When you’re in the market for Little Rock Real Estate you need a realtor that is going to work for you from start to finish. I believe it is so important not only to earn your business but to keep it. I love being a realtor here in Central Arkansas and take a lot of pride in my job. My customers are extremely important to me and I try to go the extra mile for each and everyone one. I grew up in Little Rock and have been around real estate my whole life and that’s where my passion for Little Rock Real Estate comes from. With a background in not only real estate but real estate finance coupled with my passion for the business I feel like I can exceed your expectations.  Please feel free to look around my site and let me know if you have any questions.  I can be reached anytime at The Ashley Watters Real Estate Team 1514 Market Street Little Rock, AR 72211. By phone at 501-951-9200 and by email at awatters@kw.com

As our country faces the biggest budget crisis possibly ever, the Obama Administration has created a deficit commission charged with discovering the best ways to bring down the national debt. It has come up with a plan to cut our $3 trillion dollars in debt over the next decade. One of the proposals that this commission has suggested is to eliminate the time-honored mortgage interest tax deduction. While this idea has recently garnered some bi-partisan support, it has also created a major uproar among the mortgage industry associations, who claim now is not the time to mess with the tax break. So who is right?

The real estate values attached to this decision are huge and with mortgage rates being linked to real estate transaction, it calls for our attention.

Little Rock Real Estate: Superfluous

The current mortgage interest deduction allows homeowners to deduct all of the interest paid on their homes each year from their tax returns. Some interest from mortgages on investment property and home equity loans is currently eligible for the tax deduction. Proponents say that mortgage deduction really only profits the wealthy as lower-income buyers are not likely to itemize their taxes and cannot take advantage of the savings. They say that it does not truly encourage homeownership, but simply encourages the wealthy to buy bigger homes than they otherwise would. Furthermore, the Treasury has estimated that this mortgage deduction, one of the largest deductions in the U.S. tax code, will cost the government $131 billion in revenue in 2012.

Little Rock Real Estate: The critics

Opponents of this proposal say that it is essential to creating affordability in the housing market.

“It would immediately stop in its tracks any stabilization we are seeing in the housing market and would effectively increase the cost of homeownership for millions upon millions of people,” said Michael Berman, chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association, as quoted in a CNN Money article.

That thought was echoed by Ron Phipps, president of the National Association of Realtors. “Any changes to the [deduction] now or in the future could critically erode home prices and the value of homes by as much as 15%,” he said. He added, “It will effectively close the door on the American dream.”

In fact, the NAR recently surveyed homeowners and found that almost 75 percent of them consider the deduction “extremely” or “very important.” This suggests that perhaps some may not have bought homes without the tax break.

When the time has come for you to make a home purchase, one of the most important and required documents is homeowners insurance. Mortgage lenders want to protect their investment as much as the homebuyer does. And just as lenders determine your loan interest rate and terms largely on your credit score, insurance companies also use your score to determine how much to charge you for premiums.

Little Rock Real Estate: What exactly is a Credit Score?

Credit scores are a metric system to show how reliable you are when it comes to handling borrowed money. There are about five factors that help determine this:

-          Your history of timely or untimely payments

-          The total of your current credit balances

-          How long you have had credit accounts

-          Types of credit used

-          Any recently opened accounts

Little Rock Real Estate: Why do Insurance Companies Use My Score?

Studies have shown however, that those with lower credit scores (typically those who are less financially responsible) are much more likely to file an insurance claim. These are riskier clients to insure. So insurance companies develop their own rating numbers for customers based on their credit scores and those with high scores are offered the best rates and terms while those with lower scores can expect to pay more.

Be sure to find the best fit for insurance while you’re shopping for your little rock real estate.

Mortgage lending standards sank into the gutters during the recent housing boom. That laxity also brought the lending industry to its knees with the housing bubble burst starting in 2007. Lenders all over the country have had to dramatically tighten their loan applicant requirements, which have led to a reduced number of home sales for the past few years. Little rock real estate is a part of it as well.

Has this change simply been a swing of the pendulum standards, over correcting for the past failures and set to swing back to looser requirements a few years down the road? Not according to Fannie Mae Chief Executive Michael J. Williams. In a July speech before the Women in Housing organization, Williams made it clear he believes the new standards are the “new realism” which will be here for generations to come. Real estate will be looked under a much more valuable light and real estate itself will continue to gain value.

Little Rock Real Estate: The future for home owners & Mortgage rates

“A solid majority of renters assume it will be tougher for their kids to buy a home–and they’re right, too,” he said as quoted in the Wall Street Journal, basing his comments on the results of Fannie’s national poll of Americans’ views on housing and homeownership.

“Across the board, we see a much deeper understanding of how credit, income, job security and a down payment could stand in the way of buying a home,” he said.

And he added, “This is all healthy. It means we have a good chance to put in place a sustainable housing recovery one with the right mix of owners and renters in this country.”

That statement would have been blasphemous during the subprime housing spree during the first half of the last decade. Then it almost seemed that homeownership was seen as a “right” for all Americans. There was encouragement from lenders as well as the government for all borrowers, especially low-income and poor-credit borrowers to jump into the game.

Little Rock Real Estate: Today’s low mortgage rates

These days, Mortgage rates are probably the best they are going to get in terms of how low they are and the number of people who can afford the loans they need due to these mortgage rates that are very low. Inevitably, the market will return and along with that mortgage rates will rise as well, as more and more people turn to mortgages to obtain a new home.

There are times when the economy is brisk and everyone feels confident about his or her prospects for the future. As a result, they spend money. People eat out more, buy new cars, and they buy houses. A real estate purchases has always been the cornerstone the American long term investment and as the economy rebounds and new opportunities surface, it’s looking like home and real estate sales will return to their normal numbers as well.

Little Rock Real Estate: Buyer confidence

For one reason or another, the economy slows down. Companies lay off employees and consumers are more careful about where they spend money, perhaps saving more than usual. As a result, the economy decelerates even further. If it slows enough, we have a recession.

During such a time, fewer people are buying homes. Even so, some homeowners find themselves in a situation where they must sell. Families grow beyond the capacity of the home, employees get relocated, and some may even find themselves unable to make their mortgage payment – perhaps because of a layoff in the family.

In the business cycle of real estate, there are buyers’ markets and sellers’ markets…and some markets in between.  It is all based on supply and/or demand.

Little Rock Real Estate: Economic upturn

As the economy begins to head towards an upturn, more and more people will begin to feel more comfortable about spending on things again. Market research shows that consumers are already showing huge confidence strides in terms of how they view their economic future. Depending on the congress and the regulations passed that create and maintain the lending standards mortgage companies and banks use to qualify, than once the economy gets back to being robust, than we will see a lot of home purchases over the succeeding years.

Foreclosures in Little rock have been a bit different from a lot of other areas of America. Arkansas, being a smaller state and more stable industries as its base didn’t feel the effects of the foreclosures as much as other areas but it was still felt.  To be exact, nationally the number of first time home buyers is declining but little rock real estate values are on the rise.

Little Rock Real Estate: Foreclosure reports

In its latest report on existing-home sales, the National Association of Realtors reported that the number of first-time home buyers entering the housing market is declining, while the number of investors picking up rental properties is rising. The numbers suggest that tightened lending standards are pricing all but the wealthy out of the mortgage scene.

The NAR reported that only 29 percent of all existing-home sales went to first-timers in January. That is down from 33 percent in December and 40 percent in January 2010 (when the tax credit was still in effect.) However, investors made up 17 percent of buyers last year, and by last month they had claimed 20 percent of the market share, and made up 23 percent of all existing-home buyers in January.

Little Rock Real Estate: Foreclosures & Mortgages

According to the latest Mortgage Bankers Association National Delinquency Survey released Thursday, a record 9.12 percent of all homeowners were behind on their mortgage payments in the first quarter of 2009, an increase of 2.77 percent from last year and an all-time record high. The total percentage of mortgages already in foreclosure during the first three months of the year grew to 3.85 percent, also a record high.