It now appears that the first time buyer is making a huge comeback this year after all.According to recent survey information revealed by Zillow, 53% of all buyer sales in 2016 have been to first time buyers!And in spite of well-publicized recent concerns to the contrary, millennials are featuring strongly in this purchasing pool.These stats were further reinforced earlier this week when the latest figures for new home starts, traditionally a stronghold for the first time buyer, showed a multi-year high in July, and quite a significant hike on the rest of 2016 to date!And with news today that mortgage rates have ended the week lower and are still at rock bottom levels, here is the key reason behind the amazing current levels of enthusiasm to get on that housing ladder.In last Friday's ... 08/27/2016

We were very intrigued to read an article that appeared on investors.com very recently, showing that, in New Mexico and no less than 41 other states, renting is now more expensive than buying, when looking at median monthly rent prices for single family homes, compared with paying a monthly mortgage, property taxes and any applicable insurance, assuming a 20% down payment has been made and the home loan is at a fixed rate over 30 years.The article quoted data from gobankingrates.com that demonstrated that, in New Mexico, using all the above criteria, it's actually $82 less per month to be a homeowner!We've often touched on the rise and rise in rental prices in this blog over the years. While lower and lower mortgage rates have accelerated demand for home purchase, the rental sector is a... 08/27/2016

With the kids going back to school and football season approaching fast, there are plenty of signs around that summer will soon coming to an end.And what a summer it has been in real estate.As we reported last Friday, the Albuquerque area has seen very good year-on-year growth recently and, as we also reported last week, buyer sentiment is being measured at an all-time high, nationwide.And yet, despite all these, and other great reasons, for listing a home right now, we are still in the midst of a significant shortage of available properties for sale.There are many reasons why inventory has been so low, not least that it has been at least partially kept in check by the aforementioned buyer enthusiasm, with ultra-low mortgage rates as a huge incentive to purchase at the moment.Some peop... 08/27/2016

Figures just released by the Greater Albuquerque Association of REALTORS® (GAAR) should make for very good reading for anyone currently selling their home, or contemplating doing so.These stats contain good news in several key categories.The median price of a detached home rose by 3.2% ($189,900) in comparison with July 2015, while the average detached price showed a year-on-year increase of 6.8% ($226,192).On average, a detached home sells faster by a fifth of the time compared with the previous July. It now takes an average of 48 days to sell such a home.  Pending sales, a good indicator of August performance, showed an annual rise of 7.8% for detached homes. Indeed the levels of pending sales that we have seen in the market in recent months are the best for some years.Unfortunately, ... 08/12/2016

There's been some interesting news already this week from The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), better known as Fannie Mae, the government sponsored, leading source of financing for mortgage lenders.Fannie Mae reports that its Home Purchase Sentiment Index rose by 3.3 points in July to 86.5. This an all-time survey high, indicating a very positive outlook for the housing market nationwide.The Index comprises a number of components, one of which is a the number of consumers who would buy if they were to move house. This figure rose to 67%, with a 26% fall in those who said they would rent when they next moved.A Fannie Mae spokesperson suggested that this could reflect an important shift toward buying among younger people, most probably as a reaction to rising rents and loweri... 08/09/2016

Let's face it, the time you're going to learn the most about the house purchasing process is when you first buy.It's been said that one in five first time homeowners experience some sort of regret after the deal has closed.We thought it would be a good idea to provide some tips on eliminating some of the most common forms of buyer remorse after the purchase is completed:Do your sums - There are a number of potential areas of regret related to the purchase price of the home, including wishing you'd negotiated better, feeling you paid too much or that you should have made a larger down payment. Here's where teaming up with a great agent and loan officer can reap big dividends. Good agents will have forensic local pricing knowledge and be able to advise you on what to offer for any given p... 08/05/2016

The recently published, and widely publicized, Zillow Real Estate Market Report for June, certainly paints a great picture of a very, very hot market all over the country, and we're not talking about the sizzling temperatures.Consider, for instance that homes are closing faster at the moment than at any time in the past six years. The national average for the time it takes to market and finalize the sale of a home is now just 78 days, including the selling time.It should be noted that the Albuquerque market is probably either matching or doing slightly better than this. Consider that, with a typical 30 day escrow and an average of 45 days for a detached home to sell, you're probably looking at around 75 days in this area.Irrespective of whatever the precise listing-to-closing figures a... 07/29/2016

The Greater Albuquerque Association of REALTORS® (GAAR) has just released its review of the second quarter of 2016.Quarterly reports are always interesting to study, as they tend to point to more sustainable trends than month-to-month statistics.Compared to the second quarter of 2015, single-family detached home sales increased by 9.19% and the average sale price in this category is also making very good progress with a 4.26% year on year rise.In real price terms, that translates to an average sale price of $228,003, which is quite a leap from the 2016 first quarter figure of $216,222 - a great demonstration of the market's fine state of overall health.To give an even better perspective, consider that the average sale price in the second quarter of 2013 was $207,491.In last Friday's blo... 07/23/2016

We'd be the first to admit that, at first glance, the title of today's blog may seem to be the wrong way round, but stay with us a minute on this.While it's obviously the case that the sellers and their agents have to, well, sell their home to you in the first place, once the time comes to make an offer then the buyers do need to consider how attractive a prospect doing business with them appears to be.Right now this thought is more relevant than any time in the past decade or so. High demand for a relatively low supply of homes means that buyers are increasingly finding themselves in competition with others to secure the property of their dreams.It's a sellers' market right, which means to say that sellers often have a choice of which buyer to go with. Even in the enviable situation of... 07/19/2016

  With such a vibrant homes market in the Albuquerque area at present, there is a temptation for sellers to assume that delaying listing their property could lead to even better returns on the sale in the future, especially if they have the luxury of being able to wait.Such decisions to procrastinate are, of course, ultimately always a judgement call. They are also something of a gamble, given how quickly things can change in the real estate, both positively and negatively.Today we'd like to suggest five key factors that help to explain why playing a waiting game may carry quite a lot of risk:Mortgage rates have been riding their luck for years - We've documented the story of mortgage rates so thoroughly in this blog that it barely needs detailed repetition. Suffice it to say, therefore... 07/15/2016

Yesterday's widely publicized Mortgage Monitor Report by Black Knight Financial Services revealed a number of significant statistics about the national picture on the housing market, as well as some data on price appreciation that's of particular interest to New Mexico residents.The report stated that no less than 425,000 borrowers moved out of negative equity in the first quarter of this year. This means that the national rate for negative equity is now down to just 5.6% (2.8 million borrowers), compared with 29% at the close of 2012. In just a year, the number of borrowers in negative equity has fallen by 13%!In fact, some 38 million borrowers can now boast having at least 20% equity in their homes, an individual average of $116,000.While the current overall situation still lags behin... 07/12/2016

It's the ideal all home sellers hope for - a fast, trouble-free sale with the best financial return.In truth, with buyer sentiment arguably at an all-time high just now, that goal is certainly easier to achieve than it might have been a few years back.But this doesn't mean that there is any room for complacency in your plans to execute an optimized sale of your property.Today we'd like to suggest some great ways of ensuring nothing is left to chance:Is your home truly ready for sale? - Surely the right time to sell is when you want to sell? Well yes of course that's true, but have you also considered if your home is in the best place to produce optimized results at sale time? Clutter, poor quality decor and home presentation, basic household features that are malfunctioning - it can so... 07/08/2016

With such a buoyant homes market right now, you might be forgiven for thinking that selling property is pretty much plain sailing these days.While there's no question that buyers are practically waiting in line for the right home, given the low cost of home loans and the present low levels of available inventory in our area, you still need to pay meticulous attention to details to maximize your return on the sale.Now we're at the height of summer, here are a few suggestions of things you can do that buyers will especially appreciate at this time:Air conditioning - If your air con is not working as well as it should, given how hot it is right now means that home viewers will become immediately aware of any cooling inefficiencies. It makes complete sense to get the whole system serviced s... 07/07/2016

It would be totally remiss of us if our blog theme today was anything other than mortgage rates.They are now at their lowest levels in years, with average 30 year interest rates dipping below 3.60%. They have dropped by around a quarter point in just five weeks.One of the main factors in this incredibly good news for home buyers and, by implication, sellers too, was last week's British vote to exit the European Union - the so called Brexit.Largely unexpected, Brexit has caused a tidal wave of uncertainty in global financial markets. Although Britain has yet to begin formal proceedings to leave the EU, and when it does the process will take years, investors immediately reacted extremely negatively to an unprecedented situation, whereby the future of the world's fifth largest economy is ... 07/03/2016

Our recent blogs have often touched on what a great market it is at the moment, for both buyers and sellers.In fact the only really significant chink in the armor at present is the continuance of low supply of available homes.While it creates fabulous, low-competition/price-resilience opportunities for sellers, low inventory is clearly not such good news for buyers, who very simply have less choice.Some buyers may be tempted to sit on the fence until more homes become available. There is, however, no way of knowing when this will happen and, perhaps of even more importance, there is always the risk that the current ultra-low mortgage interest rate environment will suddenly change and what is arguably the opportunity of a lifetime for buyers will have evaporated.We therefore thought it m... 06/24/2016

While it is great to be able to consistently report how well the local real estate market is fairing, it's also true to say that correct pricing of your home is still a critical element in the selling process.Although fast sales and multiple offers are much more commonplace these days, and even as inventory of available homes for sale struggles to keep pace with current very high demand, it's still very still possible to price your home above true market value, with serious consequences.Unfortunately, it's so simple to get a false impression of what your home might be worth and the central culprits for that perception these days are the various generic home pricing websites. These are notoriously inaccurate. Each website uses different calculation methods to arrive at a quoted price for... 06/21/2016

If you're contemplating buying your first home, there were two significant events affecting you positively this week.Yesterday there were widespread reports that mortgage rates had plummeted to three-year lows.This very welcome news followed the Federal Reserve's decision on Wednesday not to raise short term interest rates and lowering its projection of how much they'll be raised in the coming years. While these rates don't necessarily have any direct effect on home loan rates, they do affect the cost of other borrowing, including credit cards.There is still talk that mortgage rates could fall yet further but, even at the current already ultra-low levels, it's arguable that there has rarely, if ever, been a better time to get on the home ownership ladder.There are also multiple options ... 06/17/2016

We're now almost exactly at the halfway mark in 2016.It therefore seems a good time to look ahead at prospects for the second half of the year and we thought a good way of assessing future possibilities would be to carry out a SWOT, or Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis, based on what we've seen in the first six months of the year.Strengths - With the news at the end of last week that they are now nearing multi-year lows, mortgage rates continue to be one of the main motivations for buyers. While there's no guarantee of the very welcome downward trends continuing, there's equally no clear sign that current trends are going to change significantly in the short term. Remember also that even if the Federal Reserve raises interest rates during its current meeting (by ... 06/15/2016

Figures released this afternoon by the Greater Albuquerque Association of REALTORS® (GAAR) demonstrate an increasingly healthy homes market in our area.These latest statistics, reflecting on performance in the area last month, show the growing strength in the market as we approach the halfway mark in 2016, as the peak selling period continues.Yet again, there was a very robust year on year rise in both detached average sales price (4.69%) and median sales price (6.63%). Overall detached sales volume rose 14.05% in the 12 months leading up to the end of May.With the news this week that mortgage rates are now nearing multi-year lows, buyers have every reason to continue the very high levels of positive sentiment we've seen all year long. So far, any uncertainties arising from the preside... 06/15/2016

Embedded from MGIC ConnectsDid you know that single women are now the second largest group of home buyers in the nation?According to the above very recent infographic by Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation (MGIC), while married couples represent 54% of all American home buyers, single women are the next most active sector at 18%. This puts them in front of unmarried couples (15%) and single men (11%).The infographic makes for interesting reading. Women are now outpacing men in higher education participation and success. 45% of women between 18 and 24 are enrolled in college, as opposed to 37% of men. Between the ages of 25 and 32, 38% of women have a bachelor's degree, compared to 31% of men.36% of single women live at home with parents or relatives - the highest percentage since 19... 06/09/2016