One in five (20%) Northeastern homeowners believe their own home gained value in the past 12 months, according to the survey. But in reality, 31% of homes in the region increased in value, according to the Zillow Q3 Real Estate Market Reports.

That translates to a Zillow Home Value Misperception Index of -6, which means Northeastern homeowners believe values performed worse than they did in reality – a first in Homeowner Confidence Survey history. A Misperception Index of 0 would mean homeowners’ perceptions were in line with reality.

Homeowners in the West were the least realistic in the country, with 28% believing their own homes’ values increased in the past 12 months. According to Zillow, 17% of homes in the region actually increased, resulting in a Misperception Index of 17.

The Midwest had a Misperception Index of 8, while the South had an Index of 15.

Nationally, 25% of homeowners believe their own home’s value increased in the last 12 months. In reality, 22% of U.S. homes gained value. But fewer than half (49%) believe their home’s value decreased over the past 12 months, while 72% actually decreased. That discrepancy between perception and reality resulted in a Misperception Index of 10.

U.S. homeowners were also more optimistic about the future of their own homes’ values than at any time in the past six quarters. Two in five (41%) say their own home’s value will increase in the next six months. An additional 43% say their home’s value will remain the same, with only 17% saying their home’s value will decrease.

“Homeowners are clearly confused about the housing market, and with good reason,” said Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries. “Home values in different parts of the country have shown varied performance in the third quarter. In the Northeast, they have shown significant stabilization. In the Boston metro area, values are even up from this time last year. That gives Northeastern homeowners a negative Misperception Index in the third quarter, the first time we’ve seen this.

“But across the rest of the country, homeowners are holding onto the hope that home values have performed better than they have in reality. Consistent with all previous surveys, homeowners also seem to be overly optimistic about future home values. While we have definitely seen some stabilization in recent months, there is a high likelihood that home values will see further declines driven by an increasing number of foreclosures coming into the market and, possibly, rising interest rates after the first quarter of next year. The homebuyer tax credits have the potential to stimulate demand and bring about a bottom sooner but, even so, we are very likely to see a sustained period of negligible appreciation in real terms. It seems that homeowners are still working under the assumption of a V-shaped recovery to home values when a long, L-shaped recovery is more likely.”

Pent-up Supply Steady at Nearly One-Third of Homeowners Who May Sell

The level of pent-up supply – a component of “shadow inventory” — remained relatively steady from the second quarter to the third. Nearly one-third (31%) of homeowners indicated they would be at least somewhat likely to put their home up for sale in the next 12 months if they saw signs of a real estate market turnaround. That is up slightly from 29% in Q2. Homeowners said that hearing more general good news about the economy (45%), the ability to sell their home for more than they paid for it (43%) and evidence of increasing home sales in the local market (43%) would be the primary indicators of a real estate turn around.

For more information, visit www.Zillow.com.

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If you got your loan during the boom, it was probably sold as part of a “securitized pool” and that is where our journey down the rabbit hole begins.

Leave your common sense behind, you won’t be needing that on this trip, things are a little backwards here.

Even before the ink was dry on your loan documents, literally, your loan had been pledged to part of a pool; the bank got back the money it loaned you and then bought a credit default swap to pay out in the event of a default. Given what they knew about some of the loans, that bet was a sure thing.

For more detail, see my blog at http://www.realtown.com/gwmantor/blog.

A lot of people made a tidy profit on your loan. And if you are in default, even more money will be made on your loan.

I have seen little to convince me that loan modifications or any government directed response will be a viable solution. According to the Government Accountability Office, as of last month, the government had provided some $1 million to banks in investor subsidies and incentive payments through its Home Affordable Modification Program.

That wouldn’t even be a respectable bonus for an entry level Wall Street data wonk.

It’s a band-aid on the San Andreas Fault.

Not long ago, the Treasury announced that half a million homeowners had enrolled in three-month trial loan modifications. The key words here are “had enrolled in.”

Those that have enrolled are getting the run around. Note this from an Associated Press report…“Government officials can’t say how many people have been turned down because of a typo, lost fax or an oversight by a poorly trained bank employee. But the Treasury Department acknowledges that far too many applicants have wrongly been rejected.”

An article in the Washington Post reported that in a very large sample of residential mortgages, only 3 percent of seriously delinquent borrowers received a modification of their mortgage that reduced their monthly payments in the year after they got into trouble, and only 8 percent of those borrowers received any kind of modification.

According to The Joint Economic Committee of Congress, the average loss to the lender is $50, 000 on mortgages actually foreclosed and resold. What isn’t clear is who they mean by “lender” as we know that the original lender sold the loan in tranches and we do not know who would be the party in interest.

One way to interpret that is that by foreclosing; the pretender lender actually stands to gain the selling price of the resold foreclosure, less $50,000. On a $200,000 sale that is a pretty good profit.

Nor, is that the only reason.

Consider this observation by Kevin Stein, associate director of the California Reinvestment Coalition in San Francisco. “Most important, there are no consequences to the banks for failure to do what they have promised to do.”

As a matter of fact, there are a host of potential consequences to modifying a mortgage that haven’t been discussed, including, but not limited to, the Pooling and Servicing agreements governing the relationship between the lender and the investor, accounting rules and the seeming conflicts arising from altering the terms of a security, and a lack of record as to the real parties in interest.

As it turns out, in most cases, there isn’t even a legally authorized individual with the authority to modify the terms of a note that is part of a security package. The future of loans that may have been unlawfully modified creates even more uncertainty.

The largest obstacle to a modification is the anticipation of the payout on the Credit Default Swaps. Because these are unregulated, some mortgages may have been insured for multiple times the actual loan amount.

Only a default, not a mortgage write down, will trigger the pay out on the swaps. So now you know why all that loan modification paperwork gets lost all of the time.

The more modifications banks do, the more requests they will get, so it is definitely in their best interest to make it as difficult as possible so as not to open the floodgates. This could lead to investor backlash for not protecting the security interests of their fiduciaries.

Remember, they sold the note and got their money back. Why would they settle for a couple of thousand dollars from the government when they can foreclose on houses, resell them and bank hundreds of thousands in profit and, by reselling them, they keep filling their securitization pools with new loans?

What is now becoming apparent is that it isn’t in the best interest of the banks to voluntarily modify most mortgages. If you need mortgage relief, you will probably need to initiate legal action, and you will need a lawyer familiar with this area of the law. But because many securitized mortgages are bullet-proof to foreclosure, you may not need a modification to obtain relief.

George W. Mantor is known as “The Real Estate Professor” for his wealth building formula, Lx2+(U²)xTFP=$? and consumer education efforts. During a career that has spanned more than three decades, he has amassed experience in new home and resale residential real estate, resort marketing, and commercial and investment property. He is currently the founder and president of The Associates Financial Group, a real estate consulting firm.

Mantor can be reached at GWMantor@aol.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

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According to the survey, MLS-listed properties with reduced prices have had their prices cut an average of twice, but sellers are not knocking quite as much off as they did earlier this year. Home owners slashed listing prices by an average of $24,718 in October, just slightly less than the average reduction of $24,960 in September.

The median list price across all 27 markets decreased slightly to $281,416, down 2.02% compared to September.

Other highlights of the brokerage’s monthly survey of price reduction data include:
-Miami-area (Ft. Lauderdale/Palm Beach) homeowners reduced list prices by the largest percentage at 15.7% or $40,000 on average
-Homeowners in Raleigh-Durham reduced prices by the smallest percentage at 4.6% or $11,000 on average
-Of the markets studied, those with the highest percentage of price-reduced homes are Jacksonville (50.9%), Orlando (50.1%) and Chicago (50.1%)
-Markets with the lowest percentage of price-reduced homes are Denver (31.1%), Los Angeles (33.6%), Sacramento (36.4%) and San Diego (35.7%)
-Markets where sellers have cut the most in absolute dollars are: San Diego ($54,000 median price reduction), Orange County, Calif. ($51, 000 median price reduction), San Francisco ($50,500 median price reduction) and Los Angeles ($43,000 median price reduction).
-As in September, Orange County had the highest median list price at $624,900. Jacksonville, Fla. has the lowest median list price at $172,000

For more information, visit www.ziprealty.com.
Overcoming Fear of Foreclosure Critical for Many People to Keep Their Homes
Bad Economy Turns Renters into Roommates

The FHA, the federal agency that insures low-down-payment home loans for private lenders recently said it was relaxing its building underwriting guidelines as a way of helping the struggling sector ride out the downturn. The move could help boost sales in condos by making more FHA mortgages available to borrowers.

“The best way to bring back some level of security is to get new buyers into those vacant units. You can’t do that until new homeowners have access to financing,” said Meg Burns, director of the FHA’s single-family program development. The new rules—which are temporary—come after more than a year of more stringent standards from lenders, who, after suffering major losses on condos, began vetting and disqualifying condominium projects for purchase loans, regardless of whether home buyers qualified.

“This might be an entree for traditional and conventional lenders to return to the marketplace. Symbolically, it’s a pretty significant move,” said Peter Zalewski, a condo market analyst and broker with Condo Vultures in Bal Harbour, Fla.

The temporary rules are effective for most of the coming year and will help the marketplace transition into a new set of tougher guidelines that bring FHA into closer alignment with the project underwriting practices of Fannie Mae.

Earlier this year, Fannie implemented a slew of new regulations governing condo projects that some claim have strangled the market by stigmatizing condo loans in tough markets such as Florida.

Similar to Fannie regulations, the FHA is also now singling out those markets for special attention by approving projects itself, rather than lenders. Burns said lenders and investors were reluctant and even “scared” to lend money, prompting the agency to step in as a way of calming nerves. “We’re coming in and saying we’ll approve the projects and back them so you will feel confident and comfortable lending in this environment,” Burns said.

Securing the blessing of the FHA is important because it allows borrowers to get loans that require down payments of only 3.5% and qualify under less burdensome terms. Most conventional loans now require 20% down, keeping creditworthy borrowers on the sidelines. In some new projects, lenders have asked for down payments of as much as 40 to 50%.

Among the new, temporary rules is a measure extending a deadline allowing lenders to submit mortgage loans for spot approval in buildings that have not been approved for FHA lending. The administration had said the so-called spot loans would be eliminated by the end of the year but the new deadline is February 2010.

The new guidelines also:

-Increase from 30% to 50% the number of units in a project that can be financed with FHA loans. FHA, however, will make exceptions, even allowing up to 100%, when buildings meet an additional set of more stringent criteria.

-Require at least 50% of units in a complex to be owner-occupied or sold to owners who plan to live in the units. Bank-owned units may be disqualified from the percentage calculation.

-Reduce a presale requirement in new construction to 30%, compared to 70% for loans from conventional lenders.

“This temporary guidance represents incredible leniency in terms of financing standards and loan standards,” Burns said. It’s hard to say how many buildings may benefit from the new rules, but mortgage brokers and real estate observers applauded the reprieve. “This should really help some of the stalled projects if they can get their buildings approved,” said Grant Stern, a mortgage consultant in Bay Harbor Islands, Fla., who specializes in Fannie Mae and FHA guidelines. “A lot of these buildings looking to sell out the rest of their inventory should be able to get FHA approval to close out the projects.”

But there will be more hurdles to overcome beginning Dec. 7. That’s when a bevy of additional regulations take effect, including a provision that withholds approval from buildings where more than 15% of unit owners are past due on association fees.

(c) 2009, The Miami Herald.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

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The Deed for Lease Program is designed to help borrowers who aren’t eligible or haven’t been able to sustain other work-out solutions, including a modification, according to a news release.

Participating borrowers voluntarily transfer their property deed back to the lender; the lender then leases the house back to the borrower at a market rate for up to a year. After the period is up, there’s a possibility of a term renewal or a month-to-month lease arrangement, the release said.

“The Deed for Lease Program provides an additional option for qualifying homeowners who are facing foreclosure and are not eligible for modifications,” said Jay Ryan, vice president of Fannie Mae, in the release. “This new program helps eliminate some of the uncertainty of foreclosure, keeps families and tenants in their homes during a transitional period, and helps to stabilize neighborhoods and communities.”

To qualify, the home must be the borrower’s primary residence, and he or she needs to be released from any subordinate liens on the property. The borrower also has to document that the new market rental rate doesn’t exceed 31% of his or her gross income.

“This policy takes advantage of the fact that in many former bubble markets, ownership costs are likely to be far higher than the cost of renting an equivalent unit, if the homeowner purchased their home near the peak of the market. In many cases this gap can be dramatic,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in a separate release.

“For example, the savings on a moderate-priced home purchased near the peak of the market in the Washington, D.C., area could be more than $1,300 a month. The gap between ownership costs and renting in the Los Angeles area could be almost $2,000 a month,” he said. “Many homeowners who could not sustain mortgages based on the original purchase price, even with sharp reductions in interest rates, can afford the market rent.”

Baker called the Deed for Lease Program a “very big step” toward giving families facing foreclosure more housing security.

“Families that like their home, their neighborhood, or the schools for their children will have the opportunity to stay in their house even after foreclosure,” he said. “This is also good policy for neighborhoods that have been hard-hit by foreclosures. The Deed for Lease Program will keep the homes occupied rather than being an eyesore and a potential safety hazard.”

But Baker does have one criticism of the program: He said the guaranteed lease period should be longer than a year—possibly contingent on timely rent payments and proper upkeep. “Nonetheless, the new policy by Fannie Mae is an important step forward in dealing with the housing crisis,” he said.

(c) 2009, MarketWatch.com Inc.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

HomeGain’s recent survey shows the top do-it-yourself home improvements that Realtors recommend to home sellers. HomeGain received responses from nearly 1,000 Realtors nationwide and configured a list of the top 12 do-it-yourself (DIY) home improvements that cost under $5,000 and benefit sellers most when they sell their homes. 

According to the HomeGain survey, the top five home improvements that Realtors recommend to home sellers based on cost and return on investment (from highest to lowest ROI) are: 

1. Cleaning and de-cluttering ($200 cost / $1,700 price increase / 872% ROI)
2. Home staging ($300 cost / $1,780 price increase / 586% ROI)
3. Lightening and brightening ($230 cost / $1,300 price increase / 572% ROI)
4. Landscaping ($320 cost / $1,500 price increase / 473% ROI)
5. Repairing plumbing ($385 cost / $1,250 price increase / 327% ROI) 

Cleaning and de-cluttering continues to rank as the top suggested home improvement (since the survey was originally conducted in 2000), recommended by 98% of Realtors, costing less than $200 and returning a value of nearly $1,700 to the home’s sale price, or an 872% return on investment. 

“Many Realtors agree, especially in a buyer’s market, that sellers who make these recommended home improvements often get their homes sold faster and at higher prices,” stated Louis Cammarosano, General Manager at HomeGain. “We have customized our Home Sale Maximizer online home improvement tool to help identify and prioritize the projects that can increase the salability and selling price of a home.” 

Rounding out the top 12, the list of low cost, do-it-yourself home improvements includes: updating electrical, replacing or shampooing carpets, painting interior walls, repairing damaged floors, updating kitchen, painting outside of home, and updating bathroom/s.

The home improvement projects with the highest price increases to a home’s resale value are updating the kitchen ($1,200 cost / $2,850 price increase), followed by painting the outside of the home ($900 cost / $1,815 price increase) and home staging ($300 cost / $1,780 price increase). 

“Inexpensive cosmetic home improvements and basic improvements greatly enhance the value of the home,” stated Carol Wilson of Carpenter Real Estate in Indianapolis, IN, HomeGain AgentEvaluator member since 1999. 

For more information, visit www.homegain.com. 

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com. 

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RISMEDIA, November 10, 2009—That is one of the most common objections to purchasing real estate where there is a community Association requiring the payment of regular dues and fees. These can range from less than a hundred dollars per month, if for example the only service is streetscaping, to upwards of a couple of thousand dollars for a luxury penthouse. Depending on square footage and amenities, most fees range between $250 and $750. 

Taken out of context, the amount can seem outrageous. But, when considered from a prospective of value received, you can be pretty certain that you are getting one of the last great bargains. 

When evaluating the HOA monthly fee, it is important to consider three things: how was the number arrived at, what does it cover, can anything be done for less? 

1. How is the HOA fee determined? 

In California, and probably most other states, developers must obtain state approvals before their projects can be offered to prospective buyers. Part of the submission process for developments with an Owners Association is the creation of a detailed budget for the operation and maintenance of the common area and the provision of necessary services. 

Developers want to project the most positive scenarios in order to keep HOA dues low and not discourage prospective buyers. And, they are also aware that a $500 per month Association fee equates to another $100,000 that the buyer could have spent for the home. The higher the Association fee, the less the borrower/buyer can spend. 

On the other side, the State wants to establish a realistic budget that will allow for proper funding well into the future. For the consumer, that process of compromising means that the budget is as realistic as it can be at the time it was created. 

The main thing to keep in mind is that the developer will be paying the Association fees on all unsold property within the Association. The developer is not the one benefiting from high fees so there is no reason to blame them. 

2. What does the HOA fee is cover? 

It’s also important to consider what is included. Amenities very widely from project to project; high-rises cost more to operate and maintain than low rise buildings. 

One of the responsibilities associated with real estate ownership is the obligation to maintain and protect the improvements from deterioration, damage, weathering, etc. Living out in the burbs you need a garage full of tools and a lot of weekends to stay ahead of nature. 

Depending on the type of development, there could be a need for a lot of landscape maintenance. That takes labor, and labor is expensive 

If there are common areas such as a lobby, pool, gym, or even hallways, they need to be cleaned regularly, maintained occasionally, painted often, and replaced over time. Garages must be swept and windows washed. 

Then there is liability, property and other forms of insurance, and possibly a security force. 

What utilities are included? Are water, sewer, electric, gas, trash and cable billed individually or are some paid collectively through the Association? 

Then there is usually a management Association looking after things, paying the bills, and communicating all of that to the homeowners. 

3. Can it be done for less? 

Add it all up and you’ll see that the economies of scale allow for a high level of service at a true cost far lower than you could do it yourself. 

And remember, it is your building and your Association. You want to protect your investment and to have the kind of amenities that will allow for profitable reselling in the future. Serve on your Association board. If you can economize, you can lower your HOA fee. 

But, don’t lose sight of the fact that you are paying for important services with a volume discount. It isn’t just an expense; it’s protecting your investment.

George W. Mantor is known as “The Real Estate Professor” for his wealth building formula, Lx2+(U²)xTFP=$? and consumer education efforts. During a career that has spanned more than three decades, he has amassed experience in new home and resale residential real estate, resort marketing, and commercial and investment property. He is currently the founder and president of The Associates Financial Group, a real estate consulting firm.

Mantor can be reached at GWMantor@aol.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com. 

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Year-over-year home values in the United States declined for the 11th consecutive quarter, falling 6.9% to a Zillow Home Value Index of $190,400. However, the rate of year-over-year decline shrank for the third quarter in a row, meaning home values did not decline as dramatically year-over-year in the third quarter as they did in the second or the first. 

In addition, the Zillow Home Value Index remained relatively flat in the short term, declining 0.4% from the end of the second quarter to the end of the third quarter. The Zillow Home Value Index measures the value of all homes in an area, and the Q3 Zillow Real Estate Market Reports encompass 156 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). 

Foreclosure re-sales remained high, making up more than one-fifth (21.4%) of all U.S. home sales in September, and made up the majority of sales in several MSAs including the Merced, Calif. MSA (74.2%), the Stockton, Calif. MSA (69.3%), the Madera, Calif. MSA (68.7%), the El Centro, Calif. MSA (68.1%) and the Las Vegas MSA (67.5%). Additionally, 26.9% of home sales nationwide sold for less than what the seller originally paid. 

“The decline in the percentage of homeowners with negative equity is a positive sign, and is directly attributable to the stabilization of home values from the second quarter to the third,” said Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries. “It is also attributable to many homeowners who were previously underwater on their mortgage losing their homes to foreclosure. 

“The next several months will be critical to the housing market. Previously, we’d been expecting to see increasing foreclosure rates during the real estate market’s slow winter season, a confluence of events that would likely drive inventory up and prices down. But now, with the extension of the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit and a new $6,500 credit for some repeat homebuyers, we could see a bump in demand that could partially offset the increased supply of foreclosed homes on the market. The credits are likely to bring continued stabilization in prices over this period, versus the price declines that we almost certainly would see otherwise. Whether this stabilization will be sustainable after the tax credits expire, however, is yet to be seen. Some of the demand that we are buying with tax credits we are also borrowing from the future, and will likely have to pay for later in the form of weaker-than-normal demand.” 

Some markets across the country showed encouraging signs in the third quarter. Home values increased year-over-year in 24 of 156 MSAs and remained flat in an additional 16. Only nine MSAs – including the Merced, Calif., State College, Penn., and Salisbury, Md. MSAs – showed increasing year-over-year declines. 

The Milwaukee and Boston metropolitan statistical areas were the largest markets to show positive year-over-year changes in home values, with the Zillow Home Value Index rising 2.6% in Milwaukee and 1.6% in Boston. 

For more information, visit www.Zillow.com. 

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com. 

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-Stage it virtually. This option is aimed at empty homes, because photos of bare walls and floors can make online shoppers lose interest. You just snap photos of the empty rooms and send them to a virtual stager, who uses computer imagery to “furnish” them. The photos can be posted online or used in marketing materials. Prices range from around $200 for three rooms to $325 for five rooms, although rates vary by city.

-Pay for a plan, but provide the muscle. Many stagers will work as consultants, touring your house and offering suggestions on presenting it. Barb Schwarz, founder of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals, says the average fee for a consultation is $350. Then it’s up to you to do the cleaning, decluttering and rearranging. Kiplinger’s suggests renting a portable storage unit if you have a lot of stuff to store. One company, PODS, will deliver the unit to your driveway for $75, transport it to a secure storage facility for another $75 and charge you a monthly storage fee of around $150, depending on where you live, the time of year and other factors.

-Add some pizzazz. Sometimes a few decorative extras can update or neutralize a home’s decor. You may be able to negotiate with a staging company for decor items such as wall art, area rugs, lamps or other accessories.

-Focus on a few rooms. Hire a stager to redo just the entryway, main living area, kitchen or master bedroom. Stagers usually charge $75 to $125 an hour. Ignore secondary rooms, or do them yourself once you’ve seen how the pro works. 

(c) 2009, Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio).

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

The homebuyer tax credit, due to expire at the end of November would be extended through April 30 of next year. First-time buyers who are in the process of making a purchase would not need to worry about qualifying for the $8,000 credit if they close after the November 30 deadline. 

For the first time, the legislation that was recently cleared makes move-up buyers as well as first-time buyers eligible for a credit. The $8,000 maximum first-timer credit will continue and will now be available to couples with income up to $225,000, a nearly $55,000 increase above the level in existing law. A new $6,500 maximum credit would also be available to move-up homeowners who have lived in their current residence for five of the prior eight years. 

For homebuyers across the country, the expanded tax credit would allow more people to qualify for the credit. While two-thirds of American families own their own home, and most earn less than the income limits that have been established within the extension, more buyers may be eligible. Move-up buyers don’t have to sell their current home to qualify for the new credit, but the money cannot be used to buy a vacation home. “It’s only for a primary residence,” said Regan Lachapelle, a spokeswoman for Sen. Harry Redi (D-Nev.), who helped engineer the deal. “In expanding the tax credit, we are helping first-time home buyers, as well as homeowners looking to move up to a new home, but we would exclude from the credit speculators who may have recently purchased a home intending to flip it for a fast profit,” said Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Finance Committee. 

The tax credit has fired-up the housing market, driving existing home sales to the highest level in over two years. The National Association Realtors reported sales jumped 9.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million units in September and are 9.2% higher than the 5.10 million-unit pace in September 2008. 

The legislation included provisions added to address complaints of fraud as well. The Internal Revenue Service is given greater authority to oversee the process to root out fraud, and provisions are added in response to past abuses of false sales or underage buyers. An investigation by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration found that more than 580 children, some as young as four years old, had received $627,000 in first-time homebuyer credits. The IRS has identified 167 suspected criminal schemes and opened nearly 107,000 examinations of potential civil violations of the first-time homebuyer tax credit.

For more information, visit www.realestateeconomywatch.com and www.wsj.com. 

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com. 

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Breaking News: Senate Plans to Extend and Expand Tax Credit

In a recent interview, Fox-Pitt Kelton analyst Robert Stevenson said the Senate’s proposal for extending the $8,000 tax credit for new homebuyers will have a “limited impact” on home sales.

A Senate committee reached a deal last week to extend the $8,000 tax credit and offer a smaller $6,500 credit for some existing homeowners. The main pitfall of the proposal is that it only pushes back the expiration of the tax credit to the end of April, Stevenson said. It is currently set to go away on Dec. 1. Stevenson said he’s skeptical the tax credit will drive activity during the slower winter months. The prime selling season for the housing market kicks off in the spring and tends to run through the warmer months. “Of course, Congress could come back and extend it again,” the analyst said. “When the next selling season starts, the housing market will depend on the state of the economy and mortgage rates, rather than tax credits.” 

The $6,500 credit for some repeat homebuyers would let more buyers participate albeit at a lower level, “but a lot of those people are effectively trapped in their current homes,” Stevenson said. 

From their peak in 2006, U.S. home prices have fallen about 30% through the end of August 2009 during the housing downturn, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index. More Americans are falling behind on their mortgage payments or losing their homes in the recession as job losses pile up. Rising foreclosures are another key worry. Yet hopes that a recovery is in place were fueled by a report showing the fourth straight month of rising home prices. Some attributed the tentative rebound to buyers rushing to cash in on the expiring $8,000 tax credit. The push to extend and expand the credit has been led by home builders, Realtors and other groups connected to the housing market. 

“Failure to act now could derail the fragile housing recovery even before it has time to take root,” said Jerry Howard, president of the National Association of Home Builders, in a statement urging Congress to stretch the tax credit. “The consequences would be devastating for both housing and the economy.” Howard said the tax credit has already helped create nearly 200,000 jobs, drive home sales, stem foreclosures and stabilize prices. Homebuilder stocks were up sharply in the wake of the news on the Senate compromise. Still, some economists say the incentive’s impact is overblown. 

“I am not applying the recent home-price rebound to the tax credit,” said Cameron Findlay, chief economist at LendingTree, in a recent interview. “I don’t think the tax credit makes as big an impact as people make it out to be, although it certainly motivates first-time buyers,” he said. “If it expires, I don’t think it would shake the housing market as much as some have predicted.” 

The compromise on extending the tax credit doesn’t mean it’s a sure thing, and the proposal still face votes in Congress. One potential snag is a recent government report that uncovered fraud and abuse associated with the tax credit. Thousands of ineligible taxpayers have received millions of dollars under the program, according to the report. 

Stephen East, an analyst at Pali Research, said the proposed new $6,500 credit would likely have some impact on the lower-end of the move-up market. “In essence, this could slowly start to prime the pump,” East forecast. “That said, we remain wary that any measurable impact will be seen until after the holidays and investors need to reconcile their expectations to that.” 

(c) 2009, MarketWatch.com Inc.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 

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The survey, the fifth annual Energy Pulse® survey conducted by Shelton Group, found that consumers are reverting to their old priorities as the recession wanes- perhaps at the expense of the environment. 

“Energy efficiency is back to playing second fiddle, competing with more visible and exciting home improvement projects,” said Suzanne Shelton, whose firm conducted the study. “Anyone selling energy-efficient products must either focus heavily on the aesthetic or comfort aspects of their products or play up their environmental benefits in a big way.” 

The survey, which polled 504 Americans by telephone in September 2009, asked consumers: “Assuming you were suddenly given $10,000 to make home improvements, which two of the following would you choose?” The top answers were: 

-Refinish the kitchen or bathroom (37%)
-Replace carpet or add hardwood or tile (33%)
-Replace windows (31%)
-Replace HVAC/furnace (23%)

Last year’s top answers were:
-Replace windows (35%)
-Replace HVAC/furnace (27%)
-Remodel kitchen or bathroom (26%)
-Replace carpet or add hardwood or tile (25%) 

Among the survey’s other findings:
-Consumers are willing to watch their energy bills go up more than 70%, on average, before feeling forced to make energy-efficient home improvements. Respondents said their bills would need to go up an average of $129 a month to make them undertake renovations. “We call this phenomenon the ‘Apathy Gap,’ the price people are willing to pay to do nothing,” Shelton said. “Here consumers are willing to waste more than $1,500 a year, or more than $4 a day, before they’ll take action. For that same amount, a homeowner could install insulation or purchase one or two new ENERGY STAR® appliances to start seeing immediate savings.” 

-There is a lot of pent-up demand for solar power. The survey asked, “How likely would you be to buy a solar electricity system for your home, knowing that a mid-size system that would provide around 63% of the average household’s electricity, costs $35,000 to $40,000 that could be offset by a $2,000 federal tax incentive along with additional rebates in many states.” 

Twenty-eight percent said they would be likely or very likely to buy such a system. Fewer than 1% reported they already had such a system. “This indicates an enormous potential market for solar,” Shelton said. “Consumers have been waiting for solar to become more accessible and more affordable. Now, with prices projected to fall even further, and with new federal tax incentives greater than they’ve ever been – up to 30% of the cost of the system for qualifying taxpayers- solar power will be on the rise.” 

-Consumers have good intentions – but not very good follow-through. Surveys over the past five years, including this year, show consistently large discrepancies between intentions and actions. Every year, for example, around 20% or more consumers say they’re planning to get an energy audit, yet the percentage of U.S. homeowners who’ve actually gotten one has languished in the 10-15% range. 

“That’s why we now refer to home energy audits as the ‘colonoscopy’ of energy efficiency,” Shelton said. “Everyone knows they should get one, but too few actually do.” 

For more information, visit www.sheltongroupinc.com. 

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“I just love her,” Gordon said. The two women—and their two dogs—bonded quickly after Thalacker moved in last December. Both have busy independent lives, but they still find time to share one or two meals a week, plus occasional bike rides, wine, ice cream and sometimes “American Idol.” 

Their living arrangement is short-term. “When she finishes her practicum she’ll look for a job. I don’t know where she’ll find one,” Gordon said. “But I might keep her forever,” she added with a laugh. 

Roommates as compatible as Gordon and Thalacker are rare, but their circumstances are increasingly common. Last year’s stock-market crash and recession, which wiped out jobs and slashed incomes, have prompted many to look for new sources of revenue. For homeowners, that can mean turning a spare bedroom into a cash cow. 

Roommate postings on Craigslist have increased 160% nationwide over the past 24 months, and 80% in the Minneapolis area over the same period, according to spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best. There’s no way to track how many of today’s new roommates were brought together by economic forces, said Marilyn Bruin, associate professor in the University of Minnesota’s housing studies program. “I haven’t seen any data, but I totally believe it’s an economic strategy. It makes sense.” 

The trend mirrors what happened during and after the last economic meltdown, the Great Depression. “Housing was scarce, and renting of homes was not all that uncommon,” said Clifford Clark, a professor of history and American studies at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. “My grandmother took in boarders.” 

Gordon, who has lived in her Scandia, Minn., home for 28 years, never would have anticipated adding a roommate at this stage of her life. But fate threw her some curveballs. Several years ago, her husband, a physician, developed a serious illness, so Gordon left her job as a food stylist to care for him. Three years ago, he died. Then, “the economy tanked. I saw my savings disappear.” She had forged a new career as a newspaper columnist and cookbook author, but she wanted to boost her income. “I’m 55 now—it’s not so easy to get a job. I thought, ‘OK, what have I got that I can make work for me?’” One thing she had was a master suite she was no longer using. After her husband’s death, Gordon started sleeping in a loft bedroom “closer to the core of the house,” she said. So she sought a roommate via Craigslist. 

The first person who responded was a scam artist. The second had eight dogs. The third was Thalacker. “I was new to Minnesota, from a really small town,” said Thalacker. “People said, ‘What do you mean, you’re going to live with some lady you met on the Internet?’” When Thalacker came to meet Gordon and see the house, she felt at home immediately. “She was cooking, the dogs were going crazy, it was kind of chaotic, and I thought, ‘This is perfect.’” 

(c) 2009, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 

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For finding out how much your mortgage is going to cost you, a loan mortgage calculator often works as a user-friendly tool. Nevertheless, this tool can’t save you all the time. Similar to other forms of investment, real estate mortgage loans are also subject to scams. Mortgage frauds and scams can make you lose thousands of dollars on interest as a minimum because of excessive fees and other hidden costs. The worst that can happen is that you can lose your home to foreclosure. 

According to industry professionals, there are three principal or familiar types of real estate fraud: 

1. Identity theft via mortgage request
2. Bait and switch
3. Loan flipping 

For preventing scams, it has been witnessed that offense is the best defense. Understand the truth and don’t hesitate to make queries. 

Bait and switch is a fraudulent sales technique where a loan product is publicized at a lucrative rate (bait). However, the product or rate is subsequently changed for the gain of the lender (switch). This is an utterly illegitimate and deceitful practice. For instance, one interest rate is assured at the time of selling a loan, but a bigger rate is provided at the time of closing. 

When you’re obtaining a pre-approval or mortgage quote, you believe that your question with the lender is secret, right? You’re wrong. On many occasions, important financial details about you and your mortgage requirements are hacked by vying lenders. This can happen within 24 hours of your credit bureau inquiry. Your loan officer is even unaware of this. Many firms provide countrywide accessibility to your financial details to the lenders and everybody in your city who requested for a mortgage within the last 24 hours. Any other lender can talk to these individuals the following day and give them a pre-approval for an improved mortgage loan. 

One more dilemma is mortgage solicitation through telephone, the Internet or door to door. These scams involve filling in an application through fax, the Internet or over the telephone and often the rates are phony. However, it is not the largest issue to be bothered about–it is nothing but identity theft. Even though the rates are legitimate, the company would get all your important details such as your social security number that can result in mortgage scam or identity theft. 

Another type of mortgage scam that is prevalent in the real estate industry is loan flipping. Loan flipping denotes frequent refinancing of a mortgage within a small time frame with very small gains to the borrower. It takes place when a borrower can’t keep up with the planned payments or constantly combines other unsecured loans into a new secured loan at the request of a lender. Lenders flipping loans ask for too much origination fee with every consecutive refinancing. They might ask for these fees on the basis of the whole loan amount, not only on the increased amount summed up with the loan principal through refinancing. In addition, every refinancing might attract prepayment penalties that can be funded as a portion of the overall loan amount, accumulating the debt of the borrower. 

If you’re buying a home, looking for a home equity loan or considering a mortgage refinance, it is better to work with a trustworthy lender. You must shop around and do some homework to get the best offers. Try to stay away from furnishing any details until you’re confident that the company or individual you’re talking to is right for you. 

For more information, visit www.mortgagefit.com. 

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While its passage remains uncertain, the agreement would extend the existing credit for first-time homebuyers, worth up to $8,000, while offering a new credit of up to $6,500 for some existing homeowners, Senate aides said. The reduced credit would be available to all homebuyers who have been in their current residence for a consecutive five-year period in the past eight years. Lawmakers in Washington also raised the qualifying income limits to $125,000 for single taxpayers and $250,000 for joint taxpayers, from the current $75,000 and $150,000, housing-industry sources said. Under the Senate compromise, buyers must have sales agreements in hand by April 30, but they will have until June 30 to go to settlement, said the sources. The measure still faces votes in the full Senate and the House. 

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan are in full support of the Senate’s proposal to both extend and expand the first-time homebuyer tax credit and called on Congress to approve key housing measures that include the tax credit. “We welcome efforts taken by Congress to extend the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit for a limited period. This credit has brought new families into the housing market and contributed to three consecutive months of rising home prices nationwide,” said Secretaries Geithner and Donovan. “In extending the credit, we urge Congress to include strict measures to combat tax fraud and protect responsible homeowners.” 

The current tax credit did little for the new-home market in September, the Commerce Department recently reported—news that took many industry analysts by surprise. Sales fell 3.6% from August and 7.8% from September 2008. Industry observers had expected a fifth consecutive monthly increase in new-home sales, believing that the tax incentive for qualified first-time buyers—credited with 357,000 sales of previously owned homes so far this year—would do the trick. Instead, sales of typically more expensive newly built houses slipped. “The decline in new-home sales seems to us to be more a function of the attractive pricing available on resales in the current environment than a reflection of weakening demand,” said Michael Feder, president of Radar Logic in New York, which tracks the market. 

“Since hitting rock bottom in March, demand is up 20 percent,” said Joel L. Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisers in Holland, Pa. For Naroff, the robust rise in existing-home purchases—9.2% year over year in September—indicated that the housing market was not faltering. “Maybe the issue is supply, which fell to its lowest level in 27 years,” he said. “Builders, at least those left standing, have been making sure they don’t have any houses sitting around, and they have been very successful in controlling inventories.” 

IHS Global Insight economist Patrick Newport echoed that, noting new-home inventories “sank for the 29th straight month to their lowest level since November 1982.” Naroff maintained housing has recovered enough to stand without the tax credit, but Newport said that if the credit were not extended and expanded, housing demand would take a hit, and home sales would drop. 

The new provisions are aimed at broadening availability of the credit beyond first-time buyers and giving the weakened real estate market a bigger boost while preventing real estate investors from benefitting. While Senate lawmakers appear to have reached a deal on the substance of the tax credit, they are still at odds over how it would be brought to the Senate floor. 

(c) 2009, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 

For more information, visit www.wsj.com. 

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In the course of my adult life, I’ve lived in 14 different residences, six of which have been single-family homes that I bought. Like most people, each time I had my list of must-haves in terms of living space, floor plan flow, structure, amenities, etc. But as I was also new to the area for half of those decisions, I was also interested in knowing more about the neighborhood and surrounding environment and would always envision myself coming home after dark. Even the most charming tree-lined street takes on a different character when the sun goes down. 

Home as a sanctuary has moved from cultural trend to the essence of what makes a house a home. The term “sanctuary” covers everything from the basic need of shelter, a place of refuge, security, as well as a home that fits the lifestyle of the family living there. Gone are the days when showing a house with a home security system or solid deadbolts might signal the buyer to think the neighborhood was unsafe. Today, a home properly equipped to address general security issues is expected and has become the norm. Making a home more secure doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming. 

Here are some options for sellers to consider: 

1. Hedging your bet-Trimming the bushes at the front entry and near the windows of the home adds curb appeal and opens sight lines around entrances.
2. Security with style- Choose attractive storm doors and entry doors with more secure locking options.
3. Light it up- Motion-activated lighting, timer controls and dusk-to-dawn options paired with path lighting and landscape lighting means the curb appeal of the home doesn’t go down with the sun.
4. High-tech peace of mind-Easy-to-install, whole-home wireless security systems and monitoring means you can control locks, lights and cameras from a computer or cell phone. 

A buyer in the market for a new home today has more options than ever, and each has his or her own list of must-haves. Leverage the opportunity to show a home’s strength by marrying curb appeal and charm with a few upgrades that deliver on peace of mind.

Melissa Birdsong is vice president for Trend, Design & Brand, Lowe’s Companies, Inc. 

For more information, please visit www.lowes.com. 

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Over that time period, the number of seniors using the company’s online calculator has increased nearly 90% from the previous quarter. This significant increase in older homeowners researching a reverse mortgage mirrors the growth in reverse mortgages overall.

This increase is also likely driven by conditions in the marketplace that are reducing the amount of money seniors can gain through a reverse mortgage. Many then are seeking relief now to maximize their equity. These factors include new HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) regulations that slashed reverse mortgage proceeds by 10%, a continued decline in self-reported home values and federal legislation whose expiration at the end of this year will significantly reduce reverse mortgage limits even further.

“Older Americans continue to feel the lingering effects of the recession more than other segments of the population and a growing number of them are actively looking for ways to generate additional cash in retirement,” said Eric Bachman, founder and CEO of Golden Gateway Financial. “Unfortunately, these individuals stand to lose even more leverage and equity in their own homes when the temporary increase on mortgage limits expires at the end of this year. Seniors need this higher limit renewed as another tool that can help them find their financial footing.”

Recent HUD regulation changes resulted in an across-the-board 10% reduction in reverse mortgage proceeds available to seniors. At the same time, seniors are reporting a growing decline in their estimated home value. While the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices highlights a slowing drop in home values across the country, seniors seem to be gaining momentum. The decline in senior home values was reported at 1.4% between the first and second quarters of this year, but it dropped steeply to nearly 10%, or an average loss of almost $40,000 between the second and third quarters of 2009.

This is troubling for seniors because the amount of money available through a reverse mortgage is directly tied to the value of their home and the equity they hold in it. Further compounding this reduction in available equity is temporary legislation that increased reverse mortgage limits to $625,500. When this expires at the end of 2009, limits will fall back to $417,000, further reducing the amount of reverse mortgage proceeds available to borrowers.

Additional observations from the data include:

-The average age of users remained roughly consistent
-Self-reported senior home values dropped nearly 10% by almost $40,000 between the second and third quarters of 2009
-The median reported home value dropped below $300,000 for the first time in more than a year
-The average existing mortgage debt fell by approximately $8,000 from the previous quarter

Reverse Mortgage Calculator National Averages

Q1 ‘09       Q2 ‘09        Q3 ‘09

Average age                                     69.5            69.3            69.4
Average home value                     $413,371   $407,557   $369,762
Median home value                      $300,00   $300,000  $270,000
Percent with existing mortgage 49.9%        49.8%          51.3%
Average existing mortgage debt $161,265 $152,455 $144,497
Average max up-front payment $143,872 $151,089 $136,711
Average max monthly payment $922           $1097      $993

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The stimulus plan lowered federal income tax withholding rates, which results in more take-home pay but less money going toward taxes. The downside is some taxpayers may end up with not enough taxes being withheld to cover what they owe in 2009.

As a result, some taxpayers may need to increase their withholding amount by reducing the number of allowances claimed for the rest of year, which means making changes to a W-4 form available from an employer’s human resources department. Single taxpayers who are working at more than one job and married couples filing jointly in a situation where both spouses work are the most likely groups of taxpayers to be caught short. “They are probably going to find out they are either getting a lot less back or they might owe,” said Mark Steber, chief tax officer at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, a tax preparation firm.

Others that could face this scenario are those who can be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s tax return (for example, a working student claimed as a dependent on a parent’s tax return) and some Social Security recipients who work. Most people who received the credit have seen their paychecks grow by $15 to $20 per pay period since April as a result of employers taking out less withholding, said Steber.

The Making Work Pay credit is equal to 6.2% of earned income, whether it be from job wages or self-employment. It applies to 2009 and 2010. For the individual taxpayer, the credit is worth up to $400 a year and for married couples filing joint returns, it’s worth up to $800. The credit is phased out for individuals with adjusted gross incomes between $75,000 and $95,000 and for married couples with adjusted gross incomes between $150,000 and $190,000. “I don’t think many people realize that because of the credit they may not have the correct withholding and could owe at tax time,” said Kelly Batson, a director of the Earn It! Keep It! Save It!, a tax assistance program for low-income taxpayers. “They need to check their withholding now.”

For single taxpayers, the American Payroll Association estimates the credit will generally reduce withholding by $400 a year. A single taxpayer with two jobs would actually receive the credit twice even though he or she is only entitled to receive it once, according to Steber. For married couples filing jointly, the credit will generally decrease total withholding by $600 a year, said the Payroll Association. That means if both spouses work, their combined withholding would be reduced by $1,200 (2 x $600), even though their maximum credit would be $800, which means they could end up owing $400 in taxes or be short that amount in a refund. “If you are a married couple with two incomes, you may be getting too much of the credit,” Steber said. “The withholding tables don’t know the other spouse is working.”

Conversely, a married couple filing jointly with one working spouse will have $600 less in withholding but would be entitled to an $800 credit, which would result in an additional $200. People who are already working and take on a holiday job should consider being more aggressive when choosing a withholding amount for the holiday job, Steber said. “For many workers that means selecting the single status with zero dependents when completing form W-4,” he said. “Completing a W-4 in this way will cause a slightly higher amount to be withheld, which may help offset the duplicate Making Work Pay credit that the worker receives.”

Tax Bite?

Here is an example where a single taxpayer with two jobs could end up with a smaller refund or even owe taxes as a result of a provision of the Obama stimulus plan.

Assume a single taxpayer who claims single filing and single withholding status with zero allowances for withholdings earned $35,000 last year working two jobs. He earned $10,000 in one job and $25,000 in the other job. The total withholdings under the old withholding rates would be $3,700; the total under the new tables is $2,969. Because the total reduction in withholdings is $731 and the Making Work Pay Credit is $400, this leaves the taxpayer with a shortfall of $331.

Source: Jackson Hewitt Tax Service

(c) 2009, Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.).

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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“Despite the losses that many families suffered in the mortgage crisis, there remains high interest in homeownership among those families that stayed on the sidelines and didn’t buy during the boom,” says Tino Diaz, chairman of NAHREP. “Our members report that the appeal of stability and personal freedoms that come with homeownership are top motivators.”

A survey of 500 NAHREP members including opinions from real estate agents and mortgage professionals revealed the following:

-Seventy-six percent of respondents said that stability of family ranked first or second as the primary reason why clients want to buy a home. Thirty percent said utility and the freedom to create a home that suited their personal or cultural style was the top one and two reasons why their clients want to purchase a home;

-Only 18% of practitioners polled viewed financial investment as the primary reason for buying a home;

-Fifty percent of members that answered the poll said that wasting money on rent ranked first or second as the primary motivation for their clients to become homeowners;

-Forty-nine percent of members said that tighter lending standards remain the biggest barrier to homeownership for their clients; while 44% ranked first or second the competition from cash investors as the main obstacle to homeownership of their buyers. Thirty percent of respondents ranked lack of down payment as one of the top two challenges for their buyers.

-Sixty-three percent of members polled say they have six or more mortgage-ready clients that are ready to buy a home;

-Fifty-one percent of those surveyed said that today’s buyers are more sensitive to purchase price and mortgage payment, more apt to want house payments that include taxes and insurance and prefer a 30-year fixed-rate loan;

-Sixty-five percent of Hispanic real estate professionals that participated in the poll said that some form of consumer education would be most useful to enabling Latinos to achieve homeownership

Nearly half of the nation’s 14 million Hispanic households currently rent. If half of the renter pool follows through and is able to achieve homeownership during the next five years as they plan, the nation’s fastest growing minority group could be the next big wave of first-time buyers. Based on the median home price of $174,900, this could create more than $600 billion in home sales over the next five years, the Hispanic trade association estimates.

“An infusion of new homeowners that want to stay put and build nests for their families is exactly what the housing market needs,” said Craig Nickerson, project director for the National Community Stabilization Trust, an organization that assists local communities to acquire, rehab and sell foreclosures back to homeowners. “Once the pendulum swings back to the middle, a whole new group of buyers will be ready to buy homes. This is promising news especially for foreclosure-ravaged communities.”

For more information, visit www.nahrep.org.

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• Taking Advantage of Negotiation – U.S. Homebuyers Paid $7,039 Less Than Listing Price in July
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In another article about the possible first-time home buyer tax credit fraud, reporter Dawn Kopecki reports that children as young as four years old have improperly received the first-time home buyer tax credit. And, according to the Treasury’s J. Russel George, who testified before Congress recently: “They [IRS] also found that 580 taxpayers under 18 years old and therefore ineligible to buy a home claimed almost $4 million in tax credits.” 

The first-time home buyer tax credit ends Nov. 30, 2009. Here are a few resources on Zillow.com that may help you if you are still trying to use the credit and want to learn more: 

$8,000 First-time Home Buyer Tax Credit Ends Soon–Better Get Moving!
New Widget: Do You Qualify for the $8,000 First-time Home Buyer Tax Credit?
Rules and Forms in Place for $8,000 First-time Home Buyer Tax Credit 

For more information, visit www.zillow.com. 

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