A report from the Santa Fe New Mexican. “Santa Fe’s housing market has lost its fear. With buyers finally stepping up, the number of residential sales in the first quarter was the highest in five years. ‘I think the buyers are tired of waiting,’ said Stephanie Duran, an agent with Barker Real Estate. ‘My gut is they’re tired of being afraid. The threat of higher interest rates is greater than the fear of maybe declining prices.’”
“As home prices collapsed — down perhaps 30 percent from the top of the market in Santa Fe — many homes were pulled from the ‘For Sale’ listings, and refinanced or converted to rentals. Other owners simply cannot sell because their house is worth less than what is owed to the lender. These owners would have to write a check at closing to cover the difference between what they would net with a sale and what is owed on the mortgage. These factors have resulted in less inventory, which is down 30 percent from 2010.”
“‘The decrease in inventory has created more urgency,’ said Warren Sacks, VP of Barker Real Estate. ‘Buyers recognize if they don’t buy this property, it might not be there.’”
“Janice Diamond, a self-employed massage therapist, was one of those on the hunt for a house Wednesday. She’s been in Santa Fe for 25 years and is renting a place off Rodeo Road. She’s looking for more open space, fresh air and a home where her aging mother can live independently. Now she’s back with a mission of owning a home by the end of summer and has been looking with Barker agent Francine Miles. Her quest for a home with a ‘mother-in-law’ suite for about $300,000 would have been impossible a few years ago, Miles said.”
“The short sale Diamond looked at has been priced at $319,000, or $152 a square foot, for 260 days. ‘You get to the point where the banks don’t want to lower it anymore,’ Miles said. Diamond also looked at a bank-owned, 2,000-square-foot home on 1-plus acres. It was described by Miles as ‘a smokin’ deal,’ for $304,000. But many of the wood floor planks were missing, the vigas were aging, the home would need a new back deck and front portal, and there was no cooling.”
“The question for Diamond, as with all buyers, is whether the investment would pay off. ‘If it [the market] goes up, what would this be worth?’ she asked.”
From KVUE in Texas. “Cynthia Mattiza of Realty Austin says it’s a seller’s market right now. ‘I tell buyers, ‘If you like it, act on it now,’ said Mattiza. ‘A house goes on the market and literally within seven days, you probably have multiple offers.’”
“Ryan Rodenbeck of Spyglass Realty and Investments says homes within four miles of downtown and Central Austin are in high demand. He says homes move fast when the presentation and price are right. ‘The last seven houses we listed this year have gone full price or above,’ said Rodenbeck.”
The San Antonio Express in Texas. “Home building is on the way back. San Antonio-area home builders in the first quarter started 1,636 homes, a 10.4 percent increase over the same quarter last year. Lot supply continues to be an issue for the building industry. The San Antonio market has 18,636 vacant lots, a 31.8-month supply. But the 90 most-active neighborhoods have just a 17.6-month supply, a shortage.”
“And it’s harder to qualify for a mortgage now than in recent memory. Jack Shull, San Antonio branch manager of Guild Mortgage Co., said it’s possible — but it can be time-consuming — for first-time buyers to get mortgage loans. A few years ago, no-documentation loans, known by the industry as “liar’s loans” were prevalent and helped contribute to the housing crash. ‘We’re still able to get people qualified. It’s just much more tedious. We put them through so many more hoops and bells and whistles,’ Shull said. ‘It’s more time-consuming. But frankly, it should be. Today I think people understand that buying a home is a serious thing.’”
From KTEN in Texas. “In Grayson County, the real estate market is gleaming with possibilities. Tour a few neighbors in Grayson County and you will find the occasional for sale sign. ‘Our months of inventory have come down from about 13 to 11,’ says Mark Tooley, Virginia Cook Realtor.”
“With interest rates near 4 percent, folks are excited to purchase. ‘A lot of people think I can’t get a loan, but that’s not necessarily true. You have to be able to pay your mortgage and have good credit, but there’s a lot of money out there to be loaned,’ says Tooley.”
“And on the flip side, sellers, you can now make your investment back. ‘Today if you bought your home in the last four, five years, you can probably sell it for what you paid for it. If you bought it 20 years ago, you’re going to make a little extra on the side,’ says Ron Schildknecht, association executive, Greater Texoma Association of Realtors.”
Pegasus News in Texas. “The Huse family finally got tired of all the driving. Two years ago, they packed up and moved to the Mosaic Building in downtown Dallas. With any family living downtown, safety is also often an issue. Safety issues used to keep Heather Huse up at night, but now an automatic alarm system and a host of other safety perks let her sleep in peace. ‘There’s one door in and one door out, so if I lock it, that’s it,’ she said. ‘The building emergency system takes care of that for me, and worrying about break-ins is no more because I’m 18 floors up with a locked door.’”
“The Montgomery’s have resided on the 17th floor of the Gables Republic Tower for nearly three years. Shannon Montgomery and husband Ken Montgomery knew what an exciting experience living downtown would be for their two daughters, ages 7 and 10. ‘I started becoming more relaxed in situations where other parents would be very nervous,’ said Ken Montgomery. ‘With cars and trains flying by, I know what to expect with my kids because they spent time living around it.’”
“‘It’s important to be alert, stay together and aware of what’s going on around you,’ said Shannon Montgomery. ‘Our girls have learned that, and it makes them grow.’”
My San Antonio in Texas. “The posh but troubled Boot Ranch golf resort near Fredericksburg is on the market. Boot Ranch, a 2,051-acre master-planned golf community in Gillespie County, started selling luxury lots in 2005. But the upscale neighborhood has been slow to materialize. ‘It was a terrible time to try to get off the ground,’ said John Flournoy, managing broker of the Phyllis Browning Co. ‘They were about 18 months slower than they should have been. If they had opened earlier, they would have had a year or two of appreciation on the front end. They opened when the market started sliding.’”
“About 39 estate lots out of 110 have been sold, eight homes have been built and two homes are under construction, according to Land Advisors. Flournoy said the project is too far from Austin and San Antonio to attract buyers who are still working and has suffered from competing with the better-located Horseshoe Bay and Cordillera Ranch. But he thinks it will eventually succeed. ‘Boot Ranch will survive this,’ he said. ‘In 20 years, it will be successful.’”
From Tulsa World in Oklahoma. “In one Tulsa County neighborhood, landlord Harry Heuszel owns several rental properties. He paints over bare plywood nailed to windows and doors of abandoned homes owned by others. He even tries to match the paint so that it blends in with the existing trim color as part of an effort to keep up neighborhood appearances. ‘It’s hard to rent these houses when you got a ghost town over here,’ Heuszel said.”
“In Lake View Heights, most homes saw no change in value in the past year. But among those that did, the change was drastic. One home sold for $60,000 in 2006. After remaining unoccupied for five years, it sold again for $6,000. Another home in the same neighborhood, a 975-square-foot, 57-year-old frame structure, also sold for $56,000 in 2006. A local real estate investor purchased the home in 2010 for $7,000, records show.”
“Heuszel has been watching all of those home sales and others in the neighborhoods since the mid-1990s, many of which he says were overvalued. ‘These homes were never worth that,’ Heuszel said, ‘as far as I’m concerned.’ Heuszel, who owns about 10 rental homes in the neighborhoods, blames the banks. ‘The banks were greedy to loan money,’ Heuszel said. ‘The banks would loan $45,000, $52,000 and $57,000 on these things.’”
“Out-of-state investors purchased some homes, installing new windows, central heat and air conditioning, even granite counter tops. ‘And guess what? They couldn’t sell them for $45,000,’ Heuszel said. ‘So they went belly up.’”
“County Assessor Ken Yazel said his office takes into account abnormal sale prices. ‘If I have a neighborhood of, say, 200 homes and there’s been 25 sales - and a person came from California and paid too much - we don’t want that to raise the values of everybody else,’ Yazel said.”
“Peter Lewis, 69, is one of those who admits he didn’t research the area well enough when he purchased a couple of homes in the area with cash in 2008. Coming from his native England, Lewis said the $18,000 and $24,000 sale prices seemed like bargains when he bought the homes. He has renovated both homes, but now said he just hopes to recoup his investment. ‘If I get more money back, I’ll be lucky,’ Lewis said.”
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Current homeowners accounted for 54 percent of October’s non-distressed market, up from 50 percent in June, according to a new survey by Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance. This as the share of non-distressed sales surged to 64.7 percent, up from 55.7 percent as recently as February. Unfortunately, first-time home buyers are seeing just the opposite, largely left out of this surge in sales and prices. Their share of the market, usually up in the 40 percent range historically, fell to 34.7 percent in October, the lowest in the Campbell/IMF survey’s three-year history. The National Association of Realtors put their share even lower, at 31 percent. Either way, they are the only group of buyers that have not seen their share of non-distressed home purchases rise over the past five months. The mortgage of choice for these buyers, FHA-insured loans, are increasingly tough to obtain. (Read More: 
] —Jones Lang LaSalle [JLL Loading... () 
Down payments are a big part of that, as most mortgage market experts will say you can't get those great low rates today without putting down at least 20 percent, and more if you need a jumbo loan. That's why 
New homes sales fell 2.1 percent in May.Sales of newly built homes 
Options and upgrades lead the incentives with price cuts coming in third behind closing costs. That means that the price drop is even lower than the official Commerce Department numbers depict, at least from the builder's perspective and the net price declines. "Faced with slower sales, builders initially prefer incentives to price cuts, because they can delay or eliminate the longer term impact to buyers' psychology and appraiser's comps if the slowdown is temporary," notes Burns. I'm just not sure how temporary it will all be, again, given the huge amount of distressed properties against which builders compete. Many of the analysts say simple demographic demand will eventually push sales back to normal levels. Patrick Newport over at IHS Global Insight predicts that will take at least two years. "Tighter lending standards for builders and homebuyers, higher commodity prices, and uncertainty over the direction of the economy and of house prices are stifling both the demand and the supply side of the housing market," concludes Newport. It seems like I hear this every month. Just wondering what exactly is going to change that quote? Questions? Comments? document.write("
"Off the cuff, I'd put the split at about 50/50, with maybe half of our surge in usage coming from greater Zillow brand awareness, and half from more people starting to show interest in real estate," confessed Zillow's CEO Spencer Rascoff. "We’re seeing this increased usage in Zillow Mortgage Marketplace as well. Loan requests from borrowers were up 56% from December to January, so that definitely signals that people are thinking about diving into the market." We also saw