Real Estate News

Is anyone really surprised that the Olympia Company will not be developing the Maine State Pier? After nearly one year of discussions the City Council’s Community Development Committee recommended last week that Portland terminate negotiations.

The major issue appears to be the ownership of the sea floor beneath the Maine State Pier. Olympia all along has said that a 75 year lease was required to make the project viable, but the state, who claims to control the land, will only grant a 30 year lease.

As a mortgage lender, I have seen more changes in the past several months than I have in my entire twenty year career in this industry. It seems we hear nothing positive in the financial news lately and all that negative information is affecting the way we all think and feel. There is no disputing the fact that these are difficult times in the housing market with values decreasing and foreclosures on the rise. But I do feel the positive energy that comes from the knowledge of the experts in this business.

For September 2008 and Q3 2008 National foreclosure filings were reported on 265,968 properties representing a 12% decrease from the previous month but still a 21% increase from September 2007. One in every 475 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing in September.

At our website – MaineHomeConnection – we just updated our 2008 homes sales statistics through the first three quarters of 2008. Sales results are available for York and Cumberland Counties in total, as well as selected individual cities and towns. Details are available at the link Home Sales and individual City pages.

Harris Golf, Maine’s leading golf real estate developer, has agreed in principal to sell one its most successful holdings, Boothbay Country Club, to a group of investors headed by longtime club member James Reeves and veteran Harris Golf employee Clayton Longfellow. The sale price of $4.5 million was announced October 14, at which point Reeves and Longfellow assumed immediate stewardship of the 300-member private club, located in the heart of Maine’s Mid-Coast.

Although the media is focused on frozen credit markets, the FHA is clearly open for business and ready to finance home loans. In fact, the FHA’s volume has tripled and the agency is now insuring well over a hundred thousand new loans a month. I’m sure this is a surprise to many people!

Have you noticed that the real estate section of the Portland Press Herald is getting smaller and smaller? Is this a function of a down real estate market or a dramatic increase in Internet advertising. The answer is probably some of both, but we believe that online advertising for homes reaches more potential buyers and is more cost effective than any print medium could be and the latest announcement by one of the nation’s largest papers seems to support this.

It was first leaked on Friday and was official on Sunday Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were taken over by the Federal government. So the natural question is - what does it mean for the real estate market, mortgage interest rates, and the US economy.