Housing Barometer: Recovery Staggers Forward | Chappaqua Real Estate
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When Housing Prices Become Fish Stories, the Economy Suffers | Chappaqua Real Estate
Over at Wonkblog, Christopher Ingraham points us to new research from Ireland suggesting that an awful lot of people don’t know how much they paid for their houses. I’ve adapted the main chart from the study on the right. As you can see, most people who get this wrong underestimate how much they paid—sometimes by gigantic amounts. Very few people overestimate how much they paid, and virtually no one overestimates by more than a quarter or so.
What accounts for this? As it happens, the authors are mostly concerned with how this poor recall affects estimates of the wealth effect—which I admit I didn’t really understand.1 Because of this focus, they don’t spend a lot of time speculating on the underlying causes. But they do mention that the older the loan, the less accurate people are; that younger people remember better than older people; and that errors are smaller among the well-educated.
But none of this explains why the bad recall is overwhelmingly on the low side. So here’s my guess: people lie. Or, more charitably, they’re in denial. They don’t want to admit to themselves or their friends how much they lost during the housing crash. Or, when prices are rising, they like to brag about how much they’ve made. Everyone else claims to have made a killing, so they slice a little bit off their buying price to make it seem like they made a killing too. No one wants to be a sucker, after all. Do this enough times, and eventually you come to believe it yourself.
Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Rose 13.2% in Year to January | Chappaqua NY Real Estate
Residential real-estate prices climbed at a slower pace in the year through January than a month earlier, indicating momentum in the housing market may be cooling.
The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities increased 13.2 percent from January 2013, the smallest gain since August, after rising 13.4 percent in the 12 months through December, the group said today in New York. The median projection of 30 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 13.3 percent advance. Compared with the prior month, prices rose 0.8 percent.
Price appreciation on a year-over-year basis has eased in recent months as higher mortgage rates and unusually severe winter weather slowed demand for properties. Smaller increases in asking prices will help improve affordability, providing support for the residential real-estate market, which has been a source of strength for the economy.
“Prices are rising, even though we should see those gains moderating,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc., who correctly forecast the year-over-year gain. “You’re still talking about double-digit percentage increases, which aren’t going to be sustainable over the long term.”
Estimates (SPCS20Y%) in the Bloomberg survey ranged from year-over-year gains of 11.2 percent to 13.8 percent. The Case-Shiller index is based on a three-month average, which means the January figure was also influenced by transactions in December and November.
5 Ways to Allergy-Proof Your Home for Spring | Chappaqua Real Estate
Step 1: Clean the Air
Making your home inhospitable for allergens sounds like a daunting task. In a particulate sense, it’s going to be you against millions of mold spores, dust mites and pollen. Fortunately, though, you’re smarter than these minute microbes, and following these tips can help you keep allergies at bay. A well-ventilated house and nonleaking ductwork is a first line of defense against bringing allergens into your living space. Use HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters in the air conditioning system. Maintain the humidity level in the house at about 50 percent. Mold likes moisture, and dust and pollen are easily stirred in dry air. Keep your windows closed when pollen counts are highest: in the early morning hours, between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., and in windy conditions. Pollen and mold spores settle on clothing, so when you come in from outdoors, remove your outer garments in the mud room, and take a shower.
http://shine.yahoo.com/photos/5-ways-allergy-proof-home-slideshow-181100929/
What You Should Know Before Dipping Into Home Flipping | Chappaqua NY Homes
The TV shows make it look so easy. You buy an ugly house, fix it up in a week or two and then sell it for a whopping $100,000 profit.
But as anyone who has ever tried it knows, house flipping is a lot harder than it looks.
“The math never lies,” says Brandon Turner, senior editor and community manager for BiggerPockets, a website for real estate investors, and a veteran flipper near Olympia, Wash.
And often, the math doesn’t add up to a sizable payday when you factor in the time, effort, labor and money to execute a flip. But that doesn’t keep people from trying.
Investors flipped 156,862 single-family homes in 2013, according to RealtyTrac, which defined a flipped home as one bought and sold twice within six months. The number of flips was up 16 percent from 2012 and 114 percent from 2011. The average gross profit for a completed flip — or more accurately, the difference between the first sales price and the second sales price – was $58,081.
Only 21 percent of those flips were foreclosure properties, according to RealtyTrac, down from 32 percent in 2011. And it has proved much more popular in some cities than others. Home flipping was up 141 percent in Virginia Beach, Va., 92 percent in Jacksonville, Fla., 88 percent in Baltimore and 79 percent in Atlanta. But it fell 43 percent in Philadelphia, 32 percent in Phoenix, 17 percent in Tampa, Fla., and Houston, and 15 percent in Denver. In 2013, there was a bigger increase in the flipping of properties that sold for $400,000 or more than in lower-priced properties.
“Investors have not lost interest in purchasing and flipping homes. In fact, now that we are seeing home price appreciation, they are more interested than…
http://news.yahoo.com/know-dipping-home-flipping-145712062.html
Sweet, Private Cottage on Five Acres in Wainscott Asks $1.2M | Chappaqua NY Homes
121 Merchants Path, Wainscott
10 images
We quite like the Colonial Williamsburg vibe of this shingled cottage in the northern reaches of Wainscott. Plus, since it’s set on five acres, it’s quiet and private. The property has been on the market for months, though, so we wonder what the catch is. There’s a charming painted kitchen with a fireplace, more fireplaces in the living room and master bedroom, wide-planked floors, and charming built-ins and pocket doors. In all, there are four bedrooms and 3.5 baths in 2623sf. Outside, the plot is 5.45 acres with pretty gardens. No pool, but plenty of room for one. Price seems fairly reasonable, too.
As credit tightens at home, Chinese sell Hong Kong luxury real estate | Chappaqua Real Estate
Cash-strapped Chinese are scrambling to sell their luxury homes in Hong Kong, and some are knocking up to a fifth off the price for a quick sale, as a liquidity crunch looms on the mainland.
Wealthy Chinese were blamed for pushing up property prices in the former British territory, where they accounted for 43 percent of new luxury home sales in the third quarter of 2012, before a tax hike on foreign buyers was announced.
The rush to sell coincides with a forecast 10 percent drop in property prices this year as the tax increase and rising borrowing costs cool demand. At the same time, credit conditions in China have tightened. Earlier this week, the looming bankruptcy of a Chinese property developer owing 3.5 billion yuan ($565.25 million) heightened concerns that financial risk was spreading.
“Some of the mainland sellers have liquidity issues – say, their companies in China have some difficulties – so they sold the houses to get cash,” said Norton Ng, account manager at a Centaline Property real estate office close to the China border, where luxury houses costing up to HK$30 million ($3.9 million) have been popular with mainland buyers.
Property agents said mainland Chinese own close to a third of the existing homes that are now for sale in Hong Kong – up 20 percent from a year ago. Many are offering discounts of 5-10 percent below the market average – and in some cases as much as 20 percent – to make a quick sale, property agents and analysts said.
Latest Figures Show New Home Sales and Prices Drop in New York | Chappaqua Real Estate
The New York, NY market saw a drop in new home closings year-over-year in November, a downhill move after a bump in October 2013. New home closings saw a 13.0% decline from a year earlier to 547. This was after the housing market saw a 39.6% hike year-over-year in October.
A total of 7,604 new homes were sold during the 12 months that ended in November, down from 7,686 for the year that ended in October.
As a percentage of overall housing closings, new home closings accounted for 5.2%. This is a decline 7.4% of closings a year earlier. For new and existing homes, closings increased year-over-year in November after also increasing in October year-over-year.
New York Ranks As Worst State For Taxpayers | Chappaqua Real Estate
New York is the worst state in the country to be a taxpayer, according to rankings released by WalletHub.com.
The Empire State ranked 51st (including Washington, D.C.) with an average annual state and local tax burden of $9718, which is 40 percent higher than the national average, according to WalletHub.
Wallethub ranked each state in the following categories to come up with its ranking: Real estate tax, state income tax, local income tax, vehicle property tax, vehicle sales tax, sales and use tax, fuel tax, alcohol tax, food tax and telecommunications tax.
New York’s neighbors didn’t fare well in the rankings, either. Connecticut was ranked no.48 while Vermont, New Jersey and Pennsylvania ranked 45th, 44th and 39th, respectively.
Wyoming ranked as the best state to live in as a tax payer with an annual average tax burden of $2365, or 66 percent below the national average.
Alaska, Nevada, Florida and South Dakota rounded out the top 5.
http://chappaqua.dailyvoice.com/news/new-york-ranks-worst-state-taxpayers
How to figure out share of ‘pocket listings’ in the market | Chappaqua Real Estate
How many home sales are taking place outside of the multiple listing service in your market? Clareity Consulting’s Matt Cohen says MLS executives around the country are showing an interest in getting to the bottom of that question, and he’s written a blog post explaining how to do just that.
Pocket listings are not new, but recent inventory shortages in many markets could be creating conditions — lots of buyers competing for scarce listings — that are ripe for real estate brokers and agents to close deals outside of the MLS.
A study by Silicon Valley-based MLSListings Inc. suggests that pocket listings constitute a significant and growing chunk of home sales. That study found that pocket listings made up 26 percent of home sales in five Northern California counties in the first quarter of 2013, up from 15 percent in 2012.
A wider, but still limited, study of four large U.S. counties from CoreLogic earlier this month suggested that MLSs played little or no role in nearly half of home sales in 2013, offering more insight into a topic which has generated plenty of rhetoric, but not a lot of hard data, in the industry.
– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2014/03/19/mls-execs-get-guidance-on-how-to-figure-out-share-of-pocket-listings-in-their-market/?utm_source=20140319&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam#sthash.6fhNlCSz.dpuf