Blog entries tagged Selling

The Complexity of Square Footage in Real Estate

Nick Will — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:38:49 +0100

Square footage is the most common driver of a comparables approach to market valuation of real estate. For example #SF x average comparable sale price per square foot = market value assessment. There are other methods of valuation, but this is most common. It's also laden with complexity.

The Houston MLS system not only requires a SFRead More...

First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit to 04-2010 This Week?

Nick Will — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:27:23 +0100

The Seattle Post PI.com is reporting that after clearing a Senate hurdle this week that the New Home Buyer Tax Credit of $8,000 is widely expected to pass congress this week to extend the credit into the spring season of 2010, which would be most welcome across the country. The program essentially creates a refundable $8,000 tax credit for qualified first-time home buyer tax credits (some limitations apply and "first" doesn't always mean "first"). This is very welcome news.

New vs Resale Stats: More of My Case

Nick Will — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:18:04 +0100

The inestimable Lucia Mutikani reports for Reuters that existing home sales rose to a 2-year high in September. These numbers are more meaningful than how, in two posts ago as I mentioned, new home builders have just been messing all over themselves. From Mutikani's article:
The National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes jumped 9.4 percent in September to an annual rate of 5.57 million units, the highest level since July 2007. Financial markets had expected sales to rise to aRead More...

Rules on Choice of Title Company - Buyer Be(A)ware

Nick Will — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:24:14 +0100

The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act was passed by the U.S. Congress in 2008 to govern certain aspects of closing most residential transactions in the United States. RESPA had a giant impact on how business is conducted in certain segments of the real estate industry, especially in title/escrow companies and mortgage lending companies.

The Housing and Urban Development Agency is the regulator of the Act, as it is the closing statements used in most residential transactRead More...

New Home Sales Stats: Some Truth to Power

Nick Will — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:41:56 +0100

Okay so new home sales numbers weren't reported to be up last week. So? First of all, the housing market is local in nature. If all politics is local as Tip O'Neill said, then real estate and housing is darn near skin-tight.

Here's what Deutsche Bank said in the linked article above: "Overall, we think today's weak number supports our contention that based on waning government stimulus the housing recovery could end up being W-shaped..." What blather.

&nbsRead More...

Don't Let Decorations Linger

Nick Will — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:32:38 +0100

Holiday decorations are a wonderful thing and frankly they help property values. Residents in Northampton and The Woodlands have been delighting kids and families for 40 years during every holiday, and residents of the newer sections of those communities and of Auburn Lakes, Wimbledon Falls, Augusta Pines, Gleannloch Farms, Magnolia, you name it -- the residents and associations and many clubs and organizations go all out, especially for these big holidays like Halloween, which are a total hoRead More...

Buyers Gaining Interest: Web Stats

Nick Will — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:58:01 +0100

The website alexa.com tracks various statistics regarding web traffic across the Internet worldwide. Its methods are sometimes questioned - full disclosure - they use a large sample of people who download their "toolbar" is how I understand they get their sample. Nonetheless it's a commonly referenced source for Internet traffic statistics.

So today I pulled the recent traffic for HAR.com, the Houston Association of Realtors's public version of the Multiple Listing Service fRead More...

Housing Starts at 9 Month High: Things Turning?

Nick Will — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:57:12 +0100

From Reuters on Friday:

The Commerce Department said on Thursday housing starts rose 1.5 percent from July to an annual rate of 598,000 units, a touch below market forecasts for 600,000 units.
In another report, the Labor Department said the number of workers filing new claims for jobless benefits fell by 12,000 last week to 545,000, the lowest level since early July, defying market expectations for a rise to 555,000.

This is very encouraging. Both housing starts are at a 9-month hRead More...

Sell Well Now.

Nick Will — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:29:28 +0100

We've recently completed a review of year-over-year sales figures in our general market area, and the results confirm a dynamic we've noted for several months now: inventory is low, which is supporting values of quality properties.

Year over year, each quarter (and month) is showing a steep decline in activity - not necessarily value, as is the case in other cities and states. In Houston and particularly surrounding areas, we see that in our market, there are fewer sales beiRead More...