Some real estate professionals, such as Neil Kornswiet, have made a commitment to bringing the dream of home ownership to many people who may have otherwise been left out of this American dream. Throughout the years, his companies have provided mortgages to many different kinds of families. Even people with less than stellar credit are often able to own homes with help from this type of lending institution. This has been great real estate news for buyers across the country.
Most people would rather own their own home than continue living in apartments and paying rent on a residence that will never develop equity, but those with bad credit have often thought they had no choice. The dream of home ownership has been especially elusive to minorities. Less than half of all Hispanics and African Americans own homes according to the United States Census Bureau and United States Department of Commerce. This is startlingly lower than the national average of 67 % home ownership. This is why real estate and financial specialists like Neil Kornswiet have looked for ways to get people who have historically been locked out of the market into their own homes.
The real estate news might not always look good, but regardless of the economy it’s always better to own a home than to continue renting. Professionals like Kornswiet are making that possible for many more buyers than ever before.
The real estate news for cities like Seattle is actually looking up despite the recent downturn in the economy that has seen home values plummet over the last couple of years. The current median home price is $371,000, which is approximately 15 percent lower than the median value in 2006. That is the bad news. But real estate professionals such as Neil Kornswiet have been watching the market and putting together the facts, and it looks like things are looking up in some lucky cities like Seattle.
Although there has been a 15.2 percent decrease in Seattle’s median home values since 2006, experts say that by June of 2011 there should be a gain of 3.8 percent. Part of the good real estate news for Seattle has to do with its vibrant economy with major employers such as Boeing and Microsoft, which has allowed the city to avoid the major unemployment woes of other areas of the country. The city’s 8.8 percent unemployment rate sounds pretty rosy compared to cities like Detroit and others that have suffered more greatly during the bad economy. And the decrease in home values might seem bad, but it is actually about half the national average.
Experts say there will still be another 2.3 percent decrease in home values in Seattle over the next couple months, but after June, things should start looking up. Real estate analysts estimate a 6.2 percent gain between June 2010 and June 2011, which will average out to a 3.8 percent increase over the next two years.
This may not seem like the most positive real estate news since there will be no double-digit increases in home values any time soon, but the fact that values are increasing instead of decreasing is very good news indeed. It appears as if things will stop getting worse and start getting better very soon.