HomeRun Homes Rent to Own Homes Blog

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HomeRun Homes is a centralized marketplace which helps people Find or Sell a Rent to Own Home, both Nationwide and Globally to the thriving Rent to Own Market. http://www.lease2buy.com
Showing posts with label recession. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recession. Show all posts

October 17, 2011

The Crystal Ball of Future Homes

Hi Everyone,
   Hope you had a nice Fall Weekend, wherever your travels took you.

   Have you ever wondered to yourself what homes will look like in the future? If you were in the 1970's wondering what homes would look like in 40-50 years, you would have probably thought about homes in outer space with all robotic features, or as Erika Riggs of Zillow puts it, "something akin to The Jetsons’ home complete with Rosie the Robot and other space-age appliances that dressed and fed the family", as she discusses in her story, "A Look Ahead at New Homes of 2015", featured on Yahoo! Real Estate.

   Home Size...This might surprise you!

   Rather than space-age technology, says Riggs, "the biggest thing that is expected to change in future single-family homes is the size", and “Homes will get smaller,” adds Stephen Melman, Director of Economic Services at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) in Washington D.C..

   The NAHB asked builders, says Melman, "what do you anticipate the new home size would be by 2015?", and the average reply was 2,150 square feet, which is a decrease from the current single family home average of 2,400 square feet. Is this recession-related? Yes, but as Riggs adds, "many believe that the real estate changes will stick around even after the economy and home values get back on solid ground". “Although affordability is driving these decisions, smaller homes are a positive for builders,” says Melman, and adds that it is an opportunity to deliver a better home", allowing for "more creative design, more amenities, better flow".

   What else will change? The living room is expected to merge with other spaces such as the family room and become a "Great Room". Riggs says that 30 percent believe that it will vanish completely to save on square footage. Riggs says to expect spacious laundry rooms, master suite walk-in closets, porches, eat-in kitchens, two-car garages, and ceiling fans. She says to expect to see less of mudrooms, formal dining rooms, four bedrooms or more, media or hobby rooms, and skylights.

   "Going Green" is driving a lot of these changes, says Riggs, which lead to energy efficient windows, etc. Additionally, with the aging Baby Boomer population, says Melman, "they’re empty nesters, so they don’t need five bedrooms".

   What do you think about homes of the future?
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Have a Great Week, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !
Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
HomeRun Homes Blog: http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Websites: http://www.lease2buy.com and http://www.homerunhomes.com

TAGS: #singlefamilyhomes #HomeBuilder #NAHB #squarefeet #recession #greatroom #babyboomer #zillow

October 2, 2011

The Return Of Subprime Mortgages?

Hi Folks,
   Welcome back, and glad to have you here. It is October, and as much as I don't want to face it, it is the month that I will turn the big 4-0 (On 10/31 - Halloween). Oh well !

   One other sad thought is one of the people who have been hit between the eyes due to the subprime mortgage crisis. Subprime mortgages are loans made to people with less than perfect credit or financial situations, and these types of loans dominated the lending market until the house of cards fell down, literally. Subprime has become a household name, and most people cringe when they hear it...but there are others who get very excited at the very thought of these types of loans!

   According to Preston Howard, a Mortgage Broker/Owner with Rose City Realty, Inc. in Pasadena, California, "subprime financing is poised to make a re-entry into the market place in a big way", in a recent story he wrote, titled, "Can Subprime Make A Comeback?", on the BrokerAgentSocial.com Website. "Where there are payments to be chopped up into little pieces, someone on Wall Street will dice and transform them into some form of marketable security to be sold to the masses at a cost, and generate profits for the investment bank that brings them to the Stock Exchange floor", says Howard

   But how can this happen, after what we have all suffered from the subprime fallout? "The answer lies in the structure and the insurance", Howard says, pointing to a Money Backed Securities (MBS) offering with "seven times the insurance protection that is normally required for a high quality, private securities offering", but has earned a "debt rating that is better than the United States of America".

   Are we really going to do this all over again? At first glance, the pool of sub-par mortgages looks more like FHA loans (as opposed to subprime deals), with a 4% yield, >640 Credit Scores of the borrowers backing the mortgages, and an LTV at about 95% on average. But, as Howard adds, "It appears as though the product is being packaged in a “sub-quality wrapper” to prep the market for additional, lesser quality deals in the future."

   Let's look at the good here: "this could be the start of something beautiful as the housing market is languishing in a rut, awaiting products to unleash pent up demand", says Howard. Very true.

   "Conversely, this could be the lever that pulls us into a second recession", says Howard, who says that there is a moral hazard potential here, where the needs of unqualified borrowers will take a back seat to the fees generated. This is a big risk.

   Are you willing to take the risk? Will it hurt us again, or have we learned our lesson?

Would You Like Our Blog Posts Directly to your E-mail? Here's How:
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Have a Great Week, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !
Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
HomeRun Homes Blog: http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Websites: http://www.lease2buy.com and http://www.homerunhomes.com

TAGS: #subprimemortgage #MoneyBackedSecurities #MBS #FHAloan #lending #mortgagebroker #financing #WallStreet #recession

December 20, 2010

Drumroll...Your Top 5 Favorite Blog Posts of 2010

Hi Folks,


   Welcome back to Christmas week. If you were anywhere near a mall or a shopping center this week, you know that the traffic was at a crawl and the stores were bursting with people. You would think there was no such thing as a recession !

   Well, it's time to get all nostalgic with you. You have all gravitated to certain posts this year, and we are going to give you your Top 5 Favorite Blog Posts of 2010, starting with #5 and rounding it down to the Top Post of the year !

   Coming in at #5 is the Blog Post titled, "Post-Foreclosure REO Property Maintenance", in which we investigated into how the REO properties are being maintained while they are unoccupied.

   Coming in at #4 is the Blog Post titled, "Buying a Foreclosure? What You Need to Know First...", in which we spoke to numerous experts and foreclosure "gurus" for their suggestions on how to navigate the foreclosure property marketplace.

   The #3 Top Blog Post is titled, "Private Money...Any Available For Real Estate Deals?". In this post, we spoke with members of the lending community to gauge the availability of private money to fund Real Estate deals, and we received a number of different perspectives on this topic.

   Coming in at #2 is the Blog Post titled, "Top 5 Concerns When Selling a Home FSBO", which received a lot of traction and was ReTweeted and used in many articles and write-ups, due to the useful tips provided in the post. The sub-topics of selling a home as a "For Sale By Owner" (FSBO) that were covered in this post were Legal Concerns, Preparation of the Home, Mechanics of the Sale, Addressing Security Concerns, and Marketing the Home.

   Drumroll Please !! Your #1 Blog Post based on views, Tweets, Diggs, etc, was, "Right Time to Buy? Top Real Estate Investing Markets", in which we discussed the hottest markets for Real Estate investments. We spoke with many experts and investors across the country to provide you the best possible information. Even though this post was written a few months back, not a lot has really changed, so it is still worth a read and worthy of sharing with your peers.

   So, there you have it; The Top 5 Blog Posts of 2010, based on your views and usage of the content. We hope that we can continue to provide you with valuable and useful content, and all we ask of you is your faithful readership, your valuable comments, and for you to Retweet and Share our posts using the handy little buttons and links below the posts and on the side column of the Blog.

Have a Great Week, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !
Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
HomeRun Homes Blog http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Website http://www.lease2buy.com/


#realestate #foreclosure #realestateinvesting #reo #forsalebyowner #fsbo

August 30, 2010

10 Million New Renters?

Good Morning,


   We hope everyone had a great weekend. We certainly hit a homerun (no pun intended) here on the East Coast with golden sunshine, deep blue skies, and low humidity all weekend long. Ahhh...allergies !!

   When looking over some stories on a Google search the other day, I came across a story titled, "Renter Nation", in which the author says that, "The recession and shifting demographics will swell the ranks of people who will rent, not buy, housing over the next five years", and he deduces that, "roughly 10 million extra folks could be moving into rentals over the next five years". While this could be a frightening prospect for those who are thinking about selling their homes within the next 5 years, this does still hold optimism for some segments of the market.

   Those who are looking to sell their home would not have to stretch far across the table to rent their home with an option to buy, or Rent to Own. More often than not, those looking for a rental home will jump at the opportunity to earn some equity while they are renting. In this respect, these numbers hold promise. For Realtors, they will still earn the rental fee. For those who are renting out homes in the first place, they could see a surge in demand, which might potentially drive up some rental prices in certain areas.

   What would be the "Butterfly Effect" of such increases in rental prices? Good Economic sense tells us what should happen, but things have been so very far off from common sense over the past few years, that I would not even venture a guess. We welcome your opinions and comments on this question.

Have a Great Week, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !