Mortgage Relief For The Unemployed

Application Period Only Open for One Month

Early last week, The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced $1 billion in funding through the Emergency Homeowners’ Loan Program (EHLP) meant to help homeowners struggling with monthly mortgage payments due to unemployment, underemployment, illness or injury.

In a recent article on HSH.com, Tim Manni reports that EHLP will “help these homeowners pay a portion of their monthly mortgage payments for up to two years or provide up to $50,000, whichever comes first. HUD, who is administering the program along with NeighborWorks, expects to reach up to 30,000 distressed homeowners with loan amounts which are expected to average $35,000.”

HUD’s site notes that EHLP is intended to complement the “Hardest Hit Fund,” which is funded with $7.6 billion to provide housing relief to the 18 states (and Washington D.C.) that suffered the most from the housing crisis. The launch of EHLP means that mortgage assistance programs for the unemployed and underemployed are available in every state.

To be considered for EHLP, homeowners must complete a pre-application screening workshop by July 22, 2011. Actual assistance recipients will be chosen at random from the pool of qualified applicants, as HUD expects demand to exceed available funding. NeighborWorks, a congressionally-chartered nonprofit organization dedicated to improving distressed communities, is partnering with HUD to administer the program.

More details, including links to the pre-application worksheet, can be found on NeighborWorks’ site here.

Now “Zestimates” Are More Accurate Than Ever

The same day that Inman News published a “perspective”by David Charron, President of MRIS, the largest multiple listing service in the U.S.A., on the superfluity of broad market based statistics and trend analysis, Zillow announcedthat its database now has information on more than 100 million homes, representing more than 75 percent of all the homes in the country.

By adding more than 25 million Zestimate Home Valuations, Zillowhas reduced the margin of error on those estimates to 8.5 percent across the country, and to less than 6 percent in such major metropolitan markets as Denver and San Diego.

This is good news to owners, buyers and sellers alike, as Mr. Charron points out in his article, “considering the critical role that real estate statistics play in just about every housing-related decision, it is time for our industry to rally around better data.”

In addition to increasing accuracy overall, Zillow’s expansion means that such states as Iowa and New Hampshire now have access to Zestimates that wasn’t available before. Zillow sees Zestimates as a tool or starting point when trying to assess a home’s value, along with comparable recent sales and current listings.

Zillow’s increased accuracy and expanded database couldn’t come at a better time, as industry leaders begin to shift the focus from broad market reports and analysis to timely local data.

The Best Places to Put Your Real Estate Dollars

Top Five Markets in the Nation for Investors

Inman News, a leading Real Estate Industry news source, recently completed an analysis of hundreds of U.S. markets to determine those best for investors. The full report and research is available at Inman’s website, here. To compare and rank the markets, the researchers took into account the median sales price of homes, population and unemployment statistics, loan data, walkability scores, foreclosure sales and discounts statistics and more. Information was culled from respected sources including Realty Trac, CoreLogic, the U.S. Census Bureau, SmartZip and others.

The top five markets, according to the report, are:

1.         Indianapolis-Carmel, IN.With an unemployment rate somewhat lower than the national average, a population rate somewhat higher, and the lowest median sale price of the top 10 markets, Indianapolis ranks number one on the list for investors.

 

 

2.         Winchester, VA/WV.  This market had the largest increase in population of all the markets looked at, rising nearly 25 percent in the last decade. Its combination of a decrease in median sale price year-over-year with an increase of over 60 percent in home values expected in the next 10 years (the highest projected appreciation rate in the top 10 markets) makes this area a prime opportunity for investment.

3.        Gainesville, FL.Between the huge university and several hospital networks located in this area, Gainesville can boast unemployment rates roughly 25 percent lower than the rest of the state. And although the median sale price was down from last year, the projected ROI for a property bought today over 10 years is well over 250 percent.

4.        Tucson, AZ.The number of distressed sales in Tucson is the highest of the top 10 markets (over 45 percent of sales were foreclosure sales, close to double from the same period last year). This means an abundance of affordable properties in a market where SmartZip, a company specializing in real estate analytics and ratings, projects a 10 year ROI of 225 percent.

5.        Tallahassee, FL.Households making the median income saw the supply of affordable houses increase more than a third from the previous year, and nearly 40 percent of all sales have been all-cash purchases. For “buy and hold” investors, this market is ripe with opportunity — in fact, at the end of March, active investor loans in Tallahassee represented nearly 50% more of the market’s loan activity than the national average.

To see the full reportand read more about these markets as well the other five markets that round out the Top Ten list, visit the Inman News website.

Tool Time for Dad

Father’s Day Means One Thing For the Man Around the House

Is your dad a mellow putterer? An inveterate DIY’er? A passionate woodworker, an incorrigible tinkerer, or a happy handyman? However he approaches his “honey do” list, now is the time to get him the latest gadget or handiest new tool. After all, May might mean flowers for Mom, but June means tools for Dad.

Check out Amazon’s Father’s Day Gift (and Sale) Storefor ideas and savings on power tools from brand names like Bosch, Milwaukee, Dewalt and more.

ToolGuyd, the site “all about tools,” has assembled a list of specials and offers from popular stores and sites, including WoodCraft, Channellock, and Kobalt.

Popular Mechanics lists the 6 Must-Have Products for Homeowners, starting with the Craftsman Booster Rocket that claims to charge any battery in the Nextec line to 25% capacity in just three minutes to Rockwell’s 10-inch job-site table saw, designed to be helpful on projects big and small.

AskMen.com offers its Top 10 Manly Power Tools, from a Glass/Tile Cutter (“the diamond ring a man could really get onboard with buying”), to an Impact Drill (“…cut, slice, bore into, or otherwise make julienne fries out of any stone or masonry. Any drill can bore a hole through wood, but it takes the added power of an impact drill to go through solid brick”), to its number one manly power tool, the Pneumatic Concrete Chainsaw (“a chainsaw that cuts through concrete. What more do you need to know?”).

Make your dad’s day this Father’s Day and get him something he really wants.