Long-Term Mortgage Rates Ease Further This Week

Long-Term Mortgage Rates Ease Further This Week

McLean, VA – Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.87 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending October 8, 2009, down from last week when it averaged 4.94 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.94 percent. The last time the 30-year FRM was lower was the week ending May 21, 2009, when it averaged 4.82 percent.

The 15-year FRM this week averaged 4.33 percent with an average 0.7 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.36 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 5.63 percent. This is the lowest the 15-year FRM has been since Freddie Mac started tracking it in 1991.

The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 4.35 percent this week, with an average 0.5 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.42 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 5.90 percent. The 5-year ARM has not been lower since Freddie Mac started tracking it in 2005.

The one-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 4.53 percent this week with an average 0.5 point, up from last week when it averaged 4.49 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 5.15 percent.

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Metro Denver home resales slip; prices rise

Move-up buyers, affordability and location are helping to push median figures higher.

By Margaret Jackson
The Denver Post

While home resales in the Denver metro area declined in September compared with a year ago, median sales prices for houses and condos increased, according to data released Wednesday.

A total of 3,846 homes sold in September, down 9.8 percent from September 2008, according to Metrolist data. Meanwhile, median prices for single-family homes rose 4 percent to $225,000, compared with $216,500 a year ago. Condo prices increased 3.6 percent to $145,000, compared with $139,900 in the same month last year.

"With condos, it's affordability and location," said independent real-estate analyst Gary Bauer. "We also have this underlying effort going on called the green movement, and more and more people are looking closer to work or alternative transportation."

An increasing number of move-up buyers in the market has pushed the median prices higher as well, Bauer said. Move-up buyers typically purchase homes in the $150,000-to- $250,000 range, he said.

"The majority of the activity has been in the lower price ranges," Bauer said. "The higher price ranges are stagnant."

The number of homes on the market declined 17.1 percent to 19,834, compared with 23,923 a year ago, a number that's likely to continue falling through the end of the year because of the holidays and the high number of first-time buyers in the market.

"We're seeing a lot of first-time buyers that would like to buy, but there just isn't enough inventory out there for all of them," said Lon Welsh, managing broker of Your Castle Real Estate. "We suspect the lack of really inexpensive homes for sale has changed the sales mix to a higher price point, driving up the average price."

Margaret Jackson: 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com

Denver Home Sales Decline

Metrolist: Denver home sales decline in September, but so do unsold homes

Metro Denver home resales were down in September from the same month of 2008 and from August of this year, but buyers continued to chip away at housing inventory, according to a Metrolist Inc. report Wednesday.

Resales are sales of homes that have been sold at least once before, and don’t include newly built homes, and are also called existing home sales.

Average sold price for all existing homes, including single-family homes and condominiums, jumped 4.88 percent to $251,112 year over year, and were basically flat from this August.

First-time buyers, attracted largely by the federal government’s $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit, continued to dominate the market last month, according to Gary Bauer, Littleton-based independent residential real estate broker and Metrolist analyst. Purchasers qualify as first-time buyers, if they haven’t owned a home for the previous three years.

The tax credit expires Nov. 30, but real estate trade groups such as the National Association of Realtors and National Association of Home Builders are lobbying the U.S. Congress to extend the credit another year.

So-called “move-up” buyers — those one step up from first-time buyers — were also active last month, as sales of homes priced at $150,000 to $200,000 rose as well.

Total September home sales decreased 9.8 percent to 3,846 from the same month of 2008. Sales dipped 1.05 percent from August of this year.

September is the end of the country’s principal homebuying season, which starts in late spring and coincides with children being out of school to make moving easier. “The next months will experience seasonal downturn,” Bauer said in a statement.

To the good, unsold homes on the market for sale also dropped last month — 17.1 percent to 19,834, from 23,923 the September of last year. Inventory dropped 1.9 percent last month from 20,225 in August of this year.

Other key home-sale statistics for metro Denver last month:

• Single-family home sales alone dropped 10.84 percent to 3,001 from September 2008, and 2.12 percent from August. Average sold price increased 5.5 percent to $274,433 year over year, and was basically flat compared to the previous month.

Median sold price rose 4.09 percent to $225,000 from September 2008, and was flat compared to August. Median is the middle price between lowest and highest, and is considered a truer measure of price by some real estate experts because it’s not skewed by price extremes.

• Condo sales decreased 6.01 percent last month to 845 year over year, but were flat compared to this August. Average selling price increased 3.91 percent to $168,288 year over year, and was flat compared to August.

Median selling price went up 3.65 percent to $145,000 year over year, and was also flat compared to the previous month.

Year-to-date home sale data for September from Metrolist includes:

• Total home sales decreased 15.63 percent to 31,554 from September 2008, and average selling price was down 5.41 percent to $242,010.

• Single-family home sales dropped 15.77 percent to 24,983, with average sold price down 4.97 percent to $263,518. Median sold price decreased 2.85 percent to $218,500 year over year.

• Condo sales decreased 15.09 percent to 6,571 year over year, and average selling price was down 7.67 percent to $160,235. Median sold price dipped 2.86 percent to $136,000.

Based in Greenwood Village, Metrolist is metro Denver’s Multiple Listing Service (MLS) providing home-sale data to residential real estate brokers and agents.

pmoore@bizjournals.com | 303-803-9232

I often remind clients that they need to calculate in sweat equity when purchasing distressed properties. Certainly you can "purchase equity" in the 20k to 50k range. But if the property takes 20k to get up to resale condition, then what is left is your sweat equity. In this market I am seeing HUD homes being bid up 10, 15 even $30,000. Here is a good article from WJS Online showing that the competition for foreclosures is rampant across the county.

Are Distressed Homes Worth It?

By M.P. MCQUEEN

Home buyers are finding that the battered real-estate market offers just as many opportunities for headaches as for bargains.

Seth and Crystal Grotzke, both 25 years old, recently bought a bank-owned two-bedroom, two-bathroom townhouse in Edina, Minn., for $110,000—when similar homes in the same development were selling for as much as $131,000. But exactly one day before the scheduled July closing, the Grotzkes learned there was a second, unpaid mortgage. Because of the foul-up, the couple was forced to live in Mr. Grotzke's boss's basement for more than a month. They finally closed on Aug. 31.

"We knew there would be title issues, but none that would last for that long," says Mr. Grotzke, an assistant pastor. He adds that buying a foreclosed property is a way for God to "teach you patience."

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