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Archive for April, 2011
Just a short drive over the mountain from our North Georgia Mountain Lakes lays Beautiful Lake Burton. However this past Wednesday, catastrophe struck this High-End Luxury Mountain Lake as a EF-3 Tornado ripped through and skipped across Lake Burton leaving total devastation in it’s path.
Click Here To Read More On The Story
Please keep all these folks and their families across Alabama and Georgia who have lost their lives and their homes in your thoughts and earnest prayers.
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Just yesterday, the Federal Open Market Committee voted to leave the Fed Funds Rate unchanged within its current target range of 0.000-0.250 percent.
The vote was 10-0 — the third straight meeting after which the FOMC vote was unanimous.
In its press release, the FOMC noted that since its March 2011 meeting, the economic recovery is proceeding “at a moderate pace” and that labor markets conditions are “improving gradually”. Household spending and business investment “continue[s] to expand” but the housing sector remains “depressed”.
Furthermore, the FOMC’s statement discussed the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate of (1) Managing inflation levels, and (2) Fostering maximum employment. The statement acknowledged recent inflation pressures on the economy, but it expects those pressures — because they’re related to oil and food prices — to be “transitory”. Unemployment remains “elevated”.
The FOMC statement also re-affirms the group’s plan to keep the Fed Funds Rate near zero percent “for an extended period” of time, and to keep its $600 billion bond market support package — more commonly called “QE2″ — intact.
The statement’s verbiage suggests that a third support package may be created after QE2 ends in June 2011, depending on the needs of the economy.
Mortgage market reaction to the FOMC statement has been positive thus far. Mortgage rates in Blue Ridge and Blairsville are unchanged, but leaning lower. And, as always, market sentiment could shift quickly. If you like today’s mortgage rates, consider locking in.
The FOMC’s next scheduled meeting is a 2-day event, June 20-21 2011.
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After posting an all-time low in February, New Home Sales rebounded strongly last month.
Based on joint research from the Census Bureau and HUD, 300,000 new, single-family homes were sold on a seasonally-adjusted, annualized basis in March. It’s an 11 percent improvement from February, and right in-line with the 6-month average.
The supply of available new homes improved, too, in March, falling by close to a full month.
At the current pace of sales, the entire new home housing stock would be sold in 7.3 months. This is the second-best reading in a year, a statistic partially-supported by the relatively small number of new homes on the market.
There are now just 183,000 new homes available for sale across the country. Here in the North Georgia Mountains we currently have 2,194 Active homes on our Multiple Listings Service. Of those 2,194 Homes, Only 153 of them are either Under Construction or Completed New. That’s the smallest reading since the Census Bureau started to keep New Home Sales records beginning in 1995.
However, it should be noted that the March New Home Sales data is suspect. The reading’s margin of error exceeds it actual measurement by almost double. It’s possible that sales volume fell in March instead of rising, therefore. The Census Bureau says as much in its footnotes:
The change [in new home sales] is not statistically significant; that is, it is uncertain whether there was an increase or decrease [in March 2011].
We won’t know for certain until future data revisions are made.
If you’re a home buyer in Blue Ridge Mountains, though, and want to stay ahead of the market, you won’t want to take chances. If the Census Bureau finds its data to be accurate after revisions are made, new home prices will already have started to rise.
You may get your best home value by buying sooner rather than later.
Related articles
- January 2011 Sees Single-Family Housing Starts Fall (thefrontporchview.com)
- New home sales hover near all-time low (money.cnn.com)
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The Federal Open Market Committee starts a two-day meeting today, the third of its 8 scheduled meetings this year.
The FOMC is a special, 12-person committee within the Federal Reserve. It’s led by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and the group is responsible for voting on our nation’s monetary policy. This includes setting the Fed Funds Rate, the rate at which banks borrow money from each other overnight.
The general public tends to confuse the Fed Funds Rate for “mortgage rates” but, as shown in the chart at top, the two interest rates are very different. There is no direct correlation between the Fed Funds Rate and everyday mortgage rates in the North Georgia Mountains.
Since 1990, the two benchmark rates have been separated by as much as 5.29 percent, and have been as close as 0.52 percent.
Today, the separation between the Fed Funds Rate and the national average for a standard, 30-year fixed rate mortgage is 4.625 percent. This spread will widen — or shrink — beginning 12:30 PM ET Wednesday. That’s when the FOMC adjourns and releases its public statement to the markets.
According to Wall Street, there’s a 100% chance that the FOMC leaves the Fed Funds Rate in its current “target range” of 0.000-0.250 percent, the same range in which it’s been since December 2008. Depending on the verbiage in the press release, plus the comments of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke in his scheduled, 2:15 PM ET press briefing, mortgage rates aren’t expected to steady as well.
If the Fed projects higher growth in late-2011/early-2012, or hints at new market stimuli, expect mortgage rates to rise on concerns about inflation. Inflation is bad for mortgage rates, in general.
On the other hand, if the Fed indicates that the economy is slowing down, or that it plans to withdraw its existing, $600 billion bond market stimulus, look for mortgage rates to fall.
It’s hard to be a home buyer in the North Georgia Mountains area when the Federal Open Market Committee meets. There’s just so much that can change mortgage rates and rising mortgage rates can affect purchasing power in a flash.
In the 6 months since November 2010, home affordability is off 9%.
So, if you’re shopping for mortgages, or just floating a rate, consider getting locked in before the FOMC issues its press release Wednesday. Once the statement hits, mortgage rates could soar.
Related articles
- Cost of Living Pushes Mortgage Rates Higher (thefrontporchview.com)
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How do you use your garage? If you’re like most homeowners, you park your car(s) in it, then use the remaining available space for the random storage of “things that don’t go in the house”.
Your garage can do so much more — all it needs is a little bit of organization.
In this 4-minute video from Lowe’s YouTube series, you’ll see how cabinetry, shelving, hooks and a master plan can add purpose to the non-car areas of your garage, and help you “make space”. You’ll even de-clutter parts of your home.
The video is rife with pointers for doing your garage right, including:
- How to create “storage zones” of exactly the right size
- How to organize sporting goods for easy access and optimal space-saving
- Where to place trash receptacles, garden equipment, and seasonal decorations
According to the video, building out a garage should be a weekend project. You may finish faster, or slower, however, depending on the complexity and size of your garage and your storage needs.
Finishing a garage creates “space” — a helpful addition to any home. In addition, it enhances a home’s appeal to prospective buyers. Use the video above as a starting point and inspiration, and consider shopping storage specialty stores to finish out your project.
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