HOME AGAIN. FINALLY

Me and "Uncle Martin" with Lightnin Hopkins

It Was a Long Drive. The main purpose of the past three weeks was to get to Denver to work on some real estate but along the way we made a few important stops. We visited a religious shrine near Amarillo, Texas on the way up and made a stop at a farm established by Ms. Betty's ancestors on the way back. The farm has been designated as a historic family farm, having been in the Boyd family for more than 100 years. Betty's Uncle Robert has lived there for all of his 83 years with the exception of a brief trip to Okinawa during the 1940's. He told me that, at the age of 18, he used to view the sunrise in Okinawa with tremendous gratitude for surviving another day. He now views the sunrise at the Boyd Farm the same way. As I get older, I understand that more and more. The picture above was taken in Crockett, Texas by a statue of Lightnin' Hopkins an old Texas blues man.

Still Watching The Markets. I never missed a day checking the markets once or twice. If you didn't take my advice and lower the interest rate on your mortgage, you have missed an opportunity to lock in a 30-year fixed rate in the 4's. If you are looking for low closing costs, it is likely that you soon won't be able to find rates in the 5's. You might be hearing commercials about rates in the 4% range but, if it isn't totally a bait and switch ad, you will likely find out that there are numerous add ons for loans below $250,000 and credit scores below 725. Cash out loans often involve a premium and paying off a second mortgage can carry similar premiums in some instances. Investor loans are still available but with higher down payments and a substantial premium over owner occupied loans.

Bidding Wars For Lower End Properties. In many instances, we are seeing bidding wars for well-priced properties. If you are looking to pick up a foreclosure at a bargain, you will have plenty of company. We have made offers on behalf of our clients only to find out that we are one of 12 offers on that property. This will probably spread to other parts of the market if rates stay this low. One reason for this is the $8,000 tax credit being offered to buyers who haven't owned a property during the past 3 years. This will be discontinued after the first of next year so buyers are anxious to find a property before expiration date. Another reason is the lack of new inventory being produced by builders. Several builders have been forced to file for bankruptcy due to the high costs of holding inventory. Notable among these are two local builders, McStain and Village Homes. These were well-established companies who did an excellent job of providing quality properties and taking care of their customers. Hopefully, these two excellent companies can re-structure and survive in this difficult market.

What About The Financial Markets. The last few months have brought a strong rebound in the stock market. If you got out at the low point (and we know plenty who did) you missed out on a chance to recover much of what you had lost. Unfortunately there is a strong possibility that all the gains of the current rally can't be maintained and we can no longer say that there is more upside in the market than downside. There are some stocks that have been hit hard and not quite recovered. Among these are established companies like AT&T and Pfizer along with some speculative issues in the REIT and business development sectors. You can't go in and buy those at random but you may be able to tilt the odds in your favor by some careful due diligence. As I mentioned in my last post the stock market continues to have a better risk-return balance than many of the so called lower risk investments.

My Apologies To Regular Readers. I very much appreciate those of you who read this blog on a regular basis. Lately, I have done poor job of keeping you informed. It is my intent to post on a weekly basis and will do my best to re-establish that schedule in the future.