30 Sep 08 Arizona New Home Communities

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Below is information about four new home communities in Arizona. The communities mentioned below offer new homes for sale in Phoenix, Gilbert, Queen Creek and Payson, Arizona. Each community has homes available for immediate move-in.

Vineyard Mountain Ranch is a Catalina Homes community located in Phoenix, Arizona on 16th street between Baseline Road and Southern Avenue. Vineyard Mountain Ranch offers home buyers five 1 and 2-story floor plans to choose from starting from $208,000 - $265,900. These floor plans are 3 and 4 bedroom floor plans with as many as 2.5 bathrooms and up to 2,623 square feet. For more information about this Arizona new home community, visit www.catalina-homes.com.

Saddlewood Estates is a Sanctuary Builders new home community located just on Sossaman north of Riggs Rd. in Queen Creek, Arizona. This Queen Creek community consists of 28 one-acre home sites with floor plans ranging from 3,800 to over 5,200 square feet; homebuyers can also choose to build a custom home. For more information about Saddlewood Estates in Queen Creek, visit www.sanctuarybuilder.com.

Bison Cove is a Bison Homes new home community located in Payson, Arizona just across the street from the Payson Town Hall. Bison Cove consists of 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condominiums ranging from 1,000 to 1,400 square feet. These northern Arizona condominiums for sale begin in the high $100s, for more information about this new home community in northern Arizona, visit www.bisonhomes.com.

Carrara Estates by Cachet Homes is a single-family new home community located in Gilbert, Arizona. Carrara Estates offers two series of homes – The Hacienda Series of homes consists of three single-story floor plans on 90’x150’ home sites. The Veranda Series of homes consists of four single-story floor plans on 125’x160’ home sites. Both series of homes in Carrara Estates have floor plans with available second story casitas. Homes range from 3,984 square feet to 5,055 square feet and begin in the high $600s. For more information about this new home community, visit www.cachethomes.net.

For more information about each community, visit the home builder’s website; you can also view their community profiles on New Homes Section by searching Arizona new home communities in the real-estate section of New Homes Section.

Tags: Arizona new home communities, Bison Cove, Carrara Estates, Saddlewood Estates, Vineyard Mountain Ranch

26 Sep 08 The Constant Changes to Fannie Mae Lending Guidelines

…And the Impact to the Real Estate Market.

The Real Estate Market is in the tank, toilet, down the drain or is flat out awful.

Wall Street is reeling and the Government is jumping in and attempting to save us from all the potential problems we “could” be facing.

All this fall out has created constant changes at Fannie Mae making it is more difficult to borrow money for Real Estate purposes than ever before. I am not here to judge BUT I have to give an opinion every once in a while so here it goes!

Looking around my Real Estate Marketplace and seeing all the troubled financial situations that have been created by shady lenders and unprofessional mortgage consultants and can’t help but wonder how this problem, being multiplied nationwide, isn’t more significant than it seems.

I know that foreclosures are up and that those people in troubled loans continues to rise. I see my email volume increase monthly with desperate people just looking for a suitable solution. I am not quite sure that tightening lending guidelines is the solution here because I see these changes as making things worse not better.

If these rules continue to tighten we will see very few homes being purchased, banks left with enormous volumes of foreclosed properties and financial difficulties running rampant across the country. It’s a ripple effect, financial problems in one industry causes problems in others and yet other so on and so forth.

OK now that I have that off my chest here is a list of changes to lending guidelines that will have a lasting impact on the Real Estate market:

1. Unless you have more than 25% equity in your home expect the interest rate on a refinance to be considerably higher than someone who does. A three percent premium was just place on all loans whose loan to value exceeds 75% loan-to-value. Even at 75% you have a minimum 1.5% premium.
2. So you are an investor and want to leverage your purchases. You are now limited to 4 properties!
3. If you buy a property for cash for various reasons you will now have to wait 6 months to refinance that property for cash out.
4. If you get a loan on a property putting down 50% and want to refinance some of that cash out, you will now have to wait 6 months.
5. If you are looking to combine a first mortgage and a non-purchase second, a second mortgage taken out after the purchase, you will be considered a cash out transaction regardless of how long you have had that second mortgage. Because of this you are now limited to 75% loan-to-value on the new refinance.
6. So you attempted to sell your home with no luck and have a need to refinance. Well you now have to wait a full 6-months even for a rate and term refinance. Making matters worse you are now limited to 70% loan-to-value for that refinance.

There are several more but these will give you a good sample of the Fannie Mae changes. I know there are those niche lenders out there who have the ability to arrange for a loan even if you don’t meet these guidelines but you can expect to pay a large premium for that loan. Remember Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the most common loans given to homeowners in the US. As the guideline keep tightening you can expect to have more issues with homeowners not being able to purchase of refinance.

As always, find a professional to work with and ask questions. If your representative doesn’t know the answer he or she won’t pay the consequences of not knowing, you will.

I am here to help so contact me via my BLOG at www.thelanegroup.blogspot.com or www.brentlane.wordpress.com

Tags: brent lane, fannie mae, fannie mae changes, first mortgage, freddie mac, freddie mac changes, home equity, homeownership, interest rate on refinance, lending guidelines, loan on a property, loan to value, Real Estate, real estate market, wall street government

25 Sep 08 Garden Roof ®

Why not transform your roof into an eco-friendly, pedestrian accessible, landscaped environment? With a Garden Roof ®, those who own multi-story housing or office buildings can do just that. The McGraw-Hill Company recently published an article that highlights the benefits and features of having a Garden Roof ®.

Energy efficiency. The Garden Roof’s vegetation and soil acts as an insulator to protect against heat and cold from penetrating through the roof, while preventing energy lost from air-conditioning and heating the building. In addition, the vegetation will increase the solar reflectivity of the roof, reducing the amount of heat stored and released back into the atmosphere.

Water conservation. The Garden Roof assembly can hold between 50 and 90% of rainwater that falls on it. This decreases the stress on storm sewers, city drainage systems and treatment plants.

Perhaps the most appealing feature of the Garden Roof is its inviting therapeutic environment. The walkways and plant-life create a peaceful atmosphere for residents / office workers to take a break and to unwind.

Tags: building insulation, eco-friendly building, energy efficiency, garden roof, green building, heat reduction, landscaped roof, mcgraw-hill construction, multi-story housing, multi-story office building, stored rainwater, water conservation