The treasury department has presented a plan to loan banks money at 3% so they could in turn loan it to new home buyers at 4.5% and actually make a 1.5% profit. It is currently in the developmental stage and may not take effect until Obama is in office. "This will definitely stimulate sales and get buyers who are on the fence to make a move". What it does not do is address the foreclosure issue, well I guess in a way it does. In this current market, most of the foreclosures in the Reno Real estate market are in the lower price ranges so it would start to chip away at the vast inventory of homes on the market. Right now we have a 13 month inventory of homes on the market, meaning at the current pace it would take that long to sell all the homes on the…

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(This is the 1st in a series of blogs about the many fun things to do in Reno and the surrounding areas)

 

Virginia City Nevada 

Take a drive to Virginia City (about 23 miles outside Reno) and plan to stay for a few hours.  It’s about a 30 – 45 minute drive up a curvy road and well worth it.  Park your car and walk up the old wooden walkways to all the stores, saloons, museums and more.  Take a train ride through the historic mining areas, it takes about 35 minutes.  Take the kids through the fudge factory and watch them make all sorts of sweets and of course taste them all.  You can even take a tour of an old mine.  One of the many historic buildings include Pipers Opera House.  Built in 1885 and still being used.  Mark Twain, Buffalo Bill and President Grant were among…

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It does not come without some resistance.  It is focused on loans either owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It is for homeowners who are at least 3 months behind on their mortgage and owe 90% or more than the house is worth. They will either reduce total housing expense to 38% of your gross income or extend your mortgage from 30 to 40 years or defer some of the principal and make it interest only so distressed home owners can stay in their homes.

There are a lot of homeowners out there who are making their payments that are saying, "This is not fair". Consider this, real estate values are going down faster now than in the 1930’s and if these troubled homeowners do not get help they will lose their homes and now you face another…

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Despite the bad economy there are about six construction sites still plugging along in downtown Reno. Baseball is the driving force with the Triple A Reno Aces set to open their season next April in their new downtown stadium expected to bring approximately 5,000 people to the area. There will also be an entertainment district including shops and restaurants.  There will also be a renovation of the historic Freight house that will be converted to a restaurant. The Hyatt hotel chain will be opening a 6 story hotel just one block from the river.

The West Street market is set to open on December 6 and will include 17 shops and restaurants in another historic district of brick buildings on the river. I recently hosted the Dickson Realty Real Estate today…

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Well, Reno built one why can’t Sparks follow its big brother and be able to have a little white water fun?  It was an overwhelming success in the downtown Reno area and was a catalyst for the downtown re-gentrification. The problem, according to the Nevada office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is that it threatens the ability of Native fish to return to their spawning grounds. The big difference in the two projects is that the Reno Park was built on an already disturbed section of the river, where as the Sparks section is undisturbed and offers some of the best fish habitat in the area.

 

The truckee river winds 116 miles from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid lake.

 

The 2.2 million dollar project is expected to open next spring and is to…

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That’s right! They owe more that their homes are worth. A good chunk of that is attributed to Las Vegas and their declining values, but in spite of that it is a very troubling statistic. The average “Joe the homeowner” is teetering on the edge, if they get transferred or lose their job what are the choices if they do not have the money to pay the difference in what they owe and what they could sell for. Nationwide the statistic is 20% of all homeowners owe more than their homes are worth.

 

There is some good news!  The number of trustee sales and notice of defaults are down from August to September this year, which hopefully will mean the steady flow of foreclosures coming on the market is starting to decline.

 My gut feeling for the next 12…

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