Golden Realty Blog

If I remodel my kitchen will it increase the value of my home? What if I add a bathroom, or a deck? The following report will help you as a homeowner determine the value of a remodeling project.

Buying right is the first step to profit and success but after the bubble crisis, some potential buyers have been afraid to act. If you have been sitting on the side-line waiting for the next buying opportunity, now might be the time to buy.

Interest rates remain low. Don’t just think about the price of the house alone. If you purchase a median-priced home, every ½ point increase in interest results in an extra $1,000 annually for as long as you hold the loan.

Inflation adjusted prices are lower than ever. Nominal home prices have dropped 5, 10 or even as much as 25% from previous highs in most areas. When adjusted for inflation the savings are even greater.

Banking regulations are tightening. Recent economic indicators lead many to believe banks will tighten lending requirements by requiring larger down payments, stricter qualification guidelines and other restrictions. Even if interest rates remain low, it could become much more difficult to qualify for a mortgage in the future.

Rising rents. Rental rates have been increasing with rate hikes expected for the next several years. During tough economic times, the ability to lock in a price and control costs is important to maintaining a working budget.

Fabulous foreclosures and incentives. Special programs at the state, local and federal level are able to assist investors and homeowners in purchasing foreclosures, short sales, REOs, and other property through special programs and incentive packages.

Trends in home design are increasingly moving beyond occasional nods toward pet-friendly to substantial installations that are truly pet fabulous.

While it might seem strange to some, the idea of customizing a house for life with pets is a given for pet parents, and the possibilities abound. “I think it adds a lot of value to the livability of the house if you take into consideration the family pet,” says Kathleen Donohue, a senior designer at Neil Kelly, a Portland-based design firm. “The more you can conveniently accommodate pets, the better it is for everyone.”

A certified master kitchen and bath designer, Donohue’s 25-year tenure with Neil Kelly has taken her to Bend, Eugene and Portland. With her cat named Hoodie and rescue Scottie named Major, Donohue has the perfect pet design testing team at home.

Popular contemporary designs often combine the dining, living and kitchen areas of the house into one big room. This open room is where people can comfortably be “together while apart” and comfortably talk, snack, watch TV or surf the Internet as a family. Still, until recently, designers hadn’t considered four-legged members of the family in their plans.

Pets are family members too, and one of the easiest customizations Donohue recommends is adding pet-friendliness to the great room.

Click to read entire article…

Kim Taking in Oath of Office

Golden Realty’s own Kim Heddinger was installed last Friday in her new (volunteer) position as the 2011 President of the Eugene Association of Realtors. Kim is smart, tenacious, balanced, fair and strong and is well prepared to serve on the board and to help navigate the Association through the challenging real estate market we are facing.

Congratulations Kim!

Past President Colin Call and President Kim Heddinger

Ending the mortgage interest deduction is just one of many ideas proposed by President Obama’s bipartisan deficit commission today. Below is an article from the National Association of REALTORS, regarding how vital the MID is to home ownership and the economy.

REALTORS® Say Mortgage Interest Deduction Vital to Home Ownership, Economy
- WASHINGTON (December 1, 2010)

The following is a statement by National Association of REALTORS® President Ron Phipps.“As the leading advocate for housing and home ownership issues, NAR firmly believes that the mortgage interest deduction (MID) is vital to the stability of the American housing market and economy.

“The MID must not be targeted for change. NAR is actively engaged on behalf of the nation’s 75 million home owners and 1.1 million REALTORS® to ensure that the current deduction is not modified as was recommended in the Deficit Reduction Commission report released today.

“The tax deductibility of interest paid on mortgages is a powerful incentive for home ownership and has been one of the simplest provisions in the federal tax code for more than 80 years. In a new survey commissioned by NAR and conducted online in October 2010 by Harris Interactive of nearly 3,000 home owners and renters, nearly three-fourths of home owners and two-thirds of renters said the mortgage interest deduction was extremely or very important to them.

“Recent progress has been made in bringing stability to the housing market and any changes to the MID now or in the future could critically erode home prices and the value of homes by as much as 15 percent, according to our research. This would negatively impact home ownership for millions of Americans, including those who own their homes outright and have no mortgage.

“Any further downward pressure on home prices will hamper the economic recovery, raise foreclosures, and hurt banks’ abilities to lend and likely tip the economy into another recession, resulting in further job losses for the country. It will effectively close the door on the American dream.

“NAR will remain vigilant in opposing any plan that modifies or excludes the deductibility of mortgage interest.”

A REALTOR in Florida posted this on his website.

Can you tell he is frustrated with real estate right now?

If I go to another listing appointment and hear from another seller, “I don’t have to sell” or “I’m not going to give it away” I think I’ll have a coronary! 

Let’s deal with the first statement: 

“I don’t have to sell”…. Then why the (insert imagination) am I here? Why have I wasted half my day putting together a listing presentation, pulling and analyzing comparable sales and wrapping a tie around my neck to find out that you don’t actually have a problem that I can help you solve?  Also, if you didn’t have to sell this property why have you had it on the market with 3 other real estate companies for 6 months, 12 months and 18 months? If you don’t have to sell, don’t put it on the market. All you are accomplishing is adding to the oversupply problem and driving down prices for sellers that do need to sell. 

And the second statement:

“We don’t want to give it away”….. I don’t want you to give it away either! But the market is what the market is. If you think we are going to find some idiot that drops in the neighborhood from outer space that is willing to pay you more than market value you have a loooooooooong wait ahead of you. We have a very aggressive marketing plan and we do everything we can to bring as many buyers to see your home as possible. However, our plan has one flaw…..it only exposes your property to those prospective buyers in the general vicinity of PLANET EARTH! Even Donald Trump can’t sell a property for more than market value! 

In other words, if you have to sell your property I promise you it will only sell for what the current market will bring. You will not get what your neighbor got for his when he sold it last year…or even last quarter….even last month. Not today.

So you think you’ll rent it or just take it off the market until the market comes back. This is a great strategy! Tell me, when is the market going to come back? I think the consensus among a lot of folks is that when the market does come back it will snap back into place like a stretched rubber band. The fact is, when we do find the bottom of the market, it will stay flat for sometime and then gradually come back. I read an article in the Wall Street Journal indicating that once we do reach the bottom, it could take 15 years for home prices to get back to 2005 levels.

The National Association of REALTOR’s eighth annual Housing Opportunity Pulse Survey reveals that nearly eight out of 10 respondents believe buying a home is a good financial decision, despite ongoing challenges with the economy and housing market. The survey, which measures how affordable housing issues affect consumers, also found job security concerns to be the highest in eight years of sampling, with 70 percent of Americans saying that job layoffs and unemployment are a big problem in their area; eight in 10 cite these issues as a barrier to homeownership. The telephone survey of 1,209 urban and suburban adults in the top 25 metropolitan statistical areas was conducted for NAR by American Strategies and Myers Research & Strategic Services for NAR’s Housing Opportunity Program.

Some key results:

• Americans continue to believe that buying a home is a good financial decision (77 percent believe total strongly or not so strongly, 68 percent strongly so).
• More than two-thirds of respondents (68 percent) say that now is a good time to buy a home.
• Job insecurity and the lack of jobs continue to be the primary obstacle to home ownership and market recovery.
• Respondents see the recession and job losses as the main reasons for the foreclosure problem, a shift from last year when they more likely to blame homeowners who bought homes they could not afford.
• A majority of renters say that owning a home at some point in the future is either one of their highest priorities (39 percent) or a moderate priority (24 percent). Just 21 percent of renters say that owning a home is not a priority at all.
• Frustration with banks is up: now a majority worry that banks have made it too hard to qualify for a home mortgage loan.
• 51 percent of respondents say foreclosures remain a big or moderate problem in their area. While there has been a significant drop in the percentage of those surveyed who say foreclosures have increased, 51 percent say that the rate of foreclosures is about the same as it was last year.
• Most of those surveyed say that it is harder to sell a home in their neighborhood than it was a year ago.
• Looking forward, 70 percent expect real estate sales in their neighborhood to remain about the same over the next few months. A nearly identical number (69 percent), also expect home values to remain the same.
• Nearly one-quarter (23 percent) are now very concerned about the number of homes and condos for sale in their area—a number that is up 7 points from last year.
• Most respondents are more concerned about the drop in home values than they are about home costs being too high. Still, cost remains the significant barrier to many who would otherwise like to buy a home.

Information From the National Association of REALTOR’s

Consumer Confidence…What is it and why do we hear it repeatedly when we are discussing the state of the economy? Consumer Confidence or rather lack thereof is buzzing around in the media and seems to have become the scapegoat (among other factors) for our current economic crisis. So what the heck does it really mean and why is IT being blamed for the continued downturn in our economy?

According to Wikipedia, Consumer confidence is an economic indicator which measures the degree of optimism that consumers feel about the overall state of the economy and their personal financial situation. How confident people feel about stability of their incomes determines their spending activity and therefore serves as one of the key indicators for the overall shape of the economy. In essence, if consumer confidence is higher, consumers are making more purchases, boosting the economic expansion. On the other hand, if confidence is lower, consumers tend to save more than they spend, prompting the contraction of the economy. A month-to-month diminishing trend in consumer confidence suggests that in the current state of the economy most consumers have a negative outlook on their ability to find and retain good jobs.

To further dissect this phenomenon I looked up the definitions of consumer and confidence;

Consumer: one that utilizes economic goods.

Confidence: a state of being certain either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective.

What happens to the consumer’s confidence when we are continually bombarded by reports of how low consumer confidence is? Does that build confidence or break it down? The natural psychological reaction is to assume the reporting “authority” aka -the Media, is correct, resulting in actions that continue the negative outlook and diminishing trends in consumer confidence.

Shouldn’t our media and country as a whole, be more responsible in their reporting by providing real life facts and stories, so that maybe…just maybe, consumer confidence will improve. Think about this…if reports say that 5% of all homes for sale are distressed properties…THAT means that 95% of all homes for sale are NOT distressed properties. It’s all in the perception. Let’s try spinning a positive twist on our economic outlook for a change. We really have nothing to loose.

Maybe if we as consumers stop listening to the media as the ‘authority’ of the ultimate truth we can be part of changing our own economic outlook.

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Laughter may really be the best medicine after all. At least that’s what researchers at the University of Maryland believe after studying the science behind a good old-fashioned belly laugh. Following are some of the things that laughter does:

• Reduces stress and anxiety.
• Increases circulation, which also helps improve the supply of oxygen and nutrients throughout the body, and increases lymph circulation, which helps the immune system.
• Produces a long list of good brain and body chemicals, including endorphins, serotonin and interleukins, and improves mood.
• Boosts energy and diminishes pain.

Another study estimates that the chemicals manufactured by the body during one hearty laughing session are worth roughly $10,000 if you purchase the same compounds from a laboratory or pharmacy. Since your body produces the chemicals for free, it’s clear that laughing more is a good investment.

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