Bestfield Homes announces the grand opening of its newest community in Sussex County “Wind Dancer at Jefferson Crossroads”. This new community offers the very best of what today’s homeowners are searching for in their next new home. This premier community is located 1.8 miles west of route 1 and only 15 minutes from the Delaware beaches and attractions. Quality constructed by Bestfield Homes, one of Delaware’s most respected local builders with over 50 years of building experience, Wind Dancer at Jefferson Crossroads features pricing that starts in the low 300’s.
Unlike many communities offering hundreds of homes, Wind Dancer offers a total of just 28 three quarter acre home sites in a quiet setting amid rural farm land. Wind Dancer offers ranch, two story and first floor master suite plans designed for today’s life styles. The newly completed ranch model at Wind Dancer the “Berwyn” features the very best in first floor living with an open plan that consists of 3 bedrooms, 2 and one half baths, a formal dining room, large family room, deluxe owners suite and gourmet kitchen. The lower level is finished with a large gathering space so the family can entertain in style. Each home comes with a wide array of standard features including hardwood flooring in the foyer, a gas fireplace, two car side entry garages, large poured concrete basement and a list of standard features you’d expect to find in a quality built home. You also have the ability to customize your home utilizing Bestfield’s “flexible” floor plans. These plans enable you to add your own finishing touch to compliment your home by expanding rooms and adding square footage where you want it.
As an added benefit, Bestfield has partnered with Shallcross Mortgage Company enabling us to offer financing that gives you the ability to have both your housing and finance needs addressed in one location.
Make the trip this weekend to visit Wind Dancer at Jefferson Crossroads and take advantage of the builder incentives that are being offered. For directions and more information, please call 302-684-1450 or visit us a www.bestfieldhomes.com. . Model home hours are Friday through Tuesday from 11:00am to 5:00pm with appointments for Wednesday and Thursday. Let us show you why your next home should be a Bestfield Home.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Best Place to be Gay and Gray
Location – Location – Location is more than a real estate mantra. It’s what every prospective retiree thinks about as the day to collect the crystal bowl or silver gavel marking the end of a career approaches. But location includes more than mere geography. It also includes can I afford it? Will I be safe? Are there good doctors and hospitals nearby? And are there cultural and leisure-time activities to enjoy? Often weather is also a part of the mix. Will my retirement home be in a tornado tunnel, on an earthquake fault line or along hurricane alley? And for gay men and lesbian women there’s the added question of, “Where can I live comfortably and know that my life-style will be respected?”
In answering these important questions, few communities can compete with Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, frequently on the “Best Of” lists produced by organizations such as the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). They named Rehoboth Beach as one of five dream towns in their Best Places to Retire List in the July 2006 issue of the AARP Magazine.
Anthony Kulp Broker/Owner of Beach to Bay Real Estate Center, the largest gay owned and operated agency, sees the Rehoboth / Lewes Beach and surrounding areas as a lifetime investment for both full time and part time residents, particularly for gay and lesbian retirees. Many developments already have high percentages of gay and lesbian retirees and future retirees. Where else can you breathe salt air, enjoy the outdoors, have cocktails with your gay and lesbian neighbors and know that the investment in your home is growing.
What makes Rehoboth special is the beauty of the foam capped waves massaging the broad sand beaches and the tidal estuaries and bays providing a home to myriads of migrating birds. Add to that the mile long Boardwalk where bikers and hikers get their morning rush, the ocean-side gazebo band stand, which would make Norman Rockwell proud, and Rehoboth Avenue, a kaleidoscope of interesting boutiques and unique restaurants. Before the swoop of summer sun-seekers, the town is resplendent in the brilliant reds, yellows and violets of Spring, and in Fall the smell of smoke from a nearby hearth permeates the gentle fog that occasionally envelops the Boardwalk as the seasons change.
But in addition to this list of touchy-feely attributes there are practical financial reasons that draw retirees to Rehoboth Beach. Delaware has no sales tax on goods, food or entertainment and Social Security, railroad retirements and out-of-state pensions are exempt from income tax. Taxpayers 60 and older can exclude up to $12,500 of investment and qualified pension income.
Since Rehoboth Beach is small, approximately one square mile, housing prices in town for a single family home start in the $500s and condos in the $300s. County taxes on a $400,000 property will be approximately $1200 – and that’s per year, not per month. Beyond the town limits, in surrounding communities like Lewes, Milton, and Millsboro, or in the many beautiful communities that have sprung up in the corn fields reminiscent of Rehoboth’s more rural past, housing is much less expensive (Single Family homes start in the Low $200s and Condos in the low $100s) and all the advantages of Rehoboth and Lewes are still only a short drive away. Auto insurance and property insurance also reflect Rehoboth’s rural roots and are lower than in metropolitan areas.
Residents love, and strive to preserve, the small town feel that allows them to greet store owners and postal clerks by name. Instead of a New Year’s or Thanksgiving Day Parade, Rehoboth thrives on their Seawitch Halloween Parade, Christmas Parade, Chocolate Festival, Jazz Festival and Film Festival along with special events presented by the Henlopen Theater Project, the Rehoboth Art League and the Sussex County Library. The Possum Point Players stage major theatrical events in nearby Georgetown and in Milton, a neighboring small town known for its Victoriana, seminars, classic movies and plays are featured at their newly restored theater.
Hospitals in nearby Lewes and in Seaford Delaware, as well as in Salisbury, Maryland provide excellent medical care with a wide variety of specialists and primary care physicians. Personal safety, as well as personal health, is well cared for in Rehoboth with crime statistics well below the national average and below all major metropolitan areas.
Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City are all within a few hours drive of Rehoboth and many residents avail themselves of community sponsored bus trips in order to enjoy theater, opera, musical events and museums. For the stay-at-homers, in addition to the lure of salt-water fishing, there are a dozen golf courses in the area, indoor and outdoor year-round tennis, and several nearby state parks which provide hiking and biking trails, canoe and kayak access and overnight camping.
For gays and lesbians and their friends there are a host of special events which bring the whole community together - the annual Labor Day Sundance, the drag volley-ball game on the beach, Love Dance on the Fourth of July weekend, the Black and White Ball, to name a few. Like any gay destination the bar scene changes from time to time but places like Blue Moon, Cloud 9, Double L Bar, Iguana Grill and Purple Parrot have been long term survivors offering food and drink to weekend and holiday escapees from Washington, Philly and Baltimore for many years.
Perhaps it was predestined for Rehoboth Beach to play an important role in our nation’s gay life. When the English explorer Henry Hudson sailed from the Atlantic through the inlet into what is now known as Rehoboth Bay, he chose the Biblical name Rehoboth, meaning “room for all.” Presumably, he was grateful that there was room for all his ships. But it seems somehow symbolic that after its start as a Methodist campground in 1873 and its first somewhat secretive gay bar in the ‘50s that Rehoboth now is a community with room for all and all are welcome.
Camp Rehoboth, a nonprofit gay and lesbian community service organization, has worked diligently for more than a decade to help insure that Rehoboth is a community with room for all. With more than 1.3 million dollars in pledges and cash, Camp Rehoboth is in the process of building a Community Center in the heart of the town. Their periodical, Letters From Camp Rehoboth, serves as a guidebook to residents and visitors, gay and straight.
In his introduction to Rehoboth Beach Memoirs, James Meehan put it this way.
Rehoboth Beach “… has that indefinable magic quality that makes certain places special. It’s sophisticated but friendly; exciting but not intimidating; relaxing but never boring.
Simply put, you might find Rehoboth Beach a pretty special kind of place to retiree.”
In answering these important questions, few communities can compete with Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, frequently on the “Best Of” lists produced by organizations such as the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). They named Rehoboth Beach as one of five dream towns in their Best Places to Retire List in the July 2006 issue of the AARP Magazine.
Anthony Kulp Broker/Owner of Beach to Bay Real Estate Center, the largest gay owned and operated agency, sees the Rehoboth / Lewes Beach and surrounding areas as a lifetime investment for both full time and part time residents, particularly for gay and lesbian retirees. Many developments already have high percentages of gay and lesbian retirees and future retirees. Where else can you breathe salt air, enjoy the outdoors, have cocktails with your gay and lesbian neighbors and know that the investment in your home is growing.
What makes Rehoboth special is the beauty of the foam capped waves massaging the broad sand beaches and the tidal estuaries and bays providing a home to myriads of migrating birds. Add to that the mile long Boardwalk where bikers and hikers get their morning rush, the ocean-side gazebo band stand, which would make Norman Rockwell proud, and Rehoboth Avenue, a kaleidoscope of interesting boutiques and unique restaurants. Before the swoop of summer sun-seekers, the town is resplendent in the brilliant reds, yellows and violets of Spring, and in Fall the smell of smoke from a nearby hearth permeates the gentle fog that occasionally envelops the Boardwalk as the seasons change.
But in addition to this list of touchy-feely attributes there are practical financial reasons that draw retirees to Rehoboth Beach. Delaware has no sales tax on goods, food or entertainment and Social Security, railroad retirements and out-of-state pensions are exempt from income tax. Taxpayers 60 and older can exclude up to $12,500 of investment and qualified pension income.
Since Rehoboth Beach is small, approximately one square mile, housing prices in town for a single family home start in the $500s and condos in the $300s. County taxes on a $400,000 property will be approximately $1200 – and that’s per year, not per month. Beyond the town limits, in surrounding communities like Lewes, Milton, and Millsboro, or in the many beautiful communities that have sprung up in the corn fields reminiscent of Rehoboth’s more rural past, housing is much less expensive (Single Family homes start in the Low $200s and Condos in the low $100s) and all the advantages of Rehoboth and Lewes are still only a short drive away. Auto insurance and property insurance also reflect Rehoboth’s rural roots and are lower than in metropolitan areas.
Residents love, and strive to preserve, the small town feel that allows them to greet store owners and postal clerks by name. Instead of a New Year’s or Thanksgiving Day Parade, Rehoboth thrives on their Seawitch Halloween Parade, Christmas Parade, Chocolate Festival, Jazz Festival and Film Festival along with special events presented by the Henlopen Theater Project, the Rehoboth Art League and the Sussex County Library. The Possum Point Players stage major theatrical events in nearby Georgetown and in Milton, a neighboring small town known for its Victoriana, seminars, classic movies and plays are featured at their newly restored theater.
Hospitals in nearby Lewes and in Seaford Delaware, as well as in Salisbury, Maryland provide excellent medical care with a wide variety of specialists and primary care physicians. Personal safety, as well as personal health, is well cared for in Rehoboth with crime statistics well below the national average and below all major metropolitan areas.
Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City are all within a few hours drive of Rehoboth and many residents avail themselves of community sponsored bus trips in order to enjoy theater, opera, musical events and museums. For the stay-at-homers, in addition to the lure of salt-water fishing, there are a dozen golf courses in the area, indoor and outdoor year-round tennis, and several nearby state parks which provide hiking and biking trails, canoe and kayak access and overnight camping.
For gays and lesbians and their friends there are a host of special events which bring the whole community together - the annual Labor Day Sundance, the drag volley-ball game on the beach, Love Dance on the Fourth of July weekend, the Black and White Ball, to name a few. Like any gay destination the bar scene changes from time to time but places like Blue Moon, Cloud 9, Double L Bar, Iguana Grill and Purple Parrot have been long term survivors offering food and drink to weekend and holiday escapees from Washington, Philly and Baltimore for many years.
Perhaps it was predestined for Rehoboth Beach to play an important role in our nation’s gay life. When the English explorer Henry Hudson sailed from the Atlantic through the inlet into what is now known as Rehoboth Bay, he chose the Biblical name Rehoboth, meaning “room for all.” Presumably, he was grateful that there was room for all his ships. But it seems somehow symbolic that after its start as a Methodist campground in 1873 and its first somewhat secretive gay bar in the ‘50s that Rehoboth now is a community with room for all and all are welcome.
Camp Rehoboth, a nonprofit gay and lesbian community service organization, has worked diligently for more than a decade to help insure that Rehoboth is a community with room for all. With more than 1.3 million dollars in pledges and cash, Camp Rehoboth is in the process of building a Community Center in the heart of the town. Their periodical, Letters From Camp Rehoboth, serves as a guidebook to residents and visitors, gay and straight.
In his introduction to Rehoboth Beach Memoirs, James Meehan put it this way.
Rehoboth Beach “… has that indefinable magic quality that makes certain places special. It’s sophisticated but friendly; exciting but not intimidating; relaxing but never boring.
Simply put, you might find Rehoboth Beach a pretty special kind of place to retiree.”
THE BEACH TO BAY REAL ESTATE CENTER WELCOMES AGENTS
As the Beach To Bay Real Estate Center continues to grow, it welcomes the addition of six Real Estate Agents to its office located at 17316 Coastal Highway in Lewes, Delaware. Owners Anthony Kulp and Andrew Staton are extremely excited to welcome the following agents: Nory Davis, Thomas Kyewski, Kristy Skuby, John Marino, Marisa (Moore) Smyth and Robyn Warren. Each of the aforementioned agents brings with them a wealth of experience in full-filling the Real Estate needs of our clients.
In joining the Beach to Bay Real Estate Center these agents will have the availability of In-House Mortgage and Loan Services provided by Metrocities, an In-House Certified Real Estate Auctioneer, an In-House Certified Appraiser, a Full Service Rental Department, and an incredible For Sale By Owner and Auction/Sheriff Sale Buyer Agency Program to name just a few. The Beach To Bay Real Estate Center is also proud to offer all Real Estate Agents the utilization of their New Home Showroom recipient of the 2006 Regal Award, Best New Home Showroom in the State of Delaware.
In joining the Beach to Bay Real Estate Center these agents will have the availability of In-House Mortgage and Loan Services provided by Metrocities, an In-House Certified Real Estate Auctioneer, an In-House Certified Appraiser, a Full Service Rental Department, and an incredible For Sale By Owner and Auction/Sheriff Sale Buyer Agency Program to name just a few. The Beach To Bay Real Estate Center is also proud to offer all Real Estate Agents the utilization of their New Home Showroom recipient of the 2006 Regal Award, Best New Home Showroom in the State of Delaware.
The Beach To Bay Real Estate Center in Lewes, Delaware is the proud representative of Bestfield Homes Knollac Acres Development.
The easy life just got easier. Located just 18 minutes from the Delaware Beaches and attractions, Knollac Acres is quickly becoming Sussex County's Community of Choice. A beautiful rural setting just minutes from historic Milford, this community offers spacious home sites of 3/4 of an acre and larger. Select from their semi-custom plans of Ranch, Two-Story and First Floor Owner Suites with three or four bedrooms, large basements, numerous baths and an extensive list of standard features. Whatever your pleasure, boating, crabbing, fishing, a walk on the beach or just relaxing, you can find it at Knollac Acres.
Want the best of both worlds with the ease of a ranch and the practicality of a two-story home? Bestfield's latest design, the affordable Carlyle model, has it all. A first floor owners suite complete with a walk-in closet, lavish bath including a corner soaking tub and separate four foot shower. This beautiful home comes standard with three bedrooms, two and one half baths plus a formal living room and dining room. The study is a perfect room for a home office or for the kid's homework. Relax in the two-story family room with adjacent kitchen. Take the sweeping staircase to the second floor and find two large bedrooms and a full bath. The standard two-car garage and a large basement round out this exceptionally unique home.
For more information or to preview any Knollac Acres homes by appointment, call the Beach To Bay Real Estate Center at 302-644-6880.
Want the best of both worlds with the ease of a ranch and the practicality of a two-story home? Bestfield's latest design, the affordable Carlyle model, has it all. A first floor owners suite complete with a walk-in closet, lavish bath including a corner soaking tub and separate four foot shower. This beautiful home comes standard with three bedrooms, two and one half baths plus a formal living room and dining room. The study is a perfect room for a home office or for the kid's homework. Relax in the two-story family room with adjacent kitchen. Take the sweeping staircase to the second floor and find two large bedrooms and a full bath. The standard two-car garage and a large basement round out this exceptionally unique home.
For more information or to preview any Knollac Acres homes by appointment, call the Beach To Bay Real Estate Center at 302-644-6880.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Despite housing problems and high oil prices, recession unlikely, study asserts
By ALEX VEIGA, Associated Press
Posted Thursday, December 6, 2007Read Comments-->12/06/2007 -->
LOS ANGELES -- The nation's housing doldrums will drag on at least through 2009, dampening U.S. economic growth and job creation, but the slowdown won't push the economy into a recession, according to a new economic report.
Despite plunging housing values, rising oil prices and credit problems that continue to plague Wall Street, the nation's job market is unlikely to suffer the kind of steep losses that would tip the economy into recession, according to the quarterly Anderson Forecast by the University of California, Los Angeles.
"We still think an official recession is not in the immediate future," said Edward Leamer, co-author of the forecast to be released today.
Some economists and financial pundits have warned the nation will sink into recession, with a wave of reset adjustable-rate mortgages tearing through the economy next year.
Leamer, however, insisted the housing woes alone won't hobble the economy enough to cause two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth in the nation's gross domestic product -- the standard used to define a recession.
The U.S. unemployment rate would have to soar from the current 4.6 percent to nearly 6 percent by the end of next year, the equivalent of a loss of at least 2 million jobs, Leamer said.
That would require major job losses from a sector other than construction, which Leamer doesn't see happening.
Heavy job losses in manufacturing, which has shed about 3 million jobs since 2001, could have such an impact, but Leamer says that is implausible.
Still, he projects the economy will remain sluggish before starting to rebound in the second half of 2008.
The forecast estimated the housing slump cost the U.S. economy a percentage point of growth this year.
Leamer predicted U.S. housing prices will continue to drop, and levels of new construction will remain depressed, through 2009.
Even so, the housing drag on the national economy will "substantially abate" by mid-2008, with housing starts bottoming out by next summer to about 900,000 units, Leamer said.
Posted Thursday, December 6, 2007Read Comments-->12/06/2007 -->
LOS ANGELES -- The nation's housing doldrums will drag on at least through 2009, dampening U.S. economic growth and job creation, but the slowdown won't push the economy into a recession, according to a new economic report.
Despite plunging housing values, rising oil prices and credit problems that continue to plague Wall Street, the nation's job market is unlikely to suffer the kind of steep losses that would tip the economy into recession, according to the quarterly Anderson Forecast by the University of California, Los Angeles.
"We still think an official recession is not in the immediate future," said Edward Leamer, co-author of the forecast to be released today.
Some economists and financial pundits have warned the nation will sink into recession, with a wave of reset adjustable-rate mortgages tearing through the economy next year.
Leamer, however, insisted the housing woes alone won't hobble the economy enough to cause two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth in the nation's gross domestic product -- the standard used to define a recession.
The U.S. unemployment rate would have to soar from the current 4.6 percent to nearly 6 percent by the end of next year, the equivalent of a loss of at least 2 million jobs, Leamer said.
That would require major job losses from a sector other than construction, which Leamer doesn't see happening.
Heavy job losses in manufacturing, which has shed about 3 million jobs since 2001, could have such an impact, but Leamer says that is implausible.
Still, he projects the economy will remain sluggish before starting to rebound in the second half of 2008.
The forecast estimated the housing slump cost the U.S. economy a percentage point of growth this year.
Leamer predicted U.S. housing prices will continue to drop, and levels of new construction will remain depressed, through 2009.
Even so, the housing drag on the national economy will "substantially abate" by mid-2008, with housing starts bottoming out by next summer to about 900,000 units, Leamer said.
Housing crisis, rising health costs cut into states' finances
Spending growth expected to be below average; rainy day funds may be tapped to cover shortfallsBy ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, Associated Press
Posted Thursday, December 6, 2007Read Comments-->12/06/2007 -->
Strong economic conditions for state governments are giving way to troubling budget shortfalls as rising health care costs and harmful ripples from the housing crisis pressure both revenue and spending, a new report says.
States are spending less in the current budget year than in fiscal 2007, which for most states ended in June, according to the analysis by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers released Wednesday.
Spending is expected to grow by only 4.7 percent this year, below the historical average.
A few states are also talking about tapping their rainy day funds to address budget shortfalls caused by lower-than-anticipated revenues in fiscal 2007, which can be traced to the housing slump in many locations.
States' total reserves -- a combination of year-end balances and rainy day funds -- remain healthy but are starting to decline, the report says.
Scott Pattison, NASBO's executive director, used a sports analogy to describe the downturn states were facing.
In the past couple of years, states were so well-off they "would have no problem running the Marine Corps Marathon," he said Wednesday.
"Now we're starting to see some sluggish growth," Pattison said. "They can do a walk-run or a 10K but not necessarily at the peak where they could run a marathon."
Several states have announced budget shortfalls since the report was completed this fall, said Ray Scheppach, the NGA's executive director.
If conditions worsen, states need to be prepared for an economic downturn that could hit them hard, Pattison added.
"There's just so many pressures and there's just not the cushion that they've had in the last few years," he said.
The survey of states' financial conditions in fiscal 2007 found:
•Only one state, Wisconsin, was forced to make a midyear budget cut in the fiscal year that ended, in all but four states, in June.
•State general fund spending grew by 9.3 percent in fiscal 2007, which is significantly higher than the 30-year average of 6.4 percent, as states used surpluses to cover tax cuts and bolster previously underfunded programs.
•States budgeted more modest revenue growth in fiscal 2008, with seven states enacting negative growth budgets.
States also were expected to end fiscal 2008 with total balances of $47 billion, down from $63 billion in 2007 and $69 billion in 2006. Despite the decrease, balances of $47 billion, or 6.7 percent of states' total spending, are still healthy, Pattison said.
Spending on health care is rising again after a relative lull, and the housing market is hurting revenues as states lose the taxes from big-ticket sales driven by real estate, Scheppach said.
"People aren't moving into larger houses, they're not buying rugs and carpets and that type of thing, plus they can't pull the home equity out any more because there isn't any," he said.
Posted Thursday, December 6, 2007Read Comments-->12/06/2007 -->
Strong economic conditions for state governments are giving way to troubling budget shortfalls as rising health care costs and harmful ripples from the housing crisis pressure both revenue and spending, a new report says.
States are spending less in the current budget year than in fiscal 2007, which for most states ended in June, according to the analysis by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers released Wednesday.
Spending is expected to grow by only 4.7 percent this year, below the historical average.
A few states are also talking about tapping their rainy day funds to address budget shortfalls caused by lower-than-anticipated revenues in fiscal 2007, which can be traced to the housing slump in many locations.
States' total reserves -- a combination of year-end balances and rainy day funds -- remain healthy but are starting to decline, the report says.
Scott Pattison, NASBO's executive director, used a sports analogy to describe the downturn states were facing.
In the past couple of years, states were so well-off they "would have no problem running the Marine Corps Marathon," he said Wednesday.
"Now we're starting to see some sluggish growth," Pattison said. "They can do a walk-run or a 10K but not necessarily at the peak where they could run a marathon."
Several states have announced budget shortfalls since the report was completed this fall, said Ray Scheppach, the NGA's executive director.
If conditions worsen, states need to be prepared for an economic downturn that could hit them hard, Pattison added.
"There's just so many pressures and there's just not the cushion that they've had in the last few years," he said.
The survey of states' financial conditions in fiscal 2007 found:
•Only one state, Wisconsin, was forced to make a midyear budget cut in the fiscal year that ended, in all but four states, in June.
•State general fund spending grew by 9.3 percent in fiscal 2007, which is significantly higher than the 30-year average of 6.4 percent, as states used surpluses to cover tax cuts and bolster previously underfunded programs.
•States budgeted more modest revenue growth in fiscal 2008, with seven states enacting negative growth budgets.
States also were expected to end fiscal 2008 with total balances of $47 billion, down from $63 billion in 2007 and $69 billion in 2006. Despite the decrease, balances of $47 billion, or 6.7 percent of states' total spending, are still healthy, Pattison said.
Spending on health care is rising again after a relative lull, and the housing market is hurting revenues as states lose the taxes from big-ticket sales driven by real estate, Scheppach said.
"People aren't moving into larger houses, they're not buying rugs and carpets and that type of thing, plus they can't pull the home equity out any more because there isn't any," he said.
Plan freezes mortgage loan rates
Del. officials praise accord, still fear tide of foreclosuresBy LESLIE A. PAPPAS, The News Journal
Posted Thursday, December 6, 2007Read Comments-->12/06/2007 -->
A federal proposal to freeze interest rates on certain subprime mortgages drew cheers from members of Delaware's foreclosure task force Wednesday, but in the same breath they cautioned it would only be the first step to bringing the state's looming foreclosure problem under control.
The Bush administration is expected to detail today an agreement between the banking industry and federal regulators to set a five-year moratorium on resets of certain subprime adjustable rate mortgages. The plan is aimed at homeowners who are making payments on time at lower introductory mortgage rates but cannot afford a higher adjusted rate.
The agreement will apply to borrowers who took out loans between January 2005 and July 30, 2007, with adjustable rates that are scheduled to rise between Jan. 1, 2008, and July 31, 2010, according to the Associated Press.
"It's a positive thing, particularly for the future," said Lt. Gov. John Carney, who announced Delaware's foreclosure task force at the end of October. "The thing that we're really afraid of is this increasing slope of foreclosures. ... The biggest concern is that we get snowed under with a number that we're just not able to handle. And to a certain extent, that is happening."
Foreclosure filings in Delaware broke records in the last fiscal year and continue to rise. Housing counselors are overburdened with new cases, they have told the task force, and they worry that as mortgages with low "teaser" rates begin to reset in the coming year, more homeowners will fall into default.
"I just hope this [the freeze] is the first of a larger package," said Delaware Deputy Bank Commissioner Gerry Kelly.
Kelly said he would have preferred a seven-year moratorium that included borrowers whose rates have already gone up.
Freezing rates on the segment of mortgages at high risk of default could give struggling borrowers time to find a better job, refinance or sell the home without having to go into foreclosure, said Camilla Conlon, president of the Delaware Association of Realtors and a task force member. "Five years is enough time for folks to recover from these circumstances."
Conlon also hoped the five-year freeze, which she called a much-needed "shot in the arm," would put confidence back into Delaware's housing market.
Overall, Delaware's housing market still remains stronger than most. Wilmington was even highlighted in this month's issue of Money magazine as one of the last "red-hot housing markets," experiencing a 5.2 percent increase in home prices in the past year.
But in some neighborhoods, delinquencies and foreclosures are taking a toll.
Delaware Secretary of Housing Sandy Johnson called the five-year freeze a "silver bullet" that would help stem the rising number of foreclosures.
"But we're going to need several silver bullets for this stuff," said Johnson, a task force member. "Maybe after bullets three and four ... we'll have some breathing room."
There were 3,452 seriously delinquent mortgages in Delaware at the end of 2007's second quarter, with slightly more than half (51 percent) subprime, the Delaware State Housing Authority reported to the task force in November. Of the 1,776 subprime loans that were seriously delinquent, two-thirds were adjustable-rate mortgages.
Judging by the number of subprime mortgages in Delaware, anywhere from 6,500 to 10,000 borrowers could be eligible for the freeze, Johnson said.
"Anything that can ... give us assistance from a federal level would be a great benefit," said task force member Ken Smith, director of the Delaware Housing Coalition. Smith's only objection would be if the agreement somehow prevented the state task force from continuing its work.
"If any of these national agreements pre-empts the ability of the states to do things, that would be a concern," Smith said. "There's some movement afoot to include language in these measures that would override state actions, and many of us would not like to see that happen."
Delaware Rep. Mike Castle said the freeze would give greater security to the nation's housing market and would help struggling borrowers.
"The argument you may get is from those investors who feel that they were going to get a higher return on their dollar and are not getting it now," said Castle.
Castle has introduced legislation to protect lenders who renegotiate loans from being sued by investors, legislation that is scheduled to be considered during a House Committee on Financial Services hearing today.
Posted Thursday, December 6, 2007Read Comments-->12/06/2007 -->
A federal proposal to freeze interest rates on certain subprime mortgages drew cheers from members of Delaware's foreclosure task force Wednesday, but in the same breath they cautioned it would only be the first step to bringing the state's looming foreclosure problem under control.
The Bush administration is expected to detail today an agreement between the banking industry and federal regulators to set a five-year moratorium on resets of certain subprime adjustable rate mortgages. The plan is aimed at homeowners who are making payments on time at lower introductory mortgage rates but cannot afford a higher adjusted rate.
The agreement will apply to borrowers who took out loans between January 2005 and July 30, 2007, with adjustable rates that are scheduled to rise between Jan. 1, 2008, and July 31, 2010, according to the Associated Press.
"It's a positive thing, particularly for the future," said Lt. Gov. John Carney, who announced Delaware's foreclosure task force at the end of October. "The thing that we're really afraid of is this increasing slope of foreclosures. ... The biggest concern is that we get snowed under with a number that we're just not able to handle. And to a certain extent, that is happening."
Foreclosure filings in Delaware broke records in the last fiscal year and continue to rise. Housing counselors are overburdened with new cases, they have told the task force, and they worry that as mortgages with low "teaser" rates begin to reset in the coming year, more homeowners will fall into default.
"I just hope this [the freeze] is the first of a larger package," said Delaware Deputy Bank Commissioner Gerry Kelly.
Kelly said he would have preferred a seven-year moratorium that included borrowers whose rates have already gone up.
Freezing rates on the segment of mortgages at high risk of default could give struggling borrowers time to find a better job, refinance or sell the home without having to go into foreclosure, said Camilla Conlon, president of the Delaware Association of Realtors and a task force member. "Five years is enough time for folks to recover from these circumstances."
Conlon also hoped the five-year freeze, which she called a much-needed "shot in the arm," would put confidence back into Delaware's housing market.
Overall, Delaware's housing market still remains stronger than most. Wilmington was even highlighted in this month's issue of Money magazine as one of the last "red-hot housing markets," experiencing a 5.2 percent increase in home prices in the past year.
But in some neighborhoods, delinquencies and foreclosures are taking a toll.
Delaware Secretary of Housing Sandy Johnson called the five-year freeze a "silver bullet" that would help stem the rising number of foreclosures.
"But we're going to need several silver bullets for this stuff," said Johnson, a task force member. "Maybe after bullets three and four ... we'll have some breathing room."
There were 3,452 seriously delinquent mortgages in Delaware at the end of 2007's second quarter, with slightly more than half (51 percent) subprime, the Delaware State Housing Authority reported to the task force in November. Of the 1,776 subprime loans that were seriously delinquent, two-thirds were adjustable-rate mortgages.
Judging by the number of subprime mortgages in Delaware, anywhere from 6,500 to 10,000 borrowers could be eligible for the freeze, Johnson said.
"Anything that can ... give us assistance from a federal level would be a great benefit," said task force member Ken Smith, director of the Delaware Housing Coalition. Smith's only objection would be if the agreement somehow prevented the state task force from continuing its work.
"If any of these national agreements pre-empts the ability of the states to do things, that would be a concern," Smith said. "There's some movement afoot to include language in these measures that would override state actions, and many of us would not like to see that happen."
Delaware Rep. Mike Castle said the freeze would give greater security to the nation's housing market and would help struggling borrowers.
"The argument you may get is from those investors who feel that they were going to get a higher return on their dollar and are not getting it now," said Castle.
Castle has introduced legislation to protect lenders who renegotiate loans from being sued by investors, legislation that is scheduled to be considered during a House Committee on Financial Services hearing today.
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