Spring is Big for Sellers and June Buyers are Heating UP! Plus Refinancing news, from your Local Huntington County Realtor Andy Eckert

Spring: The big season for home sellers

June: For buyers, the hunt is heating up

June is the month buyers begin looking for their dream homes in earnest.

And real estate agents say the game is on.

This June buyers are expected to outnumber sellers in most locales, says Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR). That means there will be lots of buyers who can't find their dream home unless they get in the game early.

Because the supply of homes is low, prices are going up. The nationwide median price for an existing single-family home was recently $213,800, or up 8 percent from last year. This year's pricing is part of a 47-month upward trend of gains, according to News Corp, which own The Wall Street Journal and also owns realtor.com, NAR's listing website. 

Lenders are saying that it's a busy borrowing season. "There's a decade of pent-up demand," says Bob Walters, chief economist of Quicken Loans. In March, he says loan volume for home purchases was at its highest level in four months, and low interest rates are also fueling a mini-refinance boom. 

The average interest rate for a 30-year mortgage was 3.74 percent for the week ending March 4, according to mortgage rate website HSH.com. In June borrowers should still be able to find mortgages at less than 4 percent, a great rate historically.

To avoid delays in closings, lenders recommends getting into the market as soon as possible. They say the number of mortgage seekers is expanding every day. Lenders are pushing for preapproval, which requires full documentation, to be submitted to an underwriter. Preapproval can save up to 10 days in the closing period and gives you an advantage when there is competition for the same house.

Refinance your home, renovate and

get a tax deduction

 For homeowners wanting to refinance, the IRS usually requires that mortgage points, or prepaid interest, be amortized over the lifetime of the loan. 

There's one exception, says Eric J. Wexler, a Rockville, Md., tax attorney and CPA. 

If a portion of the refinanced mortgage proceeds is put toward home improvements, the points  related to the home improvement amount may be deducted in the tax year of the refinance. 

That is assuming the amount falls below the $100,000 deduction limit and that other IRS requirements have been met, Wexler says.

Huntington & Allen County 1st Quarter Market Report, and why owners are overly optimistic, from your local Realtor Andy Eckert

Quarterly Market Report from the Huntington and Allen County Area.

Owners Overly Optimistic About Home’s Price

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | MONDAY, MAY 16, 2016
Owners are continuing to overestimate the value of their homes. The latest Quicken Loans’ Home Price Perception Index shows that home owners overestimated the price of their home, on average, by 1.95 percent compared to appraisers valuations in April.

Read more: In Search of Sellers
Home owners in the Midwest and East coast are overestimating their home’s value by the highest amounts, according to the HPPI.

The gap between home owner and appraiser expectations narrowed last month. In March, appraiser opinions of home values were 2.17 percent lower than home owner expectations.

“The HPPI is in a healthy trend, nationally,” says Quicken Loans Chief Economist Bob Walters. “While everyone wants their appraisals to come back showing more equity than anticipated, like some home owners in the West, the discrepancy we are seeing now won’t likely derail a mortgage transaction.”

Spring has finally Sprung and the Eckert family is enjoying it! from your local Huntngton County Realtor, Andy Eckert

This past month has been filled with a large auction in Auburn, surgery on my foot and getting ready for Olivia’s graduation. The graduation is more just planning out the trip to Bloomington and hoping she gets her diploma.

Spring has finally sprung and the grass is growing pretty quickly at the homestead, we have the baby goats growing fast and getting ready to pick up rabbits. Steph needs to find some chickens to raise for 4-H and then the Eckert farm will be full. Savannah and Sebastians horse came to live with us this week, Belle was a gift from Sebastian to his lovely lady a few years ago and now she is ready for some training and riding.

Aleah has started her Track season and finished her Volleyball season all in the same week. Steph thinks Aleah maybe a little too hard on herself when competing and needs to let mistakes roll off her more. That might be an Eckert trait or a Grandma Sherrill habit. Either way it’s hard to be at your best if every error one makes causes a lack of concentration due to the anger or embarrassment.

Michael has started his baseball season under the leadership of Terry Stoffel, let’s hope his batting improves and he starts knocking the crap out of the ball. He loves being a part of the team and the games are big deal for him. Michael wants to ride horses this year in 4-H and that training will fall on my ladies Steph and Aleah, Michael you’re in good hands.

Sebastian will be working for a Buddy of mine again this summer mowing and landscaping(Wind Landscaping) located in Allen Co. He loves working with James and being outside, he already has been offered a internship for next fall with an Insurance company. He seems to be getting all things in order for his graduation in 18 months.

My Buddy Carson Raymond Eckert had a birthday in April and will be making his 1^st Communion, that’s a lot for 30 days. I’m thinking about what to give him as a present, he is kinda attached to his Hello Kitty collection.

I’m hoping that my right foot heals quickly so I can do the left and be back on my feet midsummer. It would be awesome to walk 9 holes of golf without hurting for 3 days after. I never look forward to surgery but I finally had enough of sitting on the sidelines while everyone else was enjoying life. Plus my wife said I was an OLD man. Stephs been great helping me and Dad was my private driver for a week, damn he drives slowly. I never knew it was possible to take 30 minutes to drive from my house to my office, but he proved that wrong. A few times I had to look twice to make sure we weren’t going backwards.

Have a great spring of sun and mushroom hunting, God Bless…….

I always have time for YOU or your Referrals.