Friday, June 27, 2008

Updated Photos of our Villas!



Well, it's about time I got around to posting these! There is a ton of action happening around here. Check out the photos and let me know if you have any questions. We are still offering our visionary discount to the next 9 buyers...email me to find out how you can save up to $40,000!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Green Homes = Mortgage Savings

Check out this article...and YES, the Retreat at Jordanelle is Energy Star Certified as well as Built Green Certified!

Countrywide offers discounted rates on LEED homes in 13 states

PRNewswire
SEATTLE, March 19 – Countrywide Home Loans, a division of Countrywide Bank, FSB, today announced the retail launch of its Green Incentive Program, which will initially be available to qualified home buyers in 13 states: Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana., Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The program provides an interest rate reduction of 0.125 percent on a Countrywide loan used to purchase a new home that is built meeting recognized green and energy efficient standards.

"This program gives qualified home buyers more incentive to purchase energy-efficient and green-built homes," said Dave Porter, senior vice president and division builder manager for Countrywide. "Concern for the environment and saving precious natural resources doesn't have to conflict with buying a newly constructed home. Reduced interest rates, combined with the fact that most owners of green-built, energy-efficient homes pay lower monthly utility and water bills, make this program very attractive."

The Countrywide Green Incentive Program's interest rate reduction applies to newly constructed homes that meet third-party, certified standards of recognized green building programs, including Energy Star, Earth Advantage, LEED for Homes and Built Green programs of local home builder associations, as well as the National Association of Home Builders' Green Building program.

For more information, call 800-262-4214 to speak with a Countrywide regional builder manager and for a referral to a Certified Builder Representative in your area. Additional information is also available through many local Countrywide home loan consultants in areas where the program is available.

Source – U.S. Green Building Council website: http://www.usgbc.org/News/USGBCInTheNewsDetails.aspx?ID=3631

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Housing market will rally

Real estate guru says sales and prices will rebound this year
By Steven Oberbeck
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated:06/06/2008 11:31:43 PM MDT

PARK CITY - Utah's rising foreclosure rate and its moderating or declining home values has not dampened Lawrence Yun's optimism.
As the National Association of Realtors' chief economist, Yun offered Utah real estate agents gathered in Park City on Friday a cheery message on the future direction of Utah's residential real estate market.
Home sales and prices are poised to rebound later this year and may reaccelerate in 2009, he said.
"We went through a period of overly optimistic exuberance," Yun said, adding that he now believes the pessimism that followed the end of the national housing market boom has gone way too far.
It was just what the real estate agents wanted to hear. In an hourlong speech - the keynote address at the Park City Board of Realtors' sponsored Rocky Mountain Resort Alliance Conference - Yun laid out his reasoning.
Nationally, mortgage rates and unemployment are low while corporate profits are strong, he said. And relatively speaking, home prices in Utah are still affordable compared with many other areas.
Yun said in Utah there are many potential buyers who have the financial wherewithal to buy a home but are afraid to jump into the market. And getting those "fence sitters" into the market will be one of the keys to a turnaround.
Real estate agents need to get the message out that it's a buyers market. There is a high inventory of homes and mortgages are at or near historic lows, he said. Buyers have a lot of negotiating strength.
Laying the blame for the current real estate crisis on the subprime crisis, Yun pointed out that such loans made up only 9 percent of the mortgages in the United States but have been involved in 53 percent of the foreclosures across the country.
In many cases, the impact of the subprime meltdown is reflected neighborhood by neighborhood, he said. Home prices in areas where many houses were purchased using subprime mortgages are well down compared to neighborhoods where such financing didn't proliferate.
In Park City, an area where subprime mortgage financing wasn't widespread, real estate prices have held their value, said Tyler Richardson, president of the Park City Board of Realtors. The median price of a single-family home during the first quarter of this year was $649,140, nearly unchanged from the median price of $650,000 in the first quarter of 2007.
"We're weathering the storm very well," Richardson said. "While the volume of transactions is down, we're not seeing the dramatic fall in prices. We've also only seen a slight increase in foreclosures."
Looking at the long-term trends in the Utah real estate market may prove a benefit to those buyers who are waiting to make the leap to home ownership.
"People need to make their [home-buying decisions] not on short-term trends but on long-term trends," Yun said. "Five years from now 99 percent of the markets will have higher values than today."
steve@sltrib.com

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Good News...to share!

Today one of our preferred mortgage lenders (Jeff Morgan/Countrywide Home Loans) sent me a good news update on what's happening around the world of real estate...so read on!

· Sales of new homes rose in April for the first time in six months

· The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that sales of new homes rose 3.3 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 526,000 units.

· The Commerce report showed that the median price of a new home sold in April rose to $246,100 in April, up 1.5 percent from April 2007.

· Sales were up 8.3 percent in the West and 5.8 percent in the Midwest.

· The inventory of unsold new homes edged down slightly to 10.6 months’ supply at the April sales pace, compared with 11.1 months in March.

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer