Are you a homeowner over 62 years of age who either owns their home free and clear or has reduced the mortgage to a small amount? You may well qualify for the benefits of a reverse mortgage in order to assist you with the financial demands of retirement. During my career as a real estate consultant in the Southern Oregon real estate market, I have discussed the advantages of the reverse mortgage with many seniors and have encountered many misperceptions about the program. I write this blog to help with the basics of the reverse mortgage. Perhaps it is right for you.

Let’s begin with the qualifications. You must be 62 years old (or older) and you must own either a single family home or a 1-4 unit home in which you occupy one of the units. If you live in the Southern Oregon real estate market and you live in a condominium, it must be HUD approved. And if you live in a Continue reading Consumer Confidence, Foreclosures, and the Southern Oregon Real Estate Market

For the those of you who may not have heard, for the past 3 months the Consumer Confidence Index has risen, and while that may not make front-page headlines, the message to me is clear — the Southern Oregon real estate market has nowhere to go but up.

For real estate Sellers obsessed with the inflated inventory of foreclosures driving down prices, news about increased consumer confidence is the news they’ve been waiting for. And for Buyers obsessed by the belief that everyone is in trouble and real estate prices will only continue to plummet, its time to rethink their beliefs and decide whether or not to make that offer. After all, buy low, sell high.

But whenever I scan the classified ads in our local newspaper, the Daily Courier, I can’t help but notice that the pages continue to contain large numbers of legal declarations regarding impending foreclosure actions. But the Consumer Confidence numbers are at their highest level in 8 months.

What gives? Could the Consumer Confidence data possibly be misleading?

To answer my own question regarding the Southern Oregon real estate market, I ran a comparison of the overall numbers of foreclosures on the market for the last 2 months. Lo and behold, the numbers of foreclosures on the open market are shrinking, indicating that the worst may actually be behind us. Factor in recent legislation that encourages banks to modify mortgages in order to keep homeowners in their homes and we have positive signs that Southern Oregon real estate market recovery, like the stock market, is on the rise.

Michael Masters

A Socially Conscious Real Estate Consultant

As the global economy finally begins to exhibit signs of healing, those who stand on the sidelines invested in Southern Oregon real estate must be wondering, does this mean we’ve hit the bottom? Like weather forecasters with faulty radar, many who’ve predicted impending real estate recovery have been long on optimism and short on accuracy. For the last two years I’ve hoped that the beginning of the end of the Southern Oregon real estate crisis was around the corner, only to watch the crisis worsen. Now, after both TARP and additional bailout programs introduced by the Obama Administration, I believe we just may have hit the bottom. But two driving forces continue to nip at the heels of the economic recovery, and they are confidence and fear.

So how does one instill confidence in the real estate markets from Southern Oregon to Southern Florida? Continue reading Fear, Confidence, and the Southern Oregon Real Estate Market

Confidence is coming back. I can taste it in the air. I can see it in the office. I can feel it in my clients and agents. Yes, the pulse of the Southern Oregon real estate market is getting stronger by the day, and along with the blossoms of spring comes the increase in real estate activity traditionally exuded by buyers and sellers at this time of year.

For buyers, confidence means making the decision to purchase properties that they’ve identified but hesitated to buy from fear that the the price might drop further and that they’d be paying too much. While statistically more foreclosures are still coming on the market, buyers are sensing that the market is at its low and prices have nowhere to go but up. Once again, buy low, sell high reigns supreme.

As for sellers Continue reading Confidence in the Southern Oregon Real Estate Market