: There were only 10,503 active listings in the area last month, and townhomes were in shortest supply.
(RBI)
Washington’s home inventory has been at all-time lows for months.

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States where green jobs are going gangbusters

Courtesy of the National Park Service

A park ranger speaks to visitors at St. Mary Falls in Glacier National Park, Mont. The National Park Service is one of the state's biggest employers.

By Charles B. Stockdale, 24/7 Wall St.

The green economy often is cited as a key driver of the national economic recovery. At the very least, it is creating jobs. The total number of jobs related to green products and services in 2010 was 3.13 million, according to the first-ever green jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, to put things in perspective, these jobs accounted for only 2.4 percent of the country’s total employment that year.
In many states, jobs associated with the production of green goods and services represented a slightly larger share of employment. In 11 states, green jobs accounted for 3 percent or more of total jobs. Vermont had the highest proportion of clean economy jobs at 4.4 percent. Green jobs in these states are represented in many sectors, including manufacturing and construction.

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Valuable real estate most people overlook

Redefining 'outdoor living'

By Arrol Gellner, Friday, March 9, 2012.

Inman News®

Outdoor deck image via Shutterstock.

Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series.


Is it possible to double your home's living area without adding a single square foot?
Yes, and it's no joke. To pull it off, though, you need to change the way you think about the property right outside your home's walls. Rather than seeing it as leftover land to be prettied up with a few flower beds, consider it an integral, functioning extension of your home's interior. The ground outside every house offers tremendous potential living space -- often several times the total square footage of the house itself. Yet more often than not, this valuable real estate is drastically underutilized. Even when a property is nominally "landscaped," it's usually treated as a static showpiece filled with cutely shaped planting beds, meandering plots of grass, and other two-dimensional treatments, none of which improve its usefulness as living space.

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Kitchens Sell a House

by Carla Hill

It's a tool used by house flippers all across the nation. Stagers know its power. Real estate agents push its importance. What is this not-so-well-kept secret of real estate? A kitchen can sell a house.  

A kitchen is the heart of a home. This is true all across the globe. The old saying that the "stomach is the way to the heart" carries a lot of truth. Kitchens are where we spend much of our time and most of that is with our families. It's the room where we nourish our bodies and our spirits. Kitchens are integral to entertaining and in today's age of open floor plans, they're a focal piece of many family rooms. It's because of this that kitchens play such an important role in the buying and selling process. This one room is the showpiece of the house. You'll see it every day and your guests will see it during most visits. This means buyers want homes with up-to-date kitchens.  

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