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Rural housing funding soon to be restored.

The hard-fought battle to restore the Section 502 single-family rural housing program has been signed into law. On July 29, President Obama signed H.R. 4899, “Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2010,” which included restored funding for the program. Says NAR: “This is going to be a great lift for thousands of rural homebuyers who need to close on their home purchases before Sept. 30 to take advantage of the homebuyer tax credit. Many rural families would have been left out in the cold without these guaranteed loans. Increasing the commitment authority will help rural families, support local housing markets, create jobs and generate new tax revenues.” Learn more about the Illinois Rural Development program from the Partnership for HomeOwnership. Here are a few program details:

• first-time buyers in rural areas of Illinois with income levels at 80 percent or lower than area median income
• a guarantee fee paid at closing can be rolled into the loan with no PMI
• up to $5,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance

*More as it becomes available!

HUD Reform

HUD has released a proposal for updates. A couple of the key issues are

• Limiting seller concessions from 6% to 3%
• Considering raising medium credit score from 580
• Eliminating loans to borrowers with credit scores under 500 (if there’s any even doing those, which I doubt)

Want to add your input? Head over to HUD and read up and spout off!

Grundy County Taxes

Hey Grundy County,

Get those taxes in the mail. Must be postmarked today if you haven’t done so yet!

Tax Credit Extension (for those under contract)

The Senate has approved a plan to give those already in contract to purchase a home an extra three months to be able to use federal homebuyer tax credits. The language, pushed through the chamber by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gives homebuyers until Sept. 30 to complete their purchases and qualify for tax credits of up to $8,000. Under the current terms, buyers had until April 30 to get a signed sales contract and until June 30 to complete the sale. The proposal was approved by a 60-37 vote but only applies to consumers who already have signed contracts to finish at the later date. About 180,000 homebuyers who already signed purchase agreements would otherwise miss the deadline.

Would this apply to any of my readers?

Grundy/ Will Home sale splits

Let us take a peek at property in Grundy and Will County. More specifically, single family homes that have closed between  February and April this year and a couple year’s back.  

Great Available Ranch in Coal City

Have a need for a reasonably priced 3 bedroom house in Coal City? The house below may well fit your needs. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Virtual Tour # 55479 – 1080 S. Mazon Street, Coal City, IL, 60416. Powered by FloorPlanOnline.

Will County Homes Under Contract

Check out theWill County contracts; homes to go under contract in the past 6 months. Like the Grundy County numbers from yesterday, it appears that things are picking up nicely! Your thoughts?

Grundy County Homes Under Contract

Check out the Grundy County Contracts for the last 6 months. I think that there’s a great trend brewing that the amount of homes put under contract is increasing. What do you think about that?

Coal City Market Survey

Area Market Survey Criteria Status: Active, Back on Market, Contingent, New, Price Change, Re-activated, Temp Off Market, Pending, Closed   Property Type: Detached Single  Area: Coal City / Diamond   Months Back: All Months

Under Contract

List Price Range # Listings Avg. Days on Mkt Less than $149,999 7 126 $150,000 – $199,999 6 251 $200,000 – $249,999 3 145 $350,000 – $399,999 1 320

Under Contract Summary

# Units Avg. MT Median List Price Avg. List Price Max. List Price Min. List Price Total Volume 17 185 $172,000 $175,885 $389,000 $89,900 $2,990,050

Active Listings

List Price Range # Listings Avg. Days on Mkt Less than $149,999 20 126 $150,000 – $199,999 8 298 $200,000 – $249,999 12 344 $250,000 – $299,999 9 400 $300,000 – $349,999 3 141 $350,000 – $399,999 2 153 $400,000 – $449,999 1 517 $450,000 – $499,999 1 42 $500,000 – $549,999 1 301 $550,000 – $599,999 1 303 $700,000 – $799,999 2 291

Active Listings Summary

# Units Avg. MT Median List Price Avg. List Price Max. List Price Min. List Price Total Volume 60 252 $218,250 $239,410 $799,900 $75,900 $14,364,604

ANSWER the Phone

I have not been giving a lot of tips on how to sell your house as of late.  Here’s one that’s foolproof  in any market and it’s more for agents than home sellers: ANSWER YOUR PHONE!!

I just tried to set 6 showings in Ottawa and called one office and 6 agents to do so. One lady in an office was horribly unhelpful and asked me to call the agents directly and ZERO of the 6 agents picked up his/her phone. One was actually disconnected, so that’s an excuse at least I know the weather’s beautiful and it’s Friday, but an awesome weather Friday is a prime time for people to be excited about setting showings for properties (even with impending cruddy weather).

0 for 6 is okay if you’re playing baseball. Get 4 out of the next 6 and you’re back to hitting .333.  for setting appointments on listings people have hired you to sell, it’s pretty bad.

I begrudge NOT ONE of these agents if he/she is out working hard “doing what they do.” However, all of them have made a classic mistake, at minimum, of wanting to set his/her own showings and not being free to do so.  We dislike when our sellers turn away showings for their various reasons…..they too would dislike if they don’t know about them because of us!

USDA Loan Money Running Dry?

I received an email from Jeannie Hart-Kensinger with First Federal Savings Bank in Morris. She did a great job tipping me off that USDA loan money was running out. Quickly. It seems like by the end of April, this won’t be much of an option for purchasing homes in our area. Mortgage News Daily says some lenders are already dropping the program. Buyers who were on the fence about purchasing/ interested in using this loan program might be advised to act as soon as possible in order to use it before the well runs dry. Below is a note from  Kevin Vetos, area specialist with USDA Rural Development:

A few years ago, the Guaranteed Rural Housing (GRH) program was funded through congress using about three or four billion dollars a year.  In the last couple of years, the housing/financing crunch had put restrictions on other programs.  This made the GRH program very desirable and the business has picked up so much that we’ve used over $9 billion in just over 4 months.  Congress allocates only so much money to these programs for the fiscal year and it looks like it was not enough to handle the increased demand.  I don’t know what will happen when the money runs out.

You now know as much as I do on the funding situation.  It will be up to Washington DC if they can come up with more funding.  I am sure we’ll be getting updates on this and I will share the information with you as I get it.

Thank you,

Kevin J. Vetos

Area Specialist
USDA Rural Development

Minooka at a glance

I have serious buyers looking for their first home in Minooka right now. I suspect there’s a chance that if you read this blog, you too may be interested in what’s happening in that market. As of 10:45 on 3/15/10, here is what has happened in the last year and currently available in the Minooka single family home department:

                                        

 

Active Listings

Detached Single

Bedrooms # Active Avg. LP Avg. MT All 65 $245,577 258 2 or Less 8 $152,563 146 3 40 $240,128 266 4 15 $288,333 289 5 or More 2 $405,950 308

Off-Market Listings

Detached Single

Bedrooms # Sold  Sold% Avg OLP Avg LP (Sold) Avg SP  SP:LP  SP:OLP  Avg MT (Sold) Avg LP (Unsold) % Expd All 81 70% $198,335 $186,691 $176,394 94% 89% 165 $200,809 25% 2 or Less 10 77% $113,600 $110,790 $109,355 99% 96% 110 $100,267 8% 3 47 72% $188,152 $172,036 $160,732 93% 85% 159 $203,642 26% 4 23 64% $247,694 $244,755 $232,780 95% 94% 175 $220,088 31% 5 or More 1 100% $389,000 $299,000 $286,000 96% 74% 759   0%

Available Braidwood Homes

Interested in homes in Braidwood, IL? Below are the homes available as of 5:30 pm on 3/12/10:

Market Statistics Criteria Status: Active, Back on Market, Contingent, New, Price Change, Re-activated, Temp Off Market, Pending, Closed, Expired   Property Type: Detached Single, Attached Single  Area: Braidwood   Months Back: All Months

Active Listings

Detached Single

Bedrooms # Active Avg. LP Avg. MT All 54 $181,323 167 2 or Less 4 $149,925 83 3 36 $174,918 155 4 10 $205,690 203 5 or More 4 $209,450 275

Attached Single

Bedrooms # Active Avg. LP Avg. MT All 11 $188,048 603 2 or Less 6 $192,015 820 3 4 $159,135 392 4 1 $279,900 145

Available Coal City/ Diamond Homes

Interested in what is available in Coal City/ Diamond/ Carbon Hill right now? Here’s what’s out there as of 3/12/10 at 5:20 pm.

Market Statistics Criteria Status: Active, Back on Market, Contingent, New, Price Change, Re-activated, Temp Off Market, Pending, Closed, Expired   Property Type: Detached Single, Attached Single   Area: Coal City / Diamond   Months Back: All Months

Active Listings

Detached Single

Bedrooms # Active Avg. LP Avg. MT All 65 $245,806 255 2 or Less 8 $154,425 148 3 40 $240,128 263 4 15 $288,333 286 5 or More 2 $405,950 305

Attached Single

Bedrooms # Active Avg. LP Avg. MT All 22 $132,843 193 2 or Less 14 $131,800 168 3 8 $134,669 237

Quick Wilmington Snapshot

Here’s a quick snapshot of detached and attached homes to close in Wilmington in the past 6 months.

Area Market Survey Criteria Status: Closed   Property Type: Detached Single, Attached Single   Area: Wilmington   Closed Date: 08/23/2009-02/23/2010

Sold Properties

Sold Price Range # Listings Avg. Days on Mkt Less than $149,999 23 234 $150,000 – $199,999 7 191 $200,000 – $249,999 2 682 $250,000 – $299,999 3 142 $350,000 – $399,999 1 139

Sold Properties Summary

# Units Avg. MT Median Sold $ Avg. Sold $     Total Volume 36 240 $140,500 $144,064     $5,186,300

Mobile Blogging

I’ve got a Wordpress App on the Blackberry now and wondered if it was working. This is a test and something that is possibly going to change my world forever.

FHA Changes

On the 20th of January, the FHA announced new changes to the way it will lend money to borrowers. Some of the key components to this are that mortgage insurance premiums have gone up to 2.25% (from 1.75%), seller concessions (gift money that sellers are allowed to give the buyer) are limited to 3%, down from 6% and borrowers with a FICO score below 580 (so 579 and under) will now need a 10% down payment instead of the 3.5%required across the board now.

To check out all the ”gory” details, read on at the FHA press release.  

Think that the rules are too strict? Think it’s going to kill the industry? David Fletcher at Realty Times has an interesting perspective on that.

Grundy County Election Results

Interested in how the local Grundy County elections shook out last night? Want to know how your neighbors voted in state wide elections? Check out http://www.grundyco.org/electionresults/election1.shtml

In a hot-topic vote here in Coal City, the Coaler Springs Park District was voted against 1585 (75.98%) to 501 (24.02%).

Grundy County Market Glance

Interested in what the Grundy County market has looked like over the past 12 months in terms of months of supply? Take a peek at THIS!

Single-Family Coal City/Diamond Inventory 12/28/09

There are currently 51 single-family homes available in Coal City and Diamond. The median list price is $219,900 which means that there are 25 homes priced lower and another 25 priced higher than that. Below you’ll see the search criteria and breakdown of those homes, available and under contract.

Property Type: Detached Single   Status: Active, Back on Market, Contingent, New, Price Change, Re-activated   Area: Coal City / Diamond 

Total Average LP Average MT           Active   44 $259,501 202 Under Contract   7 $244,828 215

Max Min Average Median LP (51)   $875,000 $93,900 $257,487 $219,900

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