Daily Archives: January 7, 2015

15 Hopelessly Scenic Cabins | North Salem Real Estate

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Winter doesn’t have to be freezing and miserable. As Scandinavians, Vermonters, and ski enthusiasts have long known, watching the snow fall from inside a stylish cabin can be downright enjoyable. Lately architects have been veering away from the rustic wooden structures of yore, and moving toward glass-walled winter homes with views from all sides, irregularly-shaped cabins that blend into their surroundings, and even domes and treehouses. From high-design mobile huts in the mountains of Washington State to a decadent 11,000-square-foot ski chalet in the French Alps with a cinema and indoor pool, here are 15 of the most ingenious new winter cabins.

 

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http://curbed.com/archives/2015/01/06/15-hopelessly-scenic-cabins-to-keep-you-from-hating-winter.php

 

3 Reasons It’s Not a Seller’s Housing Market | South Salem Real Estate

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If you’re considering purchasing a home, but worried that rising home prices mean you’ll pay too much for a house, think again. Just because home prices have risen doesn’t mean it’s a seller’s market out there. Here’s why.

1. Home Prices Aren’t Necessarily Inflated

Home prices have gone up, but have they done so unreasonably? Rewind to 2012, the unemployment rate exceeded 8%, short sales and foreclosures were still rampant, consumer confidence was low, the prospect of job growth was bleak and the general consensus was that the economy was still licking its wounds from the recession. People don’t buy homes when they’re feeling skittish about their job. Fast forward to 2015, job growth is getting traction, the banks are clearing foreclosures from their balance sheets and short sales are dropping. The result? Because the pendulum swung so far in the opposite direction with drastically low real estate prices several years ago, today’s prices in general are a reasonable correction of a settling housing market.

The likelihood for prices to continue to rise by leaps and bounds while credit is still tight is a shot in the dark, as wage strength has still not peaked. Remember, banks still have tight constraints on lending and are especially picky when approving large mortgages. Home prices in many markets are in direct proportion to the local economy. Take San Francisco, for example, where home prices are, without question, exorbitant. The tech industry is having a massive boom, driving prices up. The stronger the local economy, the more people working, the more support housing prices will have to remain strong.

2. Many Sellers Have Unrealistic Expectations

This average home price appreciation has brought sellers out of the woodwork in hopes of attaining a maximum price. Many have expectations far larger then what the market will bear. The best example of this is a home listed on the market for longer than 30 days within a strong local economy. Look at Sonoma County, Calif., where if a house is on the market longer than 30 days without a contract, it’s a good sign the property is listed too high. The only alternative is to drop the list price to induce an offer. It’s not uncommon at all these days to have a home close escrow at a price beneath the original listing price. (If you’re a seller who’s not sure what to offer on a house, talk with your real estate agent and take their advice — this is what you hire them to do.)

3. Multiple Offers Are Less Common

A good indication of a seller’s market is when there are large numbers of multiple offers – say eight to 10 – for each listed property. That is a strong indicator of the true seller’s market, much like it was in early 2014 and even summer of 2014. But these days I’m seeing that a handful of offers at best is more realistic. Less competition means a greater opportunity to get your foot in the door.

Consider this: Mortgage rates are down, increasing affordability. More people can afford to pay a little bit more for a home and not feel financially squeezed because their housing payment is lower. Prices do rise in relationship to what a ready and able buyer is willing to pay for a property. But the basics also come into play, including the location of the property, school district, bedrooms, bathrooms and lot size are all critical factors in the listing price of a home. Agents know this, but not so much sellers, who still believe they can get top dollar for their property regardless of whether they really can.

 

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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/3-reasons-not-sellers-housing-181010833.html

Obama: Help for younger, first-time homebuyers | Waccabuc Real Estate

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President Barack Obama Wednesday moved to make it cheaper for first-time and younger buyers to take out a mortgage.

Obama lowered the mortgage-insurance premium for borrowers who have a down payment of just 3.5 percent of the total home’s purchase price and finance the rest of the purchase with a loan backed by the Federal Housing Administration.

The reduction is expected to save the typical first time homebuyer an average of $900 a year on the insurance, the White House said. The insurance is required because they’re financing so much of the puchase and the loans are riskier.

Existing homeowners who refinance into an FHA mortgage will see similar reductions, the White House said.

The White House estimated that the change will help 800,000 homeowners save on their mortgages and 250,000 new buyers save on mortgage payments over the next three years.

Obama, expected to highlight the lower cost mortgages during a visit to Arizona on Thursday, has been under pressure from the housing sector to help lower costs for borrowers seeking to buy with a low down payment – often younger buyers and first-time home buyers, both a crucial link in home sales.

“We do not see first-time buyers getting into the marketplace. They don’t have a chance to get onto that first rung of housing,” said Chris Kutzkey, president of the California Association of Realtors.

While mortgage lending rates have been near record lows for several years, that has benefited the most creditworthy borrowers, who are often the wealthiest of home buyers. The middle-income segment of the market, with higher debt loads, has faced tougher lending standards. Stagnant income has crimped their ability to put more down towards a home purchase.

“Mortgage underwriting standards have been overly stringent,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.

The premiums rose sharply after the financial collapse, and have not come down even as the economy and housing market have improved.

“It’s almost as if government is ripping off the consumers,” complained Yun, noting that premiums were raised to minimize risks to taxpayers of borrowers defaulting on government-backed loans. “But what has happened is they were punishing current borrowers for the sins of past mistakes. Current borrowers did not harm the market, but they are paying the excessively high premiums.”

One consequence is the shrinking number of new homeowners. Over the past four years, first-time home buyers shrank as a percentage of all FHA loans – from 56 percent down to 39 percent, he said.

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http://www.theolympian.com/2015/01/07/3513236/obama-help-for-younger-first-time.html?sp=/99/102/#storylink=cpy

Apartment glut may tame rising rents | Katonah Real Estate

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MarketWatch
Home builders and investors have poured money into so many new rental units that tenants
may see rent growth slow in the near future, one economist said.

 

While there will likely be “robust demand” in 2015 from renters — and young adults, in particular — builders have already started and plan to start enough new apartment projects that the days of excess demand may soon be over, said Ryan Severino, senior economist at Reis, a New York-based research firm focused on commercial real estate.

“Demand will struggle to keep pace with the significant amounts of new construction that should come online over the next few years,” Severino said.

Growth in rents over coming years should remain positive, according to Reis, but it will likely slow from 2014’s heady pace of about 3.5%, which far outpaced overall consumer inflation.

“Although an improving labor market with more jobs and faster wage growth should provide landlords with more leverage to increase rents, over time this will be stymied by the sheer number of new units that are going to come online, increasing competition in the market,” Severino said.

The frenzy for apartments has been fed by a choppy jobs market that made it tough for workers to set aside enough cash for a down payment. Also, persistently high credit standards have kept singles and families from obtaining a mortgage, a key financial ingredient for many would-be homeowners, particularly first-time buyers.

Seeing an opportunity, developers ramped up apartment building. The rate of private construction spending on new multi-family residences was up 27% in November from the year-earlier pace, more than double a 13% gain for new single-family homes, according to government data. Meanwhile, outstanding multifamily-mortgage debt swelled in the third quarter, rising the most since the end of 2007, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Tuesday.

Rental vacancy rates are the lowest in 20 years, which gives landlords power to raise rents. Government data show that landlords recently ramped up rents by the fastest pace in six years. But that power may taper as the supply of rental units rises.

“With a veritable deluge of new supply set to come online over the next few years, vacancy is headed higher. The supply pipeline swells larger and larger on a weekly basis and presents the greatest risk to the apartment market’s health,” Severino said.

 

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http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apartment-glut-may-tame-rising-rents-2015-01-06

Seattle’s Glassy ‘Open House’ is Pretty Self-Explanatory | Bedford Hills Homes

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Location: Seattle, Washington
Price: $1,900,000
Seattle’s Open House probably does have an open house in its future, as it was listed yesterday for $1.9M, but the title refers to the glass walls in back that open up on both levels (the top one pushes up and out, and bottom one rolls up like a garage door). Between those large indoor-outdoor spaces, the too-spare modern staging, and what the listing calls “HUGE art walls,” the sale angle is clear: throw parties here.

A Curbed Seattle commenter who may or may not be one of the sellers says the “photos don’t do it justice,” and they do linger on the terrace/patio sections so much that it’s hard to get a sense for this 2009 work by Seattle architect Eric Cobb apart from white walls. There are some cool metal curtains on the bottom floor, a modern built-in bunk bed in the kids’ room, and a nearly all-stainless-steel kitchen.

The master bedroom is lofted above the kitchen and dining room, which is pretty interesting. You can’t really go wrong with concrete floors and exposed steel, and there’s a great deal of both.

 

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http://curbed.com/archives/2015/01/06/eric-cobb-architects-open-house-seattle-for-sale.php

Home prices continue to moderate | Bedford Real Estate

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Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 5.5% in November 2014 compared to November 2013, marking 33 months of straight year-over-year increases in home prices, the newest CoreLogic (CLGX) home price index found.

On a month basis, home prices, including distressed sales, edged slightly higher, increasing by 0.1% in November 2014 compared to October 2014.

“It is too soon to tell whether the slight moderation in the month-on-month rate of house price inflation in November is the first sign that price pressures are coming off the boil again. Regardless, the bigger picture is that the recent acceleration in house prices is unlikely to be sustained into 2015,” a Capital Economics report said on the home price index.

The increases in home prices trickled down to the state. Including distressed sales, all states and the District of Columbia showed year-over-year home price appreciation in November

Twenty-nine states are at or within 10% of their peak, and seven states reached new highs in the home price index (since January 1976 when the index starts). These states were: Colorado, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.

Excluding distressed sales, home prices nationally increased 5.3% in November 2014 compared to November 2013 and 0.3% month over month compared to October 2014.

Even with excluding distressed sales, all states and the District of Columbia showed year-over-year home price appreciation in November.

“After decelerating for most of the year, home price growth has been holding firm between a 5- percent and 6-percent growth rate for the last four months,” said Sam Khater, deputy chief economist at CoreLogic.

“However, pockets of weakness are clear in Baltimore and Washington D.C., and three of the top four states with the highest price appreciation are energy intensive and had been benefitting from the energy boom which is currently receding as oil prices trend downward. These states—Texas, Colorado and North Dakota, may see some downward pressure on prices in 2015,” said Khater.

Looking ahead, CoreLogic HPI forecasts that home prices, including distressed sales, are projected to decrease 0.1% month over month from November 2014 to December 2014 and increase, on a year-over-year basis, by 4.6% from November 2014 to November 2015.

Excluding distressed sales, home prices are also expected to decrease by 0.1% month over month from November 2014 to December 2014 and increase by 4.2% year over year from November 2014 to November 2015.

 

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CoreLogic: Home prices continue to moderate