Just How Big is the FHA? | Pound Ridge Real Estate
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Monthly Archives: February 2013
Distressed Sales Down | Bedford Corners Homes
FHFA, Case-Shiller Home Prices | Chappaqua Real Estate
New Home Sales Positive | Armonk NY Homes
Seller Shortage Plagues Many Markets | Bedford NY Homes
The low inventory of for-sale homes is creating a seller’s market throughout the country.
“Buyers and agents are literally waiting for the next house,” says Rick Turley, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage for the San Francisco Bay Area.
The supply of existing homes for sale reached nearly an eight-year low in January, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Nationwide, there is a 4.2-month supply of existing homes for sale.
A more balanced market with a six-month supply will occur when home prices rise another 20 percent, says John Burns, CEO of John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Such an increase would then lure sellers to match demand coming in from renters and investors, and the rise in prices will also lead to more home building, Burns says.
Still, a return to healthy inventory levels could be years off, some say. “Many home owners can’t afford to sell because they don’t have enough equity to put into buying another house — or would have to write a check to sell,” USA Today reports. “The supply of distressed houses for sale is thinning as the foreclosure crisis recedes, especially in some states. Home building, while improving, is still at low levels. And, after years of holding on, few home owners want to sell when prices are just coming off the bottom, REALTORS® say.”
Source: “Home sellers are scarce as spring buyers stir,” USA Today (Feb. 26, 2013)
Instagram Smashes Huge Milestone | Armonk NY Realtor
Many people enjoy the capturing of life with photos and videos. For some it is the reminder of people met and experiences that shouldn’t be forgotten.
Some are moments of fun and ecstasy, others are sad and tragic.
Modern photo technology now embedded in smart phones allows us to take photos and view them instantly without waiting for the local Kodak corner store to develop the film.
This evolution has been fatal for this global brand.
Now you can not only click and view, you can also tweet, Facebook and email that photo to friends and family all around the world in seconds.
A trigger happy friend of mine uses Instagram to take those snapshots of a moment in time. When her smart phone battery died the other you could see the loss of her time freezing machine was not good for her health.
Life in One Second Videos
A movie director Cesar Kurimaya has decided that he didn’t want to forget special moments. Instead of Instagram photos or still images, he is capturing his life by taking one second videos every day and turning them into a montage of a life lived.
It makes him evaluate each day with clarity. It helps him answer the questions of, have I loved, have I lived, have I made a difference?
He uses it as an inspiration to view his journey not from the limits of an imperfect memory but a video archive of his life.
Never again will he forget what he did on that day that was memorable.
Instagram Breaks 100 Million Monthly Users Milestone
Instagram is barely 2 and a half years old after being launched in October 2010. In April 2012, Facebook thought its technology and potential were worth $1 billion and bought the startup which had only 13 employees and was still losing money.
The founders Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom see it as a tool to inspire and connect.
It has just broken through the 100 million users per month and is now a major player in the social media ecosystem.
This puts it at number 5 behind Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.
I think we only just seen the start of the Instagram journey.
Want to Know More About Instagram and the Visual Web Revolution?
Here are some articles that will provide an insight into Instagram and the impact of the images on a social web.
6 Tips for Marketing your Business with the Social Media Mobile App Instagram
Take the three addictive elements of photography, mobile and social and mix them together in one “App”. Then make it so easy to use that a frog with fingers could use it. Set it free and watch the creativity explode. That is Instagram. The social web is providing us with free publishing tools that allow… Read more »
How to Create Buzz from a Hashtag on Social Media
FHA Largely to Be Spared ‘Sequester’ | Pound Ridge NY Homes
The across-the-board budget cuts enacted into law in 2011 to reduce the federal deficit take effect Friday, March 1, absent additional action by the government. Some $85 billion, split between defense and domestic discretionary programs, is scheduled to be cut over the balance of 2013. In all, about $1.2 trillion is to be cut over the next 10 years.
Not counting the economic impact on housing demand, the cuts are expected to have minimal impact on federally backed mortgage finance programs because the sequester applies to program dollars, not loan guaranty authority. For that reason, loans backed by the FHA, the VA, and the Rural Housing Service are expected to remain at current levels.
The two secondary mortgage market companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which remain under federal conservatorship, will also likely see little impact from the sequester.
Two additional budget deadlines are ahead. The deadline for extending a continuing resolution that’s in place is March 28. A continuing resolution is a temporary budget measure that keeps the federal government operating in the absence of congressionally passed appropriations bills. And the deadline by which the federal government must raise its debt ceiling, which enables it to borrow funds to service its existing debt, is May 19.
The White House has posted an analysis of how the budget sequester could impact federal funding in your state. Access the analysis.
Mt Kisco, Chappaqua See Prices Increase in 2012 | RobReportBlog
2012 Median Prices Up Mount Kisco 12% Chappaqua 2%
via trulia.com
Katonah, Bedford, Pound Ridge Lead Area in 2012 Price Declines | RobReportBlog
2012 Median Prices Down Katonah 12% Bedford Hills 12% Bedford NY 12% North Salem 8% South Salem 3% Pound Ridge 10% Armonk 2%
via trulia.com
New-Home Sales Gain Steam | Bedford Corners Homes
Sales of new single-family homes in January rose to its fastest pace since 2008, leading to more confirmation that the recovery in the new-home sector is charging forward.
New-home sales rose 15.6 percent in January to reach a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 437,000 units, HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau reports.
“The surge in demand for new homes this January is an excellent sign that the housing recovery is gaining steam and helping put more people back to work,” says Rick Judson, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders. “While we can’t expect to see double-digit sales growth every month, consumers are definitely coming off the fence as prices start to rise, and builders in some cases are having a tough time keeping up. Challenges related to credit availability, poor appraisals, dwindling lot supplies, spot shortages of skilled labor and rising materials costs are all weighing on the recovery process.”
Regionally, new-home sales increased the most in the West by 45.3 percent, followed by the Northeast with a 27.6 percent gain, an 11.1 percent increase in the Midwest, and a 3.2 percent increase in the South.
Meanwhile, inventories remain low. The months’ supply of new homes for sale dropped to the lowest level in nearly eight years.
“Today’s report shows a strong revival in new-home sales across all regions of the country and bodes well for the upcoming spring buying season,” says NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “That said, the razor-thin supply of new homes for sale is very concerning at a time when we are only about halfway back to what could be considered a ‘normal’ level of activity. Builders need to be able to refresh their inventories to keep the momentum going.”