Maine Real Estate Info

A North Carolina developer will build a Marriott Courtyard hotel on the Island Point development in Lewiston, casting doubt over Auburn’s hope to lure a Marriott hotel to its side of the river.Winston Hotels Inc., in Raleigh, N.C., announced Tuesday it will begin next spring constructing a 120-room hotel on Mill Street at the foot of Great Falls, according to a press release. Lincoln Jeffers, Lewiston’s city administrator assistant, told the Sun Journal he thinks the hotel will spur more development in the nearby Cowan Mill, where plans for condos and a restaurant stalled after being announced in 2005.

Despite the announcement, developers George Schott and Bob Baldacci said they would continue to try to build a Marriott franchise over the river near the Auburn Mall.

In reference to: http://activerain.com/blogsview/122232/Lewiston-Maine-The-New

Lewiston Maine - The New All-American City

The National Civic League last week named Lewiston an All-America City.

The title, given to 10 cities across the U.S., is for cities that demonstrate problem-solving skills and civic pride. Lewiston submitted an application for the honor in April, highlighting the Lots to Gardens community garden project, the city council’s youth advisory council and its efforts to increase low-income residents’ use of the Earned Income Tax Credit program, according to a press release. Lewiston was a finalist for the award last year.

City officials began marketing the title yesterday, hanging a sign on Alfred Plourde Parkway, according to the Lewiston Sun Journal. “It doesn’t mean we don’t have any problems,” City Councilor Norm Rousseau told the paper. “It means we come together to solve the problems we have. This group and these judges, from across the country, recognized that.”

For buyers and sellers alike! This request form sents information to your email within 30 minutes and is customized to the criteria you select. You’ll continue to recieve these in roughly 30 day intervals and watch how the market conditions change. Feel free to call with any questions you may have with the market snapshot or if you’re looking for a more in depth interpretation of your results.

You are viewing our vFlyer, highlighting 3 properties we have reduced in North Yarmouth and Mechanic Falls Maine. Prices recently reduced!

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Daily Real Estate News  |  December 5, 2007

Foreclosure Plan Will Be Greeted With Questions
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will unveil a plan on Thursday to forestall foreclosures and ease the housing recession.

The release of plan’s details will coincide with the release of data from the Mortgage Bankers Association that show that homes in foreclosure hit record levels in April through June, and that nearly 17 percent of subprime borrowers missed at least one payment in the first quarter of the year. An additional 2 million home owners will face their first interest-rate reset by the end of 2008.

“This is the most serious housing recession since the Great Depression,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Economy.com. Zandi predicts that home prices, on average, will fall 7 percent more through next year.

Paulson says he wants state and local governments to be allowed to issue tax-exempt bonds to “temporarily” raise money to help some struggling subprime borrowers refinance.

Questions remain about how many investors, who bought bonds backed by these mortgages and are spread out around the globe, will agree to change the terms of the loans.

Source: USA Today, Noelle Knox (12/4/2007)

Daily Real Estate News  |  December 5, 2007

Bill Would Help Home Owners at Brink of Foreclosure
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is pushing for a bill that would allow bankruptcy judges to change the terms of a mortgage on the primary residence of owners at risk of foreclosure or bankruptcy.

Judges would be able to lower an adjustable interest rate to a lower, fixed rate. They already have the power to do this for car loans and a number of other debts.

Durbin says his bill could help an estimated 600,000 families at risk of losing their homes because of rising adjustable mortgage rates.

“A strategic change in the bankruptcy code will provide home owners facing foreclosure a degree of financial stability – even when the market cannot,” Durbin said.

Supporters of Durbin’s bill include senior citizens, bankruptcy attorneys, the AFL-CIO, and the NAACP. The American Bankers Association and home builders are among opponents.

Floyd Stoner, a leading lobbyist for bankers, says bankruptcy judges lack expertise to predetermine a loan’s size, value, and length.

Source: The Associated Press, Dennis Conrad (12/05/2007)

During the week after Thanksgiving, mortgage application volume rose 22.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis to 791.8, recovering significantly from a holiday slowdown.
On an unadjusted basis, applications rose 51.5 percent and were up 24.2 percent from the same week in 2006.
The Refinance Index increased 31.9 percent to 2761.3 from 2093.0 the previous week. The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 56.0 percent of total applications from 51.4 percent the previous week.
These numbers reflect a correction made to the Thanksgiving Week numbers released by the association. The previously reported numbers were too high, making the Thanksgiving week fall off more dramatic than was reported last week.
This week’s rising numbers appear to be at least partially in response to falling interest rates.

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.82 percent from 6.09 percent
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.38 percent from 5.69 percent
• 1-year ARMs increased to 6.28 percent from 6.24 percent

Source: Mortgage Bankers Association (12/05/2007)

Credit Score Primer: What Buyers Need to Know to Get a Loan
In the wake of the credit crisis, lenders have become much pickier about whom they lend to. Here are some basic facts that will help potential borrowers understand what they face.

The measurement that most lenders use to assess applicants’ credit risk is the FICO score developed by Fair Isaac Corp. The score ranges from 300 to 850.

There’s not one FICO score. Buyers have three: one for each of the three credit bureaus, Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax.

Each credit score is based on information the credit bureau keeps on file. Since credit bureaus don’t share their data with one another, the three FICO scores may differ, sometimes by as much as 100 points.

The components of a FICO score are:

• Payment history: 35 percent
• Amounts owed: 30 percent
• Length of credit history: 15 percent
• New credit: 10 percent
• Types of credit used: 10 percent

A consumer with a 580 credit score might qualify under FHA requirements, but, generally, in order to qualify for a prime loan, a borrower must have a credit score above 620 for a conventional loan at all and above 720 for a loan at terms and rates most borrowers would consider desirable.

Source: The Dallas Morning News, Pamela Yip (12/03/07)

Homes Features that are Big Buyer Turnoffs
Old homes can be quaint, but there’s a difference between old and outdated. Unless home owners periodically invest in upgrades, their homes will fall so far below the standards of current buyers that they become obsolete and hard to sell.

What’s obsolete? Here’s a list of relics, many of them courtesy of Nick Kuhn, an associate with McEnearney Associates in Washington DC.

• A house with only one bathroom. Even a house with one full bath and a toilet/sink powder room is going to turn buyers off.

• A house without air conditioning.

• Electrical systems protected by a fuse box instead of a circuit breaker.

• Spiral staircases. They’re relatively rare, and for good reason — they are unsafe.

• Basements with only an outside entrance. Homeowners expect convenient access to that valuable space.

• Ceilings that look like they’ve been stuccoed, dropped ceilings with fluorescent lights, and dark beams cutting across the ceiling.

• The split-level floor plan. Want to go from kitchen to family room? Go down half a flight of stairs. From living room to bedroom? Up half a flight. Most folks would rather not.

Source: The Washington Post, Elizabeth Razzi (12/02/07)

If you’re thinking of moving to these areas to take advantage of the quality education Maine students are already receiving, give us a call. We can help you find the right home in the right neighborhood and school district.

We would love to refer you to a qualified agent in the Limestone and Bangor areas.

Meservier & Associates is located in the Lewiston Auburn area and services the Yarmouth, Falmouth and Cumberland areas. Find us on the web at http://www.meservier.com.

White House, Banks Hammer Out Foreclosure Plan
The Bush administration and major financial institutions are close to an agreement that would temporarily freeze mortgage rates for home owners with spotty credit histories.The agreement is designed help the 500,000 subprime borrowers whose mortgages are resetting and are likely to result in foreclosures, threatening the broader economy.
A sticking point is which homeowners would qualify and how much they would have to pay to refinance or freeze their loans, sources close to the discussion say.
Treasury officials say financial institutions are likely to create a set of criteria based on income, credit-worthiness and the amount of equity borrowers have in their home.
They will then divide borrowers into three groups: those who can continue to make their payments even if rates rise; those who can’t afford their mortgages even if rates stay steady; and those who could keep their homes if the maturity date of their mortgages were extended or the interest rates remained at the teaser rates.
Only the third group would be eligible for help.

Source: The Washington Post, Deborah Solomon, James R. Hagerty and Lingling Wei (12/01/2007)

 Maine has been affected by the latest mortgage crisis. Following up with our in house mortgage brokers, Approved Home Mortgage, many buyers are surprised by the criteria for these types of loans. It really isn’t a sure deal getting a loan these days. The best time to buy real estate is now especialy to increase your portfolio and I have even looked into buying multi-units recently. I was told the credit scores had to be in the 700’s, with 30% down, stated income with verified assets and 6 months reserve. Huhmmm…I had to say, maybe I should have been saving a little more in case the market moved in this direction

This article came in this morning which touches tis subject. Read on…

The assumption that the subprime mortgage crisis is limited to buyers with poor credit is mistaken, according to an analysis prepared for The Wall Street Journal, which examined more than $2.5 million in subprime loans made since 2000.
In 2005, the peak year of the subprime boom, borrowers with credit scores high enough to qualify for a normal loan received 55 percent of all subprime mortgages, the study says.
The study by First American LoanPerformance, a San Francisco research firm, says the proportion rose even higher by the end of 2006, to 61 percent.
“Brokers and agents were telling” borrowers with high credit scores for the past several years “that it was OK” to get subprime loans, “and borrowers were wanting to take on more debt,” says Mark Carrington, director, analytical sales and support at First American LoanPerformance.
Analysts conclude that credit-worthy borrowers holding subprime loans may be more likely than traditional subprime borrowers to afford to double whammy of rising rates and declining values.
The data could explain why nearly 80 percent of the borrowers with subprime loans have continued to keep their loan payments current, according to some analysts, and suggests that the crisis won’t deepen as much as some fear.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Rick Brooks and Ruth Simon (12/03/2007)