Just like clock work our latest edition of the welcome home magazine is out. It is our print publication of all of our homes for sale. As part of our service, All of my homes for sale go in this magazine every publication until your home is sold! Contact me and Im happy to mail you a copy of it free of charge!! Call/Text/Email me your address and I will drop it in the mail. (505) 379-5849 AbqDunn@gmail.com

Are there still 1st time home buyer programs?…… YES!

Can you really buy a home with only $500.00 down?……..YES!!

Sounds like a car dealer add doesn’t it?… Its not

There is an agency in Albuquerque called MFA or Mortgage Finance Authority. They offer a few different programs but one of them loans you an amount up to $8000.00 that can be used for both down payment and closing costs and you pay that loan back over the term of 30 years as with your primary mortgage. You can prepay both loans if you like with no penalty.  Gone are the times that the seller could pay your down payment for you but this program is helping a lot of people become homeowners when they wouldn’t be able to be otherwise. With this program you can buy a home for $500.00 of your own money when being the loan you qualify for is one offered by FHA that allows a government agency to help you with the down payment and closing costs.

Legacy Mortgage has been the top MFA lender for 4 consecutive years and is happy to help you with yours!!

Please let me know if any of you would like to purchase girl scout cookies this year. They are $3.75 per box. The Money is not due until cookies are delivered to you. Haylei will be delivering cookies February 27, 2012 thru March 2, 2012 will deliver them to the Albuquerque and surrounding areas (We MAY consider delivering to Hawaii or Florida too! haha just kidding). Haylei has come up with a goal of 750 boxes!!

If you want to support Haylei and the Girl Scouts but don’t want to eat the cookies there is a program that you are able to purchase as many cookies as you would like and have them given to Blue Star Moms to be delivered to the troops over seas!

Please call or email me with your order (505) 379-5849 AbqDunn@gmail.com

Haylei is very shy with this but you will get a call from her!!

oh yeah, go to List of Cookies to see this years list of cookies. Thanks again!!

I must say I had a BLAST at the Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon. The feeling is truly 1 of a kind. It was amazing how many people came out to support this race and cheer us all on! It seemed like there were spectators, cheerleaders, bells, bull horns, whistles, signs (you name it) on every inch of that course. In some places the crowd was 2 or 3 people deep! It was well supported with plenty of hydration stations. Mile 5-7 I was still feeling fresh and ready to conquer the world! Mile 8 for some reason I had second thoughts of why I was running but that only lasted about a minute or so. I think anyone that has run any sort of distance at some point has these thoughts go thru their head. I just blew it off and kept running. Mile 12 I saw my buddy Charlie and he gave me huge high five and kept me pumped up prior to crossing the bridge. He said I crossed a bridge but I don’t remember it. Obviously I had to cross the bridge because I didn’t swim in the lake to get to the other side! Who knows, all that excitement was a blur! Somehow right at Mile 13 I spotted Stephen in a crowd of thousands of people (probably because he was cheering frantically) then momentarily after that I saw my Dad, Christine and Paul. It was such a great feeling having them there cheer me on!! I ran as fast as I could to cross the finish line with a BIG smile. What a day!!

Thanks to Peter Parnegg for taking the time to write the following letter on his views of 2011 and where it might take us! For those of you who don’t know, Mr. Parnegg is Co-CEO of Coldwell Banker Legacy and the past GAAR (Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors) President in 2011:

Let me start by saying I am a great believer in the supply-demand-price equation.  Everything that I look at trying to predict or interpret the market is through that lens.

From my seat, this recession started in the residential real estate market in November 2007.  That was the first month where there was a dramatic decrease in closings (demand) from the same month in the prior year.  To go back a touch, in July 2007, the closings were about 9% less than the prior year.  We had always known that the market couldn’t sustain the pace of 2003 to 2006.  We had thought that a 10 to 15% slowdown was to be expected.  So, the summer of 2007 felt like the anticipated slowdown.  August, September and October started to get alarming when the citywide closings were down 25% year-over-year.  In November the deceleration was 33% and then December 2007, the closings were 35% lower than December the year before.

By January 2009, the closings in Albuquerque were the lowest since 1998.  On a percentage basis, January 2009 had 58% fewer closings than January 2006.  The spring of 2010 benefited from the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit which resulted in some artificially created year-over-year gains.  When July hit and the Credit expired, we slumped backwards, with 4 of the first 6 months of 2011 behind 2010.  However, at the start of 2012 I am optimistic for the following reasons.

Good Sign #1.  In July 2011, things started to change.  July through December showed a 13.17% increase in units closed over the same period of 2010.  This was the first six-month period in three years that had been up over the previous year.

Good Sign #2:  Decreasing supply.  Building permits have been steadily declining for 5 straight years.  In 2006, the biggest year, the permits for the MSA of Albuquerque (includes Valencia and parts of Sandoval counties) were around 6,600.  In 2011, the Albuquerque MSA finished up at just shy of 1,300 permits.  That is an 81% decrease!  While that has been devastating for the construction industry at every level, it does mean that supply is decreasing steadily.   At the same time, the current resale supply (4,156 active detached listings) is the lowest it has been since March 2007 (4,504 active detached listings), when it started climbing precipitously!  Demand up, Supply Down, but…

Confusing Sign #1:  There has been a steady decrease in average sales price for the second half of this year as demand has been increasing and supply has been decreasing.  On the surface that is disconcerting, but remember that price is a trailing indicator.  That means that the last adjustment will be an increase in price.  There is also an artificial suppressant:  the appraisal issue.  What is happening is that the market is trying to recover as to price, but a number of appraisals are coming in below the market price of the transaction.  In response to the low appraisal the sellers and buyers are often forced adjust their price down to the appraisal, which in turn keeps the average price artificially lower than the market is indicating.

I believe that we will start to see an increase in average price sometime in the first half of 2012, providing the demand stays steady.

Good Sign #3:  There is pent up demand.  Where?  Household formations are the way a community grows.  They come from at least two places.  The first is job growth.  The second is organic growth.  Organic growth is when two residents in a community form a new household through some sort of union and then they buy or rent a house.  Statistics are showing that the 25 to 34 year old population who would like to and are capable of buying a home have waited and stayed living at their parents’ home during this recession.  As consumer confidence grows and prices stabilize, those people who have been waiting for the bottom will likely enter the housing market.  I believe we will see that in 2012 as well.

Good Sign #4:  The housing affordability index is at an all time high.  High is good in this case.  With historically low prices and almost unheard of low interest rates converging, when consumer confidence stabilizes, there should be a strong motivation to take advantage of these unique circumstances, which will likely not reoccur for a long time.

Confusing Sign #2:  The last issue is the constant chatter about the “shadow inventory” of homes that are either underwater (value below mortgage) or are delinquent in payments and no foreclosure has been initiated.  The worry is that there is a hidden potential glut of homes, which eventually will come on the market, flooding the supply side, which in turn would further depress prices.

I disagree for the following reasons.  First, when a family is foreclosed on or they short sell their house, they very rarely move into an apartment or move home with their parents.  They typically go rent a home, which is exactly what we are seeing in the current marketplace.  The consequence is that rents have been increasing significantly over the last year.  This does not create a new “vacant unit” in the market place as would new construction.  In other words there is no increase in supply.  Investors have been seeing this trend and with current low interest rates, purchasing single-family homes for investment has become a very attractive alternative.  In other words, a new buyer segment has entered the marketplace, absorbing those homes.

It is for that reason that I don’t believe we have significant risk from the “shadow inventory.”

In closing, if we review the timeframe of the Great Depression, which started in October of 1929, it is generally agreed that 1933 was the beginning of the recovery.  That was four years from the beginning of the Depression to the beginning of the recovery.  As I said in the beginning of this letter, we are at the end of our fourth year of this cycle.  Certainly, this Great Recession was not nearly as bad as the Great Depression.  If it took four years in the early 1930’s for the recovery to begin, I cannot believe, given the above information that we are not poised perfectly for our recovery to begin.

I wish everyone a hopeful and prosperous 2012 and I hope that my predictions are correct!  Thank you for your business.

Warmly,

Peter Parnegg, Co-CEO

Coldwell Banker Legacy Realtors

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW OR CONTACT ME VIA PHONE/EMAIL. I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE CURRENT REAL ESTATE MARKET AND WHERE YOU THINK IT IS HEADED!!

I attended another class on “going green” and thought I would share some interesting trivia with you

Q. If Americans used a refillable mug for the coffee on their way to work for just one week, it would save enough trees to fill how many football fields?

A. 2 football fields!

Q. What produces 5% of our planet’s carbon footprint?

A. Cement production!

Q. It’s estimated that 32 million cars and trucks on the U.S. highways are running on at least two under-inflated tires. How many gallons of gas does this waste annually?

A. 500 Million gallons!

Q. One tree can filter out how many pounds of pollutants from the air each year?

A. 60 pounds!

Q. Compact fluorescent light bulbs last how much longer than regular incandescent ones?

A. 10 times & they use 1/4 of the electricity!

Q. Albuquerque ranks where in the list of cities with maximum potential for economic use of solar and/or photovoltaic as a source of energy for residential dwellings?

A. 2nd! (Bakersfield is 1st)

Q. Laptop computers use less energy that desktop computers. How much less?

A. 90% less!

Please share with me some ideas and practices you are currently doing to preserve and maintain our environment. Id love to hear them and possibly put them to use myself!!

@twittelators's salsa

Sorry this post is so late but we had another successful Chile Cook off this year with only one little snag that I can think of. The snag? Well, most of you know that I NEVER go to ANY event without taking a single picture. Thats right, I hosted this entire event and did not take 1 picture! Zip, zero….zilch! I am not too sure how that slipped by me but it did. The image  you see here was the salsa that @twittelator entered for the cook off and I took this picture when I got home. It was HOT!! Tasty but hot! For those of you that missed the event click here to see what it was all about. http://charitychilecookoff.eventbrite.com/

On to the good stuff….. we raised 178 cans,
14 miscelaneous boxes of food items,
8 rolls of toilet paper, 2 starkest tuna kits and 2 uncle ben ready rice kits for the  Road Runner Food Bank in Albuquerque!!!

Congratulations to the door prize winners: Marcos & Linda (@lrockwellatty) who won items from Hippy Chix Store (@505jc), @twittelator won a gift certificate to Albertsons grocery store, an anonymous winner (I did not catch the persons name) won a gift certificate to Vernon,s Prime Gourmet Sandwich shop and last but not least to @Clausw and the Hancock family who Sandia Peak Tram Passes.

Who won the Chile Cookoff??

Best over all Chile winner was Wendy Forbes (@wendy92) who won a gift certificate to Vernon’s Hidden Valley Steakhouse!!

Hottest Chile winner went to @twittelator who also won a gift certificate to Vernon’s Hidden Valley Steakhouse!!

We had a ton of good chile and raised a lot of items to donate to the Roadrunner Food Bank in Albuquerque!! Thanks again to all who attended and all who donated door prizes! Also many thanks to Vernon’s Prime and their staff for allowing this event to take place at their restaurant. They were awesome hosts!! Until next year……..

Homes in Transition

Homes In Transition – We Breathe Life Into Vacant Houses!

Homes In Transition (HIT) was founded in February of 2009 by Tom Schmidt.  Our knowledgeable and friendly staff provides carefully screened Caretakers to Homeowners with vacant houses on the market for sale.  Our Caretakers are matched based on their furnishings to the home to provide the best possible marketing advantage and work in harmony with the Listing Agent to get the property sold more quickly.  Our Property Inspector performs a video inspection of the house prior to Caretaker Occupancy to check the condition and operations of all systems. Once a Caretaker is placed, our IRIS Certified Home Stager and General Manager will inspect the “set up” and make any adjustments necessary to make the house shine!

HIT Caretakers differ from Tenants in that they happily accommodate all Realtor Showings and Open Houses .  All utilities for the property are paid for by the Caretakers as well as a small weekly fee of $140 to live in a beautiful home!  HIT also performs random inspections to assure the Realtor and Homeowner that the property is being kept show ready.  All minor maintenance and grounds keeping is also performed by the Caretakers, saving the Homeowners and Realtors time and money!  HIT also provides a 100% Guarantee to the Homeowner that we will return the property in the same or better condition upon sale.

We have a proven track record of helping more than 300 Homeowners and their Realtors each year with our service.  MLS Statistics have shown that HIT Caretaker Occupied Properties sell 36% faster for 23% more money than their vacant comparables.  HIT’s service gives neighbors peace of mind that there isn’t a vacant and neglected house in the neighborhood.  A recent and shining example of this is a home in Placitas that had been empty and on the market for 270 days prior to getting a Caretaker Placed.  Just 44 days later, the property was under contract.

You can find us at our beautiful office located at 4508 Columbine NE in Albuquerque.  We also have an office in Phoenix, Arizona.  Our telephone number is; (505) 503-8056 and you can visit our website; www.HomesInTransition.com for more information.  We are double gold star rated by the Better Business Bureau and belong to the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce.

Make sure to mention Michael Dunn, Coldwell Banker Legacy when inquiring with Homes in Transition.

Feel free to share your experiences below! We would love to here from you!

Have you heard the great news?! The City of Albuquerque would like to help you get into a new home! In 2009 The City of Albuquerque was granted Federal Funds in an effort to help rehabilitate foreclosed properties and make them available to income eligible families.

The goal of the NSP program is to help moderate to low income families realize their dreams of owning a home and at the same time they are helping neighborhoods bring life back into their community!

Now some may be asking, is this too good to be true? The answer is NO! With very few requirements you may be eligible for a grant up to $4,000.00 to go towards your closing costs!

And that’s not even the best part!! With the NSP program you can qualify for a zero percent second mortgage loan (no monthly payments!) up to $50,000.00!! Which means… drum roll please…… That you can purchase a home for $150,000.00 and only make payments on $100,000.00!!

Wait, I know your next question, what happens to the extra $50,000.00, does it magically disappear? No, it doesn’t, BUT you don’t even have to think about the no interest second mortgage unless you sell your home!  Even then you only pay back the $50,000.00, NO INTEREST!

Talk to your Real Estate Agent today about teaming up with The Mike Roberts Mortgage Team and see you if you qualify for this great opportunity!

Written by Amalia Salazar with The Mike Roberts Mortgage Team at People’s Bank

Mike Roberts mroberts@bankingunusual.com www.MikeRobertsMTG.com  (505) 463-7912

Feel free to request more info below or scroll all the way down and post your comments about this. we would love to hear from you!!