Real Estate Veterans - Your Rochester Realtor- Rochester Minnesota

Good Economic News???

Jim Anderson — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:27:00 GMT

The recent economic news has been positive. Orders for durable goods and housing starts were higher than expected. However, everyone realizes that the housing data was pumped up by the end of the tax credit. In addition, the economic growth figures for the first quarter were revised downward slightly, personal spending was flat and weekly jobless claims are not continuing to improve. This means that the economy is growing, but not strongly enough to bring down the unemployment numbers sharply. The good news is that a moderate recovery should continue to keep rates low. All eyes will be focused upon the employment numbers to be released Friday as an important indication as to just how strong this recovery is shaping up to be.

VA Home Loan Program given some muscle

Jim Anderson — Sun, 30 May 2010 15:59:00 GMT

NAR First Vice President Moe Veissi testifed before Congress in regards to the VA Home loan program. There is support for Congress to make permanent the current loan limits that provide loans up to 125 percent of local area median price, set to expire in 2011. Congress is also toying with the idea of the VA adjustable-rate mortgage or hybrid ARM's. They should of been doing this already for years!!

Minneapolis / St. Paul March sales numbers

Jim Anderson — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:03:00 GMT

Home buyers and sellers in the Twin Cities metro helped make March a positive month for the local housing industry. The Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS® (MAAR), using data from the Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota, Inc. (RMLS), shows a number of increases in industry ranking categories.

The number of new listings, pending sales and closed sales all experienced positive gains from February to March. New listings increased 39% last month from 7,165 to 9,991. From a year-over-year perspective, new listings were up 27%. Pending sales saw a 43% increase, rising from 3,527 in February to 5,051 in March; a 14% increase from March of 2009. And closed sales, sitting at 2,157 in February, jumped 52% to 3,269 sales in March, making it the third consecutive month-over-month increase for pending sales.

I wonder what will happen when the tax credit expires on April 30

Local Housing Spikes in March!!

Jim Anderson — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:08:00 GMT

March sales data is in, pending sales were up

a whopping 28% over March of
2010 and new listings were up 26%. This weekend our listings in the Salem Heights subdivision had over 70 familes attend!!