Today, that strategy is still used in some hot niche markets that defy the national trend. Listings in some locations and some price ranges are in high demand. If the inventory of listings in these areas is low, it creates an imbalance that favors sellers in what is otherwise a buyer’s market.

For example, one listing in Piedmont, Calif., a city with a great public school system, recently sold for $200,000 over the list price. The seller waited to hear offers until after two public open houses and a broker open house. Had he accepted offers earlier, he might not have done as well.

HOUSE HUNTING TIP: Waiting to hear offers can cost you money if your home isn’t priced right for the market. If you price too high and also insist on waiting to hear offers, you’re letting agents and their buyers know that you expect to sell for an unwarranted price.

On an overpriced listing, if offers aren’t written by the designated date, you need to lower the asking price, usually by a significant amount, in order to rekindle enthusiasm for the property.

It’s natural for sellers to want to get as much money as possible for their homes, particularly if they have a high mortgage balance. It’s important to remember that the market sets the price, not the seller’s expectations, dreams or how much they owe against the property.

One of the hardest exercises for sellers is to look at their home objectively, through the eyes of buyers who are hypercritical. Sometimes it helps for sellers to look at open houses of listings in their neighborhood that are similar to their home. However, some sellers are so emotionally attached to their homes that looking at other listings only strengthens their resolve that their home is worth more.

It’s imperative for sellers to detach themselves from their homes in order to price for the market. Even in the hot segments of the market, overpriced listings don’t sell. It helps to have an objective party advising you. Choose a local real estate agent who you respect and trust to represent you in the sale of your home.

Ask your agent to explain to you how your home compares with comparable listings that have sold in your area recently. What you might consider a benefit to your house may not be desirable in buyers’ eyes. Listing at a price that’s too high for the market will only hurt the marketability of your home in the long run.

Some buyers have an aversion to making an offer in competition against other buyers, especially if the news is that prices may not have hit bottom. In this case, you might not want to broadcast that you’re waiting to hear offers until a specific date.

Here’s another strategy to consider. Have your real estate agent tell agents and buyers who inquire about your game plan for offers that you haven’t set a date, but that you want your home to have exposure to the market before you hear offers. In this case, you would at least want to have broad Internet advertising with photos, an open house for agents, and a public open house.

THE CLOSING: Putting off buyers who are interested in your home could backfire. So, don’t wait too long if there are buyers who are serious about making offers.

Dian Hymer, a real estate broker with more than 30 years’ experience, is a nationally syndicated real estate columnist and author of “House Hunting: The Take-Along Workbook for Home Buyers” and “Starting Out, The Complete Home Buyer’s Guide.”

An argument can be made that lower housing prices will hurt the economy today, but help the economy in the long run. How can that be? Well, let us present an excerpt from a Washington Post article summarized in the news section below: Young buyers “will be able to enter the housing market at bargain prices,” argues NAR economist Lawrence Yun. When home prices again rise, increases will parallel income gains, meaning that the relative burden of housing costs will remain roughly stable, Yun says. What a great time to be young–when purchasing a home is the most affordable it has been in over forty years! These low prices will hurt homeowners who are under water today but will set the stage for a much more robust housing sector for the next generation. In some respects, higher oil prices can help the economy in the long run as well. Higher oil prices may force us to come up with alternative energy sources more quickly, paving the way for energy independence. So, while we must acknowledge the pain that higher oil prices and lower housing prices are ca using our population today, we also would be remiss in not looking at what could be a brighter future. That being said, the floods will recede and thus the refineries will no longer be threatened. If supply and demand come back into balance, we could see some easing of gas prices if the speculators would just start purchasing real estate instead of oil futures! Of course, we don’t expect any economic advisors to be taking our advice–but we can always dream.

Article and commentary are provided by Ken Levesque, Franklin American Mortgage and is intended for general information only and should not be relied on as legal or financial advice. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of EXIT New Options Real Estate or Franklin American Mortgage Company.

WALTHAM, Mass. – May 3, 2011 – The Massachusetts Association of REALTORS® (MAR) reported today that the number of single-family homes and condominiums put under agreement in April went up for the third straight time compared to the month before. On an annual basis, both single-family and condominium pending sales were down from the same time last year, which was the final month for people to put a home under agreement to take advantage of the home buyer tax credit in 2010.

“While we would like to see increased buyer interest translate into more accepted offers, we still continue to move in a positive direction from last month,” said 2011 MAR President Laurie Cadigan, broker-owner of Barrett & Company in Concord. “Year-to-year pending home sales was down understandably this past April compared to April 2010, a month that had the most homes put under agreement since we’ve been tracking this data, as it was the last month to take advantage of the home buyer tax credit.”

The number of single-family homes put under agreement in April was down 24.2 percent compared to the same time last year (5,580 homes in 2010 to 4,230 homes in 2011). This is the 4th straight month of year-over-year decreases. The 5,580 homes put under agreement in April 2010, was the most in a month since MAR has been tracking this data. On a month-to-month basis, single-family homes put under agreement were up 5.1 percent from 4,023 homes in March. This is the 3rd straight month-to-month gain.

The number of condos put under agreement in April was down 27 percent compared to April 2010 (2,292 units in 2010 to 1,676 units in 2011). This is the 12th straight month of year-over-year decreases. On a month-to-month basis, condos put under agreement were up 1.6 percent from 1,649 units in March. This is also the 3rd straight month-to-month gain for condominiums.

What makes us think that the demand will arise to continue to shrink the shadow inventory? The population of America is rising. We had shrinkage of household formulation during the recession and this masked the continuing rise in population. Tight credit conditions also turned many potential homeowners into renters, though many are renting houses. However, the news that the economy has now produced 400,000 jobs in the past two months is the continuance of a reversal of this trend. As America goes back to work, household formulation will rise again and there will be significant latent demand uncovered. We understand that two months of data does not guarantee the whole trend reverses itself. We lost about eight million jobs during the recession and the workforce grows by 150,000 monthly. So we have a long way to go, but the trend is moving in the right direction. The key is moving from a vicious to a virtuous cycle. More jobs create demand. Demand creates more jobs. And all this will help loosen credit conditions as a stronger economy will help convince banks to have faith in the average American again. You may be hearing the ‘bad news’ regarding home prices right now–but this is a story that may be changing faster than many analysts have envisioned. Even the Federal Reserve Board is taking notice as a member stated this week that the Fed may be raising rates by the end of this year.
This article is provide compliment of Ken Levesque, Franklin American Mortgage, Articles and commentary are provided for general information only and should not be relied on as legal or financial advice. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Franklin American Mortgage Company. Ken can be reached at 603-232-8243 or klevesque@franklinamerican.com

The number of foreclosure notices filed in February dropped 14% compared with a month earlier and 27% compared with a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac.

* Foreclosures plunge 27% – biggest drop on record
* Foreclosures make up 26% of home sales
* Bright spot for mortgages: Missed payments ease
* ARMs helped sink the economy – now they’re back!
* Foreclosures are falling – but it’s a fake out

That was the biggest year-over-year decline the company has ever recorded. But the improvement may be exaggerated, according to RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio, who traced some of the decline to the fallout over robo-signing issues.

“Allegations of improper foreclosure processing continued to dog the mortgage servicing industry and disrupt court dockets,” he said. “The industry is in the midst of a major overhaul that has severely restricted its capacity to process foreclosures.”

Another contributing factor was the harsh winter weather that covered much of the country during the month. That delayed some of the paperwork processing and the serving of notices of default, notices of auction sales and other filings.

There were still more than 225,000 filings during the month, or one for every 577 homes. The banks repossessed 64,643 homes from delinquent borrowers, down significantly from the peak of about 102,000 last September.

The foreclosure fall flew in the face of other housing market reports that made it clear that housing is far from being out of the woods. S&P/Case-Shiller reported that prices are going down, and Zillow, the real estate website, said nearly 30% of borrowers with mortgages owe more than their homes are worth.

Looking to the future, the 50 state attorney generals seem to be making progress in their pursuit of a financial settlement with the banks over the robo-signing mess.

“We believe some of the servicers have slowed foreclosures as they wait to see how the settlement talks play out,” said RealtyTrac spokesman Rick Sharga, who expects a huge spike in filings over the next few months.

One segment of the industry that could benefit from the foreclosure drop, — no matter how artificial — is new home builders. “It’s definitely good for them,” said Pat Newport, a housing market analyst with IHS Global Insight. “It makes it easier for them to compete in the market.”

The builders have run up against bargain-basement pricing as the banks sell off their steady flood of repossessed homes. If that flood ebbs, it should firm up pricing and make it easier for developers to sell their new homes and make a profit.

Home building contributes much to the overall economy. A pick-up from the current low rate of sales, which is down about 75% from the peak, would result in many new jobs.

“Existing home sales produce some economic activity but it pales in comparison with new home sales,” said David Crowe, the chief economist for the national Association of Home Builders. “We calculate that for every 100,000 homes built, it creates 150,000 construction jobs but another 150,000 manufacturing jobs building refrigerators, furniture and other products.”
Worst-hit states

Three of the four “Sand States,” Nevada (one filing for every 119 housing units), Arizona (one in 222) and California (one in 239) held their places at the top of the list of hardest hit states. Utah is the new number four, followed by Idaho, Georgia and Michigan.

Florida (one in 472), however, has slipped down the list to number eight. Filings dropped more than 65% year-over-year.

Part of the reason for Florida’s improvement may have been the fall-out from the robo-signing issue. Foreclosures involve court hearings in the Sunshine State and many cases have been delayed by judges.

“Judicial foreclosure states recorded the most severe drops in foreclosures,” said Sharga.

March 10, 2011

Foreclosure-related filings against U.S. homes fell 14 percent from January to February and were down 27 percent from a year ago — the biggest year-over-year drop recorded by data aggregator RealtyTrac since it began issuing reports in 2005.

RealtyTrac said 225,101 homes were subjected to a default notice, auction notice or bank repossession in February — a three-year low that the company attributed to continued fallout from the robo-signing controversy.

RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio noted that February is a short month, and that a small part of the decrease could also be attributed to bad weather.

But the “bottom line is that the industry is in the midst of a major overhaul that has severely restricted its capacity to process foreclosures,” he said. “We expect to see the numbers bounce back, but that will likely take several months.”

Foreclosure filings may never return to a March 2010 peak, when more than 367,000 properties were subjected to filings, he said.

Lenders repossessed 64,643 U.S. properties in February, down 17 percent from January and 18 percent from a year ago. That was a 22-month low, and a 37 percent drop from a September 2010 peak, when lenders added 102,134 homes to their real estate owned (REO) inventories.

Bank repossessions were down 24 percent from January and 35 percent from a year ago in states with a judicial foreclosure process. In states with a nonjudicial foreclosure process, repossessions were down 14 percent from January and 8 percent from a year ago.

In states with a judicial foreclosure process, default notices decreased 19 percent from January to February, and were down 48 percent from a year ago. In states with a nonjudicial foreclosure process, default notices decreased 13 percent from January and were down 31 percent from the same month a year ago.

Nevada posted the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate, as it has for 50 months running. One in every 119 Nevada housing units was subjected to a foreclosure filing in February, compared with one in 577 for the U.S. as a whole.

Arizona posted the nation’s second-highest state foreclosure rate (one filing per 178 housing unit), followed by California (1 in 239), Utah (1 in 273), Georgia (1 in 317), Michigan (1 in 324), Florida (1 in 472), Colorado (1 in 515) and Hawaii (1 in 541).

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  Fielding a Lowball Purchase Offer on Your Home

  Consider before you ignore or outright refuse a very low purchase offer for your home. A counteroffer and negotiation could turn that low purchase offer into a sale. Read

* 78% believe housing prices will hold steady or increase over the next twelve months, up from 73% in January 2010

* Almost two-thirds still believe the economy is on the wrong track, virtually unchanged (61%) from the beginning of last year

The Fannie Mae Fourth Quarter National Housing Survey, conducted between October 2010 and December 2010, polled home owners and renters to assess their confidence in home ownership as an investment, the current state of their household finances, views on the U.S. housing finance system, and overall confidence in the economy.

“More Americans believe that housing prices will remain stable over the next year,” said Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan. “We also are seeing encouraging signs in the positive attitudes toward home ownership among younger Americans, despite the severe impact of the housing crisis on Generation Y. But most respondents to our survey continue to lack confidence in the strength of the economic recovery, and they are less optimistic about their ability to buy a home in the years ahead. This sense of uncertainty is weighing on the housing recovery today and reshaping expectations for housing for the future.”
Hispanics, African-Americans upbeat on home ownership

Younger Americans, Hispanics, and African-Americans are generally more positive about owning a home than the general population. Fifty- nine percent of Generation Y (ages 18-34) believes buying a home has a lot of potential as an investment, even though this age group suffered the steepest decline in their home ownership rate during the housing crisis—from nearly 40% when home prices peaked to under 40% in 2009.

More than one-third of Hispanics (34%) and African Americans (35%) say they will buy a home in the next three years, compared to only one in four (23%) of all other Americans.

During 2010, survey respondents increasingly expressed a strong belief that it will be harder for future generations to obtain a mortgage. Three-quarters of those surveyed (74%) believe it will be harder to get a mortgage in the future, up from just over two- thirds at the beginning of 2010.

Source: Fannie Mae