DFW Area Home Prices Climb According to Latest S&P/Case-Schiller Index

Good news DFW! The Dallas/Fort Worth area pre-owned homes showed a price increase this past November, up 1.4 percent from a year previous, according to the lastest statistics released by the Standard & Poor's/Case-Schiller Home Price Index. This is the first positive increase in DFW in the past 2 years. The Dallas area also placed 1st out of 20 cities tracked monthly according to the index. Based on the numbers, our area has been on a steady increase since the market bottomed out in March 2009.

It's not time to celebrate yet however. There is still much speculation about mortgage rates increasing if the Fed stops buying mortgages and mortgage backed securities this April. 30-year fixed rates have already risen by one-quarter of a percent this past month to around 5.2%, according to HSH Associates. This could be the beginning of a steady rise in rates. With this in mind, NOW is the time to lock in your mortgage on the purchase of your next home or a re-finance of your current home.

Visit BW Home Team to find all the homes available on the market today, whether it is homes in Frisco, homes in McKinney, or homes in Flower Mound, pre-owned or new construction. Quit searching and start finding with us!

The Borrowers Right to Inspect Closing Documents Act of 2009

A new bill was introduced to the House of Representatives late last year. This bill, titled "The Borrowers Right to Inspect Closing Documents Act of 2009" was co-sponsored by Reps. Melissa Bean, D - Ill., and Shelley Moore Capito, R - W. Va. The bill, if passed, would require that borrowers receive their closing documents at least three business days before their scheduled closing. This would mean that the lender would be required to provide the title company or other settlement agent:

• the completed promissory note
• the deed of trust or other mortgage instrument
• all items needed to complete the uniform settlement statement
• the final closing instructions

at least four days before a borrowers scheduled closing in order to allow the settlement agent time to prepare the closing documents and get them to the buyer within the required 3 days prior to closing.

Like most pieces of legislation, this bill is a double-edged sword in my opinion. Most legislators blame the housing crisis on predatory lenders having taken advantage of sub-prime borrowers ignorance of the paperwork they were signing and the terms they had agreed to. I give borrowers I little more credit than this. Having sat through many closings, settlement agents do a good job of explaining the paperwork in layman's terms that all but the dimmest can understand. "A 5 year ARM will keep your payments at this level for 5 years and then your interest rate will increase by no more than a certain percentage (stating what that percentage number is) PER YEAR, which will increase your payment to this, etc."

I believe everyone should have the right to read what they are signing and are smart to do so. A large amount of lenders are notorious for getting paperwork to the title company/settlement agent as late as the afternoon of a borrower's closing, if not later. Closing documents are generally stacked together in a pile a good 6 inches thick, with several documents being full of legalese and the buyer is expected to get through a closing within the scheduled hour to hour and a half. Thus, in a Utopian society where all runs smoothly in the world, this bill would seem like a good idea. However, here's the other side of the sword. We do not live in a Utopian society and like good ol' Murphy stated, if something can go wrong, it will. Most buyers arrange their movers or rent their moving vans for the day of closing. If they are selling a house and do not negotiate a temporary lease back, they have nowhere else to put their belongings. Will these lenders be able to keep up with these new guidelines or will this cause the process to bottleneck even more? It seems smart and logical to get to the root cause of the bottleneck. I don't have faith that our legislators can even comprehend this concept. I believe that if required closing documents were more universally standardized between all lenders, closings could be more streamlined. Buyers could compare apples to apples when looking at good faith estimates and all the lenders would need to do is fill in the blanks. Borrowers could review blank closing documents before they ever get into contract on a house and hidden fees would not be so hidden anymore.

Only time will tell if this legislation will pass and if these new requirements will further bog down the closing process. The good news is, the home market is looking up in 2010! There are lots of homes for sale in Frisco, homes for sale in Highland Village, homes for sale in Southlake, and homes for sale in Flower Mound , along with other areas of Dallas/Fort Worth that are just waiting for that new buyer to move in, that is, as long as they get through the closing process first!

Great Article Regarding Housing Market Recovery in Your Local Area!

I just read a great article entitled "When Will Your Housing Market Recover?" This article goes into detail about how to find out if your own local market is recovering and where to find the information. They mention researching the supply of for-sale homes, median home prices and volume of homes sold, along with other information such as the foreclosure rate for your area. If you've read my blog for long, you know that I post good information about the DFW housing market with hard facts and statistics that can help you if you're not into doing your own research. Read this article though to educate yourself a little more on the process. As always, when you are ready to find that next great home at a great price, visit www.BWHomeTeam.com first and then request a showing from one of our great agents!

Flower Mound and Southern Denton County Housing Market

Several people have come up to me over the past few months with questions about the housing market in Flower Mound, Highland Village, Double Oak, and surrounding areas. I have decided to post on real estate market statistics about several DFW areas that our team works to inform buyers and sellers what it is really like out there, starting with Flower Mound and S. Denton County.

Here are the hard, cold facts:

S. Denton County - August 2008 YTD - Single Family Residences:

Number of Sales: 2648

Percent of Change vs. Prior Year: -20%

Average Sales Price: $241,672

Percent of Change vs. Prior Year: -4%

Average Days on Market: 69

Percent of Change vs. Prior Year: +25%

So what does this all mean? To you, the homeowner, it means that you can still sell your house in an average of 69 days and possibly sell it for 4% less than August of 2007. In numbers, that works out to a sales price on average of $241,672 this year versus a sales price of $251,338, a difference of $9666.

At first thought, this can seem doom and gloom. However, you can look at it a different way. Now is the PERFECT time to buy if you have good credit. You just have to change your perspective. If it were a sellers' market, you would get an awesome price on your house but you would also pay a pretty high premium on your next one. This can be your opportunity to lease out your current home and get a great deal on your dream home. You can also sell your current home and still make up for the difference on the buy side. I just represented a buyer today that purchased a home owned by a relocation company. The relo company had to bring $30K to closing. The payoff was $15K more than my client's sales price. Now, this is rare and won't happen in every situation, but deals are out there if you are patient. Relocation companies will also generally not accept a contingency on the sale of another home, but if you were going to lease your current home, what a perfect opportunity!

If you are ready to move, you can still do it! You can still sell your house in a reasonable amount of time and you can get a good deal on your buy. You just have to be ready to go for it!