The Real Estate Report

By JOSH BARBANEL

A founder of a website dedicated to direct sales of homes by their owners has sold his two-bedroom apartment in Chelsea for $2.15 million—with the help of a real-estate broker and a standard 6% commission.

View Full Image

Ramsay de Give for The Wall Street Journal

 

Colby Sambrotto, a founder and former chief operating officer of ForSalebyOwner.com, a large website for owner sales, spent six months trying to sell his condominium himself through online listings and classified ads, before turning over the listing of the 2,000-square-foot apartment to a broker at Bond New York in November.

 

The broker, Jesse Buckler, said he told Mr. Sambrotto the apartment in the Lion's Head building on West 19th Street near Sixth Avenue was priced too low and wasn't drawing the right buyers.

Full Article...

74.6% of homes affordable to median-income households

By Inman News
Inman News™

Housing affordability hit a new record high in the first quarter, surpassing the previous high set in fourth-quarter 2010, according to an index released by the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo today.

The Housing Opportunity Index found that 74.6 percent of new and existing homes sold in the first quarter were affordable to families earning the national median income of $64,400. That's up from 73.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, and it's the highest level recorded in the more than 20 years the index has been measured.

"With interest rates remaining at historically low levels, today's report indicates that homeownership is within reach of more households than it has been for more than two decades," said Bob Nielsen, chairman of the NAHB, in a statement.

Read more...

Homeownership Now Event - October 9, 2010

The next Homeownership Now event of 2010 is coming up on October 9th. Find out why the current real estate market is creating a great opportunity for first-time home buyers and how to take advantage of this unique opportunity!!

Homeownership Now, New Jersey's longest-running first-time homebuyer program will be held on Saturday, October 9th from 9:30am - 1:00pm in Paramus, New Jersey.

The event is brought to the public by My Way Home, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing homeownership through education. Within the past twelve years, more than 14, 000 New Jersey area residents have completed the Homeownership Now event to ready themselves for the home buying process.

Topics include: breaking through the down payment barrier; HUD, NJ and Fannie Mae first-time buyer programs; purchasing and renovating real estate; How to take advantage of today's short-sale market, the Four Keys to homeownership; and the home financing process. The event also addresses ways to build a successful home buying team.

According to CNN's correspondent Kathleen Hayes, "It's programs like this that have helped push homeownership to record levels in our country."

Registration is required. All attendees will receive a free copy of My Way Home's Purchasing Guide Book.

To register, please contact us at 888-422-6992 or visit us online at www.homeownershipnow.com.

Mortgage rates have sunk to the lowest level in more than five decades, but consumers aren't rushing to refinance their loans or buy homes.

Mortgage company Freddie Mac [FRE  0.2924    -0.0656  (-18.32%)   ] said Thursday the average rate for 30-year fixed loans sank to 4.58 percent this week.

That's down from the previous record of 4.69 percent set last week and the lowest since the mortgage company began keeping records in 1971. The last time they were cheaper was the 1950s, when most long-term home loans lasted just 20 or 25 years.

Read More >>

(June 30) The Senate passed the bill extending eligible closings to Sept. 30, so buyers who were in contract by April 30 can get the tax credit.

Read More>>

Home buyers hoping to take advantage of a lucrative federal tax credit would get three extra months to complete their purchases under a proposal introduced in the Senate on Thursday.

In case you haven't noticed, mortgage rates have fallen below 5% again and many home prices have been reduced to compensate for the end of the tax credit.  This is still a bargain market if you have at least a 5 year time horizon. 

Hedge Fund manager, John Paulson, who made billions of Dollars betting that US Home prices would fall back in 2007 is now out saying Home prices will be on the rise. He is calling for prices to grow by 3 to 5% this year and increase by 8 to 12% next year !!

Keep in mind that if home values only rise a fraction of his outlook, say just 2% - it would yield a healthy rate of return for someone buying a home right now.

News from Europe continues to influence the markets. Spain said that they have boosted measures to help narrow their budget deficit. Germany, one of the stronger countries in the Euro Zone, did show a higher than expected rise in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).