Archive for August, 2009
Upside-Down : The Easy Way To Grow Tomatoes At Home In Knoxville TN
August 31st, 2009 categories: Buyers
I have seen these crazy commercials on TV like everyone else. But couldn’t believe how well it worked until I saw them at a couple of my neighbors homes. Their tomatoes where HUGE and made a believer out of me. So I guess we are going to give it a try. Enjoy!!
Whether your home has ample room for a garden or just limited space on a balcony, upside-down planters make it easy to grow tomatoes at home.
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Knoxville Home Buyers New Conforming Mortgage Guidelines, Effective September 1, 2009
August 28th, 2009 categories: Buyers, General, Market Trends
As a reminder, Fannie Mae is rolling out new lending guidelines Tuesday, September 1, 2009.
Starting next week, being approved for a home loan could be much more difficult.
The new rules mark the first major underwriting update since April of this year. The changes are mostly geared at fraud prevention.
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Home Supplies Plummet, Putting Pressure On Home Prices To Rise
August 27th, 2009 categories: Buyers, General, Market Trends
It’s no wonder that builder confidence is soaring — their inventory of homes for sale is depleting at a furious pace.
For the 4th straight month, New Home Sales gained, posting the best numbers since last September’s meltdown and handily beating economist expectations.
The available supply of homes is down to 7.5 months nationwide.
It’s further evidence that the housing market may have bottomed at some point this past spring.
To be sure, the strong housing data is, in part, a reaction to three outside factors:
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Home Prices Keep On Rising And Rising??
August 26th, 2009 categories: General, Market Trends
18 of 20 markets tracked by the Case-Shiller Index showed rising home values in June. It’s the 5th consecutive month with strong numbers and the best showing for the benchmark housing index since home values began deflating in 2006.
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The Long-Term Trendline For Existing Home Sales Points To A Housing Recovery
August 25th, 2009 categories: General, Market Trends
The housing market continues to surprise. Last week, the latest good news came in the form of the monthly Existing Home Sales report.
An “existing home” is a home sold by an existing owner as opposed to a developer. It’s non-new construction property.
The data on Existing Home Sales was noteworthy for its trends:
- Sales volume rose over four straight months for the first time in 5 years
- Sales volume rose year-to-year for the first time in 4 years
- Median home prices fell for the first time since April
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Moving in Knoxville You Can Change Your USPS Mailing Address Online
August 24th, 2009 categories: General
Filing an official Change of Address form with the United States Postal Service is one of the most important steps in the moving process.
It’s how bills, letters and catalogs find you after your change of residence.
Strangely, though, a lot of people wait until the last-minute-before-moving before telling the post office that a Change of Address in needed. As a result, mail gets lost-in-transit as “undeliverable”.
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How To Keep Burglars From Knowing You’re On Vacation
August 21st, 2009 categories: Buyers
There’s some common sense ways to protect your home from burglary — keep the doors locked, the windows shut, and the alarm system on, for example.
But drawing from a series of interviews with ex-convicts, NBC’s The Today Show reveals there are ways by which a vacationing homeowner can unwittingly make his home a theft target. Awareness is the key to prevention.
As cited in the video, when vacationing:
- Have neighbors pick up mail and newspapers daily
- If it snows, have somebody drive tire tracks on your driveway
- Don’t announce your vacation on social media networks
- If you don’t have a safe, consider moving valuables to a child’s room
You can’t protect a home 100 percent from burglary, but you can at least make it “not the easiest target” on the street. Use your common sense, and follow the steps outlined in the video.
It’s what the burglars don’t want you to know.
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To Use The $8,000 First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Program, There’s Now Just 6 Weeks To Find A Home
August 20th, 2009 categories: Buyers, General
If you plan to use the First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit program, time is running out. The program expires November 30, 2009 and closing on a home can take up to 60 days.
That leaves you 6 weeks from today to find a home and go under contract.
The First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit program was passed as part of the 2009 economic stimulus plan. It credits up to $8,000 in tax payments to qualified buyers.
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Builders Are Building And What It Means For Home Values
August 19th, 2009 categories: General, Market Trends
Single-family Housing Starts rose for the 4th straight month in July, another sign that the battered housing market may be making its comeback.
“Housing starts” are new homes on which construction has recently started.
Not surprising, in a related story, homebuilder confidence moved to a 12-month high.
Ironically, an increase in newly-built homes could actually slow a nationwide housing rebound because values are driven by supply and demand. More in-the-pipeline supply means that buyer demand has to stay strong or else prices will eventually fall.
So far this year, though, demand has kept pace.
Over the past 6 months, the combination of low mortgage rates, aggressive home valuations, and federal and state tax credits has kept buyer activity up and home values on the rise.
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Is Mortgage Underwriting Getting More Friendly?
August 18th, 2009 categories: Buyers, General
It looks like banks are less scared of mortgage loans these days.
In its quarterly survey to member banks, the Federal Reserve asked senior bank loan officers whether “prime” residential mortgage guidelines had tightened in the last 3 months.
Just one-fifth of banks said guidelines tightened last quarter, a dramatically lower figure versus last quarter — a signal that mortgage underwriting may get less restrictive in the months ahead.
It is worth noting, however, that not a single responding bank said its guidelines had eased. For now, getting through underwriting is still much tougher than it was 2 years ago.
Some of the changes today’s borrowers face include:
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