Spring is the time of new beginnings; for many it is graduation and the beginning of a new career, for others it is marriage and the beginning of a family. It is an exciting time of year, a time for growth and renewal. It is also when many people shop for a home, whether it is their first home, a bigger home, a smaller home, a newer home or just a change of location or scenery.

For those of you who are considering the purchase of their first home, the doubts are sometimes considerable, particularly now given the current headlines screaming about mortgage problems and home price declines. Questions like Can I afford a home? Will I qualify for financing? Where do I get a mortgage? How will I find a home that fits my needs? What will it cost? And much more!

For those of you that are renting, there are many reasons you should become home owners but here are ten we think are important.

Consider these benefits of homeownership.

1. Pride of Ownership
   Owning your own home adds to your sense of self-esteem and personal pride. The satisfaction that comes from feeling connected to the land you own and the home in which you live is ages-old.
2. Security of Tenancy
   With homeownership comes stability. When renting, you never know when you may have to move because of new ownership, rent increases, deterioration of the property or other changes. As a homeowner, you decide when and if you want to move.
3. Privacy
   While there are usually some limits on the access landlords have to property, almost all landlords can access your property for necessary inspections and maintenance. For many renters, this lack of privacy is a significant discomfort. Homeowners on the other hand generally have much stronger property rights.
4. Decorating
   Homeowners are free to decorate, remodel and accessorize a home any way they want. Not only do you have the right to make improvements, but the value of those improvements becomes yours as well. Having your living space just the way you want it can significantly increase your satisfaction with your living environment.
5. Financial Predictability
   When you buy a home with a fixed-rate mortgage, most of your monthly housing payment is fixed. Financial planning and credit are more easily managed with cost certainty.
6. Building Equity
   When you own your own home, you pay rent to yourself instead of a landlord. Most homeowners pay for their purchase by obtaining a mortgage. As you pay off that mortgage, your equity builds and you gain an increasingly larger share in a valuable asset. Over time, that asset can work for you in many ways, such as home equity lines of credit which can be used for education, home improvements, medical emergencies or much more.
7. Investment Appreciation
   There are certainly no guarantees of property value appreciation but in the long-term real estate valuations almost always increase. In fact, in Fort Collins, there has never been a decline in the year to year average selling price in the records we have that go back to 1976. In the last thirty years the average price has increased $200,000 and in the last ten years it has gone up $100,000. When you decide to sell your home this appreciation is usually tax-free. You can reinvest that appreciation in a bigger home, in real estate or other investments or you may wish to downsize and keep the ‘profit’ for retirement or other purposes.
8. Tax Benefits
   The cost of home mortgage interest and property taxes are usually tax-deductible. Depending on your circumstances, thousands of dollars in taxes can be saved each year resulting in more take home pay.
9. Interest Rates
   Mortgage interest rates remain at historically low levels. This can save you a significant amount on your monthly payment and / or allow you to qualify for a bigger mortgage.
10. Supply
    At the present time, there is a good selection of all types of homes on the market, most properties are competitively priced and sellers are motivated.

If you still have doubts, please contact a mortgage lender or a real estate professional. They can answer questions and perhaps alleviate any concerns you may have about homeownership and explain the buying process to you. Make “Purchasing A Home” a new beginning for you.

Pam & Dave Pettigrew, Real Estate Brokers and Certified Residential Specialists are available to answer your questions on real estate. Write to them at Prudential Rocky Mountain, REALTORS, 2700 S. College, Fort Collins, 80525, call them directly at (970) 282-9305 or email FCRealtor@msn.com. For an archive of past columns and market information visit their award winning web site at www.FortCollinsRelocation.com

REAL ESTATE COLUMN FOR SUNDAY MARCH 16, 2008

Same old! Same old! Another double digit decline in home sales in February and a significant improvement in the average selling price. Since this slide began in September last year sales are down 17% and the average price is up 1.9%. For the first two months of the year, sales are down 16.7% and the average price is up 8.5%. Obviously those buyers who are undecided are letting opportunity pass by because it is evident that we are not going to have any major price decline in this market.

At the end of last year, the average selling price received a boost from new home sales but in the first two months of this year, the largest category, resale single family homes are leading the way. Comparing the first two months of 2007 with the first two months of 2008, the average selling price is up 10.6% to $275,701 for this category of homes while the average selling price of new construction is down 9.5% to $301,292.

The number of homes for sale increased to 1,813 at the end of February compared to 1,690 at the end of January but is still 8.4% below last year. Based on the last six month sales, this is a nine month supply but with increased sales expected over the next six months the current inventory is equal to just a five month supply. Obviously an increase in sales will bring an increase in supply but, for sellers, the lower inventory is an advantage. The average number of days on market for the February closed home sales was 138, a big jump from the 108 in January but also an improvement from the 151 DOM last year.

Our neighbors in Weld County continue to suffer through both sales and price declines with year to date sales down 22.7% and the average price down 12.2% to $180,413. Windsor is particularly hard hit with year to date sales down 36.1% and the average price down 15.4% to $214,624. There is a current inventory of 422 homes for sale and with just 150 sales in the last six months this is a seventeen month supply – a big road block to any improvement. Home sales in the Loveland and southern Larimer County area are down just 1.1% but the average selling price is off 4.4% to $255,769.

The Denver metro area is focusing more on homes placed under contract (rather than closed sales) and they report a 4.9% increase for the year to date. The average selling price for single family homes is down 5.0% to $280,039 and for multi-family homes down 0.7% to $168,719.

The national sales figures for February won’t be available until next week but in January existing home sales were down 23.4% from a year earlier and the median price was down 4.6% to $201,100. The housing inventory increased to a 10.3 month supply, up from a 9.7 month supply at the end of December.

So the message remains the same. If you are a home seller, make sure your home is properly priced, in very good showing condition and ‘hang in there’! If you are a home buyer, it’s not going to get any better – go buy a home!

Pam & Dave Pettigrew, Real Estate Brokers and Certified Residential Specialists are available to answer your questions on real estate. Write to them at Prudential Rocky Mountain, REALTORS, 2700 S. College, Fort Collins, 80525, call them directly at (970) 282-9305 or email FCRealtor@msn.com. For an archive of past columns and market information visit their award winning web site at www.FortCollinsRelocation.com

REAL ESTATE COLUMN FOR SUNDAY MARCH 9, 2008

It has now been a full year since the news first broke about the problems with sub prime mortgage lending and the real estate news on the national scene just seems to be getting worse with the latest headline screaming “Collapsing Housing Market”; an overly dramatic headline but just one of the many discouraging reports about the current state of the housing industry. The full year of negative publicity is almost self fulfilling and there are a lot of potential buyers who are on the fence, concerned about paying too much or wondering about their ability to qualify for a mortgage. On the other side of the fence, there are many motivated home sellers, or would be home sellers, who are concerned about going through the hassle of putting their home on the market at a fair price and waiting months for an acceptable offer.

We have to continue to emphasize that real estate is local and while we are not insulated from the national news, a lot of areas, including our local area, are in much better shape. We ended 2007 with a small 2.6% decrease in housing sales and a respectable 1.8% increase in the average price. We have experienced double digit sales decreases for the last few months but prices have held up very well.

And the 2007 fourth quarter report just released by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) certainly points to the stability of our local market. For the fourth quarter, U. S. home prices were up 0.1% compared to the third quarter and ended the year with a 0.8% price increase. Colorado was above the national average for the second quarter in a row, after years of being on the other side of the line. The state showed a 1.4% price increase but is still way behind the activity in the rest of the Mountain Region. Utah remained at #1 in the country with a one year increase of 9.3% followed by Wyoming #2 at 8.3%, Montana #4 at 6.9%, New Mexico #7 at 5.4% and Idaho #12 at 4.6%. The other Mountain Region states were Arizona #46 at -2.4% and Nevada #50 at -5.9%, obviously going through a bit of a price correction from their lofty increases of the last couple of years.

The Fort Collins – Loveland area continues to move up the charts, from a ranking of 226 out of 291 areas in the first quarter to 206 in the second quarter to 197 in the third quarter and to a 145 ranking in the fourth quarter with an increase of 1.8%. Interestingly, this 1.8% calculated by OFHEO is the same 1.8% that we show using the change in average selling price. The seven Colorado MSA’s one year increase and national ranking are as follows:

It is evident that our modest price increases have provided a very stable market and our one year increase of 1.8% has moved our home price increase in one year from the bottom 25% in the nation to the current ranking in the top 50% of the 291 MSA districts. Still, when compared to what is happening in most of the rest of the Mountain Region, where the five year price increase stands at 53.9%, our 12.3% increase as calculated by OFHEO has to make our current housing prices very attractive. With a good selection of homes and mortgage interest rates below 6%, this has to be the right time to be a home buyer.

Pam & Dave Pettigrew, Real Estate Brokers and Certified Residential Specialists are available to answer your questions on real estate. Write to them at Prudential Rocky Mountain, REALTORS, 2700 S. College, Fort Collins, 80525, call them directly at (970) 282-9305 or email FCRealtor@msn.com. For an archive of past columns and market information visit their award winning web site at www.FortCollinsRelocation.com