There’s good news for buyers and sellers of Santa Cruz real estate: The U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook that came out the end of February is encouraging. According to this research done by Freddie Mac, both the economy and the housing market are showing cautious signs of recovery.

Here are some of the changes stimulating these improvements in both nationwide and Santa Cruz real estate markets:

• Loans that were seriously delinquent or going into foreclosure declined to the lowest quarterly share since the start of 2009, according to the latest Mortgage Bankers Association Mortgage Delinquency Survey.

• In January, existing home sales were at their highest since May 2010, according to the National Association of…

Click here to view the report:

http://rereport.com/scc/print/LaurenSpencerSZC.pdf

For some frustrated sellers, the answer to “Why isn’t my home selling?” is “It’s the agent’s fault!”  If your immediate instinct is to drop your Santa Cruz real estate agent for a new one, you might want to take a deep breath and consider the following:

1. Do you think agents are like lottery tickets?  Going through Santa Cruz real estate agents as fast as scratch-off lottery tickets isn’t going to get your home sold faster.  In fact, it usually slows down the process.

2. Is your home priced correctly?  That’s probably the number one difference between homes that sell fast and homes that sit on the market.  A poorly priced home could be your agent’s fault.  Then again, you could be partially to blame.  Did you insist on a specific price even though your…

Frequently, there are news stories that impact our Santa Cruz  real estate market.  Here are two I want to share with you this month:

Rising Interest Rates Could Get Buyers Moving

Rising interest rates may finally push Santa Cruz  real estate buyers off the fence and into the market.

In December, after President Obama agreed to extend tax cuts for two years, the financial markets  indicated this event would most likely push mortgage interest rates higher.

Analysts predict that buyers will move quickly when it looks like rates are going up and are unlikely to come down. "Once people see this might actually be the bottom, they’ll go for it," says Paul Dales, U.S. economist at Capital Economics Ltd.

For an example of interest rate increases, note what…

Click here to get up-to-date information on local real estate market trends & conditions

As a real estate agent for Santa Cruz homes for sale, part of my job is keeping up with current real estate news. Most of the time, I’m largely unsurprised by the news that comes across my desk, but this little tidbit blew me away.

For two years now, we’ve seen mass foreclosures, people walking away from their underwater mortgages and warnings that there’s more to come. Foreclosure numbers reached all time highs, housing prices have reached all time lows and half the country is unemployed. It’s enough to make a homeowner with one of the Santa Cruz homes for sale have a mental breakdown.

However, in February, the news went out, flooring most in the real estate industry: severe shortage of property predicted by the middle of 2011. This may sound…

 The national real estate market, state markets and city markets all seemed to be wrapped up in a nifty bundle that effect whether your Santa Cruz home for sale will have a buyer. With the news reports over the last two years about the pop of the housing bubble, homeowners everywhere essentially lost their minds.

Here are a few examples:

• Some homeowners panicked and immediately put their houses up for sale
• Some homeowners chose to walk away from it all, leaving their homes vacant and mortgages in default
• Some homeowners went into a flurry of home renovations, with the idea of selling
• National and Santa Cruz home for sale listings shot through the roof

The amazing thing isn’t that the real estate market seems to be stabilizing – that’s not the…

A Seller’s Market? Hard to believe, but many homes drawing multiple offers again as listing shortages continue

My how things have changed in just one year! A year ago at this time, many homes were languishing on the market as buyers stayed on the sidelines, worrying about their jobs, the sharp decline in their 401k accounts, and whether housing prices would ever rise again. Today, many of those buyers have swallowed their fears and are out in force once again, spurred by an improving economy, a solid recovery in the financial markets, and federal home buyer tax credits that will expire this spring.

While no one claims the housing market is out of the woods yet, an unusual dynamic is occurring in many communities around the Bay Area:  Despite the choppy…