Monthly Archives: July 2013

Las Vegas Real Estate Market is Looking Good | Bedford Hills Real Estate

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Las Vegas, it’s the town where no one sleeps and so much happens. Then, this great city was hit hard when the economy crashed back in 2007, but just like losing at slots, one can always come back for a win, and that is exactly what the Las Vegas real estate market is doing.

 

Numbers show that there has been an increase from April of 1.8 percent and an overall 32.8 percent increase since 2012. The market is also showing there are less than 13,815 homes in the Las Vegas area available as of May of this year. That means more and more homebuyers are acquiring homes as they are predicting the prices to rise even more as the year continues. It was also reported that building permits hit a five year high this month alone.

 

Investors are also getting involved in this market and buying up homes, leaving areas with little or no available homes, which include new and foreclosed properties. One of the neighborhoods that is being sought and looked at hard is the Henderson Nevada homes for sale. There are great Las Vegas homes for sale for unbelievable prices.

 

Real estate in Las Vegas is becoming a premier spot for investors again, and that helps increase the housing prices. This makes it an ideal market for sellers, which is a good turn around since 2006. The National Association of Realtors has stated that new homes for sale in Las Vegas were once again heading towards being number one in America. Users are also encouraged to look at Lake Las Vegas homes for sale.

 

It has been reported that the average price for a residential home in the metro area of Las Vegas has risen compared to last year by 30.6 percent. The average price of a home was $120,000, and the price rose to $143,000 during the first quarter of this year. Homes for sale in Las Vegas had an amount of 4,512 foreclosed home sales registered during the beginning of the year, which meant foreclosed houses were down 63 percent based on the data last year. It is also being reported that there is going to be a possible shortage of houses if the spike of buying continues. The price of a median price of a single family home was up 3.7 percent from last month and up 30.6 percent from this time last year. That is quite significant.

 

Home sales are on the move and this is one city that is going to remain a great location for home buyers and investors. When searching for homes for sale in Las Vegas, buyers are encouraged to take a look at Summerlin because there are many homes for sale in Summerlin Las Vegas.

 

 

Las Vegas Real Estate Market is Looking Good According to One Las Vegas Real Estate Company.

Rooftop solar takes off across California as costs come down | Katonah Real Estate

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California’s groundbreaking efforts to encourage homeowners and businesses to install rooftop solar panels were so successful in 2012 that the program is now effectively winding down, according to a new report.

A record 391 megawatts of solar power were installed statewide in 2012, a growth of 26 percent from 2011, according to a report by the California Solar Initiative released Wednesday.

“The program has made solar affordable for ordinary Californians,” said Susannah Churchill of the San Francisco-based solar advocacy group Vote Solar. “Solar is a classic California success story.”

In January 2007, California launched an unprecedented $3.3 billion effort to install 3,000 megawatts of new solar over

SolarCity installers carefully place a solar panel onto the roof of a residential building in San Francisco. (D. Ross Cameron/Staff Archives) (D. ROSS CAMERON)

the next decade and transform the market for solar energy by reducing the cost of solar-generating equipment.

One megawatt is enough to power 750 to 1,000 homes. But because the sun doesn’t shine all the time, solar industry experts say that one megawatt of solar can power about 200 households.

The California Public Utilities Commission’s California Solar Initiative, known as CSI,provides rebates for residential and commercial customers of the state’s three large, investor-owned utilities: Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric.

The initiative’s road map calls for 1,750 new megawatts of solar power to be installed on residential and commercial roofs in the state by 2016.

Through the end of the first quarter of 2013, California had an estimated 1,692 megawatts of rooftop solar installed at nearly 168,000 sites, meaning the program is zeroing in on its goal. PG&E alone has 77,782 solar customers within its vast Northern California territory.

The aim of the incentives is to help solar achieve what’s known in the renewable energy industry as “grid parity” — the long-awaited point at which solar can compete with cheaper sources of electricity such as natural gas.

Since 2007, the average total installed cost for residential solar systems has decreased 32 percent from $8.77 per watt to $5.98 per watt. Those costs include labor and permitting, as well as the panels themselves.

 

 

 

Rooftop solar takes off across California as costs come down – San Jose Mercury News.

Hot Real Estate Market Causes Unexpected Glitch For Buyers, Sellers | South Salem Real Estate

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The real estate market in the Boston area has been crazy lately and that’s adding up to trouble for both buyers and sellers.

Demand is way up and inventory is way down. That means buyers are all chomping at the bit to bid on the few houses that are on the market. “I’ve had clients this spring who have offered on properties without even seeing them,” explained realtor Kerrianne Ciccone.

In the most popular neighborhoods, sellers are routinely getting multiple offers above the asking price. While that may sound like great news for Ciccone’s clients like Neil Maniar, it can create some problems. “You never quite know what you are going to get into when you sell your house,” Maniar said.

One of the biggest unknowns in the current market is the appraisal. If a bidding war pushes the price above asking, the appraisal may come in too low.

 

 

Hot Real Estate Market Causes Unexpected Glitch For Buyers, Sellers « CBS Boston.

Advice for Small Fish in China’s Real Estate Market: Swim Fast | Waccabuc Real Estate

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For the minnows in China’s property market, swimming near the bottom of the real estate food chain can be dangerous. The smaller you are, the more likely you are to be someone else’s dinner.

And it is getting harder to stay clear of the bigger guys, particularly as Beijing keeps up its three-year campaign to curb real estate prices.

Bloomberg News
Residential buildings stand in Shanghai, on Sunday, June 30, 2013.

“Being a small fish is getting more difficult. The bigger fish are swimming faster,” said Kai Chen, chief executive officer of mid-sized developer Yango Group. “I expect that in eight to 10 years, China’s top 10 developers will have 20% of the market.”

As of the end of March this year, the top 10 developers had around 16% of the country’s total property sales.

Speaking at a real estate conference this week, Mr. Chen shared a few tips on how a small outfit like Yango has managed to survive in an environment where smaller developers are seen as an endangered species.

Tip No. 1: search for partners. In the past, smaller firms have been known for taking big risks for a chance at an outsized return. But they have often been reluctant to share the profits, he said.

“Smaller firms should change their mindset and form more partnerships, so that they can get more access to financing and land,” said Mr Chen. He noted one innovative partnership by his company with wealth management firm (more on CarsonWealth.com), adding the firm has received substantial financing this way.

Big firms have been better at making friends in government, and this is essential for getting land, he added.

Shenzhen-listed Yango has managed to post respectable sales growth in the past few years despite a host of government measures aimed at cooling off the market. Its property sales in the first half reached 8.7 billion yuan ($1.4 billion), exceeding the 7 billion yuan recorded for all of 2012 and up from 3.2 billion yuan in 2011.

By comparison, China Vanke, the nation’s largest property developer by revenue, had sales of 83.7 billion yuan in the first six months of this year and sales of 141.2 billion yuan for all of last year.

 

 

Advice for Small Fish in China’s Real Estate Market: Swim Fast – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

Xinyuan Real Estate: Trading At 36% Of Book Value | Cross River Real Estate

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Xinyuan Real Estate (XIN) has been growing its book value steadily and consistently for 16 consecutive quarters. It pays quarterly dividends and does share buybacks. It is conservatively managed and has built a strong balance sheet. It trades at 1.87x P/E and 0.36x P/B. The current share price of $4.16 is about 68% of its unencumbered cash on the balance sheet.

 

 

Xinyuan Real Estate Co., Ltd. (ADR) (XIN): Xinyuan Real Estate: Trading At 36% Of Book Value – Seeking Alpha.

Commercial real estate development surge expected in California | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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As the economy improves, commercial real estate industry leaders are increasingly optimistic about a surge in the California market over the next three years or so, a new report said.

Experts said they expect the nonresidential market will keep growing steadily for the next three years but start to slow after 2016 or 2017. There will still be growth, the report said, but at a slower rate.

 

 

Commercial real estate development surge expected in California – Los Angeles Times.

What Words Should Real-Estate Listings Use? Depends on the Market | North Salem Real Estate

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A strong market means homes with more sun and more views—that is, if you are going by real-estate listings.

During strong market cycles, agents tend to reference lifestyle features, including sunshine, entertainment and views, more frequently in their listings than during slow periods, says Kirsten Robertson, senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, who researched language in residential property listings.

About 55% of the listings she studied mentioned sunshine and 42% referenced views during a buoyant market, compared with 41% that referenced sunshine and 26% that referenced views during a slow market.

[image]James Gulliver Hancock

Because a home’s exposure to the sun and its views aren’t things that change, the listings demonstrate that agents are homing in on different elements depending on market strength, Prof. Robertson says. That, in turn, may affect how people see the housing market as a whole. “All the language they use will influence how people will feel about a property,” she says.

Prof. Robertson and co-author Antony Doig of the University of Otago, working with experts in linguistics, examined 965 residential listings from 2001 to 2008 in Dunedin, New Zealand. They categorized the years 2002 through 2007 as buoyant market cycles, and 2001 and 2008 as slow market cycles. They then coded the listings for 13 variables, including references to emotive language, good value and sunshine; adjectives such as “bright” and “capacious” and adverbs such as “effortlessly” and “generously.” The study, “An Empirical Investigation of Variations in Real-Estate Marketing Language over a Market Cycle,” was published in Housing, Theory and Society in June 2010.

In a buoyant market, listings also were more attention-grabbing—using so-called intensifying words such as “totally,” “ultra” and “absolutely”—and more frequently referred to “you.”

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Bloomberg

In a buoyant market, listings were more attention-grabbing—using so-called intensifying words such as ‘totally,’ ‘ultra’ and ‘absolutely.’

During a slower market, listings included references to “cheap” and “value” and included more emotive language to entice people to buy.

Agents also stressed that the market was a “buyers’ market” in slow periods—using terms such as “desperate” and “has to go”—to coerce people to buy, Prof. Robertson adds. Agents referenced “sellers’ market” during strong cycles, with phrases such as “not going to last” and “will sell,” to draw more people to a listing. “The more competition they got, the higher the final offer will be,” she says.

 

 

What Words Should Real-Estate Listings Use? Depends on the Market – WSJ.com.

Real estate investment trust yields robust rewards despite risk | Armonk Real Estate

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Sinking money into real estate investment trusts is considered to be one of Wall Street’s most complex investments.

Owning shares of REITs gives investors an opportunity to get investment exposure to real estate, including apartments, shopping centers and office buildings. But they’ve gained a reputation of being risky and confusing — especially after the industry was pummeled during the last real estate crash.

Even Lloyd McAdams, chief executive of Anworth Mortgage Asset Corp., makes no bones about saying his Santa Monica REIT does carry some risk. But it also has given shareholders high dividend yields as the real estate market has recovered.

“The potential magnitude of the risks we have to manage around has been the most daunting aspect of managing the business,” said McAdams, who has been CEO since the company was founded in 1998.

Market shocks have been a challenge for Anworth, whose portfolio holds residential real estate where the mortgages are secured by government guarantees from Freddie Mac,Fannie Mae and Ginny Mae.

Anworth’s stock price has had big gyrations because of the company’s ties to the housing market. The stock at one point traded above $15 before the housing crisis walloped the industry. It now trades for about $5 a share.

But analysts are bullish on the company’s prospects and hail its consistent dividend. The company has averaged about a 10% payout every year for the last decade. That compares to the 2.65% average weighted dividend yield for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

 

 

Real estate investment trust yields robust rewards despite risk – latimes.com.

Ryan Reynolds Relists Hollywood Hills Home | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Third time is the charm, at least that is what Ryan Reynolds is hoping. The actor has stuck his Hollywood Hills home on the market for the third time and at a lower price of $1.599 million, and perhaps this time the residence will attract a buyer.

Reynolds bought the home in the celebrity-entrenched neighborhood of Outpost Estates for $1.715 million before his marriage to actress Scarlett Johansson. The two didn’t live there but in the mid-century “Wong House,” which they sold after divorcing for $3.5 million. While Reynolds and Johansson were married, Reynolds tried to sell the home, first listing it in 2009 — not the hottest year for real estate. Reynolds ended up couching the listing until 2011, relisting the home with a sticker of $1.69 million.

Then life got busy for Reynolds: He quietly married another beautiful starlet, Blake Lively, and delisted the home. The two have a home in Bedford, NY, and Reynolds is trying again to dump his former place at 2416 Carman Crest Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90068.

With just 2 bedrooms and 2.5 baths, the home is not a typical over-the-top celeb estate. Measuring only 1,789 square feet, the home does have upgrades, including hardwood floors, solar heating, a tank-less water heater and private, landscaped garden.

The listing is held by Annie Challis of Keller Williams Beverly Hills Realty.

 

 

Ryan Reynolds Relists Hollywood Hills Home | Zillow Blog.

Beirut ranks second place for regional real estate prices | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Beirut ranked in second place in the Arab world in terms of price of midsized apartments, according to the Global Property Guide’s latest annual report on investment trends around the world. According to Byblos Bank’s weekly economic newsletter, the report ranked Beirut 46th among 94 markets globally in 2012 and second in the Arab world after Dubai in terms of the price of a 150-square-meter apartment.

The report estimated the price per square meter at $3,591, with a price range in Central Beirut between $4,200 and $6,800 compared to $1,200 in 2004.

The report also highlighted that gross rental yields have dropped significantly in the past six years from 10 to 11 percent to 3.62 percent currently.

Beirut ranked 66th among 83 markets globally and in last place among five Arab markets in terms of gross rental yield, which is the annual rent relative to the house price.

The report warned that high prices and low yield trends are unlikely to be sustainable. Beirut’s GRY was 3.62 percent in 2012, significantly lower than the Arab average of 6.8 percent.

Lebanon’s price-to-rent ratio was 28, higher than the Arab average of 16.4. It means that it takes 28 years of rent to recover the purchase price of a 150-sqm apartment in Beirut, ranking the Lebanese capital 16th among 83 markets and in first place in the region.

The price-to-rent ratio is typically used for measuring the undervaluation or overvaluation of real estate prices.

Beirut’s rent-per-month was second highest in the Arab world at $1,623 per square meter while the Arab average stood at $1,579 per month.

In terms of the house price-to-income ratio, which is the cost of a 100-sqm housing unit relative to the country’s GDP per capita, Lebanon ranked in second place among five Arab states.

The price of a 100-sqm upscale apartment in Lebanon is equivalent to 34.29 times the country’s GDP per capita, compared to 29.19 in Jordan, 28.44 in Egypt and 6.02 in the UAE.

 

 

 

Pricey property: Beirut ranks second place for regional real estate prices | Al Bawaba.