Category Archives: Bedford Corners NY

June Foreclosures Fell to Lowest Level since December 2006 | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Not since Santa Claus visited the George W. Bush White House has the total of properties with foreclosure filings–default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions – reached a level as low as they did last month.

RealtyTrac reported last week that 0.61 percent of all U.S. housing units (one in 164) had at least one foreclosure filing in the first six months of the year. A total of 127,790 U.S. properties had foreclosure filings in June, down 14 percent from the previous month and down 35 percent from a year ago to the lowest monthly level since December 2006   Filings in the first half of the year totaled 801,359, representing a 19 percent decrease from the previous six months and a fall of 23 percent from the first half of 2012.

For a little perspective, here’s an excerpt from Freddie Mac’s economic outlook in December 2006:

“The recovery, however, will not be a re-run of the white-hot market in 2004-2005. Rather, there will likely be a return to more “normal” conditions next year, with starts and sales picking up only gradually and then growing at a modest pace. Nationally, house prices will likely appreciate around the rate of consumer price inflation, although there is a potential for real declines and some hard-hit areas will need greater improvements in the local economy before experiencing a housing recovery. With smaller price gains and reduced opportunities to extract equity, mortgage debt will grow more slowly. In short, housing markets will move off center stage, but will resume quietly providing homes and opportunities to build a nest egg for millions of American households.”

Things didn’t work out as planned.  Six years later, some 4.3 million nest eggs were lost to foreclosure and homeowners have lost $3 trillion in equity but at long last the recovery has begun and housing is back on center stage.

High-level findings from the report:

  • U.S. foreclosure starts in June dropped 21 percent from the previous month and were down 45 percent from a year ago to the lowest monthly level since December 2005 – a seven and a half year low. Year to date through June, 409,491 foreclosure starts have been filed nationwide, on pace to reach more than 800,000 for the year, which would be down from 1.1 million foreclosure starts in 2012.
  • Foreclosure starts in June decreased from the previous month in 38 states, including Nevada (down 84 percent), Colorado (down 62 percent), New Jersey (down 40 percent), Illinois (down 39 percent) and Florida (down 26 percent).
  • Bank repossessions (REO) in June decreased 9 percent from the previous month and were down 35 percent from a year ago. Year to date through June, a total of 248,538 bank repossessions have occurred nationwide, on pace for nearly 500,000 for the year, which would be down from more than 671,000 in 2012.
  • Bank repossessions in June decreased from a year ago in 34 states, but there were some notable exceptions where bank repossessions were up from a year ago, including Arkansas (up 143 percent), Oklahoma (up 103 percent), Maryland (up 74 percent), Washington (up 71 percent), New Jersey (up 33 percent), and New York (up 21 percent).
  • Judicial foreclosure auctions (NFS) were scheduled for 28,296 U.S. properties in June, up less than 1 percent from May but up 34 percent from June 2012. States with substantial annual increases in scheduled judicial foreclosure auctions included New Jersey (up 103 percent), Florida (up 100 percent), Maryland (up 94 percent), New York (up 66 percent), and Illinois (up 65 percent to a 35-month high).
  • Florida, Nevada, Illinois, Ohio and Georgia posted the top five state foreclosure rates for the first half of the year, while five Florida cities posted the top five metro foreclosure rates: Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville, Ocala, and Tampa.

“Halfway through 2013 it is becoming increasingly evident that while foreclosures are no longer a problem nationally they continue to be a thorn in the side of several state and local markets, particularly where a backlog of delayed distress has built up thanks to a lengthy foreclosure process,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “The increases in judicial foreclosure auctions demonstrate that these delayed foreclosure cases are now being moved more quickly through to foreclosure completion. Given the rising home prices in most of these markets, it is an opportune time for lenders to dispose of these distressed properties, either at the foreclosure auction to a third-party buyer, or by repossessing the property at the auction and subsequently selling it as a bank-owned home.

Florida, Nevada, Illinois post top state foreclosure rates in first half of 2013

Florida posted the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate in the first half of the year: 1.74 percent of housing units with a foreclosure filing (one in every 58) during the six-month period – nearly three times the national average. A total of 155,264 Florida properties had a foreclosure filing in the first six months of the year, the most of any state and up 12 percent from a year ago. In June Florida foreclosure starts (LIS) decreased 23 percent from a year ago but scheduled foreclosure auctions increased 100 percent and bank repossessions increased 14 percent during the same time period.

Despite a 58 percent month-over-month drop in foreclosure activity in June, Nevada posted the nation’s second highest foreclosure rate in the first half of 2013: 1.40 percent of housing units with a foreclosure filing (one in every 71) during the six-month period. A total of 16,291 Nevada properties had a foreclosure filing in the first half of 2013, up 12 percent from the previous six months but down 21 percent from a year ago. New state legislation (AB 300) that changes the foreclosure process in Nevada took effect in June.

Illinois foreclosure activity in the first half of 2013 decreased from the previous six months and a year ago, but the state still posted the nation’s third highest foreclosure rate: 1.20 percent of housing units with a foreclosure filing (one in 83) during the six-month period. In June Illinois foreclosure starts (LIS) decreased 68 percent from a year ago and bank repossessions were down 49 percent from a year ago, but scheduled foreclosure auctions increased 65 percent during the same time period to the highest monthly level since July 2010

Buyer Procrastination? No Thanks | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Plenty of people offer plenty of theories about what exactly selling is. Here’s my theory: Selling is about persuading someone to make a decision.

 

Trying to sell a job in one call isn’t easy. You’re there to get a decision, and it’s human nature to procrastinate. The bigger the decision, the more likely prospects are to put it off.

The sales process itself sets you up for this. If you’re selling the way you should be, you’re asking a lot of open-ended questions. You reach the end of your presentation and move to close. Now you’re asking a question that’s not open-ended but requires a yes or no answer. And yes or no is often the answer people are least inclined to give. They’d rather put off making the decision.

Need To Think It Over

They put it off with objections that are often excuses. Have you ever had a homeowner say, “I’ll think it over and call you back tomorrow”? Have they told you they can’t decide without consulting a friend, colleague, or relative? Certainly you’ve heard that they can’t make a decision without more estimates. And you’re familiar with the delay tactic: “I never make an immediate decision.”

Sometimes these aim to send you politely on your way. But let’s assume you’ve been at the prospect’s house for two hours and you’ve done a great job presenting yourself, your company, and your product. You go to close — Can we do business tonight? — and they tell you they need to see a few more estimates.

Instead of walking away, challenge the prospect by making them accountable. Ask “Who else are you seeing and when?” Or “Do you really want to sit through four more window company presentations?”

Let’s say the reason they give for not buying is that they want to talk to someone else. You can ask them what it is that they want to talk to the other company about. Let’s say the reason is that they never buy without thinking it over. OK, so why is that? What exactly do they need to think through? Maybe you can help them with that process.

Keep Them Talking

Prospects will answer the questions you ask because people are conditioned to answer. By challenging the excuses they give for not buying, you get them to say what’s really on their minds. It may be they’re not so much avoiding a decision as feeling you out in an effort to get better terms. OK, now you can negotiate. You also reestablish control of the conversation. That means you can direct the conversation to a certain purpose, which is to close them a second time or a third time. But if you want the sale, you have to keep them talking. Silence means the sales appointment is over. —Jake Jacobson is vice president of sales at Premier Window & Building, a Maryland home improvement company. Reach him at trainyes@verizon.net.

Phoenix housing market sees ‘boomerang buyers’ sooner than expected | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Early in the housing crisis, financial experts estimated it might take up to seven years for people who lost a home through a foreclosure or short sale to qualify for a mortgage to buy again.

Thousands of new Phoenix-area homeowners are proving the experts wrong. These “boomerang buyers” — so called by real-estate insiders because they were out of the market and have now come back — have returned as a major market force much earlier than expected. Many buyers are qualifying for a new loan only a few years after defaulting on their last mortgage.

Boomerang buyers are expected to account for almost one in every five home sales in metro Phoenix this year, according to a national housing analyst. That’s double the projected U.S. rate.

The boomerang phenomenon is being driven by several factors. Many former owners face rising rents, and now that their finances and the housing economy are more stable, they want to own again. And many of these tens of thousands of metro Phoenix families who are renting are attractive to mortgage backers and some lenders again because they have rebuilt their credit and because any purchases they make add strength to the real-estate recovery.

“Probably 25 to 30 percent of the borrowers calling us now have had a short sale or foreclosure in their past,” said Mike Metz, managing director of Scottsdale-based Sun State Home Loans.

Lenders and government agencies backing mortgages do require steep down payments and decent credit scores from most boomerang buyers. The sooner a loan application comes after a foreclosure or short sale, typically the more up-front money is required.

These former homeowners, like many other prospective buyers, are scrambling to make a deal before home prices and interest rates climb too high.

“Foreclosed homeowners who are now renting are in a panic,” said John Burns, a national real-estate analyst.

Metro Phoenix has a bigger pool of potential boomerang buyers than most areas. More than 250,000 houses in the region were foreclosed on during the crash, and 80,000 other borrowers sold homes through short sales to avoid foreclosure.

Approximately 22,000 home sales, or 19 percent of all home sales, in metro Phoenix this year will involve boomerang buyers, according to an estimate by Burns’ company, Irvine, Calif.-based John Burns Real Estate Consulting.

“Phoenix is the third-biggest U.S. market for boomerang buyers,” Burns said. The California metro areas of Riverside-San Bernardino and Los Angeles are No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.

The many prospective buyers also face a challenging market in metro Phoenix because of the shortage of the number of affordable properties for sale.

Buying again

Phyllis Borchardt is one recent boomerang buyer.

She and her husband, Larry Fetkenhauer, bought a Sun City Grand home in May for $138,000, blocks from the house they had rented for three years. The couple had moved from Temecula, Calif., in 2005 and bought a house for $250,000 in Buckeye.

As home prices fell and Phyllis’ business as a real-estate agent brought in less money, the couple tried to refinance to lower their mortgage payment through the federal Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP. After submitting documents to their lender for a year, the couple still weren’t approved for a loan with a lower interest rate. Then, in 2010, Fetkenhauer lost his job as a kitchen designer at one of the big-box home-improvement stores.

 

Phoenix housing market sees ‘boomerang buyers’ sooner than expected.

Ticks’ stealth and human nature hamper Lyme-disease prevention | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Efforts to keep ticks and people apart have foundered, even as Lyme has emerged as the second most commonly reported infectious disease in New England.

This regional epidemic has yet to trigger a broad public health response on par with prevention strategies for other pervasive illnesses. That is partly because ticks are a devious foe. Vacation spots are also loath to publicize the threat, and the public and politicians often don’t perceive Lyme as a serious malady. The result is a lopsided spending gap between prevention efforts for tick- and mosquito-borne illnesses.

Ticks have stealth on their side. Small as a pinhead, they don’t buzz in warning and their bite is painless.

 

Ticks’ stealth and human nature hamper Lyme-disease prevention – Health – Boston.com.

11 Brilliant Ways to Crush It on LinkedIn | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Are you using LinkedIn?

Personally I’ve spent most of my social media energy on Facebook.

But lately I’m thinking I should pay more attention to LinkedIn — since millions of businesses are thriving there.

I know LinkedIn has made a ton of important changes over the past year — many of which have caught my attention.

And their mobile app is better than Facebook’s!

So here’s a list of the best resources I could find on LinkedIn. Enjoy & please let me know if they’re helpful.

11 LinkedIn Resources You Can’t Miss

How to Effectively Use LinkedIn For Business

by Kim Garst

According to Kim, LinkedIn is an amazing tool to promote your product or service. It’s a place to start conversations with others in your niche.  It’s a place where having an up-to-date profile can land you your next big opportunity. And if you know how to use it well, the networking & growth potential is astounding.

3 LinkedIn Tools to Grow Your Presence on LinkedIn

by Ian Cleary

LinkedIn can be a very valuable tool for your business but only if you’re using the right LinkedIn management tools? In this article Ian outlines 3 tools that will really help you grow your presence on LinkedIn.

5 Creative Ways to Use LinkedIn Company Pages

by Social Media Examiner

Here Social Media Examiner gives us five brands using their LinkedIn company pages creatively. Check out what these businesses are doing so you can learn to tell your story, generate leads & engage your communities through your LinkedIn page.

LinkedIn: Revolutionizing the World of Recruiting [Infographic]

by MarketingProfs

To find out how LinkedIn is transforming job recruiting, the folks at MarketingProfs did some indepth research. It turns out HR folks aren’t flipping through resumes & paperwork anymore to help companies fill positions. Instead, they’re searching through profiles on LinkedIn, their go-to source for quality recruits.

Turn Your Profile Into Your Portfolio on LinkedIn

by Marketing Pilgrim

LinkedIn now lets you set your profile up to function as a portfolio! So if you have a visual backlog of work, you need to read this post to see how to make it stand out on LinkedIn.

How to Boost Engagement on Your LinkedIn Company Page

by Social Media Examiner

In a recent LinkedIn study, 50% of company followers said they’re more likely to purchase products & services from a business they engage with on LinkedIn. Here are 5 simple ways to boost engagement with your LinkedIn followers.

LinkedIn: Unlock Your Potential on the World’s Largest Business Network

by Kim Garst

LinkedIn is a powerful tool when it comes to finding potential employees, searching for a dream job & expanding your network. It easily outdoes any online job board in all of these areas. Kim covers some easy-to-follow ways to unlock your potential on LinkedIn — and maybe land your dream job.

How to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job

by The 60 Second Marketer

Most people know LinkedIn is used to find new jobs. But are you leveraging LinkedIn in the right way to do that? In this post, the 60 Second Marketer gives you some practical tips on how to land your new job via LinkedIn.

 

 

11 Brilliant Ways to Crush It on LinkedIn – Yahoo! Small Business Advisor.

10 kitchen storage essentials under $10 | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Garlic keeper

Thanks to a lid that blocks out sunlight and a small grid of ventilation holes, garlic lasts days longer when kept in this tiny terra cotta pot. Garlic Keeper, $9. crateandbarrel.com.

 

 

10 kitchen storage essentials under $10 – MSN Living.

Luxury auctions catching on | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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A 40-acre Temecula, Calif., estate built by the late actor Jack Klugman will be auctioned July 27 using Premiere Estates Auction Co.’s “WorldBid Auction platform.” The company requires only a bidder registration form and a $100,000 cashier’s check to register to bid for the home, originally listed for $12 million.

 

Luxury real estate auctions are taking off, according to blogger Candy Evans, who says auctions  “are a great way, in fact, maybe the only way, to unload big, kinda albatross-y homes, as well as your standard multimillion-dollar fare.” Evans reports that the nation’s third-largest auction house, Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, is now conducting luxury real estate auctions. Source: prnewswire.com.

 

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/wire/luxury-auctions-catching-on/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+inmannews+%28Inman+News+-+Headlines%29#sthash.qMsxT5ED.dpuf

 

 

Luxury auctions catching on | Inman News.

As real estate market rebounds, Alaska recovery is slow, steady | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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As with most aspects of life, everything is a matter of perspective. A rebounding national real estate market means sellers who were underwater may be able to sell now, which gives buyers more choices. However, prices are still well below market highs. How does Anchorage’s real estate market stack up to national statistics?

 

According to the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) snapshot of 146 metro marketplaces in May, the national real estate market has definitely made a turn. The hardest-hit areas, like California, are seeing the most rebound. California took the honors with the top three locations for May:

 

Oakland, median list price of $484,900 — an increase of 47 percent year over year;

San Jose, median list price of $675,000 — an increase of 35 percent;

San Francisco, median list price of $819,900 — an increase of 20 percent.

This double-digit growth is the third consecutive month of increase, when comparing 2013 to 2012, according to CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index. However in the longer term, this was the 15th month-over-month increase. Home prices rose in all states except Delaware and Alabama.

 

When comparing states, the top five states with the highest percentage of price increases were Nevada (26 percent), California (20.2 percent), Arizona (16.9 percent), Hawaii (16.1 percent) and Oregon (15.5 percent). Overall prices are still 20 percent below the 2006 pre-financial crisis peak.

 

Trending in the opposite direction — which is a good thing — is the May average price discount for short sales and foreclosures. According to the NAR Confidence Index, foreclosures are 15 percent below market in 2013, compared to 18 percent last year. Short sales are 12 percent below market in 2013, compared to 14 percent last year. This is a good sign because distressed short sales and foreclosures create less of a drag on property values.

 

The NAR Pending Home Sale Index (agreements signed but not closed) shows that in May 2013, signed agreements to purchase were up more than 12 percent compared to May 2012. The increase is due to pent-up demand and fear that increased interest rates will affect affordability.

 

For Anchorage, the market recovery is slow and steady on a much smaller scale. Here are a couple of interesting year-to-date statistics from the Alaska Multiple Listing Service for June 2013 versus June 2012.

 

Supply remains tight with the number of homes for sale (1,311) down 11 percent.

Median list price ($315,000) increased more than 2 percent.

Average list price ($342,040) increased only slightly, 0.3 percent.

Average days on the market (52) decreased almost 27 percent.

Total real estate sales volume ($447,629,340) increased more than 17 percent.

Median sales price ($315,500) increased more than 3 percent.

Average sale price ($338,600) increased almost 1 percent.

Closed foreclosures (82) decreased almost 14 percent.

Overall, Anchorage sellers cannot expect big increases in values for two reasons:

 

We didn’t have the big falls in home values that markets in much of the Lower 48 experienced.

Our population increased only .93 percent, while nationally the population increased 1.7 percent.

While we aren’t growing significantly in size, many perceive the economy as doing better and those on the sidelines are joining the house hunt. It will be interesting to see how the year finishes for Anchorage and the rest of the nation.

 

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/07/06/2966248/ramseys-as-real-estate-market.html#storylink=cpy

 

 

Ramseys: As real estate market rebounds, local recovery is slow, steady | Barbara and Clair Ramsey | ADN.com.

Bedford Corners sales flat – Prices down 6% | RobReportBlog | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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Bedford Corners NY Real Estate ReportRobReportBlog
20136 months ending 7/52012
10Sales10
$1,105,000.00median sold price$11,800,002.00
$315,000.00low sold price$450,000.00
$3,600,000.00high sold price$4,800,000.00
3891average size4239
$344.00ave. price per foot$346.00
244ave days on market215
$1,410,600.00average sold price$1,546,900.00
96.32%ave sold to ask93.92%

Bay Area housing market bidding frenzy cooling off | Bedford Corners Real Estate

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The super-heated housing market may be cooling down in the Bay Area, as multiple bids aren’t come in as fast as a few weeks ago, nor are over-bids.

Sunnyvale is a red-hot market and homes often sell within a week, maybe a couple of days, or even one day. But in this super-heated market we’ve seen a lot of buyers offering from $50,000 to $100,000 over the asking price. However, something has changed because now all of a sudden buyers are taking a breath before they make an offer.

A three bedroom, two bathroom house in Sunnyvale went on the market five days ago. As recently as a couple of weeks ago, multiple offers would have come in even before the first open house. However, Pertria real estate agent Barbara Lymberis says it’s taking a little longer.

“In this market it’s taking a little bit longer for buyers to make a decision to make an offer. I would say we’re probably looking at 10 days to two weeks before we start to see offers,” Lymberis said.

Lymberis and other agents told ABC7 News that buyers are moving slower because of a number of recent developments. Interest rates are inching up, past four percent now, after the Federal Reserve signaled it may ease its mortgage buying this fall. Higher rates will also make it more expensive for investors to borrow money to buy rental properties.

“It’s been multiple offers, overbidding, people buying with all cash, offers with no appraisal contingencies or any contingency whatsoever, which is a dangerous situation for anybody. I think buyers are getting frustrated with that,” Keller Williams Realty agent Quincy Virgilio said.

In recent months, buyers found themselves overbidding, and then discovering the house didn’t appraise for the contract price. So they would have to come up with the difference in cash in order to get a loan.

“Buyers overpaid because they had to, you know, in order to beat out the competition. A lot of buyers would pay more than they might in a balanced market,” Lymberis said.

But the bidding frenzy may be cooling off. The asking price for a three bedroom home in Sunnyvale is $879,000.

“I have not seen as many multiple offers in the last two weeks as I had before, and so I would say that we probably have a little cooling off period,” Cedar Mortgage Company broker & President Marge Nogosek said

 

Bay Area housing market bidding frenzy cooling off | abc7news.com.