Whooooo Hooooooo!
We are recovering! at least by the "unbiased news stations" (tic).

Now that couldn't have anything at all to do with people buying up the foreclosed properties at bargain prices, could it?

How about a c/p?

Nah, I'd just as soon the Obama boys think I'm just making stuff up.

Don't be a f'n Eeyore, slabby.

Hell no, Chuck....it's not a bad thing at all, but let's not all go dancing in the street without a real look. Up 2% From what?

Here's a hint.....percentages of small numbers rise and fall with little influence..... i.e., 2% of 50 is 1, 2% of 5000 is 100.
Cost to build has dropped, contractor's are hurting for work,........my point is that the data is selective and doesn't portray the whole picture.

Lots of things.....lots.....but never that before. I guess I can't say that anymore. Thanks Dan....I'll cross that one off.

Slab ~ I'm in a real estate related field locally & I'm busy. Some foreclosures, some short sales, some arm's length sales, some cash - a real mix of sales. Some refis. Loans are harder to get for lots of reason. Commercial activity up ~ some good & some not. Inventory of single family residences appears to be shrinking. I'm as busy as I've been in the last 3 years. Real estate is a localized business so the numbers for one area are not necessary true for another. As a result, any broad numbers, unless locally focused, are somewhat meaningless.
And that's all I got to say about that.

Overall home sales are up but home prices are reasonably flat over the past few years. There are a number of buyers who were sitting on the sidelines, and with the record low rates, they have begun to enter the market.

I sold a 40 acre foreclosure property, 1200 SF farm house, 1,000 SF garage, and a 2,500 SF shop on 8/31 for $342,500. It has a pre-approved short plat in Thurston county (planned rural resource development) to split the property into four 2 acre lots, an 8 acre parcel with the home, garage and shop buildings, plus a 24 acre resource parcel.

6-8 years ago, those 2 acre were selling at $125K each.

Expect a second wave of new foreclosures to hit in the next 12 months as banks work through the new regulations put in place that slowed foreclosure process down.

We're pretty much done with them in my region for my bank, but we didn't really have a lot of high risk loans. Most of our issues were due to changes in the timber business (mill closures, slow down of timber harvest, etc).

There are also two large private equity firms buying homes for rentals. One company's goal is trying to buy upwards of 11,000 homes.

Interesting Andy, I've heard some of my most financially savvy friends buying more and more rental property lately as well... Mobile home parks have been their favorite -- lots of consistent income while you hold the investment -- which has been hard to find elsewhere of late.

B

The question I keep having is what will happen when interest rates climb. This activity is great but it is being artificially manipulated by the ultra low interest rates.

In Pierce County, homes $250k and under are selling reasonably well. Homes above $300k are taking a lot longer to sell. Prices have stabilized for the most part, however, the Key Penninsula is still a mess with tons of foreclosed properties sitting.

Here is the snippet from a daily economic update I get.

• Foreclosure Rentals: Large private equity players are behind
Waypoint Real Estate Group LLC and Colony American
Homes, both of which are actively buying up thousands of
foreclosed homes and then renting them out. Waypoint already
owns 2,200 homes so far (on its way to a goal of 11,000) and
Colony has 3,600 homes (going to 10,000).

These folks and others like them are driving a number of these purchases across the nation, but I can't speak to purchase activity here in Washington. All of our foreclosure sales have gone to individuals, most of whom are buying primary residences.

When rates climb, activity will slow somewhat, but rates will likely remain low for the next two to three years at a minimum, and by low I mean 3-4% for a 30 year mortgage. We will not be out of this economic malaise for 3 to 5 years.

Dogfish is dead-on... like usual.

I should look at a refi, if interest is as low as reported on the radio ads. Last time I checked, the super-low interest was for 30-yr adjustable. If I can get a fixed rate under 4%, it would be worth it for me.

You can.

The two homes that were up for sale near me (No. Seattle) sold fairly quickly. Both had multiple offers.
A friend of mine in the mortgage business has been busy with lots of approved buyers. Now they just need to find homes, which based on what I've read the inventory of homes is pretty low at this time.

I'm not a big fan of Zillow, but according to them my house gained 31K in value in the last 30 days.
Sure it did....

30 year fixed at 3.375%, no fee, but you pay closing costs.

15 year fixed at 2.75%, no fee, but you pay closing costs.

At these rates it DOES NOT make sense to buy down your rate by paying a higher fee.

I am not a residential lender, I am not looking for business from you folks. These are just the posted rates at my bank for owner occupied residential priamry home real estate loans. Your LTV and credit score will affect your rate.