Category Archives: Bedford Corners NY

Initial Jobless Claims Down by 27,000 – Good economic news | Bedford Hills Real Estate

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In each Economic Update, the Research staff analyzes recently released economic indicators and addresses what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update discusses initial jobless claims.

  • Good news for the job market this week: initial unemployment insurance claims for the week ending February 9 dropped to 341,000, which is 27,000 claims lower than the previous week’s level.  Although the data is preliminary and gets revised higher nearly every week for prior week’s data, the drop in initial claims is larger than the usual weekly variation since January of about 18,000 claims.  This indicates that fewer people are starting a period of unemployment.
  • The level of weekly claims looks headed towards 350,000 from last year’s average level of about 375,000 claims. It is also a far cry from the peak level in 2009. Still, the pace of job creation has to accelerate to absorb those already unemployed into the market. As of February 2, about 3.2 million continue to receive unemployment insurance benefits.
  • The bottom line for REALTORS® is that the job market continues to make steady, if modest, gains. NAR projects 1.4 million non-farm net new jobs in 2013, one factor that can support 5.08 million existing homes sales.
via economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org

Foreclosures Re-infect Florida Markets | Bedford Hills Real Estate

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It’s deja vu all over again in Florida. In a virtual re-run of Florida’s housing economy, its foreclosure starts lead the nation, prices are falling and inventories are too big, especially on the coasts.

Florida posted the nation’s highest statewide foreclosure rate for the fifth month in a row in January, and also had the highest number of properties with foreclosure filings for the month, marking the first month since January 2007 that California has not had the highest number of properties with foreclosure filings, RealtyTrac reported today.

With one in every 223 housing units with a foreclosure filing in January, the Ocala, Fla., metro area posted the nation’s highest foreclosure rate in January among metropolitan statistical areas with a population of 200,000 or more. But that’s just the beginning of Florida’s woes.

The top 10 markets for foreclosures include five other Florida metro areas: Miami at No. 2 (one in 228 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Orlando at No. 3 (one in 241 housing units); Jacksonville at No. 8 (one in 301 housing units); Tampa at No. 9 (one in 307 housing units); and Lakeland at No. 10 (one in 332 housing units).

Florida also topped RealtyTrac’s list of best markets to buy a foreclosure. Five other Florida cities ranked among the Top 20 best places to buy foreclosures: Lakeland, Tampa, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Miami.

In 2012, Florida posted the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, eclipsing Nevada for the first time, according to RealtyTrac. Activity in Florida rose 53.5 percent in 2012 from a year earlier, as lenders stepped up activity following the Attorneys General settlement last spring. In many cases, court backlogs and faulty bank filings have drawn out foreclosures through years of delays. RealtyTrac reported a typical Florida foreclosure lasts more than 28 months, four times as long as in 2007.

Florida cities made terrific progress against foreclosures two years ago, as the “Florida Phenomenon” led the nation into recovery. But today the state is second worse behind Nevada in terms of its lack of recovery price declines since the 2007 housing crash. Including distressed transactions, Florida markets are 43.5 percent lower today than they were at the peak, according to CoreLogic.

While foreclosure inventories in markets like Phoenix and Las Vegas are so low that the foreclosure discount-the difference between full-price homes and comparable REOs-has virtually disappeared. In Miami, the discount is still 38 percent, sign that supply is outpacing supply. In Orlando, the discount is less, 19 percent, but it’s 35 percent in Tampa and 31 percent in West Palm Beach, according to data from Home Value Forecast.

via realestateeconomywatch.com

Survey Indicates Growing Concern Over Builder Costs | Bedford Corners Homes for Sale

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The monthly NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index often includes a set of “special” questions on a topic of current interest to the housing industry. In January 2013, the special questions asked builders about the problems they faced in 2012 and expect to face in 2013. The survey was divided into 5 different sections with significant problems faced by the builders. One section covered problems related to building costs.  A year earlier, similar questions asked about problems faced in 2011, so it’s possible to trace the evolution of problems builders faced in 2011, 2012 and expect to face this year.

Chart1

According to the latest survey, more than three-fourths of the builders expect building materials prices to be one of their significant problems expected in 2013, up substantially from 46 percent in 2012 and 33 percent in 2011. Second is cost/availability of labor, a significant problem 51 percent of builders expect to face in 2013, up from 30 percent who said they faced the problem in 2012 and only 13 percent in 2011.  Nearly half of the builders expect cost/availability of developed lots to be a significant problem. This is also up from 24 percent who said they faced the problem in 2012 and 21 percent in 2011.

Against the backdrop of impending health reforms scheduled to go into effect in 2014, 42 percent of the builders expect costs of health insurance be a significant problem in 2013.  Like many of the cost categories further down on the chart, problems with health insurance were slightly less common among builders in 2012 than in 2011, but expectations indicate this small improvement is likely to be reversed in 2013.

The tendency for cost problems to become more widespread among builders—especially the top 3 categories of costs (materials, labor and lots)—is something you might expect as residential construction recovers from its trough. At this stage of the cycle, however, rising costs are beginning to emerge as a significant obstacle to a further and stronger recovery.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2013 at 2:27 pm and is filed under Data. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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via eyeonhousing.wordpress.com