Mar
11
Potential home buyers who delay have a lot to lose.
First-time home buyer and move-up tax credits worth $8,000 and $6,500, respectively, expire April 30. Buyers who qualify get a dollar-for-dollar reduction in taxes or a cash payment if they don’t pay enough taxes to cover the credit.
Other factors that should spur buyers:
Low mortgage rates. If the Federal Reserve stops buying mortgage-backed securities at the end of March, 30-year rates will almost certainly rise to more than 6 percent.
Rising prices. About 30 percent of markets are already experiencing price increases. Prices are falling in 12 percent of markets, says Fiserv (but that only helps if you want to live there).
Source: Money Magazine, Beth Braverman (03/02/2010)
Mar
10
I subscribe to this great website that helps remind me of great tips to get and stay organized. Here’s a sample of some of their tips:
Personal goals can help you accomplish an assortment of objectives and serve a variety of purposes. Goals may be short term and relatively easy to accomplish like cleaning the house or making a casserole for dinner before picking the kids up from school. Alternatively, your goals may be more long term or complex and involve multiple steps and processes such as shedding weight before a vacation or saving enough to retire by the age of 65. Whatever they may be, the goals you set for yourself will guide your daily actions and steer your life in a direction you deem satisfying.Setting goals, especially long term goals, can be an intimidating process. After all, these objectives will determine what path you will take and directly affect your level of satisfaction with career, family, and life. An organized approach to goal setting will ensure your goals are appropriate, purposeful, and when achieved, will result in a satisfactory outcome. By taking an organized approach to setting goals, you can target your objective and achieve success with minimal stress and maximum fulfillment.
1) Know your purpose. Motivation is a key factor in successfully achieving goals. If you are not able to recognize the reason why you have set a goal, you may find it challenging work towards completion of that goal. If your goals include getting a promotion at work, remind yourself that the effort and hard work you exert to achieve that promotion may ultimately lead to an increase in pay, better hours, a nicer office, or other benefits.
2) Set a reasonable time frame. Rome wasn’t built in a day and many goals cannot be accomplished in one either. Give yourself a specific start and end date for your goals and include benchmark dates along the way whenever appropriate. For most people, spring cleaning your home will take longer than one afternoon to accomplish. Ask yourself what a reasonable length of time would be to achieve your goal given your schedule. Break larger goals down into smaller, more manageable sections. Consider addressing bedrooms one day, bathrooms another, and common living areas on a third day.
3) Choose goals that are reachable. Setting goals that are impossible to attainable will only discourage you, resulting in a lack of motivation to achieve that goal and others as well. If your goal is to slim down, don’t expect to lose a bunch of pounds in the first week. Instead, consult your physician to determine what a healthy goal weight would be and together you can establish a reasonable weekly target.
4) Be Specific. Do not set goals that are vague or unfocused. When setting goals, always ask who, what, where, why, and when. Do your goals include planting a garden this year? Before you begin, ask yourself, who will participate. Is this a family garden or just for mom? What will you plant–flowers or vegetables? Where will you plant it? Why do you want to plant a garden? Is it for stress relief, to save money, or possibly a hands-on science lesson for the kids? When is the appropriate time to prepare the garden and plant it? Answering these questions before your project begins will ensure it is a smooth process and promotes successful completion.
5) Base goals on your own actions. All goals you set should be based solely on your own actions and things that are within your control. We would all like our children to achieve perfect grades on their report cards, but a child’s grades are not within your control and therefore should not be a personal goal for you. Instead, setting aside 30 minutes every evening to help your child with their homework is something you are able to control and can ultimately help your son or daughter achieve good grades.
6) Write goals down and review them often. Goals should guide your life on a daily basis and frequent reminders will help you remember what you are working towards. Once you have set your goals, write them down in a place you will see them regularly. A brightly colored post-it note on your agenda or calendar can catch your eye each time you glance at it and remind you of short term goals. Alternatively, if your long term goal is to retire by the age of 65, designate an annual date to review your progress with a spouse, personal financial planner, or accountant and make any necessary adjustments to ensure that you are able to achieve your goal.
7) Hold yourself accountable. Become your own critic and be critical of the progress you make in achieving your goals. Only you know what your best effort looks like and what you are capable of. If your goals are reasonable and there have been no unforeseen circumstances, you are the one responsible if goals are not met. If finishing the laundry today was your goal and you spent an hour chatting on the phone with a friend instead, you may need to skip your bedtime reading to complete the laundry.
Reward yourself! When you have completed your goals, give yourself a small reward for all of your hard work. Knowing there will be a worthwhile incentive in exchange for your efforts will motivate you to finish and inspire you to set more goals for yourself in the future. If you worked hard and saved up enough money for a family vacation, buy yourself a book to read on the airplane or schedule a spa service at your destination hotel.
Setting goals, whether they be short or long term, no longer needs to be a stressful or intimidating task. An organized approached to goal setting will greatly increase your chances of success and help you develop a positive attitude towards setting goals. When you take an organized approach, you minimize barriers such as disorganization, inefficiency, lack of motivation, and confusion thus clearing the way for you to accomplish whatever goal you set your mind to!
Source: www.getorganizednow.com
Mar
9
By Marilyn Kennedy Melia of Bankrate.com
Many home sellers are losing money — precisely because they’re determined not to lose money. So why won’t your home sell?
One reason homes are languishing on the market is that owners are suffering from “sunk cost fallacy,” says Ohio State University economist John Kagel.
This fallacy describes the reluctance people have to sell for less than they paid or put into a home, even when hanging on and waiting for the right price will ultimately prove costly.
It can be hard to shake this faulty logic, even when homeowners’ income has dropped precipitously or they’re living off a limited amount of money, like a severance package, says financial planner William Suplee of Structured Asset Management in Paoli, Pa.
Here are three questions to determine whether you could benefit by losing money on a home sale:
1. Will you slash your housing costs with a move?
Owners under financial pressure who could find relief on their monthly cash flow by moving to a lower-cost home that they either buy or rent are the ones grappling with the sunk cost fallacy.
Suplee tries to help owners get a clear view of their best option by preparing spreadsheets that lay out the costs of different living arrangements.
Don’t forget all the ancillary expenses, like commuting costs, that go along with a particular housing choice, adds D. Scott Neal, a financial planner in Lexington, Ky.
Laying out the annual costs of staying in a home that cost his client $800,000 several years ago was the only way to convince her that she would soon deplete her savings if she stayed put, says Rick Kahler, a financial planner in Rapid City, S.D.
Even though she’d probably sell for about $300,000 less than she paid, the monthly outlay was unsustainable, Kahler says. The pain of loss is softened somewhat, he adds, because she can buy a home that is also valued at less than it was several years ago. And the recently passed tax credit of up to $6,500 for repeat buyers under certain income levels also applies to many people in this position.
2. Do you know what a realistic price is?
Recognizing that conditions dictate selling at a loss doesn’t mean that you’re ready to accept any offer, however.
Indeed, experts stress that the only way to proceed confidently with selling at a loss is to thoroughly research the housing market in your area.
Ask your agent to provide lots of recent prices on sales of comparable homes. In some states, agents can also provide very recent sales data by getting the prices of homes under contract, says John Huggins, president of Coldwell Banker Legacy Real Estate Group in Bowling Green, Ky. Home sellers can also ask to tour other homes for sale to get an idea of how their home compares with properties being offered at various price levels, he says.
Homeowners who owe more in mortgage than they can likely net in a sale must investigate whether they’ll have to add in their own cash to pay off the loan, or whether the mortgage lender will agree to accept a lower amount. In cases where owners have to pay out-of-pocket to sell, that outlay could alter the advantage of moving, Neal says.
The National Association of Realtors forecasts that home prices nationwide will end 2010 with an increase of just under 4% from the end of 2009.
Moody’s Economy.com predicts that prices will stabilize in mid-2010, but that there will be no appreciation. Economy.com’s housing economist Celia Chen says that she expects some middle and higher-end housing to be at risk for further decline this year, and that some homeowners will not see prices return to what they paid for at least several years.
Real-estate trends are local, Huggins adds. He advises looking at prices of similar homes in your area and gauging demand against inventory.
When he prepares spreadsheets for homeowners to examine the costs of holding versus moving, Suplee asks, “What rate of appreciation does the house need for a holding strategy to make sense?” Then, he asks for an honest determination of how plausible it would be to see that appreciation.
Source: www.msn.com
Mar
8
A short sale is a transaction in which the lender, or lenders, agree to accept less than the mortgage amount owed by the current homeowner. In some cases, the difference is forgiven by the lender, and in others the homeowner must make arrangements with the lender to settle the remainder of the debt.
Why are the number of short sales rising? Due to the recent economic crisis, including rising unemployment, and drops in home prices in communities across the nation, the number of short sales is increasing. Since a short sale generally costs the lender less than a foreclosure, it can be a viable way for a lender to minimize its losses.
A short sale can also be the best option for a homeowners who are “upside down” on mortgages because a short sale may not hurt their credit history as much as a foreclosure. As a result, homeowners may qualify for another mortgage sooner once they get back on their feet financially.
The rapid increase in the number of short sales, and the short sales process itself present a number of challenges for REALTORS®. Major challenges include:
- Limited experience
Many REALTORS® are new to the short sales process; a difficulty which is compounded by many lenders’ lack of sufficient and experienced staff to process short sales. Even if the REALTORS® are experienced, most servicers are under-staffed and still not adequately trained, making negotiating a short sale particularly difficult.
- Absence of a uniform process and application
Currently, both short-sales documents and processes are lender-specific, making it very difficult and time-consuming for REALTORS® to become knowledgeable and efficient in facilitating these transactions.
- Multiple lenders
When more than one lender is involved, the negotiations are much more difficult. Second lien holders often hold up the transaction to exert the largest possible payment, in exchange for releasing their lien, even though in foreclosure they will get nothing.
As a result of these challenges our members have reported difficulties with: unresponsive lenders; lost documents that require multiple submissions, inaccurate or unrealistic home value assessments, and long processing delays, which cause buyers to walk away.
In an effort to eliminate the challenges faced in dealing with short sales on May 14, 2009 the Obama Administration announced its upcoming Foreclosure Alternatives Program. Among other things, the new program:
- Establishes financial incentives for servicers, sellers, and second lien holders to encourage the completion of short-sale transactions.
- Requires that a timeline, of no fewer than 90 days, be set to allow a homeowner to sell a home, without threat of foreclosure action.
- Requires the short sale agreement to specify reasonable and customary real estate commissions and costs to be deducted from the sales prices. (The servicer must agree not to negotiate a lower commission after receiving an offer.)
- Will provide standardized documents, including short-sale agreements and offer acceptance letters.
Source: www.NAR.com
Mar
5
I saw this article in Realtor Magazine and thought it presented something sellers don’t usually focus on. Sellers seem to focus on the interior-paint, removal of clutter, staging of furniture instead of making improvements to their home’s exterior. The exterior of a home is the FIRST thing a seller sees and is VERY important.
Washington, December 17, 2009
Despite a slow market and a slight decrease in the resale value of most remodeling projects, Realtors® report that the smartest home improvement investments may also be some of the least expensive. Results from the 2009 Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report show that small-scale exterior projects are the most profitable at resale, according to estimates by Realtors® who completed a recent survey.
On a national level, eight out of the top 10 projects in terms of costs recouped were exterior replacement projects that cost less than $14,000. Certain types of door and siding replacements, as well as wood deck additions all returned more than 80 percent of project costs upon resale. A steel entry door replacement – a new addition to this year’s list – recouped 128.9 percent of costs, followed by upscale fiber-cement sliding replacements at 83.6 percent. Wood deck additions recouped 80.6 percent of costs.
“Once again, this year’s Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report highlights the importance of a home’s first impression,” said NAR President Vicki Cox Golder, owner of Vicki L. Cox & Associates in Tucson, Ariz. “With exterior projects returning a high percent of project costs upon resale, Realtors® can help give your home curb appeal while adding value to the real estate transaction.
The 2009 Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report compares construction costs with resale values for 33 midrange and upscale remodeling projects comprising additions, remodels and replacements in 80 markets across the country. Data are grouped in nine U.S. regions, following the divisions established by the U.S. Census Bureau. This is the 12th consecutive year that the report, which is produced by Hanley Wood, LLC, was completed in cooperation with REALTOR® Magazine, as Realtors® provided their insight into local markets and buyer home preferences within those markets.
On a national level, the project with the biggest improvement from 2008 was the attic bedroom addition, recouping 83.1 percent of remodeling costs compared to 73.8 percent in 2008. The only other interior project that landed in the top 10 was a minor kitchen remodel with 78.3 percent costs recouped.
Other exterior projects in the top 10 include midrange vinyl and upscale foam-backed vinyl sliding replacements, which returned more than 79 percent of costs. In addition, several types of window replacements – midrange wood, midrange vinyl, and upscale vinyl – all returned more than 76 percent of costs upon sale.
Similar to last year’s report, the least profitable remodeling projects in terms of resale value were home office remodels and sunroom additions, returning only 48.1 percent and 50.7 percent of project costs.
Regionally, cities in the Pacific states of Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington once again outperformed the rest of the nation in terms of remodeling costs recouped upon resale. The West South Central region of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas; the East South Central region of Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee; and the South Atlantic region of the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia also performed relatively well.
The regions that generally returned the lowest percentage of costs were New England (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont), East North Central (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin), West North Central (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota), and the Middle Atlantic (New York and Pennsylvania).
Golder commented that remodeling projects are just one of many factors that contribute to a home’s overall resale value. “As the first, best source for real estate information, Realtors® are experts in providing insight into what projects and investments will make a difference in your house. It’s important to consult with a Realtor® who can explain the variety of factors that affect a home’s value, such as location, condition of surrounding properties and the regional economic climate,” she said.
Results of the report are summarized in the January issue of REALTOR® Magazine. To read the full project descriptions, access national and regional project data, and download a free PDF containing data for any of the 80 cities covered by the report, visit www.costvsvalue.com. “Cost vs. Value” is a registered trademark of Hanley Wood, LLC.
Hanley Wood, LLC, is the premier media company serving housing and construction. Through four operating divisions, the company produces award-winning magazines and Web sites, marquee trade shows and events, rich data, and custom marketing solutions. The company also is North America’s leading provider of home plans. Founded in 1976, Hanley Wood is a $240 million company owned by JPMorgan Partners, LLC, a private equity affiliate of JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.
Mar
4
The choice between a home equity loan or a line of credit is seldom black or white. But here are a couple of generalizations:
A home equity loan might be the best fit if you plan to use the money in a lump sum for a one-time occasion such as consolidating your credit card debt, replacing the roof, or paying for your daughter’s wedding. The interest rate is fixed, and so are the monthly payments, and you can budget accordingly.
A HELOC — home equity line of credit — might be a better fit if you will need money periodically and not all at once. This is the case in lengthy home remodeling projects when you pay the contractor in two or more draws. Or perhaps you will need to shed an arm and a leg at the beginning of each semester over the next four years when the kids head off to college. A HELOC gives you the flexibility to borrow what you need, when you need it.
Q. Do I need the money in a lump sum, or in several installments?
A. If you need it in a lump sum, lean toward getting a home equity loan. If you need the money in installments, lean toward getting an equity line of credit.
Q. Is it for a long-term purpose, or a short-term purpose?
A. If the money is to be spent on something that will last a long time, like a roof or a car, an equity loan might be better. If the money is to be spent on something that won’t last long, like a semester in college or a wedding and reception, think about getting an equity line of credit.
Q. How big a monthly payment can I handle?
A. A home equity loan requires you to pay principal and interest every month for the life of the loan. A home equity line of credit allows you to pay just the interest for several years, if that’s what you want to do. It’s a whole other question whether it’s a good idea to pay only the interest, and not the principal, for a long time.
Q. Would a line of credit tempt me to use the money carelessly?
A. Naturally, if you answer this in the affirmative, you should consider getting a home equity loan, because you pay off the principal and interest over time, and it’s not a revolving credit account.
Q. Does a variable rate bother me?
A. A home equity line of credit has an adjustable rate that most likely changes every time the Federal Reserve raises or lowers the federal funds rate. If you don’t like the idea of having a rate that could rise every time the Fed meets, consider getting a home equity loan, which has a fixed rate.
Source: www.realtor.com
Mar
3
Murder. Suicide. Homes with dark histories can be difficult to sell and often suffer severe drops in value. Here’s how to learn whether a home has a sketchy past and how to mitigate the stigma if you own one.
By Marilyn Lewis of MSN Real Estate
I have always had a fascination with haunted houses and ghosts, but I’m not sure how I would feel if I bought one with a “sordid past.” Is there such a thing as a “friendly ghost?” Would it bother you? When I found this article I just had to share….
Chris Butler had a list of “musts” when he went house shopping in 2005 in Summit County, Ohio, near his hometown of Cleveland.
“I had a pretty strict list,” he says. “I play rock ’n’ roll and I was tired of having the neighbors yell at me.” The house needed to have:
● Plenty of space to accommodate his band mates.
● Distance from neighbors, so he could make music without getting angry phone calls.
● Ground-level living quarters, in case his aging mom needed to move in.
It was a tall order in this part of Ohio, outside Akron, where the style is Ralph Lauren and the real-estate market is replete with two-story colonials, Butler recalls.
What’s your home worth?
Imagine his happiness, then, when his agent showed him a stunning, 2,000-square foot split-level home atop a rocky hill on a two-acre lot deep in the woods near the town of Bath. The house was a stylish, well-built 1950s specimen, with a flat roof, wrap-around deck and expansive windows overlooking Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The price — $269,000 — seemed ridiculously low.
The other shoe dropped when Butler’s real-estate agent called. The seller’s agent had made an important disclosure: The house had been the childhood home of serial murderer Jeffrey Dahmer and it was there — in 1978, while Dahmer was in his late teens — that he had committed his first murder.
Butler, a native of the region, knew that Dahmer had lived somewhere nearby. But the news that a homicide had happened in this house that he’d fallen in love with was a startling disappointment.
“My initial shock was, ‘I can’t do this,’” he says.
Then he looked at it differently: In a way — an offbeat way — the home’s bizarre and outcast persona resonated with his own. “After I got over it, it was like, ‘I can’t not do this.’ It fits my alternative lifestyle, my musician-artist nature,” he told himself.
He also understood a rule of thumb in the real-estate market: Homes that have a stigma are harder to sell. They spend more time on the market and, when they do sell, it’s usually at a discount. Some are never purchased and the owner must destroy them to recoup any of the value from the property.
The sellers of Dahmer’s childhood home were at a disadvantage, Butler sensed, so he offered even less than the low asking price and purchased the house for $245,000.
Murder just one of many real-estate stigmas
A murder scene is just one type of stigmatized real estate. “Literally hundreds of things” can affect a home’s marketability, says Randall Bell, a Los Angeles economist, real-estate appraiser and expert in “real-estate damage economics.” A few other things that hurt a home are airport noise, landslides, soil problems, environmental problems, lead-based paint or hurricane damage.
Real or perceived, a stigma creates a risk, or “market resistance,” in the minds of potential buyers, preventing them from paying full value. Bell has consulted on many famous real-estate cases, among them the scene of the Manson family murders, Bikini Atoll (a nuclear weapons test site), the Hollywood sinkhole and the World Trade Center in New York.
There’s no formula for finding or avoiding stigmatized properties, so buyers should educate themselves and use their wits. “There is no central MLS for distressed properties per se,” Bell says. “It takes good ol’ detective work.”
The most important thing you can do is learn the law in your state. Only about half the states have laws specifying what must be disclosed in a real-estate transaction.
California and New York have the most demanding disclosure laws. California requires sellers to reveal “anything material” that could affect value. Bell tells clients to disclose everything. “If it came to your radar screen to ask the question, the answer is, ‘Yes, disclose it.’ If you think it’s inconsequential, disclose it anyway. For example, in California, case law has established that you have to disclose if you have obnoxious neighbors. It’s very strict.”
In other states, however, the rule is caveat emptor (buyer beware). So, if you’re buying, ask the seller if there’s anything at all you should know about a home that could affect its value. Even if a buyer hasn’t heard about a property’s history, the seller may have an obligation to disclose it. In the case of the Dahmer home, Butler says the seller’s agent wasn’t legally required to reveal the history but did so from a sense of ethical obligation.
Learn your state’s disclosure laws:
To avoid troubled properties, you can also:
- Increase the odds in your favor by using an agent who’s been in the community long enough to know the area’s history.
- Visit the police department or sheriff and ask records clerks or community service officers to check an address against police records to learn if it was a crime scene.
- Search local newspaper archives for both the street address and the street name to see if the property shows up in news stories.
- Knock on doors in the neighborhood to ask if there is anything about the property that you should know.
- If the home has been on the market a very long time, or if the price has dropped numerous times, don’t assume the recession is to blame. Ask questions until you think you understand what’s going on.
Owners stuck with loss
The sad truth is that if a property you own is the scene of a murder or infamous death, no one is likely to compensate you for the loss in value.
“Believe it or not,” Bell says, “insurance doesn’t cover this kind of thing. Insurance covers physical damage, but not these kinds of stigma damages.”
Bell’s job, in part, is to help owners of these properties establish the market value and figure out ways to mitigate the impact.
Bell helped the owner of the 9,000-square-foot Heaven’s Gate mansion evaluate his property after 39 cult members committed suicide there in 1997.
The owner had purchased the Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., property in 1994 for $1.37 million. By 1997, he listed it for sale at $1.59 million, and meanwhile was renting it to the Heaven’s Gate group. The home on 3.11 acres had every amenity — including an elevator, tennis court, spa, sauna and swimming pool – as well as privacy and a beautiful view.
After the deaths, the owner kept trying to sell, dropping his price to $1 million, Bell says. But no legitimate offers were made and expenses mounted: The decaying bodies caused $100,000 in damage. Finally, the owner let the home go to foreclosure.
“He lost a lot of money, unfortunately. His equity was gone,” Bell says. A neighbor bought the house and demolished it.
So this kind of stigma typically has two effects: It lowers market value and lengthens the time to sell.
A case in point is the Beverly Hills mansion of the Menendez family, where brothers Erik and Lyle murdered their parents in 1989. The father, Jose Menendez, bought the home — 9,063 square feet with 23 rooms, a tennis court, pool and guest house — the year before he died, for $4 million.
The Menendez mansion became a staple on tours of famous and infamous Los Angeles homes. It spent a year and a half on the market and sold for $3 million — about 35% less than equivalent homes that were selling in six months, Bell says.
Overcoming a stigma
Bell says making changes can help, depending on the cause of the stigma. For example, environmental problems can be fixed or a landslide danger remediated. At murder scenes, remodeling is an option. In the worst cases, such as with the Heaven’s Gate property, demolition is the answer.
Otherwise, the best hope for a stigmatized property is simply time. A fresh murder damages value the most. In such instances, Bell advises clients to rent the property — an easier proposition — and wait for time to pass and memories to fade. The more distant the heinous event in people’s minds, the better the chance that the value will recover.
Back in Ohio, Chris Butler continues to enjoy his “unbelievably cool pad,” along with any ghosts and stigma still clinging to it. Some neighbors still won’t set foot inside. But Butler says he believes the home’s notoriety may be fading.
Source: www.msnrealestate.com
Mar
1
I saw this article on Realtor.com and thought it was quite interesting. It’s a good thing that foreclosures are shrinking-hopefully this means that the housing market is improving and will only get better and better with time.
Foreclosure Bargains Getting Harder to Find
Home buyers hoping to snag a really good deal on a foreclosed home are finding it increasingly difficult because supply is shrinking.
The number of foreclosures that are available for sale nationwide fell to 617,000 in December, down from 845,000 in November 2008, reports Barclays Capital.
Not only have attractive homes in popular neighborhoods already been snapped up, but also government help for distressed buyers is delaying more foreclosures.
Demand is driving up prices. Investors say typical prices have climbed from 75 percent of appraised value to 85 percent or higher when there are bidding wars.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, James R. Hagerty (02/23/2010)
Feb
27
The Lowcountry Chapter of the South Carolina Native Plant Society is sponsoring the Society’s 2010 Symposium, Nuture Nature from May 7-9 in Charleston. It will be held on the grounds of the historic Magnolia Plantation & Gardens. The 2-day event will feature speakers, field trips and workshops promoting practices for sustaining biodiversity in our own backyards.
Nurture Nature will bring together a diverse group of people from across South Carolina. Present at the event will be master gardeners, horticulturists, landscape architects, nursery and landscape professionals, professors and students. This year’s keynote speaker- Dr. Douglas Tallamy is a professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware.
The symposium will feature workshops by local experts, including “Gardening as if All Life Mattered’ by Judith Kramer, “Plant Diseases” by plant pathologist Kari Whitley, “Creating a Personal Herbarium” with botanist Joel Gramling, and a butterfly walk by naturalist and ecologist Billy McCord.
To register and attend this event, go to The South Carolina Native Plant Society Web Site at www.scnps.org.
Feb
26
Provided by
McLean, VA – Freddie Mac today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.05 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending February 25, 2010, up from last week when it averaged 4.93 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.07 percent.
The 15-year FRM this week averaged 4.40 percent with an average 0.7 point, up from last week when it averaged 4.33 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.68 percent.
The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 4.16 percent this week, with an average 0.6 point, up from last week when it averaged 4.12 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 5.06 percent.
The 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 4.15 percent this week with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.23 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 4.81 percent.
“Interest rates for 30-year fixed mortgages followed long-term bond yields higher and rose above 5 percent this week amid a mixed set of economic data reports” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “For instance, the January producer price index jumped well above the market consensus, but the consumer price index remained subdued and consumer confidence declined to the lowest level since April 2009, according to the Conference Board.”
“There were also varying reports as to the current state of the housing market. The S&P/Case-Shiller® national home price index rose for the third consecutive quarter in the fourth quarter, albeit at a slower rate, and the 20-city composite index showed an increase in December 2009 for the seventh month in a row; six metropolitan areas experienced positive year-over-year growth, compared to four in November. New home sales, however, unexpectedly slowed in January to the smallest pace since records began in 1963, and the supply of homes at the current sales rate rose to 9.1 months, the most since May 2009.” Today’s Local Market Conditions Report
