Rehoboth Beach Real Estate Blog

Short Sales Outnumber Foreclosure Sales For Third Straight Quarter

Foreclosure-tracker RealtyTrac reports falling foreclosure sales nationwide as banks get better at selling homes via short sale.
In its Q3 2012 report, RealtyTrac says that 193,059 homes in some stage of foreclosure were sold, accounting for 19% of all residential home sales. In addition, pre-foreclosure sales -- also known as "short sales" -- climbed 22% on a year-over-year basis.

For the first time since 2007, the number of short sales outnumbered the number of homes sold in foreclosure over three consecutive quarters.

The average price of a short sale home fell by 5 percent as compared to a year ago which may reflect an eagerness on the part of mortgage lenders to dispose of distressed properties before they fall into foreclosure. Foreclosures can…

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Wall Street, Your Street, & Coastal Delaware Real Estate Listings

When you check into the latest real estate listings in Coastal Delaware, you come away with an accurate snapshot of our current market. But when you are thinking of the future, and where values might be headed, it’s also useful to think nationally.

Useful, yes: but careful! There is a tendency to mentally equate the equities market averages – Dow Jones, S&P, Nasdaq – with the real estate market. They are certainly related: one of the causes of the 2008 Dow plunge was the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, which led to the glut of foreclosed homes in realty listings. Yet, the two markets are far from identical. 

According to Yale University professor Robert Shiller, the number one driver of the value of realty listings is momentum. If the prices…

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A Look into Rehoboth Beach Condos and Future Value

Condominiums in Rehoboth Beach continue to offer unique attractions for all kinds of homebuyers -- not least because of their often ultra-competitive price points. Nationally, condos continue to be real bargains -- statistics show them to continue to underperform the rest of the housing market, which translates into a tempting value proposition to home hunters with economy on their minds.

That local condos for sale may still offer top-notch value is, historically speaking, not a surprise. Often, condos are the first part of the market to register price drops (and slower than other segments to recover). The NAR confirms the national trend, with existing single-family home prices rising 10.2% from a year earlier, while existing condos’ and co-ops’ rose a…

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Simple Explanation Of The Federal Reserve Statement (December 12 , 2012)

The Federal Open Market Committee voted to leave the Fed Funds Rate unchanged within its current target range of 0.000-0.250 percent Wednesday.
For the tenth consecutive meeting, the FOMC vote was nearly unanimous. Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker was the lone dissenter in the 9-1 vote.
The Fed Funds Rate has been near zero percent since December 2008.
In its press release, the Federal Reserve noted that, since its last meeting in late-October, the U.S. economy has expanded "at a moderate pace" despite "weather-related disruptions". It also acknowledged that "strains in global financial markets" remain a threat to U.S. economic growth.
This comment is in direct reference to the Eurozone, its sovereign debt concerns, and its nation's…

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The Federal Reserve Begins A 2-Day Meeting Today

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) begins a 2-day meeting today, its last of 8 scheduled meetings this year.

The Federal Open Market Committee is a 12-person subcommittee within the Federal Reserve. It's the group which votes upon U.S. monetary policy.

The monetary policy action for which the FOMC is most well-known is its setting of the Fed Funds Funds. The Fed Funds Rate is the interest rate at which banks borrow money from each other overnight. Since late-2008, the Fed Funds Rate has been near zero percent.

Prime Rate, a business and consumer interest rate used in lines of credit and credit card rates, is based on the Fed Funds Rate. Prime Rate has been similarly unchanged since 2008.
One rate which the Federal Reserve does not set is the 30-year…

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What's Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week : December 10, 2012

Mortgage bonds worsened last week as Fiscal Cliff talks moved closer to resolution and as the U.S. economy showed continued signs of growth.

Conforming mortgage rates in Delaware rose slightly, edging off the all-time lows late in November.

According to Freddie Mac's weekly mortgage rate survey, the average 30-year fixed rate conforming mortgage rate was 3.34% last week for home buyers and refinancing households willing to pay 0.7 discount points at closing plus a full set of closing costs.

Freddie Mac also showed the 15-year fixed rate mortgage averaging 2.67% with an accompanying 0.7 discount points plus closing costs.

1 discount point is equal to 1 percent of your loan size.

The two big stories that moved rates worse last week were the Fiscal…

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In the Wake of Coastal Sussex Home Foreclosures

Back in the day when home foreclosures in Rehoboth Beach were truly rare, people who had just gone through one had little knowledge of what the ultimate repercussions would be. Although home foreclosures are still to be avoided if at all possible, the circumstances that created many recent ones are often understandable. Just about everyone in and out of the banking and real estate industries has seen otherwise responsible individuals fall victim to outside economic conditions.

Understandable though individual home foreclosures may be, future lenders will still follow hard and fast guidelines. If home foreclosures -- in Rehoboth Beach or elsewhere -- are in your recent past, putting yourself back on the right track to home ownership will take close…

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Profit from Early Decisions When Selling a House

According to a recent survey, nine out of ten REALTORS® believe that clients who make improvements before selling a house are more likely to secure a successful sale. Why, you may wonder, would anyone take the trouble to run a survey to discover anything that obvious? Possibly because of a follow-up question Realty Times came up with: 65.9% of real estate agents – virtually two out of three – agree that a common mistake among homeowners is not making "the right" home improvements for the local market.

Uh-oh! Remodeling in the wrong direction can cost you twice! If it’s such a common mistake, it’s safe to say it might be best to consult an agent before rolling up your sleeves (or opening your checkbook). Active Rehoboth Beach agents are constantly noting…

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Right Answers for Avoiding Wrong Contractors

Lately, as national home values have continued to rise, area homeowners have had reason to feel a lot more comfortable with the part of their portfolio that Lewes home values represent. You didn’t have to be thinking of buying or selling to welcome the turnaround.

Of course, homeowners don’t need to feel like helpless prisoners of overall trends when it comes to their own home values. Home improvement projects can significantly raise those values. Yet the opposite is possible -- although it rarely happens, in the worst cases, projects gone wrong can actually damage underlying home values!

Here are some important areas to bear in mind when you are evaluating potential contractors. If you make them a part of your interviewing process, the candidates…

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Remembering Rehoboth Beach Homes’ Long-Term Value

When you search through the latest listings of Rehoboth Beach homes, you first find those that fit your top-line needs. Then you winnow down that list. Some of the candidates will seem more appealing than others; and some will seem to be over- or underpriced.

Before making a final judgment on which homes bear a closer look, the most successful homebuyers also factor in qualities that may not be at the top of their own personal priorities list, yet which make a difference to the majority of homebuyers. In other words, they keep in mind the most important qualities that add value in market terms – that add investment value to homes that are principally your personal residential choice. Some of the more important ones:

• Location has a huge impact on a…

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