All About New Hampshire Real Estate!
Updated several times a week with new news and info!All the info you need!!
Our goal is to give you all the info you need regarding real estate in New Hampshire through useful data and sales info, useful links, and frequent updates on new real estate related news. In addition we can provide you access the entire New Hampshire Realtor MLS database, allowing you to search for every home listed with New Hampshire Realtors AND it's updated hourly! Plus you can now get a FREE online market analysis of your properties value with no obligation.
Current Real Estate News
(Today!) New Hampshire- Welcome to ALLABOUTNHRE.COM - Articles pertaining to New Hampshire Real Estate will be posted frequently. Included will be both articles authored by John R. Fisher, Realtor, of Prudential Verani-Foster Realty and links to articles published elsewhere. New data will be added weekly for sales and market conditions. Everyone wants to know "what's going on" and this site will tell you! Suggestions welcomed.
The 2007/2008 Mortgage and Foreclosure Crisis! If you are in trouble with your home here in New Hampshire Call Me! There "May" be a way out of it for you. No magic tricks or scams....just solid advice and the truth about your options. If you're behind on your mortgage, heading to foreclosure or simply need to sell but know your home is not worth what you owe on it give me a call on my cell at (603) 674-4675.
Read all past archived news articles by clicking here. See how I predicted all of this mortgage mess!
(5/10/08)House OKs controversial housing plan!- Well this is probably a moot point as Bush says he's going to veto this sucker. Once again Barney Frank has come up with another plan that is not going to fly. I guess after reading my blog and realizing his last plan was a no go he went back to the drawing board and came up with this one. Short version- FHA will insure troubled loans IF the lender agrees to reduce the amount of the principal by 15% (that would be $45K on a $300K loan) AND IF the buyers are qualified to repay it. Now, typical FHA loans have rules regarding the condition of a home so not sure if they have even thought of that part, waived it or will realize later what that means with a big OPPS? Either way, this is another one that will be a major flop if it ever passes. Lenders are NOT going to gleefully reduce loans by 15%! I've tried several times this year on a short sale to get them to forgive smaller amounts and they won't even talk to you. Barney and company just do not understand how the process works. I won't even get into whether or not this is a bail out for the irresponsible (Its not going to help someone that lost their job for instance as they will not qualify to repay the new loan and hence won't get it!) Barney Give me a call and I'll help you put something together that will work! (from cnn.com/) Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
(5/1/08) Foreclosure hysteria! OK time to rant and vent a bit- but in my usual informative manner:) The latest hype in the news this week screams "1 out of 194 homes in foreclosure!" My oh my! If you look at the math that's .5%! Now in an ideal world we'd have no foreclosures and beer and cable TV would be free too, but its not ideal, is it? Half a percent is not a big number no matter how you look at it. Yes yes I know its up 140% over last year etc etc but remember, particularly in our area foreclosures have typically been low. Its just like these medical reports that say if you feed 2 tons of X into a lab rat its chances of getting cancer increase 3 times and you think OMG we're all going to die! But what you don't see is the starting point for the chances of that rat getting cancer to begin with was .00002% and after feeding it X its now .00006%! Basically if you triple nothing its still nothing! Next, please consider this. A percentage of these foreclosures are what I call "convenience foreclosures". Some people who are quite capable of continuing to pay the debt they agreed to pay are walking away from their homes and their responsibility because its convenient for them. Whether its because they "Choose" to move and can't sell their home for what they paid for it or they really were speculators its a big problem no one is talking about yet. There was a couple on 60 Minutes a month or so ago that was totally capable of paying their mortgage but they choose not to and let foreclosure happen because they said "its dumb to make payments on a house that's losing value!" Ummm how about that legal document you signed committing to repaying your mortgage? It didn't have a clause in there allowing you to walk away if the market goes down! I would estimate that somewhere between 25-50% of foreclosures are exactly this scenario. I know it not politically correct and may sound like a lack of compassion but I can guarantee you that if you could interview everyone that was foreclosed on you would find a large number of people who did not really try as you would think they should to save their home. Things like going out and getting a second job? I know people that have and are doing that to save their homes. Many don't. Now... that said there are some real sad and tragic cases of people losing their homes. I know that. Its a rotten part of life that sometimes bad things happen to good people. I'm not ranting about them...its the other half.
So...I never believe in complaining without offering a solution. Here's mine but this will go about as far as a feather hit with a baseball bat. Still...its an idea. The problem now for these "convenience foreclosure" people is that the foreclosure eliminates the debt. These people are making choices for their own benefit that cost the banks and everyone money. They cost you and me money because their actions are driving house prices down in some markets. I'd say we change the foreclosure law to still work the way it does IF you meet some criteria for proving that you cannot really afford to make the payments. If you are fat and happy and driving a Lexus and have $200K in the bank then you should still be liable for any loses the lenders incur with foreclosing and selling your house. That would stop these "convenience foreclosures" in their tracks and rightly so and then the news headlines would read "FORECLOSURES DROP 50%".
(4/19/08)Home owners Losing Equity Lines!- Here's an interesting new twist to this housing dilemma. You're fat and happy and sitting comfortably in your home, peacefully riding out this market with the peace of mind knowledge that if you had to you could tap into the $100K equity credit line you smartly opened but did not use previously. Well...now with falling values some lenders are cancelling credit lines out of concern that the properties can no longer cover the equity line. Interesting eh? So.....what do you do? You could sit and hope they don't do that to you or you could pull some of the money out now before they take it away. Of course, it doesn't make any sense to pull it out and pay interest on it if you have no plans except to let it sit in a savings account. Still, if you do not have much of a cash reserve for emergencies think about taking some of that money out and parking it in a CD. That way the interest will help offset the interest you are paying for that money. Or.....there are some great bank owned deals out there that are starting to show up. If you've got a taste for risk perhaps its time to jump into this market with your money and make some more. Have you ever said, or heard your parents say, after a down market turns around, "geez I wish I had jumped in and bought something!" Just a thought! (from washingtonpost.com/) Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
(4/8/08) Pending home sales hit new nadirHere's a story from AP that's been all over the newspapers. So my first thought was "hmmmm I can't remember what a nadir is". So, courtesy of dictionary.com, it is "the lowest point; point of greatest adversity or despair." OK then if you read this article and it states that many think we have not hit bottom yet! OK so its no a nadir then is it? What you will read in other reports on this story is that it is an index that measures pending home sales and that it is at its lowest point since they began tracking this. Wow sounds nasty right? Well thankfully this article does but many have not is that it points out that this index only started in 2001 when the market was ramping up very nicely. So OF COURSE February, the worse month of the year for sales any year, would be the lowest since we are in a downturn! There was another series of articles a few weeks ago proclaiming sales fell from January to February like that is new news! Guess what? They fall every January to February and month to month is not an indicator of anything as you will start seeing stories in May that sales rose in April but they do every year. The real numbers to watch are year to year comparisons. P
(4/5/08)What's a short sale? -You may have seen a listing saying "Subject to short sale approval" or "Subject to 3rd party approval" etc... This usually indicates a scenario where the asking price is not enough to pay off the seller's loan or loans. They are looking to get the best offer they can and then submit it to the lender and see if the lender will "forgive" the amount of debt not covered by the offer. Why would a lender do this? In general, it can easily costs a lender $30-$50K to foreclose and re-sell a property. Between attorneys fees, commissions, winterizing a home, dealing with potential damage and/or vandalism, the costs can add up quickly. So...in some cases it would make sense for a lender to take a $20K loss up front instead of a larger one later. But, the process is not easy and takes time.
Many buyers and agents do not understand the process and they get frustrated with the amount of time it takes and a lack of communication from the lender. First, the lenders or the 3rd party companies they hire to handle the loan are swamped with properties to deal with. Prompt and detailed attention is NOT to be expected. Second, the offer needs to be "Clean", concise and easy to read and understand. If you put a clause such as "subject to my uncle Billy Bob looking at it" its going to get put aside.
What the lender is going to do before they accept, reject or counter your offer? Keep in mind this is a short sale, not a property that has already been foreclosed (which is a whole different set of issues I'll deal with in another article here soon.) The offer for the short sale is submitted. First, the lender will order what is called a BPO (which is a Broker Price Opinion from a real estate agent) for a rough idea on the homes value. Then they will order an appraisal to get the "actual market value". This can take weeks. Now if there is a first and a second mortgage and they are not both with the same lender then you have a whole other set of communications problems and issues. While a first mortgage takes precedence in a foreclosure, for a short sale the 2nd mortgage holder needs to "sign off" on the agreement for a closing to take place (i.e forgive debt). As an additional complication, there would be a mortgage insurance company that would also be involved. The mortgage insurance is there to protect the lender in case of a foreclosure and there in not enough money to pay off the loans. In a short sale the lender will basically say to the mortgage insurance company "hey split this loss with us otherwise its going to be foreclosed and you'll be covering the whole thing". More or less.
You can see all the different players involved and how this can take months to resolve. So if an offer comes in the day before a foreclosure you would think the lender would postpone the auction and review the offer. Some do and some don't. I've had offers that would cover all the loans ignored that came in the day before the closing. That's a generalization of the process but still it gives a glimpse into the process and why its not as easy as many think.
(4/3/08)What's going on? - OK welcome back friends. My back is all healed, the snow is melting and its time to BLOG again! How's the market? Not bad over all and great of you are a buyer. For buyers, interest rates are staying low and both individual sellers and "bank owned" properties are seeing prices not necessarily plummet but there are some great buys out there. If you look at the stats for the number of homes on the market we're way up compared to this time last year so there's still a glut of properties. Have we hit bottom? Oh.... I don't know. Historically, looking at the data and the timeline, we should be about at bottom. Those of you that have been following this blog remember my favorite saying - "You can only see the bottom of the market in your rear view mirror." I think at this point prices are going to fix the housing market by themselves. The kicker is the economy. If the economy goes south, fuel prices continue to rise and so on then that will hamper our recovery. Watch for more articles, links and data to come.
(4/3/08)Troubleshoot your turf!- Well good weather must be around the corner. Nothing helps your curb appeal like a green lawn! Here's some tips. (from cnn.com/) Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
(4/3/08)Democrats seek quick strike vs. foreclosure!- Are you as frustrated as I am about the lack of action and the stupid plans congress keeps floating out there? You have the "let them eat cake" approach and then you have the "give them filet mignon" approach! C'mon, these people we elect are supposed to be our best thinkers. Can't they come up with something better than the unworkable useless plans they've come up with so far? Here's some news on that whole subject in case you feel you need a dose of stupidity! (from cnn.com/) Click here (this link will open a new window- if it does not work right click and select "Open in a new window")
(4/3/08)What's coming up here?? - On Saturday I'll let you know about how they handle foreclosures with regards to evictions. There's a lot being done wrong here and a little of this has hit the press but I'll give you the full story and you can watch for it to the mainstream media in the future. Also, every heard of an FHA 203K loan? These are great loan programs that loan you money to buy a distressed property AND the money to fix it up! I'll update all the sales charts this coming weekend also. Welcome back friends.
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Hosted by John R. Fisher, Prudential Verani-Foster Realtors. 633 Elm St, Milford NH 03055 (603) 674-4675 (603) 459-0530
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