There’s a great post today over at Generation X Finance about a story that ran on CNN yesterday. The story was about a couple who lost their home to foreclosure and are now living in a camper. On the surface, this sounds like the saddest story in the world. Until you hear the details:

1. Couple buys 2,700 foot home in Las Vegas for $265,000 with a no money down,interest only loan.
2. Thanks to the booming Las Vegas real estate market, the home doubles in value in a year.
3. Wife loses job, and the couple takes out a home equity line of credit to help pay the bills that are piling up, inlcuding the mortgage.
4. Couple tries to sell their home, but the Las Vegas housing bubble has burst.
5. Broke and unable to sell their home, the couple takes out another $35,000 loan to pay the mortgage.
6. Couple home is foreclosed on by the bank and they are now living in a camper.
7. Couple blames foreclosure on lender, saying their loan docs were “confusing and hard to understand.”

The bolded parts of this story are the mistakes that Gen X Finances says the borrowers made. I know what I think about all of this and if you read Gen X Finances original post, you’ll know what they think too.

What do you think? Were these people taken for a ride by unethical borrowers or did they dig their own financial hole? Should borrowers in general take more responsibility for the current mortgage crisis?

Sequoyah Hills*

Current On-Market Listings - 36
Average Asking Price: $737,722
Median Asking Price: $556,950
Most Expensive Listing: $2,250,000 (4 BR, 5 1/2 BA, over 5000 sq ft, lake front)
Least Expensive Listing: $274,900 (2BR, 1 BA, approx 1800 sq ft on Southgate)

Current Pending Sales -5
Average Asking Price - $394,460
Median Asking Price - $349,900

Closed Sales - February 2007 - 1
Average Sales Price - $499,900
Median Sales Price - NA
Average Days on Market - 133

Closed Sales - February 2008 - 4
Average Sales Price - $396,506
Median Sales Price - $377,512
Average Days on Market - 122

Interesting that both of the neighborhoods I’ve looked at so far have had more sales in ‘08 than ‘07. I’m curious to see if that trend continues in other neighborhoods as well.

Any suggestions for next week’s NOTW?

*Data taken from KAARMLS on 3/17/08 for Sequoyah Hills proper, and does not include adjacent subdivisions, condos or PUDS.

All you non-Realtor types out there probably don’t know about MLS E-Flyers. The concept is simple: instead of sending out 100s of paper flyers to agents all over Knoxville to market new listings or price reductions, you pay some money to an online service like MLSflyers.com, make an E-flyer and send it out to every member of the Knoxville Area Association of Realtors. Yes, it’s kind of spam, but a) it only spams Realtors, b) it sells houses and c) it saves trees, so we deal with it.

So, one of my first tasks of the day is to click through these flyers that have accumulated in my inbox overnight. Usually they are pretty standard. Occasionally they here unintentionally hilarious. Here is a headline from an E-Flyer I opened up this morning:

SELLER WILL GIVE BUYER A $1000 WALMART GIFTCARD AND ONE YEAR SATELLITE TV!!!

Not mentioned in the flyer, but perhaps easy enough to guess is that this “home” is also very portable:

Word on the street is that FHA loans are the new subprime, and according to recent news, there may be even better news on the horizon for borrowers with less than stellar credit, even those who need to refi.
What with all the subprime hubub, FHA loans haven’t come into play as much the last few years. According to Investopedia.com, an FHA loan is:

“A mortgage issued by federally qualified lenders and insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). FHA loans are designed for low to moderate income borrowers who are unable to make a large down payment. FHA loans allow the borrower to borrow up to 97% of the value of the home. The 3% down payment requirement can come from a gift or a grant, which makes FHA loans popular with first-time buyers.”

But it’s not only low to moderate income borrowers or first time home buyers who can benefit from an FHA loan. FHA is also good if your credit score is a little low. FHA will accept a minimum credit score of 580, whereas the minimum for a conventional loan has gone up to 620. It definitely gives you a little more wiggle room.

In addition to allowing a 3% gift, FHA also allows up to 6% in seller concessions, almost twice what most conventional loans allow. That’s a lot of closing costs!

Best of all, the FHA loan limit for Knox county was just raised to $271,050 (FHA loan limits for others counties can be found here). With that kind of money, you can almost certainly find yourself some very sweet digs in our fine city.

I’m going to be tweaking the All Around KTown look this weekend, so bear with me for a few days.

What do you think of the new header? Yay? Nay?

Money magazine is getting ready to put together a “best places to live” list and they’re asking people to tell them what exactly is it that makes a city a good place to hang your hat. Is it the schools? The weather? The cultural attractions?

In fact, I would go so far as to say it’s downright beautiful. A few years back I had to move to Memphis for a while and I couldn’t take it. No hills, no big leafy trees, no mountain views. Living in Knoxville for an extended period of time will ruin anywhere else for you scenery wise.

3. It’s cheap.

The cost of living in Knoxville is incredibly low, even compared to other cities in Tennessee (namely Nashville). Home prices, especially, are very affordable. And as much as native Knoxvillians may not think so, our property taxes, relative to other areas, are also pretty reasonable.

We all call Knoxville home for a reason, either big or small. What are your reasons for choosing Knoxville? What do you think makes KTown a great place to live?

I mistakenly left West Oaks out of the neighborhood of the week stats I posted yesterday. West Oaks is part of the conglomeration of neighborhoods I’m referring to here as Kingston Woods. However, it turns out I didn’t miss much. There are no current pending sales in West Oaks and no sales in February ‘07 or ‘08. There is, however, one listing, 732 Waco Rd (not that Waco), with an asking price of $149,900.

Sorry West Oaks!

Here goes nothin’. I’m trying out a new weekly post here called, you guessed it, neighborhood of the week. Each week, on Monday, I’ll highlight current listing, pending, and sales data for one Knox County neighborhood.

The first neighborhood was an easy choice - it’s mine! I live in a huge neighborhood south of West Town Mall, which is technically comprised of Kingston Woods, Kingston Park, & Kingston Hills. I’m lumping all three of these together and calling them Kingston Woods for the purposes of these stats.

Kingston Woods

Current* On-Market Listings - 6
Average Asking Price: $216,583
Median Asking Price: $214,900

Current Pending Sales -2
Average Asking Price - $186,975
Median Asking Price - NA

Closed Sales - February 2007 - 0
Average Sales Price - NA
Median Sales Price - NA
Average Days on Market - NA

Closed Sales - February 2008 - 2
Average Sales Price - $217,400
Median Sales Price - NA
Average Days on Market - 90

*Data taken from KAARMLS on 3/10/08

What other neighborhoods would you like to see stats for? Any suggestions for the type of stats you’d like to see?

A recent article on RealEstateJournal.com stated that only 9% of Americans prefer split-level, or as they’re called around these parts, split foyer, style homes to other home styles.

According to that Realestatejournal.com article, back in 1980, 20% of us thought split-foyers were pretty groovy. And in 1979 11% of all new homes built were split foyers. That means there’s still a lot of them around. 107 on the market in Knox county as of today, to be exact (by the way, this number does not include the tri-levels, which are a similar animal, but with their own redeeming qualites. More on those later).

2. A split foyer doesn’t always come with green shag carpet and wagon wheel light fixures.

True, walk into some split foyer homes and you’ll be instantly transported back to 1973. But others have been updated and have no trace of the 70s or 80s at all. For example, those current split foyer listings include a stately Holston Hills home (list price $349,900) with almost 4,000 sq ft located within walking distance of Holston Hills Country Club and a cute as button renovation (list price $187,500) in Kingsgate in Farragut with all new kitchen and bathrooms. No shag carpet in sight.

3. Because they’re not as popular, you’ll be in a better negotiating position when buying them.

It’s simple supply and demand. Let other buyers fight over those little ranchers. Learn to love the split foyer and you might just get more bang for your buck.

4. They have tons of liveable space.

One level living is great, but high ceilings and open floor plans don’t always equal easy livability. There’s a reason split foyers used to be so popluar - the floor plans are kind of ingenious. There’s very little wasted space and that lower level is a teenager’s/crafter’s/tinkering husband’s delight. That is definitely where my husband and his X-Box would be spending their quality time together.

5. You’ll have buns of steel in no time.

And save loads of money on gym memberships to boot. One reason split foyers have gone out of style is the stairs. No one wants to climb them. But why are stairs a bad thing? All we hear every day is how we need to exercise more. Why not get your exercise by walking from your garage to your living room every day? Or by carrying the laundry up and downstairs?