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February 2007 |
A Publication of ELLIOTT®
& Company Appraisers |
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BANKRATE.COM PREDICTS REFI BOOM THIS YEAR |
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 As
interest rates continue to rise in the aftermath of the biggest
home-refinancing boom in history, another refi boom is the last
thing most people expect to happen. Yet that is exactly what at
least one financial expert is predicting.
In an article he wrote for Bankrate.com, Holden Lewis stated, "2007
will bring an unusual refinancing boom as hundreds of thousands of
borrowers bail out of their adjustable-rate home mortgages while the
getting is good."
Lewis did not predict what the Federal Reserve's action would be in
'07. Instead he wrote in the article that what that board will do
is, "anyone’s guess."
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HIGH NUMBER OF EMPTY
HOUSES LOWERING PRICES |
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 The
U.S. Census Bureau reported that the number of vacant houses in this
country jumped 30%, in the third quarter of 2006, to 1.9 million homes, which, real
estate economists say, account for about half of the single-family homes
on the market.
The Census report noted that a record 4.6% of the country’s housing
units were vacant in that quarter. In the 1990s that figure
had averaged at 3.5%. To return to the average vacancy rate of the '90s,
1.3 million of the 5.7 million empty houses must be sold or rented.
"If buyers are waiting longer, then an increasing number of homes become
vacant, which means sellers become desperate and prices fall further,"
said Anirban Basu, CEO of Sage Policy Group, an economic and policy
consulting firm in Baltimore. "That’s where we are in the cycle."
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SALE OF TRAILER PARK
COMMUNITY TO BRING HIGH RETURN |
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Lot owners in Briny Breezes, FL,
voted to sell their trailer park community to Ocean Land
Investments, a developer out of Boca Raton, FL. If Palm Beach
County Commissioners and Florida officials approve rezoning of
the 43 acres to allow 900 condos, a luxury hotel and a marina,
residents of this coastal town will receive a handsome return
off their investment in the property.
One resident, who paid $150,000 for his trailer a couple of
years ago, is in line to make over $1 million when (and if) the
sale goes through. Another paid $37,500 for his singlewide nine
years ago and will be paid about $800,000 if the sale takes
place.
"This is pretty much it for an
affordable community along the coast," said Debbi Murray of the
Historical Society of Palm Beach County. "It’s just another
piece of Florida that is going to disappear." |
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QUOTES OF WIT &
WISDOM |
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"To avoid criticism, do nothing,
say nothing, be nothing."
-- Elbert Hubbard
"As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well-used
brings happy death." -- Leonardo da Vinci
"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who
overcomes his enemies." --Aristotle
"Every improvement in communication makes the bore more
terrible."
-- Frank Colby
"Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty and dies
with chaos." -- Will Durant
"Sports do not build character. They reveal it."
-- Heywood Broun
"Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more
difficult problem." -- Henry Kissinger
"No amount of learning can cure stupidity, and higher
education positively fortifies it." --
Stephen Vizinczey
"Technology is a way of organizing the universe so that man
doesn’t have to experience it." -- Max Frisch
"The great secret of power is never will to do more than you
can accomplish." -- James Garfield
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