Royal LePage of Canada, has just released their Renovations and Returns survey recently and being one of the top real estate companies in the area, WE GOT IT! If you are thinking of selling your home in the future and feel like it may need some sprucing up, here is a SURVEY worth looking at. Thanks Chuck for sending this on.

Keri Shepherd of IndyMac Bank is always keeping me up-to-date and educated on everything going on in the mortgage business, so I felt I should pass on the same knowledge to you, so you are as informed as possible.  I haven’t met someone that works as hard as she does in staying up on the market.

The first is a pdf based on the new stimulus package, titled, Undertsanding The Higher Loan Limits.  This explains the new conforming loan amounts for Hawaii that just changed.

The second is a great article referencing Peter Lynch and the old phrase, “Buy on bad news. Sell on good news.”  My favorite line in here is, “Risk always seems most acute when the headlines give you ulcers.”

Another article explains why Piggyback loans, or Seconds, are harder to come by.

Enjoy!

The new addition of Keri Shepherd’s mortgage newsletter is out and can be viewed by clicking HERE.  This is truely a must have if you haven’t signed up for it yet.  It will give you a great understanding of what is effecting rates.  Stuff you NEED to know before “locking your interest rate” when going to buy.  This alone could save you thousands of dollars over the life of the loan.  Signing up for it is as easy as clicking on the link on the upper right corner of her newsletter.

These tame inflation numbers give the Fed a green light to cut the Fed Funds Rate by another .75% at Tuesday’s meeting…but read on to understand exactly how this cut may impact YOU.

The Fed is expected to cut the Fed Funds Rate by another .75%. However, as we’ve seen following every Fed rate cut in the recent cycle, chances are very good that Bond pricing will worsen following the cut…which results in higher home loan rates. This happens because Fed rate cuts help to stimulate the economy, by making it less expensive to finance personal and business purchases…and this in turn fuels inflation, the arch-enemy of fixed return assets like Bonds, which home loan rates are based on.

This from:  
Keri Shepherd
Indymac Bank
Home Lending
4211 Waialae Avenue,Suite 107
Honolulu, HI 96816
Office: 808-739-7807
Cell: 808-223-4118
Fax: 866-437-2721
Keri.Shepherd@imb.com

As part of the Economic Stimulus package recently passed by Congress, limits on conforming home loans have been temporarily raised from $417,000 to a maximum $729,750 in certain high-cost areas across the country ($793,750 in some locations in Hawaii). Other real estate markets have also seen an increase from the old maximum of $417,000. Instead of paying the higher interest rates associated with jumbo loans, larger loans will now carry the lower interest rate of a conforming loan. Federal Housing Administration (FHA)loans also benefit from this increase.

Ask me if refinancing into a new conforming or FHA loan can save you money each month!

Let’s Discuss Your Unique Situation

Because of the state of the market, credit scores and other qualification requirements have recently changed. I am happy to discuss your creditworthiness, documentation requirements and other criteria to see if the changes to the conforming loan limits in your area will benefit you.

Don’t miss out on this short-term opportunity! Higher limits are only in effect for 2008.

Many of you have asked to see the before an after photos of my unit on the market. 

The livingroom before, or should I say after the hurricane came through.

The kitchen before.

Bathroom Before. Beautiful Pink tile! Oh…and what is up with that shower curtain?

The bedroom

THE NEW AND IMPROVED

The new and improved Kitchen.

Kitchen

Livingroom/Kitchen Combo.

Bedroom

Bathroom. No More Pink Tile!

The Hawaii economy is slowing and could be relatively flat for this year and next, with little growth.  One of the biggest factors is inflation, as personal income rises (5%) but at the same rate as inflation here in the isles.

Hawai’i’s economy has been slowingsince booming earlier this decade, and many economists had forecast this to continue this year. But the UHERO report downgrades its previous forecasts, showing a decline in visitor arrivals for a second consecutive year and a slight decline in employment. It also forecasts personal income will have little growth when adjusted for inflation.

Read also, Hawaii jobless numbers up in January.  That would be up, to a whopping 2.8% (8th lowest in the country).

 In the article: Boom In Tourists From South Korea, China Expected:

The combination of a booming economy and easing of travel restrictions from China and South Korea have tourism marketing officials predicting the number of travelers arriving in Hawai’i from those two Asian nations will double within two years.

The upbeat assessment was delivered yesterday at the Hawai’i Tourism Authority’s spring marketing update at the Hawai’i Convention Center. “Korea is exploding,” said Michael Merner, managing director of Hawai’i tourism marketing for South Korea, China and Taiwan.

Travel from that country has been hampered because visitors needed a visa, but South Korea is expected to be admitted to the U.S. State Department’s visa waiver program in early 2009. Merner said Canada’s tourist numbers skyrocketed when it included South Korea in its visa-waiver program in 1994, with an 81 percent increase in arrivals the first year.

He said South Korea is an especially promising market because of the large number of people there who like to travel. Last year, he said, 13 million South Korea residents traveled overseas out of the entire population of 48 million. That’s 28 percent of the total population. Merner said travel has been helped by a strong economy there and a reduction in the workweek from six to five days.

This is along the lines of what has been predicted by several local economist and what I have covered in earlier posts in the Asia Categoryof my blog, so plan your investments accordingly.  With a booming economy, rising wealth in those countries, relative close proximity to Hawaii compared to the mainland, and Hawaii (U.S.) being a stable investment location, I can’t see how we wouldn’t see a large impact on the housing market.  Any thoughts?

What is the update on Hawaii’s foreclosures? Not much really. Oahu’s foreclosures are still among the lowest in the country.  (Check out the chart at the bottom of the page at the above link) Hawaii Foreclosure Rate Among The Lowest In U.S.  Also read, Hawaii Foreclosure Rate Up Again, But Slowing

Honolulu ranks near the bottom of the list of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, but when it comes to foreclosure rates being at the bottom is a good thing.

Honolulu ranked No. 97 with a rate of one foreclosure for every 0.15 households and only 621 foreclosure filings in 2007, according to the latest year-end report by California-based real estate research firm RealtyTrac.

Detroit had the highest foreclosure rate for metropolitan areas in 2007, with 4.9 percent of its households in some stage of foreclosure during the year and 72,616 filings.

Stockton, Calif., at No. 2, had a 4.8 percent foreclosure rate and 22,184 filings for the year. Las Vegas came in at No. 3 with a foreclosure rate of 4.2 and 59,983 filings.

Greenville, S.C., had a foreclosure rate of negative 73 percent, and 306 filings for the year.

Hawaii’s real estate market could get a boost from the national economic stimulus package signed by President Bush recently.  What is in store that effects the housing market?

The stimulus package’s main tool is tax rebates for consumers, but the law also temporarily will raise the maximum value of “conforming” mortgage loans that have lower interest rates than “jumbo” loans.

A higher conforming loan limit is expected to reduce mortgage payments on homes bought for well above the median price in Hawai’i — mostly homes priced from about $782,000 to $912,000.

The change also is expected to entice many existing homeowners to refinance jumbo mortgages over $625,500 and higher-interest second mortgages with lower-priced conforming loans, potentially reducing monthly payments and leaving them with more disposable income.

Also read, Homeowners May Be Big Winners In Stimulus Plan from CNBC.

My only question is this change in the conforming loan amount is until the end of the year.  Then it reverts back to the $624,500 for Hawaii.  What effect will that have?  How do you change it only temporarily?

There was a great article regarding the Oahu housing market that was published in the Honolulu Advertiser recently.  Amongst all the bad real estate and economic news on a national level, Hawaii has been one of the bright spots.  Our economy is healthy, unemployment is low and housing has done well.  Add to that the comments made by the San Francisco Fed Reserve Bank CEO and Hawaii looks to be well positioned.

O’ahu single-family home values may have been a bit stronger than local home resale data indicated in the fourth quarter of last year, according to a federal report.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversightsaid single-family home prices in the October-December period rose 4.5 percent on O’ahu and 2 percent statewide compared with the same quarter in 2006.

The report released yesterday is based on sale or refinancing values of homes during the quarter compared with sale or refinancing values for the same properties a year earlier.