In its rawest form, a free market  will determine the value of a good or service based on the elementary principle of supply and demand.  A good or service is worth what any person is willing to pay for it on an open market.  Real estate doesn’t work as simply due to the fact that most homes are purchased through a financing program, thus, the “free market” is cluttered with multiple purchasers (the borrower and the financier).  Usually, a buyer must borrow money to be able to afford an assest as large and expensive as a home, but before the bank shells out in upwards of 80% of the “value”, said bank wants to make sure they are lending on a valuable asset.  This brings us back to appraisals and the challenges they are currently creating for buyers, sellers and lenders alike.

On May 1, 2009, the rules of appraising property has changed.  Now, lenders that sell loans to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac are required to set up a firewall between appraisers and loan officers to prevent improper influence. The rules are the result of an agreement between the mortgage buyers and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who said an investigation found appraisers inflated values under pressure from lenders.  Buyers and real estate professionals are finding that many of the most recent appraisals are coming up short of what the buyer is willing to pay for a home, thus, limiting the amount of financing the bank will provide.

We want to hear from you, real buyers and sellers. What do you think a home should be worth?

As we mentioned in our last post, Vero Beach, Florida was recently ranked the most undervalued real estate market in the nation by CNN Money.

“The report claimed the most undervalued metro area in the nation is Vero Beach, Fla., where the median home price has fallen 29.7% since the first quarter of 2005 to $125,400. That is 42.5% below the expectation. Houma, La., prices, at a median of $113,500, are undervalued by 41.4%. Las Vegas prices have dropped more than 46% since 2005, and the city is now undervalued by 40.9%.

To arrive at these figures, the analysis focused on three key factors of home affordability: income, housing densities and historical prices.”

There are several active homes in Vero Beach right now and we’ve found a couple of great deals by searching through the available properties and using our Analyze button to determine how good of an investment we could make.

Most over- and under-valued housing markets [CNN Money]

Some would argue that the housing “crises” started in conjunction with the bank collapses last September.  Buyers got wary and held off on purchases, listings sat on the market for lenghts of time not seen in years and got stale.  The banks that didn’t fold were afraid to lend money and the Federal Reserve was siezing financial instutions that were teetering!  Yikes, it got messy for a moment.  There are solid arguments being presented on both sides of the “have we hit bottom yet?” conundrum, but it’s clear that some markets are looking more attractive than others to home buyers and investors.  Yahoo Real Estate recently reported that:

home price declines have sent affordability soaring. Prices have fallen so far that the average U.S. home is now undervalued by 12.2%, according to a new report from IHS Global Insight.

Atlantic City, New Jersey was ranked as the number one most overvalued city in the nation as it has listings like these on the market.  We’ll take a closer look at the most undervaled city as ranked by IHS Global Insight Vero Beach, Florida in our next post. 

Most Overvalued and Undervalued Housing Markets [ Yahoo Real Estate]
Most over- and under-valued housing markets [CNN Money]