Daily Archives: September 10, 2013

Housing communities suffer from influx of renters | Cross River Real Estate

There are a growing number of people renting houses instead of buying since they cannot obtain a mortgage under today’s tougher standards. But due to the influx of renters, housing communities are facing the adverse effects of renter’s disconnect, according to CNBC:

“When there are fewer homeowners, there is less ‘self-help,’ like park and neighborhood cleanup, neighborhood watch,” said William M. Rohe, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who has just completed a review of current research on homeownership’s effects.

Even conscientious landlords and tenants invest less in their property than owner-occupants, he said. “Who’s going to paint the outside of a rental house? You’d almost have to be crazy.”

                    Source: CNBC

Installing Kitchen Cabinets Solo | Bedford Hills Real Estate

Next time you’re hanging around a bunch of carpenters  and the conversation starts to lag, ask whether it’s more efficient to hang kitchen wall cabinets with one or two people. I’ve done it both ways, and have found that I can do the job more efficiently alone. This may sound surprising. Without a helper, positioning overhead cabinets can be a real balancing  act, with the installer struggling to brace a cabinet with one    hand while reaching for a clamp with the other. Dropping the cabinet may mean ordering a costly replacement, and putting the  job on hold while you wait.  But it doesn’t have to be that way. Solo installation can be easy; all you need are a few simple brackets and clamps,    the right kind of fasteners, and a good organization system. If after reading this article you’re still not ready to go it alone, these tools and techniques will still make the job go    smoother for two people.

Uppers First

Many cabinet    installers put the base cabinets in first, then use them to    support the uppers. This sounds good, but I find it’s    inefficient. Not only must you reach over the base cabinets to    hang the uppers — a position my back loudly complains    about — but there’s a real danger that you’ll    damage the base cabinets as you work over them. Installing the    uppers first also leaves plenty of room to get under them to    make adjustments, and lets you stand next to the cabinet when    working — a position that my back seldom complains about.    The only problem is that you might forget about the uppers when    installing the lowers. You would be surprised how easy it is to    unthinkingly stand up and whack your head.     To temporarily support the upper cabinets, I use a set of    easy-to-build wall-support brackets. No high-tech gimmickry    here, just some plain old 1×4 pine that can be screwed or    nailed together in a few minutes (see Figure 1).

I make my brackets 52 inches long (a few inches shorter than    the common 54-inch upper height) and fasten them to the wall    with two screws each. I then place the cabinet on the brackets,    shim it to the proper height, and clamp it to the adjacent    cabinet. That leaves both hands free to screw the face frames    together and to fasten the cabinet boxes to the wall.

CoreLogic: Prices to Rise 12.3 Percent in August | Katonah Real Estate

The housing recovery will keep rolling right along   through August as price increases continue to score in the double digit range   and rise for the 18th straight month, according to CoreLogic’s   pending sales index.

 

Home prices   nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 12.4 percent on a year-over-year   basis in July 2013 compared to July 2012. Prices are rising   even faster than they did in the first half of the year, when they averaged   10 percent from January through June.     On a month-over-month basis, including distressed sales, home prices   increased by 1.8 percent in July 2013 compared to June 2013,

Excluding distressed   sales, home prices increased on a year-over-year basis by 11.4 percent in   July 2013 compared to July 2012. On a month-over-month basis, excluding   distressed sales, home prices increased 1.7 percent in July 2013 compared to   June 2013. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO)   transactions.

The CoreLogic Pending   HPI indicates that August 2013 home prices, including distressed sales, are   expected to rise by 12.3 percent on a year-over-year basis from August 2012   and rise by 0.4 percent on a month-over-month basis from July 2013. Excluding   distressed sales, August 2013 home prices are poised to rise 12.2 percent   year over year from August 2012 and by 1.2 percent month over month from July   2013. The CoreLogic Pending HPI is a proprietary and exclusive metric that   provides the most current indication of trends in home prices. It is based on   Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data that measure price changes for the most   recent month.

“Home prices   continued to surge in July,” said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for   CoreLogic. “Looking ahead to the second half of the year, price growth   is expected to slow as seasonal demand wanes and higher mortgage rates have a   marginal impact on home purchase demand.”

“Home prices   continue to climb across the nation in July with markets hit hardest during   the downturn leading the way,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO   of CoreLogic. “Nationally, home prices are now within 18 percent of   their peak levels reached in April of 2006.”

Highlights   as of July 2013:

  • Including        distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price        appreciation were: Nevada (+27 percent), California (+23.2 percent),        Arizona (+17 percent), Wyoming (+16.4 percent) and Oregon (+15 percent).
  • Including        distressed sales, this month only one state posted home price        depreciation: Delaware (-1.3 percent).
  • Excluding        distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price        appreciation were: Nevada (+24.2 percent), California (+20.2 percent),        Arizona (+14.9 percent), Utah (+13.5 percent) and Florida (+13.5        percent).
  • Excluding        distressed sales, no states posted home price depreciation in July.
  • Including        distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI        (from April 2006 to July 2013) was -17.6 percent. Excluding distressed        transactions, the peak-to-current change in the HPI for the same period        was -12.9 percent.
  • The        five states with the largest peak-to-current declines, including        distressed transactions, were Nevada (-43 percent), Florida (-37.4        percent), Arizona (-32.5 percent), Rhode Island (-29.7 percent) and        Michigan (-27.7 percent).
  • Of        the top 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) measured by population,        99 were showing year-over-year increases in July, equaling the measure        in June 2013.

*June data was   revised. Revisions with public records data are standard, and to ensure   accuracy, CoreLogic incorporates the newly released public data to provide   updated results.

July HPI for the   Country’s Largest CBSAs by Population (Ranked by Single-Family Including   Distressed):

CBSA

July 2013     12-Month HPI

Change by     CBSA

Single-Family     Including Distressed

Single-Family     Excluding Distressed

Los     Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA

22.6%

20.1%

Riverside-San     Bernardino-Ontario, CA

22.5%

21.1%

Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale,     AZ

18.1%

15.7%

Atlanta-Sandy     Springs-Marietta, GA

15.6%

13.7%

Houston-Sugar     Land-Baytown, TX

11.1%

11.9%

Dallas-Plano-Irving,     TX

10.0%

10.7%

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria,     DC-VA-MD-WV

9.1%

9.0%

Chicago-Joliet-Naperville,     IL

8.6%

10.7%

New     York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ

7.8%

8.2%

Philadelphia,     PA

4.3%

4.8%

Source:   CoreLogic.

 

 

 

 

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/09/corelogic-prices-to-rise-123-percent-in-august/