Fires across Texas - What to do if there's a fire

To help prevent fires : (please forward this to anyone who needs it)

• Avoid burning trash. The greatest single cause of fires this year is when burning debris is not properly contained and sparks or burning trash blow into the air.
• If you smoke, please extinguish cigarettes in a wet nonflammable container. Never toss a cigarette out of a car window and don't put cigarettes out on the ground. Never leave a cigarette or candle unattended.
• Keep a fire extinguisher and water handy when working outdoors with equipment that gets hot or involves sparks such as welding equipment. Water down outdoor work areas in advance if possible
• Never grill under an underhang or ceilling that can ignite. The grill should be at least 15 feet away from any structure. Soak grill or fireplace ashes in water for a day before disposing of them. You'd be surprised how many fires start this way.
• Keep trees and shrubs pruned so vegetation is away from buildings. Remove dead vegatation and dispose of rubbish and debris.
• Have enough garden hose to reach all of the structures on your property.
• Stack firewood well away from your home and if possible uphill of it.
• As vehicle exhaust systems are often hot enough to ignite a fire, don't drive or park on high grass that is dry.
• If you live on acreage, create a 30 foot safety zone around your home. A safety zone is one where there is little or minimal vegetation. Keep grass low if any.

If you think a fire is coming your way:

• Evacuate and get to safety.
• Start a water sprinkler on your roof. Embers and flaming debris can travel great distances land on your roof and start a new fire.
• Clear gutters of leaves and debris.
• Start watering the areas around your home.
• Prepare for water storage; develop an external water supply such as a small pond well or pool.
• Turn off your gas lines. Shut off any natural gas, propane or fuel oil supplies at the source.
• Place your car in the driveout position and roll up windows.
• Disconnect automatic garage door openers so the doors can be opened by hand if the power goes out.

 

 

Damage from the Drought Home Maintenance
Some tips to mitigate the damage the drought can do
Here is a short list of maintenance tips for your home.

• The drought has caused a reduction in watering to our trees. However it's important to water longer around trees so the roots stay below the surface and keep the trees healthy. If the roots come up to the surface, they can become top heavy and fall over onto people, homes and autos. The roots can also do alot of damage to slab foundations.
• In addition to watering deeply along trees, keep all four sides of your foundation watered evenly otherwise you could have foundation damage.
• Check for cracks along window seaks and doors. The drought can cause the caulking and seals to reduce their efficiency. You don't want to find out in the first rain we get that you had cracks.
• Have a professional air conditioning contractor inspect and maintain your AC system as recommended by your manufacturer, especially flushing out the ac drains and hoses. These get clogged and cause alot of water damage in the attic.
• Have a plumber check your water heater. Water heaters only last about ten years. If yours is older than that, it might be time to replace. Most water heaters are in the attic so leakage could cause extensive water damage.
• Trim trees back, cut down weak trees or treat sick trees. Hurricane season is here so we might get strong winds this summer. Right now is a good time to get tree service at an affordable price. If you wait til the demand is higher, prices will be higher too.
• Check your clothes washer hoses to be sure they are in good condition as well as clean the clothes dryer exhaust duct, damper and space under the dryer.
• Always test your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms

Mortgage Rates Decline

APRIL 28, 2011, 3:31 P.M.

By NATHAN BECKER
Mortgage rates declined in the latest week, with the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages edging lower, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey of mortgage rates.

"Mortgage rates followed Treasury bond yields lower this week amid weak local economic data reports on business conditions and house prices," said Freddie Chief Economist Frank Nothaft. Mortgage rates generally track Treasury yields, which move inversely to Treasury prices.

Rates have slumped for months, setting record lows in the process, as yields on Treasurys slid amid economic uncertainty. But yields began to rise at the end of August. Mortgage rates generally track the yields, which move inversely to Treasury prices.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.78% for the week ended Thursday, down slightly from the prior week's 4.8% average and 5.06% a year ago. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages were 3.97%, down from 4.02% in the previous week and 4.39% a year earlier.

Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 3.51%, down from the prior week's 3.61% and 4% a year earlier. One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs were 3.15%, down from 3.16% and 4.25%, respectively.

To obtain the rates, the fixed-rate mortgages required payment of an average 0.7 point and the others required an average 0.6 point. A point is 1% of the mortgage amount, charged as prepaid interest.

Pending Home Sales Rise Again in March

March saw another increase in pending home sales, with contract activity rising unevenly in six of the past nine months, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, rose 5.1 percent to 94.1 in March from a downwardly revised 89.5 in February. The index is 11.4 percent below 106.2 in March 2010; however, activity was at elevated levels in March and April of 2010 to meet the contract deadline for the home buyer tax credit.

The data reflects contracts but not closings, which normally occur with a lag time of one or two months.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said home sales activity has shown an uneven but notable improvement. “Since reaching a cyclical bottom last June, pending home sales have posted an overall gain of 24 percent and demonstrate the market is recovering on its own,” he said. “The index means modest near-term gains in existing-home sales are likely, which would be even stronger if tight mortgage lending criteria returned to normal, safe standards.”

The PHSI in the Northeast fell 3.2 percent to 63.4 in March and is 18.4 percent below March 2010. In the Midwest the index rose 3.0 percent in March to 83.5 but is 16.6 percent below a year ago. Pending home sales in the South jumped 10.3 percent to an index of 110.2, but are 10.5 percent below March 2010. In the West the index increased 3.1 percent to 103.7 but is 4.1 percent below a year ago.

“Based on the current uptrend with very favorable affordability conditions, rising apartment rents, and ongoing job creation, existing-home sales should rise around 5 to 10 percent this year with sales growth of lower-priced homes likely to outperform high-end homes. That means the price trend will reflect more homes sold in the lower price ranges,” Yun said.

“The good news is that recent home buyers are staying well within budget, leading to exceptionally low loan-default rates among home buyers over the past two years,” he added.
Source: NAR

4 Signals It Might be Time to Buy (vs. Rent) Your Home

To rent or to buy: what used to be a given – that you would buy a home as soon as you could afford to – has become an agonizing conundrum for many a would-be homebuyer, in the face of the housing market’s big bust and super-slow recovery. Low prices seem to create a wide-open window of opportunity, but they also create the concern that prices will keep falling after closing. And that Catch-22 has hundreds of thousands of buyers-to-be stuck on the fence.
Fortunately, there are handful of life, mortgage and local market signals which indicate that the time *might* be right to hop – scratch that – leap off the fence and into homeownership:

Mortgage rates are going up. Home prices have been low for the last several years, and in fact are currently looking like they’re heading back down to the same levels they were at the depths of the real estate recession. During this same time frame, interest rates have also been low – this one-two punch has created record-high affordability for the last four years running, causing buyers to believe that this window of opportunity won’t be closing anytime soon.

While prices don’t look like they’ll be skyrocketing anytime soon, interest rates are another story. Rates have been on a rollercoaster over the past few months, and with inflation and Fed rates set to spike later this year, today’s low interest rates might be as good as they’re going to get for a long time to come. And I mean a very long time – in the next few years, governmental intervention in the mortgage markets is likely to wind down, and that means higher mortgage interest rates are not only inevitable, they’ll probably be here for a long, long time.

Mortgage rates on the rise are one signal that now might be the peak of home affordability, and the peak of the opportunity to buy.

Rents are going up. Rental rates in many areas are also on the rise – in fact, the foreclosure crisis has acted created additional demand on many markets’ rental housing inventory in several different ways. First, former homeowners who lost homes to foreclosure now need to rent; as well, buyers in foreclosure hot spots have been hesitant to buy, many electing to stay renters far beyond when they would have otherwise. On top of all that, super-tight lending guidelines have stopped even some who would like to buy homes from doing so. As a result, rental homes are in high demand – and rents are rising.

Rising rents at a time when the prices of homes for sale are low and, in some places, falling? One more signal that now might just be the time to buy. (Of course, where foreclosures are high, the chances of continued depreciation are, too – to offset this risk, have a long-term plan, to minimize the possibility that you’ll owe more than your home is worth when you need to sell. Read on for more on how to plan for the long term and minimize your homebuying risk.)

Your income and career are stable for the foreseeable future. The smartest homebuyers look to their lives, not just the market, for signals about when the time is right to buy. Homebuying is a long, long-term endeavor these days. The goal is to be able to commit to staying in the same place, geographically-speaking, for 7 to 10 years before you buy (more in a foreclosure-riddled market, less in an area that has been more recession-resistant). Most lenders will require that you’ve been at your job – or in the same general field of work – for at least two years before you buy. But that’s the bare minimum – beyond that, you don’t want to be barely beginning a career in which you think you may need to move sooner than that, nor do you want to buy when you’re advanced in your career, but in an industry which is dying or downsizing the workforce in your region (unless you have a strong Plan B).
When you get to the spot in your career where you can realistically project a stable income 7 to 10 years out, life might be giving you a green light to move forward on your homebuying dreams.

You can reasonably predict the home you’ll need in the years to come. Since successful homeownership requires that you be ready to be in the place for a good number of years, best practice is not just to buy a home with the space and number of rooms you need right now – rather, you should aim to buy the home you’ll need 5, 7 or even 10 years down the road (to the best of your ability to predict, of course). You might be a newlywed with no kids now, but you plan to have them in a few years. Or maybe you’re a newly minted empty nester right now, but can project that you’ll want to retire - and might not want to climb two flights of stairs to get to and from your bedroom - 10 years down the road. Before you buy, you should be in a position to buy the home that meets your future needs – not just your current ones; and that requires that you have a reasonable idea of your life vision and plan for the future.

If you’re able to predict – and afford, at today’s prices – a home with the space, amenity and geographic location you’ll need 7 to 10 years from now, you might be in a good phase of life to get off the rent vs. buy fence.

With that said. . . buying a home is a massive decision and includes multiple, long-term financial and lifestyle obligations, so if one or more of these signals are present for you, that doesn’t mean you have the green light to run out and buy a home tomorrow – rather, it’s a good sign you should begin down that path, if you’re so inclined. You’ll still need to do the work to make sure your personal finances and holistic life picture are also in alignment before you buy, as well of the work it takes to ensure that your real estate and mortgage decisions are sustainable and smart, over the long-term.

It’s not overkill to check in with a mortgage pro, a tax pro, a local real estate broker or agent and a financial planner to make sure all your ducks – not just one - are in a row before you make your move.

Wealthy Buyers Re-emerge in Real Estate

Wealthy Buyers Re-emerge in Real Estate

The rich have returned to the real estate market and are taking advantage of big bargains in luxury homes. Sales of million-dollar homes and condos increased last year in all 20 major metro areas — with some cities seeing an 18.6 percent increase in high-end home sales, according to DataQuick Information Systems. The increase follows four consecutive years of declines in million-dollar homes.

The market that fared the best in high-dollar real estate: San Jose, Calif., which boasted a 27.4 percent increase in sales last year in million-dollar homes. Honolulu also saw a big spike in million-dollar sales — a 26 percent increase — as well as New York, where million-dollar home sales rose nearly 25 percent.

In Washington, D.C., million-dollar home sales grew by 20 percent, as government workers continued to help the high-end real estate market there. Washington, D.C., has recently been ranked as one of the highest paid cities, as well as best educated place in the country.

Other cities with big gains in million-dollar home sales include San Diego (14 percent) and Nashville (13 percent).

"It hasn't been a good six months for all people, but it was a good six months for rich people," Glenn Kelman, CEO of Seattle-based real estate brokerage Redfin, told CNNMoney. "When Wall Street goes up, rich people buy homes."

Source: “Who’s Buying Homes? The Rich,” CNNMoney (March 7, 2011)

To purchase Austin, Houston, or Colorado Real Estate feel free to contact Austin, Houston, & Colorado Realtor, Zachary Miller at Miller & Associates:  12400 W Hwy 71 Austin, TX 78738  1-800-965-3013x1 for immediate assistance.

4 Model Homes Tricks to Use on Your Listings

4 Model Homes Tricks to Use on Your Listings

Model homes are designed to give buyers the allusion of perfection. Mary Cook, an interior designer with Mary Cook & Associates, has built her business around "merchandising" model homes for builders nationwide, and she says sellers could learn from tricks of model merchandisers in preparing their own home for sale.

Here are a few tips she recently shared with the Chicago Tribune.

1. First impressions count. “I'd put the effort right into what they see when they walk through the door,” Cook says. “If you ‘capture’ them and elevate their mood right away, it will carry the house better than if you had to earn their ‘uplifted emotions’ later on in other rooms of the house.”

2. Make sure scale and proportion fit. Cook says many sellers struggle with high ceilings in McMansions and what to do with those two-story walls. “They say, do I hang pictures at 14 feet? They're hesitant to go out and buy a big, monster piece of art, but if a professional designer would see that you've done that, they'd say it's perfect, and you're done,” Cook says. “If you have a whole bunch of little things, putting them in a group together on the wall can have the same effect, though there's an art to grouping them.”

3. Use color to enhance. Staying in safety neutral color zone, she says, isn’t always going to work, but be careful in the color you choose because it can have a big effect on buyers. “I remember years ago we did a model home where we painted the walls a banana yellow, and it wasn't received well at all,” Cook says. “Older people would catch a glimpse of themselves in the mirror, and it was harsh; they just didn't look good. We changed it to a peachy color, and people seemed to feel better in there. It goes back to elevating the buyer's mood."

4. Stand out. “Presume that the buyer has three houses lined up, and they're all at the right price,” Cook says. “You have to identify all the reasons why somebody would possibly want to live there and what makes your place different.” For example, she’ll often have a basket on the countertop filled with a collection of dining brochures, maps, fitness center brochures, activity calendars from the park district, nearby restaurant menus, local hospital information, and information on the local schools--any information that highlights the benefits of living there.

Source: “Selling? Set a Tone for Buyers,” Chicago Tribune (March 6, 2011)

To purchase Austin, Houston, or Colorado Real Estate feel free to contact Austin, Houston, & Colorado Realtor, Zachary Miller at Miller & Associates:  12400 W Hwy 71 Austin, TX 78738  1-800-965-3013x 1 for immediate assistance.

Future of 30-Year Mortgages at Risk?

Future of 30-Year Mortgages at Risk?


Proposals to phase out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may make 30-year fixed-rate mortgages harder to find, housing experts say.

An outline drafted by the Treasury Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the White House and circulated last month calls for winding down Fannie and Freddie over the next five to seven years. Congress continues to debate the future of Fannie and Freddie, and how and whether it should move to phase out the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). For its part, the Obama administration has argued for scrapping the GSEs, but replacing them with some form of federal involvement in mortgage financing.

But housing experts warn that 30-year fixed rate mortgages — a popular choice among buyers — might become harder to find and more expensive without Fannie and Freddie to buy these loans. Banks may be less willing to extend credit at a fixed rate over such a long term, housing experts note, since investors often prefer loans with adjustable rates rather than loans with longer terms, which expose them to interest rate risk.

“Traditionally, banks have been less willing to keep 30-year fixed-rate mortgages on their balance sheets, so in the absence of a vibrant securitization market, banks would more heavily favor adjustable-rate products,” John Mechem, a spokesman for the Mortgage Bankers Association, told The New York Times.

There is a lot of uncertainty about the process of phasing out Fannie and Freddie and how it will affect mortgage products, Barry Zigas, the director of housing policy at the Consumer Federation of America, told The New York Times.

Alex J. Pollock, a former chief executive of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, told The New York Times that he believes 30-year loans would remain available regardless of a federal guarantee, but they might be more difficult to find and lenders might require larger down payments and better credit scores.

“One of the reasons that American housing finance is in such bad shape right now is the 30-year mortgage,” Pollock argues. “For many people, it’s not at all clear that that’s the best product.”

Source: “A Plan to Phase Out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” The New York Times (March 6, 2011) and “Without Loan Giants, 30-Year Mortgage May Fade Away,” The New York Times (March 4, 2011)

To purchase Austin, Houston, or Colorado Real Estate feel free to contact Austin, Houston, & Colorado Realtor, Zachary Miller at Miller & Associates:  12400 W Hwy 71 Austin, TX 78738  1-800-965-3013x 1 for immediate assistance.