National Home Sales Numbers

I have had a lot of requests from people saying that they love it when I put different kinds of numbers and statistics up. So, here are some more that I have come across. Only these are national statistics.

Existing home sales in November-including single family homes, townhomes, condo's and co-op's fell 8.6% to 4.49 million units sold. Year to date, existing home sales are down 10.6% from the same time last year where there were 5.02 million units sold.

According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed rate mortgage fell to 6.09% in November which is down from the October rate of 6.2%. Last November the rate was 6.21%. Last week, Freddie Mac reported the 30 year rate fell to 5.19%-the lowest on record since the they started keeping track of this statistic in 1971. (that was when I posted saying that you might want to refi your existing mortgage).

Total housing inventory at the end of November rose 0.1% to 4.20 million existing homes available and on the market for sale, which represents an 11.2 month supply at the current sales pace. This is up from a 10.3 month supply in October.

The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $181,300 in November, down 13.2% from November of 2007 when the median was $208,800. This number is continuing downward due to the number of houses in foreclosure.

Existing home sales in the Northeast dropped 12.0% in November and are down 18% against last November. In the Midwest, sales declined 7.4% in November and is down 16.0% against last November. The median price in the midwest was $142,400 down 11.2% from a year ago. In the south, November was down 10.9% and are down 17.6% against last November. Existing home sales in the west were down 4.3% in November but are down 17.9% against last November.

Hopefully this scratches your itch for numbers for this week :)

Merry Christmas

I hope you have a safe and Merry Christmas! I think Coca-Cola does an excellent job with advertising, here are a couple of Coca-Cola Christmas comercials from the past that I have enjoyed. I hope you do to.

WWJD

As what is a habit for me, I woke up this morning turned on my "Morning Joe" on MSNBC to see what is happening that I may have missed. The big topic of the day? How the banks that have received bailout money have $1.5 billion in corporate bonuses and vacations etc. with part of that $700 billion we gave them. Several questions popped in my head at that time. What would Jesus have done in this whole "bail out" situation? Would he have bailed out the banks or let them flounder? How would he have looked at how we have used our talents that were given to us as a nation? We are a nation founded on Christian principles, does he feel that we are following those principles or using it only in certain situations that make it easy to look in the mirror instead of on the tough decisions that make it hard to look in the mirror? Would Jesus be proud of us or disappointed in us as a nation?

I know those are deep questions, but that is what I've been thinking about today.

Read This If You Want To Save Money!

If your current mortgage is 6% or higher, you may want to pay close attention to the word that I am about to write....."REFINANCE". On a $150,000 loan you could save $100 per month, or more, on your mortgage right now by refinancing. As of 3 minutes before I started this post, I have seen rates being qouted as low as 4.75% with the highest being around 5.5%. And, those are 30 year fixed rate mortgages with no prepayment penalties and LOW closing costs! On Tuesday, Wells Fargo reported that new refinance applications equaled $5.4 Billion in real estate being refinanced. In my opinion, do not wait to see if rates are going to drop further. Refinance right now......as soon as you finish reading this, pick up the phone and call one of the people listed below. They can help you and they are local lenders that I trust and refer people to. Once again, do not wait or you could miss out. Rates can easily bounce up 1/2% to 3/4% in one morning or afternoon. Here are the lenders I told you about with how you can contact them, and please tell them that I told you to call them:

• Michelle Zarobinski, Wells Fargo 574-252-4017 Michelle.M.Zarobinski@WellsFargo.com
• Roger Maxwell, Guaranteed Rate 574-596-0436 Roger.Maxwell@GuaranteedRate.com
• Shirley Roseland, 1st Source Bank 574-296-6911 roselands@1stsource.com
• Scott Bucher, Lake City Bank 574-243-2650 Scott.Bucher@LakeCityBank.com
• Mike Elder, First Federal Bank 574-202-5833 mikee@FirstFederalBanking.com

If you have any questions, you can always call me on my cell phone as well. That number is 574-370-8156. See you later, I have to go refinance now.

St. Joseph County Stats

Here are some stats for home sales in St. Joseph county thru November of this year compared to thru November of last year. In 2007, thru November there were 3,820 units sold vs. 3,008 this year which is -21%. In total $ volume thru November of 2007 it was $456,353,091 Vs. $338,558,654 thru November of 2008 which is down -26%. The average sale price for the same time period in 2007 was $119,464 vs $112,553 this year which is -6%. As I come across more statistics and numbers I will be sure to report them.

Why My Wife Probably Thinks I am a Psycho......The Sauce Pan Incident

This is the 1st post of what will be a series of posts entitled "Why My Wife Probably Thinks I am a Psycho"

This time of year I tend to eat a lot of soup. My soup of choice...Progresso. In our household, we have only 1 1qt. sauce pan. So, in years past, I have usually microwaved a fair amount of soup as the pan sits in the dishwasher waiting for a full load to be washed. A 1 qt. sauce pan I have found works perfectly for a can of soup. A 2qt. pan is just too big.

This year, I have decided that I did not want to microwave my soup so I decided to buy a new 1qt. sauce pan. I figured, "I should be able to find one for about $5". I forgot that the last time I bought something like a sauce pan was about 10-13 years ago. I was stunned! Everywhere I went everyplace wanted $25 for a 1 qt sauce pan.....What's Up With That?!! Even Walmart wanted $15! I went to Target, Walmart, Kmart, Value City (which is going out of business) Kohl's and last but not least, Big Lots. I drove around to 7 places in order to find a $5 sauce pan so I could cook my can of soup (I went to Walmart twice).

My last stop was Big Lots where I found a pan that would work for $10, when it dawned on me. I have probably spent 1-2 hours looking for some stupid pan for my soup and probably spent $2-3 in gasoline driving around. So, disgruntled in my search, I bought the $10 sauce pan at Big Lots. See what my wife has to put up with? She's a saint. And this is just one reason why my wife probably thinks that I am a psycho!

Elkhart County Foreclosres-December

In December, Elkhart county will have 58 homes taken back by the bank at sheriff's auction. What was interesting, but great news, is that 46 additional homes had the foreclosure stopped by doing workouts etc.. Out of those 58 that are still being foreclosed on, only 1 owed more than $200,000 and none owed less than $50,000. Here is the breakdown by city for the homes still being foreclosed on:

Elkhart: 39
Goshen: 11
Bristol: 5
Nappanee: 1
Granger: 1
Osceola: 1