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Luxury Sales Approach Sellers’ Market | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate
Top tier properties are getting close to ending their multi-year buyers’ market and quickly reaching a more equal balance between buyers and sellers, catching up with less expensive homes .
Since early December, the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing’s Market Action Index has risen 30 percent and is now only seven points away from reaching a seller’s market on a national level. The index, which is managed by Altos Research, measures available supply relative to the current level of demand.
“The ILHM national market is currently in the buyer’s market zone though not strongly so. The Market Action Index stands this week at 23 so luxury buyers should expect to find reasonable levels of selection,” the report noted. On December 2, the index stood at 16.
The ILHM National Luxury Composite Price has risen 2 percent since December 30, from $1,196,838 to $1,221,962, despite the slow winter season. Despite the fact that the number of new listings has increased 51 percent over the past six weeks, the average days on market at 204 has declined slightly, from 209 to 204. Luxury homes typically take longer to sell than less expensive ones and the ILHM average days on market (204) are much higher than Realtor.com’s January median of 119 days for all price ranges. The percent of properties with a price decrease, another sign of buyer dominance, has also decreased over the past six weeks, from 26 percent to 24 percent of all luxury properties.
The index is rising in nearly every one of the 31 markets tracked by the institute. The ten hottest luxury markets are Washington DC where the average days on market is 123; San Francisco DOM 140, Las Vegas DOM 142, Silicon Valley DOM 157, San Diego DOM 161, Austin DOM 174, Seattle DOM 176, Houston DOM 178, Atlanta DOM 183, and Phoenix DOM 191.
Brokers and agents around the country report accelerated sales around the country. “After a substantial slump in 2008-2010, migration to Florida is accelerating again and is expected to generate new jobs and boost the continuing recovery. Buyers of lavish mansions and luxury homes for sale led the wave of those heading into Florida at the beginning of 2013. In Sarasota County in December 2012, 47 homes and condominiums sold for over $1,000,000, a figure higher than any other 2012 month,” reported William True of Sarasota Real Estate.
Rosengren: Housing recovery dependant on Fed intervention | Bedford Hills Real Estate
via housingwire.com
5 Home ‘Upgrades’ You Should Avoid | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate
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Initial Jobless Claims Down by 27,000 – Good economic news | Bedford Hills Real Estate
In each Economic Update, the Research staff analyzes recently released economic indicators and addresses what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update discusses initial jobless claims.
- Good news for the job market this week: initial unemployment insurance claims for the week ending February 9 dropped to 341,000, which is 27,000 claims lower than the previous week’s level. Although the data is preliminary and gets revised higher nearly every week for prior week’s data, the drop in initial claims is larger than the usual weekly variation since January of about 18,000 claims. This indicates that fewer people are starting a period of unemployment.
- The level of weekly claims looks headed towards 350,000 from last year’s average level of about 375,000 claims. It is also a far cry from the peak level in 2009. Still, the pace of job creation has to accelerate to absorb those already unemployed into the market. As of February 2, about 3.2 million continue to receive unemployment insurance benefits.
- The bottom line for REALTORS® is that the job market continues to make steady, if modest, gains. NAR projects 1.4 million non-farm net new jobs in 2013, one factor that can support 5.08 million existing homes sales.
Foreclosures Re-infect Florida Markets | Bedford Hills Real Estate
It’s deja vu all over again in Florida. In a virtual re-run of Florida’s housing economy, its foreclosure starts lead the nation, prices are falling and inventories are too big, especially on the coasts.
Florida posted the nation’s highest statewide foreclosure rate for the fifth month in a row in January, and also had the highest number of properties with foreclosure filings for the month, marking the first month since January 2007 that California has not had the highest number of properties with foreclosure filings, RealtyTrac reported today.
With one in every 223 housing units with a foreclosure filing in January, the Ocala, Fla., metro area posted the nation’s highest foreclosure rate in January among metropolitan statistical areas with a population of 200,000 or more. But that’s just the beginning of Florida’s woes.
The top 10 markets for foreclosures include five other Florida metro areas: Miami at No. 2 (one in 228 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Orlando at No. 3 (one in 241 housing units); Jacksonville at No. 8 (one in 301 housing units); Tampa at No. 9 (one in 307 housing units); and Lakeland at No. 10 (one in 332 housing units).
Florida also topped RealtyTrac’s list of best markets to buy a foreclosure. Five other Florida cities ranked among the Top 20 best places to buy foreclosures: Lakeland, Tampa, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Miami.
In 2012, Florida posted the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, eclipsing Nevada for the first time, according to RealtyTrac. Activity in Florida rose 53.5 percent in 2012 from a year earlier, as lenders stepped up activity following the Attorneys General settlement last spring. In many cases, court backlogs and faulty bank filings have drawn out foreclosures through years of delays. RealtyTrac reported a typical Florida foreclosure lasts more than 28 months, four times as long as in 2007.
Florida cities made terrific progress against foreclosures two years ago, as the “Florida Phenomenon” led the nation into recovery. But today the state is second worse behind Nevada in terms of its lack of recovery price declines since the 2007 housing crash. Including distressed transactions, Florida markets are 43.5 percent lower today than they were at the peak, according to CoreLogic.
While foreclosure inventories in markets like Phoenix and Las Vegas are so low that the foreclosure discount-the difference between full-price homes and comparable REOs-has virtually disappeared. In Miami, the discount is still 38 percent, sign that supply is outpacing supply. In Orlando, the discount is less, 19 percent, but it’s 35 percent in Tampa and 31 percent in West Palm Beach, according to data from Home Value Forecast.
Top 10 real estate websites get nearly half of traffic | Bedford Hills Realtor
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Yellen: Housing stakes a minor role in post-recession recovery | Bedford Hills Real Estate
Economic recoveries are generally lifted by new housing consumption, but the post-2008 recession failed to gain significant tailwinds from housing, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen said Monday.
In fact, housing overall became much less of a stimulus in the years following the subprime-market bust, the vice chair concluded when speaking at the “A Trans-Atlantic Agenda for Share Prosperity” conference in Washington D.C.
“After a lengthy recession that imposed great hardships on American workers, the weak recovery has made the past five years the toughest that many of today’s workers have ever experienced,” Yellen added.
An important tailwind in most recoveries is housing because residential investment creates jobs in construction as well as related industries, Yellen said.
Before the Great Recession, housing investment added a half of a percentage point on average to real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the two years after each of the previous four recessions. This was considerably more than its contribution to growth at other times, the vice chairman noted.
“During this recovery, in contrast, residential investment, on net, has contributed very little to growth since the recession ended,” Yellen stated. “The reasons are easy to understand, given the central role that housing played in the Great Recession.”
An extended boom in construction was driven in large part by overly loose mortgage lending standards as well as unrealistic expectations of future home price increases, leading to a housing market collapse complete with plunging home sales and housing prices as well as a sharp credit contraction, according to Yellen.
Thus, tight mortgage credit conditions are still making it difficult for potential homebuyers, despite record-low mortgage interest rates, creating housing affordability.
“I’m encouraged by recent improvement in the residential sector, but the contribution of housing investment to overall economic activity remains considerably below the average seen in past recoveries,” Yellen said.
Click on the graph to view the average contribution of residential investment to real GDP growth during past recoveries.
via housingwire.com
Obama Scorecard warns economy remains fragile | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate
Data released in the Obama administration’s January Housing Scorecard show signs that the housing market is continuing to strengthen, with the number of underwater borrowers declining while home prices improve.
Officials warn that, while the recovery is in full effect right now, there is regional variation and the overall U.S. economy still remains fragile.
“The Obama administration’s efforts to speed housing recovery are showing continued progress as the January scorecard indicators highlight clear forward momentum in the housing market,” said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs Kurt Usowski.
Broken down, the housing recovery looks promising. The inventory of existing homes for sales continued to decline, dropping from a 4.8 months’ supply on the December scorecard to a 4.4 months’ supply, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. The significance of this is highlighted when looking back at the November scorecard, when there was a 5.3 months’ supply of housing.
With fewer homes on the market, fewer homes are being sold. The number of existing homes for sale dropped from 415.8 million in December to 411.7 million in January, according to NAR, U.S. Census Bureau and HUD. 10.67
The number of underwater borrowers continues to be chipped away, with 10.67 million borrowers still underwater, down from 10.78 million in the previous quarter, according to the CoreLogic ($28.50 0.2%).
Mortgage aid continues to keep foreclosure fillings down, with 3.2 million foreclosure completions since April 2009, according to RealtyTrac.
“The housing market has clearly bottomed out nationally and is turning a corner with new home construction increasing to a level not seen since June 2008 and home prices showing strong annual gains. But with so many households still struggling, we have important work ahead,” added Usowski.
via housingwire.com
