Tucson Real Estate Blog

July 2008 Stats…

I think the biggest factor about the July statistics is the fact that the Total Units Sold did go down to 945 as I predicted. The August number should be close to the July number. The number of active listings went down and that is a good thing for sellers as there are fewer homes on the market. New sales have gone down some which is good for the resale. The Builders are still offering incentives of some sort. All the other July stats are very close to last months. I do expect the month of August will be flat but expect sales to pick up in September and October.

The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 offers some hope for some of the owners who are in financial arrears to refinance   into a new FHA loan at 90% of the new appraised value if the owners lender will allow it to happen. In a sense it is a short loan process that could save the home owner and possibly save the lender much more of a loss if it went to a foreclosure. You can Google the act and get much more information. There are some good things for new buyers in the Act also. Unless the law is changed the seller will not be able to help the buyer with the down payment as of October 1, 2008. There is a Bill in the House trying to change this. You can still get help from Family members if it is available. FHA down payment goes to 3.5% on October 1st.
 
Lenders are getting tighter and tighter on doing loans. You need a good FICO score, good income and the all important down payment.
 
If I can help you call me on my cell phone at 240-7130.

June 2008 Statistics

I was not far off in my projections as you can see by the new June numbers. The Active inventory has come down by almost 400 homes which is a great thing. We did have a few more sales that I did not think would happen so that is great. The listings under contract came down by over 500 and this I am certain will bring down the number of Sold properties for July.

The House and the Senate are in the process of working out the Short Sale type FHA package. It still could get Vetoed by the President if some of the things the Senate added are not compromised on. We really need this Bill passed.

A major bank was taken over by the Federal Reserve and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are getting Federal Assistance that will require Congressional Approval. I hope they will finally act for our best interest and not their political interest.

Slow down and save Gas!! Call me at 240-7130 if I can help you.

May 2008 Statistics

We are still going in a positive direction. Total units sold was better than 50 closings than in April. I am not sure we will close over 1000 in June as the Listings under contract went down. I have two closings this month so I am putting in my share. All the statistics looked good with the proper things going up and down. The average Sales Price went down but I don’t put a lot of weight on that. As long as the Median hovers around $200,000 we should be fine.

There has been a lot of news in the paper this past week. The numbers that they are using I know are not always true. I remember back around last July or so I found lots of double reporting by RealtyTrac. I also read that their statistics include double reporting when the house has a second loan which many did from early 2004 through 2007. The numbers can really look bad if you are not comparing apples to apples. We have 8808 residential units on the market right now and a number I heard was in the 4000’s that were foreclosures. I am not seeing that. There are a lot of them out there but not that large number.

If Congress and the President ever get the FHA program going for the coming foreclosures/short sales it will really help slow down the number of foreclosures and keep the owner in the house. I think it is a great bill and will help everyone including those that are trying to sell and did not have any of the tough loans. Everyone is paying and paying for this housing crunch. If you are against the bill I hope you have read the information I posted last month. The Senate is changing some of that bill and it will get even stronger. I see it as a pay as you go for the program and some real financial gains for the program.

Are you enjoying the high gas prices? Are you still flying down the freeway at 75 to 80mph? I have dropped back to 62mph on my trip to work. I have about 9 miles of freeway in my 18 mile trip. I do not scream away from the red light and I watch ahead to see what the light is doing. I slow down long before I reach the lineup of cars. I can not believe the number of people that race from signal to signal in their big SUV. Slow down and save a gallon here and there.

If I can help you call me at 240-7130.