The Appraiser's Blog...

Are you kidding me! GO AWAY WINTER. Is anyone else itching for summer? I actually got out last Wednesday and raked the front yard. We have so many big trees around our house that we get to rake it twice, once in the fall and once in the spring to get all the matted down leaves up. Lucky us.

    I cant wait for the grass to green up and start growing. It looks so dismal out there and the yard looks like heck.  It will be interesting seeing the yards this summer at all the vacant foreclosures. I am sure the banks wont be paying to have them mowed. I wonder if any of the neighbors will just mow it to make it somewhat look like people live there.

Speaking of foreclosures... Holy smokes. I have been appraising many homes that have been foreclosed on. Homes that are selling for below $80K that just a few years ago were worth $180-190K. Quite a correction in some markets is happening and I think it is gonna get worse. I haven't done the research yet but I would guess the worst of it will come when the majority of the 2-3 year arms come to their adjustment periods. I got to think that time is growing near. Enjoy the coming weather.

Lanny out.

Speaking of Fall, have you seen home prices! Looking at MLS recently I am seeing a lot of properties selling for considerably less than their original list price. I think people are finally realizing that they are going to have to bite the bullet and lower the price to get it to move. There are some bargains for homes out there you just have to live with putting in a little elbow grease to get em back up to snuff. I really don't know why homeowners make a big hullabaloo that there home is not selling for what they want and that the market is in turmoil. It is all relative, the home you want to buy has most likely dropped in price too. Obviously there are some homeowners that are in trouble because they cant sell because they are upside down in their mortgage but really... who's fault is that. Spend less and they wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. I feel worst for first time home buyers that did 100% financing on a townhome. OUCH! Many developments are depreciating now due to oversupply of new construction and new first time home buyers can no longer get that easy financing so there are no replacement buyers to sell too. Anyway nuff about real estate.

Lets look a head to happy thoughts of snow. I personally like winter and snow, you get to practice your space management by precisely snow blowing/shoveling your drive and sidewalks, if it ever snows enough I get to take the kids out snowmobiling, there is always ice fishing (nothing beats sitting on a 5 gallon pail in the middle of the lake with a beer that never gets warm!), you get to engage the 4 wheel drive the first significant snow, and snowboarding is always a good time. I think people that don't enjoy winter bring it on themselves. You have to live it to enjoy it. If you keep yourself inside all winter of course you are gonna hate it. My son Jack just turned two this August and this is the first winter he will really be able to enjoy the snow. It should make for some good video footage. So next time it snows think like a kid and get out in it!

                                          Out,

                                           Lanny

    Finally got back on the river last Thursday. Headed out about 3 o'clock in the afternoon or so. Pretty windy up top but nice and still down at the bottom of the gorge. Temps were in the 60's and water was pretty decent too. We kayak down in Hastings for the most part and while the water wasnt huge by any means it was nice to get out after missing a whole season. Three kids at home has kept us busy to say the least.

    The Vermillion River in Hastings is Class II-III whitewater when the water levels are low to medium and it can crank up to Class IV+ when the water levels go up. It is a short run only about 1/2 mile or so but provides some great surfing and play. There were about 5 or 6 of us down there so that was nice to have some people to chit chat with while waiting your turn to ride. Railroad was fun although not deep enough to throw any ends. You could spin nice and practice your back surfing to no end. S-turn was small but surfable and Donut Hole was Donut Hole. Spin till tomorrow if you wanted to.

    Here are a few picks of us paddling down there. The scenery is awesome and most people dont even know that this area exists. It is a great area to go out and hike to explore.

This is Donut Hole at about 300 CFS(Cubic Feet per Second)

This is right below Railroad Hole around 300 CFS

Here is S-Bend at 300 CFS

Donut Hole at about 75 CFS

More Donut Hole around 75 CFS

We are hoping to get back out next Thursday to get some footage for a video segment on the show "Out & About" on channel 5? or something like that Saturday nights... I will post it when we find out when it will air....

Until next time have a good week...

Lanny

Well here we are just a bit over a week away from last post and things are a changing. You may or may not have heard that some of the sub-prime lenders are taking it square in the face this week. Many invertors appear to be pulling out of this area of the market due to understated figures and many, many first payment defaults which causes the lenders to have to buy back the loans and this effects their liquidity. I guess this is bad and good in a way. The market is correcting itself but at the same time it is taking away a lot of options for those that are on the borderline sub-prime fence. Kind of sounding like a few bad apples are running the bunch. This will definitely have an effect on appreciation of homes as there are less potential buyers in the pools so sellers are going to have to reduce prices to get there homes to move. On the flip side this could be a great time to buy a house if you are one of the good credit folks. It may be a more important time than ever to get an accurate appraisal on a home you are purchasing! If the appraisers is using comps from 8 months ago on your appraisal you are likely paying too much especially if it is a townhome or a condo. On another note...

HOME INSPECTIONS. Appraisal WerX has a running discount with it's sister company Inspection WerX. If Inspection WerX does the home inspection on the property and the buyer decides to move forward with the transaction Appraisal WerX will discount the appraisal $100 as we already have all the info we need to complete the appraisal. This is very convenient a loan officer as two birds can be killed with one stone. On top of that we will have it back faster as the field work is already done. Your borrower will love it to as they get to save some $$$.

That concludes this blog. Till next week...

Lanny

Well I guess the ever changing world of the internet is pushing me to start one of these blog deals. I am not sure how I feel about these yet but I guess we can give it a whirl and see what happens. We will be posting issues that may be pertinent to your industry in the mortgage world and our industry in the appraisal world.  When new blogs are posted you will get an email update sent to you with a link so if you want to take a look at them feel free to browse to it.

If you are reading this you were included in the initial email update to announce the blog. If you want to continue receiving an email update when a new blog has been posted just follow the link to subscribe or add to your favorites in your browser. Out of courtesy to our clients we will only announce this one time to all.

First off lets address more daylight... The United States Congress has extended Daylight Saving Time (DST) this year by approximately four weeks. Spring ahead those clocks on March 11th, 2007 this year. Hopefully that will get us back to that 9:30 pm daylight feeling we enjoy in the middle of summer. Remember some of your electronic devices may not handle this DST change so watch em close so you don't miss an important event.

Next up.... Some of you maybe wondering about appreciation of your customers homes.  The greater metropolitan area definitely has seen a slow down. There are some pockets of homes that are experiencing good appreciation still but those are much more sparse these days. The 10% per year homeowners anticipate is not there anymore. In fact some areas are flat and some are even experiencing a decline in home prices. One sector of ownership has taken it hard in the cheek in the last year or so. Condos, and even some townhome developments. There has been such a building boom with these type homes that they have run dry on buyers. No buyers means that the builders are having to lower the price of the new models to reduce inventory. This in turn lowers all of the existing home listing prices around them, thus lowering prices around the area. One reason these prospective buyers have dried up is higher interest rates. Many renters could afford to buy these homes at historically low interest rates. As rates rise renting looks more attractive. Another reason is going to be the withdrawal of "interest only loans" which allow buyers to purchase more home than they can afford. There are other factors too but I don't have all day to write! For a loan officers convenience we can look at some comparables in your customers area to see if their idea of market value is in the ball park. Just give us a call and we will see what we can do. There are certain restrictions to this service and we can explain these when you contact us.

That is it for this "blog". We will try and update this weekly or so. Until next time enjoy the snow we only have a month and half left to go till the windows come down in the car!!!

Lanny Freng
Owner-Appraisal WerX