Joel Dameral's South Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog (530-545-8827)

Image via Wikipedia

A special weather statement forecasts two winter storms this week, on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. They should bring gusty winds, along with mountain snow and valley rain.

“Significant snowfall is likely on the Sierra Tuesday and Wednesday, with total accumulations of 6 inches or more in the Tahoe basin …” the statement reads.

As the storm approaches, it is expected to scour the fog that has hovered over the lake all weekend, NWS reports.

Below is an extended forecast, complements of www.noaa.gov. Also included in this story is an update of snow conditions, lift information and operations at various Lake Tahoe ski resorts as of Monday, Jan. 11. Please check with individual ski resorts for latest conditions and operations.

Extended forecast

Today: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 47. South wind around 10 mph.

Tonight: A slight chance of rain before 4am, then rain and snow likely. Snow level 7200 feet. Cloudy, with a low around 34. South wind between 10 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.

Tuesday: Rain and snow likely before 10am, then snow. High near 41. Windy, with a south wind between 25 and 30 mph, with gusts as high as 45 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.

Tuesday Night: Snow. Low around 34. Breezy, with a southwest wind between 15 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%.

Wednesday: Snow showers, mainly before 10am. High near 38. West wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%.

Wednesday Night: A 30 percent chance of snow showers, mainly before 10pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 25.

Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 42.

Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 31.

Friday: Partly sunny, with a high near 48.

Friday Night: A slight chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 34.

Saturday: A slight chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 43.

Saturday Night: A slight chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 25.

Sunday: A chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 37.

 

Housing Market
New home sales lost momentum in October while the resale market continued to surge due to lower mortgage rates and the extended homebuyer tax credit. Seasonally-adjusted new home sales fell 11.3% from the previous month to an annual rate of 355,000 units. The seasonally-adjusted annual rate of new home sales in November is back down to its lowest levels since April. New home sales for the previous three months were also revised lower by 49,000 units. It is worrisome that lower rates and the extended housing tax credit were not enough to fuel demand for new homes in November.

While the new home affordability ratio remains at very high levels, it is still almost 10 percentage points higher than the existing home ratio. Median new home prices in November rose to $217,400 from a downwardly amount of $209,400 in October. Prices increased 3.8% from the previous month but are still 1.9% lower than they were this time last year. Median new home prices have now recorded 11 straight months of year-over-year declines. Further price cuts and use of incentives may be necessary to attract demand in the new homes market. However, the continued reduction in inventory levels is a positive sign for stabilization in the new homes market. In November, new home inventories declined to 234,00 units from an October figure of 241,000 on a non-seasonally adjusted basis. Seasonally-adjusted inventory of unsold homes have declined for 31 straight months to 235,000 units.

Sales in the existing home market remained strong in November. The seasonally-adjusted annual rate of all existing homes jumped 7.4% from October levels to 6,540,000 units. This is the highest the seasonally-adjusted annual rate of existing home sales since February 2007. Existing single-family home sales increased 8.5% from last month while condo and co-op sales remained flat from October levels at 770,000 units. Lower mortgage rates and the extended housing tax credit have kept buyers interested due to all-time high affordability.

In November, the median sales price for an existing home increased slightly to $172,600 from $172,200 in October. This was the first gain in median existing home prices since June although prices are still 4.3% lower than they were this time last year. Existing home inventory posted declines for the fourth consecutive month in November, easing 1.3% to 3,518,000 units from a revised 3,565,000 units in October. This is the lowest level of existing home inventory on the market since December 2006.

After rising for nine consecutive months, the National Association of Realtor’s pending home sales index in November fell for the first time since January. The Pending Home sales Index, which is a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in November, dropped 16.0% to a reading of 96.0 from an upwardly revised reading of 114.3 in October.

National average mortgage rates declined from the previous week to 5.09% in the latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey released weekly by Freddie Mac on January 7th. This was the first weekly decline for average fixed rates since the beginning of December. Rates had been steadily moving higher and increased for four straight weeks before this past week’s decline. In the week ending January 1st, the MBA’s seasonally-adjusted purchase index increased 3.6% from the previous week but was still down 36.33% compared to the same time last year. This was the first weekly gain for the purchase index in the past month while the year-over-year drop in the purchase index is the largest since February 2009.

Image via Wikipedia

The buying public seems to think that “great deal” equals foreclosure, short sale or bank-owned property. The truth is that these properties may appear to be bargains, but in many cases you could be buying someone else’s problems. If you’re looking for a bargain property, here are some key issues to consider:

1. What is your time line for purchasing?
You may find the perfect short-sale property, and the seller may accept your offer. The challenge is that you don’t have a deal until the bank approves the short sale. At many large lenders a single processor may have up to 500 files on his or her desk at one time. Realtors are reporting that it can take six or more months to get an offer approved. The wait can be extremely frustrating. It can also be costly.

For example, if prices are still declining in your area and price range, the offer you made six months ago may be too high. Also, if you qualify for a loan now, will you still qualify six to eight months from now if mortgage interest rates have increased? More importantly, can you afford to make a higher monthly payment? If possible, search for a short sale or an REO where the bank has preapproved the sales price. It still may take a long time to close, but not as long as it would if the price was not preapproved.

2. Are you prepared to be in a multiple-offer situation?
Since so many buyers are searching for distressed properties and the approval process takes so long, multiple offers are common. The lender will not tell you about other offers. They may, in fact, tell you that your offer will “probably” be approved — but you cannot rely on this representation.

If another offer comes in at a higher price and at better terms, the bank is obligated to take the best offer. If the property is a short sale, the seller’s signature on the document merely opens the negotiation — it does not finalize it. Furthermore, the seller/lender may continue to market the property even after they have signed a contract with you. This is simply smart business, as so many borrowers are having trouble closing transactions due to appraisal issues.

3. Ask the agent if the seller participated in the “Cash for Keys” program
The best candidates for good bargains are those properties where the sellers are still occupying them. Many banks have a program called “Cash for Keys.” This program pays the owners of foreclosure and short-sale properties money to keep the owner from trashing the property when they move out. I have seen copper piping ripped out of properties, concrete poured down the plumbing, and appliances stolen or destroyed. Cash for Keys is designed to minimize these behaviors.

4. Beware of vacant properties
Never purchase any property without doing a physical inspection. Also, if it takes more than 90 days to negotiate the transaction or if the house has been vacant, have the property re-inspected prior to signing off on the final deal. The reason for this is that the longer a house stays vacant, the more likely it is to have problems.

For example, pack rats and mice are more likely to move into vacant properties. They can chew through the wiring and generally wreak havoc with the home’s electrical systems. Also, if the dishwasher is not run at least once a week, the seals can dry out. If you live in an area where the pipes are not winterized and there are freezing temperatures, a pipe may burst. You may not discover the problem until you turn the water back on after closing.

5. Is the deal more important than your lifestyle?
A property can be a great deal in terms of the price, but is it worth it if it’s in a poorly rated school district or if the commute is an hour from your workplace? What if the property has a terrible floor plan, is in the flight path for a major airport, or occasionally gets a whiff of the sewage treatment plant? When you purchase, it’s important that you take all of these issues into consideration rather than focusing exclusively on the price. A property with any of these types of problems will be harder to sell in the future.

It’s important to consider the price in conjunction with the quality and the convenience of your lifestyle once you move in. For example, an extra 30-minute commute over a number of years can easily chew through thousands of dollars in terms of your vehicle costs, not to mention the wear and tear from the additional stress of commuting.

There are good distressed property deals out there. Nevertheless, don’t limit your search. Have your agent show you seller-occupied homes that are not distressed properties. Thirty-five percent of all properties are owned free and clear. These properties are often lovingly maintained, in top-notch condition, and in more desirable locations. In the long run, they may be a much better bargain.

Bernice Ross, CEO of RealEstateCoach.com, is a national speaker, trainer and author of “Real Estate Dough: Your Recipe for Real Estate Success” and other books.

 

RISMEDIA, November 30, 2009—Consumers are more conscientious about healthy living than ever before and this awareness is making its way to the homebuilding industry, particularly in the custom home market, says Michael Lenahen who owns Ponte Vedra, Fla.-based Aurora Custom Homes.

“As more consumers begin to realize how much their home affects every aspect of their health, they are beginning to see the importance of improving its environmental quality with products to benefit their health and that of their family,” Lenahen said. “The new emphasis toward healthy living focuses around four main categories – air, water, odor/fumes and lighting.”

According to the U.S. Green Building Council, pollutants are often two to five times higher indoors than outdoors and this can significantly affect air in the home causing breathing problems and respiratory diseases. When it comes to the quality of the air, Lenahen said several products are available on the market that homeowners should incorporate into their home such as:

-Advanced allergy filters to control dust particles and pollutants
-Dehumidification devices to manage the humidity in the home
-Variable speed air handlers to maintain the circulation of air throughout the home and ventilation fans to introduce fresh air into the home while removing stale, humid air

Improving the water quality in a home is just as important as the air quality, Lenahen said. Several products are available to improve the quality and efficiency of a home’s water flow and usage, including:

-Carbon filter and reverse osmosis units to purify drinking water by removing particulate matter and harmful minerals
-Whole-house water softeners to remove calcium and other harmful minerals while providing added benefit to the home’s appliances and pluming fixtures. Water softeners also improve skin tone and texture by removing calcium, magnesium and iron from the water.
-Underground cisterns to collect rainwater from the gutter and downspouts to use for irrigating the lawn and landscapeHealthy home living is also improved by the use of low Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) materials, which emit lower levels of gasses into the home from everyday materials such as paints, sealants, cabinets and flooring materials. Lenahen said homeowners should use the lowest emitting VOC products for custom homebuilding and remodeling projects, thereby reducing the negative health impact the products may have on the occupants. Low VOC products will have labeling to help homeowners find the healthiest option.

Better lighting solutions can also foster healthier living. Traditional light fixtures typically include high wattage bulbs, which waste electricity while adding excessive heat into the home. Suggested improvements include:

-Decorative light fixtures with less wattage requirements and soft-light emitting globes
-Compact florescent light (CFL) bulbs or L.E.D. fixtures and bulbs for longer life usage
-Next generation skylights, such as Velux Sun Tunnel or Solatube, that bring natural light into the home, reducing the need for artificial light and energy consumption

“These are just some of the many changes that can be made to current homes or built into new homes that will greatly improve the quality of life and health of its occupants,” Lenahen said. “The more consumers become aware of the positive affects of healthy living within the home, the more products will enter the mainstream of standard building practices.”

Stocks Swell on Monetary Promises
Last weekend, the G20 stated that they would continue to support global economies which caused stocks to jump earlier in the week.  The G20 finance ministers said they would maintain their current plan to stimulate their respective economies with emergency support initiatives although many nations are already recovering.  The plan to keep pumping money into the global system in order to spark growth is seen as a positive sign for businesses by most equity markets, and shows the commitment of the world’s largest economies to the current monetary policy strategy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up roughly 1% in early afternoon trading on Friday, reaching its highest levels since October 2008.  Positive earnings reports and lower crude oil prices helped to offset weaker economic data on Friday. The Crude December contract was down about 0.4% at $76.67/barrel in the early afternoon.  Some cause for caution still remains, with the University of Michigan/Reuters consumer sentiment index declining from last month, which raises concern about the consumer side of the economic recovery and the prospects for retailers in the upcoming holiday shopping season.
Investors continue to hedge against inflation and devaluation of the U.S. Dollar by driving up the price of precious metals.  The price of gold is up over 25% while the price of silver has jumped nearly 60% since the beginning of the year.  Gold prices traded slightly higher on Friday afternoon to $1,116/ounce.
While precious metals are a traditional place to park capital to offset expected inflation by institutional investors, the current sustained plateau of demand seems broader based of late, with a larger amount of physical metal purchases by new investors both in the U.S. and abroad.  Additionally, the recent purchase of 200 metric tons of gold by India’s central bank from the IMF, along with the large Canadian miner Barrick Gold painfully unwinding its massive book of hedges, both suggest that the price of gold will likely continue to rise in the near term.

The Economy
The University of Michigan/Reuters consumer sentiment index fell to a reading of 66.0 from 70.6 in October.  This is the second straight month that the reading has declined which sparks concern as to whether U.S. consumers are onboard with the supposedly ongoing recovery.  Rising unemployment and weak wage growth has crimped the U.S. consumer which may hurt holiday shopping this year.
Initial unemployment claims continued to decline this week which gives optimism that things are stabilizing on the labor front.  The Labor Department reported on Thursday that initial claims for unemployment insurance fell by 12,000 to 502,000 in the week ending November 7 which is the lowest since January.

Housing Market
National average mortgage rates declined from the previous week to 4.91% in the latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey released weekly by Freddie Mac on November 12th.  This is the second straight week that mortgage rates have declined and the lowest they have been in a month.  Fixed mortgage rates continue to sit at historically low levels.  In the week ending November 6th, the MBA’s seasonally-adjusted purchase index dropped 11.3% from the previous week and was down 22.4% compared to the same time last year.  This is the fifth straight week that purchase applications have declined and the lowest the purchase index has been since late December 2000.

Image via Wikipedia

Related articles by Zemanta

• Hermes and Threadneedle limit cash inflows in face of UK property ’shortage’ (telegraph.co.uk)