New Home Construction Hits 4 Year Highs

     The construction of new homes has surged in September to its fastest pace in four years according to the Commerce Department. Housing starts increased 15% from August levels into September, headed off by a 25.1% increase in the multifamily market. Single family housing starts went up by 11%, trumping their highest output since August of 2008. On top of all those good numbers there is also continued hope for increase in the future. One way to monitor or predict future new home construction is by analyzing the amount of building permits that are being applied for. In result of this analysis, the building permits have jumped 11.6% in September which means there is plenty of activity lined up for more new construction.

"One of the big headwinds for the economy has been the weak housing market, and this indicates that headwind has dissipated," Gary Thayer, an economic strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis, Mo., told Reuters.

"Things are lining up for housing," says John Canally, an economist at LPL Financial in Boston. "It's another step in the right direction, but you still have a long, long way to get back to 'normal' in housing."

Although all of this is definitely good news for the housing market, new home starts are still far from that of January 2006, which was the peak of the housing market before the collapse. If all of this growth continues, not only will the housing market benefit, but also the economy in general. As we all know, the housing market has a very big effect on the overall economy.

source: realtormag

Real Estate Investment Secret

     Are you interested in investing in Real Estate? If so, here is some information that will definitely help you find the right property to invest in. It has been stated by many professionals lately that investing in Real Estate right now is a very good idea considering the fact that the market is definitely in the recovery process. It seems that home prices have hit their low spot and are now on the upswing. Although the growth has been small, it has been very consistent which is the most important aspect to be considered. When it comes to Real Estate there is a phrase that trumps all others and that is, "Location, Location, Location"! Location is the most important feature when considering value.
    Therefore, if you were to invest in a property, WHERE would you want to begin searching? The secret I referred to in the title of this post is SMALL MARKETS. At first, you might be considering investing in an already established and well built up market; a place where there will be plenty of traffic and desire. However, during the ridiculous housing boom from '95 to '06 these well developed areas were actually overdeveloped because of the demand and the idea that anything and everything would sell quickly, which it did until the collapse. So where is the money now? The investment opportunities are greatest in the small markets, particularly small cities with populations in the range of 200 to 500 thousand. According to Local Market Monitor and HomeVestor the latest quarterly reports show that for single family homes rental properties, these smaller markets are ideal.

“Many of these markets not only have unemployment rates well below the national average, but they show strong job growth and housing prices have bottomed out,” says Ingo Winzer, president of LMM. The smaller markets are “great places to rent out single-family homes because strong economic growth can quickly use up the existing housing options.”

“We often see that the smaller markets are the best-kept secret of investing,” Hicks says. “Many of these smaller markets offer a consistent demand for rental properties. Investors can discover for themselves that the big city isn’t the only place with a great deal for investors.”

source: LMM

ANDROID Users Beware

If you have an Android smartphone this is definitely something you want to read. The internet crime complaint center has issued a warning to all Android users about malware attacks that are specifically targeting Android devices. That means if you have a phone manufactured by Samsung, HTC, Pantech, Motorola, and others you could be under malware attack. The names of the two suspected malware programs are Loozfon and FinFisher; the way they attack is as follows:

For Loozfon: They will implement a false advertisement explaining how you could make a sizable profit by sending emails from home. If you click on this link, you are sent to a website that will push Loozfon onto your device and the malware will then attempt to steal your address book contacts.

For FinFisher: This spyware is activated by clicking on a specific weblink, or by opening a text message that is disguised as a system update. The result of triggering this spyware, the ability for FinFisher to remotely control and monitor your communications.

Although these are very scary situations, there are ways of preventing these attacks on your device. If your going to add an application make sure you check out who the publishing developer or company is.  Try to obtain some type of malware protection for your device. Watch out for applications that as to use your Geo Location because they could be using that ability for evil. Make sure you use a password for your device and enable the screenlock ability after a few minutes of inactivity.

For more information regarding malware, spyware, or attacks on your devices please visit this link: http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx



source: forbes

Appraisals Haunt Housing Recovery

     The conditions of the current housing market should be very appealing to buyers and sellers alike. However, we are noticing that a lot of people out there are very hesitant to make the move right now, whether that move is buying or selling. This post will focus mainly on the potential sellers who are being scared into staying off the market, and for good reason. First off we saw a fear in listing because of the major losses taken by anyone who owned a home throughout the housing collapse. Home prices dropped dramatically beginning in 2006/07, as we all know, which means that many people who would list now will begin the process at a loss in value from their original purchase. However, there is now light at the end of the tunnel which we have been seeing for quite some time now. We have seen consecutive months with increasing home prices, more and more homeowners who were underwater are getting out, the amount of foreclosures out there continue to set record lows since the collapse, and we are beginning to see a future in Real Estate again. There are even some projections saying that home prices could witness a full rebound to their prices back in late 2005 by the year 2015. The future is definitely bright for homeowners, however one big issue is causing hesitation for potential sellers in the present; that issue is appraisals. “It’s holding sellers off the market,” Jed Smith, NAR’s managing director of quantitative research, told The New York Times. “Sales volume could probably be an additional 10 to 15 percent higher if we had normal lending practices and if we had normal appraisal practices.” More than a third of real estate agents have claimed that appraisals have been responsable for cancellations, delays, or renegotiations to a lower price. The NAR has spoken about this topic, claiming that appraisals are holding back the housing recovery.

     Now that you can see what the effect is, let me elaborate more on the cause. Appraisals are haunting potential sellers in a few ways. An increasing amount of real estate agents have been including contingencies in their contracts stating the amount a buyer is willing to pay if the appraisal comes in lower than the agreed upon sales price. I have personally been subject to this particular contingency and I can tell you that my client was not happy when I explained the contingency to him. My client's reaction was simple, "your telling me that we all agreed upon a price, yet if the appraiser gives a lower estimate then we have to change our agreement?" My Client continued by asking me, "then what's the point of negotiating in the first place?" The reason for this contingency is because appraisals have been coming in on the low end, which benefits the buyers, but not the sellers. Appraisers have been criticized for using foreclosures as comparables as well as failing to take into account market conditions such as low inventory and bidding wars in a lot fo areas. Another reason, states NAR, is that banks have increased their appraisal requirements to 6 comparable homes, as opposed to the previous requirement of 3. At a time of low inventory, this increase to 6 comparables just does not have any benefit.

     Although this needs to change, the appraisers are not to blame. Increased regulation on banks and lenders has caused much concern in giving out mortgages. The banks and lenders have been told by the current administration that they can only give out "qualified" mortgages or loans or else they are subject to penalties. However, the administration has yet to come forth with a specific definition or guideline to describe the term "qualified". Therefore, lenders are hesitant and very critical when qualifying someone for a loan, hence the requirement increase to 6 comparable homes for the appraisals. There definitely needs to be some kind of regulation on lenders so that we do not borrow our way back to another recession, however the current policies are simply not cutting it. There needs to be more clarity for the lenders and less fear of doing something wrong. We want this housing market to move forward like it could be doing instead of remaining stagnant.