Elliott & Company Appraisers


February 2007	A Publication of ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers



BANKRATE.COM PREDICTS REFI BOOM THIS YEAR

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."

HIGH NUMBER OF EMPTY HOUSES LOWERING PRICES

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."

SALE OF TRAILER PARK COMMUNITY TO BRING HIGH RETURN

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."

QUOTES OF WIT & WISDOM

"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


For previous newsletters or columns written by Charlie Elliott, MAI, SRA, president of ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers, for mortgage publications visit our Web site at www.appraisalsanywhere.com.



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