Whitney Minnich Real Estate and Community Updates

A Home Where Someone Died: Does That Need to Be Disclosed? October 31, 2018 You’re trying to sell a home that a former owner passed away in. Must you reveal that to home buyers, and will it give some buyers the creeps? In the majority of cases, with a peaceful death inside a home, “there’s no legal obligation in most states requiring that [sellers] disclose it,” Jason Wells, a real estate professional and attorney at Wells Law Group in Phoenix. Indeed, the majority of states do not require sellers or their real estate agents to disclose incidents such as homicides, felonies, suicides, or natural deaths in a property, or any rumored paranormal activity associated with the home, according to HomeLight, a real estate referral company. Certainly, there are some exceptions to that, including California, South Dakota, and Alaska. For example, in California, any death on a property in the last three years must be disclosed to buyers. Check with your state’s housi...

Daily Mortgage Rate Update Rates for 10/31/2018 as of 9:00 AM. Rates are slightly higher compared to 10/30            Assumptions: 30 day lock, on a purchase loan for a primary home, loan amount of $300,000 (75% loan-to-value) with taxes and insurance and with credit scores of 740+. APR is not the interest rate but reflects the rate with charges that are paid to get a loan.  Rates are subject to change without notice.  JUMBO pricing is based on 20% down, 6 months reserves, and a 550K loan amount. All other assumptions are the same. Market - 10 year treasury yield is UP today and at about  3.14%+     https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=US10Y  For more information and the latest market update  contact Evan Karr with Priority Home Lending .

Is Focus on Location a Thing of the Past? Most people will pay a premium to live near their workplace, a bustling city center, or within reach of major public transit centers. But will the advent of driverless cars turn the old real estate adage “location, location, location” on its head? October 22, 2018   by   Erez Cohen Nearly every major car company is experimenting with driverless transportation, also referred to as autonomous vehicles. In fact, Google expects to have its first autonomous ride-sharing service on the roads as early as the end of this year. Apple isn’t far behind and is regularly seen testing its vehicles on public roadways. Autonomous driving is classified over  six levels , from 0 to 5, where level 0 represents a car with zero automation and level 5 is fully automated. Only cars driving at levels 4 and 5 are truly autonomous. But Tesla’s Enhanced Autopilot feature is already on the road, providing consumers with a self-dr...

Single Women Prop Up First-Time Buyer Segment October 29, 2018 Lower affordability and continued inventory crunches aren’t sidelining single women home buyers, who, for the second consecutive year, account for 18 percent of all buyers, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’  2018 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers . Single women are the second most common buyer type behind married couples (63 percent), according to NAR’s report. Single men are the third most common buyer type, accounting for half the number of their female counterparts at 9 percent. However, single men tend to purchase pricier homes than single women—a median of $215,000 compared to $189,000, respectively. Single women buyers, many of whom are first-timers, are proving a  powerful force in the housing market . However, first-time buyers, who once dominated the buying pool, are a shrinking segment. The share of first-time buyers fell to a three-year low this year, accordin...

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Daily Mortgage Rate Update Rates for 10/30/2018 as of 9:00 AM. Rates are slightly higher compared to 10/29 Assumptions: 30 day lock, on a purchase loan for a primary home, loan amount of $300,000 (75% loan-to-value) with taxes and insurance and with credit scores of 740+. APR is not the interest rate but reflects the rate with charges that are paid to get a loan.  Rates are subject to change without notice.  JUMBO pricing is based on 20% down, 6 months reserves, and a 550K loan amount. All other assumptions are the same. Market - 10 year treasury yield is UP today and at about  3.106%+    https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=US10Y  For more information and the latest market update  contact Evan Karr with Priority Home Lending .

3 Reasons HOAs Are Getting Sued October 29, 2018 Issues related to drone usage, imagery copyright, and mold are putting homeowner associations at increased risk of litigation, according to national insurer USI Insurance Services. Some residents have sued their condo boards for using drones to snap photos of buildings that also capture interior views of their units through the windows. Community associations may use drones to collect information on the conditions of roofs and common grounds, but they need to be careful, Marvin Nodiff, an attorney in St. Louis, told  The Washington Post . “Associations should protect against potential impacts as drones become more popular for commercial and other uses,” Nodiff says. Benny L. Kass, a lawyer in Washington, D.C., advises that boards adopt rules to regulate, control, and monitor who can use a drone and when. HOAs also reportedly are facing copyright issues more frequently. HOAs offering free movie nights to fo...

7 Trick-or-Treat Safety Tips that Every Homeowner Should Know By:  Oliver Marks Published: October 22, 2012 Some Halloween tricks can really cost you. Plenty of people love a good Halloween scare — as long no one gets hurt. And that includes your house. Hot lights and large crowds present some real risks to homeowners. Follow these seven tips for trick-or-treat safety: #1 Make Your Outdoor Lights as Bright as Possible {{ include_photo halloween-safety-rules-outdoor-lights }} John Pettibone, curator of Hammond Castle Museum in Gloucester, Mass., suggests checking the label on your outdoor light fixtures and using the highest wattage bulbs they can safely handle. You can always switch them back after the holiday for a softer glow. Related : Outdoor Lighting for Curb Appeal and Safety #2 Prop Open the Storm Door for Trick-or-Treaters Pettibone suggests propping open the screen or storm door so it doesn't get in the way when there's a big gr...

Housing Q&A: How do new buildings come on the property tax rolls? By  Elliot Njus enjus@oregonian.com The Oregonian/OregonLive As property tax statements arrive in Oregonians' mailboxes, homeowners are trying to decipher their bills. This is one of the more commonly misunderstood aspects of Oregon's unusual property tax system. Send questions you have about housing or property taxes to reporter Elliot Njus at  enjus@oregonian.com . Q: How do newly constructed homes come on the property tax rolls in Oregon? A: Taxable values in the state are set at 1995 market values, minus 10 percent, plus 3 percent a year. This is a result of a series of voter-approved ballot initiatives in the 1990s. Under that formula, a house worth $100,000 in 1995 might today have an "assessed value" of nearly $200,000, even if its "real market value" has climbed to $300,000. But a newly built house wasn't around in 1995, and it wouldn't be fair for...

Daily Mortgage Rate Update Rates for 10/29/2018 as of 9:00 AM. Rates are lower compared to 10/26 Assumptions: 30 day lock, on a purchase loan for a primary home, loan amount of $300,000 (75% loan-to-value) with taxes and insurance and with credit scores of 740+. APR is not the interest rate but reflects the rate with charges that are paid to get a loan.  Rates are subject to change without notice.  JUMBO pricing is based on 20% down, 6 months reserves, and a 550K loan amount. All other assumptions are the same. Market - 10 year treasury yield is FLAT today and at about  3.1%+  We had a slight dip in the rates near the end of last week but many are expecting to see the uptrend in rates continue.       https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=US10Y  For more information and the latest market update  contact Evan Karr with Priority Home Lending .

Homeowners are staying put longer than ever before With a disincentive to move, they may just look for other ways to tap that equity October 26, 2018   Jessica Guerin Homeowners are staying in place longer than ever before, despite the  growing  amount of equity in their homes. A new report from  First American  – a provider of title insurance, settlement services and risk solutions for real estate transactions – reveals that the median tenure for homeownership has jumped to 10 years, up 10% from last year. By comparison, the median tenure in the pre-crash days of 2007 was four years, and in the aftermath of the market’s meltdown – when many homeowners couldn’t move because they were underwater on their properties – the median tenure was seven years. Why are homeowners choosing to stay put longer than ever before? In its  Potential New Home Sales Report  for September 2018, First American points to an underperforming housing ma...

Average American putting less money down when buying a home California down payment percentage remains highest October 26, 2018   Alcynna Lloyd The average down payment on a U.S. home fell in the third quarter, according the latest data collected from digital loan sourcing site  LendingTree. Each quarter, LendingTree compares average down payment percentages and conventional 30-year, fixed-rate purchase mortgage offer amounts across the country. They found that the average down payment decreased nearly 10% in the third quarter — falling from $52,480 to $47,265. According to the report, despite a decrease in payment amount, down payments as a percentage of purchase price remained relatively the same. The report indicates that the average down payment percentages for conventional 30-year, fixed-rate purchase mortgage offers rose 0.03 percentage points, inching forward from 18.02% to 18.05%. Furthermore, the average loan amount offered...

Lawmakers hope to increase homeownership for minorities Earlier this year, state lawmakers created a task force to figure how to improve homeownership rates. By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Oregon Capital Bureau Published on October 23, 2018 4:03PM Lawmakers are trying to figure out what’s keeping Oregonians of color from buying homes when loans and subsidies are available. Overall, about 62 percent of Oregonians own homes, and overall the rate of home ownership in the state is slightly lower than in 2000. But state data show stark differences among ethnic groups. In Oregon, about 65 percent of whites and 63 percent of Asian Americans own homes as of 2017. Meanwhile, only about 35 percent of black Oregonians do. The lowest rate of homeownership in the state is among Pacific Islanders, at 26 percent. Earlier this year, state lawmakers created a task force to figure how to improve homeownership rates. In a meeting Monday, members discussed one possible piece of the puzzle...