The Holidays Can Be a Great Time For First Time Home Buyers to Get Into the Real Estate Market
A slower market can be a great place for a first-time homebuyer to start to dip their toes into the market. Most agents will be advising their sellers to bring their homes onto the market after the first of the year. Usually at this time of year hardly anyone is looking to buy, distracted by Holiday spending and the New Year. Talk about slow, there are only 14 homes on Brokers Tour for all of Oakland, Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito and Richmond for this week!
Buyers can use this slow down to make sure that they have their pre-qualification letters in place, have discussed monthly payments with their lenders, and have established a comfortable offer maximum. Knowing that your lender is ready, and exactly how much home your family can afford will allow you to start shopping and offering with confidence when the market begins to pick up with new inventory again after January first.
This slow Holiday period is also a great time to go back to homes that you viewed over the past couple of months, and find out from your agent what they closed for. This will give you a good idea of what prices for comparable homes in size to what you want, in neighborhoods you like sold for. This is great preparation to be able to make a competitive offer for similar homes after the new year.
Mortgage Debt Relief Extension
The fiscal cliff looms heavy. I saw an interesting graphic today that showed that Oakland was breaking records nation wide for speed of closings. This I believe is partly a side effect of the Mortgage Debt Relief Act not having been extended yet, despite approval by the Senate Finance Committee back in September. Sellers have been needing fast all cash closes on short sales to get the homes sold before the MDR Act expires at the end of the year. The short sale listings now advertise must close by 12/31/12. If home owners are forced to pay income tax on the amount they are underwater on their loans if they short sale, foreclosure becomes the only option in an under water housing market. A significant increase in foreclosures will be hard on the cities that will be blighted with the vacant homes, it will be hard on sellers who have lost so much value in their homes and have no other options, it will mean less inventory for buyers who will owner occupy, but need financing to buy. I'm sure the banks are not prepared to deal with the flood of foreclosures to come if this legislation is not extended. Let's hope our government can get it together on these tax issues before the end of the year. Check out this article if you are my neighbor in Oakland, Berkeley or Albany you can contact our local representative Barbara Lee by e-mail here. Send a note to Barbara, or your local representative in the days to come, so that they don't lose sight of this important piece of our economic recovery.
Sunday at the Opera
This past Sunday was such a treat. I attended a matinee performance of Puccini's Tosca at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House. SF Opera Diva Angela Gheorghiu was stunning, she sang beautifully and acted her heart out, the whole cast was her equal in level of performance. If you are new to Opera I highly suggest beginning with a Puccini. Angela Gheorghiu starred in a Tosca movie, a clip of which I found on youtube. Enjoy!
FREE PARKING
In order to encourage local shopping for gifts this Holiday season Oakland is offering FREE PARKING every Saturday from now until the New Year. This includes some City owned lots as well as all Meters! I picked up a couple of books at The Book Tree in Montclair Village over the weekend. The free parking was the icing on the cake.
CLICK HERE for a list of City Owned Lots that will also be offering the free Holiday parking
Neighborhood Stabalization Program
The NSP program provided HUD funds to Cities and Counties around the State to use in cooperation with non-profit developers. The developers used the funds to buy discount foreclosed homes direct from banks and rehab them for sale to moderate income home buyers for owner occupancy.
The NSP program works to provide nice, affordable single family homes in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, and helps neighborhoods turn vacant often blighted foreclosures into owner occupied communities.
The NSP program homes can be a great alternative to owning a Below Market Rate (BMR) home.
For more information on NSP program income limits, locating NSP homes, or the qualification process you can click the links below:
Alameda County NSP For-Sale Program Information
HomeHub.com for available NSP Homes in the neighborhoods you are looking
Hayward NSP Home After Photo
Rain
As a Realtor I'm enjoying this rain. Viewing a home after it has rained can tell you a lot about the type of soil a house is on, and what the property drainage and neighboring homes drainage situations are. Not to mention what kind of condition a roof is in!
While observing a home during inclement weather is no substitution for a good home inspection, it sure can give you a good idea of what issues a home might be facing for free.
Rain or Shine