Rehoboth Beach Real Estate Blog - coastal delaware

Listing Agent, Buyers' Agent, Sellers' Agent: Who is My Agent?

Buyers’ agent, sellers’ agent. In every Coastal Delaware real estate transaction, the differences are easy to understand, right? Not quite.  

For openers, that sellers' agent may also be called the ‘listing agent’ – both mean the same thing. The ‘trapdoor’ is a further complication that comes into play once a contract is in place -- after which the buyer’s agent may also properly be called the ‘selling’ agent!

The potential confusion between seller’s agent and selling agent doesn’t usually have much practical significance: after all, by then, everyone should know the cast of characters and who represents whom. But it can come into play if buyer or seller are not actually present here in Rehoboth Beach to keep the names and duties sorted out -- but…

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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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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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