Marking the fifth consecutive month of decline, home prices fell 0.8 percent in October, matching levels last seen in 2002, according to Lender Processing Services’ (LPS) Home Price Index released Wednesday. As of October, the national home price average was $200,000. The year-to-date decline in October was 2.7 percent. The LPS index noted that price declines were consistent across the country. In fact, prices fell in October in 403 out of the 409 metro areas LPS tracks

Those who visit the RAM Properties’ Team website at http://www.foreclosurenshortsalehelp.com/ to Help Avoid Foreclosure in Danville will find information regarding the short sale process as an option of avoiding foreclosure.  In addition, visitors will find tools such as free reports, checklists and qualifying forms to help the seller during this process.  With a description of how the short sale process works, how it compares to a foreclosure, and how a homeowner may be able to qualify for a short sale, this plan allows distressed homeowners to evaluate all their options and know that there are experts in the Danville area that can help them.

The nation’s unemployment rate continues to trend down. It slipped to 8.5 percent during the month of December as the economy added 200,000 new jobs, the U.S. Department of Labor said Friday morning.

The reported rate is down from 8.6 percent in November. The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for November was revised downward from +120,000 to +100,000. October’s data was revised upward from +100,000 to +112,000.

December marks the sixth consecutive month of 100,000-plus job gains and the first such stretch employers have been able to string together since 2006.

The unemployment rate has declined by 0.6 percentage point since August, according to the Labor Department.

Over the 2011 calendar year, nonfarm payroll employment rose by 1.6 million.

Employment in the private sector rose by 212,000 in December and by 1.9 million over the year. Government employment changed little over the month but fell by 280,000 over the year.

According to the latest REALTORS® Confidence survey, 50 percent of REALTORS® expected that home prices will rise less than 5 percent in the next 12 months. An additional 6 percent expect prices to rise more than 5 percent.

U.S. homes set to lose nearly $700 billion in value during 2011
U.S. homes are expected to lose more than $681 billion in value during 2011 – 35 percent less than the $1.1 trillion lost in 2010 – according to analysis of a recent Zillow Real Estate Market Reports.

With less than a year before a national election, what’s on voters’ minds?  According to a survey by Houselogic.com,  the number one issue is jobs, followed by a related one: housing.Are you surprised? Beyond the universal pain caused by the housing crisis, people understand that the economy won’t improve until housing does. The housing sector accounts for over 15 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, as the National Association of Realtors® points out, and it’s taken a series of hard hits over the past five years. There are as many proposed remedies as people, but no one doubts that housing is the key to real recovery.

Of course, depressed prices make for great deals, and cash investors are taking advantage, accounting for a large percentage of current sales. Those without huge stockpiles of cash can still buy through FHA—provided their credit is pristine.That leaves out a large swath of owners who were burned in the big price run-ups—and subsequent collapse—of a few years ago. With underwater loans, they can’t move up because they can’t sell. Even if they could, they couldn’t buy—their credit too often damaged by delinquency. About nine percent of them are unemployed—not counting those who are underemployed or have simply fallen off the radar. Until that large middle group of homeowners is liquid and mobile again, it will be hard for housing gains to make much headway.  If the jobs picture can’t improve until housing does, the Catch 22 is that housing can’t recover till employment improves. This is the kind of problem that makes policymakers sweat. Government remediation efforts to date haven’t made much of a dent.

Where’s the answer? Actually, it’s already in place, working quietly under our noses. Those cash investors may not be popular or glamorous, but they hold the key to economic renewal. And don’t count out those first-time buyers for whom the housing crash is only a vague memory from adolescence.The real estate scene may look like a burned-out wasteland, but look through the smoke: there are signs of life amidst the embers. 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged home sales, home sales forecast, home statistics, partner first, partnerfirst, Partners First, voter priorities | Leave a reply

While home values are continuing to decline, they are beginning to stabilize as the market nears the bottom, according to the Zillow Real Estate Market Report released Tuesday. On a yearly basis, the average home price fell 5.1 percent in October, arriving at $147,000. However, on a monthly basis, the drop was just 0.3 percent, demonstrating a deceleration from recent declines. In addition to stabilizing prices, Zillow reported another positive sign for the market, with the foreclosure liquidation rate slipping to 8.1 out of every 10,000 homes.

A new study finds that agreeable workers  earn significantly lower incomes than less agreeable ones. The gap is especially  wide for men.

The researchers examined “agreeableness”  using self-reported survey data and found that men who measured below average on  agreeableness earned about 18% more—or $9,772 more annually in their sample—than  nicer guys. Ruder women, meanwhile, earned about 5% or $1,828 more than their  agreeable counterparts.

“Nice guys are getting the shaft,” says  study co-author Beth A. Livingston, an assistant professor of human resource  studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor  Relations.

Read more: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bakadesuyo/~3/CT-gD-R5Zfs/who-makes-more-money-nice-people-or-mean-peop#ixzz1gMOKNz7x

If you’ve looked around the real estate market in our area lately, you’ve likely seen some good deals on homes.  Even if you’re already in a home of your own and settled, it might be time to consider buying another home as an investment.

The rental market is growing as more families who have esperienced foreclosures and other distressed home-sales situations are now in the market for a place to live, but can’t quality to buy a home on their own right now.

With a little planning, you can buy a single- or multi-family home to use strictly as a rental property.  The is right to invest.

Home prices are low.

Interest rates are still near historic lows.

Overal demand for rentals is up.

Home prices were on the downswing in the third quarter, according to the latest report from both the Case-Shiller Index and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The indices found that while levels were below third quarter 2010 numbers and the annual rate of decline for the last quarter range from 3.6 to 3.9 percent.