Hello and Thank God it's Summer! (Well Spring/Favorite Fishing Time!) This is The Hoyle Report for May, 2010. Thanks for Reading! If annual trends hold this year, May should be a strong month for real estate. According to Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, there is a broad home sales recovery occurring in nearly every part of the country. Two trends to note are that sales have been above year-ago levels for the past 9 months while inventory has trended down from year-ago levels for the past 20 months. What fed this growth? The home-buyer tax credit that was in effect till the end of April is being credited for preserving up to $1 trillion in housing wealth, according to Yun. Single-family home sales are over 13% higher than a year ago. Home prices have stabilized and mortgage interest rates are historically low. There is a sense that the market is turning and conditions are optimal in most of the country. Locally, I am seeing many positive signs of growth. Well-priced homes that are based on current comparables and are marketed aggressively may receive multiple offers and most sell within one or two months. If you are thinking of selling, now is the time to talk. Q: What is a cap rate? A: Some of my buyers ask what a home that is currently for sale would rent for. Not because the sellers will rent it, but because from that rental rate they can determine the capitalization rate. This is the rate is the amount of rental income you would earn if you bought the house and leased it out. Say you bought for $100,000 (I like simple math), and produced $5,000 per year in rental income – the cap rate on the house would be 5%. For a $3.75 million purchase with a yearly rental of $110,000 - the cap rate is 3%. The higher the cap rate, the better for the buyer. Why do I get asked this? Some buyers want to analyze the return on their investment by comparing the cap rate to the interest rates at their current back. Just remember that your home may be your best investment long term. The Shoe Index?? For you Ladies (and gentleman) the Shoe Index just might be a New Economic Indicator for Consumer Confidence. Check this out as printed in the Chicago Tribune!
textSize()The science of economic analysis has taken a leap forward with the discovery of a new, highly accurate economic indicator: The Nordstrom Shoe Index. Economists were intrigued to find that statistics on consumers' attitudes toward the economy coincided with the actions of a single consumer in Chicago. Taking a closer look, they found that they could track consumer confidence and its resulting influence on the nation's economy simply by following this consumer's interactions with the shoe department at Nordstrom. The phenomenon came to light during a recent surge in consumer confidence. This particular consumer happened to be at Nordstrom buying eye shadow. Something, possibly a premonition of consumer confidence, drew her to the nearby shoe department. She began browsing high-heeled sandals, though she did not need a pair of high-heeled sandals, as her husband would later point out. But then she saw them: brown leather sandals with that thick-strapped look that stops just short of dominatrix, strips of leather accents in a fetching shade of salmon and a breathtakingly high heel. She bought them. The Nordstrom Shoe Index spiked. The same day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average went up 21 points. The purchase also mirrored the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index, which in April reached its highest point since September 2008. Analysts noting the Nordstrom Shoe Index phenomenon were particularly cheered at the price the Nordstrom Shoe Indexer paid — $224.95. They reasoned that consumer confidence had to be surging pretty high for anyone to spend that much on a pair of sandals. Moreover, the increase in the Nordstrom Shoe Index was accompanied by a high Lying to Spouse score. When her husband asked how much the sandals cost, the consumer claimed they were only $180. Though this still resulted in an increase in the Spousal Irritation Industrials, analysts noted that 20 percent represented an impressive level of lying, significantly above the routine 5 percent spousal lie discount. However, stock market bears warned of a correction. And sure enough, within days, the Nordstrom Shoe Indexer began to have buyer's regret. Trying on the shoes at home to defend the "$180" purchase to her spouse, she realized that the heel was so high as to cause intense pain, and not just because of the bunion problem. The heels threw her entire body onto the balls of her feet. She could barely walk in them. For two days, she vacillated. In the same time span, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 236 points. She brought the shoes into the office one day and tottered along a carpeted hallway, trying to decide whether she could take the pain. An economics debate broke out when several female colleagues stopped to say that her shoes were darling. Upon learning of the pain problem, some counseled her to be practical and return them. Others argued she should man up and wear them no matter how much they hurt because they were so white hot. The Dow Jones, aka the Jimmy Choo, rose 49 points, apparently on hope of persuasion. The direction of the nation's economy hovered in limbo as the Nordstrom Shoe Index progenitor agonized. Stock brokers chain-chewed antacids. Hedge fund managers gnawed on their fingernails. Institutional investors fanned themselves.
textSize()For the full article, click on this link: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-talk-brotman-shoes-0503-20100502,0,1272773,full.column (My suggestion; if you check out all of the Economic Indicators, listen to all of the Economic Experts and search for the perfect time to to buy your place in the sun or anywhere else for that matter, you may wait the rest of your life! Don't miss out; stop and smell the roses and enjoy life NOW! Otherwise you could miss out entirely and miss the whole point!/Funny article though.)
textSize()FHA Update There are changes in the FHA mortgage program that may affect you or someone in your family. Beginning this month, the down-payment requirements on loans insured by the FHA have increased to 10% for borrowers with credit scores below 580. The good news is for borrowers that qualify for an FHA loan with credit scores above 580, the down-payment is still 3.5%. As a result of these tighter FHA regulations, fewer borrowers will qualify for government-insured mortgages. Check out more info at www.money.cnn.com or www.fhaloanpros.com for more information. Call us for a List of Properties for sale that fit your specific interests! SW Florida Real Estate Awesome Prices and Values! Now's the Time to Buy!! http://www.homespuntagorda.com Thanks for reading! The According To Hoyle Group You've got a life; We help you live it! 877-75HOYLE or 941-235-3528 info@accordingtohoyle.com Sun Realty |