Daily Archives: December 1, 2014

Home equity is back | Bedford Hills Real Estate

As home prices rise, homeowners are wasting no time making use of their newfound, or regained, home equity. In fact, while all mortgage originations rose in the third quarter of this year, the biggest gain was in home equity lines of credit (HELOCs).

Originations of these loans, which are often in addition to primary mortgages, jumped over 17 percent for the quarter, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, a mortgage industry publication: $20 billion in new HELOCs, which is the most quarterly volume for the product this year.

Phillip Spears | Digital Vision | Getty Images

At the current rate, lenders could originate more than $67 billion in HELOCs for all of 2014, which would be the most since 2009. Volume is still low by historical standards, but the gain points to not only more home equity available, but more confidence among consumers that they can tap their homes again for much-needed cash. There has, however, been a shift in the borrower mindset.

“It certainly seems like people are doing it a lot more responsibly now,” said Rick Huard, senior vice president of consumer lending product management at TD Bank. “People seem to be much more educated customers and much more responsible.”

They have to be, because on the flip side, lenders aren’t just handing out the loans to anyone with a pulse. During the last housing boom, borrowers extracted trillions of dollars worth of home equity, spending it on luxury goods and vacations, as lenders turned a blind eye to basic safeguards, like the ability to repay the loan or the borrower’s other debt load.

Today, lenders are following more stringent guidelines enforced by federal regulators, and most HELOC borrowers are using the money to improve their homes, adding value to their largest asset, not subtracting it.

A survey of more than one thousand HELOC borrowers by TD bank found many using HELOCs to consolidate other debt, thereby lowering interest rates (29 percent); credit cards can carry interest rates more than four times that of a HELOC. Others used the loans for automobiles (27 percent), emergencies (19 percent) or education expenses (20 percent). Some are refinancing HELOCs they already have.

“People are readdressing or redoing,” said Craig Strent of Maryland-based Apex Home loans. “That has probably resulted in this increase in equity line originations.”

 

 

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http://www.cnbc.com/id/102227326

Big money pushes Jackson’s real estate market | Bedford Real Estate

People with a lot of money have continued to push the Jackson Hole real estate market in 2014 and in the third quarter, no matter what happened in any other segment of the market.

The people at the NeVille Group — associated with Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates and Christie’s International Real Estate — shared their recent stats and noted that the Hole “is synonymous with luxury and is an international marketplace for luxury real estate.”

There were 26 sales above $3 million during the third quarter, according to NeVille Group’s figures, and the average price in the sector was actually well beyond that, hitting an average of $5.7 million.

The number of transactions was up 18 percent over the same period last year, and the total dollar value of the sales was about $160 million, up 11 percent over the same period in 2013.

Other people recorded some of the same trends.

David Viehman of Re/Max Obsidan Real Estate wrote in the third-quarter update of his Jackson Hole Report that the upper end is strong, but not without its problems.

On the strength side, during the first nine months of the year, Viehman wrote, 73 deals were done in the $2 million-plus market, and 11 of those were for more than $5 million — impressive, but down by his calculations by 21 percent from the corresponding nine months in 2013.

He noted that while $2 million-plus sales were only 14 percent of all transactions they accounted for 52 percent of total dollar volume.

The third quarter showed, though, a bit more weakness in lower-priced segments — and perhaps the end of the bounce-back caused by short money and big inventory following the 2008 crash.

Viehman put the number of listings down 15 percent in the quarter, and the dollar volume down by 10 percent. That’s after years of fat inventory and, subsequently, a boom in sales when things began to look up.

Add to that decline in listings a fall in total transactions of 11 percent and a drop of 9 percent in the number of properties under contract and you have the explanation for something happening at the same time: Prices continue to rebound.

Average sale prices were up 7 percent, Viehman wrote, and median prices were up 13 percent.

With inventory surpluses of two years ago largely depleted, that’s caused a rise of 39 percent in the median sales price of property under contract.

As David NeVille and his people note, the median sale price of single-family homes in Jackson Hole hit $1.1 million in the past few months, up $300,000 from a year before. At the same time, sales in the under-$500,000 home market, hot a year ago, were down 73 percent since mid-year.

Compared to last year, NeVille said, sales in the $500,000-and-under sector fell from 33 last year to just nine this year. All of which seems to indicate that after the Great Recession and then the recovery of the past two or three years the market is finally looking to settle into a new level.

 

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http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/jackson_hole_daily/big-money-pushes-jackson-s-real-estate-market/article_be72ecef-a955-5f58-8393-700516608151.html?mode=print

Home price expectation over the next 12 months | Armonk Real Estate

Yes, home prices are expected to grow. And a recent October 2014 survey by the National Association of Realtors shows by how much.

Thanks to the combination of rising inventory and modest expectations for demand growth, Realtors expect home prices to increase only modestly in the next 12 months.

The rate varies across the nation but the median price increase is about 3% and never goes above 5%.

Click to enlarge

NAR

 

 

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This chart shows home price expectation over the next 12 months

Will rising interest rates choke off housing recovery? | Mt Kisco Real Estate

Despite expected rises in interest rates and home prices over the next two years, housing will be affordable and, if Capital Economics is right, a little undervalued.

“The upshot is that the recovery in the housing market will continue. But with price growth likely to level off at subdued levels by the standards of recent years, investors will have to pick their opportunities increasingly carefully,” says Paul Diggle, property economist with Capital Economics.

Diggle, along with other economists, is forecasting that the Federal Reserve will start raising interest rates by the end of the first quarter of 2015, with Diggle projecting it will rise to 1.25% by the end of next year.

Based on that, he says, he expects mortgage rates on a 30-year fixed to reach 5.5% by the end of 2015 and a full 6% in 2016.

“The upshot is that housing market activity should continue its gradual recovery,” he says. “Mortgage credit conditions are loosening and households are in a better position to take out loans. Existing home sales have already climbed back to long-run norms, and we expect new home sales to make significant strides over the next few years.”

 

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http://www.housingwire.com/articles/32201-will-rising-interest-rates-choke-off-housing-recovery