Category Archives: Lewisboro

Mortgage Rates Slide Again, Putting Pressure on Buyers | Katonah NY Homes

Leave a reply

 

Mortgage rates are falling fast again, and would-be buyers have to start thinking: Can I afford to wait six months to buy a home with interest rates this low?

And low they are, as evidenced by a slew of mortgage rate data out early this week.

First up is the BankingMyWay Weekly Mortgage Rate tracker, which shows 30-year fixed mortgage rates sliding from 4.40% last week to 4.21% this week.

One-, three- and five-year adjustable-rate mortgages are also in full retreat this week, with the benchmark three-year ARM rate falling from 3.46% to 2.85%.

The BMW rate tracker also shows 15-year fixed-rate mortgages falling, from 3.58% to 3.43%.

Freddie Mac is out with new mortgage rates as well, and they pretty much mirror the BMW figures. Freddie Mac has current 30-year fixed mortgage rates at 4.23% and 15-year fixed loan rates at 3.33%.

While rates are well above where they were last year at this time (at 3.53% for the 30-year rate), mortgage interest costs have dropped significantly in recent weeks.

“Mortgage rates fell further this week following the release of weaker housing data,” says Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist, at Freddie Mac.

He notes the U.S. pending home sales index declined by 8.7% in December, to its lowest level since October 2011. “Fixed residential investment negatively contributed to GDP in the fourth quarter for the first time since the third quarter of 2010,” he says. “Also, the Institute for Supply Management reported a significant slowing in growth in the manufacturing industry in December than the market consensus forecast.”

 

http://www.thestreet.com/story/12326974/1/mortgage-rates-slide-again-putting-pressure-on-buyers.html?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO

 

I Turned My Tiny, Dark, And Overpriced New York Apartment Into A ‘Smart Home’ For Just $300 | Cross River Homes

Leave a reply

 

The SmartThings kit has all the basics you need to get started connecting your home.

My apartment gets almost no natural light.

That’s one of the problems with living in New York. I spend about a zillion dollars per month in rent, and still have a teeny tiny apartment that faces the back of a bunch of taller buildings that block the sun. My bedroom window faces some other guy’s bedroom window across a narrow, dark alley.

So no matter what time of day it is, I always have the lights on in my apartment.

For the last several weeks, my apartment has been programmed to light itself up. Whenever I enter my building, my apartment knows I’m home and switches on the lamp in my living room so I don’t have to fumble around in the dark. When I leave the room, the light shuts itself off.

That’s because I’ve been testing something called SmartThings. SmartThings isn’t just one gadget, but a Web-connected system of everyday objects that can control everything in your home from your lights to your coffee maker. I tested one of the SmartThings starter kits, which sell for $199 or $299.

How It Works

SmartThings starts with the hub, a small white plastic box that looks sort of like a WiFi router. The hub plugs into your router and talks to the rest of the connected objects in your home. Since the hub is connected to the Internet, you can control everything from a computer or the SmartThings app, even if you’re out of the house.

From there, you set up the objects you want connected. My starter kit came with two motion sensors, two multi sensors that can tell you when a door or window is open, two presence sensors that you clip to your keychain so the hub knows when you’re home (the app can also double as a presence sensor using your phone’s GPS), a smart outlet for controlling lamps or appliances, and a moisture sensor that goes under the sink to alert you in case of a leak.

 

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/turned-tiny-dark-overpriced-york-164004491.html

China’s housing market is looking ugly | Cross River NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

China’s surging property market might finally have hit the skids.

Sales have “showed a sharp decline” (paywall) in January, compared to Dec. 2013, according to China Confidential, a Financial Times research outfit, even when controlling for softness due to the Chinese New Year holiday. Official data show prices still high in December (the last month for which data were available), but those will likely be dragged down in the coming months.

A big blow to global markets

Housing investment is a big engine of China’s economy. And though slower growth could help end China’s dangerous reliance on credit-backed investment, an abrupt slowdown will freak out global markets and throttle commodity prices.

 

Devastating for China’s financial system

Property-sector loans accounted for one-third of total loans last year, equaling $380 billion. A slowdown would mean that real estate developers, many of whom borrow through shadow finance channels, would struggle to pay back retail investors who effectively loaned to them via wealth management products (more on those here). A lot of that investment has flowed one way or another through China’s shadow banking system, the unregulated credit that allows banks to shunt loans to dodgy borrowers.

But the threat to China’s financial system is much broader than that. Untold billions in corporate borrowing are supported by property used as collateral. There’s a cottage industry of auditors willing to appraise unoccupied or under-development property at whatever value is deemed necessary to get a bank manager to extend a loan. (In many cases, the borrower will turn around and lend to another business at a higher interest rate.) The fact that prices keep going up means there’s nothing challenging those face-value assumptions. A slump in prices would put a big dent in the value of that collateral.

http://qz.com/174029/chinas-housing-market-is-looking-ugly-which-is-scary-for-its-financial-system/#174029/chinas-housing-market-is-looking-ugly-which-is-scary-for-its-financial-system/

Canada housing agency sees stable starts, prices in 2014 | Katonah NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

 

Canada’s federal housing agency nudged up its forecast for housing starts and prices in 2014 and said sales and construction will be steady to higher in 2015 as an improving economy tempers the impact of rising mortgage rates.

The view from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp suggests the nation’s once-roaring housing market is settling into a soft landing, with construction moderating to more sustainable levels and sales and prices ticking slowly higher.

The CMHC said on Thursday housing starts will be in a range of 176,600 and 199,800 in 2014, with a point forecast, or most likely outcome, of 187,300 units, relatively unchanged from 187,923 units in 2013. That is up slightly from CMHC’s October estimate of 184,700 starts.

The agency said there will be 163,200 to 206,600 units started in 2015, with a point forecast of 184,900.

Both forecasts represent a sharp slowdown from the 214,827 starts of 2012, when the market was at record highs and the government intervened to tighten mortgage lending rules.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/06/canada-economy-housing-idUSL2N0LB0V520140206

 

Can home prices record 23 months of increases? | Katonah NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

 

Home prices maintained their course and increased 11% in December 2013 compared to a year ago, recording the 22nd consecutive monthly year-over-year increase in home prices nationally, according to the latest December CoreLogic Home Price Index.

Month-over-month, home prices, including distressed sales, dipped by .1% in December compared to November.

Home prices, excluding distressed sales, jumped by 9.9% in December compared to a year prior and .2% month-over-month compared to November.

“Last year, home prices rose 11%, the highest rate of annual increase since 2005, and ten states and the District of Columbia reached new all-time price peaks,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic.

“We expect the rising prices to attract more sellers, unlocking this pent-up supply, which will have a moderating effect on prices in 2014,” Fleming added.

Looking ahead, the HPI forecasts that January homes prices, including distressed sales, will increase 10.2% year-over-year from January 2013. But on a month-over-month basis, home prices are projected to dip .8% from December 2013 to January 2014.

 

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/28839-can-home-prices-record-23-months-of-increases

London housing market showing ‘bubble-like’ conditions | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

 

London’s housing market is beginning to show “bubble-like conditions” as overseas investors bid up prices and buyers take on more debt to purchase properties, according to a report today by the EY Item Club.

Homeowners are now borrowing as much relative to their income to purchase real estate in the UK capital as they were before the financial crisis, the London-based economic forecaster sponsored by EY, formerly Ernst and Young, said.

The average London home will cost about £600,000 by 2018, it estimates. It is around £404,000 now, according to the land registry. Prices across most of the UK “remain well below their pre-crisis peaks and there seems little danger of a bubble,” Andrew Goodwin, senior economic adviser to the EY Item Club, said in the report.

“But London, which is suffering from a combination of strong demand and a lack of supply, is increasingly giving us cause for concern.”

Surging London home prices, buoyed by demand from overseas investors and government initiatives to aid buyers, have prompted economists, analysts and politicians to warn of unsustainable gains. Asia has been a particularly strong source of demand for the best London properties, EY Item Club said, citing brokers.

Investors from countries such as China and Singapore are taking advantage of the pound’s depreciation since the financial crisis to buy London homes.

 

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/london-housing-market-showing-bubble-like-conditions-1.1677825

Some 86% of Banks Have not Relaxed Mortgage Lending Standards | Katonah NY Homes

Leave a reply

Despite reports of banks relaxing requirements for getting a mortgage, some 86 percent of banks that originate residential mortgages have either not changed or tightened their lending standards, according to a national annual survey conducted by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Some 11 percent of banks said they had eased standards, up from 10 percent in 2012.  Eleven percent said that they have tightened them up. Home equity loans also saw tighter standards.

The survey which concluded in June 30, 2013 and covered the previous 18 months, did not reflect changes in standards over in the past seven months.  Ellie Mae reported median FICO scores for purchase and refi loan fell from 742 in June to 727 in December and median loan to value ratios rose from 80 to 82 percent.

The OCC found banks were relaxing underwriting for both commercial and other retail products at a faster pace than residential mortgages.  Large banks as a group reported the highest share of eased standards. Want to get more information? The Atlantic Union Bank has a lot of information that can be very useful.

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2014/01/some-86-of-banks-have-not-relaxed-mortgage-lending-standards/