NEVADA HOUSING RELEASES SUPER DPA PROGRAM
Nevada Housing Division has merged “Hardest Hit Fund” and “Home Is Possible” and created the best down payment assistance opportunity I have seen in my 19 years of lending. There is $36,000,000 available for this program, so basically it will be available for around 200 very lucky home buyers. The program follows standard Home Is Possible parameters but is not valid for new construction or manufactured homes. The program will offer up to $20,000 for down payment and closing costs AT BELOW MARKET INTEREST RATE of what we can only guess to be around 4.25% or so. The program will roll out May 1st, first come first serve until the fund is fully utilized. The property must be in the following Zip Codes:
If anyone remembers the $50,000 grants through Hardest Hit Fund, that was earmarked for home owners that were current on their conventional loans but upside down, that is essentially where the funds are coming from. This is a limited opportunity and will be available until the funds run out. The buyer must be under contract to reserve the funds. Typically Home Is Possible offers up to $20,000, with a cap of 5% of the loan amount. This will be up to 10% or $20,000 which ever comes first. Also, the standard HIP program has a much higher interest rate. The interest rate through this limited edition version will have an interest rate of nearly 2% less. This truly would put the buyer in a position to come in with very little down and mortgage payments would be consistent with rents of a similar property.
How You Doin??
The Maltese Group is doing well statistically and we are fully staffed for growth. We helped 53 families in the 1st quarter of 2018, as you can see we are averaging under 24 days from start to finish, and under 21 days for “CTC” also known as final approval.
96% of our clients that filled out surveys were satisfied, with one client not so impressed.
We have a little room in our camp for 1 or 2 more loan officers so if you know of a loan officer that sees value in these statistics have them message me.
Financial Markets
The stock markets have been choppy the last 60 days as traders wrestle with their enthusiasm for a strengthening US economy and the uncertainty of the impact on the recent trade tariffs implemented by the Trump Administration. In the long run a more balanced trade agreement with our biggest partners will provide a ripple effect of benefits for the US economy but there will most certainly be some pain along the way, primarily in stock values.
The bond market isn’t fairing much better like it often does when the stock market experiences a sell off, we saw slight improvements in the last 30 days that at best translates into .125% lower interest rates. Below is a screen shot of the 1 Year US Treasury, as you can see we are up between 1/3 and ½% in rates from the beginning of the year. My advice to my clients will still be to lock as soon as they are under contract or consider taking advantage of our “lock and shop” program, enabling a buyer to lock in the rate then shop for the right home.
Real Estate Market for Southern Nevada
March home sales for Clark County had similar results as February where the number of transactions are on the decline but median prices are still rising. The median priced single family residence reached $280,000, up over 15% from March 2017. Only 3,152 sales were reported, which is down 13 percent from March 2017. The supply still remains under 2 months. It will take a combination of less buyers, more home building, and more sellers to help ease the tight grip of home shortage and with the home buying season about to begin this may not happen any time soon.
https://www.reviewjournal.com/
Also not helping the housing shortage is the apartment shortage. Rents are up over 5% from last year, with the average apartment now renting for $989 per month. According to the article below, Las Vegas has a vacancy rate of 3.9% and is among the lowest in the nation.
Last but not least… GO KNIGHTS GO!!! How perfect is our first play off opponent, the LA KINGS?! Knights vs Kings, a rivalry is born this week.