4 Bedroom Home For Rent In Ocean Township

4 bedroom, 2 bathroom Colonial, great location in Oakhurst within Ocean Township. Hardwood floors throughout, Huge 100×150 fendced lot, outdoor shed, planty of driveway parking. Close to all shopping, schools, Rt 35, Rt 36, 2 miles to the beach. $1500 per month, 1 1/2 months security. Credit check and references a must.

Contact me for more details…

Scott A. Miller

201-538-4177 ~ http://www.beachviews.com ~ SMiller@pruzack.com

8 GREAT Reasons To Get Pre-Approved

8 Great Reasons To Get Pre-Approved

1) Pre-approval determines which loan program best fits your needs.

2) Your property search will be focussed on a price range you can negotiate on with strength.

3) You will be confident in making an offer on the home you really want when you find it.

4) Your agent can present your officer to the seller to the seller with a pre-approval letter for you.

5) In today’s market, where multiple offers on properties are not uncommon, pre-approval puts you in a much better negotiating position.

6) You will be clear on and know the amount necessary for down payment and closing costs.

7) If you are a first time home buyer, you may be able to qualify for a special first time home buyer program that may allow you to afford more home for your money.

8 ) If you feel like you would like and can afford a higher mortgage payment, other options may be available.

Scott A. Miller

Prudential Zack Sjore Properties ~ 401 Spier Ave. Allenhurst N.J.

732-531-1122 x 206 SMiller@pruzack.com

http://www.BeachViews.com

Treasury Weighs Action On Mortgage Rates

From MSNBC

EXCELLENT NEWS!!!

Treasury weighs action on mortgage rates

Plan would aim to buoy housing market by forcing down the cost of loans
By David Cho, Zachary A. Goldfarb and Dina ElBoghdady
The Washington Post
The Treasury Department is strongly considering a plan to intervene directly in the mortgage industry to dramatically force down rates and stimulate the moribund housing market, according to sources familiar with the proposal.

Under the initiative, the Treasury would offer to buy securities that finance newly issued loans for home purchases, according to the sources. But to participate in the government’s program, mortgage lenders would have to set exceptionally low interest rates, for instance, no more than 4.5 percent for traditional, 30-year fixed-rate loans.

These securities would be purchased primarily from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the financing giants that buy most mortgages from U.S. lenders, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been finalized.

The cost of the plan and source of funding remain unclear. One possibility is for the Treasury to raise money by issuing bonds to the public at 3 percent interest. This could allow the government to turn a profit because it would be buying securities that pay 4.5 percent.

At a meeting attended by the Treasury’s Interim Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Neel Kashkari and the National Association of Realtors in mid-November, senior Treasury officials said they were optimistic that subsidizing lower mortgage rates with taxpayer dollars would help revive the housing market, sources said.

Treasury officials told the Realtors that the plan could be a more effective way to help homeowners than focusing efforts solely on borrowers who are struggling to meet their monthly payments, the sources said. Democratic lawmakers have been advocating a proposal to modify the mortgages of distressed homeowners.

A source said Treasury officials suggested at the meeting that the Realtors start a grass-roots campaign to press the mortgage rate plan with lawmakers.

Treasury officials described the situation as fluid and said the plan was still being finalized, according to people in contact with the department. The officials expressed concerns yesterday that premature disclosure of the plan could prompt Americans to put off buying homes and hold out for a better rate, sources added.

Treasury spokeswoman Brookly McLaughlin said she would not comment on the matter.

Key to solving financial crisis
Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. has said that a recovery in the housing market is key to solving the financial crisis. Such a rebound would restore confidence in the banking system and support the value of troubled assets backed by mortgages.

Though he has said a mortgage modification plan proposed by Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila C. Bair could help the housing market, Paulson has expressed concerns about whether it would reward borrowers who bought houses they couldn’t afford. Bair’s plan would use tens of billions in federal funds to modify adjustable-rate mortgages for several million financially troubled homeowners.

The initiative under review at the Treasury would be an alternative. Borrowers would have to meet standards set by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or the Federal Housing Administrations that include documenting their income, sources said. Fannie and Freddie were put under government control in September. The Treasury plan would not apply to refinances.

Any efforts by the Treasury to lower rates on new mortgages would work in concert with a Federal Reserve plan announced last week to buy $500 billion worth of existing mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and $100 billion worth of those companies’ debt.

The Fed was pleasantly surprised that 30-year fixed mortgage rates fell by as much as three-quarters of a percentage point in anticipation of their program. Homeowners rushed to refinance. Cheaper monthly payments may bolster consumer spending, the most important component of U.S. economic activity.

‘Short-term windfall’
News of the Treasury plan spread quickly through the markets. Shares of home builders rose. At Long & Foster, the Washington area’s largest real estate brokerage, top brass informed agents that they should gear up for increased demand from potential buyers.

“This is going to be a short-term windfall that everybody needs to jump on,” said Dave Stevens, the firm’s president and chief operating officer and a former Freddie Mac official. The move by the Treasury certainly would mean “interest rates will drop,” he added.

But it is unclear whether lower mortgage rates will spark home buying, which is a weightier decision for ordinary people than refinancing a loan.

There are also questions about how much the Treasury would spend to buy down the mortgage rate. One industry source said another idea being pushed by trade groups calls for the Treasury to spend $50 billion of its $700 billion financial rescue package to reduce the fees, or points, that home buyers pay when they want a lower rate for a mortgage.

Yesterday, the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased slightly to 5.75 percent yesterday, up from 5.54 the previous day, said Keith Gumbinger, a vice president at research firm HSH Associates.

“What’s not known is the timing of the purchasing of the mortgage-backed securities and how quickly money will be pumped into the marketplace and that matters as to how low the mortgage rates will go,” Gumbinger said.

Staff writer Neil Irwin contributed to this report.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28045659/

Zillow Survey Portrays Homeowners in Denial

Our old friend Zillow, the Seattle-based company that provides data on home values in select areas of the country, has just released results of its most recent survey of homeowner perceptions of value.

Zillow’s Quarter 3 Homeowner Confidence Survey was conducted October 7-9, during the week that the stock market really tanked (as compared to other recent weeks when it merely tanked.)  This makes the result of the survey even more ironic and indicates that American’s are deeply in denial over the state of the economy.

Zillow found that half of U.S. homeowners think that their homes are essentially worth the same amount today as they were one year ago. Most housing studies would indicate that this perception is wildly out of touch with reality and Zillow itself claims that 74 percent of U.S. homes lost value over the last 12 months if one uses figures from its own “Zestimates.”

Even stranger, 32 percent of homeowners actually think the value of their homes has increased.  17 percent feel that their home’s value has not changed.

The study is probably not an aberration.  Zillow’s Quarter 2 survey had very similar results although perceptions have now tightened a bit.  At that time 62 percent of respondents thought their home’s value had increased or stayed the same while Zillow claimed that 77 percent had lost value.

Different regions view the current situation differently.  In the West, where much of the boom in housing sales and prices took place only to be followed by a bust, huge inventories of unsold houses and hundreds of thousands of foreclosures, more homeowners were facing up to their lost equity.  65 percent of western homeowners said their home values had declined, 22 percent felt they had stayed the same and 13 percent thought the value had increased.  Zillow’s figures indicate a decrease in value in 85 percent of homes.

The Mid-West mirrors national opinion with 51 percent seeing a decline, 22 percent an increase, and 16 percent no change.

In the South which includes the first or second biggest boom and bust state, Florida, homeowners were still optimistic.  Only 47 percent felt that values had dropped, 21 percent that values were unchanged, and 32 percent saw (or imagined) an increase in value.  The South, however, also contains several states – North Carolina and Virginia for example – where the economy, up to very recently, was doing well so perhaps there is some reality in these answers.

In the Northeast 45 percent of homeowners believed values had declined, 23 percent increased and 19 percent saw no change.

The survey also asked homeowners what they thought would happen to their home’s value in the next six months.  40 percent voted for a decrease in value and the same percentage thought things had stabilized; 21 percent were looking for an increase their asset’s worth.

It is intriguing that survey respondents were much more pessimistic about their neighbor’s homes.  When asked to predict the outlook for their local market for the next six months 57 percent thought home prices would decline, 18 percent believed they would increase, and 24 percent were not anticipating any change.

Survey results were presented in an article by Amy Bohutinsky, Zillow’s Vice President of Communications.  Ms. Bohutinsky commented that such optimism – or denial if you will – is not necessarily bad.  “It might not matter if you plan to stay in your home for the next several years and aren’t making financial decisions today based on presumed equity. It’s sort of like the way I’m avoiding looking at my 401k statements – it doesn’t affect me today, so why get depressed. But for sellers, an unrealistic view of your home’s value today can only hurt.”  It can hurt the homeowner when the home sits on the market for months, and it hurts the local market at large as it deals with “a continued and growing glut of inventory that’s just not selling.”