Company now offering insurance for incorrect appraisals.

One concern for banks and investors who purchase mortgage backed securities is the quality of the appraisal. If the appraisal is below actual market conditions the bank has a lower risk of lost revenue. However, if an REO property was appraised too high then upon auction or sale of this property a higher revenue loss is essentially guaranteed. To combat this problem Kirchmeyer & Associates is partnering with Group9 Insurance Solutions to offer appraisal insurance for banks and investors to cover this financial loss.

At first glance this insurance might not seem helpful to home owners. However, home owners currently have issues selling their homes for two reasons. First, banks are reluctant to loan money to particular individuals fearing they will default on the loan. Second, in many cases the appraisals are coming in under the contract price. This prevents banks from providing loans unless larger down payments are made to cover the difference in contract and appraised value. In addition some appraisers are fearing law suits by banks if their evaluations are too high so they tend to evaluate conservatively.

The new insurance coverage will now allow banks to insure against loss due to poor appraisals hopefully freeing up banks to increase their loan amount, and re-leaving some fears of appraisers halting their conservative approaches. For more details click HERE.

Freddie Mac to Provide Cost Incentives For REO Home Buyers!

Yep, you read that correctly. Freddie Mac is offering a new program designed to help reduce the number of REO's from the market. The real estate sales unit of Freddie Mac called HomeSteps is providing several promotions to reduce inventory and depending on your own personal situation you may qualify. Here are the details:

• Freddie Mac will pay up to 3% of the final sales price towards the buyer's closing costs and a $1,000 selling agent bonus for initial offers received by HomeSteps between November 15, 2011 and January 31, 2012 with escrow closed on or before March 15, 2012. This offer is valid only on HomeSteps homes sold to owner-occupant buyers.
• A two-year Home Protect^® limited home warranty that covers electrical, plumbing, air conditioning, heating and other major systems and appliances is offered on some eligible HomeSteps homes. Home Protect also provides discounts of up to 30 percent on the purchase of appliances.

On average a HomeStep house sells for 94% of the estimated market price.

For more details including who actually qualifies head over to the press release or to HomesSteps.com.

Homes In Sugar Land – Telfair

Homes In Sugar Land – Telfair

Telfair located in Sugar Land is a planned unit development community that ranked first in Fort Bend County and third in Houston in new homes sales at 406 last year alone. The community has homes beginning from the $240's to over $1 million. It will cover over 2016 acres consisting of patio homes, single-family homes, custom homes, resort-quality amenities, excellent schools and a multitude of retail shops. The community is next door to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and also has a 9,545 Central Hall with a fitness center, meeting rooms, catering prep kitchen, and outdoor amenities including a water park, three tennis courts, a lakefront patio and a boat launch.



Telfair currently has approximately 1800 single family homes The cost of homes covers a broad range allowing anyone seeking a planned community several options. The average lot size is 8200 sq feet with an average home size of 3500 sq feet.

For a complete review of Telfair please visit http://www.telfair.com. For all the housing statistics on Telfair please visit our website and look under Communities.

 

The tax rates within Telfair are the following:

CITY	CITY OF SUGAR LAND	0.3000%
DRAINAGE DISTRICT	FORT BEND CO DRAINAGE	0.0196%
GENERAL FUND	FORT BEND CO GNRL FND	0.48016%
MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT	FORT BEND MUD 137	0.5700%
MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT	FORT BEND MUD 138	0.5700%
INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT	FORT BEND ISD	1.3050%
LEVEE IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT	FORT BEND LID #17	0.6300%

At Homes In Sugar Land (Country Club Lifestyle Realty) we are fully integrated into Telfair and can help provide you with the most up-to-date best information available. At our website you have access to every home, school, and club associated with Telfair and Sugar Land.

How much money does energy retrofits really save?

Nearly 19,000 affordable housing units were retrofitted with energy efficient products. A study was then performed to determine how much money was saved due to these upgrades. The changes included items such as new boilers, heating controls, lighting upgrades, windows, and energy efficient refrigerators. The full report will be out soon but some details have already been released and published by The New York Times.



The average savings amounted to 19% on fuel usage and 10% in electrical usage. The range of savings however was vast depending on the upgrades performed. For example in an 88-unit apartment complex that replaced the boilers and heating controls yielded an improvement of $355 per unit annually. Another complex replaced windows, lighting and refrigerators producing an $808 dollar annual savings per unit.

While the complexes modified were some of the worst performing in the city regarding energy efficiency the savings clearly indicates that reasonable upgrades can have a significant impact on an owner's or renter's annual energy costs.

Homes In Sugar Land - Riverstone

Homes In Sugar Land – Riverstone

Riverstone located in Sugar Land is a planned unit development community that will have over 6000 homes once completed. It will cover over 3700 acres consisting of townhomes, single-family homes, custom homes, resort-quality amenities, excellent schools and a multitude of retail shops. The cost of homes covers a broad range allowing anyone seeking a planned community several options. One particular neighborhood within Riverstone is The Terrace at Riverstone containing 147 homes with an average near 5000 square feet. Prices begin in the upper $400’s and top out at just under $1 million. Another neighborhood is Crossing Cover at Riverstone with 172 homes in the 300’s and an average size of 3900 square feet.



Riverstone utilizes numerous builders including Darling, Toll Brothers, Westin Homes, Meritage Homes, Sterling Classic Homes, and Christopher Sims Custom Homes just to name a few. For a complete list of builders please visit http://www.rivestone.com.



Riverstone is mainly outside the city limits so taxes are covered by Districts. The tax rates within Riverstone are the following:

All Sugar Land Addresses and Missouri City Addresses in Stonebrook
MUD # 128, 129, 149 .70
LID # 15, 19 .80
Fort Bend County .49976
Fort Bend ISD 1.34000
= 3.33976

Missouri City Addresses except Stonebrook
MUD # 115 .50
Fort Bend County .49976
Fort Bend ISD 1.3400
Missouri City .5284
Houston Community College .09222
= 2.96038

At Homes In Sugar Land (Country Club Lifestyle Realty) we are fully integrated into Riverstone and can help provide you with the most up-to-date best information available. Heck, one of our owners actually lives there!

Homes In Sugar Land – Sweetwater and Sweetwater Estates

Homes In Sugar Land – Sweetwater and Sweetwater Estates

Sugar Land has numerous neighborhoods suiting every type of home owner but several are highly valued. One such community is Sweetwater and Sweetwater Estates. The Estates is a small community consisting of only twenty homes and these giants of a home average just over 10,000 square feet. Most of these homes back up to some portion of the Sweetwater Country Club Pecan or Cypress Golf Courses giving them magnificent views. That majority of homes were built around 2000 but there are a few empty lots still available for those with the ability to design and build a prestigious beautiful home in Sugar Land.



The second community is Sweetwater consisting of 566 homes with an average size of 500 square feet. Prices range from the low $300’s to just over $1 million. Several of these homes also back up to a Sweetwater Country Club course but they are rarely gated with far less privacy than The Estates.

All of the houses within these communities in Sugar Land fall under the Fort Bend Public School System. These schools have exemplary ratings by the state and as such are highly competitive. Clements High School is so popular that families move to the area solely for the quality of education they provide. In addition their athletics are also top notch with the golf team having the ability to practice and play at Sweetwater Country Club.

If you wish to know more about Sweetwater, Sweetwater Estates, or Sugar Land and other neighborhoods within the area please visit our website. There is a large amount of information on the city and other surrounding neighborhoods. At Homes-In-Sugar-Land (aka Country Club Lifestyle Realty) we strive to provide home buyers and sellers with first class service. That not only includes negotiation skills and real estate knowledge, but we consider ourselves the social and community experts.

FCC Approves Obama Administration Rural Broadband Plan

Obama and his administration desire to increase broadband highspeed internet access to rural Americans. The new rules modify the Universal Serice Fund originally created during Bill Clinton's administration. This fund comes from taxes on phone lines and currently brings in around $8 Billion a year.

The fund will be divided into two parts.  First, covering mobile and broadband service to areas currently not serviced by private business.  Second, expansion of internet access.  The majority of funds will focus on expanding mobile and broadband coverage.

Many are justifiably concerned that fees on phone and internet will increase. However, Democratic FCC Chairman Genachowski stated that he doesn't "expect that overall consumer rates will go up as a result of this." We shall see over time.

The plan will go into effect this year, with funds being put to use between 2012 and 2016.  Between 2017 and 2020, the USF will be discontinued and rural areas will stop receiving subsidies to keep their phone land lines alive.

For more details click here.

New Bill In Congress Would Add Energy Costs To Mortgage Ratios.

A new bill introduced in Congress by Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) would call for loans going through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration include the costs associated with energy usage for that home. These costs would be applied to the normal ratios utilized by lenders in assessing one's ability to afford a specified mortage amount. In addition appraisers would be required to adjust a home value accordingly for homes with higher energy efficieny.  Currently many appraisers are not certified or trained to understand energy efficiency and do not include such information.  This is one major reason a professional realtor that understands the impact these improvements have on value are useful when fighting taxes or working with lenders to accept a current contract price.

If this bill goes forward the current lending ratios would most like be adjusted accordingly. Provided this bill does not negatively impact the ability to obtain loans I believe it can only help the overall market.

For more details click here.