Thursday, February 25, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Kim Raine North Dallas Realtor Quote 2/11/2010
The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it. Jean Paul
Dallas-Fort Worth home prices edge higher
Dallas-Fort Worth home prices edge higher
07:13 AM CST on Wednesday, February 10, 2010
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
stevebrown@dallasnews.com
North Texas home prices inched higher in January.
Also Online
Real estate tips for 2010
How to fight foreclosure
Map: Dallas-area pre-owned home sales and prices
Link: Making Home Affordable
Blog: Economy
Median pre-owned home prices were up 1 percent last month from a year earlier.
But the number of pre-owned homes sold in the area fell by 6 percent, the second consecutive decline in the monthly sales figures.
Real estate agents sold 3,360 homes through the Multiple Listing Service, according to statistics from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University and the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems Inc. And 172 condominium sales were recorded – 2 percent more than in January 2009.
About 33,500 homes were listed for sale in North Texas last month.
That's 10 percent fewer than a year ago.
There's just less than a six-month supply of homes listed for sale in North Texas. Six months is considered a balanced market.
D-FW AREA HOME RESALES UPDATE
Comparisons of January pre-owned home sales and prices in North Texas with year-earlier statistics:
Single-family home resales 3,330 -6 percent
Median price $130,000 1 percent
Average days on market 84 -2 percent
Pending sales 4,369 No change
Listed for sale 33,569 -10 percent
Condo-townhome resales 172 2 percent
Median price $127,520 6 percent
Average days on market 96 -16 percent
Pending sales 235 3 percent
Listed for sale 3,556 -6 percent
07:13 AM CST on Wednesday, February 10, 2010
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
stevebrown@dallasnews.com
North Texas home prices inched higher in January.
Also Online
Real estate tips for 2010
How to fight foreclosure
Map: Dallas-area pre-owned home sales and prices
Link: Making Home Affordable
Blog: Economy
Median pre-owned home prices were up 1 percent last month from a year earlier.
But the number of pre-owned homes sold in the area fell by 6 percent, the second consecutive decline in the monthly sales figures.
Real estate agents sold 3,360 homes through the Multiple Listing Service, according to statistics from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University and the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems Inc. And 172 condominium sales were recorded – 2 percent more than in January 2009.
About 33,500 homes were listed for sale in North Texas last month.
That's 10 percent fewer than a year ago.
There's just less than a six-month supply of homes listed for sale in North Texas. Six months is considered a balanced market.
D-FW AREA HOME RESALES UPDATE
Comparisons of January pre-owned home sales and prices in North Texas with year-earlier statistics:
Single-family home resales 3,330 -6 percent
Median price $130,000 1 percent
Average days on market 84 -2 percent
Pending sales 4,369 No change
Listed for sale 33,569 -10 percent
Condo-townhome resales 172 2 percent
Median price $127,520 6 percent
Average days on market 96 -16 percent
Pending sales 235 3 percent
Listed for sale 3,556 -6 percent
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
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