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Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC has rolled out a custom-built smartphone application the company claims is the first to provide access to international properties.

Coldwell Banker’s mobile app — available for the iPhone and smartphones running Google’s Android operating system — provides access to property listings and recent home sales in 28 countries in North America, Europe, Central America, the Caribbean, South America and Australia, the company said.

In October, Coldwell Banker announced that its Web site was optimized for mobile devices, and this mobile-optimized site has since been accessed by about 200,000 users.

The new mobile app, developed by Bootstrap Software for Coldwell Banker, enables GPS-based searches for nearby homes, open houses and recent sales.

Search results can be viewed in list form or on maps, and recent sales can be sorted by location, price and sale date. Detailed property listings include images and the ability to direct-dial or e-mail Coldwell Banker listing agents. Searches that are saved to the user’s account will automatically generate notifications of new properties and open houses, providing alerts on the device’s homepage.

Custom-built software applications for the iPhone and other Internet-capable “smartphones” have become widely embraced by the real estate industry. Zillow, Trulia and the California Association of Realtors are among those offering mobile applications. Companies that provide mobile applications for brokers and agents include Move Inc., Smarter Agent, QWASI and Kurio.

JD Power Award 2009

Coldwell Banker

WASHINGTON – Aug. 19, 2009 – At least the market for new homes isn’t getting worse anymore, and that’s the first step to getting better.

In fact, the overall economy is actually getting a small boost as more buyers walk into model houses ready to sign contracts and builders hire workers to pour foundations and pave roads.

Construction of single-family homes rose in July for the fifth straight month, edging up almost 2 percent to the highest level since last October, the government said Tuesday. Building permits climbed nearly 6 percent.

Each new home built creates about three jobs on average and generates about $90,000 in taxes paid to local and federal authorities, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

With new construction up 37 percent from its low point this winter, the industry is expected to help the overall economy this quarter for the first time in three and a half years.

“Housing is no longer a drag,” said Mark Vitner, a senior economist with Wells Fargo. “That’s a good thing.”

Of course, the housing industry is coming back from the worst recession since the Great Depression, and construction is still more than 70 percent from its 2006 peak. So the impact from hiring and spending on materials like wood and concrete is modest.

In addition, hammers are silent at construction sites for apartment buildings. For developers, it makes little sense to build when there are so many vacant homes and condominiums for rent. Apartment construction fell 13 percent from June to July.

That pulled the combined construction rate for homes and apartments down 1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 581,000 units, from 587,000 in June. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected 600,000.

There are still several threats to the recovery of the U.S. housing market.

The unemployment rate, now 9.4 percent, could surpass 10 percent, leaving more homeowners unable to pay their mortgages. Interest rates are still near historic lows but could rise, making homes less affordable. Foreclosures are still at record highs.

And July was the last month that most builders could start new homes and have first-time buyers qualify for a new tax credit. Buyers can save 10 percent on the price of a home, up to $8,000 in taxes, if they complete the purchase by the end of November.

Builders and real estate agents are pressing in Congress for that credit to be extended. If it isn’t, sales could easily slump again.

“I’m not seeing a tremendous amount of good news on the job or economic front, so I do think it’s important that the credit get extended,” said Richard Dugas Jr., CEO of Pulte Homes Inc.

On Tuesday, Pulte completed its acquisition of Centex Corp. for $1.53 billion in stock, becoming the largest homebuilder in the country.

One of the reasons for the purchase was Centex’s focus on more affordable homes. Since the housing bubble burst, many builders have shifted to smaller houses that can be sold at lower prices to woo first-time homebuyers. The median sale price for a new home was $206,200 in June, almost $30,000 cheaper than a year earlier.

More homebuyers also means more business to retailers like Home Depot Inc., which on Tuesday posted its first annual increase in quarterly sales transactions in five years. Better still, the retailer saw improvements in Florida and California, two of its most important – and troubled – markets.

Sales of new homes have posted monthly increases since April. The Commerce Department reports on July new home sales numbers Aug. 26. Sales are expected to rise roughly 2 percent, according to economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

It sure looks like the Pinellas market has bounced from the bottom as a whole. Now there are some neighborhoods which went up so fast that they are still correcting. The inventory levels are still coming down and at this pace we could see a 6 months supply by the end of the year, which most experts say would put us back into a sellers market. It would be a week sellers market based on the unemployment rate.

Have you have been sitting on the fence waiting for the prices to get better? If so, you may want to get active in your search for a home.

Also time is running out for the first time home buyers $8,000 tax credit. At this point you want to avoid short sale because they take on average 3-4 month to get approvals and you just don’t have the time!

See the stats for yourself..

mls-stats Aug 09

Need help locating a home? Call me and I’ll setup a custom home search for you today!

NEW YORK – Aug. 13, 2009 – The majority of economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal say the recession is over and Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke deserves another term.

Of the 47 economists the newspaper surveyed, 27 said the recession has ended and 11 predict another trough this month or next. The rest refused to commit. But they were nearly unanimous in saying that Bernanke should be rehired.

“He deserves a lot of credit for stabilizing the financial markets,” says Joseph Carson of AllianceBernstein. “Confidence in recovery would be damaged if he was not reappointed.”

Poll respondents believe Bernanke has more than a 70 percent chance of being asked by President Barack Obama to remain at the helm of the central bank.

Gross domestic product is expected to grow 2.4 percent in the third quarter at a seasonally adjusted annual rate. Economists were also heartened by a better-than-expected jobless report in July.

ATLANTA – Aug. 10, 2009 – Buyers of foreclosure have to be quick these days. Some houses go under contract fewer than 90 minutes after they are put on the market, says Brad Geisen, founder of Foreclosure.com.

“For every listing that comes out, we have 10 buyers,” says Cesar Dias, an associate with Approved Real Estate Group in Stockton, Calif. Dias had 15 minutes of fame after introducing foreclosure sales tours last year. Now the tours are defunct because there are not enough homes to show.

“We had a lot of inventory last summer. Now we’re down to 1,500 listings – from more than 5,000,” Dias says.

In Florida, real-estate investment companies, buying in bulk and paying cash, face competition.

Even in the hard-hit Detroit area, bargains are disappearing.

“For a good house that’s not too beat up in a good neighborhood, there’s no lack of buyers in this market,” says Andy Sakmar, founder of Century 21 Sakmar in Rochester, 20 miles north of the city. “There are a lot fewer of these properties than a year ago, and the super buys get multiple offers.”

Source: CNNMoney.com, Les Christie (08/06/2009)

WASHINGTON – Aug. 7, 2009 – The federal government is launching a program to simplify and speed up the short-sale process (about time) by providing standardized documentation, cash incentives to lenders, and a $1,500 moving allowance to borrowers. Holders of second liens will get up to $1,000 to relinquish their claims.

Banks say the short-sale process has been taking so long because both their employees and real estate practitioners are learning as they go. (you would think that after 2 full years of learning the banks would know what they are doing!!! I’ve have been working short sales for 2 years, it only took me 1 deal to know what needed to be done)

David Sunlin, vice president in charge of short sales at Bank of America, says he hopes the new government plan will help. “About half of short sales never close. We see it as a big lost opportunity, and we need to improve the rate we close them,” he says. (This is great, I wonder when BofA is going to put more staff on the job to improve this process, I was on hold at BofA for 40 minutes today and had to listen to “Press 5 to leave a message for a return call in 5 business days” In the end I gave up and sent a fax, who knows if I’ll hear back from them)

Wells Fargo says it has cut its short sale average turnaround time from 90 days to 30 days by preparing a guide from real estate practitioners and putting in place procedures to handle short-sale requests.

The federal government first announced its short sales initiative in May at the annual Washington meetings of the National Association of Realtors®.

There is a pilot program that has been running in Orlando for the past 3 months, they have been able to shorten the short sale process to 7 days! I don’t know why this program can’t be implemented by all banks. My only guess is waiting until it gets so bad that the Fed have to step in and pay the banks to fix the issue. Boy wouldn’t you like to own a bank…

I know with the 20+ short sale deals I’ve done in the past 2 years I could have generated more cash for the bank if they would have been able to approve the sale within 30-45 days. But because of the 3-5 months of waiting the buyers walked and we had to lower the price to find another buyer…