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Teatown Lake Reservation | North Salem Real Estate
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Daily Archives: August 13, 2014
NYC residential construction jumps 50% | Mt Kisco Real Estate
Residential construction in the city is expected to rise 50% this year, most of the apartments created will be for the wealthy.Photo: Katrina Samuelson
Spending on residential construction is poised to hit a new record high this year of $10.2 billion, up 50% from 2013, according to a report released Wednesday by the New York Building Congress. Last year’s total was $6.8 billion. The bad news is the steep run up in spending will actually yield fewer units—20,000—than the 30,000 per annum pace that was hit several times in the last real estate cycle. The difference is that this year there will be far more money spent on luxury properties designed for wealthy residents or investors.
“While the luxury residential market is booming in Manhattan and in parts of Brooklyn and Queens, we have our work cut out for us in terms of achieving Mayor [Bill] de Blasio’s plan to create or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing over the next decade,” Richard Anderson, president of the congress, said in a statement.
While a rise in construction costs also contributed to the decline in the number of new residential units built compared to the last boom, New York City is also trailing behind most other growing cities in terms of the percent change in total housing units between 2000 and 2012, according to a policy brief recently released by the Citizens Budget Commission. In fact, with a gain of under 10% in that 12-year span, the Big Apple came in 19th out of 22 large cities in the country.
But regardless, the current boom in residential construction has created thousands of new construction industry jobs and increased economic activity and tax revenues, Mr. Anderson noted. In fact, the Building Congress report predicts that the residential sector will single-handedly lift total construction spending across all sectors by 10% this year over last year’s level.
read more…
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20140813/REAL_ESTATE/140819962/nyc-residential-construction-jumps-50#
Home Price Growth Slowdown a Mixed Trend for Economy | Waccabuc Real Estate
Home-price appreciation is slowing, a welcome trend for potential buyers but a troubling one for homeowners still looking for relief from underwater mortgages.
Single-family housing prices rose 4.4% in the year that ended in the second quarter, the slowest annual pace since 2012, according to a report released Tuesday by National Association of Realtors.
The association found that median prices for existing single-family homes grew year-over-year in 122 of 173 metropolitan areas it tracked, while prices declined in 47 metro areas. Only 19 areas showed double-digit year-over-year price increases, a substantial drop from the 37 cities that showed such increases in the first quarter.
Economists said price appreciation is slowing in part because buyers, including investors, have become more cautious and are pulling back from the market amid the big price gains of the past year. At the same time, those higher prices persuaded more homeowners to put their homes up for sale, adding inventory and reducing the urgency to buy.
Those trends are good news for potential buyers, who have had to deal with heated competition for a relatively small number of homes on the market in many cities as well as a near percentage-point increase in 30-year mortgage rates since May 2013.
However, the trends serve as a warning to some owners who bought their homes near the peak of the market and still owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. A report from real-estate research firm,
read more….
http://online.wsj.com/articles/home-price-growth-slowdown-a-mixed-trend-for-economy-1407861595
Mortgage rates tick up slightly | South Salem Real Estate
Borrowers seeking a mortgage through Zillow’s Mortgage Marketplace saw a slight increase in the interest rates they were quoted from last week to this week.
Current rate borrowers were quoted a fixed 30-year rate of 4.08% this week, up from 4.03% last week.
“Mortgage rates were subdued last week as ongoing geopolitical concerns and economic softness in Europe encouraged investors to buy U.S. mortgage-backed securities as a safe haven,” said Erin Lantz, vice president of mortgages at Zillow. “This week, we expect international headlines, rather than U.S. economic data, to drive any meaningful changes to mortgage rates.”
In Zillow’s weekly look at interest rates, the 30-year rate peaked at 4.17% last Thursday before trending back down to its current level. During the remaining period, the interest rate was mostly between 4.1% and 4.15%.
Additionally, the 15-year fixed mortgage rate as of Tuesday was 3.12%, and for 5/1 adjustable rate mortgages, the rate was 2.77%.
Zillow also posted a prediction for Wednesday’s announcement of the mortgage application data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. “Zillow predicts tomorrow’s seasonally adjusted MBA application index will show purchase loan activity to decrease by 2% from the week prior,” the company posted on its blog.
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21 years to save for the down payment on a house? | Cross River Homes
Guardian reporter Jessica Glenza and her boyfriend are buying a house and decided to go with a Federal Housing Authority loan. Glenza explains (in a satirical way that catches your eye), how she can finally afford a home and why some might think this is a bad thing.
It was over a plate of linguine and cream sauce that I learned I could afford a home. The government-run program allows buyers to put down as little as 3.5% of the property’s sales price.
What I found out is that the Federal Housing Authority finances about one in five homes in the US, a huge proportion. FHA financing works by allowing people to finance part of the traditional 20% down payment.
Previously, Glenza assumed she would be forced to save for 10 to 15 years in order to pull together a 20% down payment.
However, as she learned about this new program, she also realized the opposition to it. This is where people like Norbert Michael from the Heritage Foundation, who would rather do away with Fannie, Freddie and the FHA, come in.
read more….