April 2010 Home Sales Lake Oswego / West Linn

Lake Oswego / West Linn home sales see surge in home sales April 2010.

• Under contract homes climb 130% year over year
• Inventory is less than half what it was a year ago, reaching a new two year low
• Homes selling faster with days on market dropping to 82 days
• Median sale price declines

There is now just a 6.0 month supply of available homes on the market here in Lake Oswego and neighboring West Linn.  A balanced market is considered to be 5-6 months of inventory.  At 6.0 we may have an equalization of buyers to sellers, good news for our rebounding real estate market. 

If you are a  home buyer or home seller looking for local professional assistance with your real estate needs.  Call or ping me.  I would welcome the opportunity to earn your trust.

Roberta Nopson

info@Lakeoswegohomesellers.com   

www.RobertaNopson.com

HAFA rules helps Lake Oswego home sellers

Effective April 5, 2010 the new HAFA rules will join HAMP to help Lake Oswego home sellers.  What does this mean?

In simple terms – HAMP is the loan modification program for home owners trying to hold on to their home by reducing the monthly mortage.  On the other end of the spectrum is the new HAFA  program.  Rules put into place to speed up the process by putting guidelines into place for the short sale.

For Lake Oswego home owners that have attempted the HAMP program and were not successful with the outcome, now have an option to first attempt a short sale under the new rules of the HAFA program before foreclosure.

Lake Oswego home buyers of short sale properties also benefit from this new law as lien holders are now held to a time line to respond to offers and closing transactions.

If you are considering buying or selling a short sale property in Lake Oswego or the surrounding communities, call or ping me.  Let my knowledge benefit you.

Regards,

Roberta Nopson 

503-495-5231

Home Buyers $8000 Tax Credit

Tax Credit Time line is ticking – Are you ready?

The internet has brought the convenience of searching for a new home into our living room. These sites permit you to see currently listed homes and there are a lot of them. When you are working with an experienced local real estate agent he/she can help move the process along and save you a lot of time.

Knowing the market is my job.  Knowing what you want and can afford is your job.  Following these 4 short steps will help position your home search and together we will find your new place to call home.

1. Get Your Financing in Line:

Knowing what you can afford is the first place to start.  Talk to a reputable lender right away and go through the pre-approval process. Let me know if you need a good referral. 

2. Narrow Your Search:

Answer the two basic questions:  Where and how much.  There is a lot of inventory to choose from.  Where you want to live and how much you can invest is a must start.  Searching for your new home in Lake Oswego; friends have told you to look at value comparisons in West Linn; love the nostalgia of the close in communities of Portland Heights or Alameda? All nice areas. Once we narrow down we can look at commute time, schools, and other factors that make the community of choice a perfect fit for you.

3. Separate Needs from Wants:

There are must haves and then there are would be nice.  Be honest and realistic about priorities.  Start with the basics.  How many bedrooms do you need; is a separate space for play or office a need or a want;  Traditional home or attached townhome;  Single story or two story; need or want a basement.

4. Consider Condition:

Today, we hear lots about deals out there.  Many of the best values are homes that are not in move in condition.  Decide up front what you are willing to tackle to polish your ‘diamond in the rough’. Dated wallpaper in that mid century modern in Lake Oswego may be easy, but can you finance that fabulous West Linn home that has no appliances and even the bathroom fixtures are gone.

There are many points to discuss when preparing to seach for your new home. If you are ready to take the next step, call or ping me,  I would welcome the opportunity to discuss your real estate goals.

Roberta 503-495-5231

Still waiting to buy? That could cost your 1/2 point!

For those buyers sitting on the side lines waiting and wondering when to buy, the answer could be RIGHT NOW.  If you are planning on buying your next Lake Oswego home on any FHA product be aware of fee increases.

If you do not have 20% down and you were planning on the minimum of 3.5% down just in time to get the $8000 tax credit – you clock is ticking.

Effective 4/5/2010 Mortgage Insurance (MI) goes from 1.75% to 2.25%.  OUCH!

More news – Buying a foreclosed FHA home in Lake Oswego or West Linn?  You could get into it with as little as $100 bucks – yes $100 bucks.  FHA needs to move some homes.  Call me.

Being informed is my job.  Informing you is my job.  Helping you is my job. 

Working for you is what I do. 

Call me today.  Roberta Nopson 503-495-5231

Visit my main website at www.RobertaNopson.com

Lake Oswego new construction – what’s selling.

2009 brought a lot of press to the real estate market across the country.  Construction softened as buyers sat on the side lines.  Builders dumped land and many went under.  How did Lake Oswego’s new construction real estate market shake out?

At minimum, builders are hoping 2010 will bring buyers back to the middle to upper luxury market of Lake Oswego.  With just under 100 new homes marketed in 2009, this upscale quality driven buyer still exists they are just few and far between.  High end Homes by Eslinger closed 8 of the 32 homes sold, followed by Rennaissance, Monogram, Silver Oak and Schenbrien.  Still a tough builders market as 5 (16%) of the sold homes were bank owned.  New construction saw an average sales price of $964,753 down substantially from the highs of the past 2 years.  In the price range many trickle up transactions need to happen to move one of these.  Not an entry level market here.

Good news is that Lake Oswego new home inventory has come down and there are only about 60  remaining., with most builders are working closely with contract lenders to offer below market interest rates and terms that are favorable to the buyer.

Lake Oswego is not alone in the lessons learned by builders, buyers, and sellers.  Prudent financial decisions move ahead of the emotion.  Builders have slowed build outs, giving way to the custom home.  The custom home market is headed back to just that; custom to that buyer. 

Looking for more information about the real estate market in Lake Oswego – call me 503-495-5231.

Visit our main website now.

Tax Credit Extended and Expanded

Hot off the Press – 11/5/2009

House of Representatives today joined overwhelmingly, the Senate to PASS and EXPAND the 1st time home buyers tax credit.  The new credit will be expanded to include existing home owners. 

This will have positive impact to the Lake Oswego/West Linn markets among others, that tend to be a more step up communities.  The increased income levels will open the door to more families being able to take advantageous of the tax credits.  

$8000 1st time home buyer extended

$6500 Existing home owners have been added

Income limits for Married filing jointly has increase to $225,000.

Visit my web site for more information.  www.RobertaNopson.com

Short Sales – the new norm?

What has been in the press is here in Lake Oswego, West Linn and many Portland areas – the short sale.  Yes real estate prices have come down and that makes opportunity knock on the buyers door, but lenders are knocking on doors as well.  Overall Lake Oswego and West Linn have seen the average price come down 12-18% year to date and many areas of Portland range in the high 20’s.

Great news for those sitting on the side lines with cash stashed for a down payment and interest rates below 5%.  The step up buyer of the McMansion has many to choose from, but not so great news for a seller that is upside down because they did a refi at the peak in 2007 to consolidate bills, take a lifetime vacation, or send kids off to college. Or maybe 100% financing with an 80/20 loan package.  What are their options now.

The answer is “It Depends”.   Pretty grey I know…

Every home owners situation is different; as different as the many lenders that own the paper or are serving the loan.  How many liens are against the property?  Does the seller have other assets?  Does the loan have MIP or are the HOAs on lien as well?   These are just the starting questions in our conversation with a distressed homeowner.

NAR - National Realtors Association has stepped up their position to help real estate home owners, buyers and their agents understand that this may very well be the “New Norm” in real estate transactions.  They have established a standard to assure Agents have the knowledge and tools to navigate the short sale and foreclosure waters. 

SFR – Short Sale & Foreclosure Resource is a designation given to those agents that have completed course work and demonstrated an understanding of the options, pitfalls, and opportunities facing the real estate industry today.  I work together with you and your lender as your 3rd party representative, and do not charge a fee for this service.

Sellers – there are many options for us to discuss.  You may be seeking a loan modification, forbearance, reinstatement or another of the many “Loan Work Out Options”.  Should none of these meet acceptable terms and a short sale is your next step, we can help. 

Banks have taken their head out of the sand and are positioning themselves to help.  They really do not want any more homes in their inventory.   In the past 60 days Bank of American has hired over 5000 employees to assist in moving these files along (they have all the Country Wide & Greenpoint paper as well as others). 

Should this be the road that makes the most sense – Remember, you “apply” for a short sale in much the same way as you made loan application to purchase the property.   They want all the financials that support your distressed position.  Now is not the time to get tricky. 

There is so much I could write on the subject, but every situation is different.  Let’s discuss yours.

Roberta Nopson, ABR, SFR

503-495-5231

info@lakeoswegohomesellers.com

Real Estate’s new buzz words…

Distressed Properties.  Foreclosures.  Short Sales.  Those are the terms that characterize much of the real estate press these days. What does all this mean to market value here in Portland or Lake Oswego Oregon?

Fortunately for many our home values did not surge like many areas of the country. Oh yes they did climb from 2004 – 2007, but climb was an easy steady tick. Which is why our bubble is so much smaller than the rest of the nation. Our past 12 month median sales price for the metro area is down 6.9%. There are pockets that are harder hit than others, but we are not even in double digits as a whole.

Yes, we have many home sellers that are in challenging times to say the least. More homes are coming on the market than are selling. It is not just adjustable rate mortgages that have put sellers into the market, maybe that much has more to do with the local job market. (And those in Salem just raised  business & individual taxes again! What are they thinking!) If Oregonians don’t have a job, they cannot afford their mortgage, let alone pay more taxes.

More homes are coming on the market, and many may be due to our shrinking employment options. There lies the price crunch.   More home on the market = lower market value.

Motivated Seller – one who will allow their agent to ‘advertise’ seller motivated. This is a seller that wants offers and possibly can take a big hit and not go through a short sale and damage credit.

Short Sales – This is a seller that has tried to sell and has now lowered the price again, and again, needing an offer to take to the bank to start the negotiations.

Foreclosures – Bank owned property that the bank really doesn’t want but had no choice once the timeline was at its end.

People are worried that their homes won’t regain value. I don’t think there is any doubt that they will, though not at the up tick pace we saw a few years ago. Many think the short sale is the answer to their devalued home. Many more need to rethink the purpose of their home. We got into trouble because many home owners were using their house as a bank. Borrowing from it, by refinancing it over and over. The whole idea of home ownership is to build equity not spend the equity. 

After so many people have gotten in to trouble buyingMcMansions (there is a glut on the market right now), I try to remind buyers today of the many stages in home ownership.  If you are a first time buyer, you don’t go shopping for your dream home the first time up to bat.

If you are in the market to buy or sell your home.  Give me a call 503-495-5231.  I would welcome the opportunity to earn your trust.

HUD releases $8000 tax credit update.

Details are in from HUD on how the $8000 1st time home buyer credit is to be handled through the escrow process; 
Released 6/1/09 from Brian D Montgomery Assistant Secretary for Housing

Lake Oswego May home trends

The end of May has brought a stretch of lasting sunshine and some home buyers into the market.  Lock box activity continues to increase week over week as more homes are being shown to potential buyers. 

There seems to be quite the range in pent up home needs.  While April only had one home close over 1M, May has 5 that went pending.  Good sign for the Lake Oswego market, where the average listing price in hovering around 875K.

Don’t discount the other end of the spectrum, of the 63 homes that are now pending, 20 are under 300K.  Many condo’s in the Mtn Park area fall into this category and it is a good price range for the first time buyer  taking advantage of the $8000 tax credit or the investor looking for ready to rent properties.

Short Sale and/or REO (bank owned) still represent around 15-19% of the transactions here in Lake Oswego.  Not a segement for everyone, as it can really test your patience, but we cannot ignore this element as it pulls on pricing.  

If you are feeling the pinch and are considering your short sale options, give me a call 503-495-5231.  We can separate fact from myth.

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