By Inman News, Monday, March 10, 2008.

 

RE/MAX Real Estate’s remax.com Web site hopped into second place among the most popular real estate industry Web sites in February, up from its fourth-place ranking in January, Web metrics company Hitwise reported Friday, and real estate marketing company HomeGain bumped from second place in January to fifth place in February.

Century 21 Real Estate’s century21.com and MSN Real Estate’s realestate.msn.com Web sites had the largest jump in ranking among the top-20 real estate category sites, Hitwise reported, based on the total number of unique visitors. Century21.com moved from 16th on the list in January to 10th on the list in February, while realestate.msn.com climbed from 18th in January to 11th in February.

Realtor.com continued its reign at the top of the list, with 5.16 percent of the market share of all unique visitors to real estate sties. But that market share had fallen compared to its 9.08 percent market share in January. Second-place remax.com had 2.61 percent of the market share in February, followed by Yahoo Real Estate’s realestate.yahoo.com at 2.35 percent, Zillow.com at 2.34 percent and HomeGain.com with 2.32 percent.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s hud.gov Web site sank from 10th on the list in January to 14th on the list in February, and Homes.com dropped from 14th in January to 17th in February.

About 24.1 percent of all visits to real estate Web sites went to the top-10 sites in that category in February, compared to 27.4 percent in January.

Hitwise reported that real estate site 21online.com joined the top-100 rankings in February, in 87th place, and Cincinnati.com also joined the list, rising from 110th in January to 95th in February. Rentals.realtor.com moved from 34th in January to 153rd place in the rankings in February, while RedWeek.com moved from 99th in January to 107th in February.

“Realtor.com” was the most popular search term for the four-week period ending Feb. 23, Hitwise reported, followed by “remax,” “real estate,” “zillow.com,” “zillow,” “apartments,” “homes for sale,” “realtor.com,” “century21,” and “realtor,” in that order.

Among the fastest-moving Web sites tracked by Hitwise for the four months ending in February: RogerFazendin.com, up 266 places; SonoranGMAC.com, up 180 places; SignOnSanDiego.com, up 161 places; HomeInsight.com, up 146 places; Myazland.com, up 129 places; PruCalifornia.com, up 113 places; RealEstateForeclosures.net, up 85 places, CapeMay.FNISMLS.com, up 58 places; and CarlsonRE.com, up 39 places.

Good News for Buyers and Sellers: March 6, 2008I know you’ve all been waiting for some relief to our current market conditions, and it arrived today: the new FHA and Fannie Mae- Freddie Mac conforming loan limits have been released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. To find out the new limits in your area, simply click on this link: https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/hicostlook.cfm, which will take you to the “mortgage limits” page at the HUD web site. On that page, enter your state and county information, chose the type of loan from the “Limit Type” drop-down box (FHA Forward, Fannie/Freddie or HECM). [Note: FHA Forward is what HUD is calling the temporary FHA loan limit.] Then click the “send” button at the bottom of the page. On the results page, you’ll see the new loan limit for the type of loan you selected for your area. You can also find a county-by-county listing of the new FHA and Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac loan limits at REALTOR.org by following this link:
http://www.realtor.org/GAPublic.nsf/files/chart_hud_loan_limits_08.pdf/$FILE/chart_hud_loan_limits_08.pdf The new loan limits for FHA and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now calculated at 125 percent of the HUD published median prices, with a floor of $271,050 and $417,000, respectively, not to exceed $729,750.We expect the impact of these loan limit increases on the housing market to be significant because of the infusion of capital into the mortgage market, which should result in lower interest rates across the board. In addition, there will be a direct impact on high-cost areas that previously required borrowers to take out costlier jumbo mortgages.

An economic impact study conducted by NAR in January 2008 estimated that increasing the GSEs’ conforming loan limits would result in as many as 500,000 refinanced loans and could help reduce foreclosures by as much as 210,000. In addition, over 300,000 additional home sales could be generated, housing inventory would be reduced and home prices would be strengthened by two to three percentage points.

HUD was mandated in the Economic Stimulus Act to publish new loan limits within 30 days of the bill’s signing by President Bush on February 13. This is going to stimulate the lower end and in many Communities that crucial move up market that allows the log jam of home equity to get moving once again. I strongly urge any of you that may have been denied access to credit to come back to the table and meet with us and one of our preferred Lenders to get things moving again.

There has never been a better time to buy in recent memory. Rates are Great and now we have this new Loan Limit increase and access to funds! Prices…well prices are off the hook and we have some awesome buys for people right now!

Call us and lets take advantage of this Market together!

Best wishes;

Dirk Knudsen

Re\Max Metro

503-799-8383