5 Christmas gift ideas for easy home improvement

Out of Christmas gift ideas this holiday season? ‘Tis time to think outside the box, and make someone’s home remodeling wish come true! To make it easy for you, the HomeSavvi team has compiled five creative home improvement Christmas gift ideas that go beyond a simple piece of art for the wall or a typical power tool set, and the best thing is, you don’t even have to lift a finger!

1. Color consultation package
Contact a local interior designer and purchase a gift certificate for a home color consultation, together with one gallon of the recipient’s favorite paint color (if you happen to know it), or a selection of small paint samples they can choose from. Complement this with a contract with a painter to get the work done. A great gift idea bound to please anyone looking for a spring decorating spree!

2. Space planning consultation
Did the gift recipient always want to bring Feng Shui into their home? Then now is the time for space planning! Select a two-hour space planning consultation package with a local interior designer to help your friend or family member rearrange their furniture in their living room or bedrooms or study. For those working from home full time, a consultation with an organizing company to help organize a home office also makes a great gift.




3. Block of handyman time

Never-ending list of random house projects driving them crazy? Call a local handyman and reserve four to five hours of their time to come out to the gift recipient’s home, and finally get all those projects done once and for all. This is a particularly useful gift for people living alone, families with kids, or professionals leading busy lives due to business travel.

4. Tile package
Do you think your friend or family member’s kitchen or bathroom needs an update? All you need to do is to get a selection of tile samples from a local tile store that you know will match the gift recipient’s current home décor, and combine it with a gift card from a local contractor for the installation of a new kitchen or bathroom backsplash. It won’t take long, and will make all the difference. You could do the same for cabinet refacing.



5. Closet company consultation

You know what they say: The more space, the more clutter. Offering a gift certificate for a consultation with a local closet company will help the recipient see what can be done to organize their closet space. From reorganizing and modifying current storage space to creating new, alternative options, this could be the gift answer for busy families.

If all else fails, gift cards from home remodeling stores such as Lowes and Home Depot, or colorful home retail outlets such as Pier 1 Imports and Crate & Barrel will always be appreciated.

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Mortgage rates hit 4.61 pct.; refi's could slow

By JANNA HERRON

AP Real Estate Writer

Rates on fixed mortgages rose for the fourth straight week this week. The surge could slow refinancings and further hamper the housing market.
Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rates on 15- and 30-year fixed loans increased sharply from last week. Mortgage rates tend to track the yields on 10-year Treasury bonds. Those yields have been rising as investors anticipate Congress will extend the Bush-era tax cuts for two years and long-term unemployment benefits for 13 months.
The 30-year rate rose to 4.61 percent from 4.46 percent last week. That is well above the 4.17 percent rate hit a month ago - the lowest level on records dating back to 1971.
The average rate on a 15-year fixed loan, a popular refinance option, rose to 3.96 percent. Rates hit 3.57 percent last month - the lowest level since 1991.
Rates are rising after plummeting for seven months. Investors are selling Treasury bonds in anticipation of the tax deal President Barack Obama and Republicans forged that could boost the economy next year if passed. A stronger economy would make the stock market a more attractive place to invest money. That's a big reason why many investors are selling their safer Treasurys bonds.

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Caught by mistake in foreclosure web

By MICHELLE CONLIN

AP Real Estate Writer

Christopher Marconi was in the shower when he heard a loud banging on his door. By the time he grabbed a towel and hustled to his front step, a U.S. marshal's sedan was peeling out of his driveway. Nailed to Marconi's front door was a foreclosure summons from Wells Fargo, naming him as a defendant. But the notice was for a house Marconi had never seen - on a mortgage he never had.
Tom Williams was in his kitchen thumbing through the mail when he opened a letter from GMAC. It informed him that the bank would confiscate his house unless he immediately paid off his mortgage balance of $276,000. But Williams had never missed a mortgage payment. And his loan wasn't due to mature until 2032.
Warren Nyerges opened his front door in Naples, Fla., to find a scraggly-haired summons server standing on his stoop. He plopped a foreclosure notice from Bank of America in Nyerges' hands. But Nyerges had paid for his house in cash. And he'd never had a checking account, much less a mortgage, with Bank of America.
By now, you may have heard the stories of bank robo-signers powering through hundreds of foreclosure affidavits a day without verifying a single fact. But most of those involved homeowners who had stopped paying their mortgage. They were genuine defaulters. Now a new species of homeowner is getting pushed into foreclosure hell.

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Area Home Prices Slip From a Year Ago

By Eric Pryne

Seattle Times business reporter

 The median price of houses sold in King County slipped to a new post-bubble low last month, according to statistics released Monday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
The number of sales also fell, dropping nearly one-third from November 2009's total.
"We're not out of the woods yet," said Glenn Crellin, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at Washington State University.
November's median single-family sale price was $359,950, the lowest in more than five years. Prices now have dropped more than 25 percent since July 2007, when the local market peaked.
While it set a record, November's median price still was down just 2.7 percent from the same month last year.  Crellin said he expects prices will continue to drop on a year-over-year basis until mid-2011. Higher-priced homes now constitute a larger share of sales, he said, and that has kept the median price from dropping more steeply.

Those properties are selling, he said, because buyers are negotiating steep price discounts. The growing number of homes in foreclosure also should keep prices down, Crellin added.  Buyers closed on 1,092 houses in November, down 31 percent from November 2009. But the drop was expected: Last November's sales were inflated by first-time buyers rushing to take advantage of a federal tax credit for first-time buyers that had been scheduled to expire at the end of that month.  That credit later was extended and expanded but expired for good earlier this year. In Southeast King County, "it's been dead ever since," said Marti Reeder, an agent at the John L. Scott Real Estate office in Kent. "October and November were complete busts."
But December is looking brighter, Reeder added. She wrote up two offers Sunday and was writing up another Monday afternoon.

King County condo sales fell even more steeply than single-family sales in November. Closed condo sales dropped 47 percent from November 2009's total. The median price, $225,000, was down nearly 11 percent year-over-year.  House sales in Snohomish County were down 27 percent from the same month last year. The median price, $260,000, fell more than 8 percent from November 2009.  While closed sales of single-family homes fell sharply last month, pending sales offers that were accepted in November but haven't yet closed  rose 3 percent in King County. The listing service highlighted that increase in its official statement, calling it a "pleasant surprise."

It was the first year-over-year increase since the tax credits expired this spring.  But last month's total is better than November 2009's only because many potential buyers were backing off a year ago as they awaited the planned expiration of the tax credit, Crellin said.  What's more, he added, an increasing number of pending sales  especially short sales  don't close for months or don't close at all. Considering all that, the listing service's emphasis on the November increase is "a bit overstated," Crellin said.

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Time to refinance? Good question

By MICHELE LERNER

Bankrate.com

Home mortgage refinancing may sound like a good idea in theory, but it's not always possible or desirable.
For starters, lenders have tightened up the approval process, making it more difficult to get loans.
"Homeowners today need to be triathletes to qualify for a loan, with great income, great credit and great value in their home," says Anthony Hsieh, founder and CEO of loan Depot.com.
In addition, a refinance may not make sense financially, particularly for borrowers who plan to sell their homes in the next few years.
Before taking the leap and opting to refinance, homeowners should ask themselves these questions.
Do I have enough equity?
Homeowners need to have at least 80 percent equity in their home to qualify for a new loan without paying private mortgage insurance (PMI). Adding that to the cost of a new loan could negate the benefit of a refinance.
Today, many homeowners are underwater — meaning they owe more on their mortgages than the house is worth. However, being underwater or having little equity does not necessarily rule out a refi.
"Homeowners should still apply for a refinance even if they have low equity, because there are some Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac programs and FHA loans that may accept them," Hsieh says.
How soon should I refinance?
Homeowners should refinance quickly in case the housing slump deepens, causing values to depreciate even more, says Roy Meshel, district vice president for W.J. Bradley Mortgage in Phoenix.
That can make it even more difficult to qualify for a refinance.
What can help me qualify?
Patrick Cunningham, vice president of Home Savings and Trust Mortgage based in Fairfax, Va., recommends an increasingly popular approach — the so-called "cash-in" refinance.
"Some people are opting to bring cash to the settlement in order to pay down their loan balance to qualify for a refinance," he says.
Is my credit score good enough?
Borrower credit scores play a big role in securing a good mortgage rate. In fact, you'll need a good credit score to qualify for any type of mortgage.  Mortgage rates operate on a sliding scale, with the lowest rates going to applicants with the highest credit scores of 720 or higher.  Borrowers with scores below 620 will have trouble qualifying for any mortgage.

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