Monthly Archives: June 2013

Builder confidence buoys homebuilder stocks | Cross River Real Estate

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Homebuilder stocks soared Monday – edging up as high as 4% in some cases – after the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index was released, showing homebuilder confidence at a seven-year high.

 

Standard Pacific Corp. ($9.27 0%) maintained a positive trajectory throughout the day, with the builder’s stock rising as high as 4% in Monday trading and ending the day up by more than 3%.

 

Fort Worth-based builder DR Horton ($24.26 0%) managed to rise more than 1.5% while other gainers included PulteGroup [stock PHM]; KB Home ($22.02 0%); and Hovnanian ($6.37 0%).

 

The NAHB/Wells Fargo Index put homebuilder confidence in June at an index score of 52 for single-family homes, an eight-point increase from the last report and well above the 50-mark that generally signifies a market where most builders are confident about sales conditions.

 

The last time builders reached an index score above 50 was April 2006 right before the housing market crash.

 

Builder confidence buoys homebuilder stocks | HousingWire.

S&P expects home prices to keep rising | South Salem Real Estate

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Surging home prices throughout the country have spurred talk of a housing bubble, as many markets are still recovering from the last bubble bursting in 2007.

But Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services states that, although double-digit gains are ultimately unsustainable, we may not have reached bubble status quite yet. 

Home price appreciation can be attributed to a number of factors, including historically low rates, property purchases by investors who are renting homes out and a shortage in home inventory. In fact, recently the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index hit an 11% year-over-year increase, from 8%. 

Across the U.S., home prices are back to 2003 levels, yet they remain far from their 2006 peak. Lack of available inventory coupled with high demand has played a large role in this. In April, the sales of existing homes were up 9.7% year-over-year, while existing housing inventory dropped 13.6% from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. 

Sadly, housing starts plummeted 16.5% in April after rising 1 million units in March for the first time in nearly five years. 

Yet, despite the slow climb for starts, analysts anticipate that builders will begin to break ground in the next few months. Permits increased 14.3% to a five-year high of 1.017 million, indicating a bounce in starts.

 

S&P expects home prices to keep rising | HousingWire.

California home prices soar to new highs | Katonah Real Estate

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California home prices increased by the most in 33 years as a result of strong sales growth in higher-priced markets and continued housing supply shortage, pushing up median home prices in May, the California Association of Realtors said.

Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes totaled a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 431,370 units, the report noted.

Meanwhile, sales were up 1.9% in May, up from a revised 423,420 units in April, but down 3.6% from a revised 447,530 last year.

The statewide figures represents what would be the total number of homes sold during 2013 if sales maintained the May pace throughout the year and is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that influence home sales, CAR explained.

“It’s encouraging to see median home prices across most parts of the state continuing to recover. The Bay Area, in particular, has been experiencing strong price appreciation, thanks to the region’s robust economic growth, extremely low housing inventory, and an increasing demand from international buyers,” said CAR President Don Faught.

He added, “San Francisco County’s median home price, for example, increased 28% from last May and has just surpassed its previous record high reached in May 2007.”

The median price of an existing, single-family detached home rose to $417,350 in May, up 3.6% from $402,706 in April and also rose 31.9% from the previous year, marking 15 straight months of annual price increases, CAR noted.

The year-over-year increase was the highest since at least 1980, when CAR began tracking the data.

 

California home prices soar to new highs | HousingWire.

A Beginners Guide to Content Marketing | Bedford Corners Realtor

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Content marketing has changed the way consumers research and buy your products.

content marketing A Beginners Guide to Content MarketingEvery day, people form impressions of brands from many touch points: Ads, product experiences, tweets, Google, Facebook, blog posts, websites, and conversations with family and friends. Unless they are actively shopping for something, a lot of that information passes them by. But when something triggers their buying impulse, those stored impressions become critical — they are top of mind as consumers look to making purchases.

In the traditional sales funnel, consumers begin with a set of potential brands and methodically reduce them to make a purchase decision:

traditional sales funnel A Beginners Guide to Content Marketing

McKinsey points out that today’s consumer decision-making process is circular:

mckinsey consumer decision journey A Beginners Guide to Content Marketing

There are 4 key phases in which marketers can either succeed or fail when a consumer has been triggered to buy something:

  1. Initial consideration (thinking about known brands)
  2. Active evaluation (researching potential purchases)
  3. Closure (the act of buying)
  4. Post-purchase (when consumers experience the products they’ve bought)

The explosion of available products coupled with media fragmentation have led to a reduction in the number of brands that consumers initially consider. Faced with a seemingly limitless number of products and brand information, people tend to depend on brands that have broken through the fire hose of messages.

When your brand is one of those initially considered by a buyer, it is up to 3 times more likely to be purchased. Your goal is to reach consumers at the moments that have the greatest influence on their purchase decisions. This is why content marketing is key.

 

 

A Beginners Guide to Content Marketing | Pamorama | Social Media Marketing Blog.

June NAHB Homebuilder Confidence Rises To 52 | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

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The NAHB housing market index for June jumped to 52. This is the highest level since April 2006.

This beat expectations for a rise to 45, from 44 in May.

The eight point increase from May to June is the biggest one month gain since August and September of 2002.

A reading over 50 shows that more builders think sales conditions are good rather than poor.

What’s more? All three sub-indices gained in June.

The index gauging current sales conditions climbed eight points to 56. The index measuring future sales expectations climbed from 52 in May to  61 in June — the highest level since March 2006. Finally, the index of prospective buyers traffic increased seven points to 40.

Investors track this index because it is a leading indicator for housing starts. “Today’s report is consistent with our forecast for a 29 percent increase in total housing starts this year, which would mark the first time since 2007 that starts have topped the 1 million mark,” NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe said in a press release.

In recent months it was reported that affordable mortgage rates were helping buyers. But mortgage rates have been rising and while these haven’t impacted purchase applications, they have weighed on refinance applications. Today’s report shows that homebuilders aren’t fazed by the rise in mortgage rates.

The NAHB housing market index is a sentiment index in which respondents rate not just the housing market but also the economy in general.

The index draws on builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months. It also includes builders’ expectations of traffic of prospective buyers.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/june-nahb-homebuilder-confidence-2013-6#ixzz2WUdofU2t

 

June NAHB Homebuilder Confidence Rises To 52 – Business Insider.

Is Investing in Housing a Losing Proposition? | Armonk Homes

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Last week two Federal Reserve researchers answered that question with an analysis of returns on investment since 1926 and their findings won’t make the housing industry happy.

If a home is purchased only as an investment and not as a place to live, a comparison of average annual returns clearly shows that though most homeowners make a positive return, investing in equities offers favorable returns more often than investing in housing. That’s the bottom line from Ellyn Terry and Jessica Dill, two economists at the Atlanta Federal Reserve, in a working paper published June 12.

The two researchers set out to answer the questions: With average returns so close to zero, just how often has the housing market produced losers? And how does investing in housing compare to investing in equities? They did not look at the “buy and hold” strategies popular among investors seeking cash flow from rents, but only at appreciation.

They computed the average annual return of home prices across all possible combinations of start and stop points using the Shiller house price series from 1926 to 2012. The distribution depicts returns concentrated around zero with some skewness to the right. Eighty percent of all start-stop point observations experience some degree of positive return.

To take into account the duration of ownership, they assumed that the average homeowner lives in his or her home for 13.3 years, based on analysis by Paul Emrath at the National Association of Home Builders. They found the average annual returns for an asset held for a period of 13 or more years is substantially less volatile than for an asset held for fewer than 13 years, and those investing for the longer term were much more likely to have positive returns.

“We compute that 40 percent of homes owned for less than 13 years have negative average annual returns, compared to 12 percent of homes owned for 13 years or more. Interestingly, while a much greater portion of those owning for 13 or more years obtain positive returns, the average annual return was actually slightly higher for those owning fewer than 13 years (0.95 percent versus 1.03 percent),” they found.

They applied weights for average length of ownership. Using the weights, we recomputed average annual returns across all possible combinations of start and stop points for average length of ownership. The distribution continues to show that returns are concentrated around zero with skewness to the right; two-thirds of all investors in this distribution experience some degree of positive return.

Is Investing in Housing a Losing Proposition? | RealEstateEconomyWatch.com.

Survey: 64% of millennials worry about buying a home | Katonah Real Estate

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Of millennials aged 18 to 34, 64% express some level of worry that they will have trouble affording their rent or mortgage, according to a survey by Think Finance.

Additionally, the same percentage worry that they will never be able to buy a home, the Fort Worth, Texas-based analytics firm found.

The survey was conducted online among 1,021 Americans by Harris Interactive, on behalf of Think Finance. 

 

 

Survey: 64% of millennials worry about buying a home | HousingWire.

Actress Jodie Foster listed home for $6.4 million | Bedford Real Estate

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The home has 4 bedrooms, 4 full and 2 half bathrooms, an office and an attached guest suite. Adjacent to a formal dining room, a butler’s pantry leads to a stunning kitchen. A luxurious master suite features a sitting area, walk-in closets, fireplace and sauna, according to Trulia.

Outside, the central courtyard pool and brick patio are shielded by a high-reaching hedge for the utmost seclusion – a must for the notoriously private Foster.

 

Actress Jodie Foster listed home for $6.4 million | HousingWire.

Detroit teams up with group to prevent foreclosures | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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In an effort to help thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure, theMichigan State Housing Development Authority on Friday announced a partnership with the faith-based community to spread the word about relief funds available, The Detroit News writes.

One of the first efforts in the partnership is a Tax Foreclosure Housing Fair in Detroit on Saturday for homeowners in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. It’s part of the Step Forward Michigan program which offers up to $30,000 for homeowners to pay delinquent taxes, mortgage assistance or condo association dues

 

Detroit teams up with group to prevent foreclosures | HousingWire.