Category: housing market

The number of foreclosures fell and home sales rose in February in Frederick County.

The drop in foreclosures, according to a local attorney, is due to willingness by mortgage companies to streamline the short sale and loan modification process as an alternative to foreclosure.

“The mortgage companies still take a loss on a short sale, but not as much as they would if they have to wait until the expensive and time-consuming foreclosure process is over, which takes about a year before they get the property back to market it,” said Patrick McLister of Salisbury and McLister.

“Some lenders are also accepting deeds in lieu of foreclosure from distressed homeowners to shorten the time it takes to resell the property.”

More here.

Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!

(Reuters) – This new year might be the one in which the housing market starts to strengthen, according to the 2012 predictions of several housing industry observers and experts.

Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia.com, a real estate search and research website, says he sees rising rents, a humble recovery in housing prices and even some unexpected “hot” spots where he thinks price increases will exceed the average this year.

“Smart cities are hot,” he said in his annual forecast, highlighting Austin, Houston, San Jose, Boston and Rochester, New York, as cities where home prices can be expected to see modest to healthy increases.

Rochester might seem a surprising addition, since the city lost many jobs when the photography colossus Kodak thinned its ranks. Seems things are rebounding; “In Rochester, a center of high-skill manufacturing industries, education levels are well above the national average,” Kolko wrote. “As the recovery proceeds, smart cities are leading the way.”

More here.

Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!

By John Wasik

Wed Nov 16, 2011 2:30pm EST

(Reuters) – Watching the U.S. home market struggle to rebound is like listening to children in the back of a car. No, we’re not there yet.

The National Association of Realtors reported that ten real estate markets are “leading the nation toward a general recovery and stability of the housing sector,” but myriad problems are going to weigh down the housing market for months to come.

The lingering malaise in the economy has triggered a new wave of defaults and foreclosures. After five straight quarterly drops, foreclosures nationwide shot up 14 percent from the second to third quarter this year, according to data released by Realtytrac, the foreclosure information service (see link.reuters.com/kaw94s), in October.

More here.

Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!

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Today’s Wall Street Journal Front Page shows a chart by Bob Shiller which illustrates, as Mr. Miller has already opined, that we’re finally seeing a statistical return to “normalcy” in the housing markets. This means, per Shiller, that housing values will grow “at the same pace with the inflation rate” (or course barring extraneous market influences like a big spike in rates, changes in the mortgage interest deduction, etc.)

More here.

If you or someone you know is considering buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues! As member of the Garrett County Board of Realtors, I can assist you with ANY listed property, regardless of the listing broker.

>By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON | Mon Mar 21, 2011 4:56pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sales of previously owned U.S. homes plunged in February and prices hit their lowest level in nearly nine years, indicating a housing market recovery was still a long way off.

The National Association of Realtors said on Monday sales fell 9.6 percent month over month to an annual rate of 4.88 million units, snapping three straight months of gains. The percentage decline was the largest since July.

The weak sales were the latest evidence of the malaise in the housing sector and confirmed it would remain outside the strengthening and broadening economic recovery.

“The housing market is still very depressed and a major drag on the economy, especially household net worth,” said Chris Christopher, a senior economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Economists had expected a decline of only 4 percent to a 5.15 million-unit pace. The actual drop was greater than even the most pessimistic forecast in a Reuters survey of 53 economists.

Read the full article here.

If you or someone you know is considering buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues! As member of the Garrett County Board of Realtors, I can assist you with ANY listed property, regardless of the listing broker.

>(Reuters) – Sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose unexpectedly in January, but prices tumbled to the lowest in nearly nine years, an industry group said on Wednesday.

The National Association of Realtors said sales climbed 2.7 percent month over month to an annual rate of 5.36 million units from a downwardly revised 5.22 million pace.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected January sales to fall 2.1 percent to a 5.24 million-unit pace from the previously reported 5.28 million units in December.

Compared with January last year, sales were up 5.3 percent. The median home price fell 3.7 percent from a year-ago to $158,800, the lowest since April 2002.

Read the full article here

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

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By Julie Haviv

NEW YORK | Wed Oct 6, 2010 5:27pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The percentage of home sellers who cut their asking price fell in September, with price reductions smaller than the month before, real estate website Zillow.com said on Wednesday.

Prices on 28 percent of homes listed for sale on the Zillow website had been cut at least once as of the end of September, down from 34.9 percent in August, it said in the report, provided exclusively to Reuters prior to its wider release.

It was the second consecutive month the percentage of home sellers who reduced their asking price decreased from the previous month.

Price reductions peaked in July 2010, when more than one-third, or 36.5 percent, of listings on Zillow had at least one price reduction.

Read the rest here.

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

Deep Creek Do It All specializes in cleaning services in Garrett County & @ Deep Creek Lake. Give them a call (301-501-0217) or visit the website – competitive rates and quality results from a locally owned & operated company!

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK | Tue Aug 31, 2010 1:42pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. consumer confidence rose modestly in August and U.S. homes prices gained more than expected in June, easing some worries the economy is headed for another downturn soon.

Another report released on Tuesday showed the pace of growth in business activity in the U.S. Midwest slowed in August, but economists said the data overall did not present new worries about the path of the economy.

The data shows “the economy, while it is not going on all cylinders, is also not sliding into this double-dip recession that people are concerned about,” said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management Corp in Chicago.

Financial markets, however, were reluctant to read too much into the numbers, particularly as investors awaited the release on Friday of the government’s closely watched monthly report on the U.S. labor market.

Read the rest here.

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! 877-563-5350

Deep Creek Do It All specializes in cleaning services in Garrett County & @ Deep Creek Lake. Give them a call (301-501-0217) or visit the website – competitive rates and quality results from a locally owned & operated company!