Analysts predict the Fed will trim its key rate, now at 4.5 %, by one-quarter of a percentage point at that time. A few even speculate about the possibility of a half-point cut.
What are Vegas oddsmakers saying about an interest rate cut?....
People want to buy but often find the financing is a roadblock. Can You Remember Creative Financing? Get out those books!
According to the 2007 National Housing Pulse Survey from October, 59% of Americans think "now is a good time to buy".
Interestingly as I wrote in the December newsletter, I see this in the hundreds of log files of real estate websites. People are consistently coming to realty websites. But, it seems that their willingness to register as a lead is down. ( I believe that can be more than just a market driven thing, but it might be the freely available listings at verticals like Edgio, Trulia and such. Even smaller players like Picky Homes offers real estate listings without registration.)
Mortgage Brokers are having a rough go of it currently in many parts of the U.S. Just like the Realtors. Mostly because of tightening of lending requirements.
I recently witnessed a couple methods that Mortgage Pros are using to ramp up their chances of landing an application.
Has this ever happend to you?
You are watching your favorite sports team or TV show, or banging out new brillaint posts on your blog, and the phone rings. Hoping that its your loved one, you eagerly answer. "Hello?"
This is how it usually happens to me...."Hello, Mr. Okefay (My name is O'Keefe") we are calling from..." and they go into some lie that they are giving people in my area special rates, or some gal named Mary is calling from their San Diego office, when clearly she is from India, and she is not named Mary.This despite the fact that I am on the do not call list. And is there anything more annoying than those computer calls that hang up on us? No doubt this is some way to confirm our number as live.
Well the Harris Interactive Financial Services Group released a new poll this week and I guess I am not alone the target of these aggressive tactics.
66-percent of consumers surveyed online believe marketing strategies on mortgage loans are "not credible.” And, of the 2,383 poll respondents, only 34-percent found the marketing strategies “credible," while 22-percent called them "not credible at all."
Get the insider track on 2006
....online real estate marketing predictions
Happy New Year! everyone. I just posted my predictions for the new year. Check it out.
Virtual Tours for me have always been a bit cartoonish. They have always seemed kind of cool, but never seemed to have much viability as a marketing tool. They always made me dizzy.;-)
I will be making my real estate marketing predictions for 2005 in the next few days and one tool that I think finally has some possibility is audio and video.
(If you have an interest we will be launching this service very shortly. Unlike other service, ours will act as a marketing tool for you in the engines.---read on--call at 310-533-9145 or write Tim @ SpiderJuiceTechnoliges.com )
Google and Yahoo have recently launched a search tool for video. What if you could get these positioned indepently. Call or write now to reserve your spot.
To the dismay of the doomsdayers, the housing bubble just won't burst.
As I have said before, supply and demand is a tough nut to crack as long as interest rates stay favorable.
In California, home builders will still fall nearly 40,000 units short of the amount of new housing that is needed to meet continued strong demand, even though builders will start construction on as many homes and apartments in 2005 as they did in 2004. This according to a recent forcast put out just recently by the CBIA.
The forecast, authored by CBIA Chief Economist Alan Nevin, projects that California will see a total of 210,000 housing starts in 2005, equaling 2004's production numbers. Last year was the first year since 1989 in which construction began on more than 200,000 new homes and apartments.
Nevin expects prices of single-family product should increase 4 percent to 5 percent on average statewide.
On the multifamily side, he forecast that 55,000 apartments and condominiums will be built, adding that the split between the two can't be determined because many projects originally permitted as rentals convert to condominiums prior to completion.
We have been hearing forever how the bubble is going to burst, and interest rates can't stay low forever.
In fact, The Wall Street Journal polled 56 economists, and 55 agree: Long-term interest rates will RISE in 2005.
Youch!
No worries though. As it turns out, http://www.ArborResearch.com has found that in the last 6 Wall Street Polls, the "experts" have predicted rising interest rates in each and every poll. However, interest rates have of course moved down.
Not only that, interest rates have been consistently moving down since the early 1980s, and the experts have consistently predicted incorrectly. With all due respect to the Journal, these guys suck. My 6 year old could have been right, more often.
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud,President, Investment U alerted me to this silliness through his online letter.
He says, "The actual forecasting record of the world's highest paid financial "experts" for forecasting interest rates is nothing short of disastrous...
...Since 1982, the beginning of Wall Street Journal's Forecasting Survey, the experts have gotten the direction of interest rates right in their predictions less than one third of the time.
Said another way, you or I could have flipped a coin as our prediction of the direction of interest rates. And we would have crushed the predictions of the experts.Right now, 55 out of 56 experts are predicting higher long-term interest rates in 2005.Most people will believe these forecasts. If they have any value at all, it is as a contrary indicator... Which tells us that interest rates may well fall in 2005."
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