When a seller receives an offer, they have several options. 

  They might accept the offer as you wrote it. 

  Usually, there is something about the offer they will want to change, so they will present a counter-offer.  The counter-offer may regard price or any other terms of your offer.  Then you have the option of accepting the counter-offer or presenting another counter-offer.

  Until there is an offer AND acceptance, there is no contract.  Once any new offer is presented, the previous offer is null and void.  You can't go back and hold either party to what they presented in the previous offer or counter-offer.

  Of course, the seller may reject your offer or counter-offer, making no counter-offer of their own.  Sometimes, they don't inform you in writing that your offer has not been accepted.

  Though it may seem rude, there is nothing that requires a seller to respond to an offer.  What you might want to do is consult with your Realtor, find out what was deficient in your original offer and present a new one.

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Interest Rates Barely Moving

  Interest rates held fairly steady during the last month.  There was a sharp dip when during the initial worries about the war in Iraq, then things went back to normal.  Still, interest rates are very low.

  Consumer spending picked up .4% last month, matching the .4% growth in income.  However, the economy grew at a very slow rate of only 1.6% during the first quarter of 2003, a figure that was lower than anticipated by Wall Street investors.  This will reduce upward pressure on interest rates. 

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Expectations

Over the long term, rates are more likely to rise than decline -- but for the short term things should remain fairly stable.

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What's happening for May?

   Most recent figures show the resale housing market slowed by 5.6% during March.  New home sales shot up dramatically.  This could be important because of the difference in how new homes sales and resales are reported.

   Resales are reported when the deal closes.  New home sales are reported when they first go under contract.  Sometimes new home sales provide an indicator for what will happen in resales.

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Housing Sales Slow

  For the second month in a row, sales of resale housing have slowed -- down 4.62% in February and 5.63% in March.

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   Regionally, sales slowed the most in the Northeast at 7.35%, followed by: West -7.01%, Midwest -5.43%, and the Northeast at -4.31%. April figures will be available at the end of May.

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   Nationwide, the average sales price of existing homes increased 5.91% over the previous year's average price.  Most of that appreciation occurred during April and May 2002 -- then prices flattened out somewhat.

   Regionally, appreciation over last year's average prices are:  Midwest 6.85%, Northeast 11.53%, West 2.72%, and South 5.96%.

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  Inventory tracks the relationship between supply and demand of housing available for sale.  At the rate of home sales in March, it would have taken five months to sell all the homes on the market.  This was up markedly from February, when it would have taken 4.4 months to sell all the homes.

Real Estate Glossary

  Many home buyers want to shop interest rates, so they call up lenders or look at web sites and their main question is, what is your interest rate today?

  The answer is, it depends.

  You see, lenders don't have just one interest rate.  They have an entire menu of interest rates.

  To quote you a rate, the lender needs to know several things.  First, he needs to know if you are buying or refinancing.

  If you are buying a home, the lender needs to know how much you will be putting down and what percentage of the purchase price the down payment will cover.  He needs to know what loan program you are interested in, whether you have a strong credit history or not, whether you want to document your income and savings or want an easy qualifier loan.  This list of variables does go on.

  However, you still want a rate quote because you're shopping for a loan.  The lender still needs to know approximately how many points you want to pay.  A point is 1 % of the loan amount.

  Here is why the lender needs that information.

  Say you are willing to pay one point as a loan origination fee on a 30-year fixed rate loan -- today your interest rate might be 5.75%.  If you wanted to pay zero points, your interest rate would probably be six percent.

  On the very same day, you could also get an interest rate of 4.75%.  That would cost approximately five points or more.  If you're going to own the home for 30 years and never refinance, that could actually make a lot of sense.

  The point is -- there is no ONE interest rate.

  There are a variety of interest rates.  When you get an interest rate quote from a lender, he is just providing you with one option among an entire menu of choices.

  Then tomorrow, it all changes.  Rates change every day - sometimes a lot, sometimes a little.  When the investment markets are volatile, interest rates can change several times in a day.