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b"With Terry Story, 27-year veteran Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker in Boca Raton, FL

Terry Story always knows which way the wind is blowing in the real estate market and now, she reports, home prices are taking a turn after years of rapidly accelerating price gains.
The Case-Schiller Report shows home values still soaring in the northwest, but slowing down in other parts of the country because of a dwindling supply of inventory.
Prices can only go up so high since they have to keep up with incomes. If prices rise past the ability of those who buy these homes to afford them, they can get stretched which we saw back in the bubble of '05.\\xa0 High home prices and low inventory are driving more people toward renting instead of buying.
Another problem Terry notices is that many lower-end buyers can\\u2019t find what they thought they could get for the money and so they become discouraged. Oftentimes, then, they\\u2019ll settle for a desired neighborhood and end up buying a house that needs fixing or renovating, which enables them to make it more like a new home, one closer to the original dream.
There is help with financing out there, Terry says. The FHA offers a 203K plan and, in Florida, this can get you a mortgage up to 340,000 which includes money for repairs, which often solves a problem especially for young first time home buyers who don\\u2019t have the extra 20 to 30 thousand dollars for improvements.
Fannie Mae also has a program called Home Style Renovation that lets you mortgage up to $417,000, but repairs can\\u2019t exceed 50% of the value after appraisal.
Terry has advice for how to prep your home for sale: Clean, clean, clean, she urges, and purge of your home of knick-knacks, family photos, and all other clutter. Make it as much like a model home as possible by de-personalizing the space and fixing items that are in visible need of repair. As a final note, she says to make your environment look and smell good\\u2014so deodorize, spruce up the landscaping, add fresh mulch and flowers, and present a clean and orderly garage.
Read The Entire Transcript HereCollapse Transcript
Steve Pomeranz: It's time for Real Estate Roundup.\\xa0 This is time every single week we get together with noted real estate agent Terry Story.\\xa0 Terry is a 27-year veteran with Coldwell Banker located in Boca Raton, Florida.\\xa0 Welcome back to the show, Terry.
Terry Story: Thanks for having me, Steve.
Steve Pomeranz: After years and years of home price gains and almost at an accelerating pace, I think the tide is turning a little bit.\\xa0 Tell us about home prices these days.
Terry Story: You know, Steve, according to the Case-Schiller Report, they do analyze the 20-city home price index, there's a little bit of a slow down.\\xa0 What we're looking at, home values are still soaring in the northwest.\\xa0 That place is on fire, but we're starting to see slow downs nationwide.\\xa0 Prices are increasing, but slowing down.\\xa0 However, they're still increasing more than buyer\\u2019s incomes.\\xa0 What's happening is we're now getting into a dwindling supply of homes available.\\xa0 That's just changing the dynamics a little bit.\\xa0 For example, homes in the northwest, they climbed at a double-digit pace; we're looking at 12%.\\xa0 Cities in the Midwest, that was kind of a mixed bag.\\xa0 The southern areas, we saw stronger price gains like Dallas, Atlanta, Tampa area, and then the index plunged.\\xa0 The index did plunge after the housing burst in 2006.\\xa0 It actually plummeted by more than a third before the prices started to rise again back in March of 2016.\\xa0 We're starting to see overall just a slow down in the price gains which is no surprise because there's a ceiling.\\xa0 You can only go up so high.\\xa0 People's incomes have to be able to keep up with this.
Steve Pomeranz: Yeah, I mean, trees don't grow to the sky."