Daily Archives: August 26, 2014

Housing market stuck in downward spiral | Bedford NY Real Estate

 

Home price growth continues to slow, according to today’s S&P/Case-Shiller index.

According to the index, home growth rates grew 6.2% nationwide for the 12-month period ending in June, much lower than the double-digit gains seen last year. The S&P/Case-Shiller composite index of 20 major cities through the U.S. increased 8.1% over the same period, down from a 9.4% in May and below economists’ expectations of 8.4%.

Home prices appear to be moderating but that’s good news says Shari Olefson, CEO of The Carnegie Group. “Those big increases that we saw last year were not sustainable and in general we’re still seeing an upward trend when you look at the big picture,” she says.

Still, it’s not all roses for Olefson. “What I wasn’t happy with are some of the trends we’re seeing in new construction,” she notes.

New homes sales fell by 2.4% from June to July, yet July’s new homes sales were up 12.3% from the previous year. “New construction appears to be up significantly from last year but when you dig beneath the surface what’s up are multifamily homes,” says Olefson. “Single family homes are up by just 1% which defies logic because we’ve had over 3 million single family units that have been converted to residential rentals.”

Some believe that these numbers mean that housing is approaching normal levels, but Olefson disagrees. She sees more potential buyers turning into renters and believes there’s a lack of suitable housing and loan products for what people can afford now.

 

 

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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/housing-market-is-stuck-in-downard-spiral–shari-olefson-155251001.html

China’s falling real-estate prices trigger protests, clashes | Pound Ridge Real Estate

 

The sharp drop in China’s housing prices has led to an outburst of anger among property owners, leading to violent clashes in some cases, according to local media reports Tuesday.

In one case, scores of property owners surrounded a Shanghai sales office of Greentown China Holdings Ltd. 3900, +8.58% GTWCF, -33.19%  to protest the developer’s 25% cut to prices within a five-day period, according to a report on the NetEase NTES, +1.62%  news portal site 163.com.

Protesters held banners with slogans such as “You cheated us!” and “300,000 yuan [$48,750] worth of assets evaporate within five days — years of work in vain!” according to photographs of the demonstration posted on the site.

The report quoted a sales manager from Greentown as saying that the price-cut was aimed to boost sales and “cope with competition” from rival China Vanke Co. 2202, +1.48% the nation’s largest residential property developer.

In other Chinese cities, such confrontations between buyers and developers have turned violent.

In the eastern city of Jinan, banner-carrying owners blocked a street to protest another 25% price cut for a local housing development, this one conducted over the space of two weeks, according to the local-government-run Life Daily newspaper.

The protesters clashed with a group of counter-protestors suspected to have been hired by local developers, injuring some of the demonstrators and forcing the police to break up the fight, 163.com said in a separate report.

 

 

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http://www.marketwatch.com/story/chinas-falling-real-estate-prices-trigger-protests-clashes-2014-08-26

Eliot Spitzer in talks for 2.8-acre Kedem Winery site in Williamsburg | Bedford Corners Real Estate

 

Eliot Spitzer, who last year made his most aggressive move since returning to the family firm with the purchase of a pricey West Side development site, is close to inking a deal to buy a large, stalled residential project on the Brooklyn waterfront, according to sources.

Spizter Enterprises is in negotiations to buy the 2.8-acre Kedem Winery site in Williamsburg, where developer the Rector Hylan Corp. has for several years  tried unsuccessfully to build a pair of mixed-use towers two blocks south from Two Trees Management’s Domino Sugar Factory development.

Spitzer Enterprises declined to comment and the current owner could not be reached. Several sources said Spitzer is in advanced negotiations to buy the site, though another prospective buyer may be in the mix as well.

The Rector Hylan development firm bought the six lots that make up the property between Broadway and South 9th Street for $11.3 million in 2003, and three years later received a pair of special permits from the City Planning Commission allowing for larger, denser buildings than the area’s zoning would have allowed.

The company had planned to build a 24-story tower with 309 residential units on the southern end of the site and an 18-story tower on the northern side with 104 units. All told, the buildings would have an envelope greater than 600,000 square feet, including 26,400 square feet of retail along Kent Avenue. The developer agreed to set aside 20 percent of the buildings’ units as affordable housing.

But Rector Hylan struggled to secure financing for the project as the market turned downward and ultimately failed to get shovels in the ground. When the permits lapsed last summer the company filed for and was granted a three-year extension. The renewal will take them to mid-June 2016.

– See more at: http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/08/25/eliot-spitzer-in-talks-for-2-8-acre-kedem-winery-site-in-williamsburg-sources/#sthash.WoIPaOkQ.dpuf

Meet the investors behind NYC’s hottest real estate startups | Chappaqua Real Estate

It’s no surprise that Uber, Instagram and Buzzfeed are attracting big-name technology investors. The three upstart businesses are rattling the cages of established industries and possess an undeniable ‘cool’ factor. But what may surprise some is that many of the early backers of these companies are also betting big on startups in the New York real estate scene.

Josh Kushner’s venture capital firm Thrive Capital, a backer of Uber and Instagram, is also an investor in leasing platform Hightower, real estate marketplace Honest Buildings and residential brokerage Urban Compass. Founder Collective, which backs Buzzfeed, also bankrolls office search marketplace 42Floors and real estate information firm CompStak. This cross-pollination by investors, sources said, shows that real estate is now truly on the tech industry’s radar.

“For too long, the real estate and tech industries were not communicating with each other and that’s what’s really changed over the past few years,” said Jared Kushner, CEO of Kushner Companies and an active player in the space through an investment in Thrive. “As a result, tech startups are starting to solve important problems, which has led to the creation of better companies and more investor interest.” That interest is translating into a lot of cash, too.

Globally, real estate tech startups pulled in more than $740 million in funding between July 2012 and July 2014, as The Real Deal reported last month. That number doesn’t take into account recent capital raisings in New York, such as Urban Compass’ $40 million Series B funding round and Hightower’s $6.5 million Series A round.

 

 

 

– See more at: http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/08/25/meet-the-investors-behind-nycs-hottest-real-estate-tech-startups/#sthash.6MTRoAcm.dpuf

Buying and selling homes could soon be as easy as trading stocks | Armonk Homes

HomeUnion wants to level the playing field for smaller investors, helping them compete with institutional giants to identify bargain-priced single-family rental properties in markets around the country, and then buy and manage them from afar.

Institutional investors try to make a killing by snatching up undervalued homes and renting them out. But it can be harder for smaller investors to get in on the action if they don’t live near the markets with the best deals, or don’t want to be landlords.

 

 

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http://www.inman.com/2014/08/26/buying-and-selling-homes-could-soon-be-as-easy-as-trading-stocks/?utm_source=20140826&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam