Daily Archives: November 11, 2013

Realtors forecast flat sales, rising prices | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Home sales will hold steady next year, but prices will continue to rise due to a low supply of homes for sale, the National Association of Realtors predicts.

Flattening home sales will mark a sharp reversal from the past two years in which existing home sales increased from the year before.

But the lack of income growth, higher home prices and rising interest rates will weigh on sales, says Lawrence Yun, the trade group’s chief economist, speaking at the NAR annual conference here Friday.

Median home prices, currently about $200,000 for the U.S., will rise 6% next year after an 11% gain this year, Yun says.

The existing home inventory is now near a 13-year low.

“The inventory shortage will not go away,” Yun says, noting that new home construction is still far from historic levels.

While rising home prices will entice more people to sell homes, many of those people will also buy homes, Yun says. New home construction is what’s needed to expand inventories.

Markets with stronger job growth will do better next year that those without. Some of the best-performing housing markets next year will likely include Salt Lake City, Houston, Denver, Seattle, Tampa and Atlanta, Yun says.

Coastal California markets are likely to continue to experience inventory shortages given good job growth in many of those markets and little new home building.

Home sales could get a boost next year if lenders loosen home loan-lending standards. That would expand the pool of potential home buyers.

Lenders may do that given a dropoff in refinance demand. Refinance volume will fall next year to a 15-year low, Yun says. That’s largely because interest rates have been below 6% for five years and there are not many people with mortgages left to refinance.

By the end of 2014, NAR forecasts the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate will hit 5.4%. Rates will rise as the Federal Reserve pulls back on the stimulus measures it has used since 2008 to keep rates low and stimulate the economy.

 

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/11/10/realtors-home-sales-outlook/3476517/

How to Dramatically Increase Pageviews on Your Website | Armonk Homes

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One of the most perplexing problems when it comes to starting an e-commerce company is: how do you get people to visit your new site? Even when you have trendy graphics and great content, you suddenly enter a vast megaverse of competing sites. Fight the temptation to start outright paying for the clicks via Web ads. There are low-cost ways to increase views on any site for any business.

I checked in with several search engine experts to find out the latest techniques to draw attention to a new company site. This is a two-part story. The experts offered their best suggestions on making sure your site is listed at a top position on Google and other search engines. For many of these tips, I’ll implement them on a test site and report back on the results over a period of a few months.

1. Focus on keywords, title tags, and headers. Most of the grunt work for increasing pageviews falls on your dev team and the formatting of pages. Ryan Turner, the co-owner of the Web design company 3Prime, told me you have to do the hard work of searching for keywords in your industry (using tools like the Google Keyword Planner). Each page has a URL, title tag, and header tags (like H1). These should all include the keywords.

“Get specific by making the keywords three to four words long,” Turner says. “Once you have your keywords, make sure you have one great page for each keyword.”

Brandon Howard, the owner of the Web services company Allmywebneeds.com, suggests creating one specific landing page on your site for each keyword. So, for example, a party supply company might create a page each for balloons, wrapping paper, posters, etc. “You want the landing page to load quickly, be graphically appealing, and allow the user to quickly find what they are looking for,” he says.

2. Create vanity linkbait. This one is slightly controversial, depending on your industry. But I’ve also seen firsthand how this can work. Russ Jones, the CTO of Web marketing company Virante, told me the basic idea is to create pages that are targeted at specific influencers and high-profile experts. Here’s an example: Let’s say your start-up wants to create content around the topic of business plans. One approach would be to create a page with a top 10 list of famous business plans, using strategic keywords and tags. Then, you’d start a social network campaign where you let the influencers at those companies know about the link.

The key, says Jones, is to keep repeating this over and over again to increase traffic. But don’t forget: the content has to be interesting as well.

3. Focus on YouTube as much as Google. Alex Genadinik, the founder of business plan app Problemio, told me YouTube can be a goldmine–it’s essentially the second biggest “search engine” in the world next to parent company Google. Every company should have at least one YouTube Channel, filled to the brim with SEO terms and links.

“YouTube is the most versatile tool in your marketing arsenal,” he says. “It is easier to rank on YouTube than on Google, and YouTube videos tend to be more socially shared as well.”

The result? Genadinik says Google will parse the YouTube content and the crosslinks will drive more traffic to your site. My favorite example: a friend of mine runs a small business almost entirely from the traffic he gets from one YouTube video.

4. Do way more blogging. One of the secrets to increasing pageviews is to have more incoming links, which Google uses to help rank your site. When you write posts on other sites and you link back to your company site, it pumps life into your SEO, says Nora Leary, an Account Supervisor at digital marketer Uplifted. Leary says social media activity has a similar effect–links on Twitter and Facebook help people find the site but they also create linkbacks that improve search engine ranking.

5. Don’t forget about email marketing. Maybe you already know how to use MailChimp and have an active email marketing campaign. Still, it’s easy to forget how valuable an email campaign is for increasing pageviews. “Emails that reach your customers directly and keep providing points of interest will tempt users back to the site,” says Catherine Gluckstein, the president of SumAll, a business-centric social media manager. “For example, LinkedIn does this very well with their targeted emails about who has recently looked at your profile, or top newsmakers you may wish to follow.” Often your customers need just a quick prompt to return. But always remember to offer some real value.

http://www.inc.com/john-brandon/how-to-dramatically-increase-pageviews-on-your-website.html

Shock, horror! Brokers are less sanguine | North Salem Real Estate

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Published: November 11, 2013 – 1:50 pm

It goes without saying that real estate brokers in the city are still confident about the state of the current market, but in a bit of a surprise that faith in a better tomorrow has ebbed a bit from the readings of earlier this year and what’s more brokers have lost faith that things will get better. Those shifts and more came out in an third quarter survey of both commercial and residential brokers conducted by the Real Estate Board of New York.

In all, REBNY polled about 350 brokers working in the city, and asked them 10 questions about their assessment of the markets, with each answer ranging from zero to 10 for the most optimistic response. Overall, the confidence index was 8.75 this quarter, down from a high of 8.9 earlier this year.

“I think both commercial and residential sides were generally optimistic but the report was done at the end of the third quarter, just about the time the government shutdown took place, and before the mayoral election had happened,” said Michael Slatterly, REBNY’s senior vice president for research.

But on the residential side, a lack of new affordable housing units drove confidence down to 8.33. While such a reading is still on the high side, it nonetheless stands as the lowest reading since the second quarter of 2012. Respondents told REBNY that the glut of luxury housing on the market, while relatively little is available for income groups other than the ultra-rich, was a driving factor behind the decline in confidence from 8.71 from last quarter, despite the fact that sales rose to record levels in the third quarter according to REBNY data.

One of the lowest metrics concerned financing. Residential brokers were less confident about the future of financing markets.

They averaged a response of 6.16, the lowest number since the second quarter of last year. When residential brokers were asked generally about their confidence in the current market, the average answer was 7.45, the lowest number all year, but about a point higher than last year.

The combination of major creditors like Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac have been tightening their criteria, and budget uncertainty in Washington, may have driven the numbers down, Mr. Slatterly noted.

On the other hand, echoing the concerns voiced by brokers, financing for ultra-luxury residential buildings continued to be plentiful. Hines’ tower adjacent to the Museum of Modern Art and Time Equities’ long-stalled tower at 50 West St. recently scored huge financing deals to allow them to move forward.

In contrast, commercial brokers had a much rosier outlook on leasing activity as the economy continues to pick up. Their confidence ticked up to 9.18 for the current overall market, the highest number since the second quarter of 2012, when the number was 7.48. And in contrast to concerns voiced by their residential peers about financing, commercial brokers rated the current borrowing environment a perfect 10.

 

crainsnewyork.com

 

 

 

Bedford Corners Real Estate sales up 14% | Median price up 187% | #RobReportBlog

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Bedford   Corners NY Real Estate ReportRobReportBlog
20136 months ending 11/112012
16Sales14up 14%
$1,487,500.00median sold price$517,000.00up 187%
$468,000.00low sold price$381,500.00
$5,600,000.00high sold price$1,750,000.00
5176average size2721
$364.00ave. price per foot$264.00
132ave days on market189
$1,939,750.00average sold price$756,571.00
94.86%ave sold to ask93.59%

Pound Ridge NY Weekly Real Estate Report | #RobReportBlog

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Pound   Ridge NY Weekly Real Estate Report11/11/2013
Homes for sale79
Median Ask Price$1,075,000.00
Low Price$285,000.00
High Price$5,700,000.00
Average Size3854
Average Price/foot$350.00
Average DOM147
Average Ask Price$1,394,316.00

Hong Kong Luxury Property Prices Choked by Tightening | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Hong Kong businessman Raymond Chiu says he has perfect credit and is prepared to spend about HK$16 million ($2 million) on a 1,000-square-foot apartment in the city’s Mid-Levels residential area. There’s just one catch. The government requires a 50 percent down payment.

That’s “really putting us off,” said Chiu, 45, who owns an information technology consulting company. “I run a business so cash flow is important. It’s frustrating because this is non-negotiable, though I have perfect credit history.”

Prices of high-end apartments, defined as those larger than 1,000 square feet or costing at least HK$10 million, have gained less than the broader market since the second half of 2012 as buyers in Chiu’s price bracket have been hardest hit after the government raised minimum down payments six times over less than three years as part of curbs to make homes more affordable.

The slowing price growth in high-end apartments is the first sign that efforts to temper rampant speculation that has fueled a surging housing market are working even as it stings luxury developers and potential homebuyers. Broker Cushman & Wakefield Inc. forecasts that prices of homes valued at more than HK$10 million will fall about 3 percent in the fourth quarter, extending a 3 percent drop so far this year, while those selling for less will be little changed.

“The luxury segment has taken the first and the most direct hit,” said Buggle Lau, chief analyst at Midland Holdings Ltd., Hong Kong’s biggest realtor by branch numbers. “The measures were aimed at driving the speculators away and they have certainly achieved that, but many people wanting to buy for their own use are also affected.”

World’s Highest

An influx of wealthy buyers from mainland China, mortgage rates close to record lows and a financial-services sector that has thrived thanks to fundraising by Chinese companies helped fuel a 250 percent increase in luxury-home prices from 2003 to the beginning of 2012, outpacing the 150 percent gain in mass-market homes, according to statistics compiled by Savills Plc. The London-based broker defines luxury homes as those with at least 1,000 square feet (93 square meters) or value of at least HK$15 million.

Hong Kong home prices are the world’s highest in a Savills survey of 10 cities, including London, New York and Tokyo. The value of luxury properties will drop as much as 5 percent in the second half after a 3.2 percent decline in the first three months of the year, according to Savills. Prices in the mass market will see no change after increasing 1.7 percent in the first six months, the broker said.

Luxury Projects

Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd., a developer of luxury residential projects, plans to build more, smaller apartments because of a change in buyers’ appetites, Victor Lui, the company’s deputy managing director, said in September. The company, one of Hong Kong’s two-biggest developers by market value, reported lower profit from sales for the year ended in June.

There were about 86,000 luxury homes — or units of at least 100 square meters (1,076 square feet) — in Hong Kong at the end of 2012, according to statistics from the government. That represents about 7.7 percent of private homes in the city. About 24 percent of the 10,149 new homes completed by developers in 2012 were larger than 100 square meters, government statistics show.

The gap between the top end of the market and the cheaper bracket narrowed last year as the government’s mortgage tightening started to impact the luxury segment. Prices of mass-market homes rose 20 percent in 2012, almost double that of luxury homes, according to Savills. Prices of luxury homes began to decline after the government in October 2012 slapped a 15 percent tax on all non-resident buyers as it sought to stem the inflow of Chinese capital into the property market.

Chinese Buyers

“For a while, Chinese buyers were the main driver for luxury homes,” said Thomas Lam, Hong Kong-based research director at broker Knight Frank LLP. “When you raise buying costs for them, of course it takes away a large part of the demand.”

Mainland Chinese buyers accounted for an estimated 8 percent of private home sales in the city, a former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997, in the third quarter of this year, down from a record 25 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to Centaline Property Agency Ltd. Since October 2010, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city’s de-facto central bank, has raised the minimum down payment required for home purchases over HK$10 million to as much as 60 percent from 30 percent, and to 50 percent for those from HK$7 million to HK$10 million. The most recent round took place in February.

Mortgage Rules

That month, the government doubled stamp-duty taxes for all properties over HK$2 million, with new tax rates ranging from 1.5 percent for properties valued below HK$2 million, to 8.5 percent for those priced above HK$21.7 million.

“The extra stamp duties and mortgage rules are like progressive taxes,” said Vincent Cheung, Hong Kong-based national director of valuation at Cushman & Wakefield. “The higher the property value, the higher the tax rates and the tighter the mortgage rules. Of course this would impact luxury properties the most.”

Hong Kong’s government won’t cut back property curbs until there’s a “steady supply” of new housing, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said in June.

There were 607 sales of homes worth over HK$12 million in the third quarter, according to statistics compiled by Centaline. The number is the lowest since the first quarter of 2009, according to the Hong Kong-based realtor.

 

 

 

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-10/hong-kong-luxury-property-prices-choked-by-tightening.html

Home equity lines due for reset may be looming financial disaster | South Salem Real Estate

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Could the real estate market be heading for a new financial storm? Maybe.

Some mortgage and credit experts worry that billions of dollars of home equity credit lines that were extended a decade ago during the housing boom could be heading for big trouble soon, creating a new wave of defaults for banks and homeowners.

That’s because these credit lines, which are second mortgages with floating rates and flexible withdrawal terms, carry mandatory “resets” requiring borrowers to begin paying both principal and interest on their balances after 10 years. During the initial 10-year draw period, only interest payments are required.

But the difference between the interest-only and reset payments on these credit lines can be substantial — $500 to $600 or more per month in some cases. If borrowers cannot afford or choose not to make the fully amortizing payments that reduce the principal debt, the bank that owns the note can demand full payment and foreclose on the house if there is sufficient equity.

According to federal financial regulators, about $30 billion in home equity lines dating to 2004 are due for resets next year, $53 billion the following year and a staggering $111 billion in 2018. Amy Crews Cutts, chief economist for Equifax, one of the three national credit bureaus, calls this a looming “wave of disaster” because large numbers of borrowers will be unable to handle the higher payments. This will force banks to either foreclose, refinance the borrower or modify their loans.

But refinancings often will not be possible, Cutts says, because the homeowners won’t qualify under the tougher mortgage rules taking effect in January, or the combined first and second mortgages may exceed the value of the house. Complicating matters further, interest rates are likely to rise from their current low levels as the Federal Reserve tapers its purchases of Treasury and mortgage-backed securities. Higher base rates would make the payment shocks even worse. Plus, according to Cutts, many of the owners with high-balance credit lines already have low credit scores — legacies of the housing bust and recession — and have an elevated statistical risk of default after the reset.

Financial regulators, including the comptroller of the currency, are aware of the coming bulge in high-risk resets and have been urging the biggest banks to set aside extra reserves for possible losses. Last month, Citigroup said it was increasing reserves on its nearly $20 billion in home equity lines and acknowledged that the reset payment shocks for borrowers could be a major challenge.

 

 

 

http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-harney-20131110,0,6997479.story#axzz2kHRdpZUW

Westchester pol considers challenging Cuomo | Waccabuc Real Estate

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Newly re-elected Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, a Republican, paid a surprise visit to the all Democratic Somos El Futuro gathering of state politicians in Puerto Rico last week, delivering an address in fluent Spanish and impressing many who were there.

Gov. Cuomo, by contrast, skipped the event, disappointing many and reinforcing his image as aloof from, and even contemptuous of, his fellow Democrats.

Astorino’s visit wasn’t by accident. The Post has learned that he told several aides and key fund-raisers in recent weeks that if he won last week’s election by a comfortable margin, he would “seriously consider” challenging Cuomo next year.

He won by a landslide in a heavily Democratic county within the critical New York City media market, and challenging Cuomo is exactly what he said he is considering in an expansive telephone interview with The Post from Puerto Rico.

“I am considering it right now. I have to consider it,’’ declared Astorino. “New York is hemorrhaging jobs, I think we just went from 49th to 50th in terms of a bad business climate. We’re going in the wrong direction.

“I feel New York is fundamentally out of balance right now with extraordinarily high taxes, a terrible regulatory climate and an explosion of Medicaid and pension costs that is really killing counties, local governments and school districts. There have to be some fundamental changes going forward,’’ he added.

Astorino has been working on developing a range of policy positions that would be important in a statewide race for governor.

He said, for instance, that if he did become governor, he would move to create thousands of private-sector jobs by approving “with proper restrictions’’ drilling for natural gas — known as “fracking’’ — in the economically hard-pressed Southern Tier, something Cuomo, facing threats from radical environmentalists, has refused to do for three years, despite promises that he would.

Astorino did credit Cuomo with “baby steps’’ to improve the state’s economic picture during his first year in office.

And he conceded that the governor, who is popular with all but upstate voters, would be difficult to beat, saying, “He’s certainly the prohibitive favorite.’’

 

 

 

 

http://nypost.com/2013/11/11/westchester-pol-considers-challenging-cuomo-for-governors-seat/

Promises, promises: the new mayor’s agenda | Cross River Homes

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The day after his landslide election win, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio was already tempering expectations.

“Of course, the things I’m talking about, a lot of them are bold, a lot of them are big changes,” he said Wednesday at an event announcing his transition team. “And they are an attempt to address a problem that has been decades in the making.”

He added, “None of us is going to promise people perfection any day soon.”

Victories built on gleaming, progressive promises have been known to disappoint as they collide with the realities of governing (see: Obama, Barack). And Mr. de Blasio will be operating under higher expectations than most, having been elected to tackle income inequality.

Mr. de Blasio believes higher taxes on the wealthy to pay for universal prekindergarten will close the gap. But his proposal for $500,000 households to pay more exemplifies how much of the problem is beyond his reach.

First, he must persuade a recalcitrant state Legislature, including Senate Republicans, who run the chamber in a fragile alliance with a breakaway faction of Democrats. And 2014 is an election year for them, rendering a tax increase an even longer shot than usual in Albany. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, for his part, pledged last month to lower taxes, not raise them.

Even if Mr. de Blasio finds the money, observers doubt the city currently has the infrastructure to deliver on the promise.

“Do we have the capacity in New York City to provide universal pre-K for every 3- and 4-year-old?” asked Carol Kellermann, executive director of the Citizens Budget Commission. “It’s all done right now through the nonprofit sector. Do they have the capacity to just start adding tens of thousands of kids?”

In his policy book, the mayor-elect argues that New York needs universal pre-K in order to compete with countries such as India and China. But research on the matter has shown that the benefits of pre-K are decidedly mixed, though children from disadvantaged backgrounds gain the most from early education.

Mandating affordability

Real estate executives, meanwhile, wonder how Mr. de Blasio will make good on another campaign promise—200,000 new or preserved affordable-housing units in 10 years—without the traditional menu of tax breaks and other incentives for developers. Mr. de Blasio would require developers to build affordable units in exchange for allowing larger buildings to be constructed.

“If the goal is to make landlords build affordable housing, then reducing subsidies and requiring affordable units will result in fewer units,” said one real estate source. “People will just build condos instead of rentals or just not build at all. That’s basic economics.”

But the mayor-elect’s mandate from voters will help him handle developers. “I think Bill de Blasio is going to do just fine,” said de Blasio donor Steven Witkoff, president and CEO of the Witkoff Group, a real estate investment firm, at a recent Crain’s event. “I don’t think the city works unless we do have an affordable-housing component.”

Plea for patience

Questions surround a host of Mr. de Blasio’s other proposals. It’s unclear how he will go about persuading Albany to let the city raise its minimum wage or “end the era of stop-and-frisk” without totally doing away with the police tactic. Mr. de Blasio was elected in part because he embraced an aspirational vision of a more egalitarian city. His challenge now will be living up to those promises without bankrupting the city or isolating his liberal base.

 

 

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20131110/POLITICS/311109976#

How to Increase your SEO with Google Plus | Bedford Hills NY Homes

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Google Plus is more than just a social media site. It can be a tool that can  help boost a website’s ranking on Google’s search engine.

With the changes and updates on the Google algorithm which was introduced as  the Hummingbird, Google Plus becomes an integral part of any online marketing  and SEO strategies of bloggers, webmasters and internet marketers.

So what is Google Plus, really?

Google describes the service as connecting social, communication and people  which is designed to build your website’s ability to rank higher on  search. Here we show you how to increase your SEO with Google+.

4 tips to build content relevance on Google Plus

Blogger and content marketers use their Google Plus profile to associate  their content to their own authorship. By writing high quality content about  subjects belonging to your business category will help the search engine to  identify you as an authority within your niche. Your content should always be  relevant to your business industry to help the search engine identify your  business niche where you are trying to build your authorship.

The main objective of Google Plus is to improve the user’s experience by  integrating quality content publication to your social networks. It requires  that your content should be one that is relevant, accurate and updated for the  benefits of your readers.

In order to help the search engine identify your authorship and field of  business industry, Google Webmasters offer the following tips to help you build  your content relevance on search:

  • Optimize your Google Plus profile. It is important to optimize your  Google Plus profile in order to make it more revealing to your followers. As  much as possible, complete all the required fields from your Google profile such  as adding your profile image (no one will like to follow an  anonymous  Google Plus author), website URL, business details and description. If you can,  have your Google Plus Page get verified by Google to improve your  credibility.
  • Link your Google Plus Page to your site and social extensions. By  adding your Google Plus Page directly on your website will make it easier for  the search engine to associate your website to your Google Plus profile. Use the  snippet of the code for your Page and connect the code to your Adwords campaign  as well as to your social extensions. Using the Google Plus badge or the +1  button will also make it easier for your social connections to follow and  identify your authorship to your website.

How Google Plus Can Increase Your SEO

  • Be consistent in posting high quality content. People are more likely  to follow you if you are able to constantly connect with them by posting high  quality content that they find useful. By writing highly relevant content,   the search engine queries can assist you in achieving high rankings in  Google web search and even on the Google Plus search results.
  • Make your content dynamically engaging. To make your post engaging,  offer your readers solutions to their problems. Commenting on the conversations  on your Google Plus page will help your readers to easily connect to your  content, making it more relevant to their needs and to the search engine as  well.

 

 

 

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/11/11/how-to-increase-your-seo-with-google-plus/#R00S4iEXt6jhqKMC.99