Real Estate – General

Read the fine print

Posted by

‘Politicians knew it. Bureaucrats knew it. Developers knew it. But homeowners appear to have been offered little to no notification.

Even providing the most basic information in the plat’s fine print was a political fight at the time, Fort Bend County officials said.

“It took a yeoman’s effort because the developers were saying, ‘You can’t make us do that,'” said Richard Stolleis, the Fort Bend county engineer. “It was a pretty significant battle — a high-level discussion — before these were put on the subdivision plat.”

County officials believed the plat’s warning would be passed through the property’s title to every prospective owner at closing. However, many residents said they never saw it. They may have overlooked it or missed it in a stack of documents, or their real estate agents and title workers may have not clearly explained the risk. State law doesn’t require disclosure of such notes, experts said.

Meanwhile, Harris County residents who live within the reservoirs didn’t even get that minimal official notice.’

Read the article HERE.

Buyer Beware: Credit Repair Ripoff

Posted by

. . . a California credit repair company, was already on the radar of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as several of its associated companies were fined earlier this year by the bureau for misleading consumers and charging illegal fees for credit repair services.

Be careful out there.  Read the rest HERE

Baby boomers are refusing to sell

Posted by

Older Americans own half of the houses in the market.  Many are simply refusing to sell and others have adult “kids” moving back in since they can’t afford a place to rent or buy.  It is a Catch 22 and many people are looking at countries like Italy where the number of adults that live at home is enormous.  Multi-generational families just don’t coincide with the “rugged American” worldview where you go out on your own and you make it with your own two hands.  Of course, many house humpers had mom and dad chip in but that doesn’t make for such a sexy story.  In the end, however there are many baby boomers that simply are not selling.  This is actually an interesting problem that is not going away.

Read the rest HERE.

The vanishing San Diego single-family home

Posted by

Many people still dream of buying a house that includes a few bedrooms, a yard to play in and a porch to watch the comings and goings of the neighborhood.

Yet making that dream a reality is becoming increasingly more difficult in San Diego County.

Local planners and communities have largely cut back on approving new housing developments, instead opting for condos and apartments.

In the first nine months of 2016 in San Diego County, 1,848 single-family home permits were issued while 5,564 multifamily permits were approved, said the Construction Industry Research Board.

Read the whole article here. 

Home sales are rising, so why isn’t inventory going up?

Posted by

Two facts stand out in today’s housing market: rising home sales and flat/falling inventory.

Existing home sales are up 5% year over year in the first half of 2016, and in June reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million units―the highest level since early 2007.  But housing inventory, as measured by the number of existing homes for sale, was down by 130,000 units year over year in June.

This is a continuation of what has been happening since 2012. Between 2012 and 2015, home sales have increased by almost 600,000 units, from 4.67 million units to 5.25 million units, while housing inventory has been flat or down.

Read the rest Here

Rent vs Buy, The Break Even Point

Posted by

It takes nearly four years to get to the point where it makes more sense to buy than rent a home in San Diego County, the longest time of any metro area in the nation, said a Zillow study released Tuesday. . .

The top-ranked city was San Antonio, Texas, where it took one year and four months to break even.

Read the rest Here