An article from the Los Angeles Times identifies the trend for real estate agents and home sellers using the Internet to create blogs or websites to augment the amount of information that an MLS listing can provide.

Real Estate Agents and home sellers have complained for a long time that the MLS can only provide a brief snapshot of information that a home seller or agent wants to convey to a prospective home buyer. By building a property showcase on the Internet, a real estate agent or home seller can add to the amount of information that is included in a listing, and they can promote this website in the MLS listing itself (ie, “For more information, visit our website” –and don’t forget to include the URL).

You can read the article by clicking the link above, or you can contact us at FidelityAssets, and we will help you create your own real estate blog or website to showcase your property listing.

Long run under 6% helped sales

The average U.S. rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage rose this week to the highest since the middle of May, according to Freddie Mac.

The rate increased to 5.73% from 5.66% in the prior week, said Freddie Mac, the second-biggest purchaser of U.S. mortgages. This week’s rate is the highest since 5.77% in the week ended May 13. Last year at this time, the average 30-year rate was 5.98%.

Except for two weeks in late March, 30-year mortgages rate have been below 6% all year. Low rates have stoked home sales.

The one-year adjustable rate rose to 4.42% from 4.39%, while the 15-year fixed rate rose to 5.32% from 5.25%.

The last time the one-year ARM was higher was the week ending Aug. 2, 2002, Freddie Mac said.

More on this article here…

The nation’s fastest-growing housing markets are located in the Southwest, a recent U.S. Census Bureau report shows.

The top three states are Nevada, with a growth rate of 4.5 percent, followed by Arizona at 3 percent and Utah at 2.6 percent.

The growth rates were measured according to the number of new housing units added during the 12 months ended July 1, 2004.

Learn more here…

Appraisers work for the bank, not you. Here’s what you can do to ensure a fair and honest estimate.

Appraisers are supposed to be the referees of the home-buying process. Their job — to provide an independent estimate of the value of a property — protects the bank by guaranteeing that the brick-and-mortar collateral for the mortgage is appropriately valued.

Plus, a wise appraisal helps ensure that you haven’t been lured into overpaying for your dream house — or refinancing it into pipe-dream territory.

But the system isn’t working so well these days. Find out why here…

In what could be one of his last appearances on Capitol Hill, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan admitted even he doesn’t know everything.

Greenspan’s testimony is the second-half of his two-day appearance on the hill, following Wednesday’s testimony before the House Financial Services committee. Thursday he repeated that the economy is generally strong, but warned about the risks posed by of a run-up in housing and fuel prices.

Greenspan disputed claims that Fannie and Freddie’s mortgage holdings provide the mortgage finance firms and the overall real estate market with liquidity, as critics of such limits have argued. So Greenspan said such limits on portfolios should not hurt the nation’s housing markets.

He also would not rule out the Fed continuing its course of hiking interest rates even if short-term interest rates become higher than long-term interest rates. That economic condition, known as an inverted yield curve, is generally seen as a indication of a coming recession.

Greenspan argued that an inverted yield curve was not as good an indicator of a recession as it had been in the past. But he said if there was an inverted yield curve, it would be a consideration for the Fed when weighing interest rates.

Read the whole article here…

In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan issued a strong warning regarding the use of zero-down, interest-only, and adjustable-rate mortgages.

He warned that double-digit home-price gains are unsustainable, yet borrowers of such mortgages are depending on increased value to help them make their monthly payments when the initial low-cost periods expire.

The central bank chairman insisted that some borrowers face financial disaster, and he urged lenders to keep in mind that changes in interest rates and what he calls the “macroeconomic climate” could hinder customers’ ability to repay the loans.

Given that these mortgages make up only a small portion of all home-related debt, Greenspan said he does not believe the economy as a whole is in jeopardy.

Source: Washington Post

Realtors have taken some knocks lately in Washington, where antitrust officials accuse them of trying to stifle cut-rate competition. At the state and local level, though, real-estate trade groups are fighting back — and in many instances prevailing.

At issue is the proliferation of discounters offering lower fees on home sales than do traditional broker firms. In the past year or so, half a dozen states have imposed laws that require real-estate brokers to offer a minimum level of services, whether customers want to pay for them or not. Such hurdles could undercut the discounters’ business model.

In a further blow, some local Realtor groups are imposing rules that make it harder for discounters to get their listings on national and regional Web sites. Even some discounters’ advertising claims have come under attack.

The recent surge in home prices has prompted more consumers to question the full-service brokers’ charges, since rising house costs have inflated the dollar amount of the traditional 6% or so sales commission. The stakes are high: Commissions on U.S. home sales total more than $60 billion a year, says Real Trends, an industry publication.

Read the full article here…

When renovating, perhaps the most important thing you can do is to avoid the lure of getting the latest and greatest stuff. A little self-control will save you money, improve resale value and eliminate simple daily frustrations that come with bad choices.

So, in order to help other home renovators who share my addiction to the bright and shiny, here’s a list of five of the more recent top trends you might think twice about. While all are interesting and attractive, taking extra time to consider the consequences might be well spent — as well as money saved.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — How do you define a housing boom? Does a bust always follow a boom? What’s the difference between a significant slowdown and an absolute bust?

An article from Boston.com discusses whether real home-growth prices (appreciation minus inflation) rising to their highest levels since the data was first collected in 1977, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has brought some definition to the amazing national housing picture, announcing that there were 55 boom metro markets at the end of 2004, up from 32 a year earlier.

Boom markets, where real price-growth increases at least 30 percent over three years, were heavily concentrated in California (21), the Northeast (18) and Florida (11). And, according to the FDIC, boom does not necessarily lead to bust ? only 17 percent of all housing booms ended in busts. Most busts were preceded by a significant stress in local economies, such as loss of jobs. A bust is defined as a nominal drop of 15 percent over five years.

You can read the whole article here….

It’s long been known that when it comes to renovating your home, it isn’t how much you spend — it’s how you spend it. Bathrooms and swimming pools have always added value, but some other home improvements are more susceptible to fading in and out of fashion.

A study sponsored by the National Association of Realtors,and discussed in detail from the RealEstateJournal analyzed the effect of various housing characteristics on residential property values these days, shedding light on what renovations have integral value and what kind of housing styles are gaining or losing popularity.

What homeowners are currently willing to pay more for:

What they aren’t:

Read the full article here…