Santa Fe Real Estate Blog

Borrowers can expect more scrutiny from lenders. Lenders will verify income, assets, credit, debt ratios, current home values.

Be Prepared:

- full documentation of income & assets

- verification of employment and job stability

- higer credit score requirements

- lower loan to value ratios

- lower cash amounts for cash-out refinances

- higher downpayment

Santa Fe County median home sales price down, with the exception of Las Campanas. 

Santa Fe City median sales price grew from 2007,                 $368,000 to $427,000, showing many homes are holding their value.

Santa Fe City Median Home Prices, 3rd Qtr:

NE $707,000

NW $380,000

SE $649,500

SW $273,000

Sellers are now getting closer to their original asking price. Last January selling price as percentage of the original price dropped to 76%. In September, it was 89%.

Baro Shalizi, President of the Santa Fe Association of Realtors notes, “Inventories have increased, but it is great time for buyers. There is a lot to choose from and sellers are more realistic.”

Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Reform - increases permanent FHA loan limits to the greater of $271,050 or 115% of local area median home price, capped at $625,000. The down payment requirement on FHA loans will go up to 3.5% (from 3%). The effective date is immediate upon enactment, but the new loan limits will be effective on December 31, 2008.

VA Loans - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is raising the ceilings on its no-down payment home loans from the current $417,000 to as much as $729,000. VA home loans are available for veterans to purchase or construct single-family homes, and to purchase condominiums or cooperative apartments. There are about 2.3 million existing VA home loans, more than 90 percent made with no down payment.

New Homebuyer Tax Credit - For qualifying home purchases after April 11, 2008 and before July 1, 2009, the act provides eligible first time homebuyers a refundable tax credit equal to the lesser of 10% of the purchase price of a principal residence or $7,500 ($3750 for married individuals filing separately). A taxpayer is considered a first-tiem homebuyer if he (or spouse, if married) had no ownership interest in a principal residence during the 3 year period before the purchase of the home to which the credit applies.

” I am now telling you that between now and the next six months you have to buy a house”  Mad Money Blog  7/23/08

Nationally, 55% of homes sold from April through June were affordable to families earning the US median income of $61,500, according to a quarterly report released Tuesday by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). That is up from 53.8% in the first quarter of 2008, and the most affordable home prices have been since the second quarter of 2004.    CNNMoney.com  8/21/08

Southern California: Home sales jump 13.8% in July. The year over year increase, is the first since 2005.

Florida: Single family existing home sales rose in Florida for the first time in more than two years. While only six more homes sold in July 2008 than in July 2007, it could indicate a stabilization in Florida’s housing sector.

Phoenix: A 17% boost in home-resale transactions compared with the previous July is an encouraging trend.

“The biggest declines, they’re  all behind us now,” says Nigel Gault, chief domestic economist at Global Insight, a research firm.

Sales of new homes rose by 2.4% in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 515,000 units.    Commerce Department  8/25/08

Existing sales were up 3/1% in July. The sales rate was the highest since February. Sales averaged a pace of 4.95 million the past three months, the same rate as the previous period, indicating purchases may have touched a bottom.     Bloomberg 8/25/08