What is my house worth?

If you're selling your house, one of the first steps you'll take is setting an asking price, a maneuver that requires the ability to find the perfect balance between attracting solid offers and ultimately receiving top dollar.
If you're working with a Realtor or other industry professional, you'll probably hear talk of fair market value, which typically means the highest value an educated buyer will pay. Fair market value is usually not the asking price.
Many agents will begin by conducting a competitive market analysis of your house and give you an estimate of the fair market value of your home, which is a range that will fluctuate depending on the housing market in your area and how much similar homes in your neighborhood are selling for.

While overpricing to some degree can be beneficial, you'll still want to be careful and avoid pricing your home too high, which almost always is nonproductive.
As you work with your agent and set your price, you'll want to recognize the factors that may prompt you to raise your asking price too much when it isn't warranted. Some of those factors include:
Upgrades have been added. While many home improvements will help you recoup a good chunk of your investment, it won't give you 100 percent of what you paid. Also, the more personal the improvement—a swimming pool, a sunroom, purple floors—the less likely it will be viewed favorably by potential buyers.
The need for money.
You're moving to a higher-priced area.
The original purchase price was too high.
The seller lacks factual comparable sales to prove what the market value is.
The seller wants bargaining room (listing more than 1-3 percent above market value actually reduces bargaining power).
An unnecessary move, so you're not motivated.
On the other hand, if you're in a neutral or buyer's market, like in Minneapolis, you'll really need to be cautious in setting your price.
"While a few select neighborhoods are experiencing good activity, the market generally is favoring buyers," said Mary Jo Oren, a Realtor in Minneapolis, Minn. "Price reductions are becoming more common and sellers are having a tough time adjusting to fewer offers, fewer multiple offers and increased market time to sell. Buyers are less emotional and not afraid to offer significantly less than list price plus ask for additional seller participation."
Generally, the asking price—the price advertised when it goes on the market—is set slightly higher than market value, usually 1 to 3 percent above market value.
You should assume that negotiation will be necessary to reach an agreement with the buyer. If you price your home too much above market value, you'll get fewer showings and offers in which the potential buyer is fishing to determine how low you'll go.
You'll want to establish your priority list: Are you more concerned with selling quickly or getting the most money possible? You'll also want to contemplate whether you think the agent's suggested price is reasonable and whether you'd pay that amount if you were a buyer.
Your agent, as well as friends, relatives, and neighbors, will help you point out your house's advantages and disadvantages that you may not have thought about because you're too close to the house and not as objective as others.
A third party will help you think of your house as a commodity—something with positive and negative selling points. At that point you can decide on a price that you deem competitive and in line what other houses in your area have sold for.

Copyright © by Realty Times

Mortgage rates at lowest point since at least 1971

Thinking about buying a home? Now is the perfect time! I just saw this article on Yahoo the mortgage rates are a all time low!

The average rate for 30-year fixed loans sank to 4.69 percent, from 4.75 percent last week, mortgage company Freddie Mac said Thursday.

That's the lowest point since Freddie Mac began tracking rates in April 1971. The previous record of 4.71 percent was set in December. Rates for 15-year and five-year mortgages also hit lows.

If you or anyone you know has been looking for that perfect home please call one of out highly trained motivated agents today at 843-663-5663.

Real Estate Outlook: Reading the Numbers

When it comes to the current housing recovery, never assume the path leads straight up.

That's just not the way it's playing out.

As the economic and real estate numbers this week suggest, it's more like two steps forward, one step back, one step sideways.

The new quarterly home price numbers released last week by Standard & Poor's Case Shiller index show we're headed toward gradual improvement on a national basis -- and a lot better than that in key metropolitan markets.

On a seasonally-adjusted basis, Case-Shiller's 20-city index was up three tenths of a percent -- the seventh consecutive monthly improvement in pricing. Fifteen of the 20 cities in the survey posted positive price appreciation last quarter.

Check out some of the increases Case Shiller measured in the largest urban markets -- a five percent gain year over year for prices in San Francisco, three percent for the year in Dallas and San Diego, plus higher than average jumps in metropolitan Washington DC, Boston and Denver.

Even hard-hit Las Vegas and Phoenix saw small increases in the new report, despite the ongoing high percentage of total sales transactions involving defaulted and foreclosed properties.

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae also came out with its latest forecast -- and sees gradually improving conditions in the months ahead.

Fannie's chief economist Doug Duncan said that despite temporary setbacks in sales in any given month, the underlying reality in the marketplace is that the employment situation, slowly but surely, is getting better, and is likely to continue to do so.

Duncan is particularly impressed by the creation of 540,000 new jobs for households nationwide in January, and a shift by employers away from part-time positions to full time.

"The upswing in employment data means positive news for economic growth," said Duncan. "Better financial strength for households makes it easier for people to make payments and more likely they'll buy houses."

Okay, that's the bright side of the picture this week. Now for some sobering, one-step-backwards news: Builders saw sales of newly-constructed homes in January plunge by 11 percent - hitting their lowest level in decades, according to the Commerce Department.

No question that some of that was caused by the bad weather that pounded much of the country recently. But part of the steep decline also signals caution on the part of potential buyers, who still aren't sure whether we've seen the bottom in prices.

Mortgage rates certainly aren't keeping buyers away, though. Thirty year fixed rates averaged just over 5 percent last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, while 15 years rates averaged 4.4 percent.

by Kenneth R. Harney

Real Estate Outlook: Increase in Housing Starts

When you get reports of increases in both new housing starts and existing home and condo sales in a single week, that's got to say something positive about where real estate is headed.

Last week the US Commerce Department announced that new home starts, which have been lackluster for most of the housing downcycle -- rose in January to their highest level in half a year.

Total stats nationwide were up nearly three percent for the month, and rose in three out of four regions covered by the Commerce report. In the Northeast, new starts bounced upward by 10 percent.

In the West, they were up by 9 percent, in the South by one percent.

Meanwhile, the latest quarterly report on existing home and condo sales found total sales up by a stunning 14 percent in the final three months of last year compared with the third quarter.

Transactions were up in 48 states plus the District of Columbia for the quarter -- and they jumped by double digit percentages in 32 states.

Even prices were on the upswing: Of the 151 major housing markets tracked by the National Association of Realtors' survey, median prices were higher in 67 -- and up by double digits in 16 metro areas.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, attributed the rise in sales and prices to the two popular federal housing tax credits now available to first-time and repeat purchasers, plus low mortgage rates.

On a regional basis, the biggest sales gains came in the Western states, where they were up 16 percent for the quarter and are 18 percent higher than the year before.

In the Midwest, sales were up by nearly 15 percent. In the South, 14 percent. And in the Northeast by 11 percent.

In a separate study, the national housing affordability index closed out 2009 just a fraction below its all time record high, meaning new and existing houses are now more affordable for a broader group of households than at just about any time in the past twenty years.

The index, which is jointly published by Wells Fargo and the National Association of Home Builders, found that fully 71 percent of American families can afford to buy the median priced home with a median household income of $64,000.

An important part of that affordability equation , of course, is the mortgage market, and rates remain close to multi-decade lows.

Last week's average 30 year fixed rate was 4.9 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, while 15 year rates averaged 4.3 percent.

by Kenneth R. Harney