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U.S. Negative Equity Rate Dips Below 20 Percent in Q4 | Bedford Hills Real Estate
Today, Zillow released the fourth quarter Negative Equity Report. Nationally, the share of homeowners with a mortgage that are underwater, owing more on their home than their home is worth, has dropped below 20 percent for the first time in years.
As home values have continued to rise over the past year, millions of underwater homeowners have come up for air and are finally able to put their home on the market. This increase in inventory should, in turn, help create a more balanced home shopping season than we’ve seen in the past few years, with buyers having more choice and perhaps less competition.
According to the most recent numbers, nearly 10 million people were underwater on their mortgage in the fourth quarter 2013, collectively owing $657 billion more than their homes are worth. But the number of underwater homeowners is slowly but surely receding. Almost 3.9 million U.S. homeowners were freed in 2013, and the negative equity rate fell to 19.4 percent at the end of the fourth quarter, from 27.5 percent at the same time in 2012.
Nationwide, the negative equity rate is expected to fall to 17.2 percent by the end of 2014, signaling further stabilization of the market and likely freeing up even more inventory.
http://homes.yahoo.com/news/u-negative-equity-rate-dips-below-20-percent-050552127.html
Home prices slowing down: Case-Shiller | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate
U.S. home prices slowed down at the end of 2013, but posted the fastest calendar-year growth in eight years, according to data released Tuesday.
U.S. home prices ticked down 0.1% in December, declining for a second month, with 11 of 20 tracked cities posting drops, according to S&P/Case-Shiller’s composite index. After seasonal adjustments, home prices in December rose 0.8%, down a bit from 0.9% in November.
“Gains are slowing from month-to-month and the strongest part of the recovery in home values may be over,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “The seasonally adjusted data also exhibit some softness and loss of momentum.”
On a year-over-year basis, home prices rose 13.4% in December, the fastest calendar-year growth since 2005, supported by a low inventory of homes available for sale. However, December’s year-over-year growth is down from a recent peak of 13.7% hit in November.
Bloomberg
A home for sale in Princeton, Illinois, on Jan. 22, 2014.
Going forward prices may continue to slow down if inventories rise as more sellers become willing and able to place their homes on the market. Also, climbing mortgage rates could curb some demand, economists say.
But slower price growth isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Prices that run too high too quickly for an extended period would keep many would-be buyers from purchasing a home.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-prices-slowing-down-case-shiller-2014-02-25?siteid=yhoof2
Why Podcasting Is a Trend Marketers Need to Follow | Bedford Hills Realtor
New home? Tips for getting to know the garden | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate
Americans are a restless bunch. They change locations with a frequency that would tire a migrating songbird.
But there is more to moving day than unpacking boxes; there’s also learning to care for that garden inherited with the new home.
If you were thinking ahead, you asked for an inventory of the plants and accessories that came with the house.
“There’s no problem with asking owners for a list of landscape items and for an explanation about the plantings,” said Shirley French, an agent with the Woodstock, Va., office of Funkhouser Real Estate Group. “Usually, the owners are more than happy to give you a list. In fact, if they know the purchasers are interested, that will make for good feelings on both sides.”
Gardening priorities are determined mostly by the seasons. You won’t be mowing the lawn in February, although you might be combing the seed catalogs.
But where to start with a newly purchased property?
Michael Becker, president of Estate Gardeners Inc. in Omaha, Neb., suggests that putting safety first.
“Check out the dangers,” said Becker, a spokesman for Planet, the Professional Landcare Network that certifies green industry professionals. “Are the retaining walls stable? Are any trees leaning or diseased with dead branches?
http://news.yahoo.com/home-tips-getting-know-garden-144102428.html
Things to Watch in China’s Housing Market in the Year of the Horse | Bedford Hills Homes
Growth in China’s housing market is expected to slow this year even as it becomes more uneven across the country. This comes as the world’s second-largest economy is grappling with overly high housing prices in major cities festering resentment among people who can’t afford a home, as well as huge amounts of worrisome shadow-banking debt linked to questionable property deals and infrastructure.
In 2013, housing prices in major Chinese cities shot up quickly as homebuyers returned to the market after concluding the central government is unlikely to impose further property curbs that had a limited effect in reining in runaway housing prices. Housing sales in China rose 26.6% in 2013, accelerating from the 10.9% growth in 2012, but the consensus view is that pent-up demand for homes has been digested, and growth in housing sales would moderate this year.
Strong demand and a lack of new homes in downtown areas in major cities are pushing prices up, while sluggish demand and oversupply in smaller cities threatening to drive home prices and the local economy down.
The best and worst housing markets in America right now | Bedford Hills Homes
Valuation services provider Pro Teck releases a monthly home value forecast listing the top 10 real estate markets, ranked by the impact of foreclosure sales on localized housing recovery.
It’s somewhat of a different approach, to hinge a data call on distressed properties, but nonetheless exceedingly fascinating.
Right now, in America, according to Pro Teck, Long Island, New York, leads the rankings of hottest real estate markets.
“Many factors account for Long Island’s strong market, including foreclosures making up an inconsequential 2.18% of sales and available housing inventory at only 3.63 months,” said Tom O’Grady, CEO of Pro Teck. “Looking at the extended forecast, we see Long Island reaching peak highs again within five years.”
The following top ten lists highlight the best and worst metros in January with regard to a number of leading real estate market indicators, including: sales/listing activity and prices, months of remaining inventory, days on market, sold-to-list price ratio and foreclosure and REO activity, according to Pro Teck.
January’s top ten:
Nassau County-Suffolk County, N.Y.
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif.
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine, Calif.
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, Calif.
San Diego-Carlsbad, Calif.
San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles-Arroyo Grande, Calif.
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, Calif.
Ashville, N.C.
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Texas
Home Price Climb Returning to Average | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate
Home prices rose faster in the third quarter than at any time since 2006, but are expected to slow considerably in 2014, according to data released Thursday by Corelogic.
Indeed, pending home sales data from the National Association of Realtors, also released Thursday, came in weaker than expected, showing a decline of 8.7% vs. the previous month. Consensus estimates were for just a 0.3% drop.
Corelogic expects the pace of home price increases to slow to 4.2% nationally through the third quarter of 2014, close to its long-term annual average of 4.5% recorded since 1975.
According to the Corelogic data, prices rose nearly 30% in Las Vegas and in several California cities, while Detroit also saw a near-20% jump. Gains in Northeastern cities such as Philadelphia and Hartford were around 3%.
“Investor demand and sales of foreclosed properties are dropping quickly,” said CoreLogic Case-Shiller economist David Stiff. “This is especially true in states that were caught up early in the bubble and have non-judicial foreclosure proceedings, such as California and Arizona. In these states, inventories of bank-owned properties are close to being cleared. Non-investor demand, although increasing, will not replace demand from investors.”
Home prices across the U.S. were 17% above the trough reached in the fourth quarter of 2011, but they are still 23% below the peak reached in the first quarter of 2006, Corelogic concluded.
Chinese Homebuyers Thronging Sydney Make Mini-Bubble Frenzy | Bedford Hills Real Estate
Tina Ford, an Australian public servant, said she could hardly believe it when her three-bedroom apartment sold this month for A$1 million ($877,000) at an auction in which all 16 registered bidders were ethnic Chinese.
“I’m over the moon, I’m gobsmacked,” said Ford, 53, adding that she “would have been ecstatic with A$940,000” and didn’t expect to double what she had paid 14 years ago for her third-floor unit with a balcony 11 kilometers (7 miles) from downtown Sydney in the suburb of Chatswood. “I suspect that overseas investment, Chinese or otherwise, is certainly pushing prices up, but from a vendor’s perspective, I’m ecstatic.”
Such buying by locally resident Chinese and those from mainland China is inflating housing bubbles in and around Sydney, where prices in some suburbs have surged as much as 27 percent in the past year. That’s almost three times faster than the overall market.
Many of the neighborhoods with the biggest price gains “are areas that are popular with Chinese buyers,” said Andrew Wilson, senior economist at real estate data firm Australian Property Monitors. “Some of these suburbs are seeing price growth that we haven’t seen in Sydney since the early 2000s.”
The proportion of foreigners purchasing new homes in Australia more than doubled to 12.5 percent in the three months to September, from 5 percent throughout most of 2011, according to a survey of more than 300 property professionals by National Australia Bank Ltd.
Case-Shiller: Home prices dipped in November | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate
Home prices in November fell slightly for the first time since November 2012, as the combination of price gains earlier in 2013 and higher mortgage rates caused prices to reach a plateau, according to a leading index of housing-market activity.
The Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 top cities fell 0.1% in November. A separate 10-city index also fell by 0.1%, Standard & Poor’s/Dow Jones Indices said in a statement. The 20-city index showed prices 13.8% higher than a year earlier, while the 10-city index rose 13.7%.
The company said the dip is not a reversal of the housing recovery. Prices typically dip in November and this performance was the best for any November since 2005.
“Beginning June 2012, we saw a steady rise in year-over-year increases, (and) November continued that trend,” said David Blitzer, head of the index committee at S&P/Dow Jones Indices. “The Sun Belt continues to push ahead with Atlanta, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and Tampa taking eight of the top nine spots.”
Home prices are still rising despite last May’s jump in mortgage interest rates, Blitzer said. Mortgage applications for purchase were up in recent weeks, confirming home builders’ optimism shown in surveys by the National Association of Home Builders, he added.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/01/28/case-shiller-housing/4957633/