12-22-16 Newz//: Strange real estate listings, Turn times

Popular (and sometimes strange) real estate listings

 Take a break and check out these listings!!

The 4 Most Interesting Home Listings of 2016 – Fun Video

Video is 2 minutes and 40 seconds long and very entertaining!!

Can’t describe it. You just gotta see it!!

http://www.realtor.com/videos/video-the-4-most-interesting-home-listings-of-2016/943a657f-f1fc-4290-b608-fe158002f548

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2016’s top 10 most popular (and sometime strange) homes for sale

Here are 3 of them

No. 1 is the country’s biggest fixer-upper – over 60,000 sq.ft. in Texas. Price: Listed for $3.6 million

5. The cave dwelling, Undisclosed address, Festus, Missouri. Price: Listed for $314,900

10. The ‘Amityville Horror’ house, 108 Ocean Ave, Amityville, New York. Price: Listed for $850,000, entered into contract in November

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/38783-here-are-2016s-top-10-most-popular-homes-for-sale

 Xmas links – fun and weird – Santa’s house and weird holiday lights!!

 Zillow “listing”: Santa’s House at the North Pole

Interesting reading and photos. But no Xmas music with the video and no reindeer or elves photos. Darn!!

What do you think of the value?

http://www.zillow.com/santas-house/

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Bah Humbug: 5 Bizarre Holiday Light Fails

Warning: Strange and creepy…

http://blog.rismedia.com/2016/bah-humbug-5-holiday-light-fails

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27 embarrassing real estate ad fails that will have you cringing

Warning: some may be offensive or creepy. Just scroll past to the fun ones!! I love the “cat lady”…

I can’t describe them. You just have to see them ;>

http://news.buzzbuzzhome.com/2014/09/bad-real-estate-ad.html

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Is the New AMC business model broken?

In the January, 2017 issue

Topics include:

• – Why the AMC business model of low fees, excessive requirements, treating appraisers as if they cannot be trusted, etc. is failing
• – Why AMCs keep trying to get 3 day turn times and low fees without much success
• – AMCs before and after HVCC
• – How AMCs can change to survive
• – What it means for you, most important

Subscribe to the paid monthly Appraisal Today by 12/31/16 and get a tax writeoff!!

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 Direct lender – average turn times by state in business days, a very wide range:

Note: some states had little or no data and were not included.

FYI, the January issue of Appraisal Today includes this article: “Is the New AMC business model broken?”, which discusses AMCs and why they are obsessed with 3 day turn times, among many other topics…

 

WHAT DO YOU THINK? POST YOUR COMMENTS AT

www.appraisaltodayblog.com

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Fascinating gifs displaying mortgage rate trends

Thanks to Jonathan Miller for this Most Interesting link!

Can’t describe it. You just have to see it. Plus links to his other graphs with very technical explanations of how they were done.

http://lenkiefer.com/2016/12/15/more-amazing-mortgage-viz

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HOW TO USE THE NUMBERS BELOW. Appraisals are ordered after the loan application. These numbers tell you the future for the next few weeks. For more information on how they are compiled, go to www.mbaa.org

Note: I publish a graph of this data every month in my printed newsletter, Appraisal Today. For more information or get a FREE sample issue go to https://www.appraisaltoday.com/products.htm or send an email to info@appraisaltoday.com . Or call 800-839-0227, MTW 8AM to noon, Pacific time.

Mortgage applications increased 2.5 percent from one week earlier

WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 21, 2016) – , according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending December 16, 2016.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 2.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 2 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index increased 3 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 3 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 0.1 percent compared with the previous week and was 1 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 57.9 percent of total applications from 57.2 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 6.5 percent of total applications, its highest level since February 2016. The average loan size for purchase applications reached its second-highest survey level at $312,000.

The FHA share of total applications decreased to 11.5 percent from 11.6 percent the week prior. The VA share of total applications increased to 12.0 percent from 11.9 percent the week prior. The USDA share of total applications decreased to 0.8 percent from 0.9 percent the week prior.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) increased to its highest level since May 2014, 4.41 percent, from 4.28 percent, with points increasing to 0.38 from 0.36 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with jumbo loan balances (greater than $417,000) increased to its highest level since April 2014, 4.36 percent, from 4.29 percent, with points increasing to 0.26 from 0.24 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages backed by the FHA increased to its highest level since April 2014, 4.15 percent, from 4.02 percent, with points decreasing to 0.29 from 0.33 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to its highest level since January 2014, 3.64 percent, from 3.52 percent, with points decreasing to 0.34 from 0.38 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs increased to its highest level since September 2013, 3.45 percent, from 3.28 percent, with points decreasing to 0.26 from 0.28 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.

Please Note 

MBA Offices will be closed Friday, December 23, 2016 and will reopen on Tuesday, January 3, 2017. Results for the week ending December 23, 2016 will not be released on December 28, 2016. Release of the survey will resume on Wednesday, January 4, 2017 at 7:00 a.m. with results for the two weeks prior.

The survey covers over 75 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, and has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. Base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100