Maine Real Estate Information blog

What Buyers Do First One-third of home buyers go online first to look for properties, according to National Association of Realtor’s 2007 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. One-fifth of all buyers contact a real estate agent first. At least half of all home buyers reported using a combination of sources to gather information about their upcoming home purchase – real estate professionals, the Internet, yard signs and print newspaper advertisements. In Other News…In this weeks meeting, the Maine Real Estate Guru’s have announced that MREIS will be allowing the property addresses to be displayed with all listings to accommodate online mapping features. This is only if the sellers wish to have their address made public.Also MREIS, Maine Real Estate Information Services, is making plans to have a public IDX(MLS) search web site. Details have not been set. Stay tuned for more information on Maine Real Estate news.

YES!!!  However many would-be buyers are scared off and the media is fueling that fear. Talk of foreclosures, short sales, subprime loans this and Mortgage that, and blah, blah, blah…It’s no wonder consumers are shaking in their boots. Maine has held her own compared to most other states in that we have not seen the prices drop so severly. That’s great news for Maine property owners. Let’s look at Maine Real Estate investment indicators:

1. Mortgage rates are still at an all time low
2. Prices are down
3. Inventory is UP
4. The economy is still growing; although not a fast as some would like
5. Sellers are offering incentives, in some cases
6. Maine is known as VACATIONLAND

Everybody loves to vacation and Maine is a desireable location to put up one’s feet. So if your still thinking of investing, think of Maine as a place to invest in real estate. There is a pay-off…and it’s not just emotional!

Copywite: Michael Meservier - Meservier & Associates

Price Analysis for the Portland, Maine Metro Region

October 2007

Home prices in the Greater Portland Metro Region encountered a boom in 2002 to early 2005, but prices have been falling in recent quarters. Homes do not appear to be overpriced. With job gains continuing at a solid pace, home price increases will likely continue, though not at a frenzied pace. A sharp reduction in new-home construction will help control the overall inventory situation. Resetting loans and the rising number offoreclosures related to the subprime fallout are clearly negative factors, but the impact will be offset by the fundamentals of the healthy local economy.

Summary

With job additions continuing (possibly at a faster clip going forward) and mortgages rates hovering at about 6.4% as of early October 2007, the housing market is poised to climb back. With home prices so affordable it is possible to get a spurt. If, however, mortgage rates were to rise to 7.5% or higher, then the housing market would continue to limp along with the possibility that home prices and overall housing wealth could fall. If  rates were to move lower, then the market will recover at an even quicker pace. Sales activity has come down and home prices have also been falling in the Portland area. However, the local economy is generating jobs at a healthier pace. The Boston region has picked up strongly, which usually implies that Portland will not be too far behind. The national economy is also fundamentally sound due to rising exports and business spending. Consumer spending will be a bit weaker because of stagnant home price and its accompanying wealth impact. One interesting observation is that the continuing low mortgage rates have not led to more buyers - implying that there is an issue of confidence, or lack thereof - in the homebuying decision. Also, the recent subprime fallout is a concern, though the shakeout will be good for the housing market over the long-run as the market eliminates bad mortgage lenders. Inflation appears to be contained. Both the headline and the core consumer price index decelerated to 2.8% and 2.1%, respectively, over the past 12 months to September. Better yet, most economists anticipate a further deceleration of inflation in 2007. Such an outcome could well lead the Federal Reserve to cut the federal funds and prime rates down the road. A fed funds rate cut is no guarantee of a fall in mortgage rates, but the signal that inflation is contained will force bond buyers to demand lower inflation premium, and hence, lead to lower ortgage rates as well.

 

 

Five Solutions for a Troubled Housing Market
How do you fix a troubled housing market? Forbes.com asked that question of a broad range of housing experts, including CEOs of real estate firms, real estate practitioners, economists from lending institutions, and research directors at analytics firms. Here are five of their best suggestions.

1. Restore investor faith. “Mortgage fraud, by both borrowers and insiders, must be identified and prosecuted in order for faith to be restored in the market,” says Anthony Sanders, professor of real estate finance at Arizona State University.

2. Expand Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration loans. “Our local banks and community banks have done a great job providing funding. (FHA) should be there as a supplemental for people who have good credit,” says Congressman Lincoln Davis (D-Tenn.)

3. Cut construction and prices. “The market will only hit bottom after builders cut construction and sellers slash prices,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “The longer builders and sellers hold on, the longer the market will struggle.”

4. Bring back non-agency loans. “The dramatic seizing of the mortgage-credit markets caused the elimination of almost any loan that wasn’t backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac,” says Bob Walters, chief economist at Quicken Loans. The revival of non-agency loans “will add much-needed mortgage funding to potential home buyers and folks looking to refinance.”

5. Buyers and sellers get real. Nelson Gonzalez, senior vice president of Esslinger, Wooten Maxwell, REALTORS® , believes that once buyers realize that they’re not going to convince a seller to accept a rock-bottom price, fluidity and activity can return to the market. “There is much pent-up demand,” he says, “and buyers have been sitting on their hands for some time now.”

Source: Forbes, Matt Woolsey (11/07/07)

A New England state has ranked No.1. That of course is Vermont according to a fifty state survey released on Nov. 5th, 2007.

“We are displeased and unhappy to have to report that this year the health of the nation is less good than it was last year. In fact, the health of the nation has slipped by about three tenths of a percent,” says Reed Tuckson, MD, senior vice president of the United Health Foundation, which has issued the survey for the last 18 years.

The survey uses a combined score of health indicators and policy questions to rank all 50 states. Obesity rates, tobacco and alcohol use, and high school graduation rates are accounted for, as are state laws and regulations promoting better health. The survey measures access to health services and also environmental issues like pollution, infectious disease rates, and crime.

Maine ranks 7^th as the healthiest state in nation
Maine moved up from ninth to seventh place in an annual ranking of the healthiest states released Monday by the United Health Foundation.

Maine rose in the rankings partly because the percentage of Mainers without insurance dropped 10% over the last year to 9.3%, and the percentage of smokers in the state fell from 30.3% in 1990 to 20.9% this year, according to the Associated Press.

The report said Maine’s health challenges include a high rate of cancer deaths and a low rate of immunization coverage, the AP said.

How the States RankedHere’s how the states ranked in the America’s health rankings report:

Vermont

Minnesota

Hawaii

New Hampshire

Connecticut

Utah

Maine

North Dakota

Massachusetts

Nebraska

Rhode Island

Washington State

Wisconsin

Iowa

Idaho

Colorado

South Dakota

Montana

Wyoming

Oregon

New Jersey

Virginia

Kansas

Pennsylvania

California

New York

Illinois

Maryland

Ohio

Alaska

Michigan

Indiana

Arizona

Delaware

Missouri

North Carolina

Texas

New Mexico

Nevada

Georgia

Florida

South Carolina

Kentucky

West Virginia

Alabama

Tennessee

Oklahoma

Arkansas

Louisiana

Mississippi