HOORAY!!!  My blog should did hit the 100,000 mark today. Thanks for reading.

RMLS™ October 2009 Stats

The October 2009 RMLS™ stats were published Thursday and I haven’t had a chance to look at them as yet.  However, I am posting the report here.  Our inventory of houses for sale is at the lowest we’ve seen since August 2007 and sales jumped by 64% the largest increase since 1996.  I’ll post more data in the next couple of days.  However, if you’ve been thinking of selling or buying, now’s a good time.  With low interest rates, low inventory and the home buyer’s tax credit, it is a good time for all parties.

OTHER NEWS

There’s been a lot in the news lately but the over-riding news story has been the increase in unemployment benefits and thequestion extended/expanded home buyer tax credit.  Here’s a great website with frequently asked questions and answers in regards to the new Home Buyer Tax credit that might come in handy for you.

There have been other news-worthy items as well:

Fannie Mae Offers Deed For Lease Program

  • As a homeowner you must have tried to modify the loan and been denied
  • You give the house back to bank via deed- in- lieu of foreclosure
  • You will be allowed to rent back your home for 12 months
  • You must qualify to pay rent at the fair market value
  • You must not use more than 31% of your gross monthly income to rent back

    • There’s more info on their website about the Deed For Lease program.

    Bend Named In Top 25 Cities 

    Yahoo!® recently had their Top 25 cities to recover from the economic downturn with a job recovery.  The only Oregon city to make the list was Bend and it posted at #23.

    23. Bend, Ore.

    Q1 2010 annualized job growth: 0.8%
    Q3 2009 annualized job growth: -4.7%

    First quarter of recovery: Q1 2010
    Unemployment rate: 14.5%
    Median household income: $54,179

    The economy of Bend, at the Cascade Mountains’ eastern foothills, is especially popular with hikers and skiers. Bend’s job market got hammered during the recession because it depends heavily on highly cyclical industries—construction, the retail trade, and tourism. As the overall recovery sets in, Bend and its highly volatile economy should bounce back faster than the rest of the country.

    Creative Commons LicenseALL ABOUT…..Portland.Oregon.Real Estate, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No askfirst1Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. © Copyright 2008-2009 Betty Jung. All Rights Reserved. Use of this article, photos and images without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.  Based on a Blog at WordPress.

    (For more local and national real estate information, go to www.bettyjung.com).