by rtdosen | Jul 31, 2014 | Ryan Dosen Real Estate Articles
100 Percent Home Financing Available in Chester County Through USDA By Ryan Dosen Contrary to common belief, 100 percent financing opportunities were not completely extinguished in the real estate collapse of the late 2000s. Thanks to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), 100 percent financing loans are still available in certain circumstances and areas. The USDA has instituted its Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program for the express purpose of helping “low to moderate income rural homebuyers achieve their dream of homeownership.” But what does “low to moderate income” and “rural” actually mean for today’s homebuyer? I sat down with local mortgage expert Joe Gonzalez of Gateway Funding in Plymouth Meeting to help decipher the USDA’s special program guidelines, restrictions, benefits, and drawbacks. Home Must Be In an Eligible Rural Area The USDA is seeking to assist “rural homebuyers” and that means that any home purchased in the USDA’s program must be in an eligible rural area. To determine if a home is in an eligible rural area, the USDA has set up a website with eligibility maps. Lines are not drawn by city, township, or zip code, so you need to check out the maps to determine if a home is eligible. Much of the area west of the Brandywine River is eligible, including parts of Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, and most areas west thereof. Most of West Chester, Exton and Downingtown are not eligible; however, many areas just north of Routes 30 and 202 are eligible until you hit Chesterbrook and King of Prussia. Visit http://eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov/ and select “Single Family Housing” under the Eligibility...
by rtdosen | Jul 19, 2014 | Ryan Dosen Real Estate Articles
Three Positive Signs For Housing Accompany Lukewarm Fed Report By Ryan Dosen Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen gave her semi-annual testimony earlier this week before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. The tone of Yellen’s talk could be described as guardedly optimistic. The Fed Chair said that the financial markets remained in reasonable health, but that “too many Americans remain unemployed, inflation remains below our longer-run objective, and not all of the necessary financial reform initiatives have been completed.” Against this hard-to-read backdrop of larger economic news, several pieces of good news for the housing market surfaced this week. The Fed to Keep Interest Rates Low While taking note of several positives from the economy, the Chair reiterated the need for continued Fed assistance and the maintenance of near-zero short term interest rates to help ensure the economy and job growth continue to improve. A recent House bill has been introduced that would require the Fed to adopt a mathematical model by which its interest rate decisions would have to be based. When pressed about the issue, Yellen was uncomfortable with committing to tie her own hands to a formula. She stated that “[i]t would be a grave mistake for the Fed to commit to conduct monetary policy according to a mathematical rule…. It is utterly necessary for us to provide more monetary-policy accommodation than those simple rules would have suggested.” The good news for the real estate market is that the Fed wants to keep rates down for a while longer. If the Fed keeps short-term rates low for the time being, that should keep...
by rtdosen | Jul 11, 2014 | Ryan Dosen Real Estate Articles
The Latest Trends in Kitchen Design By Ryan Dosen Clean lines are in; flowery mosaics are out. Open spaces are in; formal dining rooms are out. The kitchen is the hub of your house. When it comes time to sell your home, it’s usually the most important room. The first thing most buyers will do when touring your home is make a beeline for your kitchen. If they’re not impressed with where they’ll put their pots and pans, you’ve likely lost a buyer. I took a few minutes this week to sit down and discuss the latest trends in kitchen design with one of Chester County’s kitchen authorities, Lori Graf of Century Kitchens in Malvern. With a little help from our friendly neighborhood kitchen expert, let’s see how our all-important room is keeping up with the trends. Kitchens Must Be ‘Clean, Neat, Timeless’ “Foofy” would have been a good thing if you lived at Downton Abbey in the early 1900s. “Foofy” is generally not a good thing if you’re looking to sell a home in Chester County in 2014. Graf advises that today’s buyer wants a kitchen that is “clean, neat and timeless.” The good news for someone designing a modern kitchen is that “foofy” extravagances such as ornamental cabinets and custom mosaic tile back-splashes of flower pots have become less desirable in recent years. Today’s buyer is looking for simple, clean lines in a kitchen. Relatively plain, white or off-white cabinets, complemented with a mocha- or espresso-colored island is a common request. In terms of flooring, buyers would generally prefer the uniformity of a common...
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