Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout will lower interest rates!

The bailout of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be viewed as controversial, but it will affect Charlotte Real Estate in one way or another. Although I’ve read where others thought it would do nothing, it now seems apparent that this conclusion is far from the truth. We’re already seeing some positive results from the decision here in Charlotte and around the country by means of more affordable lending.

 

Rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage for homes for sale in Charlotte dropped to a five month low this week and real estate agents in Charlotte couldn’t be happier! OK, I bet most real estate agents don’t even know about it yet but I’m pretty happy. The cost of financing has a direct impact on how much home a person can afford and thus, has an effect on the entire market in General. Less expensive financing mean higher priced homes get sold and the saturation of the market can at least begin to subside.

Rates on the most popular loan, the 30-year fixed, have dropped below 6 percent to 5.93 which is down almost a half a point since just last week. These rates are tied to the stock market and since investors are less nervous about the failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than they were a week ago, rates have fallen. 15-year loans are even lower at lust 5.54%

 

If you’ve ever considered buying a home here in Charlotte NC or anywhere, now is the time, Now Is The Time, NOW IS THE TIME! I really can’t get over the number of times I’ve heard a buyer ask if the market was stable enough to make a purchase. Suggesting that they’d rather the homes for sale in Charlotte go back UP in price before they make a purchase? As though that is going to be a good thing for them?? Some have even made the decision to wait after getting the advice to buy, I guess they though I only wanted the commission. 🙂

If a buyer would really rather wait for increased values, they don’t have to wait long. Homes in Charlotte NC are still going up in many places. Sure, there are several “balloon areas” around the city like Waxhaw and Mooresville which experienced greater than normal growth in recent years and thus, have felt the impact of all of this a lot more. But it’s just a reset, and it’ll come back, AND- why wouldn’t that make a buyer want Charlotte Real Estate NOW vs. next year when it costs more, or in ’10 when it costs a LOT more?

Whatever the case with that, these new, lower rates will have us on the road to the right kind of balanced market that benefits everyone in Charlotte, NC and around the country.

Kellswater Bridge in Kannapolis NC

Kannapolis real estate’s next big thing

Kellswater Bridge in Kannapolis NC was on the books well in advance of David Murdock’s announcement of

The Integra Springs gated apartment community at Kellswater will be similar to the one in this rendering.

 the construction of what would be the new NC Research Campus on the 350 acre site of the former Pillowtex/Cannon Mills factory. Now that Mr. Murdock’s decision has turned Kannapolis real estate on its head, everyone is changing their plans, including the developer of the new Kellswater Bridge project, George Kiser, Jr.

Originally, the Kellswater Project was to be about half its current size which is currently project to top 400 acres including Kellswater Corporate Research Campus, the town center project, and Kellswater Commons. As well as the massive $1 billion commercial undertaking, about 250 residential lots have been developed for Kannapolis homes for sale starting at 200k and reaching all the way to over 800k. Each with access to top of the line amenities including year round lawn maintenance and a Three-million dollar clubhouse.

Housing construction is already underway with commercial to begin later this year. Each will continue and are projected to be complete in 5 to 10 years as the NC Research Campus opens gradually and has its impact on the entire Kannapolis, NC community, Kellswater is expected to follow suit.

Coincidentally, our Kannapolis RE/MAX office is being built just 2 minutes from the Kellswater Development at the corner of Kannapolis Parkway and Highway 73, in Kannapolis NC. It’s to be the most beautiful and one of the largest facilities for real estate brokerage in the entire region and will make an excellent home base for brokerage aspects of The LAMB Group, INC.    

For more information, visit www.Kellswater.com or just post a question and we’ll answer it for you!

Another Monday gone

Wow, Monday’s are always crazy but today was particularly busy. I think it’s been like that every Monday for abotu 6 months now but whatever, we’re staying busy. Ifeel really fortunate to have so much to do, most Charlotte Real estate agents aren’t so lucky rigt now. I can’t say that I’m thrilled to be busy as a result of the downturn of the market, after all most of my clients are in a short sale in Charlotte nc but at least I can say that i am helping them from a fate that would be much worse. Anyway, that’s my Charlotte real estate post for the day. I’m really going to do my best to write something every day.

How does Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac affect Charlotte NC real estate?

 

Well, they finally did it. The Bush administration said today that they would instruct the federal government to take control of our ailing guarantors, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As a result of the change, the executive and board of directors have been replaced in hopes for the greatest result of the change and to create a more positive direction as the two companies try to pull themselves out of the slump of recent mortgage losses. According to the government, the actions were being taken because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are so large and so interwoven in our financial system that their failure would cause irrevocable damage to our financial markets here at home and globally.  Others believe that the two companies got themselves into this mess and should be allowed to fail, as would any other company which was mismanaged to such an extent.

 

 

 

 

Moving forward, Fannie Mae is now headed up by Herb Allison, a former vice chairman of Merrill Lynch, and David Moffett, a former vice chairman of US Bancorp, was picked to head Freddie Mac. The liabilities of these companies, now the burden of the taxpayers, could amount to as much as tens of billions of dollars but those making these decisions state that the risk of doing nothing could cost much more.

Here in Charlotte, NC real estate is holding stronger than in many parts of the country but the reality that getting a mortgage today is harder than it was a year ago is one that is known well by all professionals in the business. If Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were to completely fail, next year could be even worse for Charlotte and means that there’d be a lot of additional homes for sale which just sit due to lack of financing.

To prevent a worst case scenario, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed into a government conservatorship, administered by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the new agency created by Congress this summer initially only to regulate Fannie and Freddie. It’s unclear as to when or if the two giants will return to the national stage as their former impendent form or if it’ll be something different but all of us in Charlotte real estate are hoping the government knows what they’re doing, and they do it well.