High apartment rents in the Reno-Sparks
Don’t look for the rents to reduce anytime soon.
According to a report from Johnson, Perkins, and Griffin, second quarter data in 2015 indicates average rent for an apartment in the Reno-Sparks metro area is at an all time high — $920 per month.
Where is Reno in in our current market condition for real estate? Is this a good time to buy a house? Should I jump in right now? Should I wait?
If you were to ask a Realtor, the answer would likely be that we’ve finally reached the bottom and now we are in the long, slow, arduous climb back to where we “truly belong”. But, have you ever seen a time when a realtor didn’t say that now was a good time to buy? Couldn’t be a better time?
Me, neither. I’m not suggesting anything nefarious about realtors, here. I just think that if they’re not optimistic about their product, how could they do a good job, anyway?
But all of that is beside the point.
As the saying goes, “the reason for a horse race is a difference of opinion.”
Keith Jurow, writing in Businessinsider.com is firmly convinced that we are still headed for a housing collapse. He examined major markets across the country and found price declines. Exceptions were in Nevada, Arizona and Florida where we have already taken major hits. Foreclosures are way down in most areas but the number of delinquencies are still high.
We are still facing some very serious delinquencies. In many cases the problems were caused, or made worse by government action such as AB-284 here in nevada. This caused the banks to drastically slow their foreclosures. Consequently, the shadow inventories have grown substantially.
Nevada Foreclosure Filings: AB-284 Effective Oct., 2011
Jurow expects another significant drop in prices. Move-up buyers have disappeared because they lost most of their equity. First time buyers are usually limited to entry level properties. So, what’s left are the investors who are focusing on the “sand” states, which include Nevada. That may help us here in Reno.
Added to this we see a large number of potential sellers who, likewise, have little or no equity and are unable to sell. They may have taken out a HELOC or a cash out re-fi.
The bottom line is that I’m not optomistic.
Read more here.
Who’da thunk? Realtoring can be dangerous to you health.
Apparently, unhappy clients have expressed their disappointment by getting physical and have even caused fatalities.
Did they really expect their short sale to sell for 30% above the market?
Read more: http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2012/05/01/attacks-against-real-estate-professionals-surge
What would you do if you had just lost your job? You did not want welfare? How cheaply could you live? Do you think you could live in a 168 square foot house? Along with 3 other family members. What would you be willing to do to get out or stay out of debt?
This family built their house for $12,000 and then managed to save for their next larger home. I cheer them on and wonder if I could do it myself.
Even though I try to focus on real estate I seem to find other problems that I guess are related. A few months back I replaced a defective lid switch on a washing machine.
This morning the dishwasher decided to emit a very annoying beeping and wouldn’t quit. It was also displaying a “F1” fault code. After tracking down a manual I learned that the code indicated a flooding problem. The dishwasher was a Fisher Paykel model DD602. Fisher Paykel is a New Zealand company and they seem to discourage users from performing any repairs. They pointed to a local company for service, but I was not impressed by some comments I found on the web.
I managed to locate a service manual at scribd.com. A video on YouTube proved to be the most help. Water had spilled onto the bottom pan and a flood switch shut the unit down. They suggested that the problem might have been caused by filling the machine too full such that the lid could not close properly and that would allow the water to spill. Once I found how to get access to that part of the unit I was able to dry up the accumulated water. The machine now appears to run properly.
my lesson here is that appliance repairs are not all that difficult once we learn how. I definitely saved a lot of money, but it did take some time learning the process.
The Clear Capital report happens to be one of the better real estate data reports available. It has far too much for me to excerpt for you. Better to read it your self.
It shows a slight price decline that appears to be driven mostly by the large numbers of REO’s.
Read the report: http://www.clearcapital.com/company/MarketReport.cfm?month=March&year=2012
Do you need/want an FHA loan? It will soon get more expensive.
Expect to pay more. FHA needs the money and thinks you can afford it. The new fees are set to begin April 1 of this year.
Even though FHA itself doesn’t make the loans, it insures them.
First, the mortgage insurance premium will rise from 1.15% to 1.25% for loans under $625,000. The premium will be even larger for larger loans.
FHA will also increase the upfront mortgage premium from 1.0% to 1.75&.
According to The New York Times, a borrower with a 3.5 percent down payment with a mortgage of $193,000 can expect to pay an upfront mortgage premium alone of $3,377, compared to the prior $1,930
The premium can be rolled into the mortgage.
The FHA expects to raise $1.25 Billion additional revenue by Sept. 2013.
The NAR (Realtors) is strongly opposed to this action.
Read more on mortgage fees.
If you ever bought or even tried to buy a short sale you are aware of the problems and difficulty in completing the transaction. You might have wondered, “how could the banks be so obstinate?”
We now learn that even though the banks may have been difficult to work with, much of the problem came from the government in the name of Freddie Mac. “But, I thought the government wanted to help us,” you say.
Freddie went out of their way to paint the investors as the enemy. They issued policy letters describing potential mortgage fraud with the intention of making the investor out to be the criminal. The only problem was that Freddie itself was the real fraudster.
The truth is that Freddie Mac actually placed their bets against the housing crisis actually ever getting solved. Freddie made money whenever they were able to stop a short sale. Freddie benefited whenever the rest of us lost.
For more than a year, Freddie Mac has adopted numerous policies designed to prevent the private purchase of toxic assets and forced servicers to enforce these policies. Demands for unreasonable offers on short sales, delays in processing short sales, affidavits preventing resale of their properties after being rehabbed and deed restrictions on real-estate-owned properties restricting resale price are among the myriad obstacles private buyers face in trying to buy Freddie’s inventory.
Besides delaying the unwinding of the troubled entity, several of these policies may in fact be illegal. Restricting the ability of private buyers to resell their properties and attempting to dictate resale value constitute unreasonable restraint on alienation. In plain English, once Freddie sells one of its toxic assets, it has no standing in future transactions related to the property.
Freddie has attempted to justify these policies through a taxpayer-funded media campaign arguing that the act of buying, rehabbing and reselling a property constitutes a crime and is inherently an act of fraud. Both Freddie and Fannie Mae have worked with enforcement officials to convince them of this lie. To the embarrassment of these enforcement officials, Freddie left out one important detail: Every time it stopped a short sale, Freddie made money.
We can expect a large increase on foreclosure activity this year. At least, that’s what the LA Times thinks. Foreclosure activity has been suppressed because the lenders have been focusing on getting their act together. Here in Nevada they face an added burden of AB 284 which forces them to certify that all their paperwork is in order.
But, they are beginning to work through their backlog so we can expect an increase in activity.
The state’s difficulties were reflected in RealtyTrac’s report, which showed California with the third-highest incidence of foreclosure filings in 2011, behind only Nevada and Arizona.
Analysts also expect CA to stabilize quickly due to their fairly fast timeline. Nevada, on the other hand, is hampered by the effect of AB-284.
Here’s another “best of”, “worst of” list and Reno wins another prize. It may not be the prize that Reno would like on its resume although it’s not necessarily our fault. It is not just a story about Reno or Northern Nevada. This is an American problem, and I believe it was completely caused by politicians.
This is a list from 24/7 Wall St. of 9 cities that the article claims were nearly destroyed by the recession. Reno was scored in second place.
2. Reno-Sparks, NV
> Pct. jobs recovered: 1.6%
> Q4 2012 jobs: 187,600
> Pre-recession jobs peak: 225,200
> Recession jobs trough: 187,000
> Pct. jobs lost: 16.9%Between 2007 and 2010, the median home value in Reno-Sparks, Nevada declined 37.4%, the 13th biggest drop in the country among metro areas. The problems of the recession have plagued states in the southwest, which once had booming housing markets, arguably more than any other part in the country. From the beginning of 2007 to the third quarter of this year, jobs are projected to decline by 38,200, or 16.9% of the workforce. And according to the report, only 600 jobs, a mere 1.6%, will be recovered by the end of the year.
Read more: http://247wallst.com/2012/01/19/the-nin-cities-that-havent-recovered-from-the-recession/