Tag Archives: Spring Selling

Highlands Mortgage Down Payment Rules See Spring Turnaround

3-18-springmortgageThe first day of spring! The vernal equinox! This year, March 20 is the red-letter day on Highlands’s real estate calendar. It’s the nominal kickoff to the traditionally rambunctious spring selling season—historically, the go-go time of year. It’s when more homes come on the market, more prospective buyers come out to see them, and more sales are launched than in any other season.

But this year, what happens three days later might well turn out to be nearly as noteworthy.

The 23rd may not mark an annual event, but it could become a second red-letter day for Highlands home buyers and sellers in 2015. If all goes according to plan, it’s the day when Freddie Mac joins Fannie Mae in easing the down payment requirements mortgage lenders observe.

This is part of a development that surfaced last fall when sharp-eyed Highlands residents first noticed some trial balloon announcements from the mortgage lending industry. The sources were insiders who leaked details of an agreement being hammered out between Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the lenders they underwrite. Fannie buys mortgage loans from the large commercial lenders, Freddie, smaller houses. Both of the mortgage behemoths are regulated by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. FHFA is the government overseer that lost most of its trusting good humor after it had to bail out Freddie and Fannie during the subprime mortgage fiasco (actually, it was we taxpayers who got the bill).

But last falls’ news leak indicated a reversal was in the wind. Borrowers with weaker credit might soon find it easier to land a mortgage, because Fannie and Freddie would resume making such loans less risky for lenders. That would be welcome news for Highlands home buyers and sellers alike. Tight Highlands mortgage lending rules had been part of the national reaction to the subprime mortgage mess, but the result had been predictable: a throttling back of the number of loans banks were willing to grant. Fewer mortgage loans meant that some sales simply wouldn’t take place. In some cases, it was downright irritating.

That’s why, for some Highlands mortgage applicants, March 23rd could mark the resumption of renewed home owning possibilities. It’s the kickoff date for a program Freddie Mac calls “Home Possible”—and it means that Fannie will be joined in offering “flexible credit terms and low down payment options”…options that can include down payments as low as 3%. Freddie’s website calls the result “more flexibility for maximum financing.”

With the kickoff of the spring selling season, Freddie’s “Home Possible” couldn’t have come at a better time (some humor-minded real estate professionals had begun to think of Freddie’s previous programs as “Home Impossible”). Even just the expected publicity should encourage some formerly gun-shy prospective Highlands mortgage applicants to resume their quest for a home to call their own.

If you could be one of them—or a homeowner preparing to list for the spring season—I hope you will give me a call. Your timing couldn’t be better!

Lake Toxaway Real Estate and the Many “Months” of March

3-18-marchThis March has been such a busy one on the Lake Toxaway real estate calendar that I thought it would be a good idea to double-check everything just to be certain I wasn’t overlooking any important happenings.

It wasn’t just that the first day of spring on the 20th is the traditional start of what’s regularly the busiest time of year for Lake Toxaway real estate activity. This is a reliable phenomenon, further reinforced by the 61 million results you get when you Google “Spring Real Estate Selling Season.” To be accurate, the National Association of Realtors® fudges a little by calling spring and summer the hottest seasons for real estate activity—but it turns out they are pointing to the fact that many sales initiated in spring close during the summer (which is when people prefer to move).

March also has a red-letter day on the 23rd, which is when Freddie Mac, the mortgage reinsurer, is set to kick off their ‘Home Possible’ program. It’s a lowering of their down payment requirements, so mortgage lenders will have more leeway with borrowers. That should provide a further boost for Lake Toxaway real estate activity, which has been laboring for years under tough lending requirements that discouraged some otherwise well-qualified home buyers.

Then there is March Madness, in which basketball plays havoc with more than just television schedules. You could say that it plays hob with appointment times for many Lake Toxaway home showings, since the last five minutes of most of the games take at least half an hour.

Just in case the calendar has even more events that might affect Lake Toxaway real estate, we thought we’d better check to be certain we haven’t overlooked any upcoming happenings.

We found out we can relax.

True, this March is Optimism Month, which is certainly thematically in tune with the positive spring real estate outlook (speaking of ‘in tune,’ March is also Music in Our Schools Month and Play the Recorder Month).

It’s International Ideas Month, which, for anyone who’s been following the headlines, is certainly arriving in the nick of time. For those who are, internationally speaking, prone to sticking to their old ideas, March is also International Listening Awareness Month. It’s Mirth Month as well as Humorists are Artists Month. It’s also Noodle Month (does this have a connection with Mirth Month?), Peanut Month, and National Nutrition Month.

In addition to minding nutrition, this is a month for safety: it’s National Collision Awareness Month, as well as National Cheerleading Safety Month. It turns out, there are another couple of dozen other Months that are taking place right now, but most have little to do with buying and selling homes.

What seems better connected to Lake Toxaway real estate is the fact that this is also Umbrella Month, although it’s too early to know the precipitation total for the whole month. It hasn’t prevented many showings or open houses, for sure.

In any case, if you are thinking of taking advantage of the Spring Selling Season, it’s also a terrific month to give me a call!