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Most claims in Zillow home valuation patent deemed invalid | South Salem Homes
Pending Home Sales at 30-Month Low | South Salem Homes
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) Thursday morning released its data on pending sales of existing homes in February. The pending home sales index fell 0.8% from a downwardly revised index reading of 94.7 in January to the February reading of 93.9. That is 10.5% lower than in February 2013, when the index reading was 104.9. The consensus estimate called for a month-over-month decrease of 0.8% in pending sales. The index reflects signed contracts, not sales closings. An index reading of 100 equals the average level of contract signings during 2001.
Total existing home sales are expected to come to 5 million, below the 2013 total of 5.1 million. National median home prices are forecast to rise by about 5.5% to 6.0% this year, but existing home inventory levels need to increase to help keep prices in check. The median price forecast is slightly higher than last month’s forecast. Home prices rose 11.5% in 2013.
The NAR’s chief economist noted:
Contract signings for the past three months have been little changed, implying the market appears to be stabilizing. Moreover, buyer traffic information from our monthly Realtor® survey shows a modest turnaround, and some weather delayed transactions should close in the spring.
Pending home sales in the northeastern United States declined 2.4% in January, posting an index reading of 77.1, down 7.4% from February 2013. The index rose 2.8% in the Midwest but remains 8.5% below last year’s reading. Sales fell 4% in the South and rose by 2.3% in the West. Compared with February 2013, all regions are down.
Pending home sales do not have the economic impact of new home sales, which employ thousands of people in building and furnishing new homes. But it does give some indication of the market for housing
Read more: Pending Home Sales at 30-Month Low – 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/housing/2014/03/27/pending-home-sales-at-30-month-low/#ixzz2xGWrwkK4
Distressed sales down, investor activity wanes | South Salem Real Estate
Residential properties sold at an estimated annual pace of 5,083,241 in February, a 0.2% decline from January but up 7% from February 2013, according to the latest report from RealtyTrac.
February marked the fourth consecutive month where sales activity has fell on a monthly basis. This includes single-family homes, condominiums and townhomes.
There were monthly declines in 31 states, and year-over-year declines in six – including Massachusetts, California, Arizona and Nevada. Twenty-one of the nation’s largest 50 metropolitan areas likewise suffered sales volume declines, including Phoenix, Orlando, Las Vegas and Detroit, among others.
“Supply and demand have reached a bit of a standoff in this uneven real estate recovery,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “The supply of distressed properties — which buyers and investors have come to rely on over the past few years — is evaporating quickly in most markets, but that dwindling supply is not being adequately replenished by non-distressed homeowners listing their homes or by new homes being built.”
Blomquist noted that some of the volume decline is from institutional investors, a primary driver over the past two years. Investor activity has declined in the last several months.
“It’s not yet clear if that diminishing demand will be filled by first-time homebuyers and move-up buyers,” he said.
Trulia: 3 weights pull the housing recovery down | South Salem Real Estate
The housing market is recovering, albeit a slow and staggering pace, but it is still improving.
According to Trulia (TRLA) Chief Economist Jed Kolko’s latest Housing Barometer blog, “Of the Housing Barometer’s five indicators, all have improved over the last year except new construction starts. But only rising home prices and falling delinquencies + foreclosures have been steady. The other three measures – sales, starts, and young-adult employment – have zigzagged, both gaining and losing ground over the year.”
So what are the dead weights adding pressure to the strength of the recovery?
In the blog, Kolko defines three variables holding the recovery back.
1. Affordability is getting worse.
Kolko mentions that even though it remains cheaper to buy a home than to rent in the 100 largest metros, homeownership is pricier than last year. “And declining affordability is a bigger challenge for first-time home buyers than for current homeowners looking to trade in a home that has also increased in value,” Kolko said.
2. Investors are slowly exiting.
Since prices have risen and fewer people are losing homes to foreclosure, Kolko noted that investing-to-rent makes less sense. Previously, investors were a main driver in pushing up home sales and prices, but as they step back, price gains are slowing and sales volumes are sagging, he added.
3. The mortgage market is unstable.
Purchase applications and mortgage-based home sales are declining, as rates continue to rise and new regulations are short-term uncertainty. “But this reason may be only a temporary hurdle: rates remain low by historical standards, and the new mortgage rules offer longer-term clarity that should encourage banks to make more loans that are within the new rules,” Kolko said.
Although this unusual winter created some burden on the housing market, these reasons are the main drivers behind recent stumbles in sales and starts.
But the good news: the delinquency and foreclosure rate is dropping, and young adults are going back to work.
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/29441-trulia-3-weights-pulling-the-housing-recovery-down
$12.9M Jaggedy Zapata House In Golden Beach Has FDR Twist | South Salem NY Real Estate
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Curbed National has the story of a $12.9 million oceanfront house in Golden Beach designed by Carlos Zapata (the guy that did that space ship-like metal fountain on the Washington Avenue terminus of Lincoln Road) which claims to be the site of Franklin Delano Roosevelt‘s Winter White House. A little digging turns up little evidence to support this, except that Eleanor Roosevelt rented a house down the street, twice. A little more investigating might be in order.
http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2014/03/20/zapata-designed-house-in-golden-beach.php
This Carriage House With a Secret Pool Wants $85,000/Month | South Salem Real Estate
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This 25-foot-wide house on East 83rd Street was once J.P. Morgan’s carriage house, and if the 19th century industrialist could see it today he would either be really impressed or run away screaming, because the entire house—from lighting to music to thermostats—is controlled via touchpad. And that’s not even the most intriguing part: apparently, the kitchen floor can slide open to reveal a swimming pool. (The pool is not pictured, but that’s okay—it doesn’t sound like something people would want to see pictures of.)
The house’s owner, businessman Karan Trehan, bought it with his wife in 1995 and they renovated it together, filling the 7,200-square-foot building “with artwork and heavy Anglo-Indian furniture, reflecting their shared Indian background.” After the couple separated in 2007, Trehan renovated the house again to reflect it being a sick bachelor pad. All the art is now for sale, and the house is available to rent at $85,000/month. Make sure you get a look at that pool before you sign the lease, though.
http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/03/20/this_carriage_house_with_a_secret_pool_wants_85000month.php
Inventory of homes for sale soars 10 percent in February from a year ago | South Salem Real Estate
Rising home prices are bolstering seller confidence, fueling rapid growth in the number of homes for sale in many markets in February, according to a report issued by realtor.com today.
Median list prices were up 7.6 percent from a year ago in February, to $199,000, and the inventory of homes for sale rose 10.1 percent, to 1.74 million. In other words, there were 160,000 more homes for sale than the same time a year ago.
Out of 146 markets tracked by realtor.com, 99 experienced annual growth in listings, with 63 of those markets seeing inventories swell by 10 percent or more.
Median list prices and inventory were up on a month-over-month basis as well, rising 2.1 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively, indicating that 2014 home sales, which got off to a slow start in January, have potential to grow as the spring buying season gets underway.
But even with the recent surge in listings, inventories “are still extremely low,” realtor.com said in summarizing the overall picture.
“Seller confidence is the factor to watch as we head into the spring homebuying season, and these are very encouraging indicators — not only are more homes coming onto the market, but typically we don’t see a rise in asking prices this early into the year,” said Steve Berkowitz, CEO of realtor.com operator Move Inc., in a statement. “This is the market these sellers have been waiting for.”
– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2014/03/18/inventory-of-homes-for-sale-soars-10-percent-in-february-from-a-year-ago/?utm_source=20140318&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinespm#sthash.7ipS3omW.dpuf
25 richest US neighborhoods | South Salem Real Estate
Much like the rest of the country, America’s richest neighborhoods continue to evolve in terms of racial diversity.
In his latest Higley 1000, a list of the highest-income neighborhoods in the U.S., Stephen Higley, a professor emeritus of urban social geography at the University of Montevallo, found that the top neighborhoods are home to more Asian and Latino residents than ever before.
Higley ranked the most expensive neighborhoods in America based on American Community Survey 2006 – 2010 data. He aggregated contiguous block groups (subdivisions of Census tracts) with a mean income over $200,000. You can read his complete methodology here.
Big Investors Boosting Home Prices, And Not Everyone’s Pleased | South Salem Real Estate
It’s taken several years, but in many parts of the country, home prices are nearly back to where they were at the peak. In places like Florida, where the housing recession hit hard, home prices rose last year by one-fifth or more.
A major factor in the price rise is hedge funds, private equity firms and other large investors. They’ve moved aggressively into the residential market over the past two years, buying tens of thousands of distressed properties, often at bargain prices.
Some analysts are worried that those bulk purchases will leave middle-class buyers out in the cold.
One place where investors have been very active is Florida’s Palm Beach County. Jeff Lichtenstein is a real estate agent there, and he’s busy. He’s listing and selling homes at a pace reminiscent of the go-go days of the last real estate boom back in 2005 and 2006. “I have 19 or 20 under contract right now, which is the most I’ve had at any given time,” he says.
Lichtenstein is currently showing a home he has listed in PGA National, a resort and residential development with more than 5,000 homes. It’s a community of palm trees, lakes, golf courses and manicured lawns.
“This was built in ’92 or ’93. Three bedrooms, three baths,” he explains as he shows off the house, which has a back patio looking out onto a golf course. “The view is what people come here to Florida for.”
The home is listed for $499,000, a bit below what it would have sold for at the peak, Lichtenstein says. But in Florida, Arizona, Las Vegas and parts of California, prices are rising fast. In South Florida, home prices climbed 21 percent last year.
http://www.npr.org/2014/03/10/286261937/big-investors-boosting-home-prices-and-not-everyones-pleased