Are You Eligible for Down Payment Assistance?

There are many great Albuquerque area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (877) 933-6881 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Most people think down payment and closing cost assistance is for lower income individuals. The truth is if you earn a moderate income, you may still be eligible for these benefits here in Albuquerque. There are a lot of different assistance packages available to those looking to buy a home:

• Payment$aver: If you qualify, you get a 'soft second' loan that has no interest rate and doesn't require monthly payments.

• Hero Program: Low- to moderate-income home buyers that are employed in specific occupations - such as teachers, safety workers, healthcare workers, and active armed forces members - can obtain 3% down payment assistance.

• Mortgage$aver:  Allows first-time home buyers to secure affordable mortgage loans.

• Helping Hands: Aids individuals with disabilities.

• Rio Rancho: Community development block grant allows down payment and closing cost assistance in Rio Rancho - up to 50% down payment and closing costs may be covered up to $5000.

• Greater Albuquerque Housing Partnership: Currently, four neighborhoods in the Albuquerque area are eligible for assistance.

To get more details about the many programs available and whether you qualify, visit DownPaymentNM.com. For another great resource on assistance programs, don't hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email. We work with some great lenders that can give you the helping hand you deserve!

Albuquerque Real Estate Market Update for Summer 2014

There are many great Albuquerque area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (877) 933-6881 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Today we're going to give you a quick update on the Albuquerque market so you know what to expect when buying or selling in the coming months. Overall, the quarterly report looks good, with the number of home sales holding steady from what we saw last year. Median sale price is also on stable ground, as we've seen a 2% increase. The most interesting part of the report is the difference between what homes are listed for and what they actually sell for - list prices are up 7% as opposed to only a 2% increase in sale price. It appears people are getting ahead of the market. While healthy, it's not quite to the extent homeowners think.

As far as foreclosed properties are concerned, we've seen some progress. The number of bank-owned homes on the market has dropped to about 15%, which is the lowest in 3 years. That's a great sign for the market, as working through that inventory will only help with the market's recovery.

I hope this bit of information has been helpful in some way. If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to call. We'd love to here from you.

Know the Limits of Online Home Estimation Tools

There are many great Albuquerque area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (877) 933-6881 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

There are many useful tools on the web that will help you find the estimated value of your Albuquerque home. As convenient as these sites might be, there is something you need to know about them.

New Mexico is a non-disclosure state, which means that the sales prices of properties are not publicly disclosed. Online home estimation tools asses value based on what homes are listed at in your county. This value is determined by a unique algorithm.

The problem is that homes rarely sell for their listed price. Most of the time there is a 3-6% variation either above or below the asking price. Because of this, websites like Zillow don't have the necessary information required to give an accurate estimate.
In fact, Zillow ranks lowest in terms of the accuracy of its estimates. But this doesn't mean it isn't useful.

Zillow and other online home estimation tools are a great place to get a basic idea of what your home is worth, a good place to start.

Once you have that baseline, contacting a real estate agent is your best option to get more detailed information on market conditions. We have the resources to do a full market analysis, see what other homes have sold for, and give you a full Comparative Market Analysis.

So give us a call or shoot us an email and we'll give you a clearer picture of what your home is worth, it's what we do!