Michelle Frericks, Realtor®

Posts Tagged ‘home buyers’

When insurers stop writing insurance MIAMI – Aug. 31, 2010 – If Hurricane Earl flirts with the Florida coast, many property insurers will stop writing new policies. That, in turn, impacts homebuyers who need insurance to finalize their mortgage. Without insurance, they can’t get mortgage money; and without mortgage money, they can’t close.

Insurers have in-house rules about issuing new policies. For example, Florida’s property insurer, Citizens Property Insurance, stops writing policies in a wide area if a hurricane threatens. Some insurers rely on the National Weather Service to issue a storm watch or warning. If that happens, they stop writing policies in the potentially impacted areas.

In all cases, a homebuyer heading to closing while a hurricane threatens should contact his or her property insurance carrier to determine that company’s rules.

© 2010 Florida Realtors®

SAN FRANCISCO – Aug. 19, 2010 – According to Trulia.com’s American Dream survey on attitudes toward homeownership, 27 percent of renters do not plan to buy a home – ever. Of those renters who do plan to purchase someday, 68 percent said it would be more than two years before they do.

“Large numbers of people delaying their plans to buy a home, or not planning to buy at all, could have an enormous domino delaying effect on economic recovery in the U.S.,” says Pete Flint, CEO of Trulia. “Renters converting into buyers are crucial to turning around the housing slump, but the current economic crisis is causing people to become very hesitant to get off the fence and buy a home.”

According to the study, many Americans still maintain a core belief in the inherent value of owning a home: 72 percent believe homeownership is part of their American Dream. While it’s a decline from 77 percent six months ago, it shows that the American Dream of homeownership is still alive.

Nearly one in five Americans (19 percent) said that their attitude toward homeownership has grown more negative over the last six months; however, more Americans – 23 percent – said that their attitude toward owning a home has grown more positive in the same time frame.

Tipping factors: From renter to buyer in one year

Seventy-nine percent of renters who plan to buy homes one day said something could inspire them to buy a home within the next 12 months. The changes in circumstance most frequently cited as the “tipping factors” were: being able to save enough money for a downpayment, getting a new job, getting a promotion/raise, and interest rates staying low or getting even lower.

The McMansion Era is over

According to the survey, Americans are also veering away from the “McMansions” that grew popular before the recession. Adults who might buy a house displayed a preference for smaller homes, with only 9 percent saying their ideal home size is more than 3,200 square feet – the same number of who said they’d like their home to be between 800 and 1,400 square feet. Fifty-five percent of Americans would prefer a home between 1,401 and 2,600 square feet.

Harris Interactive conducted this July 2010 survey online within the United States via its QuickQuery online omnibus service on behalf of Trulia between July 22-26, 2010, among 2,055 U.S. adults aged 18 years and older. The sample included 1,345 homeowners and 663 renters. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

© 2010 Florida Realtors®

Fla. closing costs increase in 2010 NEW YORK – Aug. 16, 2010 – A study released by Bankrate Inc. finds that the costs associated with buying a home are going up.

Bankrate’s 2010 Closing Costs Survey found that the average origination and title fees on a $200,000 mortgage this year totaled $3,741, up $1,009 from $2,732 in 2009.

In Florida, the news isn’t so bad. In 2009, closing costs on a $200,000 home sale averaged $3,368, rising $381 in 2010 to $3,987.

In the study’s geographical breakdown, New York leads the nation at an average closing cost fee of $5,623, with Texas, Utah, San Francisco, and Los Angeles rounding out the top five. Arkansas is the least expensive area with an average fee of $3,007, replacing Nevada, now No. 34, at the bottom of the list. The list has 52 slots, including Washington, D.C, and breaks California into a northern and southern division.

Florida, while still expensive for closing costs, improved its rank in 2010. In 2009, the state ranked at No. 3 for total closing costs; in 2010, it dropped to No. 12.

According to Bankrate.com, one of the reasons for a dramatic rise in average estimated closing costs is related to new regulations implemented in January 2010. When providing a potential borrower a Good Faith Estimate (GFE) of costs, regulations now require lenders to provide a Title and Closing Fee estimate within 10 percent of what the final cost will be; in previous years, estimates could fall lower on the spectrum without penalty for the lender.

“The big rise in average closing costs may scare some homebuyers, but it’s important to keep things in perspective,” says Greg McBride, CFA, senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com. “Increased regulation on lenders’ GFEs means more accurate estimates and less expenses popping up for consumers on the back end.”

For the study, researchers picked a ZIP code in some of the largest cities in each state and requested information on the closing costs for a $200,000 loan. They requested fees on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage for a borrower with a 20 percent downpayment and good credit to buy a single-family house. Bankrate’s survey includes lenders’ origination fees and title and settlement fees, but not taxes or prepaid items.

To read the study, go to: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/mortgages/2010-closing-costs

© 2010 Florida Realtors®

Sad news from the census bureau.

Click here for the full article.

Click the link below to see the foreclosed homes available for puchase in Jacksonville.

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Attached is the information for the New Bond Issue Program. The link includes links to the Program Brochure and the Participating Lender List.

http://www.ehousing.cc/jax-homebuyer.htm