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We decided to sell our house in a very challenging market. After meeting several local real estate agents, we decided to have John list our home. He was energetic and well prepared with local market information. John also utilized the latest tools to reach every possible prospect. He took pictures and created a website just for our home in addition to creating a virtual tour that was posted on several websites. Our home sold in 26 days in what has been called the worst real estate market in years—thanks to John!

-John McQuiston and Cindy Kittle, New Garden

For more other client testimonials, please visit the "Testimonial" page on my website.

RISMEDIA, September 18, 2009—Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes edged higher for a third consecutive month in September, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). The HMI rose one point to 19 this month, its highest level since May of 2008. 

“Builders are seeing some improvement in buyer demand as a result of the first-time home buyer tax credit, and low mortgage rates and strong housing affordability have also helped to revive some optimism,” noted Joe Robson, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Tulsa, Okla. “However, the window is now basically closed for being able to start a new home that can be completed in time for buyers to take advantage of the tax credit before it expires at the end of November, and builders are concerned about what will keep the market moving once the credit is gone. Congress needs to act now to keep the credit from expiring just as its intended effect on buyer demand is starting to materialize.” 

“This report indicates that builders are starting to see some glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel in terms of improving sales activity,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “However, the fact that the HMI component gauging sales expectations for the next six months slipped backward this month is a sign of their awareness that this is a very fragile recovery period and several major hurdles remain that could stifle the positive momentum. Those hurdles include the impending expiration of the $8,000 tax credit as well as the critical lack of credit for housing production loans and continuing problems with low appraisals that are sinking one quarter of all new-home sales. These concerns need to be addressed if we are to embark on a sustained housing recovery that will help bolster economic growth.” 

Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for more than 20 years, the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as “good,” “fair” or “poor.” The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as “high to very high,” “average” or “low to very low.” Scores for each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor. 

Two out of three of the HMI’s component indexes recorded gains in September. The index gauging current sales conditions rose two points to 18, while the index gauging traffic of prospective buyers rose one point, to 17. Meanwhile, the index gauging sales expectations for the next six months declined one point, to 29. 

All four regions posted gains in their HMI readings for September. The biggest improvement was registered in the Midwest, where a three-point gain brought its HMI to 19, the highest level since July of 2007. The Northeast posted a two-point gain to 24, the South posted a two-point gain to 19, and the West posted a one-point gain to 18, respectively. 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. mortgage applications surged last week, with demand rising to its highest level since late-May as consumers sought to take advantage of the lowest interest rates in months, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.

While home refinancing loans dominated demand, the appetite for applications to buy a home, a tentative early indicator of sales, hit its highest level since early January. The overall trend bodes well for the hard-hit U.S. housing market, which has been showing signs of stabilization.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications, which includes both purchase and refinance loans, for the week ended Sept 4 increased 17.0 percent to 648.3, the highest level since the week ended May 29.

Cameron Findlay, chief economist at LendingTree.com in Charlotte, North Carolina, said that while higher demand is a positive for the hard-hit U.S. housing market, the sector still faces plenty of obstacles.

"It is hard to make an argument with lower wages, less hours and higher unemployment that people will be upsizing into their dream home," he said.

To be sure, the Labor Department last week said the unemployment rate reached a 26-year high of 9.7 percent in August.

While low mortgage rates, high affordability, and the government's $8,000 tax credit, part of the stimulus bill, for first-time home buyers have helped pave the way for stabilization, the move-up buyer has been mostly absent. The move-up buyer is a homeowner who chooses to move to a larger home due to a lifestyle change such as a marriage, an addition to their home, a job promotion or a job transfer.

With the tax credit set to expire in several months and distressed properties making up a high proportion of sales, the recent uptick in activity may be masking uncertainty about the long-term outlook.

"The inventory of existing U.S. homes for sale remains elevated," Findlay said.

Furthermore, a wave of upcoming interest rate resets on adjustable-rate mortgages may negatively impact the market, he said.

"If the U.S. government pulls some of its support for the housing market too early, it would not bode well for home prices," he said.

Borrowing costs on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, excluding fees, averaged 5.02 percent, down 0.13 percentage point from the previous week, the lowest level since the week ended May 22. However, the rate remained above the all-time low of 4.61 percent set in the week ended March 27. The survey has been conducted weekly since 1990.

Nevertheless, interest rates were well below year-ago levels of 6.06 percent.

The MBA's seasonally adjusted purchase index rose 9.5 percent to 304.1, the largest gain since early April, with the index at its highest level since the week ended January 2.

The four-week moving average of mortgage applications, which smooths the volatile weekly figures, was up 7.0 percent.

REFINANCING JUMPS

The Mortgage Bankers seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications increased 22.5 percent to 2,651.2, the biggest jump since mid-March, with the index at its highest level since the week ended May 29.

The refinance share of applications increased to 59.8 percent from 56.5 percent the previous week, but remained significantly lower than the peak of 85.3 percent in the week ended January 9. The adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity increased to 5.8 percent, up from 5.6 percent the previous week.

The U.S. housing market has suffered the worst downturn since the Great Depression and its impact has rippled through the recession-hit economy, as well as the rest of the world.

The housing market, however, has been showing signs of stabilization, with sales rising and home price declines moderating in many regions of the country. In fact, home prices in some regions have risen.

Some analysts, however, say prices may fall again, with a wave of more foreclosures in the pipeline.

Fixed 15-year mortgage rates averaged 4.45 percent, down from 4.57 percent the previous week. Rates on one-year ARMs decreased to 6.69 percent from 6.71 percent.

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RISMEDIA, September 1, 2009—The Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) reached its highest level in a year rising to 35.5 in August, the sixth consecutive monthly increase. The ESI’s continued improvement lends guarded support to the growing view that the U.S. economy may be moving out of recession and into a period of recovery. 

“In addition to the ESI’s positive trend, we’ve seen several months of positive movement in the Leading Economic Index and industrial production which have in the past signaled a move to economic growth,” said Dow Jones Newswires ‘Money Talks’ columnist Alen Mattich. “The continued improvement of the ESI coupled with the gains of other leading indicators is a sign that the U.S. economy continues to steer a course towards recovery.” 

Mattich points out, however, that it would be premature to call an end to the recession. “It will be months before the National Bureau of Economic Research determines the timing of the recession’s trough and a return to growth. We continue to wait for the ESI to reach the upper 30s before anticipating an end to the recession and thereafter for it to reach the upper 40s before sentiment suggests the recovery is sustainable,” Mattich said. 

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is the official arbiter of U.S. economic cycles, identifying the dates of peaks and troughs that frame economic recession or expansion. On December 1, 2008, the NBER announced that it had determined the current recession began a full year earlier, in December 2007. The NBER’s determination that November 2001 marked the end of the U.S. economy’s previous recession was announced on October 21, 2003, 23 months after the economic recovery had begun. 

The Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator aims to predict the health of the U.S. economy by analyzing the coverage of 15 major daily newspapers in the U.S. It uses a numerical scale from 0 to 100 to express the balance of sentiment in articles about the economy. The ESI represents one of the most comprehensive and far-reaching examinations of media coverage as an economic indicator. The ESI’s back-testing to 1990 shows that the ESI clearly highlighted the risk that the U.S. economy was sliding into recession in 2001 and 2008 and suggests the indicator can help predict economic turning points as much as seven months in advance of other indicators. Unlike some other indicators where 50 is a clear break-point between recession and recovery, the ESI needs to be read with reference to longer trends. Based on the ESI’s performance since 1990, previous recoveries have been marked by substantial month-to-month gains, with a jump of three points seeming to be a sign of significant improvement. A drop below 50 marks the point at which there is a clear risk of a slowdown.