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Tommy Lee Jones’ Polo Estate for Sale in Florida | North Salem Real Estate
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Daily Archives: February 27, 2013
Beverly House Now a Rental for $600,000 a Month | Chappaqua Real Estate
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5 Questions to Ask When Writing Content | North Salem Realtor
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How to Generate Leads With Video Marketing | Waccabuc Realtor
Home price gains running out of steam? | South Salem NY Real Estate
All three home price indices maintained by S&P/Case-Shiller finished 2012 with strong gains, but showed signs of losing momentum in the final three months of the year.
Case-Shiller’s National Home Price Index was up 7.3 percent from a year ago in the fourth quarter. The 20-City and 10-City Composite indices saw annual gains in December of 7.3 percent, 6.8 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively.
It was the seventh month in a row that the 20-City Composite posted an annual gain, with every market in the index except New York up for the year.
The National Home Price Index, after strong second and third quarters, slipped 0.3 percent from the third quarter to the fourth on a non seasonally-adjusted basis. When adjusted for seasonal factors, the national composite posted a 2 percent gain from the third quarter to the fourth.
The 20-City and 10-City composites were essentially flat from November to December, each growing by 0.2 percent on a non-seasonally adjusted basis. If adjusted for seasonal factors, those indices were up 0.9 percent from November to December.
David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee S&P Dow Jones Indices, said home prices ended 2012 “with solid gains,” but warned that future growth might not be as dramatic.
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New-home sales continue upward swing | Katonah NY Real Estate
Sales of new single-family homes rose 28.9 percent on an annual basis in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 437,000, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today.
That represents a 15.6 percent increase from December, and was the fastest pace of new-home sales for a January since 2008, blogger Bill McBride pointed out on Calculated Risk.
It was, however, the ninth weakest January in records going back to 1973, McBride noted. Nearly three times as many new homes sold in January 2005.
The median sales price of new homes sold in January was $226,400, up 2.1 percent from a year ago, but down 9.4 percent from December.
The Census Bureau estimated that 150,000 new homes were on the market at the end of December, representing a 4.1-month supply. Less than six months’ supply is considered normal, McBride said.
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Lender approving online apps in as little 15 minutes | Bedford Hills Real Estate
One of the largest retail mortgage lenders in the country now allows borrowers to submit their own loan applications online and receive approval in as little as 15 minutes, according to an announcement from Guaranteed Rate.
Borrowers can use Guaranteed Rate’s website to choose and customize a loan, receive free credit reports with scores from the three major credit bureaus, submit a secure application to the lender’s automated underwriting service, and receive an approval letter to purchase a home within minutes of submitting the application.
“Historically, the mortgage process is manual and puts the burden to complete the loan application on the customer and the loan officer, with many handoffs between the two. With Guaranteed Rate’s online process, customers have the same access to tools as loan officers, and now they can apply for their loan and receive approval themselves,” the lender said.
Listing portals Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com offer consumers online mortgage quotes using “pricing engines” that take into account their credit history and the size of the loan they are seeking. Realtor.com operator Move Inc., for example, says consumers using its PreQualPlus tool can “prequalify completely online” in as little as 15 minutes.
PreQualPlus employs an automated underwriting process to evaluate consumers’ credit scores and their capacity to afford monthly mortgage payments based on pricing, eligibility, underwriting, a full credit history review, credit risk analytics, and loan scenario modeling.
Borrowers using Guaranteed Rate’s website can also check the progress of their loan online at any time, and many receive a “clear to close” in just a few days, the company said. At closing, borrowers who submitted their application through the website will receive $150, the lender added.
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Damaged Foreclosures Beckon Bargain-hunters | Bedford Corners Real Estate
While prices of normal foreclosures and short sales have been rising, damaged distressed properties are actually becoming less expensive, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey.
Prices for REO properties in need of repair – the type banks look to unload after a foreclosure – have not been rising along with prices for non-distressed properties. They have been moving in the opposite direction.
According to HousingPulse results, the average price for a damaged REO property sold in January was just $88,100. That was not only 17.1 percent below the average damaged REO price recorded a year ago – $106,300 – but also the lowest level ever recorded by HousingPulse in its four-year history.
One reason for the decline in damaged REO prices is the fact that owner occupant buyers have become less interested in foreclosure fixer-uppers over the better part of a year. HousingPulse results for January show current homeowners had a record low 15.0 percent share of the damaged REO purchase market, while first-time homebuyers had a near-record low share of 19.6 percent.
Meanwhile, investors, lured by low prices and the growing opportunities for flipping, have significantly increased the purchase share of damaged REO properties in recent months. During January, investors accounted for 65.4 percent of damaged REO home purchases, according to HousingPulse numbers. That was up from 58.1 percent a year earlier and the highest level recorded in the survey’s four-year history.
Strong homebuyer traffic and limited housing inventory continued to push overall home prices upward in January. HousingPulse data show that home prices overall, based on a three-month moving average, are at the highest level – $236,100 – seen in nearly three years and have been climbing since last spring. Prices for non-distressed properties accounted for 65.0 percent of total home purchase transactions tracked by HousingPulse in January. Average home prices for non-distressed properties were up a healthy 5.1 percent on a year-over-year basis – rising from $264,700 in January of 2012 to $278,200 in January of 2013.
