Mortgage Rates Might Not Be Low for Long

The near-record low mortgage rates seen during the past few weeks may not be around much longer.

Signs of improving economic conditions could lead Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke to raise key interest rates, driving up mortgage rates, says Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities LLC.

The evidence includes more consumers are paying their bills on time. Past-due accounts at American Express declined 34 percent compared to a year ago, and Target Corp. reported its lowest delinquency rate in two years during the second quarter.

In another sign of economic improvement, fewer banks reported tightening lending standards this month, one reason consumer borrowing rose for the second time in three months.

“If lending standards start to stabilize, that’ll be another reason to remove the emergency measures, including the zero rate,” says Jay Bryson, a senior global economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, N.C., who formerly worked at the Fed in Washington.

Source: Bloomberg, Bob Willis and Anthony Feld (05/28/2010)

Sales of previously owned single-family homes were up 7.2% compared with June and 5% from July 2008, The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Friday. The monthly gain was the largest on record for existing-home sales, which NAR has tracked since 1999.

“The housing market has decisively turned for the better,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “A combination of first-time buyers taking advantage of the housing stimulus tax credit and greatly improved affordability conditions are contributing to higher sales.”

July home sales hit an annualized rate of 5.24 million proprieties, marking the first breach of the 5 million annualized rate mark since last September, when they hit 5.1 million. Since then, they have stayed in a very narrow range, bouncing between between January’s low of 4.49 million and October’s high of 4.94 million.

The July performance far exceeded expectations: A consensus of real estate experts had forecast sales of 5 million.

I admit it, Hidden Lakes is one of my favorite neighborhoods in Mt Pleasant / Greater Charleston. Virtually every home in the entire neighborhood peacefully rests on a canal or lake. The homes are generally traditional, very well built, diverse and well – maintained.

Click on the image above and enjoy our new Hidden Lakes video tour. You’ll see what we mean…..

Seaside Farms is one of coastal South Carolina’s most popular neighborhoods.  Nestled up to the intracoastal and marsh expanse separating mainland Mount Pleasant,SC and Isle Of Palms on the barrier islands, Seaside Farms is actually several beautiful neighborhoods.   Enjoy a closer look at Seaside Farms in the video tour below.

Gooden+Faircloth has compiled 2008 real estate sales data into the new Seaside Farms Real Estate Report 2008/2009.

The highest priced home sold over the past 12 months was in the Cathedral Oaks neighborhood.  1712 Canyon sold for $ 1,175,000 or $ 285 per square foot.

Over the past 12 months, homes averaged remaining on the market from a low of 127 days in Magnolia Woods to a high of 207 days in Windward / Marais.

Click here to learn more.

A noted national blogger today caught my eye when he expressed irritation at a client who was canceling a listing because the seller wasn’t ‘happy’.    The blogger indignantly stated, ‘and now we have to make them happy also?   Isn’t it enough that we have to work our buns off?’

Surprisingly, this realtor has been in sales for quite a few years.

Irritated that you have to make a client happy?

I suspect the seller wasn’t happy with something about the realtor.   Perhaps, attitude?

I’m not about enslaving myself, my partner Edward Faircloth or my colleagues to the ludicrous whims of some clients, life is too short.   But, in the end, it is about a client who is made happy by a successful business relationship.

Give and you shall receive.  Lighten up and enjoy the experience.   It could be so much worse.  So very much worse.

Rebecca Gooden