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Bedford Hills NY Homes

Warren Group: Massachusetts housing market as ‘turned the corner’ | Bedford Hills Realtor

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In another sign that the housing market may be on the mend, the median sale price of single-family homes in Massachusetts rose more than 12 percent in December to $300,000, the first time since August that median home prices have broken the $300,000 mark, the Warren Group said Thursday.

Looking at the entire year, the Warren Group added that single-family home sales in Massachusetts rose 18 percent in 2012, marking 12 consecutive months of year-over-year sales gains and the best year on record since 2006.

“I would characterize 2012 as the year of robust recovery in the real estate market,” Warren Group chief executive Timothy M. Warren Jr. said in a statement. “It is clear we have turned the corner and are gaining ground rapidly. I contrast the 18 percent gain last year with the decline of 6 percent in 2011.”

As for condo sales in December, they rose 5.4 percent to 1,402 units. The median condo price in December rose 8 percent to $275,000, the Warren Group said.

 

For 2012, condo sales were up more than 25 percent to 19,061 units.

The Massachusetts Association of Realtors issued a separate monthly report Thursday on the local housing market. The association uses a slightly different method to track real estate activity than the Warren Group does.

According to the association’s press release, 3,737 detached single-family homes sold in December, a 13 percent increase from the previous December. December 2012 was the 18th straight month of year-over-year increases.

The median selling price for single-family home in December was $303,500, which was up 10.4 percent from the price in December 2011.

In the Bay State, there were 1,434 condominiums sold this December, a 14.2 percent increase from the same time last year.

The median selling price for condominium in December was $282,750, which was up 8.7 percent from December 2011.

“December capped off a very active year in 2012 as the real estate market in Massachusetts made significant progress towards recovery,” association president Kimberly Allard-Moccia said in a statement. “With the ‘fiscal cliff’ averted for now and pending activity remaining strong, we anticipate a healthy start to 2013.”

Allard-Moccia suggested that there are some concerns about the short supply of homes on the market.

“2012 was the type of year the market needed to help it eventually recover,” said Allard-Moccia. “With inventory continuing to go down, we’re at risk for slipping back to where we were. A truly vibrant market has a good selection of homes at all price levels for all types of buyers.”

via bostonglobe.com

 

Shiller Says U.S. Housing Market May Drop Further | Bedford Hills Realtor

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A U.S. housing-market revival may prove illusory and the threat of further weakness remains, said Robert Shiller, a professor at Yale University and co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values.

“The housing market has been declining for something like six years now, it could go on, that’s my worry,” Shiller told Tom Keene in a Bloomberg Television interview today in Davos, Switzerland. “The short-term indicators are up now, it definitely looks better, but we saw that in 2009.”

The property market has shown signs of recovery and homebuilding has rebounded as low borrowing costs spur buyer demand, bolster prices. Values rose 7.4 percent in November from a year earlier, the ninth straight increase and the biggest gain since May 2006, Irvine, California-based data provider CoreLogic said last week.

“It’s a good housing market in the sense that mortgage rates are very low and prices have come down to normal levels, so yes, it’s a good time to buy if nothing bad happens,” Shiller said. “But it’s also a very bad housing market in that most of the mortgages are being supported by the government, and we have the Fed and this buying program. It’s a very abnormal market. There’s a lot of uncertainty going forward.”

The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 3.38 percent in the week ended Jan. 17 from 3.4 percent, McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac (FMCC) said that day. The average rate dropped to a record 3.31 percent in November. New-home sales in December picked up to a 385,000 annual rate, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg ahead of a Commerce Department report tomorrow.

Attending Davos

The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities increased an annual 4.3 percent in October, the biggest 12-month advance since May 2010, the group said on Dec. 26. The next report is due on Jan. 29.

Data on Jan. 22 showed sales of U.S. existing homes unexpectedly fell in December. Purchases fell 1 percent to a 4.94 million annual rate last month, the National Association of Realtors said. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey was for a gain to a 5.1 million rate.

Shiller, who spoke while attending the World Economic Forum’s 2013 annual meeting, also said that while global economic conditions are “a little better,” there are still risks to the recovery.

“We’ve been five years in a slow economy, and it could go quite a bit longer,” he said. “We’ve seen gross domestic product growth at sub-normal levels.”

He added, “I think we’re pretty far from irrational exuberance, maybe 50 years 

via bloomberg.com

 

Tips for building trust with luxury international buyers | Bedford Hills Real Estate

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Becoming a successful global luxury real estate agent is all about “relationships and reputation,” says The Corcoran Group’s Patricia Cliff, who estimates that 40 percent of her business is international.

Cliff, whose book, “The Art of Selling Luxury Real Estate,” was published this month, attributes her success not to heavy socializing, but to strategic relationships.

A senior vice president at Corcoran, Cliff shared more insight into the topic in a conversation with Corcoran CEO Pamela Liebman during a panel discussion at Real Estate Connect New York City.

Agents are the spark that bring transactions to life, Liebman said. That’s why Corcoran’s new website, launched in November, integrated social media so thoroughly into its design. “Our website has become a hub for online relationships,” she said.

When Cliff travels, looking to establish relationships or maintain the ones she has, she hosts no lavish parties, but instead focuses on cultivating trusted personal relationships. She picks out two to five of the most valuable contacts in a certain place and sets up meetings with them in advance.


Patricia Cliff

Or, if she doesn’t know some influential potential clients in a place, she looks to enter their spheres. For example, when she went looking for high-end clients in Hong Kong, Cliff went to a jeweler to see about buying pearl and diamond earrings in the hope of sparking a relationship with the jeweler. She employed the same strategy with a Rolls-Royce dealer and private bankers.

Cliff said she helped establish her reputation as a valuable expert for potential clients by writing a 28-page booklet describing the ins and outs of doing real estate transaction in New York City, distributing it to clients early on in a relationship. The booklet also made her life easier, she said — she didn’t have to repeat herself with the same detailed explanations of how to navigate the New York City real estate world over and over again.

When hosting a potential client in the U.S., Cliff said, it’s important to cast a “net” around them and provide an attentive, high level of service, in order to prevent other agents or brokers from swooping in to represent them. And try not to leave clients until a contract is signed. If they’re visiting New York City, for example, the excitement of being in the city and the agent’s enthusiasm creates the ideal atmosphere to close the deal, she said.


Pamela Liebman

Liebman said that sometimes agents will say “you won’t see me for a couple of days,” because they have a client coming into town, and their every waking hour will be committed to taking care of their needs and providing the exceptional, top-level service that many luxury real estate buyers and sellers expect and are accustomed to.

But before getting too caught up in their zeal to capture high-end clients — and a big pay day — it’s important that agents know who they’re dealing with. Potential clients may not have accessible assets in U.S. banks, and since 9/11 moving money into the U.S. has become much more difficult, Cliff said.

Banks are beholden to a “Know Your Customer” provision of 2001’s U.S. Patriot Act that requires banks and financial institutions to add measures to restrict funds associated with terrorist financing and money laundering, which can hamstring otherwise promising deals, Cliff said.

In fact, Cliff said, at one point the FBI had placed her under investigation because of a relationship with a former client, though she knew him only through intermediaries.

At the end of the day, Liebman said, agents who want to deal in luxury real estate can do themselves some good by being in New York City, and knowing a little about its architecture, history and the real estate conversations that happen around the world.

via inman.com

 

Realogy franchisor shows how social is done | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate

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Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate’s use of social media marketing as both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) strategies is the focus of a case study developed by the Richard Ivey School of Business at The University of Western Ontario.

Since launching in 2008, the Realogy Holdings Corp. franchisor has signed up brokerages representing more than 8,000 sales associates in 26 states and Canada. President and CEO Sherry Chris attributes Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate’s success “in large part to the company’s strategic and mindful approach to targeting both consumers and the real estate industry as a whole.”

“When we launched Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, few businesses were leveraging the tremendous power of social media to drive brand awareness, develop business opportunities and fuel growth,” Chris said in a statement. “Our success underscores the value of using new media channels to engage with customers, business partners and members of the real estate industry.”

As an alumna of the Richard Ivey School of Business, Chris said she was “honored to share the knowledge our company has acquired” and that the case study will encourage other companies to look outside traditional business practices.

According to a summary of the 12-page case study, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate “has grown rapidly and has experienced tremendous success with its B2B social media efforts. Now, several years after the formation of the company, the president and chief executive officer must decide how to leverage what she has learned from the B2B effort to create a B2C social media program.”

The case study is described as suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate marketing courses, exploring:

  • the implications and potential value of leveraging an existing brand for a new business opportunity.
  • issues and opportunities surrounding a franchise business model.
  • differences between a consumer and trade social media strategy.
  • the development of a social media strategy and tactical plan, including resource requirements and appropriate success metrics.
  • international expansion and its impact on new media marketing like social media.

Author Raymond Pirouz teaches marketing at the Richard Ivey School of Business and he is the author of three books. Pirouz has also taught at UCLA Extension, the Art Center College of Design, the Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine and the Master of Digital Experience Innovation (MDEI) program at the University of Waterloo-Stratford.

via inman.com

 

Bay Area foreclosure rate falls | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate

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Continuing an encouraging trend, the number of Bay Area homes that wound up in foreclosure and were sold as a result fell in December, according to report Tuesday by a company that tracks the trend.

The decline, which mirrored the situation statewide, reflects the growing governmental pressure on banks to forgo foreclosure in favor of loan modifications or other less painful remedies for homeowners who are behind on their payments, some experts said. But advocates for those finding it tough to keep up with their mortgage obligations say many homeowners remain in deep financial trouble.

“It’s good that the foreclosure rate is down,” said Kevin Stein, associate director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, which monitors nonprofit groups that counsel people at risk of losing their homes. But he cautioned that, “by no means are we done with foreclosures that are severely impacting families and neighborhoods.”

Stein added that he has continued to hear reports of struggling homeowners being shuttled from one bank official to another, and being shoved by banks into foreclosure even as they seek a loan modification. Both practices are outlawed under the California Homeowner Bill of Rights, which took effect on Jan. 1.

Notices of default — the first step in the foreclosure process — were down 17 percent overall from November in four East Bay and Silicon Valley counties, falling from 1,237 to 1,025, according to ForeclosureRadar.

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The rate dropped about 3 percent in Contra Costa County, 10 percent in Santa Clara County, 14 percent in Alameda County and 62 percent in San Mateo County.

Sales of foreclosed homes in those four counties to third parties or to banks decreased nearly 12 percent from 582 in November to 515 in December. The number dropped from 102 to 96 in Santa Clara County, 53 to 47 in San Mateo County, 177 to 152 in Alameda County and 250 to 220 in Contra Costa County.

Madeline Schnapp,

FILE: A San Jose, Calif. home on Wednesday, June 6, 2012. This home has already been renovated and is about to come on the market. This is a foreclosed house (Nhat V. Meyer/Staff) ( Nhat V. Meyer )

ForeclosureRadar’s director of economic research, said the continuing plunge in the foreclosure rate reflects more than a dozen laws or related programs that are intended to delay or eliminate the likelihood of someone losing their home.

“It’s been great for homeowners,” she said. But she added that “there are two million homeowners in California that are still under water,” meaning they owe more on their houses than the residences are worth, adding that those people remain “trapped in a prison of debt.”

Schnapp said the number of foreclosed homes sold to third parties has increased in recent months as more investors — including hedge funds — have found it profitably to buy such properties. Looking ahead, she predicted the foreclosure rate would continue to decline and eventually return to what it had been before the housing market collapsed in 2008.

“We think you’ll probably get back to normal, if nothing happens to disrupt the recovery, in probably another two to three years,” she said.


via mercurynews.com

Top 10 Facts About Super Bowl Ads Online for 2013 | Bedford Hills Realtor

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Our friends at Unruly Media have some data to share for advertisers concerning the Super Bowl.  The video measurement company is releasing these stats in tandem with their 2013 Super Bowl Playbook, which we will also cover soon.  Last year, Super Bowl ads became bigger than ever, as Unruly reports a 129% increase in shares for Super Bowl ads in 2012 from 2011’s numbers.  But Unruly found some very interesting stats that might surprise you.  Like, for instance, did you know that that initial burst of views that happen before and after the Super Bowl isn’t nearly the bulk of an ad’s overall views?

Unruly’s Top 10 Facts You Should Know About Super Bowl Advertising

Here’s how Unruly breaks it down:

1. 129% increase of shares 2011-2012 year on year.

Perhaps buoyed by the success of VW’s “The Force” in the previous year, many companies got their act online and promoted their ads like they had never done before.

2. 75% of the Top 20 most shared ads were launched before the Super Bowl.

Yeah, there’s absolutely no reason to wait until the Super Bowl to show your ad anymore.  You’re paying a ton of money to get the thing on the Super Bowl and get those tens, possibly hundreds, of millions of people watching it.  But by promoting it early, you can build a lot of buzz for the ad and gets millions of people watching it even before the game.

3. The top 4 most shared ads also had teaser videos, and 7 of the top 10 used teasers.

The most memorable were the ones featuring Matthew Broderick, teasing a Ferris-Beuller’s-Day-Off-style ad for what would eventually be the Honda CR-V ad that got so much attention, and VW’s teaser featuring dogs singing the “Darth Vader theme,” which would eventually be their hybrid dog/Star Wars ad.  Teasers get people talking, speculating, and they generate a ton of views on their own.

4. VW’s teaser actually ended up getting shared more than the Super Bowl ad.

This one:

Beat this one:

Three times more shares, actually.  That’s amazing.

5. 55% of Super Bowl 2012 shares came after March 1.

You might say, well, that’s more time to share an ad.  True, true, but also consider that the tremendous interest leveraged from the Super Bowl has died down by then, so this stat is amazing.  It shows that if you make great, memorable content, it can play all year.

6. 92% of shares came from the top 20 Super Bowl ads.

What this means is that there is a lot of room for many brands to try to get a piece of this pie.  Brands should be using online more, especially since it’s free and promotion of great content can lead to tons of extra views.

7. Automotive was the most shared vertical of 2012, a 137.5% increase from 2011.

Brands like Honda, Chevrolet, and VW dominated this category.  This is another area where competing car companies could do better, because only a few brands dominate the landscape.

8. Speaking of which, VW is the most shared brand over the last 2 years.

In 2011, VW led Chrysler and Doritos by a large margin.  In 2012, VW edged out Chevrolet and Honda.

9. The top 10 Super Bowl ads of 2012 were on average 83 seconds long, up 31 seconds from 2011.

With online video, brands can tell a longer story, putting extra stuff they couldn’t fit into their Super Bowl ad, and people are more likely to watch the ad when it’s not the same, old 30-second ad they saw on TV.

10. VW’s “The Force” is the most shared Super Bowl ad and most shared ad of all time.

Unruly measured it at 5.57 million shares, with VW Passats increasing sales by 116%.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Unruly has found for advertisers in their playbook, and of course, what advertisers have in store for 2013.

via reelseo.com