There are so many changes in the mortgage industry these days it is nearly impossible to keep up.  All a Realtor® can do is depend on a great lender to answer any new questions.

Here’s what you need to know if the foreclosure crisis is hitting you or your family close to home.

If you suffer from a forclosure or short sale on your credit report:

• Those who have been a victim of forclosure, you will not be eligible for a Fannie Mae loan for 5 years.
• Those who have suffered from short sales, you will not be eligibly for a Fannie Mae loan for 1 year.

So if financial troubles are hitting you this close to home, you may need to think of forclosure or a short sale as less of a way out than you coule before.  If you’re in trouble, contact your mortgage company and a Realtor® because you will need some professional advice.

Tags: Forclosure, economy, mortgage by Aria
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Forget about Eco-Consumerism!

I’ve written in the past about this eco-consumerism fad we’ve foundourselves in lately.  The message is good, but the practice is bad.  YES we should be making responsible planet-wise choices as consumers, but NO we should not go out of our way to purchase more useless crap because it’s green.

And as I write this, gas prices continue to rise, we continue to pump more crap into our precious atmosphere, and we continue to demolish valuable resources, such as rainforests, that help to clean up after us.

Gas prices will aid in increasing inflation which will in turn raise interest rates.  And it’s not all George W.’s fault.  It’s my fault, and yours, too.  What is your carbon footprint?  Reducing your carbon footprint and spreading education about the true signs of global warming and world economies in trouble is the way to help this problem.  Not slapping a “Not my President” or “I Buy Green” bumper sticker on your 19 MPG internal combustion car so that those who sit in traffic behind you can take in messages hand-fed to you by the mass-media in addition to your exhaust fumes.

How we can really save the world and the economy after we admit that a new president cannot do it alone:

• Stop buying so much crap.  Try minimalist living.  You’ll be more organized and I bet you won’t miss the clutter.  You don’t need to save everything just in case you need it later.  Chances are, it will be available later as well.
• Skip the trip to IKEA and try buying used furniture off craigslist or from thrift stores.  Be creative and you can have a project that creates a totally unique piece of furniture for your home.
• Skip the toy in the happy meal and the impulse purchases.
• Better yet, cut back on the beef all-together.  You’ll be healthier and we’ll need fewer methane-producing cows in the world.  It’s a serious problem; cows put more pollutants into the atmosphere than any 3rd-world country and more than all of the SUVs in the US.
• Walk or bike to the grocery store, work, or other erands.  You’ll be healthier and happier with exercise.  Exercise makes a healthier body and mind AND increased energy levels.
• Move closer to work or work from home.  The great American highway system has created suburbs everywhere.  You buy a cheap house and fill it with crap, then drive in traffic for an hour or more each morning and evening.  Save yourself the gas and crap money but investing in a home near work.  This is why Austin and other cities are urbanizing now.  You’ll fit in that 200 square foot urban home after you follow tip #1 (dumping all the useless crap).
• Are you getting the idea?  Make smart decisions, not “green” purchases.

Are you getting it yet?  Improving the environment should also improve the economy.  Frankly, it bothers me less that it should that gas prices are high.  I think this is finally the motivation we (as lazy “someone else will take care of it” Americans) need to create real, practical sustainable energy sources.

Tags: carbon footprint, economy, environment, green, green energy, health by Aria
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From the Gas Buddy website, here are current gas price maps:

Shailesh Ghimire at the AgentGenius blog recently speculated that the high gas prices would in turn cause rates to go up too.  His logic is simple:  the more money we send over to the middle east, the worse our rate of inflation.  In the long-term, that means our rates will go up.  Inflation causes the price of Mortgage-Backed Securities to rise so loans cost more to consumers.  Here’s yet another reason to buy now if you’ve been in the fence.

Tags: economy, investing, loans by Aria
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How much power is your computer at home using?  The site’s costs are based on $0.15 which is much lower than Austin’s low rates of $0.355 to $0.782 / kWh.

Click to enlarge (from choice.com.au)

Many companies such as Dell are now making a big movement to provide energy efficient elecronics.

Tags: economy, energy star, environment, green, green energy, technology by Aria
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Austin is an amazing city in part for its green initiatives. Keeping Austin environmentally green while keeping our much-needed plants green has been addressed in a recent ordinance that you should know about.

Running sprinklers between 10am and 7pm
in the city of Austin can earn you a citation!

Austin’s new Water Use Management Ordinance (Chapter 6-4 of City Code) has set watering days so be sure that you comply. From the City of Austin’s website:

Hand watering is allowed at all times and watering limitations are for the use of sprinklers. Still, early in the morning is the best time for watering by either method.

Is your neighbor wasting water? You can now report these issues online at the City’s website:

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/watercon/waste.ht

For more on watering efficiently to use the least amount of water to keep your lawn and flowers green, I recommend the Wet Earth website.

Happy Watering and may your summer be filled with green laws and green thoughs!

Tags: austin, carbon footprint, economy, green by Aria
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Renters have a different view of real estate economy than homeowners.

Source: PEW Research Center

It seems that renters are much more pessimistic about rising home prices. I’m not sure of the participants in this study were planning on buying a home in the near future, but this study does show something interesting about how you see the market when you own property versus when your at the mercy of a landlord.

More renters believe home prices are rising.

Are they pessimistic about their buying power? They may be feeling left out of the prosperity homeowners found during the boom years leading up to our current conditions.

Renters aren’t worried about the housing economy.

Renters expect prices to climb more than homeowners do. So why aren’t they buying? First-time home-buyers are seeing harder times with mortgage woes. It takes some patience and hard work to get a home loan, and perhaps renters aren’t willing to go through with it.

Americans are not optimistic about the economy.

Source: PEW Research Center

Yet this study is extremely interesting. We saw some of the greatest appreciations in Austin real estate in 2006. Many people sold out to collect their equity while late-comers created a building and flipping surge, especially in central Austin real estate. 2007 was much slower than 2006, especially in the last two quarters. Yet, the number of those who believe the economy is in poor shape has not increased as dramatically as I would expect. I think this shows how pessimistic people are about the economy anyway. We live in a fairly prosperous country and Austin has a steady growth rate which leads to steady real estate prices, yet I would expect similar numbers on a local study based on the fears and questions I receive.

Is this thing on?

I still wonder if anyone can actually hear me. Don’t be afraid to buy. We are currently in a RARE buyer’s market here in the Austin real estate market and at the same time, interest rates are at HISTORIC lows. I’m shopping for real estate in Austin now so don’t blame me if you don’t get in on this buyer’s market! Get your head out of that national news paper, turn off CNN, and get real. We’ve seen studies showing that people think the bottom is falling out of the American economy for years and it hasn’t. In fact, the primary reason for the housing slowdown and the buyer’s market here in Austin is the attitudes of people, not actual economic fact. Now that sellers are getting real, take a chance and think about investing in Austin’s real estate market. I’ll show you how!

Tags: austin real estate, buyers, development, economy, finance, hot market, housing, market, market statistics, money, mortgage, real estate, statistics by Aria
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I’m going to deviate from my norm of Austin real estate topics to hit on another environmental topic that I’ve been pondering lately. It’s HOT here in Austin. Not just warm but seriously HOT. Is it global warming? If so, what is the cause and how can we deal with it?

The findings of a recent survey surprised me. It seems that fewer Americans believe that global warming is an actual phenomenon now than several years ago.

Source: PEW Research Center

For me, it was the opposite. I was skeptical from the beginning talks of global warming but it now makes a great deal of sense to me. I just needed time to gather facts and make my own educated judgment. What I have yet to pass judgment on is whether it is caused by human or environmental factors. For now, I suspect it is a mix of both. With a history of cycles of ice ages and hot ages, it seems that we are entering a hot age. Yet it seems that this change has actually been noticeable in the past 5-10 years which leads me to believe than human factors are interfering with the natural cycle by speeding things up

Source: PEW Research Center

Do you accept global warming as a problem?
What steps do you believe in to fix it?

Source: PEW Research Center

I’m sure that there is no quick fix, however, making sustainable decisions to reduce landfills and emissions is an obvious start. Planting trees still sounds like a great idea to me. After all of the forests around the world that have been seized in order to create our great civilization, it certainly seems like replanting trees to clean the air and produce oxygen is an obvious and relatively easy decision. There’s talk, and then there’s action…

So what do you do to save the world?
How can we save the world in Austin?

Tags: carbon footprint, development, economy, environment, green, green energy, recycling, renewable energy, responsibility by Aria
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