Emmanuel Fonte | Music | Art | Leadership
If music be the food of love, play on. Emmanuel Fonte website is about music, art, real estate, architecture, design and decor. Occasionally, I talk about my other passion, hockey.
Instead of struggling to get that perfect angle, this alternative shower fixture lets you manipulate six different sprayers to achieve a perfectly relaxing clean.
Designed by Vado, each of the articulated metal armatures ends in a multi-spray spigot so no matter what way you twist or turn things you still get good coverage from the individual elements.
The result can be attached to wall or ceiling, and, of course, you could always add more than one for some serious shower-time fun.
Since I am involved in the John L. Scott Foreclosure Team, I see what happens every Friday at auction. The amount of homes sold at auction is pitifully small. Those I work with don’t see a flood coming. The banks are starting to realize the folly of some of their choices.
Many housing experts for months have been warning a foreclosure wave would soon flood several markets throughout the country. But was it all a false alarm?
Recent surveys have shown that foreclosure sales have dropped to their lowest point in more than two years. And while according to March data, 8 percent more homes did enter the foreclosure process from the previous month, that number is down more than 30 percent from a year ago, according to Lender Processing Services.
CNBC real estate reporter Diana Olick notes that it could be another delay in the foreclosure system “as banks try to modify more loans to meet some of the terms of the [$25 billion] servicing settlement. The foreclosure sales decline also appears to be exclusively in private and portfolio loans, which again points to the settlement.”
Meanwhile, banks are increasing their number of short-sale transactions, and some surveys have shown that short sales are actually now outpacing foreclosure sales — the first time that’s ever occurred.
“Lenders are increasingly recognizing that short sales may be a better alternative for them than foreclosure,” RealtyTrac’s Daren Blomquist told CNBC. “This trend began in markets with stronger demand and where the distressed inventory tends to be newer homes (Phoenix, Los Angeles, Las Vegas), but the trend appears to be spreading to other markets like Atlanta and Detroit.”
Source: “Flood of Foreclosures Still Fails to Materialize,” CNBC (May 2, 2012)
For home buyers or refinancers, borrowing costs for home ownership just got a little cheaper as mortgage rates took another dip to new all-time record lows this week, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey.
"Signs of slowing economic growth and inflation remaining subdued allowed yields on Treasury bonds to ease somewhat and brought most mortgage rates to new all-time record lows this week,” says Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.
Here’s a closer look at average rates for the week ending May 3:
30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.84 percent, with an average 0.8 point, reaching a new historical low. The previous record for 30-year rates was 3.87 percent, which was set on Feb. 9 of this year. A year ago at this time, rates averaged 4.71 percent.
15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.07 percent, with an average 0.7 point, another historical low. The previous record for 15-year rates was 3.11 percent set on April 12 this year. A year ago at this time, 15-year rates had averaged 3.89 percent.
5-year adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 2.85 percent, with an average 0.7 point, holding the same as last week. Last year at this time, 5-year ARMs averaged 3.47 percent.
1-year ARMs: averaged 2.70 percent this week, with an average 0.6 point, also registering at a new all-time low. Last year at this time, 1-year ARMs averaged 3.14 percent.
Source: Freddie Mac
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This is a unique time in the real estate market. Here are the market facts for the Puget Sound region 
Driven by the return of local home buyers, a positive market psychology has returned. Low inventory, adjusted prices and the historically low interest rates combined with improving job growth have created a positive market for local home buyers. Starting in 2010 an elevated level of residential investors seized the opportunity to purchase homes and helped reestablish the market by bringing sales activity back to a healthy level. By November 2011, we saw the return of the local home buyer to the marketplace and as market activity began to heat up, the level of available inventory could not sustain the demand. This brings us to Spring 2012 where there is a shortage of inventory available to a backlog of buyers looking to take advantage of the superb market conditions.
It is foreseeable that this shortage of inventory will continue for some time. With both residential investors and local home buyers competing in the market place for a restricted amount of homes the supply will not find much relief. The restriction of supply is being caused by several factors; underwater sellers not able to bring their home on the market and sellers with equity thinking they can’t currently sell or waiting for prices to rise.
The shortage of inventory and the flood of local home buyers to the market falls in line with the classic principals of supply and demand, which is why we are now seeing a slow but steady stabilization and the beginning of price increases, as is evidenced by the multiple offer situations. 40% of new properties brought on the market are selling in the first 30 days. Compare this to the Fall of 2010 where only 40% were selling within 6 months. This is happening across the board through the mid-price ranges as well as the upper end close to job centers.
Buyers who want to win their dream home, in these multiple offer situations, need to come to the table prepared. There are three important things a buyer can do to be “buyer ready.” The first is to have a detailed market review consultation with your trusted broker. The second is to get pre-approved by a lender. The third is to get in the flow of information. Sign up to receive email notifications when new properties come on the market within your desired market area and price range. You can also download a mobile app on your smart phone which will let you look up property information on the go.
via: Lennox Scott Blog
1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.
Found this gem over at Brain Pickings.
Every day there seems to be more positive news about the real estate recovery. We attempt to give you two things in this blog:
Today, we want to give you a quote by Ivy Zelman which appeared last week in a Wall Street Journal article Stunned Home Buyers Find the Bidding Wars Are Back.
“We very much believe we’ve hit bottom.”
Why is the quote from Zelman important? She is an industry expert consistently recognized by Institutional Investor, Greenwich Associates, StarMine and The Wall Street Journal as an industry-leading analyst. She has been nicknamed ‘Poison Ivy’ for her harsh positions on housing over the last several years. Now, Zelman is calling a bottom and projecting prices to moderately increase in the next twelve months.
Again, another expert on housing is calling a bottom; another bear turns bull.
by THE KCM CREW
Did you know that nearly 10 million more renter households had the income to qualify to buy a home in 2011 versus 2005?
Many factors have increased the number of renter households qualified to purchase a home in 2011 versus 2000 and 2005: 1) incomes have increased, 2) population has grown, 3) mortgage rates are lower, and 4) prices have fallen since 2005.
The tables below show the data underlying the change in required income. Because of lower home prices and mortgage rates, qualifying income required to purchase a median priced home has fallen from $56,600 in 2005 and $40,300 in 2000 to $33,100 in 2011.
Finally, based on all of these factors, we see that while 33 percent of renters qualified to buy the median priced home in 2000 and 24 percent of renters qualified to buy the median priced home in 2005, 47 percent of renters would qualify in 2011[1]. Translating these numbers into households, 7.7 million renters qualified to purchase the median priced home in 2005 while in 2010, 15 million renter households qualify.
These calculations assume that potential buyers meet credit qualifications and have sufficient cash on hand to close a transaction. Lending standards, credit quality, and access to funds will affect the number of households who will be able to buy a home.
