Home Buyers Changing:
With married couples comprising less than 50% of all US households, home buyers are changing. A growing number of non-family households, according to a report from John Burns Real Estate Consulting are on the increase. Non-family households where no one is related to the house holder have increased nearly five times in the last 50 years from 7.9 to 39.2 million.
A lot of non-family households are looking at SMALL HOMES: preferring a home under 2500 sf with three or fewer bedrooms. LOCATION: the proximity to work and entertainment over home size and they are less interested in media rooms and pools.
Gov Brown signs AB 771 Preventing Gouging for Condo/Townhome Buyers
Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill 771, on September 1, 2011. This bill prevents home buyers in a common interest development, such as a condominium or townhome, from being charged excess document fees.
Current law requires this information come from the Homeowner’s Association “HOA” and prohibits it from charging fees in excess of what is “reasonable,” not to exceed the actual cost of processing and producing these documents. HOA generally have provided the document for approximately $75 to $250. In the past HOAs have been delegating document preparation to third party vendors or contractors who, under a 2007 court decision, are exempt from this fee limitation. This delegation of responsibility by HOAs sometimes resulted in home purchasers being forced to pay additional fees, as much as $1000, for other documents which were “bundled” with the required documents.
AB 771 addresses this by specifying that only fees for the required documents may be charged when such documents are provided, effectively prohibiting any “bundling” of fees for other documents with these fees. The bill also creates a new form detailing which documents are required, and requires the provider to disclose the fees that will be charged for the documents before they are provided. The seller of the home must complete this form and transmit it to the prospective purchaser along with the required documents. This will eliminate any uncertainty for the prospective purchase as to exactly which documents are being provided and the precise fees being charged in those documents.
Rid home of mildew culprits
Mildew, a form of mold is often seen as black, white or greenish growth on siding, drywall, roofing and other areas.
Mildew likes organic materials like drywall, wood, paper, wallpaper paste, cotton, linen, leather, wool to name a few. In addition to food, it will grow best in moist and warm areas with lack of air circulation or light.
One of the most common areas is the bathroom. Usually the only thing needed here is the installation of a ventilation fan. Make sure it is ducted to the outside and not just into the attic. You should use the fan during and after taking a bath or shower. If you find your family can’t seem to remember to turn the fan on, you might think about having it wired to the light switch. If you use the fan regularly, it should remove the moisture and circulate the air. If you find this isn’t enough to combat moisture then you may have moisture generated from somewhere else. Hidden moisture problems include, leaking valves or supply pipes, loose and/or leaking drain lines, bad wax rings below the toilet, and water around the tub or shower from excessive splash.
Other areas inside the home include closets, behind beds & other furniture (especially those placed against an exterior wall, combined with high humidity). Silica gel can help in closets, as well as making sure your clothes are not densely packed in the closet. Also, moving furniture away from the wall so air can circulate helps alleviate mildew.
Outside the home you may see mildew on the siding and roof shingles. If you have widespread areas of mildew this may indicate a larger moisture problem, one that can usually be traced back to lack of ventilation. Cut back trees, shrubbery or other landscaping that is overgrown that can be the cause of some problems, as well as adjusting your sprinklers not to hit the side of the house.
If you think you have hidden moisture you should contact a contractor who has a moisture meter and specializes in water damage restoration.
Information on the Obama administration’s foreclosure-avoidance program
Recently the House Financial Services Committee took a look at the performance of the Obama administration’s foreclosure-avoidance program in early October; here is what came out of that hearing and it doesn’t look good:
1) HAMP – designated to help as many as 4 million troubled homeowners modify the terms of their mortgage and obtain more affordable payments. The program has resulted in approximately 800,000 permanent modifications and 106,000 trial modifications still ongoing, according to Darius Kingsley, deputy chief of Treasury’s Homeownership Preservation office. These figures are far less than the original target.
2) Emergency Homeowner’s Loan Program – The Dodd-Frank financial reform law authorized $1 billion to provide bridge loans of up to $50,000 for homeowners who had experienced sudden drops in income because of employment or medical problems. As of Sept. 28, it has resulted in 12,000 completed transactions and is expected to use just $400-$500 million of the authorized $1 billion, according to acting FHA commissioner Carol Galante. The 12,000 funded cases were all that HUD could manage to approve out of 100,000 applications.
3) FHA Refinance Program, aka “Short Refi” This was designed to help as many as 1.5 million underwater owners refinance into affordable FHA loans, and was funded by $8 billion originally set aside for HAMP. As of the end of September, FHA and the program’s 27 participating lenders had completed just 334 refinancings according to the agency.
4) HARP – The administrations signature program for homeowners who have lost equity because of declining home prices but who nonetheless have stayed current on their payments. Only borrowers with loan-to-value ratios above 80 percent and no higher than 125 percent are eligible. Originally projected to help between 4-5 million homeowners, as of August it had resulted in 838,000 refinancings.
