New home closings in the New York, NY market dropped year-over-year in July, and the market seemed to be weakening with a percentage fall steeper than in June 2014. New home closings saw a drop of 29.4% from the year earlier to 456. This came on the heels of a 21.9% decline year-over-year in June.
A total of 6,057 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in July, down from 6,247 for the year that ended in June.
New home closings made up 3.3% of overall housing closings. A year earlier, new home closings represented 4.2% of total closings. For new and existing homes, closings dropped in July after also declining in June year-over-year.
Pricing and Mortgage Trends
Average price of newly sold homes had a 3.1% lift year-over-year to $629,340 per unit in July. This hike compares to a 4.9% drop in June from a year earlier.
For newly sold homes, the average mortgage size increased year-over-year along with new home prices. The average mortgage size rose to $450,513 in July, marking a 7.5% surge compared with a year earlier. In June 2014, average mortgage size fell 6.7% from a year earlier.
Other Market Trends
As a share of new home closings, single-family home closings have climbed from last year while the share belonging to attached units has fallen. The share of new home closings belonging to single-family homes rose from 40.9% in July 2013 to 43.6% of closings in July 2014. Meanwhile, attached units as a percentage of all new home closings slid to 56.4% of closings from 59.1% of closings.
The average unit size of newly sold homes sank 41.1% year-over-year to 1,417 square feet in July 2014. In June, the average size of new homes sold went from 2,189 square feet a year earlier to 1,717 square feet.
Foreclosures and real estate owned (REO) closings rose in July from a year earlier and did not look to be a burden on the market. Combined, foreclosures plus REO closings represented 10.4% of existing home closings, above 9.0% a year earlier. The percentage of existing home closings involving foreclosures went from 5.6% in July 2013 to 6.1% in July 2014 and REO closings moved from 3.4% of existing home closings in July 2013 to 4.3% in July 2014.
As the city’s known more nowadays for its inflated, six-zero asks, it might be hard to believe that apartments still exist within its confines under the $300,000 threshold. Okay, they may be small and not quite where all the action’s happening, but that doesn’t have to be a negative. Example: this slim studio on 87th Street between York and First avenues on the Upper East Side is south-facing and looks onto the block’s courtyards. It comes with two closets and a renovated bathroom all for $249,000.
↑ At $299,000, this plain jane of an East Village studio just barely makes the cut. The unit, which has two closets and a separate, windowed kitchen with room for two stools at a breakfast bar, is on the sixth floor of a prewar elevator building on 12th Street between Second and Third avenues. The photos don’t show a bed in the living area, though, so be warned that it looks larger than it probably is! (Which is, according to the listing, 350 square feet.)
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↑ In Chelsea, there’s a townhouse co-op with a fun purple stripe on the wall asking $285K. It’s a walk-up, but there are hardwood floors. The location is central, on West 18th Street near Eighth Avenue, and the two windows have a bright westward view, plus there’s built-in storage above the kitchen and bathroom doors.
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↑ The kitchen in this Park Slope apartment is divided from the living room by a partial wall with a pass-through window that also has shades, making it easier to divide up a small space into even smaller ones. There’s also a separate lofted area for sleeping, though that’s not pictured, with a walk-in closet underneath. The location is hard to beat: half a block away from Prospect Park West on Union Street, right near Grand Army Plaza. Asking price: $299,000.
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↑ This Brighton Beach studio comes with a lovely oceanfront view for a discounted $214,000. Sure, the apartment is small tiny, but packs a punch in its nearly 500 square feet: the kitchen has all new stainless steel appliances (dishwasher included), there’s a terrace, and oceanfront and Manhattan views. And in those steamy summer months, the boardwalk and beach are but steps away.
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↑ In Brooklyn Heights, $299,000 buys this shady studio in classy prewar co-op building The Remsen, off of Remsen and Henry streets. The apartment’s been recently renovated and has new floors, cabinets (installed post-picture taking), countertop, sink and backsplash, as well as two walk-in closets. The building also has a 24-hour doorman. Water, heat, electricity, and gas are all included.
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↑ There’s no floorplan for this seventh-floor prewar co-op on Broadway between 102nd and 103rd Streets, but the listing promises “plenty of closet space, pre-war molding and original hardwood flooring throughout.” The main room of this $275,000 unit does look spacious, and the building (called the Broadmoor) has a nicely furnished shared roof deck with views of the Hudson.
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↑ This studio in a 1939 Art Deco building in Washington Heights has a windowed kitchen and bath, deep closets, 9-foot ceilings, and hardwood floors throughout (although not a whole lot of windows in the living area). The studio is asking$249,000, and is close to neighborhood amenities like Fort Tryon Park. A negative?’ it’ll cost buyers an extra $240 per year to use the building’s gym.
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↑ Near the Midtown Tunnel entrance, Murray Hill offers up this petite pad in a doorman building on 36th Street between Second and Third avenues. It’s basically one big room, but there’s an “entry hall” and a separate galley kitchen, as well as two “large and deep closets.” For $299,000 you’ll get a communal outdoor space on the roof here, too, in the event of claustrophobia.
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↑ At the top of a building that towers over low-lying Forest Hills is this $268,000 studio. The 25th-floor digs have a recently enlarged and updated bathroom, and a renovated kitchen with Moen and Kohler fixtures, a wine refrigerator, and Caeserstone countertops. Gerard Tower has a 24-hour doorman, a seasonal pool, gym, in-building laundry, and underground parking.
Freddie Mac today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing average fixed mortgage rates slightly down from the previous week with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dipping just below four percent.
News Facts
30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.99 percent with an average 0.5 point for the week ending November 20, 2014, down from last week when it averaged 4.01 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.22 percent.
15-year FRM this week averaged 3.17 percent with an average 0.5 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.20 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.27 percent.
5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 3.01 percent this week with an average 0.5 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.02 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 2.95 percent.
1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.44 percent this week with an average 0.4 point, up from last week when it averaged 2.43 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 2.61 percent.
Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining the mortgage. Visit the following links for the Regional and National Mortgage Rate Details and Definitions. Borrowers may still pay closing costs which are not included in the survey.
Quotes Attributed to Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist, Freddie Mac.
“Fixed mortgage rates were slightly down as housing starts declined 2.8 percent in October below the upwardly revised September rate. However, building permits increased 4.8 percent in October after a 2.8 percent boost a month earlier. Lastly, industrial production slipped by 0.1 percent in October, below the market consensus forecast.”
Privately-owned housing starts dropped 2.8% in October to print at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,009,000 units, which is still 7.8% above the October 2013 rate of 936,000.
Single-family housing starts, which have been lagging through the summer and fall, finally perked up, growing 4.2% from last month’s tepid performance.
This comes one day after the National Association of Home Builder’smonthly survey said builder confidence is up for November.
Notably the only region with gains in starts was the South, which saw an increase of 10.1%. The West saw a drop of 10.9%, the Northeast dropped 16.4% and the Midwest plunged 18.5%.
“While permits rose in October, starts declined on weakness in the multi-family sector. Still, following yesterday’s rise in the NAHB Index, there appears to be a significant amount of confidence amid home builders breaking ground on new projects as low financing costs and improvement in the labor market are expected to bring new demand for housing,” said Lindsey Piegza, chief economist for Sterne Agee. “While there has been improvement in sales since a weak start to the year, demand has hardly been robust. Minimal income, lackluster savings, and more stringent borrowing restrictions are in some cases outweighing historically low borrowing costs.
“After a surge in buying activity in mid-2013 sparked by the Fed’s taper talk, demand slipped noticeably and has since been unable to recapture the highs of 2013. In the end, without jobs and income growth, consumers remain restrained, translating into positive, but modest demand,” she said.
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,080,000, which was 4.8% above the revised September rate of 1,031,000 and is 1.2% above the October 2013 estimate of 1,067,000.
Paul Diggle, property economist for Capital Economics, was optimistic in his outlook.
“The decline in housing starts in October was entirely driven by a fall in the volatile multi-family component,” Diggle said. “With single-family starts, building permits and homebuilder confidence all rising, the outlook is becoming increasingly positive.”
The permits level is also the highest since June 2008.
Single-family authorizations in October were at a rate of 640,000, which makes for a 1.4% gain on the revised September figure of 631,000.
