What is a HUD Home?
A HUD home is a 1 to 4 unit residential property acquired by HUD as a result of a foreclosure on an FHA-insured mortgage. HUD becomes the property owner and offers it for sale to recover the loss on the foreclosure claim.
Who can buy a HUD Home?
Almost anyone! If you have the cash or can qualify for a loan (subject to certain restrictions) you may buy a HUD Home. HUD Homes are initially offered to owner-occupant purchasers. Following the priority period for owner occupants, unsold properties are available to all buyers, including investors.
Many investors see HUD homes as an opportunity to acquire homes at good prices to add to their rental property portfolio. Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
Over the past few months the media as well as real estate related professional associations have pointed out the fact that real estate prices are dropping across the country. Last week the Seattle PI ran a story “Real Estate recovery still far away” which quoted Jonathan Miller, a PricewaterhouseCoopers Jonathan Miller, a PricewaterhouseCoopers consultant and lead author of the annual Emerging Trends report as saying “forget the quick fix: 2009 will be a downer, we don’t think 2010 will be much better. “ Mr. Miller goes on to say “We’re hoping that by 2011, we we’ll be in a slow recovery.” Now I’m like most people out there, when I read this I Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
Some people use the term “REALTOR®“ to refer to all real estate agents or brokers. However, just as not all corn chips are Fritos® and not all tissues are Kleenex®, not all real estate agents and brokers are REALTORS®.
A REALTOR® is a licensed real estate professional who is a member of the National Association of REALTORS®, the world’s largest trade association with over 1.2 million members. In fairness I should disclose I am a REALTOR® however I am one only because I choose to be. I am a broker Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
Roughly a year ago I wrote an article for the St. Louis Post Dispatch about Jim Cramer’s (CNBC host of Mad Money) comments on buying a home… OK, give me the crow fork: even though I did not agree with Jim at the time when he was advising people not to buy a home, now, a year later, looking back, I realize he was right.
Jim argued that interest rates would come down (they did) and prices would come down (they did as well) and that the consumer should wait about a year. Well, now its a year later and guess what…? Jim Cramer was right! Interest rates and prices have both come down! Now definitely looks like the time to buy.
Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
Roughly a year ago I wrote an article for the St. Louis Post Dispatch about Jim Cramer’s (CNBC host of Mad Money) comments on buying a home… OK, give me the crow fork: even though I did not agree with Jim at the time when he was advising people not to buy a home, now, a year later, looking back, I realize he was right.
Jim argued that interest rates would come down (they did) and prices would come down (they did as well) and that the consumer should wait about a year. Well, now its a year later and guess what…? Jim Cramer was right! Interest rates and prices have both come down! Now definitely looks like the time to buy.
Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
Today the National Association of Home Builders released their most recent Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) which showed that an increasing number of potential homebuyers in the US can afford to buy a home. As a result of decreasing prices and attractive interest rates (two of the factors the index takes into account) affordability of new and existing homes is now at the highest level it has been in over 4 years.
According to the HOI report over 56% of all new and existing homes that were sold in the 3rd quarter of this year were affordable to families that earn the median annual income for the US of $61,500. This is a significant increase from the forty-something percent of homes that met this benchmark over the past few years. Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
You may already be renting your homes to one or more of the 1.95 million families that receive rental assistance under HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher program, however if not you may want to consider doing so.
What is the Housing Choice Voucher program? This is a program that was established in 1974 and known as “Section 8″ to assist lower income famlies, the elderly and the disabled to afford decent, safe and sanitary housing in the private market. Subsequently there have been several changes to the program including in 1998 when Congress combined the then two existing Section 8 rental programs into the “Housing Choice Voucher Program” as is in use today. For this article I’m just going to focus on the low-income family aspect of the program but will discuss the other applications of the program in future articles. Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
The National Association of REALTORS(R) (NAR) is projecting existing home sales for 2008 to come in at 5.2 million homes sold down from 5.7 million for 2007, 6.5 million for 2006 and 7.1 million for 2005. On a positive note, sales increased from August to September by over 5% and sales for 2008 through September are up over 1% from the same time last year. NAR is also reporting a 9% decline in the median home prices nationwide for the past year.
Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
For the past year the media has been flooded with reports and stories of how bad the real estate market is. Falling prices, an oversupply of homes for sale, a meltdown of the mortgage industry and now the banks are even in trouble! So what’s the silver lining? Perhaps it is the opportunity to expand, or start, your rental portfolio.
I believe many of the housing industry statistics as well as industry forecasts and projections show that now is a good time to buy rental property. The National Association of REALTORS(R) (NAR) is projecting existing home sales for 2008 to come in at 5.2 million homes sold down from 5.7 million for 2007, 6.5 million for 2006 and 7.1 million for 2005. On a positive note, sales increased from August to September by over 5% and sales for 2008 through September are up over 1% from the same time last year. NAR is also reporting a 9% decline in the median home prices nationwide for the past year. Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
Today many people that never thought they would find themselves in this plight are now facing the potential of losing their homes to foreclosure. Aggressive lenders, creative loans and a super charged real estate market for about 5 years until sometime in 2006 all helped put many people in a difficult position with regard to their home mortgage.
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