What goes up must go down

According to the associated press December ended as the worse year for the real estate market in the South Florida in the last 3 decades.
Real estate is a local business and we need to be careful with "satistics". You simply cannot generalize. The glass is half empty for some and half full for others.
Homekeys offers real estate services in 67 Florida counties and what we see is different from County to County. If you travel through the tri-county area Dade, Broward and West Palm, you will see more for sale signs than ever before. but that is not the case in other Regions . It is a fact that the tri-county area has become one the most difficult places to sale a house. But like anything else, all that goes up must come down and that does not exempt real estate. We have been through similar difficult periods in prior decades and eventually the market will sort itself out.
Homekeys offers the widest range of choices and savings for buyers and sellers.
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Would you foreclose? Refinace? Reverse Mortgage?

Several of our clients have asked us to provide a link to this past Sunday's 60 Minutes.
As you probably know, "60 Minutes" on Sunday produced a 15-minute segment on the housing downturn and foreclosure crisis. You can view the video segment here ("House of Cards").
In the segment (The Valdez family) -- about halfway through -- looks at the prospects of paying a higher mortgage payment on a house no longer worth the amount of the loan. The homeowners, who face a substantial monthly payment spike, consider whether it's better for them to walk away at this point. Would you foreclose? Is reverse mortage an option? Other options?
What would you do? Why?
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3756665n&channel=/sections/60minutes/videoplayer3415.shtml

Real Estate Bubble will redefine role of agent and there will be fewer agents

A Rising Tide Lifts All Ships...and nothing could be farther from the truth in real estate!

When real estate fever hit its peak sometime ago, it was almost impossible to go wrong, and all realtors looked like geniuses. This irrational market resulted in thousands of individuals joining the ranks of the real estate profession. After all, it was easy to get a license and- with limited effort- the economic reward was significant. We simply have too many agents!

While it is going to take sime time for the market to recover, we are beginning to witness some signs of consolidation. Many "part-time" agents that should had never been here to begin with are now disappearing. This offers a great opportunity to the many "full time professional agents" that have been fully committed to the industry to regain control of the process.

These agents do not complain about market difficulties. They continue to work hard serving their existing and prospective clients. And consumers will be able to tell who these agents are: they really know what is going on and share all information with their clients in an unbiased and transparent manner.

Being good isn’t easy. It’s hard work. The really good professional will look at each property individually and develop a strategy for a successful sale. It takes time, requires patience and calls for a creative approach. But it pays off when sellers and buyers begin to call you because they know you’re getting results.

And at the end of these cycle there will be fewer but better agents...agents that are tech savvy and whose role will be different...less driving around, more mousing around, more counseling !

Demand for reverse mortgages on the rise

As recently as December 2007 the Senate committee on Aging spent time discussing the aggressive marketing and sales techniques being used by mortgage institutions to attract senior homeowners into purchasing reverse mortgages. As larger populations of seniors are turning 63 every year, the demand for reverse mortgage loans are on the rise. There was a 56% increase in these types of loan in 2006 from the prior year. The Federal government in December 2007 removed the restrictions to the number of outstanding reverse mortgage loans they would underwrite at any given time. Prior to the new legislation, the original limit was 275,000.

Many of the largest banking institutions are now getting involved including Bank of America who just recently acquired Reverse Mortgage of America, a division of Seattle Mortgage Co. This is one of many acquisitions occurring in the mortgage industry to capture a stronghold on the reverse mortgage loan market. It is this activity that has gained the attention of the Federal and State governments. Congress is exepcted in 2008 to put more laws into place that provide stronger protections and minimize the commissions and flat fees mortgage companies can charge per loan.