| South Salem NY Real Estate Report | RobReportBlog | ||
| 2013 | 6 months ending 7/8 | 2012 | |
| 29 | Sales | 27 | |
| $500,000.00 | median sold price | $600,000.00 | |
| $180,000.00 | low sold price | $185,000.00 | |
| $925,000.00 | high sold price | $1,325,000.00 | |
| 2404 | average size | 2688 | |
| $237.00 | ave. price per foot | $239.00 | |
| 211 | ave days on market | 254 | |
| $546,043.00 | average sold price | $629,575.00 | |
| 96.26% | ave sold to ask | 94.01% |
After years of sluggish sales and false starts, the real estate market is on a tear this summer, with prices posting double-digit gains every consecutive month since April.
Prices have increased so much so quickly in some markets that a few experts are already crying “bubble.” There’s no doubt that the bottom has passed.
Tight inventory and climbing prices have created a seller’s market in most places and realtors are reporting bidding wars in the hottest markets — but that doesn’t mean there’s not opportunity out there for home buyers. “Just because it would have been cheaper to buy a home six months ago, doesn’t mean it’s not a good time to buy one now,” says Trulia housing analyst Jed Kolko.
That’s good news for the 68% of renters surveyed in March by JP Morgan Chase, who said they wanted to buy a home. It may be risky in today’s market for home flippers looking to purchase and sell a home quickly for profit. But for those retail buyers who want to buy and live in a house for five or 10 years, here are five reasons to act now:
1. Home prices are still rising
The massive gains seen over the past few months make it easy to forget that housing only bottomed out last year, hitting its lowest level in March 2012. While recent prices increases aren’t sustainable, there’s plenty of room for home values to climb. Even with four months of improvement, prices remain about 26% below their 2006 peaks.
The chief driver of price gains is constrained supply, reflecting modest homebuilder activity; dwindling foreclosures; and continued foot-dragging by potential sellers who are waiting for prices to improve even further. Total housing inventory at the end of May rose 3.3%, to 2.22 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 5.1 months’ supply at the current sales pace, down from 5.2 months in April, according to the National Association of Realtors. Listed inventory is still 10.1% below a year ago, when there was a 6.5-month supply.
Going forward, price increases will vary by region, while prices nationally are expected to see more modest increases of an annualized 3.9% per year through 2017, according to CoreLogic.
2. Rates are low by historical standards
Rates, currently at about 4.6%, have climbed a full percentage point since May — but they’re still lower than they were just two years ago and far lower than their long-term average of about 8%. “In the history of America, a 30-year mortgage at less than 5% is a gift,” says Mark Dotzour, chief economist at Texas A&M’s Real Estate Center. “It’s not supposed to be that way, and rates are only that low because of extraordinary monetary policy.”
Economists don’t expect the recent surge to continue. The Mortgage Bankers Association predicts rates will remain close to current levels through the end of next year.
5 reasons it’s still a great time to buy a house- MSN Money.
Home prices moved up at a torrid pace during the first half of the year, but don’t expect them to keep pace during the second half.
The big spike in mortgage rates over the past two months has reset the housing market and figures to take a bite out of demand at a time when more sellers have listed homes for sale and when price gains have tested investors’ purchasing appetites.
Mortgage rates, which stood at a low of 3.59% at the beginning of May, jumped to 4.58% during the last week of June, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Rates rose even more last Friday, after a strong jobs report firmed up investors’ expectations that the Federal Reserve would begin to curtail its bond-buying program later this year.
A rule of thumb holds that every one percentage point increase in interest rates reduces affordability by 10%, so the recent move in rates just made homes about 10% more expensive to buyers who need to finance their purchase.
“There’s no one in the business right now who doesn’t think the market hasn’t taken a step back. The evidence is all around us,” said Glenn Kelman, chief executive of real-estate brokerage Redfin. The number of Redfin customers who requested tours during the last week of June was down 5% from the average for the previous three weeks, while the number of customers making offers was down by 8% and the number of new customers edged down by 2%.
Here’s a look at seven areas to watch during the second half of 2013:
1. What will higher mortgage rates do to housing demand? Rates are now at their highest level in two years. For borrowers with less than a 5% down payment, the effective mortgage rate is at its highest level since mid-2009 because loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration now carry higher annual insurance premiums.
Economists say that even at a 4.5% or 5% mortgage rate, housing is still affordable by historical standards. Analysts at Bank of America BAC +1.05% Merrill Lynch note that prices would have to rise by 20% or rates would have to climb to around 6% before housing would look unaffordable. Also, they say that housing demand is shaped heavily by expectations of future affordability. That is, homeowners may be more eager to buy at a 4.5% mortgage rate when prices are rising than they were two years ago, when rates were lower but demand was soft because prices were falling.
But the bad news is that the level of rates may matter less than the speed of any increase. A sharp spike in interest rates—even to a level that is still historically low—represents a large payment shock to home shoppers. Many buyers shop for a home based on their monthly mortgage payment, which just shot up. The monthly payment on a $200,000 home with a 10% down payment just went up by $100 every month, almost a 13% increase. The monthly cost of a $450,000 home just went up by $250.
2. Don’t higher mortgage rates help in the short run by bringing more buyers off the fence? Not really. There’s little evidence that higher rates create new demand, even if they accelerate purchases from households that had already decided to purchase. Pending home sales in May rose sharply by 6.7% from April to their highest level in six years, but that spike could easily be reversed in June and July.
Why Home-Price Gains Will Slow Amid Higher Mortgage Rates – Developments – WSJ.
The following is the text of the new house price index report for May released by Statistics Canada.
The New Housing Price Index (NHPI) rose 0.1% in May, following a 0.2% increase in April and continuing a series of similar increases over the past 12 months.
Calgary was the top contributor to the national advance in May, as prices for new homes rose 0.9%. Builders reported an increase in material and labour costs as the main reason for higher prices.
Prices increased 0.6% in both St. Catharines-Niagara and the combined region of Sudbury and Thunder Bay. Builders in both metropolitan areas cited higher material and labour costs as the main reason for the growth. This was the largest monthly price movement in Sudbury and Thunder Bay since May 2012, when prices rose 1.6%. Since then, new housing prices in the region have shown little or no growth.
Winnipeg also saw a notable increase as prices for new homes rose 0.5% in May. Monthly prices in the region have been rising since the beginning of 2012. Builders reported higher material costs for new homes sold, but not yet completed, because of the new provincial sales tax coming into effect in July.
In May, prices decreased 0.3% in Ottawa-Gatineau and 0.2% in both Vancouver and Edmontonas builders in all three regions reported lower selling prices.
Prices were unchanged in 5 of the 21 metropolitan areas surveyed.
On a year-over-year basis, the NHPI rose 1.8% in the 12 months to May, following a 2.0% annual increase in each of the previous two months. This was the smallest annual gain in the index since March 2010 (+1.7%).
The main contributor to the advance was the combined region of Toronto and Oshawa, where the year-over-year increase in contractors’ selling prices was 2.6%. Annual price increases in the region continued to show signs of slowing, following steady growth throughout 2011 and the early part of 2012.
The Natural Way to Cool Off
Swimming can be great exercise and a lot of fun, not to mention an exciting sport at the Olympics. But the chlorine used in most pools can have some negative side effects, not the least of which is reliance on toxic (and finicky) chemicals.
Chlorine’s damaging effects on hair are well known, but few people realize that a number of studies have linked inhalation of the chemical by swimmers to increased asthma rates (in fact a new Irish study published this April reported a significant link between the number of years a boy had been swimming and the likelihood of the child being wheezy in the past year.) A Norwegian study also documented an increased risk of wheezing among children who swim in pools before 6 months of age. Further, in an unpleasant reaction, pee and sweat in water can react with chlorine to form toxic breakdown products known as chloramines.
For health, environmental and aesthetic reasons, a lot of people have expressed interest in alternatives to chlorine pools, and luckily there are more and more options to get wet without smelling like cleaning products. A company called TechnoPure offers alternative pool systems that treat water by pumping it through a chamber containing coated titanium plates and copper and zinc ions. The units cost a relatively affordable $5,500. DEL Ozone makes ozone injectors that can reduce the need for chlorine up to 90% — there’s been one installed at the White House for years! Some systems rely on a combination of ozone and copper and silver ions, while others are saline, though saltwater pools result in the formation of chlorine in the water.
One elegant, eco-friendly solution that has had enthusiastic supporters in Europe for decades is the so-called natural swimming pool, which is slowly beginning to gain buzz in the U.S. Natural swimming pools, often called swimming ponds across the Atlantic, can be beautiful oases of greenery and sustainability, as well as safe, fun places to take a dip.
20 things your friends wish you’d stop posting on Facebook – Social – Tech – MSN Living.