Monday, December 28, 2009

Year End Decade End Summary

It's that time of year again when the news media assembles a montage of news clips events and things they reported about in 2009 and the last decade that we all remember or have forgotten or in alot of cases would like to forget or never really cared about in the first place.

Hopefully someday the news media will go back to being just that news. In the mean time it is refreshing to gain information, converse with people via blog websites, and social media networks such as facebook and twitter. The priveledge of being able to blog and provide hopefully for my readers valuable little tips of information about buying and selling a home or other things to think about when planning for your financial future.

Ok, so back to my montage, what has happened here in Albuquerque Real Estate over the past year? Well I don't need to tell you home sales overall are down. The number of foreclosure and short sale properties are up, and alot more people have gotten behind on their mortgage payments and are in the process of being foreclosed or trying to short sell. But the silver lining is: ALBUQUERQUE AND RIO RANCHO AS A WHOLE ARE ALOT BETTER OFF THAN THE REST OF THE COUNTRY! Albuquerque is not immune to the outside forces of the overall Real Estate market or the problems in the mortgage industry. But Albuquerque also for the most part did not participate in the large boom (bubble) either. Traditionally at least since 1980 the average price of an Albuquerque home has risen by 3-4% per year. So five years from now when we look back at 2008-2011 we will probably see that over all Albuquerque and Rio Rancho has prospered from a healthy overall economic climate and stability.

Best wishes in the New Year! If you or anyone you know is looking to buy or sell Real Estate in 2010 give me a call! Happy New Year!

Lumber Liquidators

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Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Real Estate Statistics Southwest side of Town

So its December, nobody wants to look for a house during the holidays right? Wrong, placing your home up for sale in a traditionally slow time for Albuquerque Real Estate has an advantage, fewer homes for sale and less competition. Right now with the First Time Home Buyers tax credit of $8,000 and historically low interest rates, it may be one of the best opportunities to buy a home in years.

Lets take a look at the Southwest section of town where you can find alot of newer built homes with east access to Freeway, close to Petroglyphs National Park, country living in the South Valley along the Bosque and dynamic views of the Sandia Mountains. The Areas used for the example are Areas: 90,91,92,93 Bordered by Central Avenue to the north, The Rio Grande River, Bridge, and the I-25 freeway to the east, I-25 and the Isleta Indian Reservation to the south, and the West Mesa to the west.

Currently there are as of this writing today, 504 active listings for sale in this area, 116 homes are currently pending and 76 have closed in the last month. This means there is currently a 6 month supply of homes to be sold. Of those homes here is a breakdown of the actual price range:

0-100,000 = 44
100K-150K = 242
150K-200K = 162
200K-300K = 37
300K-500K = 23
500K-700K = 9

The lowest priced home is $49,000 and the highest priced home is $700,000.

Ok, but why then is December a good time to sell a home? Of those 76 homes that sold last month 62 were between 100K-200K, there are 396 homes to look at and the average home buyer looks at 12-25 homes before they decide to purchase. In most of the price ranges, chances are they will look at your house, between 100K-200K maybe 1 in 6 will look at your home. But compare that to February, March, and April when more homes are on the market, can be almost 40% higher, the chances of your home being seen are slimmer with so many homes to choose from.

Well ok, I understand all the home selling stuff and yes December looks like a good time to put my home up for sale but I am a home Buyer how does that help me?

You have the time to shop for a home, calculate if the monthly payment is right for you, pre-qualify for a mortgage, spend all day calling William to send you more information on properties, and scheduling appointments to see them. You have historically low interest rates around 4.7-5%, a first time home buyers tax credit of $8,000 or a home buyers credit of $6,500 if you decide to move into another, larger or similar home and have lived in your current home for 5 years. A professional Full Time Realtor who will walk you through ever step of the process, from paperwork, home inspections, title companies, and moving services.

And most of all? Peace of mind, that you made the right choice to buy a home!

Kitchen Universe LLC

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Wednesday, December 02, 2009

A Christmas Carol ~ 2009 version

Ebenezer CEO was walking to his brand new GM Cadillac he got for a steal after turning in his old clunker 1990 Nissan his son had used 15 years ago for college. Counting his money from the huge bonus he received this year; from saving his company from bankruptcy by taking a big bailout from the government. He noticed a man, his wife and small boy standing in line at the food shelter.

The man Bob Cratchett had just been laid off from his job about 6 months ago and his little boy "Tim" needed surgery that his HMO refused to cover. Although his wife tried to look for work, she was a very successful office manager for a home builder, she to was soon unemployed when the home builder packed up and moved out of town.

A few months went buy and a few late mortgage payments Ebenezer CEO foreclosed on their property and left them homeless. No matter that Bob was able to catch up with the payments the bank foreclosed anyways.

"Are there no work houses, are there no prisons?" He exclaimed "Bah Humbug" He got to his car his driver took him, way uptown to the top of the hill to his gated community.

"What are we going to do Bob?" his wife asked. "I don't know, after we were foreclosed on our credit is ruined. No one will rent us an apartment and I can't keep paying the $25 credit check they keep asking for or we won't be able to pay the security deposit and rent." He kicked a bag into the street. A policeman pulled up and wrote him a ticket for littering.

Ebenezer was visited by three ghosts that night:
The First was Herbert Hoover
The Second was Charles Keating
The Third was Bernie Madoff

He awoke that morning, jumped up out of his bed glad to be alive, feeling his heart, and his hands, he rushed to the window. He opened the shutters and exclaimed to a boy watching his father mow his yard. "Boy what day is this?" The boy says "Que?" "What day is this" Ebenzer starts feeling frustrated. The boy says "No habla ingles?" Ebenzer shuts the window glances at the computer and looks at the date; it is December 26th.

"Great, the markets open." He calls his secretary. "Take out the rest of my money and buy,buy buy!" He laid back in his chair, he knew he didn't have a heart of gold but at $1200.00 an ounce he could just buy one.

What happened to the Cratchetts you ask? Well were still waiting for that story to unfold in 2010. Maybe with a public option for health care "Tim" will be ok. Maybe Bob and his wife will get another job, cleaning out all the foreclosed properties. We will wait and see.

Ok, you say I need to lighten things up a bit, well I no longer work for Walt Disney, I did for a brief time in 1995 after I was "let go" from Countrywide as the benefits administrator. One thing about Walt Disney as a company is; it truelly is the happiest place on earth when you work there.

Although I won the Wall Street Journal Dartboard contest earlier this year with my stock pick Rangold Resources (GOLD), I chose to sell it last week because I wanted to take the considerable profit. I do not forsee anything wrong with the company and truelly believe the next big bubble,like Real Estate in the 00's and Tech stocks in the 90's is in gold, I do not want to be a part of it. If you continue to read past articles on this blog like the Christmas themes you will understand that I warned of the coming economic downturn and this year although I believe it is going to stablize after a brief downturn in March or early April in the next few coming months we are going to here about the rise of gold and just like the housing market everybody buys when its going up not when it is at the bottom.

I also would like to welcome our newest affilliate Coffees of Hawaii can you guess what everyone is getting for Christmas this year?

Coffees of Hawaii