Mortgage Interest Rates

With so much talk about interest rates in the media, I thought this article below written by Ron McGuire was interesting. To help you get through some of the lingo I have created a quick reference for some of the terms used. Feel free to call us anytime with questions regarding mortgage rates or any other real estate questions.

Ron McGuire- Who is he?

Ron McGuire is president of Tucker Mortgage, LLC, which is part of the F.C. Tucker family of businesses.

BPS- Basis Point

A unit that is equal to 1/100th of 1%, and is used to denote the change in a financial instrument. The basis point is commonly used for calculating changes in interest rates, equity indexes and the yield of a fixed-income security.

The relationship between percentage changes and basis points can be summarized as follows: 1% change = 100 basis points, and 0.01% = 1 basis point. So, a bond whose yield increases from 5% to 5.5% is said to increase by 50 basis points; or interest rates that have risen 1% are said to have increased by 100 basis points.

The Fed- The Federal Government...

CPI-Consumer Price Index

An inflationary indicator that measures the change in the cost of a fixed basket of products and services, including housing, electricity, food, and transportation. The CPI is published monthly. also called cost-of-living index.


MORTGAGE RATES ARE DROPPING TO 5.25%!!!! Unfortunately, that is what many consumers are thinking. The Fed is expected to lower the Fed Funds Rate and the Discount Rate another 50 bps at the March meeting. By lowering the rates the Fed obviously feels this is the top priority to try to make the banks healthy again. Their fear of inflation has been put aside temporarily (although today’s CPI index was higher than expected), but will react quickly and raise the short term rates when the economy gets back on its feet. I expect this should happen by the third quarter of 2008. Remember, short term rates help with home equity lines of credit, auto loans and any loans that may be tied to the prime lending rate offered by banks. Lowering the short term rates will not have a dramatic impact on the housing market until a legitimate plan is in place to lower long term rates (mortgage rates).

Why haven’t the long term rates followed? The main reason mortgages have not dropped but have actually increased substantially is there are no investors buying mortgage backed securities. So, to entice them they have to increase the rates to offer a better yield for their investment. The investment community is still extremely nervous due to the sub-prime or mortgage meltdown. Until the secondary market finds a comfort level with mortgages expect rates to remain higher than normal.

The 10 year minor resistance is 3.85% with a major level of 3.70%. The minor support is now 4.00% with major support at 4.60%. Less than 30 days ago we saw the 10 year hit (for about an hour) 3.27. Because of the lack of interest in mortgage backed securities, mortgage rates have not followed the 10 year note as it normally does.

It is very rare to have such a large gap between short term and long term rates. This has occurred maybe three to four times over the past ten years. I do believe this is temporary; but I am not sold that the gap will narrow dramatically soon. -Ron McGuire

Spring Break

Have you ever wondered when someone else's Spring Break was? Here are most of the Spring Break dates for Greater Indianapolis- or at least the areas we serve most. Happy Spring Break 2008!

Avon
March 31st-April 4th
http://www.avon-schools.org/

Carmel
April 4th-11th
http://www1.ccs.k12.in.us/

Hamilton Southeastern-Fishers
April 4th-11th
http://www.hse.k12.in.us/

Lawrence
March 31st-April 4th
http://www.ltschools.org/

Noblesville
April 4th-11th
http://www.noblesvilleschools.org/

Pike
March 28th-April 4th
http://www.pike.k12.in.us/

Washington Township
March 31st-April 4th
http://www.msdwt.k12.in.us/

Westfield
April 4th-11th
http://www.wws.k12.in.us/

Zionsville
March 31st-April 4th
http://www.zcs.k12.in.us/

Spring is in the air!

It is almost Spring time, my favorite time of year!



Do you know how I know Spring is coming? Two things- 1) We are getting ready to go on our "Spring Break" trip next Saturday the 1st of March, Yeah! 2) I took my son to Toys R' Us last evening (Thanks to Aunt Sandy's fabulous birthday present!) and the summer/spring toy stuff was out in the front, amazing. Kind of like the Christmas stuff being put out in October. Anyway- Spring is in the air for me and here are some Spring time suggestions for you and your house.



The official first day of Spring is the 20th of March so I am sending this out early so you have plenty of time to get the items done before than.....



1) Have the air conditioner checked by a qualified cooling contractor.



2) Turn central humidifier off.



3) Change or clean furnac filter(s).



4) Clean debris from gutters, check their condition (seams for leaks, peeling paint and property secured to house).



5) Check attic areas for leakage (after wet weather), paying particular attention to areas around the chimney(s) and plumbing vents and under valleys.



6) Check to make sure drainage from downspouts and around foundation is flowing away from house.



7) Check crawl space and/or basement for dampness and leakage after a rainy period.



8) Open crawl space vents when weather premits.



9) Check roof for damaged, loose or missing shingles.



10) Check chimney for loose or missing mortar and also for loose bricks.



11) Call a chimney sweep to clean your fireplace.



12) Check your sump-pump to make sure it is operating properly.



13) Get lawn mower tuned and blade sharpened.



14) If you are applying a crabgrass preventor, make this application about mid-April.



15) In the spring, the ideal time to fertilize a lawn is from early to mid-May.



16) Check screens for winter damage, and replace as necessary.



17) Monitor for mildew and mold.



Spring is in the air!

Showings

One of the many things that I think the F.C. Tucker does well is setting up showings for our listing clients. Many times this is invisible to the the typical buyer that is looking for a home since they do not set the appointments but their buyers agent does. When a showing appointment is set on one of our listings the showing receptionist calls our seller to approve the appointment and then calls the buyer agent back to let them know it is okay to show the property and then any special instructions that might be helpful to that agent. Then the showing system immediately emails us to let us know about the showing, have record of that appointment and know all the contact information for the agent that showed the property so we can follow up with them.

This year our office has also been sending us the data for how many showings our listings have had in comparison to last year. So far, who says we are in a declining market? It does not seem like that when looking at these numbers.

Week #6 2008: 99
Week #6 2007: 84
15% Increase

Week #5 2008: 116
Week #5 2007: 92
20% Increase

Showings are what sells houses and it looks like 2008 is going to be a great year for showing a house.

Valentine's Day Salute

Happy Valentine's Day! I am not sure how I feel about Valentine's Day. Sometime I feel like it is one of those "Hallmark holiday's" where you feel pressure to buy something for people that they don't really need or want. I guess for the most part Valentine's day is just another day. Now my mom loves the holiday and the day, I think it is her favorite (mine is Halloween) but mom's favorite holiday is for another blog entry. This entry is a salute to my Valentine.

My Valentine is my husband-Mike. We have been married for almost 13 years and like any marriage we have had our "seasons" througout our relationship. For the most part it has been great. Mike has made it that way. I think it is harder to live with me than it is for me to live with him. He is my rock, my support, my anchor, my coach, my compass, my handyman, my seamtress, my cook and my sweetheart.

I started my real estate career full time over 3 years ago for many reasons but I think the number one reason was the flexibility that this job holds. I have the ability on most days to be home when my son gets off the bus, I get to go to Valentine Day parties at school, I get to be on the PTO board and volunteer at school, I get to revolve my schedule around my sons. The flexible hours also bring weird hours- lots of weekends and evenings and lots of last minute changes in schedules. Throughout the last three years Mike has been a big reason that this schedule works. He is home in the morning to put David on the bus and fix his breakfast when I need to go to a networking event or a continuing education class. He is home in the evening and/or weekends when I have clients or open houses and he is open to the fact that my scheudle can change suddenly when a client decides this is the weekend that they need to see 50 houses because their job has all of sudden decided to relocate them to this area.

So today, Valentine's Day, I would like to say THANK YOU AND I LOVE YOU to the person who is always there to support me- my husband and my friend Mike Cinamon. Happy Valentine's Day!

Merket Watch for January

Here is the Market Watch for January written by Jim Litten-President of F.C. Tucker. There is some positive news for the Greater Indianapolis market for 2008. We, The Curry Team, know that 2008 holds great things. We look forward to our best year yet!

Home sales off to moderate start
One county shows increase over January ’07 figures

INDIANAPOLIS – Home sales in Central Indiana are off to a moderate start with 1,962 homes sold in January, down 12.2 percent from the 2,235 homes pended in January 2007, according to pended sales statistics compiled by the F.C. Tucker Company.

Of the nine counties in the Indianapolis area, Madison County experienced the only increase over January 2007 with a 9.6 percent spike in home sales. Home sales in Shelby County dropped 35.4 percent compared to January 2007.

The average sales price for a home in January was $133,671, 4.9 percent less than the average sales price of $140,485 in January 2007. Homes spent an average of 97 days on the market, three days more than January 2007.

Madison County’s inventory also decreased 13.4 percent compared to January 2007. Inventory in Hamilton County was up 5.7 percent, the most significant increase in the nine-county region.

Despite the slow start in 2008, home sales are likely to improve by mid-year as consumer confidence increases due to lower mortgage rates, less housing inventory and moves by the Federal government to stimulate the economy, said H. James Litten, President of F.C. Tucker Company’s Residential Real Estate Services Division.

“We are still experiencing a real estate market on the mend, but the situation should correct itself later in the year as more home buyers come off the sidelines. And they should,” Litten said. “With each passing month of moderate real estate sales activity, there is more and more pent-up demand from prospective home buyers waiting for the right moment. When that moment comes, the real estate market may well roar back to life. So buyers who have the financing are making their moves early.”

Market Analysis

A couple of weeks ago when I wrote about School systems and how we can help you navigate in finding out about the pros and cons of each school or school district I mentioned a "current Market Analysis". You may have seen this term in advertising that agents do such as "Call us for a FREE Market Analysis of your property". So you ask, what is that analysis anyway?

A current Market Analysis or "a Market" as the Pros would term it, is when a Realtor would come view your property, do research and then give you-the home owner a report of the current market value.

When we do a Market Analysis, we typically would do that in two stages. The first stage would be coming to the property and comparing it to any data (previous listings, tax records etc.) that we have access to. At that point we would find out about any improvements that the current owner has done to the property and what their favorite aspects of the property are. We would also take a tour and many time measurements of the home. We then would take that information, do research on the curent market and then report back to the home owner what the current market value of your home is or what we think it is.

If you or someone you know would like a Market Analysis done on their current property please let us know. It is ALWAYS good to have an idea of what your home is worth even if you plan on staying in the property for many more years. We would like to be not only the Realtor that you would call on if you would like to buy or sell a property but call us when you just want to have an idea of the market value of your home.