The keys to buying a second home hardly differ from those applied to the purchase of your primary home:

• Consider why you want to buy a second home. For frequent visits to a retreat that’s close to home? As a gathering place for family and friends? As a rent-free escape from everyday life? As the ultimate retirement haven?
• Evaluate the potential use of your second home. Will you be renting it out part of the time? If so, check out tax consequences, local zoning regulations and rental-management availability. Perhaps a condominium will best suit your needs.
• Choose a second home as carefully as your first, for location, construction, energy efficiency, and all the other things that make for a smart purchase.
• Examine your financing options. Will you go it alone in a purchase? Will you team up with friends or relatives to split your expenses and vacation times?

Scottsdale, AZ (Keller Williams Scottsdale) June 13, 2008 — Scottsdale Area real estate agent Jeff Daley has announced new real estate affiliation with Countrywide Homes Loans to provide another means to sell their bank owned properties in the Scottsdale Phoenix, Arizona metro areas. Jeff and his team will provide current listings of these properties and the details associated with making and an offer on these properties. A detail description of the property, photos, and a Virtual Tour is provided for every property offered. Many of the properties can be seen on You Tube like the one presented in this article. In addition, they have authored a help page to make it easy for people and their agents to submit an offer.

Their bank owned foreclosed homes will be displayed at http://BankOwned.LuxuryValleyHomes.com for all to inspect. Questions on these homes can be directed to Jeff or one of the team by way of phone or email.

About Jeff Daley:
Jeff Daley, is a REALTOR® and owner/agent with Keller Williams Arizona Realty - Scottsdale. He is a member of the International Institute for Luxury Home Marketing and has taken specialized training in the selling and marketing of upper-tier homes. He holds an MBA from George Washington University and rose through the ranks to senior management within Lucent Technologies with responsibilities for marketing and operations before taking early retirement in 1999 and starting his second career in Luxury real estate. Jeff has won numerous awards in real estate, is a Certified Luxury Homes Marketing Specialist, a member of the Millionaire Guild, is published in national publications, is an instructor for real estate and is a member of the Veteran of Foreign Wars. He and his wife Jane have their business in Scottsdale, Arizona where they specialize in International and Scottsdale real estate.

Jeff is also available as a media resource for interviews or articles.

Contact Information:
Jeff Daley
480-595-6412
Jeff@LuxuryValleyHomes.com

Borrowers who are as much as three months behind on their mortgages, have damaged credit histories and owe more than their homes are worth will now be potentially eligible to refinance with a federally insured loan, according to U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department Assistant Secretary Brian Montgomery.

This comes as an attempt by the administration to try and curb foreclosures, which jumped as much as 60 percent in the past year and has contributed to a drop in consumer spending and economic growth. In relaxing the rules to help delinquent homeowners with zero to negative equity, the Federal Housing Administration is agreeing to make good on the mortgages that lenders write for the program should they default.

Under the program, FHA will insure loans with negative equity if lenders are willing to write down the loan balance so there is at least 3 percent equity for borrowers with two months of delinquencies and 10 percent for borrowers with three months of late payments within the previous year.

The administration is trying to find a balance between protecting homeowners who “played by the rules” without allowing banks to dump bad loans on taxpayers, Montgomery told the House Financial Services Committee in Washington.

“We must not federalize the housing market,” Montgomery said. “And we must not harm our economy through solutions that, however well intentioned, further erode the foundation of the nation’s housing market, hurt homeowners who are meeting their mortgage obligations, or prolong the correction.”

About $460 billion of adjustable-rate mortgages are scheduled to reset this year, according to New York-based analysts at Citigroup Inc. Subprime ARMs accounted for the biggest share of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures last year as rates began resetting higher amid the biggest annual slump for existing home sales in 25 years and the first decline in single-family homes values since the Great Depression.

The proposal builds on the FHASecure program, which insured new loans to borrowers stuck in adjustable-rate mortgages that they were paying on time before their terms reset. The program only applied to mortgages with interest rate resets between June 2005 and December 2007. Montgomery said 150,000 homeowners have refinanced through FHASecure since it was announced in August.

Many buyers judge a house by its exterior, or so it seems from the results of the 2007 Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report. Three of the four projects with the highest national percentage of costs recouped this year were exterior upgrades.

The most profitable project on the national level was upscale siding replacement, recouping 88% of costs upon resale. Wood deck additions and wood window replacements also returned more than 80% of costs, at 85% and 81%, respectively. On a national average, the only interior project to return more than 80% of remodeling costs this year was a minor kitchen remodel, returning 83% of project costs at resale.

“The results of this year’s Cost vs. Value report underscore the importance of curb appeal in the buyer’s eye,” said NAR President Dick Gaylord, a broker with RE/MAX Real Estate Specialists in Long Beach, CA. “REALTORS® know what attracts buyers in their local markets and can help your house put its best façade forward, so to speak – it’s another way REALTORS® add value to the real estate transaction.”

The 2007 Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report compares construction costs with resale values for 29 midrange and upscale remodeling projects comprising additions, remodels and replacements in 60 markets across the country. Data are provided for nine U.S. regions, following the divisions established by the U.S. Census Bureau. This is the 10th consecutive year that the report, which is produced by Hanley Wood, LLC, was completed in cooperation with REALTOR® Magazine, as REALTORS® provided their insight into local markets and buyer home preferences within those markets.

Four new projects were added this year: the aforementioned wood deck addition, a back-up power generator, and both a midrange and upscale garage addition. Nationally, the back-up power generator only returned 58% of the investment on resale, although the return was highest in the West South Central region, which comprises Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas, at 68 percent. Buyers in the Pacific region of Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington value their garages: The midrange garage addition returned nearly 70 percent nationally but 88 percent in this region, while the upscale garage addition returned approximately 65 percent nationally but 78 percent in this area.

Homeowners in the Pacific region could also expect to see some of the highest percentages of remodeling expenses returned at resale, with 13 of the 29 projects returning 90% or higher of project costs. Homeowners in the East North Central region of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin might expect some of the lowest returns; only one project – upscale fiber cement siding – returned more than 80% upon resale (82% of costs recouped), while nine projects returned less than 60% of project costs.

The least profitable projects were a back-up power generator, sunroom addition, and home office remodel. The back-up power generator returned the lowest percentage of initial cost in the East North Central, New England (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont), Pacific, and West North Central (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota) regions.

Sunrooms are least popular in the East South Central (Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee), Mountain (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming), and West South Central regions. Home office remodels return the lowest percentage of project costs in the Middle Atlantic (New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania) and South Atlantic (Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia) regions.

Gaylord explained that the resale value of any given remodeling project depends on a variety of factors. “When considering a remodeling project, particularly with an eye toward resale, it’s important to evaluate your home’s current condition, how the project will change the existing space in your home, as well as how your remodeled home will compare to other homes in your community,” said Gaylord.

“For example, using a breakfast nook to expand the kitchen seems like a good use of space, but using the same space to add a first-floor bathroom in an older home that doesn’t have one will draw more buyers,” Gaylord said. “Realtors® see hundreds, if not thousands, of homes every year with their buyer clients and can provide valuable insight into what projects and improvements will make a difference with buyers in your area.”

Results of the report are summarized in the December 2007 issue of REALTOR® Magazine. To read the full project descriptions, access national and regional project data, and download a free PDF containing data for any of the 60 cities covered by the report, visit www.costvsvalue.com. “Cost vs. Value” is a registered trademark of Hanley Wood, LLC

Amazing, but true. Buying a home adds to your “take home” income – possibly by several hundred dollars or more – simply by increasing the number of federal income tax withholding allowances on Form W-4.

• Here’s how it works.
  New home buyers generally find that their pre-purchase withholding rate will result in overpayment of taxes, if they don’t adjust their withholding allowances. That’s because they haven’t reduced their withholding to compensate for reduced taxes caused by deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes – items that are currently deductible at income tax filing time.
• See for yourself.
  A first-year homeowner who paid $9,000 in interest and real estate taxes, and who itemized deductions in a 28% tax bracket, would have overwithheld and would get a large refund next year. In this case, $2,520.
• Enjoy your bigger paycheck.
  Increasing the number of withholding allowances, on the other hand, reduces the amount withheld to pay future taxes – which puts your tax refund in your paycheck today, not at the end of the year. With the additional cash in your hands instead of in the government’s, you’ll have more cash to meet payments and live on.
• Be sure to check the tax rules.
  The rules for claiming allowances are simple. Working couples filing jointly figure withholding allowances on combined wage income and may allocate them between employers. On separate returns, the allowances must be figured separately. And if you work for two or more employers at the same time, you may claim withholding allowances from only one employer.

On another positive note, a law has been passed that extends until 2010 the tax deduction for mortgage insurance (MI) premiums. Borrowers with adjusted gross incomes of $100,000 or less can deduct 100% of these premiums. The deduction continues on a sliding scale up to $110,000. This legislation makes MI another option for borrowers to consider in today’s market.

>> Review of Last Week

BULLS RALLY AND ACTUALLY HANG ON… Monday saw Q1 close, recording the market’s worst quarterly performance in six years. At the same time, Treasury Secretary Paulson announced a plan for overhauling the US financial regulatory system. It would streamline the bureaucracy to make US financials more competitive globally. Terrific stuff, although no one expects anything to happen until we get through the present challenges, as well as the presidential election.

The fact is, Bernanke’s concerns weren’t a shock to anyone. And while the decline in payrolls isn’t good, it doesn’t fit recession specs, where payrolls drop 150K to 200K a month. We’re averaging a 77K per month decline, a miniscule 0.06% of our 138 million employed workers. Finally, to the dismay of recessionistas everywhere, ISM manufacturing and services indexes scored higher than expected. So there.

With the bulls prevailing, the Dow ended the week at 12,609.42, up 3.2%. The broader S&P 500 had an even better 4.2% boost, to 1370.40. And the NASDAQ won the upside prize for the week, soaring 4.9%, to 2370.98.

Considering the performance of stocks, things went OK in the bond market. The price on the benchmark 10-year Treasury dipped slightly, pushing the yield up a trifle, to 3.475%. Mortgage rates should continue at appealing levels.  

>> This Week’s Forecast

A QUIET WEEK…IN THEORY… This week starts a new round of earnings reports, revealing how everyone did during Q1. Recessionistas will be scouring the data for any negative numbers of course. First up for the Dow components will be Alcoa on Monday, with General Electric wrapping up the week on Friday.

We’ll certainly want to watch Pending Home Sales. And EVERYONE will be looking at the minutes from the Fed’s latest meeting to see if there’s anything that might push the markets one way or the other. Given last week’s employment report, Initial Jobless Claims will be a big focus Thursday.

We expect it to be a tranquil week, although we haven’t seen that for quite some time.