Tighter Lending Standards Affecting Home Sales

The article that is below says a lot about the current market and what is yet to come! The Northeast area is the ONLY area that has seen an increase in home sales, so possibly we are on our way out of the problem. BUT and this is a big, bold BUT we have yet to be hit from the recent mortgage fallout of the removal of "jumbo" mortgages from most lenders. A "jumbo" mortgage is a mortgage that is $417,000 or higher. So, if buyers cannot get a mortgage for the home that they want....how are they to buy it?? Which in turn will put more downward pressure on home prices.

Home prices have fallen an average of 9% since last year, some local towns have seen a drop of over 13% Raynham and Taunton being hardest hit and Berkley not too far behind.

The only thing in this market that separates a home from being "On the Market" as opposed to being "In the Market" is pricing. The difference between the 2 is HUGE....In the Market is where all the action and activity is; On the Market is above all the action and activity it's being on top of it not in it!
If you are not getting showings which leads to no offers than you are ON the market. If your home is on the market for a price that it would have SOLD for last year than you are ON the market. Please keep in mind that all numbers are relative...I mean that you will reap the savings on what you buy! A home that has a higher value than yours will ALWAYS have a higher value it will just do it on a lower range and the same goes in the reverse.

Please read the article below!!!


Tighter Lending Standards Affecting Home Builders

Despite some recent reports that the housing market may have hit its trough, the National Association of Home Builders says the bottom is still a ways off. Source: BUILDER Online News ServicePublication date: August 28, 2007

News About Home Sales Could Go From Bad to Worse
Publication date: August 28, 2007
By Noelle Knox
The news Monday from the National Association of Realtors was bad enough: Sales of existing homes fell in July to their slowest pace in five years. The glut of homes for sale is at a 16-year high. The median price is down for a record 12th month in a row.
What's really grim, though, is this: None of the figures reflect this month's turmoil in the mortgage market. Which is why the numbers will likely be even worse in coming months. And why the NAR doesn't expect the housing market to recover until early next year.

Thanks to the current credit crunch, where investors want no part of buying mortgages as an investment, home builders are having a harder time getting construction loans, would-be buyers are struggling to get mortgages, and home sellers can't find qualified buyers, the housing market downturn has further to go, says the National Association of Home Builders.

That's pressuring sellers to cut prices. "Prices would be falling even if all was well in the mortgage market," says Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics. "So in today's troubled circumstances, we have to expect steep declines for the foreseeable future."
The glut of homes for sale is at a 16-year high. The median price is down for a record 12th month in a row.
What's really grim, though, is this: None of the figures reflect this month's turmoil in the mortgage market. Which is why the numbers will likely be even worse in coming months.
And why the NAR doesn't expect the housing market to recover until early next year.
"Unfortunately, worse news lies ahead," said Nigel Gault, U.S. economist for Global Insight. "That will mean more foreclosures and fewer qualified buyers, adding up to lower home sales and prices. It is hard to see a bottom before mid-2008."
The inventory of homes for sale is at its peak since the last housing recession, in 1991. There's a 9.2-month supply of single-family homes and nearly a year's worth of condos.
Still, proving again that all real estate is local, sales in the Northeast managed to rise from June to July and were flat in the South. It was the 2.2% drop in sales in the Midwest that weighed down the national numbers.
"The Northeast saw price increases close to 6%" compared with a year ago, says Lawrence Yun, the NAR's senior economist. "That was the first region to undergo weakness, and they are now climbing out of it. That is implying other regions could follow a similar path."
Any recovery might be brief. Mark Fleming, an economist at FirstAmerican CoreLogic, says high-cost areas will suffer from cutbacks in "jumbo" loans -- those over $417,000