Thursday, January 28, 2010
Kim Raine North Dallas Realtor Quote 1/28/2010
Live out of your imagination, not your history. Stephen Covey
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Recession Divorce. What are our options?
A recession divorce: No one wants the house
With the housing market still struggling, one of a couple's biggest assets can be a liability if they're breaking up. Should they stay together for the sake of the house?
MSN
By SmartMoney
A recession is a bad time to get divorced -- especially if your home has sunk in value along with the rest of the housing market.
Last year, the divorce rate in the U.S. fell 4% after rising 7% in 2007, according to a report released recently by the National Marriage Project. Although the news might cheer family advocates, it suggests something else to project director W. Bradford Wilcox: that couples with depreciated home values might be waiting to split until the market rebounds.
Compare refinancing offers
For most people, a house and their 401k accounts are their biggest assets. Right now, home values are down substantially from 18 months ago. In fact, according to Moody's Economy.com, 31.8% of owners with a first mortgage are "underwater" -- that is, their homes are valued at less than what's owed on the mortgages. That means couples who decide to get divorced -- and not live separate but together under one roof, an approach many have resorted to -- are splitting liabilities instead of assets.
"It used to be that couples fought over the house because of continuity and stability for the children," says Fadi Baradihi, the president of the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts. "That's not happening anymore. Now everybody wants to run from it."
But when a property has lost significant value, running isn't so easy.
When it comes to the dilemma of selling or keeping the family home, one issue is whether either spouse could actually qualify and refinance the home as a single, one-income household. With negative equity so prevalent today, it's virtually impossible to get refinancing, says Leslie Thompson, a certified financial planner and partner at Spectrum Management Group in Indianapolis.
More from MSN Money and SmartMoney
How to leave your husband
Consider an energy-efficient mortgage
Calculator: How much equity do you have?
New rules help borrowers at closing
Are you the reason your home won't sell?
Energy-saving tips for renters
If the couple isn't selling the house, the spouse who is staying has to refinance the mortgage -- that's the only way the bank will let the other go, says Richard Iglar, an attorney with Skoloff & Wolfe, a Livingston, N.J., law firm that focuses on matrimonial and real-estate law.
Otherwise, the departing spouse is equally liable for the entire mortgage, and, if the spouse who is in the house misses a mortgage payment, the other is liable to pay but has no claim to any equity in the house. But when there's negative equity, it's pretty much impossible to refinance.
"It doesn't make sense for the bank to make the loan," Iglar says.
That doesn't leave a divorcing couple with many good options. Here are a few to consider:
Wait it out
In this scenario, the couple continue joint ownership with an agreement to defer the sale of the house. They can agree to sell the house in, say, four years or when their children finish high school in the hope that home values will rise, Iglar says. Under this arrangement, one spouse usually moves out.
Who should get the house?
One thing to watch out for: If both spouses are on the mortgage, the one who moves out probably won't be able to get another mortgage should he or she want to buy another home. "The bank doesn't want to loan him money because he owes money on the first mortgage. His assets are tied up," Iglar says.
The spouse who left could go into a rental, and when the couple ultimately sold the house, that spouse would get half the proceeds at the time of sale. If the other spouse had been making the mortgage payments, he or she should get credit for the amount of the principal paid down over the four years, Iglar says.
Rent out the house
"We see more people renting the house to buy themselves some time" until the market recovers, Baradihi says. In this arrangement, both spouses move out of the home and rent the house to someone else.
They're more likely to pay less for a rental than what they had been paying on the monthly mortgage.
Experts answer money questions
Go to TODAY
A big caveat here: This setup makes it difficult for either spouse to buy another house and move on.
It forces them to be in transition for a long time, "and they're still in a financial relationship with the ex-spouse," says Thompson, of Spectrum Management.
Consider a short sale
Often, it's just best to sell the house, accept the loss and move on, Thompson says. The couple could negotiate with their lender to pay the difference between the sale price and the amount they owed or a lesser amount -- in which case they would have to determine how the debt would be paid.
With the housing market still struggling, one of a couple's biggest assets can be a liability if they're breaking up. Should they stay together for the sake of the house?
MSN
By SmartMoney
A recession is a bad time to get divorced -- especially if your home has sunk in value along with the rest of the housing market.
Last year, the divorce rate in the U.S. fell 4% after rising 7% in 2007, according to a report released recently by the National Marriage Project. Although the news might cheer family advocates, it suggests something else to project director W. Bradford Wilcox: that couples with depreciated home values might be waiting to split until the market rebounds.
Compare refinancing offers
For most people, a house and their 401k accounts are their biggest assets. Right now, home values are down substantially from 18 months ago. In fact, according to Moody's Economy.com, 31.8% of owners with a first mortgage are "underwater" -- that is, their homes are valued at less than what's owed on the mortgages. That means couples who decide to get divorced -- and not live separate but together under one roof, an approach many have resorted to -- are splitting liabilities instead of assets.
"It used to be that couples fought over the house because of continuity and stability for the children," says Fadi Baradihi, the president of the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts. "That's not happening anymore. Now everybody wants to run from it."
But when a property has lost significant value, running isn't so easy.
When it comes to the dilemma of selling or keeping the family home, one issue is whether either spouse could actually qualify and refinance the home as a single, one-income household. With negative equity so prevalent today, it's virtually impossible to get refinancing, says Leslie Thompson, a certified financial planner and partner at Spectrum Management Group in Indianapolis.
More from MSN Money and SmartMoney
How to leave your husband
Consider an energy-efficient mortgage
Calculator: How much equity do you have?
New rules help borrowers at closing
Are you the reason your home won't sell?
Energy-saving tips for renters
If the couple isn't selling the house, the spouse who is staying has to refinance the mortgage -- that's the only way the bank will let the other go, says Richard Iglar, an attorney with Skoloff & Wolfe, a Livingston, N.J., law firm that focuses on matrimonial and real-estate law.
Otherwise, the departing spouse is equally liable for the entire mortgage, and, if the spouse who is in the house misses a mortgage payment, the other is liable to pay but has no claim to any equity in the house. But when there's negative equity, it's pretty much impossible to refinance.
"It doesn't make sense for the bank to make the loan," Iglar says.
That doesn't leave a divorcing couple with many good options. Here are a few to consider:
Wait it out
In this scenario, the couple continue joint ownership with an agreement to defer the sale of the house. They can agree to sell the house in, say, four years or when their children finish high school in the hope that home values will rise, Iglar says. Under this arrangement, one spouse usually moves out.
Who should get the house?
One thing to watch out for: If both spouses are on the mortgage, the one who moves out probably won't be able to get another mortgage should he or she want to buy another home. "The bank doesn't want to loan him money because he owes money on the first mortgage. His assets are tied up," Iglar says.
The spouse who left could go into a rental, and when the couple ultimately sold the house, that spouse would get half the proceeds at the time of sale. If the other spouse had been making the mortgage payments, he or she should get credit for the amount of the principal paid down over the four years, Iglar says.
Rent out the house
"We see more people renting the house to buy themselves some time" until the market recovers, Baradihi says. In this arrangement, both spouses move out of the home and rent the house to someone else.
They're more likely to pay less for a rental than what they had been paying on the monthly mortgage.
Experts answer money questions
Go to TODAY
A big caveat here: This setup makes it difficult for either spouse to buy another house and move on.
It forces them to be in transition for a long time, "and they're still in a financial relationship with the ex-spouse," says Thompson, of Spectrum Management.
Consider a short sale
Often, it's just best to sell the house, accept the loss and move on, Thompson says. The couple could negotiate with their lender to pay the difference between the sale price and the amount they owed or a lesser amount -- in which case they would have to determine how the debt would be paid.
Kim Raine North Dallas Realtor Quote 1/27/2010
"It is a wise man who said that there is no greater inequality than the equal treatment of unequals”
Felix Frankfurter
Felix Frankfurter
Dallas-Carrollton Texas Market Heating Up!!
Executing a contract today! Lovely Carrollton home sold in less than 1 week! The Dallas/FortWorth market is heating up!Listing another in West Plano today!!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Quote of the day
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Dallas-area home prices turn positive in Case-Shiller index 8:31 AM CT
09:05 AM CST on Tuesday, January 26, 2010
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
stevebrown@dallasnews.com
Dallas-area home prices turned positive for the first time in more than two years in the closely-watched Case-Shiller Home Price Index.
Residential values in the Dallas area were up 1.4 percent in November from a year earlier – the best performance of the 20 cities tracked in the monthly survey, which was released on Tuesday.
Prices were down 5.3 percent for all the cities in the index from a year ago.
“Looking at the annual figures, four markets – Dallas, Denver, San Diego and San Francisco – finally entered positive territory, something we haven’t really seen in at least two years,” Standard & Poor’s David M. Blitzer said Tuesday in the report.
Other major U.S. home markets weren’t so lucky. Charlotte, Las Vegas, Seattle and Tampa all hit new low points in the survey.
And Dallas-area home prices fell by 0.6 percent on a monthly basis in November from October, Case-Shiller said.
“On balance, while these data do show that home prices are far more stable than they were a year ago, there is no clear sign of a sustained, broad-based recovery,” Blitzer said.
Still, the Dallas numbers are in line with a string of recent reports that show residential values in the area are leveling off.
For all of 2009, median home sales prices in North Texas were unchanged from 2008 levels, according to statistics from the North Texas Real Estate Information System.
And other reports show slight gains in home prices in the Dallas area.
Dallas home values bottomed out in the Case-Shiller last March when prices were down 5.6 percent on an annual basis.
Until the latest report, the last time the index was positive for Dallas was in September 2007 when annual values were up 0.5 percent.
Case-Shiller tracks the prices of typical single-family homes located in each metropolitan area. The index does not include condominiums and townhouses. It only covers pre-owned properties – no new construction.
The Case-Shiller researchers compare sales of specific properties over time
09:05 AM CST on Tuesday, January 26, 2010
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
stevebrown@dallasnews.com
Dallas-area home prices turned positive for the first time in more than two years in the closely-watched Case-Shiller Home Price Index.
Residential values in the Dallas area were up 1.4 percent in November from a year earlier – the best performance of the 20 cities tracked in the monthly survey, which was released on Tuesday.
Prices were down 5.3 percent for all the cities in the index from a year ago.
“Looking at the annual figures, four markets – Dallas, Denver, San Diego and San Francisco – finally entered positive territory, something we haven’t really seen in at least two years,” Standard & Poor’s David M. Blitzer said Tuesday in the report.
Other major U.S. home markets weren’t so lucky. Charlotte, Las Vegas, Seattle and Tampa all hit new low points in the survey.
And Dallas-area home prices fell by 0.6 percent on a monthly basis in November from October, Case-Shiller said.
“On balance, while these data do show that home prices are far more stable than they were a year ago, there is no clear sign of a sustained, broad-based recovery,” Blitzer said.
Still, the Dallas numbers are in line with a string of recent reports that show residential values in the area are leveling off.
For all of 2009, median home sales prices in North Texas were unchanged from 2008 levels, according to statistics from the North Texas Real Estate Information System.
And other reports show slight gains in home prices in the Dallas area.
Dallas home values bottomed out in the Case-Shiller last March when prices were down 5.6 percent on an annual basis.
Until the latest report, the last time the index was positive for Dallas was in September 2007 when annual values were up 0.5 percent.
Case-Shiller tracks the prices of typical single-family homes located in each metropolitan area. The index does not include condominiums and townhouses. It only covers pre-owned properties – no new construction.
The Case-Shiller researchers compare sales of specific properties over time
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