Thursday, March 6, 2008

HUD Announces New FHA and Agency (Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac) Loan Limits

More than a week early, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the new FHA and GSE (Fannie/Freddie) loan limits for 2008 today. 

Authorized by The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, which was signed into law on February 13, 2008, the new FHA limit is based on 125% increase of each county’s median price, with a minimum of $271,050 and a maximum of $729,750. The increased Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan limit follows the same formula, with a minimum of $417,000 and a maximum of $729,950. For the most part, these numbers are the same as the FHA limits except in lower-cost counties, where the Fannie/Freddie limits will be higher.

Baltimore Area Market

Anne Arundel County has increased to $560,000
Howard County is also $560,000 now
Queen Anne County is also $560,000
Baltimore County is also at $560,000
Carroll has also been increased to $560,000
Harford is $560,000

Washington D.C. Area Market

Prince George’s is $729,750
Montgomery is also $729,750
Calvert is also $729,750
Frederick is now $729,750

Just in case you are in the market for a beach home, the limit in Worchester County (Ocean City) is now $437,500.

Posted by Scott Smolen at 21:34:43 | Permalink | No Comments »

Saturday, March 1, 2008

One More Reason to Chose ReMax

I am often asked where I find Buyers for my listings.  Over the years, I have found that a multi prong marketing approach is the best way to expose our home listings to as many buyers as possible.  In addition to the internet, we use direct mail, monthly publications, e-mail farming, and more in order to generate as much interest as possible. 

Our internet advertising also places our home listings in front of more serious buyers.  We use many of the sites listed below in order to gain maximum exposure for our listings.  These include, but are not limited to the #1 and #2 real estate search terms - Realtor.com and ReMax.com.  We also expose our listings through the majority of the other search terms and sites listed below.  However since I often receive the question, “where will buyers find our home online?”, I thought this was some interesting statistical data.

“RE/MAX real estate” ranks No. 2 among real estate search terms on the Internet, according to a recent study by Hitwise, an online competitive intelligence service.

Hitwise, a subsidiary of Experian, has been collecting and analyzing data directly from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) since 1997.

The terms were ranked by volume of searches that successfully drove traffic to Web sites in the Hitwise Business and Finance - Real Estate category for the four weeks ending Jan. 26, based on U.S. Internet usage.

Hitwise Real Estate Search Term Rankings

1. realtor.com - 1.7 percent
2. remax - .81 percent
3. homes for sale - .43 percent
4. apartments - .40 percent
5. real estate - .39 percent
6. century 21 - .38 percent
7. apartments for rent - .36 percent
8. zillow - .35 percent
9. zillow.com - .33 percent
10. coldwell banker - .29 percent
Hitwise Most Visited Real Estate Web Site Rankings

1. realtor.com - 9.08 percent
2. HomeGain - 2.44 percent
3. Yahoo Real Estate - 2.25 percent
4. RE/MAX real estate - 2.21 percent
5. Rent.com - 2.19 percent
6. Zillow - 2.06 percent
7. Apartments.com - 2 percent
8. Move.com - 1.91 percent
9. ZipRealty - 1.86 percent
10. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - 1.42 percent

Posted by Scott Smolen at 04:24:34 | Permalink | No Comments »