Wiping your Android Securely

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RIGHT OF REDEMPTION MAY BE CHANGING TO 6 MONTHS

Legislation is working on changes to Alabama Right of Redemption.

Real Estate Sales Increase 14% Over This Time A Year Ago

Birmingham Metro Area residential sales in September improve 14% over last year
Sales: According to the Greater Alabama MLS, the Birmingham metro area* residential sales totaled 1,166 units in September, an improvement of 14.3 percent or 146 units from the same period last year. Maintaining sales above the thousand unit per month threshold is a symbolic benchmark that Birmingham sales routinely eclipsed prior to the recession and its return on a consistent basis signals that the market continues to gradually recover. September represents the seventh consecutive month that the market has achieved this benchmark.
Forecast: September sales results were 6.4 percent or 70 units above of our monthly forecast. The YTD sales forecast through September projected 9,978 closed transactions while the actual sales were 9,750 units, representing a variance of 2.3 percent.
Birmingham Metro Area residential sales improved 14% from last September. YTD sales are up 6%. Inventory has declined 48% from the September 2007 peak. Infograph courtesy of ACRE. All rights reserved.Alabama Center for Real Estate (ACRE) 
Supply: The Birmingham area housing inventory in September was 7,099 units, a decrease of 8.8 percent from September 2013 and 47.6 percent from the month of September peak in 2007 (13,560 units).
August inventory in the Birmingham metro area also decreased 4.0 percent from the prior month. This direction is consistent with seasonal patterns & historical data indicating that September inventory on average (09-13) decreases from the month of August by 1.8 percent.
According to the Greater Alabama MLS, the Birmingham metro area market, there was 6.1 months of housing supply in September versus 7.6 months of supply in September 2013, representing a decrease of 20.7 percent. The realignment is even more impressive when compared to its September peak of 14.7 months in 2010 and the 5-year average of 10.5 months from 2009-2013.
The "months of housing supply" is a simple calculation - homes listed (supply) divided by homes sold (demand). In general, seven months is considered the point of equilibrium during the month of September. Birmingham Metro Area is one of the most balanced markets in Alabama during the month of August.
Demand: September residential sales decreased 1.8 percent from the prior month. This direction is consistent with historical data indicating that September sales, on average (09-13), decrease from the month of August by 8.5 percent. As a general rule of thumb associated with seasonal buying patterns, sales traditional peak in June or July and begin to gradually decline as the market enters the Fall/Winter period.
Existing single family home sales accounted for 84 percent (up from 83% in Sept'13) of total sales while 13 percent (same as Sept'13) were new home sales and 3 percent (down from 3% in Sept'13) were condo buyers.
Pricing: The median sales price in September was $175,000, an increase of 6.1 percent from last September ($165,000). The September median price did slip 1.4 percent when compared to the prior month. This direction contrast with historical data ('09-'13) indicating that the September median sales price traditionally increases from the month of August by .3 percent. For the year through September, the median price has risen 1.1 percent when compared to the same period in 2013.

Recovery Stretches to Ninth Consecutive Month; 89 Markets Reaching Full Recovery

A recently released market index shows significant improvement in the top 100 markets this month. Results show that 60 of the top 200 midsize markets have fully recovered their loss in home prices due to the housing bubble burst. These advancements bring the total markets with full recovery to 89 (30 percent), up two from the previous month’s 87. While the number of top 100 markets achieving a full recovery increased by one from the previous month to 29, there is also noticeable improvement in the number of midsize markets seeing full recovery.
The December Local Market Index, recently released by Homes.com, is a price performance summary of repeat sales of U.S. properties. Utilizing home pricing data, the Index shows year-over-year gains for single-family properties in all 300 top U.S. Markets.
All of the 200 midsize local markets continued to show gains year-over-year for the single-family index. On a monthly basis, Medford, OR saw the largest gain, with a 1.56 index point jump. For the seventh consecutive month, Anchorage, Alaska and Hilo, Hawaii continue to be the top two performing markets on a year-over-year basis. Anchorage takes the top spot, increasing by 18 percent, followed by Hilo with a more than 15 percent increase. The West continues to dominate the midsize markets, with 9 out of the top 10 markets increasing on an annual basis. On a monthly basis, the top 10 midsize markets are largely split between the South, West, and Midwest regions.
The latest Homes.com Local Market Index reports the following:
• Year-over-year increases in all top 300 markets.
• Monthly increases in 82 of the top 100 markets and in 167 of the 200 midsized markets.
• Los Angeles, California is the top gaining market on a year-over-year basis, with a 27.48 index point or 16.74 percent increase.
• Honolulu, Hawaii is the number two gaining market on a year-over-year basis, with a 26.21 index point gain for the top 100.
• California markets [San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif.; San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif.; Bakersfield-Delano, Calif.] are the remaining 3 in the top 5. Year-over-year, they increased 25.89, 24.97, and 20.65 index points, respectively for the top 100.
Highlights from the Homes.com Rebound Report for the top 300 markets show:
• 89 markets have made a 100 percent rebound, indicating a complete recovery. This is an increase from 87 markets in the previous reporting period.
• The most recent fully recovered markets are Greensboro-High Point, NC (103.4 percent) and Greeley, CO (102.86 percent).
• The percentage of recovered midsize markets is slightly ahead of the top 100 markets. Out of the 89 markets achieving more than 100 percent rebound this month, 60 or 30 percent are midsize and 29 or 29 percent are top 100.
• Dominating the top 100 rebound markets, the South, with 15, includes markets with energy-based economies in Texas and Oklahoma.
“Despite the holiday season and the early winter storms in most of the nation, the number of top 100 markets to reach or surpass their peak prices at the height of the boom in 2007 increased to 29 markets, according to December’s data,” says Brock MacLean, executive vice president of Homes.com. “With the largest year-over-year housing market price increases in seven years, the U.S. housing market is in a great position to continue making steady gains in 2014.”

Housing Recovery Picks Up Steam despite Persistent Headwinds

 With home prices and household formations rising and household balance sheets healing, the ongoing housing recovery is expected to gain momentum next year even as several challenges remain, according to economists who participated in a recent National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Fall 2013 Construction Forecast Webinar.
“The cards are in play for a decent and fairly strong recovery in 2014 and particularly in 2015,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “From the standpoint of GDP growth, housing has been a plus, growing at two, three and four times the rate of the rest of the economy in recent quarters.”
Helping to spur the housing rebound was an increase in home prices over the past year, driven in part by tight inventories of new and existing homes for sale and gradual gains in employment.
“We expect to see price increases moderate in the next few years as we see additional inventory on the market and investors back away as the bargains disappear,” said Crowe.
Another bright spot is rising household formations that were delayed during the downturn as college graduates and young professionals were forced to move back in with their parents or double up as roommates. At the height of the housing boom, the U.S. was producing 1.4 million additional households every year. That figure plunged to 500,000 during the depth of the recession and today is now back up to 700,000.
Meanwhile, households across the nation have been increasing their savings and shedding debt. “They’ve corrected a lot of excesses and feel more comfortable about moving forward,” Crowe said, noting that the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index shows that the percentage of consumers who believe that now is a good time to buy a house is back up to levels last seen near the housing boom.

However, Crowe cited several headwinds that are impeding the recovery.
“Credit conditions are much tighter now, builders are increasingly facing labor shortages, lot supplies are tight, building material prices are rising, and inaccurate appraisals are hurting home sales” he said.
“You can’t charge more than you can get an appraisal for,” Crowe added. “Even though we are seeing price increases in labor, land and materials, 36 percent of builder recently said they had lost at least one sale over appraisals coming in below the cost of production.”
A Solid Outlook
NAHB is forecasting 924,000 total housing starts in 2013, up 18 percent from 783,000 units last year.
Single-family production is expected to rise 17 percent this year to 629,000 units, jump an additional 31 percent next year to 826,000 and surpass the 1 million mark in 2015.

The Buyer's Market is over.

Listing Inventory has dropped.
If your looking for your next home and see one you like you might want to go ahead and put an offer on it before you proceed looking at others. The odds are that it will have others making an offer as well. The best ones go first!

Mobile listing search.

Existing Home Sales and Prices Continue to Rise in February

Existing-Home Sales and Prices Continue to Rise in February
February existing-home sales and prices affirm a healthy recovery is underway in the housing sector, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Sales have been above year-ago levels for 20 consecutive months, while prices show 12 consecutive months of year-over-year price increases.
February sales were at the highest level since the tax credit period of November 2009.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says conditions for continued housing improvement are at play. “Job growth in the improving economy and pent-up demand are causing both home sales and rental leasing to rise. Though home prices are rising much faster than rents, historically low mortgage rates are still making home purchases affordable,” he says. “The only headwinds are limited housing inventory, which varies greatly around the country, and credit conditions that remain too restrictive.”
Listed inventory is 19.2 percent below a year ago when there was a 6.4-month supply.
The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $173,600 in February, up 11.6 percent from February 2012. The last time there were 12 consecutive months of year-over-year price increases was from June 2005 to May 2006. The February gain is the strongest since November 2005 when it was 12.9 percent above a year earlier.
“A strong rise in home values is contributing to housing wealth recovery, which has risen by $1.4 trillion in the past year and looks to top that increase this year,” Yun says. “The extra consumer spending arising from growth in housing wealth is expected to be $70 billion to $110 billion this year.”
Distressed homes–foreclosures and short sales–accounted for 25 percent of February sales, down from 34 percent in February 2012. Fifteen percent of February sales were foreclosures, and 10 percent were short sales. Foreclosures sold for an average discount of 18 percent below market value in February, while short sales were discounted 15 percent.
According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage rose to 3.53 percent in February from 3.41 percent in January; it was 3.89 percent in February 2012.
NAR President Gary Thomas, broker-owner of Evergreen Realty in Villa Park, Calif., says interest rates remain extraordinarily low. “In the history of mortgage interest rates since 1971, the 30-year fixed rate has been below 4 percent in only 15 months, and those have all been in the past 15 months,” he says. “Even with rising home prices, affordability remains historically favorable because home prices over-corrected during the downturn. This means there is still great value for buyers in the current market.”
All-cash sales were at 32 percent of transactions in February, up from 28 percent in January; they were 33 percent in February 2012. Investors, who account for most cash sales, purchased 22 percent of homes in February, up from 19 percent in January; they were 23 percent in February 2012.
“There was an upward bump in the shares of investor and all-cash closed purchases in February. These sales result from purchase offers during the holidays when shopping activity by traditional home buyers slows, but investors, who typically pay cash, remained active,” Yun says. “This is a seasonal pattern, but we’re now seeing a general increase in buyer traffic, which is 25 percent above a year ago.”
Single-family home sales are 8.7 percent above the 4.01 million-unit pace in February 2012. The median existing single-family home price was $173,800 in February, which is 11.3 percent higher than a year ago.
In the South, existing-home sales increased 2.6 percent to an annual level of 2.01 million in February and are 14.9 percent above February 2012. The median price in the South was $150,500, up 9.3 percent from a year ago.