Home inspectors and home repairs, underwater mortgages

Real Estate Tip:
 

Make clear to your home inspector that you’d never hire him to do repair work on your property.  Otherwise, he may try to inflate or invent problems with your property in his inspection report and then try to get you to hire him to do the repair work.

Real Estate Insights:
 

Nearly 10 Million Mortgaged Homes are Still Underwater [View Article]: One of the main reasons real estate prices throughout much of the US have risen so precipitously recently is because of the lack of supply of houses to buy.  That shortage of supply is due in large measure to the millions of homeowners whose mortgages are still underwater and are unable to sell.  The ‘technical’ end to the recession occurred a long time ago but the mortgage crisis still looms large in many places particularly in working class and lower-income neighborhoods.  

Title searches, budgets, property maintenance costs, underwater mortgages

How much should I budget for property maintenance costs? 

Real Estate Tip:

Do a thorough title search before you buy a property to make sure that you get clear title free of outstanding liens or other encumbrances.

Real Estate Insights:
 

Underwater Mortgages Tick Up But Trend Down [View Article]: We’re not out of the woods yet with respect to people being upside down on their mortgages.  This is particularly true in many coastal real estate markets that tend to experience bigger price swings.  In New Jersey, my home state, home prices tend to increase between 4-5% annually.  Based on that average appreciation, New Jersey home prices at the height of the real estate market bubble in 2005 reached 2020 price levels!  We have a ways to go, but I’m an eternal optimist and things are getting better.