Clearwater Beach Florida – Well we got some good news today for people in the market to buy or sell Clearwater Beach houses and condos. There may be a light at the end of the tunnel that should help because the limits on conforming loans and the availability of Jumbo loans is improving. I actually wrote a detailed article almost one year ago explaining why the lack of Jumbo loans would hurt both buyers and sellers as well as the overall Clearwater real estate market. It’s taken us a long time to see this situation improve any.
You can see the complete article here => Update on Clearwater Beach Jumbo Loans
Banks are finally starting to loosen up (translation: feeling more secure about our real estate market which is good for all of us) and it should make it easier for people to buy second homes or move up to homes over the $417,000 conventional loan limit. The Los Angeles times recently reported that the average interest rates on a 30 year fixed rate jumbo fell to 5.79% which is a five year low. You may remember that we were seeing painful rates of 7.5% last summer for our most qualified best buyers which was extremely frustrating and actually caused several of our clients to put their plans to purchase on hold.
Luckily, we work with some of the best local lenders so we have been able to successfully help our clients purchase the homes and condos they wanted. Lenders who really “know” the Clearwater real estate market along with waterfront homes in neighborhoods like Island Estates or Belle Isle is essential – regardless of who you’re working with – make sure your lender understands and is comfortable in our market. If you are planning to buy a condo today I highly recommend working with local lenders especially those that can do portfolio loans in-house and specialize in financing beachfront and waterfront properties. There’s nothing worse than finding the home of your dreams and having a lender that can’t perform cause you probably won’t know that until you’d spent almost $2,000 of your money.
Related Article => Clearwater | Tampa Mortgages – Buyer Beware of FHA loans and Seller Concessions
The second bit of good news we got today was that the conforming loan limits for 2010 will remain at $417,000 like it has been for the past 5 years. This is actually great news in my opinion because that means you can purchase a property for up to $520,000 and still be a standard conforming loan which may enable you to get even more attractive rates. $520,000 buys a lot more beachfront and waterfront than it did 5 years ago.
We are also getting signs that lenders are loosening up about lending on beachfront condos (luckily we’re not Miami) – we are also seeing most condos are being listed for prices within @92% of what they’ll end up selling for and I was encouraged to see an appraisal come back for one of our buyers where it stated the market was “stable” not “declining” – when I ran the 6 month comparable sales against the 3 month sales I found it had actually increased slightly – we’ll keep monitoring this for you condominium building by building and neighborhood by neighborhood to give you the best insider information to make good decisions – whether you’re considering buying or selling in the next few months.
Related Article: => Clearwater Fl Realtors Get Results For Home Buyers
My intent was not to make this a Tampa Mortgage themed week however it’s never been more important to be informed on what’s happending in this very dynamic market and I’ve got another article in my head about the impact of FHA appraisals on sellers right now. 🙂
If you’re looking for a Clearwater FL Realtor we’d like you to know that we are passionate about being your real estate advocate. We’re committed to delivering Results daily based on Integrity, Knowledge & Experience – helping you find the perfect Clearwater FL homes.
We’d like to be YOUR Clearwater Real Estate Team!
Call Cyndee @ 727.710.8035 or Jack @ 727710.8036
Warmly,
Cyndee and Jack Haydon
Charles Rutenberg Realty
Clearwater Real Estate Office
1545 S. Belcher Rd
Clearwater FL 33764
727-710-8035 (Cyndee’s cell)
727-710-8036 (Jack’s cell)
