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Perhaps one of the best things about growing up as a Sandpoint Idaho native is being able to appreciate the beauty of the land and surroundings of such a wonderful place. The Sandpoint Idaho real estate I grew up around inspires and calms. Over the years, whenever I’ve lived away, I always long to return. It is home. There are: big beautiful mountains, lakes, rivers and creeks, evergreen trees and birch stands, wide vistas, hunting and fishing, and of course boating, swimming, and skiing. I remember lots of times crossing the long bridge, as I drove into town, seeing the sky for the first time; again. Recreation is never far and the communities are friendly and approachable. All in all, a nice combination of people and places makes Sandpoint Idaho real estate highly desirable. Sandpoint sits quietly at the base of Schweitzer ski resort, and on the shores of beautiful Lake Pend Oreille. It is a small town of almost seven thousand, with thousands more in the county. It wasn’t that many years ago when there were no street lights and all the roads in town were two-way. Now there’s one-way traffic and several traffic lights installed just to remind us that we do live in the modern world. Of course, Walmart, McDonalds, and other national chain stores have discovered the place and have become part of the landscape there. But that’s progress, right? At least now, families don’t have to travel to Spokane for all their shopping like we used to do if we wanted more than just the basics. But all this comes with a price; high to some, reasonable to others. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who works in the Sandpoint Idaho real estate market, and was wondering how affordable the housing and land are now. Of course, affordability is a relative term. To some who have moved into the area from more lucrative parts of the country, the Sandpoint Idaho real estate market has been a plum to be picked. When you can sell an average house somewhere else for $500K or more and move to Sandpoint and buy a huge piece of property with a lake view or better for half that, life is pretty good, and the deals are a plenty. That has changed just a bit over the past decade or so as prices have dramatically risen. The common working folk continue to live more simply and find their joy and satisfaction in life outside the commercial Sandpoint Idaho real estate market. They still enjoy the beach, picnics, art walks, the county fair, and other community events. Not everyone is caught up in the pursuit of riches, or judges the success of their life based on how much of the Sandpoint Idaho real estate market they own. I guess I’m in that category. I love Sandpoint for what it gives to me and my family more than for what I can take from it. And while Sandpoint Idaho real estate remains a desirable thing to purchase and own, for those who can, it also remains a desirable thing to appreciate and love even for those who can’t. Sandpoint Idaho real estate truly does offer something for everyone.
Category : Sandpoint Articles
The employment market just doesn’t warrant cost of homes in North Idaho at all. Newer stick built homes are in the 190 to 225,000 range for less then 1500 square feet. Las Vegas had better quality, more square footage during their boom when employment and wages were at their peak and the average couple earned 80,000 + not 30,000 like I see in Idaho.
Category : Sandpoint Questions
I’m considering joining a condo conversion firm in California, but am worried about the timing and how the business might fare given recent weakening in the housing market. Intuitively I’d think if real estate prices are dropping, fewer people will be converting into condos, so it might not be a good move for me. The guy who’s trying to hire me is saying that the condo conversion biz is market independent and is a generally strengthening trend. Does anyone out there with experience in real estate want to weigh in here? Please list your credentials as well, and i’ll give lots of points to the best, etc. Thanks.
Category : Real Estate Questions
I would like to invest in real estate. I am early 40′s, have no debt, home is paid for, etc. I would like to look into buying real estate. I have spent alot of time looking at the local market and have a good understanding of it. But, at this point, I am not sure what to do next. Should I consider purchasing rental property? If so, should I look at small 2 BR homes, duplexes, or homes? Or should I just look for property that has been sitting on the market for a long time that may need some TLC, etc and then flip them? I have never done that and don’t really have alot of time to spend remodeling so I would have to hire out.
And, the area I live in is a rural , somewhat depressed area. What is your approach to Real Estate?
Category : Real Estate Questions
Another spring, another dormant season in real estate?
Maybe yes, maybe no.
In 2008 alone, the housing bust wiped out an estimated $2 trillion in home values. But for the first time in a long time, we are finally seeing an upside.
The same falling home prices that wreaked so much havoc in the economy are queuing up as the solution to the bust.
With prices down about 25% from their 2006 peaks, homes and buying incentives are tempting bargain hunters once again. Many economists agree that we’ve seen the bottom of the market and can see a faint but discernible light at the end of the long, dark tunnel. Sale volumes are up in many parts of the country, but prices aren’t.
In early April, the average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage loan dropped under 4.8% to historic lows, according to Freddie Mac, prompting some qualified buyers to buy and others to refinance.
At a spring speech, Harvey Rosenblum, executive vice president and director of research for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said the economy will improve markedly in 2010 and should be back on track by 2011. Housing, which led the country into this economic mess, could well lead it out, he said, partially because of the Obama administration’s $75 billion mortgage relief plan.
The stimulus plan, in part, is offering first-time homebuyers a tax credit up to $8,000, plus a refinancing program that gives much-needed help to owners who are struggling with mortgages and incentive to their lenders.
Credit is finally starting to flow again, and prudent families with a reasonable down payment are for the most part getting the go-ahead to buy. Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, noted this spring that falling housing prices are likely to slow heading into the summer months and possibly show improvement, cautioning that “foreclosures are weighing heavily on prices.”
A history lesson
There are some important lessons to learn from the bust, lest we be doomed to repeat our mistakes. In a nutshell, here’s what happened:
Years of robust health in the housing market prompted overinvesting, quick flipping, overbuilding and credit overextension, enabled by cheap financing. Homes began to exceed their brick-and-mortar and land values vastly, and owners started borrowing against hoped-for run-ups in future values. Meanwhile, builders cranked into high gear to accommodate zealous investors and builders.
Caught up in the frothy market, lenders and buyers alike bucked basic risk-management principles by implementing unsustainable mortgage arrangements, zero-down deals and other dubious lending programs, many with upward-adjusting ARMs — adjustable-rate mortgages that would later cut the legs out from under them.
Meanwhile, some financiers read aggressive federal anti-redlining guidelines as a green light to lend to everyone with a pulse. Lenders pushed these and other mortgage risks onto institutional investors the world over via mortgage-backed securities and bonds, which even some of the world’s best financial minds failed to identify as ticking time bombs.
The last wave of investment homes was sold abruptly at big losses, and values started dropping across the board, especially in places such as Florida, California and Nevada. ARMs reset and foreclosures continued to spiral. Suddenly, hundreds of thousands of people owed more on their homes than they were worth and had nowhere to turn. Soon, the stock market tanked, the values of retirement plans were slashed and millions of jobs were lost.
The net result: Real estate has been repriced. The rest is history — a history we should not soon forget.
The repricing of home values almost everywhere in the country brings with it a whole new real-estate reality, one that marks a return to some of the real-estate “rules” of the past. It’s a reversion to many tried-and-true fundamentals you should recognize and comprehend:
- Save smart for a down payment. It’s true that tying up all your equity in a mortgage can take away your emergency cash buffer in a downturn. But with the market starting to stabilize, the benefits of a large down payment — from 15% to 20% — will pay off in the form of higher equity, lower payments, better interest rates and more readily available refinancing.
- Borrow within your means. Just because you’re approved by a lender for a specific mortgage amount doesn’t mean you can really afford the home. The wholesale defaults that occurred on tens of thousands of too-lenient loans carry a strong message: Live within your budget. Lenders grew more complacent with underwriting and appraisal standards because double-digit annual price appreciation lulled them into believing their collateral was safe. In their gamble, they abandoned the three C’s of mortgage lending — credit, capacity and collateral — and everyone lost. Until the run-up in values, a safe mortgage on a home was considered no more than three times a buyer’s annual family income. Some old-school traditions need to become new-school traditions.
- Buy for the long term. This isn’t the time to try to make a fast buck in real estate. There’s still some market pain left, and it’s unclear when prices will rebound. If you’re buying this year, plan on staying put for the long haul.
- Your market is unique. National housing trends don’t mean anything. Understand your market’s dynamics, which include the health of the local job market, local foreclosure statistics, price movements, a home’s average time on the sales block, the lack — or abundance — of newly built homes coming upstream and the prices of comparable sales in your specific neighborhood of interest.
- Watch for the pricing warning signs in the next cycle. Continued home-price run-ups year after year should raise a big, bright, red flag in your castle. From 2000 to 2005, U.S. housing prices increased by an average of 53%, with many markets far exceeding that, including California at 109%, Nevada at 94% and Florida at 90%. That party ended abruptly, and nearly everyone suffered a hangover.
This article was written by Steve McLinden for Bankrate.com.
Category : Tips
Does anyone know of any real estate investing courses that really help you make money in today’s crazy market? I don’t want to pay for stuff that doesn’t work any more.
Category : Real Estate Questions
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