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Obama Warns Republicans on Debt Limit | Pound Ridge Realtor
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Built-for-Rent now Five Percent of New Home Construction | Pound Ridge Real Estate
One of the hottest specialty markets in home construction is benefitting from the boom in single family rentals that began as a way for entrepreneurs to provide from the flood of foreclosures that has reached 4 million properties since 2007.
However, instead of buying foreclosures and renovating, some home builders are designed and building homes from scratch to be rented out rather than sold, with the builder operating as property manager and well as retaining ownership.
Despite some recent ups and downs, the share of single-family homes built for rent has doubled. According to data from the Census Bureau’s Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design, the market share of single-family homes built for rent, as measured on a one-year moving average, stands at 5.1 percent for the third quarter of 2012. This is only slightly lower than the recent peak of 5.35 percent set at the beginning of 2011, and is considerably higher than the 20-year average of 2.7 percent.
With housing starts currently at 861,000 a year, the number of new built-for-rental properties is about 43,911 annually at the current market share. Only 27,000 homes started over the past year, according to the National Association of Home Builders
The built-for-rent share of single-family homes is considerably smaller than the single-family home portion of the rental housing stock, which is 27 percent according to the 2010 American Community Survey. As single-family homes age, they are more likely to transition from the owner-occupied to the rental housing stock.
A new entrant in the built-for-rent market is Jacksonville Wealth Builders,which had been buying foreclosed homes to sell to investors. So many investors are pursuing bank-owned homes to operate as rentals that it’s pushed prices as high as it would cost to build them.
With demand for single-family rentals on the rise, Jacksonville Wealth Builders has turned its attention to buying foreclosed residential lots, building rental homes to sell to investors, renting the homes and providing property management services.
“We’re starting to see prices go much higher [on foreclosed homes],” said Greg Cohen, Jacksonville Wealth Builders managing partner told the Jacksonville Business Journal. “We’ve basically bought 95 percent of our properties through [the Multiple Listing Service] and the connections we have, but those opportunities aren’t there as much.”
One option that turns renters into owners are rent-to-own programs that reduce carrying costs on unsold inventory and helps convert more homes to sales.
Some builders have a separate division to handle the rental side of their business, while others prefer to work with customers on a case-by-case basis. T&M Building Co. of Torrington, Conn., and Classic Communities Corp. of Harrisburg, Pa., are two examples.
Renters sign a use-and-occupancy agreement that allows them to live in the home until they can refinance it and take T&M out of the equation. In most cases, customers are able to purchase their home after renting for one year. Occasionally it takes two years. Ugalde says there have been no defaults or evictions. Customers can also elect to sign a conventional lease, but they always have the option to buy, he says.
Pound Ridge Golf Club Announces Plans For New Season | Pound Ridge Real Estate
POUND RIDGE, N.Y. – There’s snow on the ground and temperatures are hovering near freezing, but golf lovers are chomping at the bit to get back out on the links at the Pound Ridge Golf Club as soon as the first signs of spring arrive.
Officials at the Pound Ridge Golf Club – the only Pete Dye-designed course in New York – has announced its 2013 individual and corporate season plans, which are alternatives to the long-term commitment of a membership. There are no food and beverage minimums or other fees, and rounds are debited from the plan holder’s account.
“Our annual golf plans are a great option for area golfers who want to play frequently on a world-class public course designed to the highest private club standard,” said Pound Ridge Golf Club owner Ken Wang. “Pound Ridge’s close proximity to New York as well as the financial hub of southern Connecticut helps to provide business professionals with an unforgettable experience for [entertaining clients].”
Plan holders have full use of the driving range and short game area after 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and receive a 2013 GHIN (Golf Handicap and Information Network) handicap, Wang said. Starting at $3,000 annually, the account can pay for the holders’ golf as well as for guests playing in their group.
Corporate plans, at $16,000, offer the flexibility of listing any number of representatives on the account. A free foursome voucher comes with the plan, along with an assortment of other benefits.
Since opening in 2008, the Pound Ridge Golf Club has earned world-class accolades from Golf Digest, GOLF Magazine, Golfweek, AskMen.com and LINKS Magazine.
Pound Ridge Homes | Fannie and Freddie have a Florida Problem
Despite falling delinquency rates among lenders as a whole, delinquencies increased for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers, especially in Florida. Coincidentally, CoreLogic announced today Florida leads the nation in the size of its foreclosure inventory.
The Federal Housing Finance Administration reported today that the percentage of loans held by Fannie and Freddie missing one or two monthly payments increased in the third quarter and a substantial number of the GSEs’ delinquent borrowers have missed more than one year of mortgage payments. Some 2.08 percent of Fannie and Freddie’s total borrowers were 30-59 days delinquent at the end of the third quarter, compared to 1.99 percent at the end of the second quarter.
Some 3.39 percent of Fannie and Freddie borrowers are seriously delinquent. Approximately 29 percent of borrowers delinquent a year or more are located in Florida.
In fairness, the GSEs are not only lenders to have problems with Florida, which is leading every list for delinquencies and foreclosures. CoreLogic announced today that at the end of November Florida leads the nation among states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes: Florida (10.4 percent), New Jersey (7.3 percent), New York (5.1 percent), Nevada (4.7 percent) and Illinois (4.7 percent).
At the end of the third quarter, the same time period reported by FHFA, all lenders reported a sudden and surprising upswing in delinquencies. :Lender Processing Services’ September Mortgage Monitor reported delinquencies were up 7.7 percent from August, representing the largest monthly increase since 2008.
“September’s increase in the delinquency rate was indeed significant, but the overall trend is still one of improvement,” Blecher said. “Despite the monthly jump, delinquencies are down 30 percent from their January 2010 peak, and our analysis revealed some interesting factors related to the spike. Of course, one month’s data does not indicate a trend. We will be monitoring these factors over the coming months to see how the situation develops.”
Guess where delinquencies were highest? Florida led the nation with 12.7 percent of its mortgages in foreclosure and 20.8 percent-one in five-of its mortgages is delinquent.
5 Basics of a Successful Internet Marketing Strategy | Pound Ridge NY Realtor
Internet marketing is not merely about using platforms offered by the digital marketing space to augment traffic, sales and revenue to the site, successful internet marketing needs to have its own strategy. This strategy has to be well thought of and planned. It cannot be made misusing aspects of cost, time and efforts. Everything needs to be accounted for in order to make internet marketing operate at optimal levels for you. Of course it is easy to use and quite affordable in nature providing results at the rate of 75%-80% but using strategies can take the success rate as high as 90% to 100%. Here are 5 Basics of a Successful Internet Marketing Strategy.
Website traffic
If you strategy is to direct more customers to the website to increase sales and thus revenue then what you need to invest in is effective direction of internet traffic to your home website. This could be done by promoting your website on different popular ranked websites where the traffic is already high enough. You chances of getting more hits from such websites are almost double than from any other portal. You can indulge in web development and web promotion practices offered by professional web development firms.
Ranking
Another way to get the same results as mentioned in the above point is by using paid methods to obtain ranking for your home website. For this you will have to use effective and highly successful Search Engine optimization techniques that will push your site to receive a higher ranking. Google and most other search engines offer premium paid ad slots for better internet marketing.
Professional Help
When it comes to your business you do wish to leave no stone unturned. If yes, then you should definitely invest in a profession intern marketing coach who will make you target your own target. Professional help works as the best strategy because professional know each strategy as well as their output in real terms.
Interaction
Interaction in business is a bare essential tool for effective market penetration. Internet marketing is actually a type of communication. Here you can invest in the press releases, blogs, articles, SEO content etc. that can increase click and hit to your websites by readership and other interesting content. Internet marketing if researched shows a great many different routes one can take for operative marketing through the same route.
Email marketing
Email marketing is a great way to be present and increase visibility. Your website products or service can be effectively targeted by narrowing down to a list of the targeted population who can mailed in time or on regular basis, be it , daily, weekly or monthly. Yes, the problem is that it can go in as spam mail but there are methods that an internet marketing coach can help you out with that avoid your email marketing to be registered as spam.
As far as internet marketing goes the best stuff to mail includes, the discount offers and sales ads that attract more attention and avoid deletion before mail viewing. Use it effectively, to get the best results.
About 43% of Americans expect home prices to rise | Pound Ridge NY Real Estate
The share of surveyed Americans who believe home prices will tick up in the next year reached the highest level to-date, at 43%, up 6 percentage points from November, according to Fannie Mae‘s December National Housing Survey results.
The Fannie Mae National Housing Survey polled 1,002 Americans to assess their attitudes toward owning and renting a home, mortgage rates, homeownership distress, the economy, household finances and overall consumer confidence.
Consumer confidence in the housing industry continued its upswing as home prices, rental prices and mortgage rate expectations increased in November.
Thus, the growing confidence that housing indicators will continue well into 2013 is expected to boost home price activity during the year.
“Combined with consumers’ growing mortgage rate and rental price increase expectations, the positive home price outlook could incentivize those waiting on the sidelines of the housing market to buy a home sooner rather than later and thus support continued housing acceleration,” said Doug Duncan, senior vice president and chief economist of Fannie Mae.
The average 12-month home price change expectation rose to 2.6%, the highest level since the survey’s inception in 2010.
The percentage of those surveyed that believe mortgage rates will rise continued to increase, rising 2 percentage points to 43%, the highest level recorded since August 2011.
About 21% of respondents suggest it’s a good time to sell, down two percentage points from last month’s record high. However, this is still a 10-percentage point increase year-over-year.
The 12-month rental price expectation hit the highest level since the survey’s inception in 2010, at 4.4%, up 0.4% from last month.
About 49% of those surveyed said home rental prices will go up in the next year. Also, the share of respondents who said they would buy if they were to move declined slightly to 66%.
However, consumer outlook toward the economy and personal finances due to the fiscal cliff and debt ceiling caused volatility in perceptions of the larger economy.
“This uncertainty seems to be prompting a growing share of consumers to expect their personal finances to worsen and may contribute to weaker near-term economic growth,” Duncan said.
Those who expect their personal finances to worsen over the next year increased to 20%, the highest level since August 2011.
About 37% reported higher household expenses compared to last year, a 3-percentage point increase from last month and the highest level since December 2011.
via housingwire.com
How to Improve Your Marketing Accuracy with Facebook Hyper Targeting | Pound Ridge NY Homes
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Pound Ridge NY Homes | The next ‘fiscal cliff’ fight has officially begun
In the next stage of the “fiscal cliff” fight — news outlets are already calling it the “debt ceiling fight,” though the White House would probably prefer to think of it as a sequester fight — the debate will essentially boil down to two questions: What kind of entitlement and spending cuts will Republicans be demanding? And will Democrats manage to get revenue on the table? On the Sunday morning shows, leaders from both parties laid down their opening positions.
The challenge for the Democrats will be to make the case that changes to the tax code shouldn’t stop with the George W. Bush tax cuts, which they’ve so monolithically focused on in the lead-up to Dec. 31. On Sunday, CNN’s Candy Crowley challenged Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to answer whether he thought “that taxes have been raised enough on the wealthy.” Durbin’s response was revealing: Rather than focus directly on the tax treatment of the wealthiest, he framed the need for more tax revenue in terms of broader “tax reform” to get rid of loopholes and deductions, eluding to the need to eliminate tax breaks for the “1 percent”:
I can tell you that there are still deductions, credits, special treatments under the tax code which ought to be looked at very carefully. We forgo about $1.2 trillion a year in the tax code, money that otherwise would go to the government, and when you look closely, some of those things are near and dear to us individually and to the economy — the mortgage interest deduction, charitable deductions, deductions for state and local taxes, but beyond that, trust me, there are plenty of things within that tax code, these loopholes where people can park their money in some island offshore and not pay taxes, these are things that need to be closed. We can do that and use the money to reduce the deficit.
Durbin, in essence, outlined the Democratic strategy for the next round of the “fiscal cliff” debate: Find revenue to offset the sequester by promising to get rid of “loopholes” in the tax code, framed as common-sense tax reform. (Tax policy experts Len Burman and Joel Slemrod have some ideas about where to start.)
The recent outcry over the corporate tax giveaways in the recent “fiscal cliff” deal could help them make the case for finding more revenue, as Durbin suggested (though the White House’s promise for revenue-neutral corporate reform could complicate matters). “Max Baucus has been the first to say we need to sit down and look at these,” he said. “And who knows who represents the algae lobby on Capitol Hill, but they must have been very happy with the outcome.”
However, Republicans have made their opening position as clear as well: They believe the debate over tax revenue has been closed altogether. “The tax issue is behind us. Now, the question is what are we going to do about the real problem. … Now it’s time to pivot and turn to the real issue, which is our spending addiction,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos.
Mortgage Rates Seen Staying Below Four Percent | Pound Ridge Homes
Though a number of critical questions face the US economy, from the unfinished business in Washington like the debt limit and spending cuts to lackluster growth, the outlook for mortgage rates is relatively predictable and not very exciting.
Rates will stay low, below 4 percent on a thirty-year fixed mortgage, predicts Bankrate.com senior financial analyst Greg McBride. Even the prospect that Congress might finally act on reforming the GSEs does not deter him from his view that the Fed will not abandon QE3 in light of the fragility of both the national economy and housing economies.
With Fannie and Freddie originating 90 percent of new mortgages, removing the government guarantee that helps make these loans possible would ruin the recovery. “Say what they want about ending the GSEs, it’s not going to happen,” said McBride.
Nor does he see significant changes in lending standards that many claim are making it too difficult for first-time buyers to get financing. “Today’s median FICO of 750 and other financial qualifications are not insurmountable to young buyers with low debt and good jobs.” he said.
“Lukewarm jobs reports of 155,000 to 160,000 new jobs are not enough. We need to see job growth twice that size before the Fed should even think about changing its policies,” he said.
This week on Bankrate.com’s Rate Trend Index, 55 percent of the panelists believe mortgage rates will rise over the next week or so, 27 percent think rates will fall, and 18 percent believe rates will remain relatively unchanged (plus or minus 2 basis points).
Bankrate.com surveys experts in the mortgage field to see if they believe mortgage rates will rise, fall or remain relatively unchanged. The panel is comprised of mortgage bankers, mortgage brokers and other industry experts who provide residential first mortgages to consumers.