New Milford CT Weekly Market Update, May 23

Technorati Tags: New Milford CT real estate information,Local area market watch

I have decided to change the format of my weekly market update, this should be easier to read and easier to compare to the previous weeks stats. I hope you enjoy it.

The following information is only as good as the agents who list the properties. If the information is not entered into the multiple listing service in a timely manner, or incorrectly this will skew the data. However, I do believe it to be a fairly accurate assessment of the current real estate market in New Milford.

Are you looking to buy or sell in the greater New Milford area? Give me a call at 203.460.1775, sign up for a listingbook account to search the area MLS, or send me an email to andrea@andreaswiedler.com. I would be happy to discuss your options.

Information provided by the Greater Fairfield County CMLS. Information deemed reliable, but not necessarily accurate.

SINGLE FAMILY HOMES
	W/E 5/23/09	W/E 5/16/09
Active inc. under deposit	289	285
Lowest $	$120,000	$104,900
Highest $	$650,000	$6,500,000
Average $	$484,978	$486,717
Av. Days on Market	122	122
Under Deposit	$19	22
Lowest $	$144,000	$100,000
Highest $	$529,900	$550,000
Average LP $	$352,910	$371,313
Av. Days on Market	81	85
Pending	22	15
Lowest $	$100,000	$179,900
Highest $	$550,000	$545,000
Average $	$335,599	$324,333
Av. Days on Market	128	104
Sold	1	1
Lowest $	$314,900	$565,000
Highest $	$314,900	$565,000
Average $	$285,000	$565,000
Av. Days on Market	14	41
CONDOMINIUMS
	W/E 5/23/09	W/E 5/16/09
Active inc. under deposit	80	78
Lowest $	$69,900	$69,900
Highest $	$539,900	$539,900
Average $	$206,649
Av. Days on Market	172	177
Under Deposit	4	4
Lowest $	$99,900	$99,900
Highest $	$169,900	$169,900
Average LP $	$140,950	$140,950
Av. Days on Market	88	86
Pending	15	15
Lowest $	$62,900	$62,900
Highest $	$400,000	$400,000
Average $	$160,940	$163,007
Av. Days on Market	114	110
Sold	0	0
Lowest $
Highest $
Average $
Av. Days on Market	0	0

 

Good Faith Estimates - Knowing & Understanding the Power of the paper!!!

Technorati Tags: Good faith estimates,mortgage information,Jeffrey Belonger,Important Mortgage Information,New Milford CT real estate information

It is time for another post by mortgage guru Jeff Belonger from Infinity Home Mortgage Company. Thank you Jeff for your spot on expertise! Jeff is ready, willing and able to help you obtain a mortgage for a home in the greater New Milford area. Want more information about a VA, FHA, USDA or conventional loan? Just ask Jeff!

Good Faith Estimates - Extremely important message below!!!

If you are a consumer looking to purchase or refinance, this is a must read. It could cost you thousands if you don't pay attention. This is not a threat, but a warning from someone that has over 16 years of experience in the mortgage industry.

When shopping for a mortgage, even if shopping with more than 2 lenders, you want to get a good faith estimate from everyone that you speak to.

So, here is my pet peeve. This is a major red flag - if you speak to a loan officer, on the phone or in person, and they didn't offer you a good faith estimate, don't walk, Run!!!

The Good Faith Estimate is an over abused term and can be misleading. If the loan officer qualifies you for a mortgage, no matter if its a FHA loan or a conventional loan, you should receive one in a few hours. In reality, if the loan officer qualifies you and tells you a rate, a payment, and your total costs, they should be able to give you that good faith estimate in a matter of minutes. Think about it, they had to do this already in order to give you those figures. There is no excuse. Sure, things happen, but just being busy is not good enough. Unless they specifically tell you that they will give it to you the next day. This can happen, but other than that, if they don’t communicate this with you, no excuse. And this could be indicative to how your loan process will go.

Let me ask you this. If you are shopping for a car, don't you want to see your payment, interest rate, and total costs? I know I would. If you have to keep asking for a good faith estimate and it's been 3 days, major red flag.

Overall, it doesn't matter if you are applying for a FHA loan, a conventional loan, or any other type of mortgage. If you have to beg for a good faith estimate, you are just asking for trouble in most cases.

THE GOOD FAITH ESTIMATE

So, what is a good faith estimate? Its an estimate of all your costs associated with buying or refinancing your home. But here is the catch. There are some costs that are known costs and not just estimates. These would be the lenders fees. The lender fees are all fees that are under lines 801 to 823. I enlarged this section below for you.

Three things that you want to look for when you first look at your GFE.

• Look at the loan program and make sure this is the program that you want. If it was an adjustable, it would say differently. This would fall under the term of the loan.

• Look at the mortgage rate. Make sure this is what you discussed when speaking to your loan officer. (Up top, middle of page, yellow highlight)

• The 3rd issue are the fees. As I mentioned above, everything in section 801 to 823 would be the lenders fees or anything the lender is going to charge you. (left hand column with highlighted items) Don't ever be fooled if one lenders fee is higher than the other. You still need to compare the mortgage rate.

(Speak to your tax accountant to make sure what can be written off and what cant. But typically just the points can be written off)

What not to do when comparing good faith estimates.

• Don't compare total fees at bottom of the GFE, which I will explain why below.

• Just don’t compare the APR of the loan. (explained here)

Conclusion: Again, don't always shop and ask for total fees. Compare the lenders fees the most. In regards to your escrows, each state is different. I highlighted this in red. Your property taxes are paid either quarterly, twice a year, or once a year. I have seen some loan officers sometimes not show enough for your escrows in regards to the property taxes. Its very easy for a loan officer to say at closing, ˜these aren't my fees, so all I can do is give an estimate. Word of advice, yes, its an estimate. But I have seen some loan officers estimate less to make the overall cost look cheaper. And just be careful, because some of these figures are not worth the paper that they are written on. It's just that, an estimate based on good faith. Make sure that you always speak with a Mortgage Professional. And don't shop yourself right out of the market.

One other thing, if you have 3 good faith estimates in front of you, always go back to the person that you had the best feeling with, that you are comfortable the most with, and share the other 2 with them. Just don't run to the person with the best rate and or fees. I always like my clients to come back to me no matter what. I might be able to point something out to them. And this next topic must be discussed when receiving a GFE, otherwise this Good Faith doesn't mean squat. Locking or floating my mortgage rate !!!!

Lastly... if you are going to shop rate & costs, ALWAYS shop on the same day !!! Rates change daily...

UPDATE : The laws in some states are different, when a good faith estimate must be given. In Paul McFadden's example, comment #15, they have 3 days from the day they pull credit. According to RESPA, the lender has 3 days from the time of application. When just casually shopping, there is no time period or law.

In regards to my example, with the rate and points, this is just an example. Besides, not all rates or good faith estimates come with points. And I don't charge fees. But there is a cost of doing business with any lender or bank out there.

- FHA Loans - USDA Loans - VA Loans -

- Energy Efficient Mortgages -

- Conventional Loans - 203 k loans -

- Mortgages -

Experience & Knowledge at its BEST !!!

_________________________________________________________________________________________

For more information on FHA loans, please go to this link. The FHA Expert

For more information about the 2009 Tax Credit for First Time Homebuyers : 2009 Tax Credit

For important mortgage insight to watch for, please read : Consumers need to be aware of these Red Flags !!!!

Copyright © 2009 by Jeff Belonger

Price it accordingly, the new catch phrase

Price is accordingly, it should be the new catch phrase.  Yes, there are a glut of homes that aren't moving. However there are homes that are moving, homes that are well priced are being sold. What does that mean?

Well priced considering condition. If your find a home that sold that is very similar in many ways to your except one, condition, you need to price your home accordingly. If you are in better shape, you have done recent upgrades, you are clean, neat, ready to move in, you are on top of the heap. If you home requires work you need to be priced lower. Take for instance you know you need a new roof. You know what that is going to cost. What is your best option? Price it accordingly if you can't replace the roof yourself.  Price it accordingly if you can't put in that new septic.

Well priced considering location. Are you on a busy road? Is there a half mile long dirt driveway to your house? Is your driveway steep up or down? These affect the pricing of your home too. You must consider these when pricing your home to sell. Finding the right buyer can be hampered by a severely compromised driveway, however pricing accordingly can help to get that offer.

Technorati Tags: Pricing your home to sell,price your home accordingly,real estate in new milford ct,selling your home

Well priced all the way around. Take a good long look at the comparables that have sold. It is very difficult to be objective about something we not only have so many memories tied into, but debt certainly plays a part in our ideas about what a house should sell for. Debts are never to be considered in the pricing of your home. A buyer is not going to care what your mortgage obligation is, or what your credit card obligation is. An appraiser will certainly not take your debt into consideration when giving an opinion of value to your home.

My strongest advice on pricing your home these days? You guessed it.

Price it accordingly!

© 2009 Andrea Swiedler. Unless otherwise noted, the content, both written and in pictures, is the property of Andrea Swiedler. If you wish to use something you see here, please email me (andrea@andreswiedler.com) with your request. Most likely I will oblige, with a link back to my original content as well as an acknowledgment. Although imitation is the highest form of flattery, please let me know before you decide to bestow this form of flattery on me! Thank you.

Looking to purchase or sell a home in the greater New Milford CT area? Please contact me , or visit my website to find out more about me.

What is good about New Milford and the surrounding communities? Check it out! More information about local real estate, local happenings and local photography.

FHA vs Conventional Loans, 5% down, things you need to know.

Technorati Tags: FHA mortgage,ct mortgage information,FHA vs Conventional mortgage info,Jeff Belonger,Infinity Home Mortgage,first time home buyer new milford ct

Jeffrey Belonger, Branch Manager of Infinity Home Mortgage Company, Inc., has laid out such a detailed explanation of FHA vs Conventional loans, this is really a must read for buyers and realtors alike. Jeff has agreed to be a guest blogger for me, I am thrilled. He is able to close loans for this area in Connecticut, so give him a call or send him an email for more information!

Expect more posts from Jeff, and enjoy!

For several of you that read my blogs, I try and do a FHA vs Conventional purchase comparison once every few months.

FHA loans have been more wisely used in recent months as the choice of mortgages. What I hate hearing is that they have taken the spot of the subprime loans. This is not true by any part of the imagination. This statement is from those that are inexperienced in both the mortgage and the real estate industries. The realization has been that 30% of the subprime mortgages in the last 5 years previous to the last 2 years should have been FHA mortgages, not subprime. A recent survey has stated that FHA loans could be more than 60% of all loans originated for the 2nd quarter of 2009.

To compound this, so many said just because you had a conventional loan, you had the better loan. This was not always true when putting 3 percent down or even 5 percent down. In most cases, you were told this, because that particular lender was not FHA approved. Now? Even with 10% down and credit scores less than 700, FHA loans in many cases, will be the best mortgage for you.

So you could argue the fact that this is just my opinion, that FHA mortgages in many cases would be better for you. True, even though I have over 16 years of experience as a loan officer in the mortgage industry. But numbers don't lie. Let me show you..... and in this scenario,

The example below is based on a $300,000 purchase price with 5% down. One reason why conventional rates are a little higher in this scenario as in FHA rates is because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have added penalties per se. If you are putting down less than 30% and your credit score is less than 720, certain fee penalties would apply to you, which would increase your rate. The FICO (credit score) that I am going to use is 679, which is above the average credit score and I will still show in this example that FHA loans are cheaper, even with 5% down.

***And keep in mind, some lenders have penalties on FHA mortgages with credit scores under 660 now. We don't. And many lenders can't do FHA loans under 620. I can still do them down to 600. Just beware of those promising you FHA loans under 600, they don't close as much as promised.***

Disclaimer : These rates are examples, but the spread shown in the example is real. To compare this scenario apples to apples, the fees are the same and with 1.75 points. In this scenario, there are no lender fees. The conventional rate also includes the penalty for the 679 credit score.

Okay, Jeff, you used 4 total examples. I am confused. A better than average loan officer will use all 4 comparisons, to show you the bang for your buck. I will explain each one below.

Conventional vs FHA - Your monthly savings is $170.36, favoring the FHA loan. Some of you might be saying that you will be adding $4,897.00 onto your principal balance if you did the FHA mortgage because of the FHA one-time mortgage insurance premium. This is correct and I don't want to confuse you with more numbers and charts. But here is a quick breakdown. If you kept your house for 5 years, which most people sell in a 6 year period, you would have saved $11,115.00 in payments in 5 years. This is a difference of $6,218.00 that you have saved!!! And one other thing that is very small, but still makes a difference.

Conventional Financed MI vs FHA - On the conventional loan, you can get a huge discount by adding the mortgage insurance onto your loan amount. Now your FHA monthly savings is only $37.83 a month, but you are now adding $4,560 to your total loan amount on the conventional loan. That comes out to an additional $76 a month over a 5 year period, if you wanted to pay down your mortgage to the same as the FHA loan. So now your total monthly savings is $113.83. Yes, you do get a larger tax write off on the mortgage insurance being financed, but with the lower rate on the FHA loan, you also subtract more off the principal quicker.

Conventional Lender Paid MI (LPMI) vs FHA - On the conventional loan, you are paying a higher rate, which part of it pays for your monthly mortgage insurance. Your monthly savings on the FHA loan is only $74.44. In 5 years, you saved $4,466. But you added $4,897 onto the FHA loan, which means that in 5 years, you came out $431 better on the conventional loan in 5 years. But hold the presses... You get a higher tax write off, because you added more money onto your FHA loan and you are slightly reducing your principal because you have a interest rate that is 1.25% lower than that of the conventional loan.

The end result on the 3rd comparison? You will still come out ahead on the FHA loan. But let's take it a step further. Take your savings of $74.44 a month and add it back into your payments monthly for 5 years. Guess what, my principal balance in 5 years on the FHA mortgage is $5,199 lower than that conventional mortgage.

Again, a very good loan officer should understand these comparisons and be able to show them to you, if you need to see the numbers to help make your decision. I have heard many borrowers in the past say that their loan officer did these comparisons and suggest the conventional loan. Rut row... I didn't fudge these numbers. ... just a FYI.

Another Footnote : You will be subtracting a few more dollars per month from your principal because your interest rate is lower, which would offset the interest that you would write off on the higher rate. Just something else to remember, but consult your tax consultant or CPA.

For more updated information on Conventional PMI (private mortgage insurance) - Please read this detailed blog by Robert Rauf. The new world of PMI - update (FHA loans save the day)

For more FHA loans vs conventional loans comparisons :

• FHA loans vs Conventional loans - A true numbers comparision with 5% down - Using a 710 credit score
• FHA loans vs Conventional loans - A real comparision with 5% down - Using a 659 credit score
• FHA Loans vs Conventional Loans - 20% down - A Rude Reality Check - Would you believe that FHA loans could be cheaper even with 20% down? Come see why and how.
• FHA Loans vs Conventional Loans - 5% - 4 comparisons that you need to know - Comparing a FHA loan against 3 types of conventional loans with different types of monthly mortgage insurance. Guess who won while still using a 679 credit score.....

- FHA Loans - USDA Loans - VA Loans -

- Energy Efficient Mortgages -

- Conventional Loans - 203 k loans -

- Mortgages -

Experience & Knowledge at its BEST !!!

_________________________________________________________________________________________

For more information on FHA loans, please go to this link. The FHA Expert

For more information about the 2009 Tax Credit for First Time Homebuyers : 2009 Tax Credit

For important mortgage insight to watch for, please read : Consumers need to be aware of these Red Flags !!!!

Copyright © 2009 by Jeff Belonger

President Lincoln comes to New Milford

This Sunday, May 3rd at 2 p.m.  the New Milford Historical Society will present “Simply Lincoln”, a wonderful theatrical performance by Howard Wright.

Mr. Wright is a member of the Association of Lincoln Presenters, a rather interesting group of men who portray Mr. Lincoln. The motto on their website is “Would I Might Rouse The Lincoln In You All”.

According to Mr. Wrights website, his purpose is to bring the amazing words written by Mr. Lincoln to all, to give us a chance to better know this great man.  The Presidents own words are used, taken from Roy. P. Basler’s eight volume set, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln.

Of course President Lincoln will appear in his usual garb, complete with his black frock and stovepipe hat. For more information please call the New Milford Historical Society at 860.354.3069. Admission is $5.00.

30 Birchwood Drive, New Milford, CT

What about New Milford CT?

Located in southern Litchfield County, New Milford is sometimes referred to as the gateway to Litchfield Hills. We are 90 minutes from New York City, an hour from Hartford and three hours from Boston. If you are looking for a train into the city, Metro North Railroad runs trains on either the Hudson Line or the New Haven Line, both convenient drives from New Milford. New Milford is the largest town area wise in the state of Connecticut at 64.8 square miles. For a wonderful history of New Milford and the surrounding towns, visit the Greater New Milford Chamber of Commerce Website. Bordered by Sherman, Kent, Warren, Washington, Roxbury, Bridgewater and Brookfield, New Milford offers hiking, boating on Candlewood Lake and Lake Lillinonah, fishing, easy access to golfing at world class golf courses, Bulls Bridge Golf Club in South Kent, The Club at River Oaks in Sherman as well as Candlewood Valley Country Club, a public golf course located on Route 7 in New Milford. There is canoeing or rafting on the Housatonic, minutes to the Appalachian Trail in South Kent at Bulls Bridge, many fine town and state parks. There is so much to do. We have fine restaurants, art galleries, and perhaps one of the most scenic greens in New England! Drop by and check it out for yourself. Try a driving tour through New Milford, mapped out for you by the Chamber of Commerce. As you can see, there is something for everyone in New Milford and the surrounding communities. Drop me a line, or come and see for yourself. Are you looking for a home in the greater New Milford area? Sign up for a Listingbook Account, a free service I offer to my clients. Search the multiple listing service through my account. No strings attached. Are you thinking of selling? Contact me for a confidential market analysis at andrea@andreaswiedler.com.