After stumbling in February, sales of existing homes rose 3.7 percent in March from the month before, according to a National Association of Realtors report released today.

Completed sales of existing single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops fell 6.3 percent compared to March 2010 — when a federal homebuyer tax credit program elevated sales — to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.1 million units.

“With rising jobs and excellent affordability conditions, we project moderate improvements into 2012, but not every month will show a gain — primarily because some buyers are finding it too difficult to obtain a mortgage,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, in a statement.

He said the generally upward trend in monthly existing-home sales suggests the housing market is “clearly on a recovery path.”

The median price for existing homes nationwide fell 5.9 percent year-over-year in March, to $159,600. Distressed properties, typically sold at a discount, made up 40 percent of sales last month, compared with 35 percent in March 2010.

According to NAR’s housing affordability index, the typical monthly mortgage principal and interest payment for a median-priced existing home is 13 percent of gross household income — the lowest since records began in 1970, the trade group said.

A separate NAR survey found that cash buyers accounted for a record 35 percent of sales in March, up from 27 percent in March 2010. Investors made up 22 percent of sales, up from 19 percent in March 2010. First-time homebuyers bought 33 percent of homes last month, down from 44 percent the same month a year ago.

Unsold inventory rose 1.5 percent month-to-month, to 3.55 million existing homes. That represents an 8.4-month supply at the current sales rate, essentially level with the February supply.

Regionally, the South fared best in March. Sales rose 8.2 percent month-to-month and fell 1 percent year-over-year, to an annual rate of 1.99 million. The region’s median price fell 6.6 percent year-over-year, to $138,200.

Sales in the region rose year-over-year in most price ranges, except in homes between $100,000 and $500,000. Sales of homes under $100,000 rose the most, 13.6 percent, while homes above $1 million rose 12.5 percent. The South was also the only region to see a jump in sales of homes between $500,000 and $1 million.

Sales in the Northeast increased 3.9 percent month-to-month, to 800,000, but fell 12.1 percent year-over-year. The region’s median price declined 3 percent year-over-year, to $232,900. Sales fell year-over-year in all price ranges except for homes above $1 million, which remained essentially flat. 

In the Midwest, sales rose 1 percent month-to-month, to 1.06 million, but fell the most of any region year-over-year, 13.1 percent. Median price fell 7.1 percent year-over-year, to $126,100. Sales dropped year-over-year in all price ranges, with the biggest decline, 25.9 percent, in sales of homes between $100,000 and $250,000.

The West was the only region to see a month-to-month decline in sales, 0.8 percent to 1.25 million. Sales in the region fell 3.1 percent year-over-year. The West also saw the biggest year-over-year drop in median price, 11.2 percent, to $192,100.

That drop was largely due to a 44.6 percent year-over-year jump in sales of homes under $100,000 in the region. Every other price range except that of homes above $1 million saw sales decrease last month. Sales of homes above $1 million rose 6.2 percent year-over-year.

Homes under $250,000 made up 69.6 percent of overall sales nationwide in March.

Of 19 major metro areas, St. Louis saw the biggest declines in both sales and median price, both falling 20 percent year-over-year.

Only Baltimore and Phoenix saw year-over-year sales jumps, 6.3 percent and 9.5 percent, respectively, though each saw its median price drop 12.5 percent.

Median price rose year-over-year only in San Antonio and Washington, D.C., last month: 3.6 percent and 1 percent respectively.

NAR’s existing-home sales figures are estimated using a method that may overstate home sales by as much as 20 percent, according to mortgage and property data aggregator CoreLogic.

NAR has said it is working on making some benchmark revisions to its historic sales data sometime this year. According to economics blog Calculated Risk, the numbers reported today “will probably be revised down significantly, but they are still useful on a month-to-month basis.”

In a separate report released by the California Association of Realtors today, pending home sales in the state rose 15.2 percent month-to-month in March, and remained essentially flat year-over-year.

Market share of distressed property sales in the state last month remained flat from March 2010, at 51 percent.

The statewide median price of nondistressed properties sold in March was $386,500, 41 percent higher than the short-sale median price of $274,700, and 88 percent higher than the March REO median price of $205,000, the report said.

04/20/2011

Bedford Hills Tweeter Learns To Tweet | Bedford Hills Homes

 

 

Have you participated in a Twitter Chat? If not, you’re missing out. Twitter chats have a number of benefits, including:

• Learning–Chats are usually focused on a specific topic. They are places where people share their knowledge.
• Sharing your knowledge–If you like helping others to learn and grow, chats can be very rewarding.
• Meeting new people–I’ve found some great people to follow through Twitter chats.
• Gaining visibility and sharing your content–When your stream fills with topic-specific tweets containing a hashtag, it tends to be noticed. Chats also give you a chance to share your own and other relevant content.
• Gaining followers–Just as I’ve found people to follow, others have followed me when we’ve met in a chat or they’ve seen my tweets from the chat.

If you’re new to chats, here’s some information about how to find and participate in them, with a few tips for getting the most out of them.

What is a Twitter Chat?

Twitter chats are discussions that happen in Twitter, via hashtags. People meet online in Twitter at a specific time and use a specific hashtag, such as #solopor or #blogchat. Usually, chats are an hour long and have a facilitator, who may provide questions that people discuss in the chat.

How do I find a Twitter Chat?

One great resource is this spreadsheet that shows Twitter Chats by subject and gives you the day, time, and hashtag, among other information.

How do I participate?

There are a few ways to do it. You can use Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, or another client, or even the Twitter UI. In a client, create a stream/column using Search to search on the hashtag. For example, if you’re participating in #blogchat, create a column based on a Search for #blogchat. If you don’t already have one, create a column for @ replies to you, as well. In Twitter, you can open Twitter in multiple windows/tabs. Do a hashtag search in one window, and use the other to view your mentions.

Once the chat starts, you watch for the facilitator to tweet the topic or questions. Then, respond by tweeting your answer and ending with the chat’s hashtag, such as #blogchat. Including the hashtag makes sure the tweet shows up in everyone’s chat search.

Another alternative is to participate through a service such as TweetChat.com or the new ChatTagged.com. You login with your Twitter handle, and then enter the chat’s hashtag in the search box. TweetChat or ChatTagged displays the chat, automatically updating as new tweets come in. They allow you to tweet and reply to tweets in the chat. Best of all, they automatically postpend the hashtag, so you don’t have to type it.

If you use TweetChat, you’ll still want open a Twitter window with Mentions displaying, so you can more easily see replies just to me. ChatTagged does this for you, displaying a separate window with mentions.

Holy crap! I can’t keep up with the conversation!

That’s ok. This isn’t like a real world conversation, or even an IM session. You won’t read every tweet in the chat. Read what you can or what catches your eye, and respond as you can. People often go off on little side threads, discussing an answer in greater detail by replying all, while using the hashtag. Keep an eye on your mentions so you can see when someone is replying to something you’ve said.

Some Tips

• Be prepared to share links. I often open bit.ly, which I use as my URL shortener for my best posts. You may also want to open SnapBird so that you can search for a tweet you made or create a trunk.ly list of your tweets for reference. I often want to reference either something I’ve written, someone else’s blog post, or some study or research I’ve tweeted about. I open these sources so I can find content quickly.
• Retweet other people’s good tweets. If someone says something in a chat that you think is spot on or really good, retweet it. It’s a way of recognizing people’s good comments, as well as indicating agreement.
• Invite others. Make a point of inviting other people you know who might find the chat interesting. And consider making a general tweet out to your followers recommending the chat.
• Participate even when the chat is over.  The chat hashtag is available for relevant tweets even after the chat is over. Sometimes, a new study or blog post comes out after the chat, that is relevant to it. Tweet the link to the hashtag. If you had a side conversation with people about the topic, @ them as well.
• Consider summarizing the chat. Chats can be good blog fodder. You may want to summarize the consensus or tips you got via the chat, giving due credit and quoting tweets, as appropriate. Many hosts archive the chat, making it easier to reference tweets. Otherwise, you can always search the hashtag.

 

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Apr 20, 2011 5:24:47 PM | Weblogs

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Great Facebook Marketing Ideas | Pound Ridge NY Homes Facebook is always a tough call when it comes to the frequency and timing of posting messages. Unlike Twitter, which is a war to be seen, Facebook is a slower network with a much higher percentage of your "fans" likely to see your messages (whether they read it or not…

Tips for salvaging old bricks

Remove mortar by soaking in special solution

By Bill and Kevin Burnett, Tuesday, April 19, 2011.

Inman News™

Q: A neighbor has given me a stack of bricks from his backyard. I intend to use them in the median strip between the curb and the sidewalk in front of my house. Many of the bricks have old mortar stuck to their sides that I need to get rid of. Can you recommend an alternative to the chisel-and-hammer method suggested at my local hardware store? Also, if the bricks can’t be cleaned up, how do I dispose of them?

A: It’s great that you’re preparing a new home for those old bricks. Not only do we prefer the look of used brick to new, we like the fact that you are reusing perfectly good material.

You have a good deal of work ahead of you, but take heart — it’s not difficult, just time-consuming. Also, you probably won’t be able to salvage all your neighbor’s used bricks. Inevitably, a few will be beyond redemption or will break apart when you remove the mortar.

Your first step should be to soak the bricks in a solution of muriatic acid and water. This will soften the cured mortar enough to allow removal via the tried-and-true method of hammer and cold chisel. The alternative, and our preferred method, is to saw the mortar off using a diamond-encrusted blade fitted to a circular saw. Kevin’s father-in-law, Ed, a master mason, used this method to dry cut bricks when doing small jobs.

Masons have used muriatic acid, also known as hydrochloric acid, for years to clean mortar residue from brick and stone. At the end of any job there’s a residual gray film from mortar on the bricks. Muriatic acid emulsifies the Portland cement contained in the mortar allowing for easy cleanup. It is not used full strength but is diluted with water, usually 10 parts water to 1 part acid. Directions for dilution and safe handling are printed on the label.

Be warned: Muriatic acid is quite strong, and it’s dangerous when it comes in contact with skin or mucous membranes. So it is critical that you take proper safety precautions. Suit up with rubber gloves, long pants, a long-sleeve shirt, a hat and eye protection. If the solution gets on your skin or heaven forbid in your eyes, immediately flush the area with cold water. For more tips on working with muriatic acid, click here.

To do the job, first prepare a work area. Lay out a heavy canvas or plastic drop cloth to stop any acid solution from seeping into the ground. Set up a bench or table (a piece of 3/4-inch plywood and a couple of sawhorses will do).

Next, lay out your tools. If you opt for the power saw, make sure to use one that’s light enough for you to handle comfortably for long periods of time. Also use a GFCI-protected (ground-fault circuit interrupter) outlet for a power source. You’ll be working around water, and this will prevent electrical shock.

Mix the acid solution according to the manufacturer’s instructions in a 5-gallon plastic bucket. To prevent possible eruption or spillover, always put the water in first, then the acid. Fill the bucket about half full and drop in as many bricks as it will hold without overflowing. Make sure the bricks are totally submersed.

Let them soak for about 15 minutes then pull them out of the bucket and place them on your worktable. Put more bricks in the bucket to soak while you clean the soaked bricks.

Chip, chisel or saw the old mortar off the soaked bricks. Once you’ve got most of the mortar off, get rid of the residual mortar by giving the bricks a good scrubbing with a wire brush. Stack the cleaned bricks in a pile and repeat the process. Before you know it, you’ll have all the salvaged bricks cleaned and ready for their new home.

If for some reason you decide you can’t use them or just don’t want to tackle the job, you can easily sell them or give them away. We’d bet an ad on Craigslist would have them gone in less than a day.

       

      

    

   

      

   

  

Contact Bill and Kevin Burnett:
Email	Letter to the Editor

 

Copyright 2011 Bill and Kevin Burnett

All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.

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When we bought our 110 year old Folk-Victorian home in Ann Arbor’s Old West Side Historic District, it was a dream come true: drafty old windows, lead paint, zero insulation, a half-century old furnace, asbestos siding, a gas powered mower in the shed and even a few pieces of coal scattered around the back yard. What more could a couple ask for?  Learn more by clicking here.

Matt and Kelly Grocoff just received the March/April utility bill for their 110 year old Folk-Victorian home in Ann Arbor, Michigan’s Old West Side Historic District. It was -$68.64—and yes, that’s a minus sign before the dollar sign. Matt and Kelly’s home—America’s oldest net-zero energy restoration and Michigan’s first net-zero house—has been retrofitted so that it produces more energy than it consumes.

Matt and Kelly use 10,000 kilowatt hours of energy per year. Their 8.1 kW SunPower solar panels (which cost them $19,000—less than an SUV—after a tax credit and utility incentive) supply that and more—enough to earn them money back from the local utility and charge an electric car for 10,000 hours of driving. Kelly and Matt expect to earn about $1,400 by selling energy back to the community grid this year.

Kelly, a clinical therapist, and Matt, the host of Greenovation.TV, say that buying their 2,200-square-foot home—complete with drafty old windows, lead paint, zero insulation, a 50-year-old furnace, asbestos siding, a gas-powered mower in the shed and even a few pieces of coal scattered around the back yard—was a dream come true. Their goal was to turn the historic home from an energy hog into an energy producer because, Matt says, “130 million existing homes are consuming 22 percent of the energy in the United States. And if we built every new house to be net zero, but we neglected our existing homes, we would reduce our carbon output by zero.”

In addition to installing solar panels, the Grocoffs improved their home’s windows, added weatherstripping and installed a geothermal heating and cooling system. Those fixes, plus careful living, have reduced the home’s energy load by 70 percent—and all the while the Grocoffs have kept the National Trust for Historic Preservation folks happy. “This is not a gut rehab or a pre-recession large-scale remodel,” Matt says. “This is an affordable and practical restoration that we hope is an example for others to follow.” You would never know the Grocoffs’ All-American home with the classic front porch is “green”—until you get a glimpse of the solar panels blanketing the south-facing roof.

Matt estimates they will eliminate $77,400 in energy costs over 20 years and receive more than $27,000 in renewable energy credits from their utility company. “That’s a $104,000 return that we will keep in our community in Michigan to help restore our economy,” Matt points out. Because energy efficiency and renewables have a guaranteed return, “Kelly and I believe it’s the safest place to put our money,” Matt says.

“Did we mention that our house is also the most comfortable house in the neighborhood?” Matt adds. “We want to show everyone how cozy saving civilization can be.”

 Four years ago, the Internal Revenue Service changed the law that required consumers to pay tax on mortgages forgiven by a lender. Those amounts used to be considered taxable income on a homeowner’s tax return.

There is no relief or tax deduction, however, for selling your home at a loss.

Most homeowners are now clear on the ability to pocket up to $500,000 of tax-free capital gain ($250,000 for single people) on the sale of a primary residence. The huge benefit, which can be used every two years, was made possible by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997.

However, the tax law that provided the capital help did nothing for capital losses. There still is no benefit for folks who bought at the peak or made expensive remodels, then had to sell in a hurry and actually got less for their home than the cash they have invested in it. Long-term capital expenditures usually pay off over time, but changes for the short term are difficult to recover.

If you were hoping for some help on your 2010 return before April 18, (pushed back from the usual April 15), don’t count on chalking up a capital loss as a big tax deduction. There still is no deduction for a capital loss on the sale of your primary residence. This often causes confusion and provokes questions from consumers, but Uncle Sam will not let you show a loss if you sell for an amount less than the purchase price.

Why? The principal residence has always been viewed as a personal asset. The gain on the sale of a principal residence has been taxable as a capital gain but losses have never been allowed. Although the capital gain thresholds have been increased, proposals to address capital losses have been defeated.

The capital loss proposals first surfaced in the 1990s when complaints from homeowners in the Sun Belt states and New England said they were left with huge losses and no federal tax help when home values plunged — especially when the declining oil industry in Texas really shook the housing market around Houston.

Another hotly debated issue is the deductibility of loan fees. You can deduct the loan fees (“points”) paid to buy or improve your main home in the year of purchase. You cannot deduct these fees in the year you refinanced if you refinanced only to obtain a lower interest rate on your loan.

The term “points,” once used to describe only prepaid interest on government loans, now is used to describe charges paid by an owner to secure any mortgage. These points can be loan origination fees or prepaid interest to “buy down” an interest rate. To be deductible, these charges — or points — must represent interest paid for the use of money and must be paid “before the time for which it represents a charge for the use of the money.”

According to the Internal Revenue Service, most points paid when you are refinancing an existing mortgage must be written off over the life of the new loan. For guidance on closing costs, the best source may be the settlement sheet from the original loan.

And finally, if you manage your second home and investment rentals from your home office, make sure the office space you claim as a deduction is a dedicated room. Simply bringing a laptop into the family den in the evenings to respond to renters would not qualify the room as a home office under IRS guidelines. Accountants say some home-office deductions have raised red flags with federal auditors.

The home-office space can be depreciated. When the home is sold, however, the deprecation must be “recaptured” and subject to tax. The Internal Revenue Service’s Publication 587 “Business Use of Your Home” is accessible on the Internet at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p587.pdf.

Tom Kelly’s book “Cashing In on a Second Home in Central America: How to Buy, Rent and Profit in the World’s Bargain Zone” was written with Mitch Creekmore,  senior vice president of Stewart International, and Jeff Hornberger, the National Association of Realtors’ international market development manager. The book is available in retail stores, on Amazon.com and on tomkelly.com.

       

      

    

   

   

      

   

  

 

Facebook is always a tough call when it comes to the frequency and timing of posting messages. Unlike Twitter, which is a war to be seen, Facebook is a slower network with a much higher percentage of your "fans" likely to see your messages (whether they read it or not is another matter). So when is the best time to get those messages out to increase engagement?

Buddy Media, a Facebook marketing company, analyzed Facebook posts of 200+ clients and noted comments and "likes" of each message, also taking into consideration fanbase. They mention that 60% of messages were published during work hours, between 10am – 4pm. This is really not hard to beleive as most people are creating and publishing messages directly on facebook.com and no one likes working late!

eMarketer who reported on the story said "By timing content to post when consumers are poised to be on Facebook, companies have a greater chance of being seen in a fan’s newsfeed." – I agree, but I'm not going to watch the clock to make sure I post at the optimum time! There are plent of tools out there to do that for us. I'm going to pick up on one, as it's the one I use and also work for, Campaign Commander Social Edition. With a tool like this you can schedule your messages to hit the optimum time for you to post. You can post on to multiple pages at the same time and have everything automated. Also why rely on this data? A tool such as CCSE will give you are own engagement reports such as "heat maps" so you can see when your community is engaging the most.

Other stats of interest were that messages with 80 characters or less received a 27% increase in engagement with eMarketer also adding that "Certain words also encourage engagement, particularly those that are instructions such as “like,” “post,” “take” and “comment,” as does asking a question at the end of a post."

Taking these statistics into consideration everyone is going to start posting at 7pm on a Thurdays, however you need to think about your community and engaging with them continuously. One weekly post on a Thursday evening is not enough.

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