Are stars finally aligning for Tampa Bay housing recovery?

By Mark Puente, Times Staff Writer

In Print: Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Median home prices show a downward trend from $239,600 in mid 2007 to $125,000 in December 2011, but showed an upward trend last year.

via Are stars finally aligning for Tampa Bay housing recovery? – Tampa Bay Times.

1. Nevada: 6 percent (1 in 16 housing units received at least one foreclosure filing in 2011)

2. Arizona: 4.14 percent (or 1 in 24)

3. California: 3.19 percent (or 1 in 31)

4. Georgia: 2.71 percent (or 1 in 37)

5. Utah: 2.32 percent (or 1 in 43)

6. Michigan: 2.21 percent

7. Florida: 2.06 percent

8. Illinois: 1.95 percent

9. Colorado: 1.78 percent

10. Idaho: 1.77 percent

via 10 States With the Highest Foreclosure Rates | Realtor Magazine.

But buying a home that turns out to need much more extensive (and expensive) repairs than originally thought is only funny in the movies. In real life, buying a money pit can nearly drive a new homeowner to lose their mind – and their shirt.

Fortunately, there are a number of real-life strategies that real-world buyers can act on to prevent their own home-buying plot line from including an unfunny lemon of a home. Here are 5 of my personal favorite steps that will help you avoid buying a money pit.

1. Attend Inspections… (Click Below for the list …

via 5 Steps to Avoid Buying a Money Pit.

The deal fell through after two appraisals came in tens of thousands of dollars below the contract price, part of a wider trend of differences over property valuations that is compounding the U.S. housing crisis.

“It was very frustrating. We really wanted to move in,” said McGowan, a 31-year-old real estate lawyer.

Many housing experts say low appraisals are yet another headwind for a housing market already suffering from a plunge in prices, high unemployment and tight credit.

Lenders are forced to cap their mortgage loans at the value set by appraisers and buyers and sellers often can’t agree on how to make up the difference with an original deal price.

“It’s hard to talk about any recovery of the housing market and home prices until the appraisal issue is squared away, and that is a broad issue,” said Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance, a Maryland-based trade publication.

Sixteen percent of Realtors reported contract cancellations in July, matching June’s level, which was the highest since March 2010, when the National Association of Realtors began collecting data.

via U.S. housing faces extra drag – low appraisals | Reuters.

Down and Out in Beverly Hills

Market values have continued to erode in Citrus County while volume has remained relatively stable. Values declined in the second quarter of this year at a greater pace than in 2010 although not as significantly as 2009. The bullet points below detail some of the notable findings in the report. The numerical designations for the areas are based on data from the Citrus County Association of Realtors.

• For the entire county, residential volume was flat (2010 Q2 was 644; 2011 Q2 was 645).
  

• 2011 marked the 4^th straight double-digit loss in average sales price and the 3^rd straight loss in median sales price.

•  Area 8 (Hernando) saw an increase in the average sales price (+11%) and median price (+2%).
  

• Volume increased from 71 to 91 (2010 Q2 to 2011 Q2).

• Area 19 (Homosassa)-the average sale price was $406,187 in 2005 Q2 and declined to $151,083 in 2011.

• Area 21 (Lecanto/Homosassa)-values declined 26% in average sales price and 34% in median sales price.

• Beverly Hills had a 5^th consecutive double digit decline in average and median sales price.
  

• In 2005 the average sales price was $97,057 and dropped to $44,455 in 2011.

via Ocala Valuation Services.

So, you hire a home inspector, but it seems like they’re speaking an entirely different language – riddled with terms like “serviceable condition” and “conducive to deterioration” – about your dream home! Here are 5 questions you can use to decode your home inspector’s findings into knowledge you can use to make smart decisions as a homebuyer – and homeowner.

1. How bad is it – really? The best home inspectors are pretty even keeled, emotionally speaking. They’re not alarmists that blow little things up into big ones, nor do they try to play down the importance of things. They’re all about the facts. But sometimes, that straightforwardness makes it hard for you, the home’s buyer, to understand what’s a big deal and what isn’t so much – the information you need to know whether to move forward with the deal, whether to renegotiate and what to plan ahead for.

I’ve seen things categorized in home inspection reports under “Health and Safety Hazards” that cost less than $100 to fix, like replacing a faucet that has hot and cold reversed. And I’ve seen one-liners in inspection reports, like “extensive earth-to-wood contact” result, after further inspection, in foundation repair bids pricier than the whole cost of the home!

via 5 Questions to Ask Your Home’s Inspector.

Inflation, using the reporting methodologies in place before 1980, hit an annual rate of 9.6 percent in February, according to the Shadow Government Statistics newsletter.

Since 1980, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has changed the way it calculates the CPI in order to account for the substitution of products, improvements in quality (i.e. iPad 2 costing the same as original iPad) and other things. Backing out more methods implemented in 1990 by the BLS still puts inflation at a 5.5 percent rate and getting worse, according to the calculations by the newsletter’s web site, Shadowstats.com.

via US Inflation Rate: Inflation Using Volcker-Era Methodology Nearing 10% – CNBC.

Price: $800/mo – Bedrooms: 2 – Bathrooms: 2

Property type: Townhome -Size: 1,320 sqft

Provided by: Prudential Florida Showcase Properties

via 156 East Glassboro Court #13-2B, Hernando FL – Trulia.

via Realty Times – Low Mortgage 

Rates Remain Unchanged.