In the spring, many excited buyers get ready to enter the housing market. Others continue dreaming about the homes they’d like to buy. The truth is, many potential buyers continue to dream longer than they need to, simply because they’re confused about the homebuying process. Thankfully, working with a trusted real estate professional can help ease those concerns and make the process to homeownership much easier to understand.

A recent survey conducted by Ipson and Freddie Mac reveals the confidence level of Gen Z and Millennial buyers regarding the homebuying process. The graph below... Read more

The golden city of Sacramento, California, is has a vibrant past. The recent government program, 2-1-1 Sacramento, provides the citizens with information about all the government services available to them. 2-1-1 Sacramento addresses various community services including housing, education, medicine, employment, finance, schools, children and women health and food programs and many more.

The culture, sports, music and arts in Sacramento is unique in its own way. The presence of theatres, museums, sports fields and constant opportunity for artists and sportsmen to display their skills, ... Read more

The Sacramento Community Services Planning Council founded the 2-1-1 Sacramento service. This service is free of cost and is available to the residents all days of the week, round the clock! Special services are provided to the disabled. A special feature of this service is that assistance is rendered in many languages. This program is the combined initiative of the Sacramento Commissions for housing, human help, aging agency, courts, security of homeland, employment and emergency services.

The 2-1-1 service database includes over 2,400 registered non profit organizations. The traine... Read more

FHA loans soar in Sacramento area

The number of government-backed FHA loans jumped sharply last year, propping up a local real estate market otherwise saturated by loan denials.

During 2008, lenders issued 8,998 FHA loans in the Sacramento region, up from 649 during 2007, according to statistics released this week by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.

"There’s been such a shift in available financing as the market bottoms out," said Larry Bush, a regional spokesman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

FHA loa... Read more

July 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. home prices had the smallest annual drop in 10 months, signaling the free fall of property values is abating in the three-year housing slump at the center of a global recession.

Prices declined 5.6 percent in May from a year earlier and rose 0.9 from April, the Federal Housing Finance Agency in Washington said today. Economists expected a 0.2 percent drop for the month, according to the median of 16 estimates in a Bloomberg survey.

“We saw a rebound of home prices in some parts of the country in part because the share of distressed sales dipped,”... Read more

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s new rules are raising appraisal costs, critics say

http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-fi-harney17-2009may17,0,5903005.story

The rules, intended to improve the accuracy of home valuations, push most large lenders to use third-party appraisal management companies.


Reporting from Washington -- How about this scenario the next time you refinance or apply for a mortgage: The real estate appraisal that used to cost you $325 now costs $450, even though the appraiser doing the work is getting only $175 or $200.
Read more

Co-signing FHA loan has strings attached

REThink Real Estate
By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Friday, May 15, 2009.

Inman News

http://www.inman.com/buyers-sellers/columnists/tara-nicholle-nelson/co-signing-fha-loan-has-strings-attached


Flickr photo by ethorson.Q: We have income that we are unable to document on our FHA loan application. We need to qualify for just $50,000 more than we are approved for. We have elected to have a co-signer, but we would like to have a co-signer release after 12 months of on-time payments built into the loan. We do not want o... Read more

Monday, March 30, 2009- Posted by Inman News
The facts on FHA-insured loans
The Ups and Downs of FHA: The importance of Federal Housing Administration-insured loans in the home mortgage market has changed markedly over the years. This has been due less to changes in the FHA itself than to changes in the broader market in which it operates.

In the early 1990s, FHA had about 15 percent of the home purchase market. In subsequent years through 2006, FHA lost business to the growing subprime market, which took many borrowers who could have gone FHA. In addition, FHA lost business t... Read more

by Paul Pastore

1. Selection, selection, selection. There are about 57,000 resale homes on the market in Maricopa county(Phoenix). Regardless of the price range a buyer desires, there are plenty of houses from which to choose. Just a few years ago the resale inventory dropped below 5,000 units. A buyer was forced to make compromises if they were going to locate the home of their dreams. There is a great selection of attached homes, condos, and townhouses. You can find large lots, small lots, and a lot that will accommodate your boat or RV. There are lots of options in this market. Read more