Drive down the cherry tree-lined driveway and come home to your efficient 1848 square foot manufactured home on 3.5 acres! Go beyond the ordinary ( 3 bedrooms, 1.75 baths, dining room, living room with fireplace, family room, and utility room), and savor the extraordinary- a quiet morning in the sun room with a view of your 2.0 acre fully fenced pasture. Enjoy marionberries, raspberries, blueberries, and over 30 fruit trees in this uniquely pastoral setting. A woodshop and a 1287 square foot 3-car multi-purpose garage complete this picture. You have many opportunities here- equistrian, hobby farmer, livestock, or build. Public water and mountain views are here! Call me with any questions or for an appointment to view this beautiful property!

Looking for a 4 bedroom home on acreage for under $255,000? Then look no further! This enormous 1960 square foot 2005 manufactured home boast an open floor plan that includes a dining room, family room with fireplace and French doors that lead to you deck, living room, and a large kitchen with a island. The master bedroom is located on the opposite end of the other 3 large bedrooms and includes a walk-in closet and 5 piece bath. Your .42 acre lot has a fully fenced backyard, ample parking, storage shed, and a large deck.  Call me with any questions or for a time when I can show you this great property!

I see it evey day on the 24 hour watch I have set up in the MLS - more price reductions than new listings in Snohomish County. Why? Here is what I am observing. We currently have at least a 1o month supply of inventory available to today's buyer and not enough active buyers to consume that amount of inventory. So sellers and agents are becoming desperate to sell their homes, hence the prices drop. I believe that this market is more about time on the market than price. Let's say you have six homes in one neighborhood with simular floor plans and lot sizes all priced within $5,000 of each other to start. Thirty days later you have one seller that is desperate to sell their home, they drop their price by $20,000, and in 30 more days their home goes under contract. What options do the other 5 sellers have? Is the market value really $20,000 below what they are on the market for? In the buyer's eyes they see the home that is under contract for $20,000 less than the other homes and think this is market value. Is it? In my opinion, no! The home under contract didn't have the patience to wait for their home to be exposed to the market and had to sell in a short amount of time. Even if the other 5 homes reduce their prices by $20,000, there are not enough active buyers to buy the remaining 5 homes. Just because we have sellers and agents that are lowering their prices out of desperation does not mean that the rest of the homes have to follow suit. Again, in this market where there are few active buyers, it is more time than price. Don't get me wrong, you do need to be competitively priced, but you don't have to give your house away to get it sold!

If you'd like an honest evaluation of the value of your home in today's market, give me a call.

What should you do if you can't pay your loan? Foreclosure is not the only answer. Here are some steps that can help prevent foreclosures.

1. Call your lender immediately, the number of your lender should be on your statement, and ask for the loan mitigation department.
2. Get a hold of a reputable credit counseling agency. You may want to call the Homeownership Preservation Foundation (888-995-HOPE) or contact your local HUD- approved counseling agency (800-569-4287) or www.hud.gov
3. Look into loan modification options. The following modifications could be available to you-

• Forebearance: an agreement to temporarilylet you pay less or nothing for a agreed upon time
• Reinstatement: pay the total amount you're behind in a lump sum by a certain date
• Repayment plans: a fixed amount of time to repay the amount you are behind by combining a portion of what's past due with your current payment
• Loan modifications: a written agreement that permanently changes one or more of the original terms, such as extending loan term or lowering interst rate

As you can see there are ways to avoid foreclosure if you are willing to make the effort. The lender does want to foreclose on your property and will work with you if you make yourself available to work with.

Now if your financial circumstances have changed that your are no longer able to afford your house, your mortgage company may offer some other options, like-

• Loan assumption: Even if your mortgage isn't assumable, your lender may allow someone else to take over the payments
• Short sale: This allows you to sell your house for less than the amount of the loan
• Deed-in-lieu- of foreclosure: The bank may be able to transfer title to your property to the mortgage company in exchange for the complete cancellation of your mortgage debt. In most cases, your lender will have required you to try to sell the house for 90 days before a deed-in-lieu will be considered.

Here some examples of loans available to first time home buyers or repeat buyers that require little to no down payment-

Fannie Mae Flexable 100                                                                      

• For repeat or first time home buyers                                     
• Down payment:   none
• Loan limit:   $417,000
• Income restrictions:   none
• Interest rates:  As much as 1/2 percent higher

Fannie Mae Mycommunity Mortgage

• For low-to-moderate income buyers who don't have a traditional credit history
• Down payment:  none
• Loan limit:   $417,000
• Income restrictions:  Combined household incomes must be $85,000 or less in the county based
• Interst rates:   As much as 1 percent higher

Federal Housing Administration  (FHA)

• For first time home buyers, people with fair to excellent credit and modest assets
• Down payment:  3%   but can be gifted or come from nonprofits (Nehemiah program)
• Loan limit:  $362,790 subjet to change
• Income restrictions:  none
• Interest rates:  comparable to conventional market rates if not better

Veterans Administration  (VA)

• For honorably discharged, retired or active duty service personal
• Down payment:  none
• Loan limit: $417,000
• Income restrictions:  None
• Interest rates: comparable to conventional loans

These are just a few of the available loans. To chose the right loan for you I would suggest talking with an experienced mortgage broker. I work with only qualified, trusted mortgage brokers and would willing to give you there name and number.

Snohomish County Stat Comparison	January	December	November	October
Residential Home Sales	343	441	445	544
Residential Home Pending Sales	768*	743	868	997
Active Residential Listings	4,644	4,239	5,021	5,404

*397 went pending in the month of January.

Interest rates have dropped, available inventory is up, and the local economy is strong. What does this all mean? We are in a strong buyer’s market. If you are looking to buy, now is the time! Home selection is tremendous and interest rates are at a 4 year low.  I'm already seeing a increase in buyer traffic and an increase in inventory - the housing market is starting to pick up!

For a breakdown of January’s sales by price go to SalesBreakdownbyMonth.xls .

Interest rates are still hovering around 5.5% with no points.

For all of 2007, existing home prices fell 1.8% and represented the first nationwide decline in houses since Realtors started tracking data over 40 years ago. BUT think of this, we have experienced historic gains of over 100% in the past several years in many parts of the country, so how bad is a 1.8% year over year decline. If the Stock market doubled in the past three years and the market then declined 1.8%- would it even make the headlines? Think about it!!  We are seeing a buyers real estate market along with mortgage rates at three year lows, when was the last time we have experienced this type of market? Once again, this is still a great time to buy real estate!

According to the Census Bureau about 14% of the population- about 39.8 million people- moved between 2005 and 2006, about the same percent as moved the year before. The Bureau report said:

• Nearly half of the reason given for moving (18.4 million) were housing-related, such as wanting a bigger or smaller house.
• The West had the highest moving rate (16 percent), followed by the South (15 percent), the Midwest (13 percent), and the Northeast (10 percent).
• Hispanics had the highest moving rate (18 percent), followed by blacks (17 percent), Asians (14 percent) and non-Hispanic whites (12 percent).
• In 2006, nearly one-third (30 percent) of all people living in renter-occupied housing units lived elsewhere a year earlier. The moving rate for people living in owner-occupied housing units were seven percent.
• Most movers stayed within the same county (62 percent), while 20 percent moved from a different county within the same state; 14 percent moved from a different state and three percent moved from abroad.

This article is from The Real Estate Digest courtesy of Chicago Title.

The foreclosure increase is not just limited to the United States, a Scottish reporting agency says as many as 170,000 families are now struggling to meet their mortgage commitments and is forecasting that some 45,000 will be forced from their homes next year. The estimates come as the global housing crisis spreads from the United States to the United Kingdom and even China, where hot markets have suddenly turned cold and overextended homeowners are unable to make payments. Scotlands Council of Mortgage Lenders is forecasting that home prices will increase one percent next year and property sales will fall by 15 percent. The country's mortgage approval rate already has dropped to its lowest point in decades. This article is from the Real Estate Digest.

Not ony is the Seattle area real estate market out performing other states but we are also out performing other country's. One common trend I see in both the United States and other country's is that the overextended homeowner is the one getting into trouble. A little advice, don't buy more home than you can afford on a "junk" loan!!

I came across this article in the Real Estate Digest  (complements of Chicago Title) and found it to be very informative. Here what the article says...Why are certain metropolitan areas able to double and even triple the national population growth rate? After examining the Top 10 Growing Markets in the U.S., NuWire, a market research firm, discovered that each market owed its growth to  a different and unique combination of economic factors, but there were similarities common to all.

Job growth was a key factor underlying the population growth of the Top 10 Growing Markets. Retiree and pre-retiree populations made up a significant portion of the growth in most of the markets, while young adults and children were also a substantial part of the growth in some of the markets.

Real estate in the Southwest is booming, with growth in almost every age group. A temperate climate, recreational and entertainment opportunities and an affordable cost of living and housing were advantages common to many of the Top 10 Growing Markets. Some areas experienced more growth in suburbs than in urban centers.

The Top 10 Growing Markets were selected based on the U.S. Census Bureau's population growth statistics for Metropolitian Statistical Areas with populations of at least one million people. The market ranked in order of percentage growth during the period from 2000 to 2006.

The Top 10 Growing Markets were:

1. Las Vegas, Nevada
2. Phoenix, Arizona
3. Riverside, California
4. Alanta, Georgia
5. Orlando, Florida
6. Austin, Texas
7. Charlotte, North Carolina
8. Houston, Texas
9. Dallas, Texas
10. Sacramento, California

My take on this article was that the Seattle area might not have the climate but we do have the job growth. Our local population growth might not have been in the top 10 but our real estate market sure didn't get hit like of the above mentioned area's. Maybe population growth at that rate isn't really a good thing for real estate? What is your take?