Lisa Faria Realtor Are you above Water?

3.9 Million Homeowners Now Above Water  Two key housing indicators were released in the past week that give us more data and context around the state of the market now and moving further into 2014. The first is negative equity and the second is pending home sales. Negative equity improves Thanks to rising home prices, the number of homeowners who find themselves owing more on their mortgage than their home is worth is dropping. This is good news for the move-up market. The more owners who are able to sell without a loss the more housing supply is likely to come on the market this year. Nationally, more than 9.8 million homeowners remain underwater, but the number has fallen for seven consecutive quarters, pulling nearly 3.9 million homeowners out of negative equity, according to Zillow's latest Fourth Quarter Negative Equity Report. While the number may still seem alarming, it's good to remember that negative equity is only a problem to those owners who want or need to move while they are still underwater. Economists, however, do expect the situation to continue to impact the housing market for a few years to come. To see how negative equity fares in your market, check out Zillow's interactive map of the U.S., which allows you to enter a ZIP code, city or county and see how your local market is doing. Slow start for sales In a separate report this past week, the National Association of Realtors said that pending home sales – a prime indicator of sales over the next month or two – were essentially unchanged in January. NAR's Pending Home Sales Index was up 0.1% to 95 in January, but is 9% below January 2013 when it was 104.4. What this means is we're likely to see fewer home sales in the first quarter of the year than we saw during the same period in 2013. Many point to an exceptionally bad winter and lingering problems with lack of homes for sale as causes for the stall. The slowdown doesn't mean we'll have an all-around slow year in housing in 2014, though. Things are very likely to pick up during the traditionally fast-paced spring and summer buying seasons. In fact, we expect particularly hot markets like San Francisco and Silicon Valley to have stellar years again – both in terms of price increases and sales volume.

Lisa Faria & Peter Fleming gain New Certification

 Intero Real Estate is proud to announce that Lisa Faria & Peter Fleming have completed the real

estate industry’s most comprehensive new home sales course to earn their national certification as

a Certified New Home Specialist™. With this certification, (he/she) joins a group dedicated to

providing the highest level of professionalism and service to builders and new home buyers.

“This course is recognized as one of the very best ever offered in real estate,” explains Mrs. Faria-

Fleming “The training covered architectural design and planning, blueprint reading, topography,

building site design, evaluating quality construction, materials, methods, construction

terminology and scheduling. We also studied successful buyer/builder relations, all aspects of

customer service and the use of various organizational tools and systems. This provides me with

the expertise, strategies and tools to more professionally assist anyone interested in a brand new

or existing home.”

Completion of the Certified New Home Specialist™ training involves a total of over 22 hours of

specialized course work and successful completion of the CNHS certification test. The course

was created by trainer, author and consultant Dennis Walsh, who is recognized internationally as

a leading authority in all aspects of residential construction, new home sales and marketing.

Lisa Faria and Peter Fleming of Intero Real Estate Earns Real Estate’s Premier Residential Construction Certification

Intero Real Estate is proud to announce that Lisa E. Faria and Peter Fleming have completed the real estate industry’s most comprehensive residential construction course to earn their national certification as a Residential Construction Certified™ professional. With this certification, Lisa Faria and Peter Fleming join a group dedicated to providing the highest level of professionalism and service.

“This course is recognized as one of the very best ever offered in real estate,” explains Mr. Fleming. “The training covered architectural design and planning, blueprint reading, topography, building site design, evaluating quality construction, materials, methods, construction terminology and scheduling. This provides me with the expertise, strategies and tools to more professionally assist anyone interested in a brand new or existing home.”

“This knowledge provides a foundation that allows them to communicate more confidently and professionally with buyers, sellers, appraisers, inspectors, lenders, designers, engineers and construction professionals. This expertise positions them to better help their customers make their best decisions.”

Completion of the Residential Construction Certified™ training involves over 10 hours of specialized interactive course work and successful completion of RCC certification test. The course was created by trainer, author and consultant Dennis Walsh, who is recognized internationally as a leading authority in all aspects of residential construction, new home sales and marketing. 

Lisa Faria and Peter Fleming  can be reached at 408-857-9924, or 831-206-0775 www.LPFteam.com

We're not big on forecasts for the sake of forecasts. But since we do happen to live and breathe real estate, we thought it made sense to at least give a few high-level observations about where the market is likely headed this year.
 
 
Home sales
 
We expect sales to continue to outperform 2013 levels in markets with hot economies. Here in Silicon Valley, for example, we don't anticipate any slowing whatsoever. In fact, we're expecting a faster pace all around in this part of the world.
 
However, this will probably not be the case in all pockets of the U.S. While we expect steady sales and healthy markets, we think that markets where prices may have climbed a bit too high this year and markets that still struggle with low inventory may not see the same incredible summer sale season that they saw in 2013.
 
Values
 
While sales will be more intense in some markets and just as steady or slightly cooler in others, home values will increase all around, in our view. This is because demand continues to be really strong. And while home building has picked up pace a bit more this year, it so far hasn't been enough to offset low inventory in markets that really need it. This shortage will create more intense situations for buyers – more competition, more multiple bids.
 
All of this points to increased home values.
 
Inventory
 
As already leaked in the predictions above, you can see that inventory again in 2014 will pose challenges in some markets. The good news is that rising home values have put homeowners in a better place overall this year and pulled a lot more owners out of negative equity. That means more freedom to sell.
 
Unfortunately, we do still expect lower inventory than demand in certain areas – namely those that have had the worst inventory situations in the last few years. That's because they're still trying to catch up with years of pent-up demand.
 
 
Mortgage rates
 
Mortgage rates are a funny thing. They sit at incredibly low levels, yet every time there's a slight uptick the market goes crazy. Doomsayers start throwing their predictions out that the rise in rates will derail home sales.
 
Mortgage rates do impact home sales to a certain degree. And while we expect some little increases here and there next year, the Fed hasn't indicated any major moves in the near future that would impact rates – and therefore home sales - on a serious level.
 
If anything, low rates and their small increases will fuel demand even more as buyers feel more of an urgency to get in the market.
 
The economy
 
Trying to predict the economy is like trying to control an angry teenager. It's a volatile situation that's nearly impossible to predict at times.
 
So far, the news we're hearing is of steady growth. But like many things in housing, the economy's impact on buyers and sellers really is more of a local thing. Where local economies strengthen, their housing markets follow.
 
There you have it – the five things to pay most attention to when it concerns real estate