Mortgage Rates are Falling!
Mortgage Rates have fallen to the lowest rate in the last 39 years, according to CNBC. For a 30-year fixed, the rate has lowered to 4.69%. If you add this to the glut of listings and the great bargains that are out there, this summer might be a great time to get into your new home.
Search the Portland MLS with Your iPhone
It’s happened to all of us. You’re out driving around and you see a house for sale, but all of the fliers are gone. You’re dying to know how many bedrooms and bathrooms, and what the price is, but you don’t feel like calling the Realtor.
The solution is here. Now all you need to do is get out your iPhone and type in the address and all of the information about the house in now at your fingertips. What a great Tool! You can do all kinds of searches for listings, including condos, townhouses, and even foreclosures. And you can search for home in Portland, Beaverton, Tigard, Lake Oswego, Clackamas – any city in the Portland Metro Area. This is a must have if you are buying a home in the near future.
There really is an app for everything.
To get your MLS iPhone app, just click on the iPhone in the sidebar to your right, download the app, and enter the code 6788.
Portland Ranked Greenest U.S. City
The Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton metro area ranked No. 1 among 43 U.S. metro areas in a report on America’s “green cities.”
The “Green Cities Index” ranks metro areas on a variety of environmental factors, including traffic congestion, transit use, water quality, carbon emissions, LEED-certified projects and number of “green” jobs.
The index was compiled by the Business Courier of Cincinnati, which is owned by American City Business Journals, the parent company of the Portland Business Journal.
The index draws on data from a variety of government and research agencies.
For the index, the paper evaluated the 40 markets in which American City Business Journals publishes newspapers, plus Los Angeles, where the company operates a business-news Web site, and Indianapolis and Cleveland.
The index looked at such variables as commuting habits of residents, travel time and fuel use, and air and water quality.
Second on the Green Cities list was the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif., area. Honolulu ranked third. Austin, Texas, and Boston rounded out the top five.
The Portland region received high rankings for having the second most LEED-certified building projects in the country and for having minimal sprawl — Portland ranked fourth in the sprawl index behind San Francisco, Boston and Honolulu.
Portland’s poorest showing came in the ranking for commute travel time, where it came in 21st. At 19th, Austin was the only metro area in the green top five with a better travel-time ranking.
The city with the No. 1 travel time ranking was Wichita, Kan. Not surprisingly, Witchita ranked No. 43 for use of public transportation. Portland ranked eighth for public use.
via Portland ranked greenest U.S. city – Portland Business Journal:.
Do You Qualify for the First-Time Homebuyer’s Credit?
As most of you know, the first-time homebuyer’s credit has been extended to the end of April 2010. This is great news for Portland home buyers. But the question is: who can get the credit?
The good news is that more buyers are eligible now than before. Even better news is that if you buy a home in 2010, you can claim the credit in your 2009 return. That means up to an $8,000 credit on last year’s tax return. Very cool.
Here is a summary of who can take the credit:
- Purchase must be your principal residence and you must live in the home for at least three years. If you sell or move before that, you must pay back the money to Uncle Sam. If you live in the home for over three years, the money is yours to keep.
The New Short Sale Rules – It’s About Freakin’ Time!
January 29, 2010 by Jesse
Filed under Buying, Foreclosures, Selling
If you have ever been a party in a short sale transaction, or even know someone that has, you know what kind of nightmare it can be. For the last few years, the banks have been doing everything they can to make a short sale as difficult as humanly possible. They just don’t want to do them, it’s that simple. I have heard that only one in ten short sales are actually completed. Those are bad odds in any casino you go to.
But there is help on the way. The Home Affordable Alternatives Program (HAFA) has just released some new guidelines that are set to take effect in April of 2010. The new rules are designed to help homeowners get out of their property if they are underwater (they owe more on the mortgage than the house it worth). This is great news for all.
Here is summary of some of the points that will have the greatest impact.
- A homeowner will be able to get a short sale approval in advance. This is huge! In the past, the banks wouldn’t even look at a short sale unless there was a buyer with a signed contract. The homeowner, real estate agent and the buyer never even knew if the bank would consider the short sale. The new guideline allows the owner to receive a pre-approval from the bank that includes the minimum net amount it will accept.
