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Tips For Home Sellers In Today’s Market

Make Your House FHA-Loan Friendly Know the basics of FHA loan rules and you stand a better chance of selling your house or condo. Read 6 Reasons to Reduce Your Home Price While you’d like to get the best price for your home, consider our six reasons to reduce your home price. Read 7 Tips [...]

Pending Home Sales on an Upswing

Pending home sales increased again in March, affirming that a surge of home sales is unfolding for the spring home buying season, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in March, rose 5.3 percent to 102.9 from 97.7 in February, and is 21.1 [...]

Extend the $8000 Homebuyer Tax Credit?

Homebuyer tax credit best tool for sustaining housing recovery WASHINGTON – Oct. 8, 2009 – The best tool for sustaining the still-fragile housing market is the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit, and it’s essential that Congress extend the credit into 2010, the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) testified at a hearing of the U.S. House Small [...]

Property Appraisal is an ART, NOT a SCIENCE.

PROPERTY APPRAISAL IS AN ART, NOT A SCIENCE. That’s what Florida law says.   It’s an art!  However, unlike a piece of art you may purchase from a gallery,  you have no choice in who the artist is or the quality of the piece you are buying.  That is if you are involved in a real [...]

Numbers Add Up – House Price Declines At Bottom And Turning Around

RISMEDIA, September 8, 2009-House prices in the U.S. continued to depreciate in the second quarter 2009 but at a much more moderate rate compared to the fourth quarter 2008, the peak of the collapse in home prices, according to a quarterly housing valuation analysis by IHS Global Insight. Prices fell at a 2.7% annualized rate [...]

Hearing Dates for 2009 Property Tax and Millage Rates in Hillsborough County, Florida.

August 31, 2009 2009 Property Tax and Millage Update For your convenience, a reminder of the public hearing dates for the determination of 2009 millage rates is attached. You are welcome to pass this information on to your associates, family members, clients and neighbors.  Meetings are open to the public to give you an opportunity [...]

Pending Home Sales Breaking Records.

WASHINGTON – Sept. 1, 2009 – Contract activity for pending home sales has risen for six straight months, a pattern not seen in the history of the index since it began in 2001, according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in July, [...]

CONDO SALES also on the RISE IN FLORIDA

Florida’s existing home sales rose in June – the 10th consecutive month that sales activity showed gains in the year-to-year comparison, according to the latest housing data released by the Florida Association of Realtors® (FAR). Statewide sales in June also increased over the previous month’s sales level in both the existing home and existing condominium [...]

U.S. House Price Index – 0.9 Percent Price Increase

NEWS RELEASE   For Immediate Release    July 22, 2009 U.S. Monthly House Price Index Estimates 0.9 Percent Price Increase from April to May WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. home prices rose 0.9 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis from April to May, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s monthly House Price Index. The previously reported 0.1 percent [...]

Appraisers “MUST BE FAMILIAR WITH LOCAL MARKET”

Many of you know that FAIR APPRAISALS are a topic I am very much concerned about.  I’ve published several articles talking about the potential undermining of neighborhood values due to poor appraisals.  I won’t go into detail here.  I’m delighted to see that I am not alone in this sentiment.  Freddie Mac Calls for Appropriate [...]