Tag Archives: Cross River Real Estate

Winter Maintenance Tip: Don’t Forget About Your Furnace Filter | Cross River Real Estate

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This time of year, chances are that your forced-air furnace is in daily operation. To keep the unit running smoothly, and to avoid the hassle and expense of an emergency repair, give due attention to the furnace’s filter. The right one will protect the furnace, increase its energy efficiency and even improve your home’s indoor air quality.

The importance of a furnace filter

A forced-air furnace running without any sort of filter would send dust and dirt all throughout your house while leaving the appliance vulnerable to a host of mechanical problems.

On the other hand, a furnace with a filter that’s excessively dirty would have to work harder than necessary to do its job. Such inefficiency raises the already high cost of home heating. Not to mention, a clogged filter could lead your furnace to overheat and shut down, an event that would likely entail calling in a pro for a costly fix.

Make sure that your furnace is protected and performing at its peak by checking the filter every month during winter. If the filter is dirty, you will need to replace or clean it, depending on what type of filter it is.

Choosing a furnace filter

The most common type of furnace filter is inexpensive, disposable, 1- or 2-inch-thick fiberglass. So long as you remember to do monthly replacements, this filter type will do a good job of protecting the working parts of your furnace, but it won’t do much to aid indoor air quality.

A bit more expensive are “pleated” fabric filters, which trap a higher percentage of airborne particles. Plus (at least in theory) pleated filters will last several months. But if you own pets, live with a smoker or frequently open the windows in your home, checking the filter on a monthly basis is again recommended.

Some pleated filters carry an electrostatic charge that further boosts filtration. These run about $20 apiece, but you can easily find reusable versions that will last about five years if cleaned regularly. Suffer from allergies? Consider shelling out for a HEPA-rated antimicrobial filter.

Installing a new furnace filter

I always encourage folks to consult the owner’s manual for details on their specific model of furnace, but in general, installing a new filter is simple.

The first thing to do is switch off the unit. Then locate the service panel, remove the old filter from its housing and switch in your new filter. Take care to follow the arrows (indicated both on the filter and the furnace) and face the filter in the right direction toward the blower fan. Finally, place the panel door back into position and switch the unit back on. That’s it!

Remember that HVAC systems work hard in the summer, too — usually even harder than during the cold months. For the overall comfort and health of your home, regular year-round filter checks are very important. Bite the bullet and make them part of your monthly home maintenance routine. If you need to get a new HVAC system check out these heating and cooling at wholesale prices.

 

 

via zillow.com

 

30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate Rises Slightly | Cross River Realtor

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Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed mortgages rose this week, with the current rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace at 3.28 percent, up from 3.26 percent at this same time last week.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate hovered between 3.28 and 3.32 percent for the majority of the week, dropping to the current rate this morning.

“Mortgage rates rose slightly last week, spurred by improving economic data on consumer spending, housing and jobs,” said Erin Lantz, director of Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. “In the coming week, we expect rates will be fairly flat until the markets receive more clarity around the outcome of the looming debt ceiling debate.”

Additionally, the 15-year fixed mortgage rate this morning was 2.61 percent, and for 5/1 ARMs, the rate was 2.38 percent.

What are the rates right now? Check Zillow Mortgage Marketplace for up-to-the-minute mortgage rates for your state.

*The weekly rate chart illustrates the average 30-year fixed interest rate in six-hour intervals.

via zillow.com

Home values appreciate 5.9% in 2012 | Cross River Real Estate

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1/21/13 2:33pm

U.S. home values ended 2012 up 5.9% over the end of 2011, Zillow ($33.21 0%) reported when covering national home value appreciation.

Zillow’s home value index also hit $157,400 in the fourth quarter, up 2.5% from the quarter before.

The nearly 6% annual appreciation rate was well above the typical appreciation in a healthy market and represents the largest annual gain since 2006.

“We expected 2012 to be a good year for housing, and it delivered in spades,” said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Stan Humphries. “Strong demand paired with limited inventory in many markets helped fuel a robust and often rapid recovery in overall home values, good news for homeowners after years of poor performance.”

Based on previous reports, annual home value appreciation is roughly 3% on average, according to Zillow.

Cincinnati and Chicago were the only metros of the 30 largest covered by the report that did not show quarterly increases in the fourth quarter.

Phoenix hit 22.5% year-over-year appreciation. Seven of the top 30 metros registered annual home value increases of at least 10%.

Click on the table below to see Zillow’s full home value index.

 

 

Looking into 2013, Zillow predicts home values will increase by 3.3% in 2013, much closer to historic norms.

“We expect this recovery to continue into 2013, but at a more sustainable pace,” said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Stan Humphries.

“It’s important to be cautious moving forward, even as we celebrate the undeniably positive end to 2012, and be careful that consumers don’t grow to expect such high appreciation as the norm. Buying a home should be a long-term decision, and these swings between a deep housing recession and higher-than-normal appreciation rates can give consumers whiplash and cause some to lose sight of that.” 

via housingwire.com

 

Fed Officials Saw Start of Subprime Crisis in August 2007 | Cross River Real Estate

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Federal Reserve officials in August 2007 saw the beginnings of the crisis in subprime mortgages and concluded that the U.S. economy would be able to withstand it, transcripts from their 2007 meetings show.

“Well-capitalized banks and opportunistic investors will come in and fill the gap, restoring credit flows to nonfinancial businesses and to the vast majority of households that can service their debts,” Donald Kohn, then vice chairman of the board, said in Aug. 2007 according to transcripts of the Federal Open Market Committee meetings released today in Washington.

The transcripts show the committee’s slow grasp on the enormity of contagion that was to spread throughout global markets as a result of billions of dollars in low-quality housing assets that had been securitized into bonds and sold to banks and investors worldwide.

“The odds are that the market will stabilize,” Bernanke told the committee in Aug. 2007, according to the transcripts from that year. “This restrictive effect could come in various magnitudes. It could be moderate, or it could be more severe, and we are just going to have to monitor how it adjusts over time.”

Concern about capital losses from toxic mortgage securities froze interbank lending markets and prompted runs against major investment banks. The Fed and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) rescued Bear Stearns Cos. in March 2008, and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed into bankruptcy that September. Both Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley converted to bank holding companies to access backup funding from the discount window.

Rate Unchanged

U.S. central bankers kept their benchmark lending rate unchanged at their regularly scheduled meeting on Aug. 7, 2007, saying in their statement that “the predominant policy concern remains the risk that inflation will fail to moderate as expected.”

Fed officials did have a legitimate inflation worry in 2007. Revised data shows the personal consumption expenditures price index rising at a 3.5 percent rate for the year ending that December. The unemployment rate hit a low of 4.4 percent in March and May. Still, financial markets were beginning to unravel.

via bloomberg.com

“Sand States” are Still the Wettest | Cross River Real Estate

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Some 10.7 million homeowners, or 22 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage, were in negative equity at the end of the third quarter of 2012, down by 100,000 from the second quarter. But the “sand states”, the states that dominated foreclosures for years, still account for a lion’s share of underwater borrowers.

With the addition of 100,000 borrowers, the total number of borrowers who moved from negative equity to positive equity by September reached 1.4 million year-to-date. An additional 2.3 million borrowers had less than 5 percent equity in their home, referred to as near-negative equity, at the end of the third quarter, according to a new analysis from CoreLogic.

Together, negative equity and near-negative equity mortgages accounted for 26.8 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage nationwide in the third quarter of 2012, down from 27 percent at the end of the second quarter in 2012. Nationally, negative equity decreased from $689 billion at the end of the second quarter in 2012 to $658 billion at the end of the third quarter, a decrease of $31 billion. This decrease was driven in large part by an improvement in house price levels. This dollar amount represents the total value of all homes currently underwater nationally.

Rising home values also pushed the equity Americans have in their homes higher than at it was at the onset of the housing crash five years ago, according to the December HUD Scorecard. Homeowners’ equity reached $7714.3 billion, a 5.2 percent increase over the second quarter and an 18 percent increase over the level of $6526.9 in the third quarter of 20011. In 2007, homeowners’ equity reached $1.02 trillion, but fell to $7050.9 billion in 2008, according to the quarterly Federal Reserve’s Flow of Funds report.

Negative equity has been a major cause of foreclosures and short sales. Even three years after the height of the foreclosure flood in 2010, a handful of states that were reasonable then for the majority of the foreclosures are the same states that today are home to an overabundance of underwater homes.

Nevada had the highest percentage of mortgaged properties in negative equity at 56.9 percent, followed by Florida (42.1 percent), Arizona (38.6 percent), Georgia (35.6 percent) and Michigan (32 percent). These top five states combined account for 34 percent of the total amount of negative equity in the U.S.

Of the total $658 billion in aggregate negative equity, first liens without home equity loans accounted for $323 billion aggregate negative equity, while first liens with home equity loans accounted for $334 billion.

Third quarter highlights included:

  • 6.6 million upside-down borrowers hold first liens without home equity loans. The average mortgage balance for this group of borrowers is $214,000. The average underwater amount is $49,000.
  • 4.1 million upside-down borrowers possess both first and second liens. The average mortgage balance for this group of borrowers is $298,000.The average underwater amount is $82,000.
  • Approximately 41 percent of borrowers with first liens without home equity loans had loan-to-value (LTV) ratios of 80 percent or higher and approximately 61 percent of borrowers with first liens and home equity loans had combined LTVs of 80 percent or higher.
  • At the end of the third quarter 2012, 17.1 million borrowers possessed qualifying LTVs between 80 and 125 percent for the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) under the original requirements first introduced in March 2009. The lifting of the 125 percent LTV cap via HARP 2.0 opens the door to another 4.6 million borrowers.
via realestateeconomywatch.com