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Repair rather than replace your carpeting | Bedford Hills Realtor
Stains, tears, burns, loose areas and other issues with your carpeting can be a real eyesore, and in some cases can even be a potentially dangerous tripping hazard. Rather than replace an entire roomful of expensive carpeting, you can often repair those problem areas instead.
Restretching carpeting
Wall-to-wall carpeting is installed by stretching it into place in the room. Over time, the weight of furniture and the action of people moving over the carpeting can cause the carpet’s backing to break down, resulting in random loose, wrinkled areas. When that happens, assuming the carpeting is otherwise in good shape, it can be restretched to remove the wrinkles.
When the carpet is first stretched into place, it’s hooked onto a tack strip that’s located around the perimeter of the room, just out from the wall. The tack strip has hundreds of tiny nails in it, which are angled toward the wall. The carpet is stretched over the tack strip during installation, then as it’s released from the stretching process, it slides back and catches on the angled nails, holding it in place.
A small area of loose carpet can be restretched using a knee kicker. This is a specialized tool with angled metal teeth on the bottom at one end, and a big pad at the other end. Place the kicker on the carpet about six inches away from the wall with the teeth down and in contact with the carpet, then apply steady pressure with your knee against the pad on the end of the kicker. This will push the carpet toward the wall, and allow you to release it from the tack strip and pull it up.
With the carpet loose, you can now use the kicker to restretch and tighten the carpet back up over the tack strip. Each time you kick the kicker with your knee, the carpet will move over the tack strip and catch, tightening it a little further.
When the wrinkles are gone, maintain a light, steady pressure on the kicker with your knee, and press the carpet down firmly into contact with the tack strip. Use the edge of a hammer or other metal tool for this — NOT your hand (all those little nails are sharp!). Finally, trim off any excess carpet you may have created at the wall.
Larger areas of loose carpet are handled with a tool called a carpet stretcher. Carpet stretchers have a series of telescoping poles with a pad at one end and a large head with angled teeth and a top-mounted handle at the other end.
A carpet stretcher works like a kicker, but over a larger area. The padded end is placed against a wall, then the poles are extended so that the head ends up near the opposite wall. Pressure is then applied to the handle, allowing the teeth to grip the carpet and move the head, stretching the carpet.
Carpet repairs
To take care of burn mark or a stain you can’t remove, you’ll need to patch in a new piece of carpeting, so the first issue is to locate some carpet that matches. If you saved some scrap pieces from when the carpet was first installed, you’re ahead of the game.
If not, your next best option is to take some matching carpeting out of a small closet. You can then replace the flooring in that closet with something else — a remnant of complimentary carpet from a carpet store, or, better yet, a little bit of ceramic tile or prefinished wood flooring.
One of the best methods for repairing small areas of damage is to use a carpet “cookie cutter.” This is a special, round tool with a sharp blade on the bottom that cuts out the damaged carpet, and then cuts a perfectly matching patch from a piece of scrap. The patch is then adhered in place with a special self-adhesive disk, or with carpet repair tape.
Larger repairs or damaged seams are more difficult to deal with. For a large damage area, first the damaged area is cut out, then a patch is cut from matching carpet. After carefully fitting and trimming the patch, it’s adhered into place using a special carpet heat-seaming iron and hot-melt tape. The tape is placed under the carpet and centered under the seam, then the hot iron is placed on the tape, melting the adhesive. The carpet is then pressed down into the hot adhesive, making a permanent joint.
Loose seams are repaired in the same way. The edges of the seam are carefully trimmed to remove any damaged material, then a kicker is used to push the seam back together temporarily while it’s glued back together with hot tape.
For do-it-yourselfers who want to give this a shot, most of these tools, including the seaming iron, stretcher, kicker and usually even the cookie cutter, are available at most rental yards. Otherwise, contact your local carpet store for referrals to an experienced carpet repair person.
via inman.com
BofA tallies $15.8 billion in mortgage aid to struggling borrowers | Bedford Hills Realtor
A view of the Bank of America’s Tower in New York (Eduardo Munoz Reuters, REUTERS / October 24, 2012)
NAR economist Lawrence Yun’s forecast: Higher inflation, higher home prices now | Real Estate in Bedford Hills NY
ORLANDO — NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun is speaking at the National Association of Realtors convention here right now.
He is taking about inflation, which has been relatively low for two decades. He says it will stay at about 2 percent next year.
But he says we should anticpiate higher inflation by 2015. “No threatening inflation next year, 2 percent. Eventually we may reach something much higher, 4, 5, 6 percent by 2013. Well above the Federal Reserve’s preferred rate of 2 percent.” The pressure on inflation will come from the large budget deficit.
“Rents are rising. Inflation pressure will be building in the rental market. Vacancies are falling and rents are rising.
The Fed has an “ultra-loose monetary policy, 0 percent, an unprecedented low rate. You cannot borrow at this rate but Mark Vinter and Wells Fargo can.”
The mortgage interest deduction will be discussed as a way to increase revenue and decrease the public debt. But Yun says it will not happen because of the efforts of his audience, the Realtors, to pressure the government to keep it in place.
Higher inflation means that the home mortgage interest rates will trend up.
Yun is forecasting “meaningfully higher home prices, which went up 4 to 5 percent in 2012.
“Home price growht ckoud slow or accelerate depending on housing starts.” Yun ecpects a 15 percent cumulative growth in home prices over the next three years. The rise in prices are not showing any signs of slowing down.” Arizona has already seen a 30 percent increase since the bust.
“Rises in prices will bring more underwater homeowners above water and then they can participate in the market.”
Her prdicts the price will rise from $176,000 to $195,ooo. “The train has left the station, but it is still a great time to buy, because if you wait, the train will be farther from the station and you will miss the chance for wealth creation.”
Realtors are seeing more traffic, and showings are consistently strong. Pending home sales are trending up.
Home sales will be 4.6 million units this year and 5.05 million units in 2013, says Yun.
Employment is a key to home purchasing. While the unemployment rate is falling, Yun looks at the “employment rate.” About 62 percent of adults have jobs. This number is not increasing. Only enough jobs are being created to soak up the new graduates. But there is plenty of room for improvement, he says. “We need 250,000 new jobs every month for the next eight years to get back to a normal job market. It is trending up, but it could trend up faster.”
Builder inventory is at a 50-year low. Builder activity is rising, but only from a very low level and housing starts are at less than half of the 50-year average of 1.5 million units per year.
Good new for all segments of housing, he said, is that the “shadow inventory” of distressed properties is shrinking. Foreclosures are clogged in judicial states and flowing freely in non-judicial states such as Arizona. Whiel home prices are up 7 percent in Miami, they are up 19 percent in Arizona.
Yun forecasts a more unqual distribution of wealth. “That is something we need to monitor.”
He is putting a lot of pressure on the builders: If they don’t build enough new homes, it will rise prices, which would be good for existing homeowners but will cut into home affordability for all those renters who want to become homeowners. What we are seeing now is that wealthy investors play a strong role in the market and are keeping some “end-user” buyers out. This is evident in Sarasota, where all-cash investors are outbidding buyers who would live in a house they would buy with a mortgage.
Renting is up strongly and homeownership is off a bit. Normally, homeowners are 66 percent of the market. And the household formation increase has been more in the rental market rather than home purchases.
Hurricane Sandy’s property destruction will provide building permit impetus in New Jersey, boosting the market there in a few months.
Florida: Yun points out that Florida’s job growth, weak or falling recently, since 1939 has boomed, and if that overall growth trend resumes, the state could run out of prime real estate development land, particularly as Chinese and Brazilian buyers come to the state.
His applause line: “The financial institutions are flush with cash. Why are they not lending?”
He closes with this: Keep the mortgage interest deduction. Taking it away will be a huge hit to the housing industry.
Wells Fargo economist Mark Vinter comes back on stage and says, “Our bank is lending. It is that other bank.”
Chase? Bank of America? I will have to ask him that later.
In case you did not know: Yun is pronounced Yoon.
FHA may require bailout, after all | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate
A federal agency that insured more than half of all loans for first-time homebuyers last year may soon look to taxpayers to shore up its dwindling finances.
Throughout its 78-year history, the Federal Housing Administration has paid for itself through upfront and annual mortgage insurance premiums charged to borrowers. But next week the agency will issue an independent financial audit that may set the stage for the FHA’s first-ever draw from the U.S. Treasury, Bloomberg reports.
The FHA has been hard-hit by defaults from loans made from 2005 and 2008 and has taken steps to strengthen its capital reserves, including raising mortgage insurance premiums three times in 2010 and again this year. The agency has also tightened credit standards and prohibited seller funding of buyer down payments, a practice the agency estimates will cost it $14 billion on loans issued before 2009.
As of June 30, 25.8 percent of FHA’s 2007 loans, 24.9 percent of its 2008 loans, and 12.2 percent of its 2009 loans were seriously delinquent, according to the Wall Street Journal.
While loans made in subsequent years have been of higher quality, new income from those loans may not outweigh the losses from the previous housing bubble-era loans, Bloomberg said, citing anonymous sources.
In last year’s annual report, the FHA noted its capital reserve ratio, which measures reserves in excess of what’s needed to cover projected losses over the next 30 years, had dropped to 0.24 percent from 0.5 percent in 2010. But an expected recovery in home prices prompted the agency to project capital reserves would return to a congressionally mandated 2 percent ratio by 2014.
This year’s report may be more pessimistic than last year’s because of changes in its economic modeling, lower expectations for home prices, and a revised assessment of loans from earlier years that have been refinanced more recently, Bloomberg said.
The FHA has repeatedly said it will not require a taxpayer bailout. The National Association of Realtors has supported that stance, and urged Congress not to take steps that might discourage homebuyers, such as raising FHA minimum down payment requirements.
Earlier this year, the FHA got some breathing room after receiving a one-time payment of almost $1 billion from a $25 billion national mortgage settlement with the nation’s five biggest servicers.
The government has since sued one of the servicers, Wells Fargo, for “hundreds of millions of dollars” due to alleged “reckless origination and underwriting of its retail FHA loans over the course of more than four years, from May 2001 through October 2005.” The bank claims that the lawsuit violates the terms of the $25 billion settlement and has asked a federal judge to throw the case out.
In a report released last month, the Center for American Progress, a research organization Bloomberg says is aligned with Democrats, says the FHA’s falling capital reserve ratio is a “legitimate concern” but notes the fund still has $21.9 billion in its financing account to cover all of its expected insurance claims over the next 30 years, and the fund’s capital account has an additional $9.8 billion to cover any unexpected losses.
“That’s not enough to meet the 2 percent capital ratio target, but the agency still has plenty of cash on hand to cover its insurance liabilities based on reasonable expectations in the housing market — and even has some extra money set aside for a rainy day,” the report said.
Nonetheless, should the recovery stall and home prices begin to decline, the FHA may need “temporary support” from the Treasury, the report said.
“This support would kick in automatically — it’s always been part of Congress’ agreement with the agency, dating back to the 1930s — and would amount to a tiny fraction of the agency’s portfolio,” the report said.
“It would also be a bargain, considering how taxpayers have benefited from the agency over the past eight decades — and especially the past four years.”
Three to four years ago, the FHA stepped in when the private housing market was collapsing, and, as a result, since then between 3 million and 4 million families have been able to buy a home and another 2 million have been able to refinance through the FHA program, according to Carol Galante, acting FHA commissioner and assistant secretary for housing, speaking at a housing forum hosted by Zillow and the University of Southern California’s Lusk Center for Real Estate last month.
Citing Moody’s economist Mark Zandi, she said if FHA lending had not expanded when it did, the housing market would have cratered and taken the economy with it.
Today, the FHA guarantees about 15 percent of all U.S. mortgages and insures about 7.6 million loans with total outstanding balances near $1.1 trillion, triple the amount it backed five years ago, Bloomberg said.
via inman.com
Andrew Cuomo: ‘No Reason to Panic’ Over Gas Shortages | Bedford Hills Real Estate
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he’s signed an executive order waiving a requirement that fuel tankers register and pay tax before unloading.
He also is threatening utility companies’ rights to operate in the state in the future if they don’t immediately put power restoration work into high gear.
The governor says there’s “no reason to panic” about gas shortages. He said Friday that tankers are now making “great progress” delivering fuel and that his order will help get gasoline to consumers faster. He also says terminals that suffered damage in Superstorm Sandy are coming back online.
But he also is warning utilities that they must devote full personnel and equipment to power restoration. Cuomo says utilities operate only with the state’s permission and he will hold them accountable.
via abcnews.go.com
Are security deposit deductions worth going to court over? | Bedford Hills Real Estate
Q: I vacated my rental house after living there for five years. I had paid a $650 deposit when I moved in. Per the landlord-tenant act in my state, the landlord is required to provide a detailed itemized statement or accounting and a refund of any remaining balance of my security deposit.
On the 14th day after I moved out, the property manager wrote a letter to me stating that he and the landlord were still waiting on final bills for cleaning and other items. So I believe that this letter was not sufficient.
Today, I received the “final accounting” for my rental house. I had spoken to the property manager prior to vacating the premises and we agreed verbally that when I moved I would not be cleaning the carpet. Also, since I was leaving the state I did leave a desk in the house and a few items outside the house.
In the “itemized statement” there were several charges levied against my deposit. One was $235.21 for “garbage removal.” I know from personal experience that a dump run in that area costs $20 for up to 400 pounds, so I question the charge for “garbage removal.”
Another charge is $215 for “tenant portion of interior painting,” which seems like complete repainting. The one-bedroom, one-bath house was only 496 square feet with a tiny kitchen and two closets.
Also, this itemized statement did not provide any copies of receipts, so it is as if the landlord expects me to take his word for all of this. I have always been under the impression that if a tenant occupies the unit for more than one year, the painting is considered normal wear and tear. I am in shock that the landlord is trying to charge me for painting at all, let alone so much.
I think the landlord violated the state law. I have the right to take this to small claims court, and the landlord may be ordered to refund my full deposit or even pay me double my refund amount. All I really want is what is rightfully mine. The way I see it, the landlord owes me about $450 of my $650 deposit.
Can you confirm my reasoning so I can determine if it is worth taking this to small claims court?
A: I am not an attorney but it is my opinion that sending you a letter on the 14th day meets the intent of the law. The fact that you apparently left the property in poor condition such that the landlord could not get the work done and the bills finalized within 14 days does not mean the landlord has breached the legal requirement. Many times it is not possible to have the final invoices and accounting within a short time frame like 14 days.
I advise owners and property managers to do exactly what they did, which is send a letter explaining the circumstances and then follow up as soon as they can with the actual amounts. I cannot predict what a small claims court will do in your case, but I have seen such courts side with landlords in this exact situation.
I do think your request to see copies of the receipts for painting and the trash removal is certainly reasonable. But I don’t believe the issue is what you think the costs should be as much as what they actually paid and that the amounts paid were reasonable. Landlords and property managers are not required to do the turnover of rental units personally or for the cheapest possible cost using day laborers. They can hire professional companies that have employees and offer those employees reasonable market-level wages and benefits.
So the fact that you know that the local dump will take 400 pounds of trash for $20 is not relevant other than for that portion of any charges passed on to you should be the actual cost incurred by the landlord. You seem to be overlooking what is likely the largest portion of the $235.21 charge and that is the labor to clean up and the transportation costs to haul away and dump the items and/or trash you left behind. You acknowledge that you left a desk and some items outside the house, and the landlord has to remove those items.
If you wanted to make sure that the charges were extremely low, then you should have done the work yourself or personally hired someone to do the work so you can control the costs.
The charge for the painting at $215 also seems quite reasonable based on my 30-plus years of experience. There is no law that specifically states that a tenancy of more than one year exempts a tenant from charges for painting. So the landlord can charge for the reasonable costs beyond ordinary wear and tear.
You don’t provide details about the condition you left the rental unit paint in, but it doesn’t take a lot of damage to incur $215 in costs for labor and materials to patch and paint a one-bedroom unit.
While your rental unit may have only been less than 500 square feet, it is difficult to find a painting contractor to come out and do much for just over $200. Think about the costs of a painting contractor these days and most have minimum charges. So ask for a copy of the receipt, but know that the charge seems quite fair, as the complete prepping and patching and repainting and cleanup for a 500-square-foot rental property could be $400-$500 in many areas. I would expect that you will find the landlord paid more than the $215. And, as the landlord’s comment in the final accounting suggests, you were just charged for a portion of the costs, which would be reasonable since you did live there for five years.
You don’t mention that there were any other charges against your security deposit but acknowledge that you told the landlord that you were leaving with the carpet dirty. So any reasonable charges for the carpet cleaning would seem to be legitimate as well.
You absolutely have the right to challenge their deductions in small claims court, but I would suggest the first step you take is to simply ask for copies of the receipts. Then you need to seriously ask yourself if the court will find in your favor in an amount that will cover the costs of filing and serving a small claims court action, including the costs and time to travel back to the state where the rental unit is located to pursue your claim.
Remember that the courts will not award you your costs for travel and time off work, and you will be limited to the amount of the deductions from your security deposit as the maximum you could possibly receive.
Even if a court completely agreed with you (small claims courts rarely side 100 percent for tenants or landlords in disputes over security deposits, in my experience), you will not recoup all of your out-of-pocket costs and time.
In the future, I suggest you ask for a walk-through with your landlord in person prior to vacating. You should ask the landlord to estimate for you the charges that he expects to incur based on his experience. This is approximately what you will see deducted from your security deposit except for any latent or hidden damage that the landlord cannot detect until your furnishings and possessions are removed from the property. Then you can decide what work or items you would like to handle personally. Then be sure to take pictures or have witnesses or copies of invoices that will verify the condition you left the rental unit in at the time you vacated.
via inman.com
Bedford Patch Storm Hub: Schools Cancelled All Week | Bedford Hills Homes
Resources and Information
Bedford
As of Wednesday night, Bedford is still in a state of emergency and officials are requesting that no one travel on any town roads until further notice.
NYSEG has made limited quantities of dry ice available to municipalities. On the occasions that the Town of Bedford obtains dry ice, it is distributed at the Bedford Town House in Bedford Hills. These distributions are unscheduled and are subject to NYSEG making the ice available. Call 914-666-6530 or 914-666-4534 for availability.
Warming centers are available at each of the three fire departments. All non-essential travel on roads in the Town of Bedford is prohibited. The Town House will be closed this afternoon and Tuesday, reopening at 8:30am on Wednesday.
If overnight sheltering is necessary, the nearest Red Cross shelter is located at the Boys & Girls Club, 351 Main Street, Mount Kisco. Call 211 to make arrangements.
Pound Ridge
The town has dry ice supplies while they last; call 914-764-5511 to confirm availability. Follow Pound Ridge on Twitter https://twitter.com/PoundRidgeNY for the latest status updates. You can also visit their town alert page to see the latest notifications.
Lewisboro
The town is still in a state of emergency as of Wednesday evening. There are three hot showers available on Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. at John Jay High School. Bring your own towels and soap. You can bring your devices to charge as well.
Town hall is being used as Lewisboro’s emergency command center; the phone number is (914) 977-8043. This number may be used for any to obtain information and to report such incidents as blocked roads. For emergency calls, locals are directed to use 9-1-1. If you are in need of alternate shelter, please call (914) 977-8043, and arrangements will be made for you.
Residents are encouraged to use the town’s website to obtain information and resources. In the event the host server goes down, an alternate website has been set up at lewisboroemergency.com.
Have photos of your neighborhood and Sandy’s damage? Share them here.
Road closures and power outages
Bedford Supervisor Lee Roberts said the town has not yet been assigned a dedicated line crew to work with Bedford highway crews to ensure live power is cut before trees are cleared. Click here for more on Bedford-Katonah Road road status.
Over 28,000 homes and businesses in Westchester are without power.
Click here for the latest press release from NYSEG, which says the wait for power will be “lengthy.”
Outages as of Thursday 7 a.m.
Town Number of Customers Number of Customers without power Bedford 6,657 6,650 Pound Ridge 2,365 2,361 Katonah 2,414 2,409 Lewisboro 5,461 5,448 Somers 9,087 6,079 Click on the NYSEG outage map for the latest in local power outages.
To report downled lines, call ConEdison – 800-752-6633 and NYSEG at 800-572-1131 (electric); 800-572-1121 (gas). To report a life-threatening emergency or no power, by telephone, contact NYSEG Electrical emergency at 800-572-1131.
Dial 211 for up-to-date road closure information. Bedford police request that locals do not call police to inquire about road conditions. Dispatch staff will likely be unable to commit time to discussing road conditions.
Cancellations and closures
- Bedford Central Schools and Katonah Lewisboro are closed through the end of the week. Follow Bedford Central at https://twitter.com/BCSDNOTES to stay on top of the latest news during the power outage. K-L will send out communications through its email/phone blast system.
- The Bedford Hills Turkey Shoot has been cancelled.
- The Lewisboro Volunteer Ambulance Corps Live Auction has been postponed until Nov. 17
- Candidate night at Le Chateau is cancelled.
- Ladies Night at the Vista Fire Department is cancelled.
- SAT testing at Bedford Central Schools is cancelled for Saturday.
- The K-L SEPTA “Differences Day” is cancelled.
- The Mount Kisco Medical Group is closing all offices and emergency care centers at 1 p.m. Monday; all patients should call 244Mkmg to check on their appointment status rest of week, and should call 911 for emergencies.
- Local libraries (in Bedford and in Lewisboro) are still closed.
- The Katonah Museum of Art will remain closed until Tuesday.
For more information, click here for our “who’s open, stocked, selling” list.
Check back with Patch Thursday for updates here.
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Four Sandy-related deaths in the region
Hurricane Sandy has claimed four lives in the Lower Hudson Valley.
A tree crashed through a home in Pearl River at about 6 p.m. Monday, killing a 51-year-old man and placing his family in the hospital.
In North Salem, a tree came down Monday evening, killing two middle school-aged boys.
A motorist on the Sprain Brook Parkway in Greenburgh died due to storm conditions Monday evening, as well, according to state police.
The storm—an amalgam of several foul weather patterns—brought its worst rains and winds through the region between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. Monday.
The National Hurricane Center was no longer labeling Sandy a hurricane as of 7 p.m. Monday, as it teetered on the edge of the northeast coastline—but the squall still held amazing power.
Nearly all municipalities in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam declared states of emergency, with evacuations in effect in Port Chester, Piermont, Yonkers and other villages and cities. Hundreds of thousands throughout the three counties will be without electricity for up to a week, power companies have said.
For the latest on everything Sandy, stay with Patch.
Patch’s full coverage
- Share Sandy Photos on Patch
- NYSEG Power Outage a ‘Long Duration’
- Volunteers are Tops in Sandy Recovery
- Who’s Open, Stocked and Selling?
- Road Closures in Bedford
- Bedford Declares State of Emergency
- Lewisboro Declares State of Emergency
- Flights Expected to Cease, PATH to Shut Down
- MTA Suspending Metro North, Subways, Buses as of 7 PM
- Red Cross Launches Multi-State Response
- AG Warns Against Price Gouging
- School Closings in the Hudson Valley
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Do you know of an event cancellation? Please add it to the comment section attached to this article and update the event in our free Patch calendar to notify the community.
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Number of homes lost to foreclosure continues to fall | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate
The number of U.S. homes lost to foreclosure dropped for the fifth month in September, with real estate data aggregator CoreLogic counting 57,000 completed foreclosures in a monthly foreclosure report released today.
That’s a 31.3 percent decrease from a year ago, and 3.4 percent less than August’s upwardly-revised total of 59,000. By comparison, for a span of six years before the housing crisis, from 2000 to 2006, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month, the report noted.
“Homes lost to foreclosure in September 2012 are down 50 percent since the peak month in September 2010 and 22 percent less than the beginning of the year,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic.
As of the end of September, CoreLogic counted 1.4 million homes — 3.3 percent of all U.S. homes with a mortgage — that were in some stage of the foreclosure process, a 6.7 percent drop from the same time a year ago.
Not all homes that enter the foreclosure process are lost by their owners. Some are able to get current on their loans or negotiate a loan modification or short sale.
The 57,000 foreclosures completed in September brings the number of homes that have gone all the way through the foreclosure process since September 2008 to 3.9 million, CoreLogic said.
“The continuing downward trend in foreclosures along with a gradual clearing of the shadow inventory are signs of stabilization and improvement in the housing market,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic.
The report shows that nearly half (47.7 percent) of the 763,589 foreclosures completed in the 12 months through September occurred in just five states: California (108,000), Florida (92,000), Texas (59,000), Georgia (55,000), and Michigan (51,000).
States with most foreclosures in the last 12 months, September 2012
State Number of foreclosures California 108,000 Florida 92,000 Texas 59,000 Georgia 55,000 Michigan 51,000 Source: CoreLogic
Florida leads all U.S. states with 11.5 percent of its mortgaged homes in some stage of foreclosure, according to the report. Other states topping the list, in order, are: New Jersey (7.3 percent), New York (5.3 percent), Illinois (5.2 percent) and Nevada (4.9 percent). All but Nevada are judicial foreclosure states, where loan servicers have had difficulty pushing homes through the foreclosure process because of “robo-signing” issues.
States with highest percentage of mortgaged homes in some stage of foreclosure, September 2012
State Percentage of mortgaged homes in foreclosure
Florida 11.5% New Jersey 7.3% New York 5.3% Illinois 5.2% Nevada 4.9% Source: CoreLogic
via inman.com
New Home Sales: More Good News for the Housing Market | Bedford Hills Realtor
Sales of new single-family homes rose 5.7 percent in the month September, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 389,000, according to data released today by the Commerce Department that gives continuing indications of a housing market recovery.
The rate of new home sales was 27 percent higher than the seasonally adjusted annual rate of 306,000 for the September 2011 housing market, according to the federal data. The average price of a new home sold in September was $292,400, down slightly from $293,900 for August but up from $255,400 for September of 2011.
September’s rate of new home sales is the highest since the home buyer tax credit expired in early 2012, according to an Eye on Housing blog published today by the National Association of Home Builders, or NAHB, a Washington, DC-based industry association. The three-month moving average of new home sales has been steadily increasing for more than 12 months, fueling a growing consensus that the U.S. housing market has turned a corner.
The increase in sales is reducing the inventory of available new homes to a seven-year low, according to the NAHB, which reports the existing supply of new homes will last for 4.5 months if sales continue at the current pace. The number of new homes that are completed and move-in ready remains at a record low of 38,000, according to the NAHB, which describes home builders as “cautious about building ahead of the market.” Tight credit conditions remain a drag on builders’ outlook for the housing market.
Median home prices jumped 11.7 percent from September 2011 to $242,400 in September 2012, according to the NAHB. The group attributes the price increase primarily to buyers with equity and access to credit moving up to more expensive homes, rather than an overall increase in prices for the housing market.
The latest data also reveals significant regional variations in home prices, according to the NAHB. Over the third quarter, sales rose by 18.5 percent in the Northeast, but fell 8.2 percent in the Midwest. New home sales rose 4.9 percent in the South and 4 percent in the West.
More housing market news is due Thursday when the National Association of Realtors is scheduled to report pending home sales for the month of September.
