Localism: New Hampshire

A CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR YOU

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:59:21 -0600

Jacob Mahaney & Diesel

Oh how I love you

your heart's so warm and true

so far away from home my son, I go on missing you.

My heart travels back in time to when you were a boy

watching your excitement

as you unwrap your Christmas toys.

Now you are a young man and must make it on you own

Falling Falling to the bottom

to a place so all alone.

I am told that it is in that place where you will finally be

able to see yourself

as the man who holds the key...

I need strength, must be strong to resist the urge within

to swoop on in and fix it all

make it right for him.

So as I ponder and fret for weeks, a Christmas gift for you?

No more worries, I BELIEVE

AND I HAVE FAITH IN YOU.

MERRY CHRISTMAS JACOB, I LOVE YOU!

What I learned tonight from my Generation X Child

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:19:20 -0600

Earlier this evening I needed to go on line and check my messages. As usual I had to remove one of my son's from the Internet (no easy task as many of you parents know) he was playing Rune Scape and was quite involved in whatever it was he was doing. Once he switched places with me my son decided to sit next to his "old man" and watch me while I checked my messages and this was when things got interesting.

I deleted most of what was on there and then proceeded to open up a message from a fellow Realtor. The message was short, saying how I should read this great article that had appeared in the Union Leader (this is New Hampshire's largest paper). I opened up the PDF and scanned the contents of the article. It was a nice piece on why Buyer's should decide to purchase now, rather than later. After scanning it for a few moments I closed it, saying out loud that I would read this "good article" later and maybe even consider passing it on to others to read, and this is when the moment happened!

I noticed out of the corner of my eye, that my son was looking at me as if I had two heads. I turned to him and asked, "Hey Sean what's up?". He did not immediately answer, instead he started to fidget after all he had Dad's complete attention. I then smiled at him and asked him again why he was looking at me so funny, to this he replied "are you going to actually read that article later?". Now this really intrigued me, why is my son asking me something like that?I took the bait and answered him, " Sean I'm going to read that later, because I think it is probably a good article about what is going on in today's market, is there a problem with that?". He then said to me, " Dad that article is almost 3 months old! do you think it has any relevence to what's going on now?" This just stopped me dead in my tracks, I had scanned the article, but I never looked at the date it was written. I checked the article again and sure enough, it was from September 13, 2008! I was stunned by this, first because I could not believe someone would e-mail me an article from 3 months ago, but second I was stunned at how my son had reacted.

The lesson I learned from my son was this, information to today's young people really does need to be instantaneous if its even a few days old, it is no good. My son showed Me how the typical Generation X,Y and Millennium child view things. He was really stunned when he thought that I found a 3 month old article relevant, once he realized that I had not seen the date he was immensely relieved that I was not that out of touch with the world!

Thanks Sean

New Hampshire Foreclosures For Sale - Bank Owned Property

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:50:47 -0600

NEW HAMPSHIRE FORECLOSURES (BANK OWNED) PROPERTIES FOR SALE

Would you like to receive NH real estate foreclosure (bank-owned) listings and short sale opportunities? If you are serious about buying a home at a great value, our local RE/MAX real estate professionals will contact you and provide:

* A list of existing real estate foreclosure (bank-owned) and short sale listings in NH.

* Email alerts on NEW foreclosure (bank-owned) and short sale listings in the New Hampshire MLS

* Address and mapping information

BE THE FIRST TO KNOW - THE BEST DEALS SELL QUICKLY!

Just tell us what towns you are interested in and start receiving daily or real-time NH foreclosures.

To get started click on

NEW HAMPSHIRE FORECLOSURE ALERTS!

Information is provided by Virtual Homes and real estate services provide by RE/MAX Country Properties, Amherst, NH. Visit www.nh-virtualhomes.com for community information.

Strafford County Market Statistics, 2007 vs 2008 year-to-date

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:56:13 -0600

To sum it up, it looks like our year-to-date average sales price is off about 10% from last year in Strafford county. We've sold about 19% fewer single family homes and our average days on market has risen to 128.

Although we won't know when we've 'hit bottom' until things start to rise again, if you're a buyer in this market the opportunities are out there! There's lots of inventory to look at, prices are low and interest rates are good. Next year at this time this chart could look completely different - swaying to the UP side.

If you have questions about the buying process, or selling in this market, I'm happy to help and welcome the opportunity to assist you. Please call or email anytime.

All Time Low Rates Open Windows

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:26:52 -0600

Mortgage interest rates are tum tum tumbling! In the near 10 years I've been associated with the closing business in any capacity this is the lowest I have ever seen the rates, and that includes the March of '03 canyon. I just locked a borrower's $278k FHA purchase mortgage at 5.375% with no points. I can't remember the last time I originated such a great rate for a borrower. I'm also locking a 100% financing, 30 year fixed rate purchase mortgage for a first time buying couple with a USDA Rural Development Guaranteed Financing loan at 5.5% with a seller paid point and the buyer's total payment is going to be under $1600.00 a month.

Fence sitters are jumping off. At least for now! People who've been awaiting lower rates are now acting. There's still lots to be solved with the excess (and rising) inventory and falling values, but as I've been mentioning lately, the end (of the crunch) is now in sight. Sure, it will be a bowl shaped curve and a slow to normal pace of recovery when it does occur but what is certain is recovery will occur. Improving conditions like falling interest rates combined with flexibility of lending standards like those of government insured or guaranteed financing will open the window to home buying back up again.

Rates are incredibly low right now! To look up the interest rate average for a mortgage scenario in your town, visit this bankrate query thingy:

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/rate/brm_mtgsearch.asp?product=1&refi=0

Just enter the applicable info and, well, you can do it I'm sure! Also, you can call me to have a scenario looked up! Don't forget, I arrange fixer upper financing via FHA 203(k) improvement loans and I'm a 1st time buyer guru!

As always, I'm here to help!

Jamie (603)-512-5340 cell (603)-413-5053 office

For more tips and pointers visit

http://www.mortgagemagician.blogspot.com/