Darla Does Real Estate!

Darla Does Real Estate Update!

 

The real estate buzz this week is that for the first time in a very, very long time we have seen a positive shift in home sales. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) released that sales for existing homes increased by 5.1% in February. This is a huge gain and a hopeful indicator for the coming year. This pick-up is probably a combination of lower interest rates, declining home price (yes, they are still slightly sliding backward on average) and the normal increase in business in the spring cycle for home buying/selling. Another interesting factor is the first time homebuyers, as a group, had the biggest growth in the market. Mostly likely because of the reasons mentioned above, combined with the stimulus package and first-time home-buyer tax credits. 

 

Another key happening this month is that President Barack Obama signed a bill into law last Wednesday that permanently prohibits banks from entering the real estate brokerage and management business. The bill--H.R. 1105, the Omnibus Appropriations Bill--ends the National Association of REALTORS' nearly eight-year battle to preserve the separation between banking and commerce.

"If banks had been allowed to engage in real estate brokerage, it would have created anti-competitive and anti-consumer concentrations of power within the financial services sector, which would have ultimately increased costs for homebuyers," according to the NAR.

 

For all the Real Estate Buzz Dial Darla ;-) 614-431-1003 or RealtorDarla@aol.com