Category Archives: Bedford Corners NY

How one homeowner got a home with a $4,000 down payment | Bedford Corners Homes

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Ashley Schwartau was tired of living with her parents. She lived in their Nashville, Tennessee home for three years to save money for her own place.

“I didn’t really want to go rent a place,” says Schwartau. “I could get a house with a mortgage cheaper than renting an apartment,” she says. “Houses in this area that I wanted to move into are priced really, really low – in the low $100,000s.”

Living with her parents paid off, as the 29-year-old graphic designer bought her first home in February 2012. The best part? She was able to do so with a low 3.5 percent down payment. Read on to see the details of how she got a home with very little down.

Finding the Perfect Home

Schwartau started looking at homes to buy in October 2011. Most of the homes she viewed were foreclosures that required remodeling, but a little yellow house stood out as quaint and perfect for her. It was in an older neighborhood that was about 15 minutes from downtown Nashville.

Built in 1952, the 1,500 square feet house is comprised of three bedrooms and 1.5 baths – perfect for her and her fiancé.

She wanted a three-bedroom home so both she and her fiancé could have home offices. She works from home and runs the graphic design department for her father’s video/e-learning business.

 

http://homes.yahoo.com/news/how-to-get-a-home-with-3-5-percent-down-221617126.html

Freddie Mac Weekly Rate Report Lagging Reality | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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The venerable Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS™) is a cornerstone of mortgage rate data.  It is both longstanding and highly accurate in capturing week-over-week movement.  The only problem is that it is unavoidably backward-looking due to its methodology.  There’s no scandal here and Freddie does a good job of convey that methodology, saying

“The survey is collected from Monday through Wednesday and the results are released on Thursdays at 10 a.m. ET. Survey reminder emails are sent out on Mondays and lenders are asked to  respond by close of business Wednesday. If we have received no response  on Tuesday, we follow-up with a reminder email on Wednesday morning.”

There’s no harm in this if one of two conditions are met.  Either rates need to be flat enough so that there’s a minimal discrepancy between Thursday morning’s rates and Freddie’s (which will be most similar to Monday or Tuesday’s rates) or mortgage rate watchers must be familiar enough with the methodology that they know it’s backward-looking.  The latter isn’t going to happen on a broad scale and the former is hit and miss.

This week is a miss.

The very best rates of the week (close to the best in more than 3 months!) were seen on Monday.  There would be no issues with today’s PMMS had it not been for the abrupt increase in rates over the past 2 days.  As it happens, the 0.09% drop reported is more like a 0.14% increase.  This is based on the average of actual lender rate sheets (not quotes that lenders subjectively report to Freddie) from last Thursday morning to this morning.

Mortgage News Daily’s “daily mortgage rate” is updated every day and adjusted for changes in closing costs that aren’t necessarily large enough to prompt a change in the actual “note rate.”  These typically move in .125% increments and rates typically don’t move that much in a day–many times even in a week!

This week they did.  Last Thursday morning, we calculated an adjusted “Best-Execution” rate of 4.35%, meaning that most borrowers would be quoted 4.375% with minimal closing costs and that some would be seeing 4.25%.  Apart from this Monday, that’s the closest we’ve been to 4.25% since February 10th.

Today’s calculated rate is all the way up to 4.49%!  It’s still early in the day for a final calculation as lenders may undergo price changes in the middle of the day, but as of right now, the true difference in cost–expressed in terms of interest rate–is indeed 0.14%.  That means that most borrowers will be at least .125% higher in actual note rate (i.e. a quote of 4.375% last Thursday is likely going to be 4.5% with minimal differences in closing costs.  4.25% would be 4.375%).

Americans Shut Out of Home Market Threaten Recovery: Mortgages | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Kirk Rohrig is concerned he may soon join the growing ranks of Americans shut out of the housing recovery and the financial benefits that spring from it.

Rohrig, who is unmarried, began hunting in November for his first home in Portland, Oregon, where cash buyers are driving up property prices. The software support specialist earns about $55,000 a year, has a high credit score of 790 and can’t find anything worth buying for about $200,000.

“Even fixer uppers are out of my range,” Rohrig, 33, said. “I went to look at a house that was garbage. There were cracks around all the windows and full condensation on the inside. It was on the market for $225,000.”

First-time homebuyers hurt by rising prices and tougher credit standards are disappearing from the market, slowing the pace of the three-year recovery. The decline of these buyers, many of whom are young and non-white, also threatens to widen the wealth gap between owners, who benefit from appreciation, and renters, said Thomas Lawler, a former Fannie Mae economist.

 

 

Why pending home sales ticked up, driven by move-up buyers | Bedford Corners Homes

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The Pending Home Sales Index is put out by the National Association of Realtors (the NAR). It tracks the number of home sales under contract. This tends to lead the actual home sales data by a few months. Home sales data is an indicator of the real estate market’s health. Recently, the market has been characterized by limited supply, as homeowners who aren’t desperate to sell have removed their properties in hopes of getting a better price. While the headline real estate appreciation numbers have been large, they’ve been concentrated primarily in the major West Coast markets, especially the markets hit the hardest in the downturn. The rest of the country has been experiencing low single-digit appreciation.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-pending-home-sales-ticked-144317446.html

Doggy marketing in real estate: Do’s and don’ts for agents | Bedford Corners NY Homes

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Do you volunteer at animal shelters or rescue organizations? Do you take your dog for regular walks or out for a run when you exercise? Is your dog pictured on any of your marketing materials? If so, make sure that you know the do’s and don’ts of “doggy marketing.”A couple of years ago I received an eight-page glossy color brochure from an Austin, Texas, real estate agent. It had multiple pictures of her enjoying the local lifestyle, sitting in her perfect living room, dining out with her husband, and, of course, one of her walking her dog. This particular piece was the most egregious example of “me-me-me” real estate marketing that I had ever seen. It’s hard to believe that she actually thought this narcissistic marketing piece would cause someone to hire her. Doggy no-no No. 1 If you have a picture of yourself and/or your dog on the home page of your website, get rid of it now. When today’s Web visitors see that your website appears to be about you rather than them, they immediately surf elsewhere. The appropriate place to include your photo is on the “about” page of your site, not the home page. Doggy no-no No. 2 This is a corollary of no-no No. 1. Take you and/or your dog’s picture off your marketing materials as well. Again, today’s consumer is focused on “What’s in it for me?” Moreover, using a picture of your pet to market real estate is visually confusing to the consumer: Are you selling dog-sitting services, grooming, vet services, or real estate?

 

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2014/03/03/doggy-marketing-in-real-estate-dos-and-donts-for-agents/?utm_source=20140303&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam#sthash.FCxKwF6q.dpuf

Before You Buy, Try That Mortgage on for Size | Bedford Corners NY Homes

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f you’re a future homebuyer, you might have used one of those “How much mortgage can I afford?” calculators online. These calculators typically gather information like your down payment amount, credit score range, monthly or annual income and debts.

Then, they’ll spit out an estimate of what a bank might lend you mortgage-wise.

These calculators work primarily by figuring out your debt-to-income ratio and then how much you can afford to pay for your monthly mortgage payment. This is similar to how banks decide how much to lend you.

The typical bank limit on monthly mortgage payments is about 28 percent of your gross monthly income. Therefore, the bank thinks you can devote up to 28 percent of your household income to your mortgage payment and expenses (including taxes, insurance and association dues).

Banks will also typically allow a total debt-to-income ratio of up to around 36 percent. This means that your mortgage, credit card payments, student loan payments and car payments shouldn’t exceed 36 percent of your total monthly income. (Note that if your other debt payments are already at 15 percent of your monthly income, you only have 21 percent of your income to devote to your mortgage, regardless of the 28 percent rule.)

So when you put your current income and expenses into a house affordability calculator, it will tell you how much you can afford to pay for your home per month. Then, based on factors such as estimated interest rate, tax payments, insurance payments and available down payment, it’ll tell you how much house, in total, you can afford.

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/buy-try-mortgage-size-134343468.html

Average 30-year US mortgage rate up to 4.37 pct | Bedford Corners NY Homes

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Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages rose for a third straight week as new data showed a surprisingly strong pace of new-home sales last month. Rates still remain near historically low levels.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate for the 30-year loan increased to 4.37 percent from 4.33 percent last week. The average for the 15-year mortgage rose to 3.39 percent from 3.35 percent.

A report Wednesday from the Commerce Department boosted expectations that the spring home buying season will be solid enough to lift the overall economy.

Sales of new homes rebounded in January to the fastest rate in more than five years. The strength in purchases followed a slowdown that had been linked to higher mortgage rates and severe winter weather.

Mortgage rates have risen about a full percentage point since hitting record lows roughly a year ago. The increase was driven by speculation that the Federal Reserve would reduce its $85 billion-a-month bond purchases. Deeming the economy to be gaining strength, the Fed proceeded last month with planned reductions of its bond purchases, which have helped keep long-term interest rates low.

To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country between Monday and Wednesday each week. The average doesn’t include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/average-30-us-mortgage-rate-4-37-pct-152646289–finance.html

$110 Million For This Private Island In The Upper Keys | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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[Images via Pumpkin Key]
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The 26 acre Pumpkin Key, within the exclusive confines of the Ocean Reef Club on the upper tip of Key Largo, has hit the market for a whopping $110 million. Mostly undeveloped, the Key comes with a main house, two cottages, a boat captain’s apartment, tennis courts that double as a helipad, a 20-slip marina capable of handling a superyacht, and a single family house located on shore in the Ocean Reef community with a garage and water access. The brokerbabble, however, emphasizes the island’s development potential, saying it’s “perfect for a family compound” or it “could be developed to include 12 bayfront homes owned by several families.” But then it wouldn’t be anyone’s own private island, would it.

 

http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2014/02/25/110-million-for-this-private-island-in-the-upper-keys.php