Category Archives: Pound Ridge

FHA Largely to Be Spared ‘Sequester’ | Pound Ridge NY Homes

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The across-the-board budget cuts enacted into law in 2011 to reduce the federal deficit take effect Friday, March 1, absent additional action by the  government. Some $85 billion, split between defense and domestic discretionary  programs, is scheduled to be cut over the balance of 2013. In all, about $1.2 trillion is to be cut over the next 10 years.

  Not counting the economic impact on housing demand, the cuts are expected to have minimal impact on federally backed mortgage finance programs because the sequester applies to program dollars, not loan guaranty authority. For that reason, loans backed by the FHA, the VA, and the Rural Housing Service are expected to remain at current levels.

  The two secondary mortgage market companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which remain under federal conservatorship, will also likely see little impact from the sequester.

  Two additional budget deadlines are ahead. The deadline for extending a continuing resolution that’s in place is March 28. A continuing resolution is a temporary budget measure that keeps the federal government operating in the absence of congressionally passed appropriations bills. And the deadline by which the federal government must raise its debt ceiling, which enables it to borrow funds to service its existing debt, is May 19.

  The White House has posted an analysis of how the budget sequester could impact federal funding in your state. Access the analysis. 

via realtormag.realtor.org

Home price gains running out of steam? | South Salem NY Real Estate

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All three home price indices maintained by S&P/Case-Shiller finished 2012 with strong gains, but showed signs of losing momentum in the final three months of the year.

Case-Shiller’s National Home Price Index was up 7.3 percent from a year ago in the fourth quarter. The 20-City and 10-City Composite indices saw annual gains in December of 7.3 percent, 6.8 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively.

It was the seventh month in a row that the 20-City Composite posted an annual gain, with every market in the index except New York up for the year.

The National Home Price Index, after strong second and third quarters, slipped 0.3 percent from the third quarter to the fourth on a non seasonally-adjusted basis. When adjusted for seasonal factors, the national composite posted a 2 percent gain from the third quarter to the fourth.

The 20-City and 10-City composites were essentially flat from November to December, each growing by 0.2 percent on a non-seasonally adjusted basis. If adjusted for seasonal factors, those indices were up 0.9 percent from November to December.

David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee S&P Dow Jones Indices, said home prices ended 2012 “with solid gains,” but warned that future growth might not be as dramatic.

via inman.com

Singapore to Raise Property Tax Rates for Luxury Homeowners | North Salem Real Estate

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Singapore plans to raise taxes for luxury homeowners and investment properties, widening a four- year campaign to curb speculation after prices in Asia’s second- most expensive housing market rose to a record.

The higher tax will apply to the top 1 percent of homeowners who live in their own residences, or 12,000 properties, Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in his budget speech yesterday, without giving a definition of what constitutes a high-end home. The government will also raise tax rates for vacant investment properties or those that are rented out, he said.

Singapore joins Hong Kong in extending anti-speculation measures as low interest rates and capital inflows drive up demand and make housing unaffordable. Residential prices in Singapore climbed to a record in the fourth quarter as an increase in the number of millionaires drove up demand.

“The graduated property tax on luxury properties may impact investors, particularly corporates and high-net-worth investors,” Petra Blazkova, head of CBRE Research for Singapore and Southeast Asia said in a statement. “It may put pressure on the holding cost of investment properties held by developers and investors.”

The property index tracking 39 developers fell 1.2 percent to a one-month low at the close in Singapore. CapitaLand Ltd. (CAPL), Singapore’s biggest developer by assets, declined 1.5 percent to S$3.86. City Developments Ltd. (CIT), the second largest, slid 1.8 percent to S$11.15.

Hong Kong

Singapore’s latest efforts were announced three days after Hong Kong increased property taxes. The Hong Kong government last week doubled sales taxes on property costing more than HK$2 million ($258,000) and targeted commercial real estate for the first time as bubble risks spread in the world’s most expensive place to buy an apartment.

“The property tax is a wealth tax and is applied irrespective of whether lived in, vacant or rented out,” Shanmugaratnam said. “Those who live in the most expensive homes should pay more property tax than others.”

For a condominium occupied by the owner in Singapore’s central region with an assessed annual rental value of S$70,000 ($56,547), the tax will rise 5 percent to S$2,780, according to the budget statement. If that home is rented out, the tax will climb 21 percent to S$8,500, according to an example highlighted in the statement.

Based on a 3 percent rental yield, that property is worth S$2.3 million. Gains in levies for properties assessed at higher rental values will also increase at a faster pace, it said. For a house with an assessed rental value of S$150,000, worth S$5 million based on the same yield assumption, the tax will rise 60 percent to S$24,000. The revised taxes will take full effect from January 2015, according to the statement.

Singapore is Asia’s most-expensive housing market after Hong Kong, according to a Knight Frank LLP and Citi Private Bank report released last year that compared 63 locations globally.

‘Wealth Tax’

“It is a wealth tax,” Yee Jenn Jong, a non-elected member of parliament from the opposition Workers’ Party, told reporters. “There’s been a lot of people that have made a lot of money through property and the government is using that as a way to get additional revenue to offset certain goodies they’re giving to those in the lower income.”

Singapore has since 2009 imposed measures to cool the property market. The government last month said home buyers have to pay 5 percentage points to 7 percentage points more in stamp duties. It also imposed the added levies for permanent residents when they buy their first home, while Singaporeans will have to pay the tax starting with their second purchase.

Foreign Labor

In the budget, Singapore also tightened curbs on foreign labor for a fourth consecutive year, as the government seeks to reduce companies’ reliance on overseas workers amid a public backlash over the influx.

Increasing wealth in the island-state has contributed to rising property prices. Singapore’s millionaire households rose by 14 percent in 2011, according to a Boston Consulting study. The proportion of millionaire homes in the city of 5.3 million people was 17 percent, the highest in the world, followed by Qatar and Kuwait.

“From a progressive tax view point, it’s to be expected and probably quite fair,” said Tan Su Shan, managing director of wealth management at DBS Group Holdings Ltd., who’s also a nominated member of Parliament. “From a developers’ point of view, it’s yet another pill to swallow.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Pooja Thakur in Singapore at pthakur@bloomberg.net; Sharon Chen in Singapore at schen462@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andreea Papuc at apapuc1@bloomberg.net

via businessweek.com

How Long Should a Video Be? Long Enough to Reach a Point | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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How long should a video be? Well, that reminds me of a story.  Last week, I spoke at SES London 2013 at a conference session entitled, “Keys to Success with B2B Video” and during a ClickZ express clinic entitled, Optimising Video for Maximum Visibility.” I also participated in two Roundtable Forums that enabled attendees to Meet the Experts: one on “Branding Through Social Media” and the other on “Video Optimization.”  And one of the questions that I was asked again and again and again was: “How long should a video be?”

Is There A ‘Right’ Answer for Video Length?

This isn’t surprising. This has been a popular question since at least 2009, when I tackled it in the first edition of my book, YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day. (I said, “Keep videos 2 to 3 minutes long.”) And it was still a popular question in 2011, when I addressed it again in the second edition of my book. (I said, “Long enough to reach a point.”)

But the question took on a new urgency in October 2012 when “watch time” replaced “view count” in the YouTube algorithm.

As Eric Meyerson, YouTube’s head of creator marketing communications, explained back then,

“Now when we suggest videos, we focus on those that increase the amount of time that the viewer will spend watching videos on YouTube, not only on the next view, but also successive views thereafter.” He added, “If viewers are watching more YouTube, it signals to us that they’re happier with the content they’ve found. It means that creators are attracting more engaged audiences. It also opens up more opportunities to generate revenue for our partners.”

Get it? Got it? Good.

So, how long should a video be?

I thought that I had answered this question three months ago when I wrote a column entitled, “What’s the Ideal Length for a YouTube Marketing Video? A look into Video Duration vs. Social Sharing.“

In that column, I interviewed David Waterhouse, the Head of Content for Unruly Media, who had just compiled some interesting stats on the average length of the ads in the Top Global Video Ads Chart. He found that the average length of the Top 10 most shared ads of all time is 4 minutes and 11 seconds, if you exclude “Kony 2012,” which is 29 minutes and 59 seconds long.

And the day before SES London 2013 began, I visited Unruly Media’s new digs at 42-46 Princelet Street in London to get a tour of Unruly’s Social Video Lab. I spoke with Ian Forrester, Unruly’s Global Insight Lead, and we discussed why the shorter the ad, the fewer shares it tends to attracts.

Recent research has found that the number of shares a video gets is linked to the strength of emotion it elicits from its viewers. The stronger the emotion, the more likely it is going to be shared. So, it appears that 30 seconds may not be enough time to tell a compelling story that generates a very strong emotion.

Forrester and I also discussed David Ogilvy’s classic book, Ogilvy on Advertising

Widely hailed as “The Father of Advertising,” Ogilvy said back in 1985, “For all their research, most advertisers never know for sure whether their advertisements sell. Too many other factors cloud the equation. But direct-response advertisers, who solicit orders by mail or telephone, know to a dollar how much each advertisement sells. So watch the kind of advertising they do.”

A generation before the advent of social videos, Ogilvy observed, “General advertisers use 30-second commercials. But the direct response fraternity have learned that it is more profitable to use two-minute commercials. Who, do you suppose, is more likely to be right?”

So, I thought I was ready to answer the question: “How long should a video be?”

Then, Oliver Snoddy, the Head of Planning at Twitter UK, gave the morning keynote at SES London 2013 on Wednesday, Feb 20. And he quoted John Hegarty, one of the world’s most awarded and respected admen and the author of Hegarty on Advertising.

According to Hegarty, “Creativity in advertising is all about the power of reduction. Write less, say more.”

And Snoddy added, “Constraint inspires creativity.”

He demonstrated that “a single Tweet can tell a story” with an example from the Oreo Cookie account on Twitter.

When the power outage stopped this year’s Super Bowl for 34 minutes, Oreo posted a simple ad that was retweeted more than 16,000 times on Twitter. The message:  “Power Out? No Problem” accompanied with a picture that said, “You can still dunk in the dark.”

928682oreo 606x445 How Long Should a Video Be? Long Enough to Reach a Point

But instead of a picture, imagine if that Tweet could have been accompanied by a short video from Vine, the new iPhone app that lets you create and share looping videos that are 6 seconds long. You can dunk an Oreo cookie in the dark in six seconds.

Or use Tout, which ups the limit to 15 seconds. What can you say in 15 seconds? Check out “Oreo Fudge Cremes Commercial – Indescribably Good! (15 sec)”

And, if you mistakenly think that a B2B brand can’t tell a compelling story in six seconds, then check out “Happy 540th birthday to Nicolaus Copernicus!” General Electric made with Vine.

So, how long should a video be?

After SES London 2013, I now think that the right answer is: “Long enough to reach a point.”

That’s also the advice provided by the video, “NPR’s Scott Simon: How to Tell a Story” which is part of the YouTube Reporters’ Center.

Simon says, “A story ought to have a point. I don’t mean a lesson or a moral or even a punch line, but a point – something that people can take away from it.”

So, how long does it take to reach a point?

Like “Happy 540th birthday to Nicolaus Copernicus,” it can take 6 seconds. Or, like “Kony 2012,” it can take 29 minutes and 59 seconds. Or, like most videos, it can be somewhere in between.

In other words, put away your stopwatch and start making great videos that your audience will love and share. Then, check early and often on the Time Watched report in YouTube Analytics.

You can use this data to better understand what your audience wants to watch. More time watching content means a more engaged audience and more ad revenue. That’s what YouTube’s focus on watch time is all about.

Get it? Got it? Good.

via reelseo.com

Housing Uptick To Boost Home Depot’s Q4 Sales | North Salem NY Homes

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Home improvement retailer Home Depot’s (NYSE:HD) performance over 2012 has inspired a lot of confidence in investors. The company’s stock rose by over 40% during the year as the management posted strong and consistent sales growth over the first three quarters. The primary reason behind Home Depot’s meteoric rise has been the recovery of the U.S. housing industry as 2012 finally saw the resurgence of key housing metrics such as record levels of home construction, declining vacancies, lower mortgage default rates and rising home prices.

Home Depot certainly seems to have leveraged the increased demand for homes and home-related products well. Its total sales were up about 3.9% for the first nine months. Meanwhile, the company has also done well to complement top line growth with key cost reduction strategies, boosting the bottom line. The company’s net earnings were up by a healthy 13% over the nine-month period. As the company gears up for the launch of its fourth quarter earnings on February 26, investors certainly have good reasons to look forward to another round of strong results.

Our complete analysis for Home Depot’s stock

Housing Recovery Remains Strong, Hurricane Sandy To Further Boost Sales

The recovery of the housing market continued well into the latter half of 2012. New home sales made their their way up to 367,000 for 2012, the highest since 2009. Meanwhile, construction spending rose 0.9% in 2012 to a $885 billion, the highest levels seen since August 2009. ((“Construction Spending Rises More Than Forecast on U.S. Housing“, Bloomberg, February 2013)) The growth in demand for new housing has been complemented well by lower foreclosure rates. In December 2012, there were around 56,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S., compared to 71,000 in December 2011.  Another key factor that should inspire confidence in investors are the rising prices of basic construction materials such as lumber – a very strong signal of strengthened demand for home improvement products. All of this adds up to strong demand for home improvement projects, and therefore more customers for Home Depot.

Meanwhile, sales related to the household repairs following the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy should also factor in a big way in the final quarter results, further boosting the top line. Although the sales effect of Sandy will most likely be spread throughout the coming quarters in 2013, a majority of the repair work would have commenced towards the end of 2012.

The company’s net sales growth over the first nine months of 2012 stood at 3.9%, with the growth in the third quarter at about 4.6%. The sales performance for the fourth quarter should also be somewhere in the 4-5% range.

Margins To Remain Strong With Cost Reduction Programs Leading The Way

Home Depot’s earnings over the first nine months of 2012 have been given a strong boost by the company’s focus on reducing costs, including efforts to reduce complexity in the supply chain, improve distribution, and localize marketing and merchandising activities. The company’s operating margin for the first nine months of 2012 stood at 10.65%, compared to 9.8% a year ago. This is largely a result of reduced selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A), which fell from 22.3% of total revenues in 2011 to 21.8% of total revenues in 2012.

We have a Trefis price estimate of $59 for Home Depot’s stock, which we will revise once the company’s 2012 full year earnings are out.

Understand How a Company’s Products Impact its Stock Price at Trefis

via trefis.com

Hottest Market Sales Going for a Premium Over List Price | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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How long has it been since you heard the words “sold at a premium over list price?” For the past six years, sales prices ended up somewhere south list prices by at least five percent. Now, in the markets where the recovery is hottest, sellers are increasingly experiencing multiple bid scenarios and buyers are pre-empting the competition with offers over list price that stir up memories of the boom years.

Last month 13 percent of all Realtors participating in the National Association of Realtors’ Realtors’ Confidence Index reported they had at least one sale above the asking price in the previous month. The percentage rose slightly from December, the first month that NAR asked its members about sales at a premium above asking price. Realtors reported some 12 percent reported sales with prices above list price.

According to Pro-Teck Valuation Service’s Home Value Forecast, median sales prices have overtaken list prices in at least one market, San Francisco, and are close to doing so in Sacramento and Seattle.

Reports from Realtors across the country confirm that sales at a premium over asking price are still very unusual and limited to hottest markets.

“This is pretty normal in the San Francisco Bay Area. The shortage of inventory and the fact that there are so many potential buyers leads to multiple offers. I wrote one last week where there were 14 offers on a home. The seller would not consider any offers until the home had been on the market for 5 days. We came in third on that one, where we wrote just $20,000 above list price,” reports a Bay area local broker.

Offers over list price can backfire, according to Elizabeth Weintraub of Sacramento. “An overpriced offer is especially a huge problem on a Sacramento short sale. Let me illustrate for you. Say, a home is listed at $200,000, and the comparable sales over the past 3 months justify a price of $195,000. With the way the seller’s market is moving in Sacramento, $200,000 is a reasonable price 60 to 90 days later when the approval is likely to be received. Along comes Mary Home Buyer who offers $220,000. If the seller accepts that offer, it’s a long shot that it will appraise by Mary’s lender.

“So, down the road, we get the approval letter from the bank at $220,000. Mary’s lender’s appraiser comes in at $200,000. We then go back to the bank, and maybe there are two lenders so now we have to ask 2 banks to adjust their approval letter. The primary lender refuses. Nope, that bank wants $220,000. The bank might feel we can put it back on the market and find a cash buyer for $220,000, some cash buyer who won’t rely on an appraisal. The deal blows up.,” she said.

via realestateeconomywatch.com