Daily Archives: April 11, 2014

Vacation homes are back in vogue | Cross River Homes

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Vacation home sales rose strongly in 2013, while investment purchases fell below the elevated levels seen in the previous two years, according to the National Association of Realtors.

NAR’s 2014 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey, covering existing- and new-home transactions in 2013, shows vacation-home sales jumped 29.7 percent to an estimated 717,000 last year from 553,000 in 2012.

Investment-home sales fell 8.5 percent to an estimated 1.10 million in 2013 from 1.21 million in 2012.

Owner-occupied purchases rose 13.1 percent to 3.70 million last year from 3.27 million in 2012. The sales estimates are based on responses from households and exclude institutional investment activity.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun expected an improvement in the vacation home market. “Growth in the equity markets has greatly benefited high net-worth households, thereby providing the wherewithal and confidence to purchase recreational property,” he said. “However, vacation-home sales are still about one-third below the peak activity seen in 2006.”

Vacation-home sales accounted for 13 percent of all transactions last year, their highest market share since 2006, while the portion of investment sales fell to 20 percent in 2013 from 24 percent in 2012.

Yun said the pullback in investment activity is understandable. “Investment buyers slowed their purchasing in 2013 because prices were rising quickly along with a declining availability of discounted foreclosures over the course of the year,” he said.

“In 2011 and 2012, investment property was a no-brainer because home prices had sharply over corrected during the downturn in many areas, creating great bargains that could be quickly turned into profitable rentals. With a return to more normal market conditions, investors now have to evaluate their purchases more carefully and do their homework,” Yun added.

The typical vacation-home buyer was 43 years old, had a median household income of $85,600 and purchased a property that was a 180 miles from his primary residence.

Buyers plan to own their recreational property for a median of six years, down from 10 years in 2012.

 

 

http://www.rew-online.com/2014/04/10/report-vacation-homes-are-back-in-vogue/

 

How will school-boundary changes affect the DC real estate market? | South Salem Real Estate

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Homebuying just got a little more complicated in the District of  Columbia.

Many buyers, whether or not they have children, want to know they’re moving into  an area with good schools. For those with children, it’s an immediate concern. For  those without children, it’s a question of resale value.

This week, Mayor Vincent Gray unveiled a proposal to overhaul school boundaries,  including changes to the way school assignments are determined. It’s the first  proposal to change the boundaries in decades, and it comes as the D.C. real estate  market has heated up, including in neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River.  Darrin Davis, owner of Anacostia River Realty, says, “The D.C. market is hot. I  just sold five houses this week.”

So will changes to school boundaries cool that market?

Eldad Moraru, with Long and Foster, says D.C. has become a desirable place — not  just for young career-minded singles, but for families too. And the proposed  school-boundary changes raise questions.

“Some of them — I won’t say all of them, but some buyers are holding off on  making decisions until this plays out to its completion.”

Moraru, who is licensed in D.C., Virginia and Maryland, says the uncertainty  created by Gray’s proposals could send buyers elsewhere. “I’m sure there are some  people who’ve opted to go ahead and purchase in other school districts like  Maryland and Virginia because of this, but others are taking a wait-and-see  approach.”

Davis says buyers who are looking to Anacostia, where the housing stock is  plentiful and the prices are within reach for many priced out of other  neighborhoods, tend to be young singles. Schools may not be a major consideration  for those buyers right now, but he says, “I do see that being an issue five to ten  years down the line.”

 

 

http://www.wtop.com/109/3600068/How-will-school-boundary-changes-affect-DC-real-estate

House prices in Britain are rising again | Katonah Real Estate

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AFTER their worst slump for a generation, house prices in Britain are rising again. In the 12 months to January 2014, the value of homes increased by 6.8% across the country and by 13% in London, according to the Office for National Statistics. In the capital, where cash-rich buyers have viewed property as shelter from economic turmoil in the euro zone and elsewhere, prices are now at an all-time high after adjusting for inflation. In his old job at Canada’s central bank, Mark Carney, the boss of the Bank of England, was accused of presiding over a housing bubble. But since the crisis the bank has a bag of new tricks it can use to steady the market (see print article).

With base rates at an all-time low, mortgage repayments as a percentage of income are near their historic lows for first-time buyers, according to the Council for Mortgage Lenders, a trade association. That has allowed homeowners to borrow ever larger amounts of money from the banks. If real wages continue to stagnate across the country, they may struggle when interest rates eventually start to rise.

Explanation:

This interactive chart allows readers to compare the ups and downs of Britain’s 13 regional housing markets as measured by the Office for National Statistics. The data begin in 1968 for nine regions and countries, extending to 12 from 1992 onwards. As well as prices in nominal and real terms (deflated by the retail prices index), we have presented affordability measures for first-time buyers compiled by the Council for Mortgage Lenders. There are five different measures:

• House-price index: in nominal terms, rebased to 100 at the select base date. • Prices in real terms: the house-price index is deflated by retail prices and rebased at 100 to take account of the effects of inflation on purchasing power. • Mortage payments as % of income: first-time buyers’ median mortgage interest payments as % of income (at the time of housing completion).

 

 

 

 

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2014/04/british-house-prices

Asking Home Prices in Urban Neighborhoods Rising Faster Than in Suburbs | Bedford Hills Real Estate

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From some angles, it looks like the housing recovery has brought an urban resurgence: for instance, the most urban counties are growing faster now than during the housing bubble, and many dense cities are having a boom in apartment construction. However, the most recent data show that asking prices in urban neighborhoods are rising only slightly faster than in the suburbs, and the suburbs actually have higher population growth.
The Trulia Price Monitor and the Trulia Rent Monitor are the earliest leading indicators of how asking prices and rents are trending nationally and locally. They adjust for the changing mix of listed homes and therefore show what’s really happening to asking prices and rents. Because asking prices lead sales prices by approximately two or more months, the Monitors reveal trends before other price indexes do. With that, here’s the scoop on where prices and rents are headed (see note #1 below).

Asking Prices Continue to Rise as Spring House Hunting Season Begins Despite declining investor purchases and more inventory coming onto the market, asking home prices continued to rise at the start of the spring housing season. Month-over-month, asking prices rose 1.2% nationally in March 2014, seasonally adjusted. Quarter-over-quarter, asking prices rose 2.9% in March 2014, seasonally adjusted, reflecting three straight months of solid month-over-month gains.

Year-over-year, asking prices are up 10% nationally and up in 97 of the 100 largest metros. Albany, NY, Hartford, CT, and New Haven, CT, are the only three large metros where prices fell year-over-year, albeit slightly.

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jed-kolko/asking-home-prices-in-urban-neighborhoods_b_5129329.html?utm_hp_ref=business&ir=Business

Property prices are rising swiftly. The Bank of England may intervene | Bedford Real Estate

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BRITAIN’S housing market is like food in a microwave, says Spencer Dale, the chief economist at the Bank of England. It can “turn from lukewarm to scalding hot in a matter of a few economic seconds”. Since the crisis the bank has gained new tools to control the market’s temperature. Now that the heat is rising, it may soon start testing them out.

Until last year house prices were rising predominantly in prosperous central London boroughs. That was largely because of an influx of cash-rich buyers, says Neal Hudson of Savills, an estate agency. People saw posh property in the capital as a shelter from economic turmoil abroad. Elsewhere in Britain, the housing market was torpid. Potential buyers struggled to find mortgages. Falling real wages, economic uncertainty and the memory of plummeting house prices during the crisis curbed Britons’ obsession with property.

 

 

http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21600728-property-prices-are-rising-swiftly-bank-england-may-intervene-cool-it