Patty McMillen

Enjoy the privacy of the hills in Nice, close to town with views of the surrounding

hills, excellent starter home with two bedrooms and one bath, open kitchen and living room, laminate flooring, wood burning stove, newer dual pane windows and newer roof, covered patio and terraced gardens…$99,900

VA ASSUMABLE LOAN

Should you rent or buy?  Look at it this way…wealth-building potential of owning vs. renting over an eight-year holding period and found that today’s “hurdle rate” tilts in favor of buying.  The hurdle rate is the point between buying and renting at which it’s a wash in terms of wealth-building.  If today’s hurdle rate is lower than the average past property appreciation rate for a particular market, then it makes sense to buy, because future property appreciation should enable an individual, on average, to create more wealth through owning than renting.  Buy today in a down market and capture the holding period for the appreciation.

761 Sanel Drive, beautiful views of Sanel Valley, three bedroom two baths, large living room with fireplace, kitchen with views, double car, large deck is being replaced.  $216,900

FHA Fees: Up for Purchases, Down for Some Refinances

The annual FHA mortgage insurance premium will increase by ..10 percent for purchase money borrowers as of April 1st.  The increase was part of the 2011 legislation to extend payroll tax cuts.  There’s an additional .25 percent increase on jumbo loans, to take effect on June 1st.

Logo of the Federal Housing Administration. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

According to Bank of America, “Prices are bottoming now!”  In the fall, the analysts had predicted home prices would drop by 8 percent from the second quarter of 2011 through the first quarter of 2013, but now they’re revising that forecast, realizing the housing market is stabilizing faster than they originally thought.

The analysts now predict that prices will remain flat for the next two years, as the excess foreclosure inventory is absorbed.  They then expect to see a pickup in home prices by 2014.

And in the long-term, they see a big rise in housing prices.  From 2012 through 2020, analysts forecast a cumulative growth of 42 percent in home prices (at 4 percent on an annualized basis).