Market Trends and Condition

For Americans looking to buy retirement property, the historic real estate crash has created all sorts of opportunities. Home prices in 20 major metropolitan areas have declined roughly 28 percent from their 2006 peaks. Meanwhile, government efforts to ramp up demand for homes have significantly reduced mortgage costs for borrowers. Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates stood at 4.37 percent for the week ending September 16, only slightly above the 39-year lows reached two weeks earlier. Taken together, lower home prices and cheap mortgage rates have made home buying much more affordable than just a few years ago.

For Americans looking to buy retirement property, the historic real estate crash has created all sorts of opportunities. Home prices in 20 major metropolitan areas have declined roughly 28 percent from their 2006 peaks. Meanwhile, government efforts to ramp up demand for homes have significantly reduced mortgage costs for borrowers. Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates stood at 4.37 percent for the week ending September 16, only slightly above the 39-year lows reached two weeks earlier. Taken together, lower home prices and cheap mortgage rates have made home buying much more affordable than just a few years ago.

For Americans looking to buy retirement property, the historic real estate crash has created all sorts of opportunities. Home prices in 20 major metropolitan areas have declined roughly 28 percent from their 2006 peaks. Meanwhile, government efforts to ramp up demand for homes have significantly reduced mortgage costs for borrowers. Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates stood at 4.37 percent for the week ending September 16, only slightly above the 39-year lows reached two weeks earlier. Taken together, lower home prices and cheap mortgage rates have made home buying much more affordable than just a few years ago.

For Americans looking to buy retirement property, the historic real estate crash has created all sorts of opportunities. Home prices in 20 major metropolitan areas have declined roughly 28 percent from their 2006 peaks. Meanwhile, government efforts to ramp up demand for homes have significantly reduced mortgage costs for borrowers. Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates stood at 4.37 percent for the week ending September 16, only slightly above the 39-year lows reached two weeks earlier. Taken together, lower home prices and cheap mortgage rates have made home buying much more affordable than just a few years ago.

For Americans looking to buy retirement property, the historic real estate crash has created all sorts of opportunities. Home prices in 20 major metropolitan areas have declined roughly 28 percent from their 2006 peaks. Meanwhile, government efforts to ramp up demand for homes have significantly reduced mortgage costs for borrowers. Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates stood at 4.37 percent for the week ending September 16, only slightly above the 39-year lows reached two weeks earlier. Taken together, lower home prices and cheap mortgage rates have made home buying much more affordable than just a few years ago.

There are many predictions about 2011,” Home prices falling faster in biggest US cities”
(Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/28/2546110/home-prices-falling-faster-...). Another recent headline: New homes sales rise 5.5% in November 2010 from year earlier.
Which of those headlines is correct? Is the market up or is it down? What is an investor to do? Those are questions that the prudent investor should be asking themselves. The prudent investor has their exit strategy mapped out before making an offer, they know of at least a couple of ways they can make money on the property. Here are suggestions to make 2011 a profitable year:
1. Keep current on market values. Use only the most recent comparable sales information.

Hi

I would like to know if anybody can give me advise on this topic. I recently talked to a Real Estate Agent in South Carolina and he explained to me that if I am going to buy as my first home resident, I will have a better interest rate than buying a house for investment, and also that the closing cost will be higher. He told me that the reason they are doing this is because of so many foreclosures and to avoid this from happening they decided to increase on closings cost also increase the mortgage with a higher interest rate.

Does this happen to any of you? What are you doing differently from what it used to be before the closing cost where increased?
Thanks

Quoted material from The Kiplinger Tax Letter:

Bad news for folks who “flip” properties: Their profits are ordinary income, not capital gains, the Tax Court decides. A couple bought four to eight homes a year, usually ones in foreclosure. They rehabbed the properties and resold them quickly... normally within two to three months. For tax purposes, they are dealers in real estate. Thus, the profits can’t be used to offset capital losses (Garrison, TC Memo. 2010-261).

In a number of major American cities, housing prices have taken a sharp turn for the worse.

Not long ago it looked like the housing market was on the mend in most major U.S. metropolitan areas. But now prices are falling fast again in many. Foreclosures and vacant homes lingering on the market are depressing prices, and the home buyer tax credit that expired in July is sorely missed.

In September home prices fell in 18 of the 20 metro areas tracked by Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller composite home price index. That was worse than August, when 15 of the top 20 cities were down month-over-month.

Article Source
http://www.epsamui.com/news/news_1056.html

The Web has helped home buyers find places to live for years, through real-estate agencies' sites and classified listings. But now a number of sites have emerged that provide a raft of information beyond price, location and photos.