WOW! It's been awhile....

So I was thinking that it has been awhile since I spent any time writing for this blog. When I looked it was over a year! Can you believe it?

Many things have changed and much has stayed the same since I last made an entry.

SAME:

- Sox are playing again. Lot's of new names in the mix this year. I hope that Jerry Remy has a speedy and easy recovery.

- Real Estate is in a seemingly endless state of flux. The news about the economy has been changing and the local market seems to have ducked most of the real perils of markets around us.

- Celtics are in the post-season


CHANGED:

- We have a new President

- Real Estate is in a seemingly endless state of flux. The news about the economy has been changing and the local market seems to have ducked most of the real perils of markets around us.


So, what's a broker to do? It turns out that the financial meltdown from last year is beginning to slow down somewhat. Folks are breaking open their wallets and purchasing houses here in the local market once again. Like days of old, some properties are jumping off the market, accepting offers in the first week or so, some aren't even making it to the market before accepting offers, or are being sold to folks who have made overtures about them in the past.

Though the market may seem different to some folks, it feels to me like we are coming out of the doom and gloom of the last 12 months with a brisk return to the way things seemed about 24 months ago.

There are some new wrinkles though. First off, mortgage money is available, and continues to be available at historically low interest rates, but there are new guidelines that lenders are applying to their loans. Compared to a year or two ago, this is making borrowing somewhat more difficult today.

What this means is that for sometime now we will be seeing only the best qualified borrowers being able to get loans. This is not a bad thing, I for one don't want to be involved in another period like we just recently went through. As a broker, it is hard to hear when bad times befall a client.

The second piece of this puzzle is the lender appraisal. If the property doesn't appraise to support the loan, than the folks in the deal are sent right back to the negotiating table. This is a very important issue for brokers who are involved in pricing a house for the market. Price it too high and the deal comes apart at the appraisal.

Interest only loans, and loans for 100% of the appraised value of a property were tools used by some to get into home ownership. With the contracting values we saw over the last 18 months or so, these loans have become millstones to the folks who borrowed the money.

I hope for all the folks who I have talked over the last 6 months regarding the shrinking value of their properties that we continue to see improvements in the health of the market. There seems to me to be a glimmer of hope on the horizon that we are turning a corner and heading out of the "market doldrums" that we have been living through these last 12 to 18 months.

Anyway, it's back to work now.

- Go Sox, Bruins and Celtics!