Portland Metro Real Estate News » Lake Oswego real estate

Historic Interest Rates & National Portland Exposure

kellyton — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:24:35 +0000

This is a great story about how a bank passed on some of the federal bank bailout money to clients in the form of lower interest rates for home purchases. The Great Northwest Home Rush was sponsored by Community Financial Corp. and Banner Bank. The homes included, in what turned out to be one the biggest home shows in the area, were offered a 30 year fixed interest rate of 3.875% by Banner. The show ran for most of March. Half of this National CBS story was filmed in Portland.

Portland Home Prices

kellyton — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:54:37 +0000

Here is a look at the current home prices in Portland Oregon.

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Choosing Foreclosure

kellyton — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 23:55:34 +0000

It is said that 20% of home owners are “underwater” on their mortgages and more and more homes are going into foreclosure every day. For many the best financial option is to let their home go into foreclosure instead of throw away thousands of dollars that the home has lost in value.

The prediction is that most of these home owners will do just that but some think that people aren’t always so rational.

One reason is that people tend to over value their own home. That makes it to valuable for them to just walk away from.

Secondly, people tend to place greater importance on immediate consequences than they do the long term ones. Walking away might help you out down the road but is a lot of pain and effort right now.

Then there is the morality of it. Some feel it is just plain wrong to walk away because if you borrowed the money, then you need to pay it back, it’s that simple. Check out this article with great real-life examples of home owners situations and what they intend to do about it.

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/real_estate/0903/gallery.walking_away/index.html

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Portland Inventory Report

kellyton — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 00:13:23 +0000

Watch for our real-time updates on the Portland Area Real Estate Market!

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Portland Market Report

kellyton — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:44:00 +0000

January Residential Highlights

Although closed sales dragged to a new low in January, pending sales rose 52.5% over December’s total. Comparing January 2009 with the same month in 2008, closed sales dropped 32.5%. Pending sales also fell 26.1%. New listings decreased 15%. On the other hand, when comparing January 2009 with December 2008, pending sales grew 52.5% (1,235 v. 810) and new listings increased 123.2% (4,196 v. 1,880). Closed sales continued to lag, dropping 25.8% (732 v. 987) – a new record low for closed sales in a month since record keeping began in 1992. As a result of the low sales total, and a rising number of active listings (14,076), housing inventory also hit a new high of 19.2 months.

Sale Prices

The average sale price for January 2009 was down 13.3% compared to January 2008, while the median sale price dropped 10.7%. Month-to-month, the average sale price and median sale price are both down when compared with December levels; the average sale price dropped 1.2% ($297,200 v. $300,800) and the median sale price was down 1.1% ($250,000 v. $252,900).

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Time To Buy A House

kellyton — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:48:00 +0000

No matter what the market condition, there is always going to be a group whose turn it is to be in the most advantageous position. Right now it is the first-time home buyer. This is evident by the stat saying 41% of buyers at the end of ’08 were first-timers.

This stroke of luck is for a few reason. With the new lower prices they are able to afford better than they could before, if they could afford anything at all before. Not to mention all that inventory just sitting there, sellers are negotiating.

Then there are the low interest rates that compliment the low home prices so perfectly. It’s like stars are aligning.

Of course buyers right now have to have good credit and a significant down payment, but if a buyer has that in order they are in a great position to get a deal.

There is still a question of whether or not prices have hit bottom yet, but there will always be that risk. Perhaps it means a buyer can take the time to find the perfect deal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123431356988570855.html?mod=rss_Today%27s_Most_Popular

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Refinancing Frenzy

kellyton — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:01:00 +0000

Interest rates have fallen recently, as most people are aware, and naturally people are rushing to refinance in order to reduce their housing payments.

The average rate for a 30-year, fixed mortgage dropped to 5.08% last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, more than a full point lower than just a month ago.

Mortgage applications were up 48% last week, and by far, the majority of those were from homeowners looking to lower housing costs.

Refinancing is not for everyone however. If you currently have an adjustable rate, you could lower your rate by a percentage point or more, you do not plan on selling soon and/or you have significant equity then you should certainly look into getting a new home loan.

Those with an adjustable rate can save themselves a lot of trouble by turning it into a fixed rate while it is low so that future rate increases won’t jeopardized their lifestyle.

Getting a lower rate is a really good idea but because of the fees and costs associated with a new loan, it really is only worth it if you are lowering your rate by a whole percentage point or more.

The balance of your loan will increase when you refinance and paying off the new extra will take a year or two, so it won’t be so helpful if you plan on selling before then.

Some people lost much or all of their equity when home values fell. If your equity has fallen below 20% of the total appraised home value, the borrower will likely have to purchase private mortgage insurance. The insurance adds a point or two to the monthly mortgage costs erasing any advantage of refinancing.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/24/real_estate/when_to_refi/index.htm?postversion=2008122608

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