Home Prices Climb!   American Public Knows More About Housing Market Than The Govenment And News Media:  That statement is hardly news.  It is, however, unfortunate and important.  With all the doom and gloom in the newspapers and the nightly news broadcasts concerning the state of housing nationally you would think that the value of homes is in an endless spiral downward and that home buyers have jumped in a hole and pulled the hole in after them.  According to National Association of Realtors statistics the median home price has risen each of the last four months.  The high point of $230,200 was reached in July of 2006.  The low (if it turns out to be that) of $195,600 was reached in February of this year.  By May the price had risen to $208,600.  The latest figures will be released on July 24.  The mean (average) home price has also rebounded.  In February it was $242,000 and by May it was $253,100.  Furthermore, on an annualized basis the volume of home sales has risen from 4,890,000 in January to 4,990,000 in May.  Americans are taking advantage of good prices in their markets and whether we have seen the lows or not the public deserves to have the good news as well as the bad.  What else is new?  Well, housing starts in June were up by 9.1%, building permits were up 11.6% and new construction on single family homes fell.  Furthermore, mortgage applications were up for the third week in a row while home builder sentiment was at its lowest level - ever - last month.  If you think on these last comments a little you might come to some conclusions as to where the housing market REALLY is.

New Federal Reserve Lending Rules:   The new rules apply to all banks and go into effect on October 1, 2009.  The new escrow rules will go into effect  on April 1, 2010. Here are the new rules:  * Lenders  will be required to escrow money to pay taxes and insurance for risky borrowers   * Lenders must credit a mortgage payment to a home owner’s account the day it is received.   * A loan may not be made without documentation of the borrower’s income   * Mortgage advertising will be required to include information about rates, monthly payments and other features of the loan   * Limit and in some cases prohibit prepayment penalties   * Prohibit lenders from making a loan without factoring in the borrower’s ability to repay a home loan from sources other than the home’s value   * Brokers and others may not ”coerce or encourage” an appraiser to misrepresent the value of a home.

Politics And Other Junk:  I find the flap about Obama cartoon depictions to be rather humorous.  Political cartoons have been scathing for as far back as cartoons in newspapers and magazines go.  It all brings to mind the quote attributed to Harry Truman - “If you don’t like the heat get out of the kitchen”.  Furthermore, Truman gave as good as he got.  For instance take his comment about Douglas MacArthur “I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that’s not against the law for generals.  If it was, half to three quarters of them would be in jail.”  Harry wasn’t on my side of the fence politically but the older I get the better President he was and the only other President I can say that about (who I liked but couldn’t stand his brother) was Ike.  Presidential politics is not polite business and the sooner brothers Obama and McCain take off the gloves and get with it the better!.  It’s only when it’s “no holds barred” that you find out where the candidates are really coming from.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com     

Raleigh, North Carolina.  Kane Realty Gets Financing.  While financing is tight Kane Realty got $111 million for a six-story 409 unit apartment building.  The facility will also have more than 93,000 square feet of street-level stores.  The project will be called St. Albans at North Hills.  This was accomplished in the face of much tighter lending requirements.  In years past lenders usually financed 90 percent of the construction costs.  That is no longer the case.  Now, loan amounts range from 70 percent to - no longer available!  For firms with excellent track records loans from several sources can make up the difference. The Federal Reserve indicated that 80 percent of the domestic banks and 55 percent of foreign banks tightened commercial real estate lending standards during the first quarter of 2008. 

Home loans are even tougher.  A Federal Reserve survey indicated that 60 percent of domestic banks have signifiicantly tightened their lending standards on prime mortgages.  Nearly 75 percent of the banks that made sub-standard loans have made getting such loans very difficult or have stopped making them altogether.  In fact, only nine of the reporting banks are currently making any subprime loans.  About 55 percent of the domestic banks reported a substantial tightening of requirements for make a business loan.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

It would be great if everyone had great income and no credit problems.  Such is not the way of the world.  Let’s cut to the chase.  As you can imagine, I have clients with all kinds of lending needs and problems.  To make this personal let’s put this in the first person. You may want to purchase a home but think you can’t afford it because of your income level or because of past or current credit problems.  You may have your eye on an expensive home but your credit score, the fact that you are self employed or any number of other reasons cause you to forget owning a home, forget a move up, forget buying the expensive home, forget a second home, and on and on.  Do I have a solution for EVERY problem?  No, but I have access to sources that can certainly cut a wide swath through those needs and problems.  How about:  100% financing; 1 day out of bankruptcy!  How about financing for borrowers with credit scores down to 500!  How about 100% financing with a credit score of 640 - stated, or 580 full doc?   I could go on.  The point is this, WHETHER YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A $100,000 HOME OR A $1 MILLION DOLLAR HOME (OR ABOVE) MY SOURCES CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN FOR YOU!  YOU HAVE EVERYTHING TO GAIN AND NOTHING TO LOSE BY CALLING MY HAND AND IT COSTS YOU - NOTHING - ZIP - TO FIND OUT.  Buying a home is not a game.  You don’t want to waste your time and I don’t want to waste mine.  I am seeing things put together which were laughable not long ago.  Call me, tell me what kind of home you want or need and let’s see if I can get the lending job done for you. Also, it won’t take forever and it is not one of the many online scams that are going around.  I look forward to hearing from you.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   email: marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: wwwJohnFish.com