Sevier County Real Estate News – Bryan Realty of East Tennessee

Housing and Economic Forecast Points to Rising Activity Home sales are expected to stay on an uptrend through 2012, although the performance will be uneven with mortgage constraints weighing on the market, according to experts at a residential real estate forum today at the REALTORS ®  Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo here. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said existing-home sales have been underperforming by historical standards and will rise gradually but unevenly. "If we just hold at the first-quarter sales pace of 5.1 million, sales this year would rise 4 percent, but the remainder of the year looks better," Yun said. "We expect 5.3 million existing-home sales this year, up from 4.9 million in 2010, with additional gains in 2012 to about 5.6 million -- that's a sustainable level given the size of our population." Mortgage interest rates should rise gradually to 5.5 percent by the end of the year and average 6.0 percent in 2012 -- stil...

JUNE -2011 Newsletter Housing Trends eNewsletter Welcome to the most current Housing Trends eNewsletter. This eNewsletter is specially designed for you, with national and local housing information that you may find useful whether you’re in the market for a home, thinking about selling your home, or just interested in homeowner issues in general. The Housing Trends eNewsletter contains the latest information from the National Association of REALTORS®, the U.S. Census Bureau and Realtor.org reports, videos, key market indicators and real estate sales statistics, a video message by a nationally recognized economist, maps, mortgage rates and calculators, consumer articles, plus local neighborhood information and more. Please click here to view the JUNE -2011 Newsletter Housing Trends eNewsletter. If you are interested in determining the value of your home, click the Home Evaluator link for a free evaluation report.

Think that buyers aren’t buying? I think it is safe to say that SOMEONE has resources at their disposal to make huge purchases. After four months on the Beverly Glen real estate market in California, Ashton Kutcher’s bachelor pad sold June 28 for $2,350,000. The 4-bedroom, 5.5-bath home was originally listed for $2,600,000 in February. Oh sure, his celebrity status surely did help the marketing efforts, but someone had the resources to buy this property! Buyers are out there. The market is not completely dead. There just seems to be an extremely wide void between the types of buyers that are keeping the housing market moving, even if at a slower pace. We are seeing buyers on both ends of the buying spectrum, very low or very high. In the before mentioned scenario, VERY high. The lower end buyers are now shopping in the $100,000 to $250,000 range and looking for “deals” or fixer uppers. This is aiding the foreclosure market to cleansing itself, and clear out inventory,...