Bedford Village NY Real Estate Report RobReportBlog 2013 6 months ending 4/25 2012 24 Sales 25 $1,042,500.00 median sold price $1,225,000.00 $370,000.00 low sold price $384,800.00 $3,500,000.00 high sold price $4,750,000.00 3705 average size 4625 $387.00 ave. price per foot $309.00 171 ave days on market 246 $1,257,239.00 average sold price $1,515,589.00 93.03% ave sold to ask 92.54%
After accounting for one out of four home sales in the depths of the housing recession and fueled turn-arounds in dozens of markets where waves of foreclosures and battered home values scared off other buyers, real estate investors today are playing a greatly diminished role in the housing recovery.
The latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey results suggest first-time homebuyers and current homeowners, not investors, are in fact the major players in this year’s marketplace.
The active presence of non-investor homebuyers is helping create a remarkably strong market for non-distressed properties leading into the important spring-summer home buying season.
HousingPulse nationwide data for March show that current homeowners continued to dominate the overall home purchase market with a 42.2 percent market share, based on a three-month moving average. While that was down from the levels seen last fall, it was still up on a year-over-year basis. First-time homebuyers stepped up their activity, reaching an eight-month market share high of 36.1 percent in March.
Investors’ share of the national housing market fell to 21.8 percent in March, down from a peak of 25.3 percent of all transactions in May 2012.
Last week a leading analyst on single family rentals also argued that the housing recovery is being driven more by buyers seeking a place to live than by investors.
From 2009 to 2011, the mean net worth of the top 7 percent of American households rose by 28 percent, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93 percent dropped by 4 percent, largely because wealthy Americans have the bulk of their holdings in stocks and bonds while most Americans rely heavily on home equity for their personal wealth.
According to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly released Census Bureau data, from 2009 to 2011, the mean wealth of the 8 million households in the more affluent group rose to an estimated $3,173,895 from an estimated $2,476,244, while the mean wealth of the 111 million households in the less affluent group fell to an estimated $133,817 from an estimated $139,896.
Because of these differences, wealth inequality increased during the first two years of the recovery. The upper 7 percent of households saw their aggregate share of the nation’s overall household wealth pie rise to 63 percent in 2011, up from 56% in 2009. On an individual household basis, the mean wealth of households in this more affluent group was almost 24 times that of those in the less affluent group in 2011. At the start of the recovery in 2009, that ratio had been less than 18-to-1.
During the period of the study, the S&P 500 rose by 34 percent (and has since risen by an additional 26 percent), while the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index fell by 5 percent, continuing a steep slide that began with the crash of the housing market in 2006. Housing prices have slowly started to rebound in the past year but remain 29 percent below their 2006 peak.
Despite extensive media coverage of the widespread, multistate flooding caused by Superstorm Sandy last fall and Hurricane Irene in the summer of 2011, 1 in 5 homeowners is still surprised to learn that home insurance does not cover flooding, according to a Bankrate nationwide survey as part of the April Financial Security Index.
The survey found that 18 percent of consumers didn’t know that a standard homeowners policy specifically excludes flood-related damage, while 81 percent were aware of the need to purchase a separate flood insurance policy from the federal National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP, to guard against flood loss.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, which administers the NFIP, generally classifies properties as either at high risk or moderate-to-low risk of flooding. When consumers were asked if they knew for sure which category applies to their home, just more than half, or 51 percent, said “yes,” while 43 percent said “no.”
Bankrate’s survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International and involved landline and cellphone interviews from April 4-7 with a nationally representative sample of 1,003 adults in the continental United States. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
“I was very happy that 4 out of 5 survey respondents understood that standard homeowners insurance does not cover flood,” he says. “This number is a much higher awareness level than we’ve seen in the past.”
Those of you who know me know I love every single day – each is its own special blessing. But I have to say the days of spring make me especially grateful. And this spring is proving particularly pleasant for Realtors because of a strong seller’s market and interest rates that are continuing to hover at historic lows for buyers.
These two factors alone can make your spring selling season bloom with business – if you’re ready. To get ready, you need to think about the tradition this time of year – spring cleaning.
To take full of advantage of this market, it helps to stop for a moment and consider what’s working and what’s not. This is a time to clean out the closets, a time to get back to the basics – because we know those basics work.
So with that said, here are some tips I’d like to offer to help make your spring fresher, brighter and, of course, more profitable.
- Dust off your operations – Pull out the dust rag and wipe down your operations to get a good look at them — give ‘em the old white glove test. First, make sure all of your operations focus on the customer. Remember, we’re talking basics here. You run a small business and the goal of business is to get and keep customers. If any one of your operations doesn’t help you complete that goal, get rid of it. You might start with this question: What can you change to make it easier for your clients to get what they need?
- Sweep out any bureaucracy – Over time businesses, and all organizations really, tend to sprout ugly little patches of bureaucracy – like nasty weeds. Put all of your policies and procedures under the microscope and look for anything that gets in the way of serving customers. Grab the broom and sweep out any and all inefficiencies. Ensure everything in your office points directly at the customer and gets them what they need – without any hassles.
- Vacuum up time wasters – So what’s your most valuable commodity? Time. If you’re not using it wisely, you’ll fail. It’s just that simple. And if you’re not using your time to get and keep customers, you’re not using your time wisely. My boss and the CEO of the company I work for, Bob Corcoran, always says the four tasks Realtors should always be doing are: listing, prospecting, selling and negotiating. I couldn’t agree more. Take a quick timeout to audit your day. List all the activities you typically do and then get rid of (or delegate) anything that doesn’t fall under one of those four tasks. Do that and you’ll do fine this spring – and the rest of the year.
Masonic Temples are staples in many U.S. cities, but one of them is having a tough go of it in this economy.
The 14-story Masonic temple in Detroit is in foreclosure, with its current owners owing well over $150,000 in back taxes.
The ABC affiliate in Detroit says the building – once the hang out of dozens of Masons – is slated for a September tax foreclosure auction.
The National Association of Home Builders called on Congress Thursday to maintain its support for vital housing incentives in order to meet the nation’s growing need for affordable rental housing and homeownership opportunities.
The housing incentives include the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, the mortgage interest deduction and real estate tax deductions.
“Homebuilding is an industry dominated by small businesses, so the idea of simplifying the complicated tax rules related to business has great appeal,” said Robert Dietz, an economist and assistant vice president for NAHB.
Dietz added, “At the same time, our industry remembers painful lessons from the 1986 Tax Reform Act, when the commercial and multifamily sectors experienced a downturn due to unintended consequences.”
When housing is doing well, it spurs jobs and contributes to economic growth, notes Dietz. “For these reasons, we urge Congress to be cautious and thoughtful when it comes to housing and tax reform.”
In the movie Remember the Titans, Coach Herman Boone takes his high school football team to the battleground of Gettysburg. Having inherited a fractured and divided squad, Coach Boone implores the players to “take a lesson from the dead. If we don’t come together, right now on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed, just like they were.” Coach Boone then establishes the primacy of an important team virtue: “I don’t care if you like each other right now, but you will respect each other.”
In every workplace and on every team, all people have the innate desire to feel appreciated and valued by others. Like Coach Boone, leaders of teams — and team members themselves — should work to foster a culture of value and appreciation.
High performing teams have well-defined goals, systems of accountability, clear roles and responsibilities, and open communication. Just as importantly, teams that foster cohesion with a sense of appreciation and gratitude among the team members maximize performance on a number of dimensions. Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith, authors of the Wisdom of Teams, define a high-performing team in part by members’ strong personal commitment to the growth and success of each team member and of the team as a whole.
Research on gratitude and appreciation demonstrates that when employees feel valued, they have high job satisfaction, are willing to work longer hours, engage in productive relationships with co-workers and supervisors, are motivated to do their best, and work towards achieving the company’s goals. Google, which sits atop many best-places-to-work lists, fosters feelings of employee value through an open culture that promotes employee input, routinely rewards and recognizes performance, and encourages personal growth. In a recent interview, CEO Larry Page stated, “My job as a leader is to make sure everybody in the company has great opportunities, and that they feel they’re having a meaningful impact and are contributing to the good of society.”
And consider the consequences of not fostering a culture of gratitude: A study of over 1,700 employees conducted in 2012 by the American Psychological Association (APA) indicated that more than half of all employees intended to search for new jobs because they felt underappreciated and undervalued.
Several recent articles point out the importance of saying “thank you” and giving specific praise to employees when earned in genuine, honest, and heartfelt ways. Mark Gaston’s blog on How to Give a Meaningful Thank-you is full of great advice such as sharing with employees how their contributions had personal significance for the leader and team.
In addition to these very important gestures of thanks, recent research suggests that a leader can enhance a culture of gratitude in the following ways.
- Help others develop. Interestingly, the APA study indicated that 70% of employees feel valued at work when they have opportunities for growth and development. While promotion opportunities within companies may sometimes be limited, you can still invest in team members’ professional development through training, assignment to new and interesting projects, participation on task forces, and exposure to new and interesting different areas through cross-training. Employees frequently have skills that extend beyond the position for which the company hired them. Additionally, they typically grow their skills over time. Leveraging these broad skill sets can lead to greater engagement and satisfaction.
- Involve employees. Team members feel valued when they have an opportunity to take part in decision-making, problem-solving, and to use their skills to benefit the organization. A 2012 study by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) showed the importance of employees’ opportunities to use skills and abilities, with 63% of respondents listing the ability to use their skills as the top driver of their job satisfaction.
- Support camaraderie and collegiality. I conducted a study many years ago on the positive benefits of friendship in the workplace. Camaraderie in the workplace can lead to greater job satisfaction and commitment to the organization and doing a job well. Leaders should foster collegiality, help to eliminate toxic and dysfunctional team behaviors, and create opportunities for team members other than on work projects. At Google, the games/toys the company provides allow for entertaining and informal interactions among colleagues. These positive and fun feelings carry over when the colleagues work on projects together. The SHRM study in 2012 found employees’ relationships with their co-workers was the second highest factor related to their connection and commitment to the organization. Team leaders may also consider using social contracts, explicit agreements on how team members interact, to help shape positive behaviors within their teams.
Taking the time and effort to create a culture that values and appreciates the diversity and similarity within a team can reap great rewards in terms of performance and satisfaction of the entire team. At the end of the day, this principle is really very simple: we all want to feel valued and appreciated. So, in addition to overt recognition to employees, use a variety of ways to build a culture of gratitude.
