Barry Noble's Blog

As the residential real estate Market appears to be spiraling into a melt down there remain thousands of home owners who's Adjustable rates (ARMs) still are languishing in the early teaser fixed rate period, but they may enter the dreaded start of adjustable rates within a few months to a year. All of those people who now realize they won't be able to resell their homes at the super profit their sales agents had suggested, when they first bought the house, and who also may not be able to make the rising adjustable rate monthly payments, even with a two or three incomes, when the loan converts - Now is the time to be talking to an honest loan broker or lender. Yes, they are out there - get a referral, and probably it will not be  the lender who put you into the questionable loan in the first place. Now is the time to negotiate a change in your loan - don't wait until payments are getting behind and more difficult to make. By then the house will have lost enough value you'll need a sharply "short" sale and you may ruin your credit for any future home or major purchase for a decade or more.

Find out quickly what your home is worth. Not from a potential listing agent who wants your listing and may value it high, only to tell you three months later it must be dropped 20%. Then it may be too late again. Get an appraisal of your property - be prepared to accept an independent, honest and accurate estimate of Current Market Value by a local Appraiser. Yes, there are honest local appraisers out there and here. This will set the ball rolling, and get a referral to a good lender to see what can be done to save the home and adjust the mortgage to workable payments.

In a dropping Market - the Current Market Value may only be within the actual value range for a short period - maybe 2 months. (It is usually to 6 months in a strong or rising Market, but a declining Market often drops fast and the lenders will not loan on equity that they believe will no longer be there in 3 months. Thus an appraisal is conservative and far more accurate for THAT Market in this portion of the Real estate Market Cycle.

Values may continue to drop through 2009 at least, barring major economic up-turns. With the pace of dwindling sales and resales or residences in most areas of the country, the attendant massive numbers of job losses in related businesses, such as contractors, builders, transportation, building supply sales and manufacture, ad infinitum, will spill over to all commercial and retail resale and services who in turn will be laying off employees. As people lose their jobs and cannot maintain purchasing to the levels seen over the past five years, that dreaded Recession word may come into play earlier than some of the more daring predictions would have us believe.

Barry Noble   (760) 992-9523 

REAL ESTATE APPRAISALS & BROKER CONSULTATION

IN PALM SPRINGS AND ALL OF THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

DESERT RESORT CITIES

barry@PalmSpringsFinest.com