Tag Archives: Chappaqua Homes for Sale

Chappaqua Homes for Sale

Housing construction activity declines, mortgage applications fall | Chappaqua Real Estate

Housing starts (chart) for April dipped 0.2% month-over-month (m/m) to an annual pace of 1,724,000 units, below the Bloomberg consensus estimate of a 1,756,000 unit pace, and compared to March’s downwardly-revised pace of 1,728,000 units. Building permits, one of the leading indicators tracked by the Conference Board as it is a gauge of future construction, fell by 3.2% m/m to an annual rate of 1,819,000, slightly above expectations calling for 1,814,000 units, and compared to the downwardly-revised 1,870,000 unit pace in March.

In other housing news, the MBA Mortgage Application Index fell 11.0% last week, following the prior week’s increase of 2.0%. The index snapped a string of two weekly increases as a 9.5% fall in the Refinance Index was met with an 11.9% tumble for the Purchase Index. However, the average 30-year mortgage rate pulled back from a recent spike, declining 4 basis points (bps) to 5.49%, but is up 234 bps versus a year ago.

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schwab.com

Mortgage rates average 3.73% | Chappaqua Real Estate

Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.73 percent, ticking up from last week.

“With Federal Reserve policy on cruise control and the economy continuing to grow at a steady pace, mortgage rates have stabilized as the market searches for direction,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. “The risk of an economic downturn has receded and, combined with the very strong job market, it should lead to a slightly higher rate environment.”

Khater continued, “Since early September, when mortgage rates posted the year low of 3.49 percent, rates have moved up to 3.73 percent this week. Often, while higher mortgage rates are deleterious, improved economic sentiment is the reason that these higher rates have not impacted mortgage demand so far.”

News Facts

  • 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.73 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending December 12, 2019, up from last week when it averaged 3.68 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.63 percent. 
  • 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.19 percent with an average 0.7 point, up from last week when it averaged 3.14 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.07 percent. 
  • 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 3.36 percent with an average 0.4 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.39 percent. A year ago at this time, the 5-year ARM averaged 4.04 percent.

Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining the mortgage. Visit the following link for the Definitions. Borrowers may still pay closing costs which are not included in the survey.

Freddie Mac makes home possible for millions of families and individuals by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Since our creation by Congress in 1970, we’ve made housing more accessible and affordable for homebuyers and renters in communities nationwide. We are building a better housing finance system for homebuyers, renters, lenders, investors and taxpayers.

What to do in NYC this fall | Chappaqua Real Estate

17 reasons to go NYC

There’s a lot of fun stuff to do this fall in New York City. Take a look at these openings, concerts, festivals, performances and all-around-good-time events to find out why we’re excited (and be sure to mark down on your calendar whatever strikes your fancy).

Village Halloween Parade. Photo: Joe Buglewicz

1. The City’s biggest costume party hits the streets. The Village Halloween Parade of costumed revelers and larger-than-life spooky puppets makes its way through the West Village on Halloween night. Thanks to a crowd that’s often as dressed up as the parade goers, this downtown tradition takes people-watching to the next level. —Brian Sloan

2. Dogs, too, will be decked out. Brooklyn’s annual Great PUPkin canine costume contest and parade is certifiably the cutest and fluffiest way to celebrate Halloween. —Gillian Osswald

NYC Fashion Week. Photo: Marley White

3. Speaking of daring fashion… Spring/Summer Fashion Week is your chance to see all the world’s top designers debut runway looks. Expect standout shows from Tom Ford, Anna Sui and Marc Jacobs. —Christina Parrella 

NYC Marathon. Photo: Julienne Schaer

4. The NYC Marathon is back. Sporting events don’t get much bigger than this November 4 race, during which nearly 50,000 professional and amateur runners run through all five boroughs. There are plenty of great viewing spots along the route, but you’ll see the most action at the finish line in Central Park near Tavern on the Green. —Jonathan Zeller

New York Giants. Photo: Evan Pinkos

5. And don’t forget the other sports. The Yankees look like they’re in good shape for a return to baseball’s playoffs, so go see Giancarlo Stanton, Luis Severino and company during the stretch run. The Mets season hasn’t panned out as they hoped, but September offers the chance to cheer on Jacob deGrom as he aims for the National League Cy Young. Football’s Giants and Jets start up the same month; come October, the season kicks off for the NBA’s Knicks and Nets, and for the NHL’s Rangers and Islanders—JZ

6. But you can have sports fun even if you don’t make it to the park. The Museum of the Moving Image takes a look back at six decades of sports video games —giving you the opportunity to test your chops at a few dozen of them. We’re personally hoping to see Vs. Tennis and Punch-Out. Look out, Glass Joe! —Andrew Rosenberg

7. The concert schedule is packed. Big shows include Jade Bird at Bowery Ballroom (September 26), Florence and the Machine at Barclays Center (October 9), Justin Timberlake at Madison Square Garden (October 22 and 24), Garbage at Kings Theatre (October 27), Violent Femmes at Brooklyn Steel (October 28), Justin Courtney Pierre at Bowery Ballroom (November 6), Spin Doctors at Brooklyn Bowl (November 8) and Tennis at Le Poisson Rouge (November 13). Bring your earplugs and have a good time. —nycgo.com staff

8. There’s an open-door policy. Hundreds of buildings and landmarks take part in Open House New York, a fall weekend (October 12–14) that marks your chance to see the inner workings of structures sometimes off-limits. Unusual places like La Guardia’s Marine Air Terminal and the super-futuristic looking Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant have been part of past programs. —AR

9. You can get a taste of Japan in Sunset Park. Industry City’s new Eataly-style food fun house, Japan Village, will pack 20,000 square feet with ramen, sushi, soba, mochi and everything else you’d ever want to eat from the Land of the Rising Sun. It should be up and running in October. —GO

10. We believe in life after love. Or, at least, a musical about life after 50-plus years in show business. If you do too, check out The Cher Show, a new Broadway extravaganza covering Cher’s life, times and loves. It takes three actresses to play the title role. —BS

“Green Coca-Cola Bottles” (1962), Andy Warhol. Courtesy, Whitney Museum

11. Warhol will get surveyed. The pop artist’s famous works—and some less familiar ones—will be the subject of Andy Warhol—From A to B and Back Again at the Whitney Museum. —CP

12. So will some of his collaborators. You gotta run, run, run to see the ambitious exhibition covering the origins, music and influence of the Velvet Underground, due in the West Village in October. —AR

Courtesy, Brooklyn Comedy Festival

13. We like to laugh. Alternative comedy’s big fall event is the Brooklyn Comedy Festival (September 17 –23), whose lineup includes Kevin McDonald, Jo Firestone and Nimesh Patel. The New York Comedy Festival (November 5–11) brings huge acts like Tracy Morgan, Yvonne Orji and Bill Burr. In non-festival news, club headliners will include the likes of Leslie Jones (September 5–8), Norm Macdonald (September 13–16) and Tom Green (September 21–22). Enjoy! —nycgo.com staff

14. The Coen Brothers’ latest hits the big screen. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs has its North American premiere at Lincoln Center as part of the New York Film Festival. Originally intended as a limited series for Netflix, the movie has been reconfigured into a feature-length anthology that tells six stories of the old West; the cast includes Tyne Daly, Tom Waits and James Franco. —BS

Coney Island Film Festival. Photo: Norman Blake

15. And there’s plenty more cinema to savor. Foremost perhaps is NewFest, the City’s 30-year-old LGBTQ film festival. Other events celebrating movie magic: the Horror Film FestivalUrbanworldConey Island Film Festival and the Chelsea Film Festival. Don’t sleep on the hip-hop celluloid celebration at the Film Forum, either. —AR

Oklahoma! Photo: Brigitte Lacombe

16. Oklahoma! comes to Brooklyn. Usually the big musical revivals are on Broadway, but this creatively staged and intimate production of a Rodgers and Hammerstein classic is set to play at St. Ann’s Warehouse on the Dumbo waterfront. —BS

17. You won’t have to leave NYC for a day in the country. Celebrate the harvest at the Queens County Fair—which starts on the first official day of fall, September 22. Located deep in the borough on Queens’ last working farm, the fair features carnival rides, hayrides, pie-eating contests and an actual corn maze.

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nycgo.com

Teatown donation | Chappaqua Real Estate

OSI Donates 40 Acres to Teatown

On April 27, the Open Space Institute donated 40 acres, known as the “Overlook Parcel” to Teatown. Under a conservation easement held by Westchester Land Trust, it is now permanently protected.

We made it official this past Thursday with a ribbon-cutting, attended by Teatown board members, Merrilee Ingui of Open Space Institute, and Lori Ensigner of Westchester Land Trust.

You may already be familiar with this parcel, which is home to one of our popular trails: the Overlook Trail. Teatown has been managing this land for twenty years, making it an instrumental piece of our preserve.

Camp

 

Teatown Natural Science Day Camp
Our camp’s mission is to provide a safe, non-competitive summer haven where kids can be kids, learn by exploring, discover new things about themselves, each other and the earth, and develop friendships and respect for all living things. Click here to learn more.
Experience Wildflower Island

 

June 3
11am-1pm, FREE (ages 10+, no dogs)

Stroll the winding paths and enjoy the beauty of Teatown from a different perspective! Guides will be stationed in the Gatehouse to answer questions.

Teatown Dog Park

 

Teatown is evaluating the possibility of creating a members-only dog park. We’re interested in your feedback!
In the Gallery
May & June

 

Photography literally means “writing with light”. In May and June, H. David Stein presents his photographs in “Flowers in a Different Light” at Teatown’s Nature Center. Through innovative use of different types of light directed from different directions, his flowers appear to glow from within.
Teatown Request for Proposals for Master Planning Project
Opened on May 19. Bids due on June 12.
 
Upcoming Programs
Online registration is here!
Please register by visiting teatown.eventbrite.com or by calling (914) 762-2912, ext.110.
Advanced registration is required for all programs. $7 per person or free for members, unless otherwise noted.
PESTICIDES ALL AROUND US: SOLUTIONS TO THIS POLLUTION
June 2, Friday, 8:30am-10:30am FREE
Join Conservation Café—a consortium of seven Westchester County-based partners—for a discussion on pesticides. Learn about the current status of pesticide use regionally and statewide, the impact of pesticides, and community-based efforts to reduce the use of pesticides. For adults. Taking place at Pace University, Kessel Student Center, Gottesman Room.
HIKE TO TEATOWN HILL
June 4, Sunday, 10am-12pm
Teatown’s new Hilltop Trail climbs the highest point at Teatown for a great view of the Hudson Highlands. We’ll be on the lookout for hawks, and warblers, snakes and butterflies. For everyone.
POLLINATION STATION
June 10, Saturday, 11am-12pm

Flowers are pollination stations! Just how does pollen get to where it has to go? What role do animals play in pollination? By dissecting a flower we’ll see what the buzz is about, and learn why protecting our native pollinators is vital. For families.

BREEDING BIRDS AT FAHNESTOCK STATE PARK
June 12, Monday, 7am FREE

Fahnestock’s higher elevation and forested paths offer many opportunities to spot a variety of warblers, vireos, hawks and other birds. For Adults. Meet at the Pelton Pond Parking area on Rte. 301.

INVASIVE FOREST PEST WORKSHOP
June 14, Wednesday, 10am-3pm
Learn how to identify new forest pests invading our region, long-term mitigation and management strategies for Hemlock Woolly Adelgid or Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), and how to become involved in efforts to monitor pests, block pathways of introduction or locate EAB-resistant ash. For adults.
Unless otherwise noted, all programs meet in the Nature Center. Some programs fill up, so please register early.
Your support matters
Your donation can make an immediate impact and help support our environmental education programs and the stewardship of our 1,000 acre
preserve.

Housing starts down in November, permits up | Chappaqua Real Estate

Single-family housing starts dipped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 828,000 in November, according to new residential construction data released by the Commerce Department Friday morning. This month’s result marks a -4.1% decrease from October’s downwardly revised rate of 869,000 and represents a 5.3% gain compared to November 2015, when the estimate was 786,000.

The Midwest was the only region to experience a month-over-month increase in 1-unit housing starts, rising 19.8% from October levels to a rate of 145,000. All other regions decreased from October levels, most significantly the West, where single-family starts dropped -15.3% to a still-healthy rate of 183,000. On a year-over-year basis, the Midwest and South reported gains in the single-family category. Gains were most significant in the Midwest, where this month’s levels surpassed October 2015 levels by 33.0%

Total housing permits, the leading indicator for future starts, fell -4.7% in November, primarily due to a big dip in the multifamily sector, especially permits for 5-unit or more structures, which fell -15.8% month-over-month. Single-family permits rose 0.5%, indicating that next month’s report could be mediocre. Permits issued for 1-unit structures increased 7.0% in the Midwest, and 2.7% in the West, while the Northeast and South experienced single-digit losses month-over-month.

Total privately-owned housing completions increased 15.4% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,216,000. Completions of both single-family and multi-family housing increased in November following October’s strong report, by 3.3% and 44.5%, respectively.

 

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http://www.builderonline.com/money/economics/starts-down-in-november-permits-up_o?utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=Brief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BP_121616%20(1)&he=bd1fdc24fd8e2adb3989dffba484790dcdb46483

High-end house flipping | Chappaqua Real Estate

Last June, Dana Rice, a real estate agent and house flipper, was deep in the throes of a massive remodeling project.

She had bought a 1938 home in an upscale neighborhood of Bethesda, Maryland, for $600,000 and intended to flip it for a hefty profit. Four months and $400,000 in construction costs later, Rice put the home on the market last weekend for $1,469,000. A million dollars of her money is at stake.

“Getting into the project is a risk because of the amount of money that you’re putting in, but overall at the end of the day, the ratio is the same,” Rice said as she put out candles and fliers for the first open house.

Rice added significant square footage, along with high-end finishes throughout. The so-called industrial cottage-style home is now 2,650 square feet with five bedrooms and three bathrooms. There is a small back patio, but the yard was sacrificed to make the home larger.

Rice says it is the opposite of the McMansion trend — not a tiny home for sure, but a ‘not-so-big’ home with top-of-the-line appliances, lighting, flooring, fixtures and systems.

“There is always a market for high-end because you’re differentiating your product from, let’s say, the masses,” said Rice. “In this particular area, for this particular house, I’m very confident because I feel as though the product we delivered — we really sweated the details on it, and I’m already getting great response from people who are looking at fixtures, textures colors, and it’s not what they see in the general renovation flip.”

Not only is house flipping on the rise in today’s increasingly competitive market, but average gross profits are now the highest since 2000, or since ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate sales and analytics firm, began tracking flips.

House flippers in the second quarter of this year saw an average gross profit of $62,000, up from $57,900 in the second quarter of 2015. That gross profit represented an average 48.8 percent return on the original purchase price, up from a 47.5 percent a year ago.

“Home flipping is becoming more accessible for smaller operators thanks to an increasingly competitive lending environment with more loan options for real estate investors, who are also benefiting from the historically low mortgage interest rates,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions. “That favorable lending environment for flippers has helped to fuel the recent flipping frenzy we’ve seen over the past five quarters.”

A total of 51,434 sales of single family homes and condos were completed flips in the second quarter, up 14 percent from the previous quarter and up 3 percent from a year ago to the highest level in six years. [ATTOM defines a flip as a property sold in an arms-length sale for the second time within a 12-month period based on publicly recorded sales deed data.]

“It’s so fast and it’s so hot, you really have to be careful about who’s doing the work, because you’re going to pay that premium just to get that flip, but you need to look behind the curtain to see how they did it,” Rice cautioned.

Close to 40,000 investors, both individuals and institutions, completed at least one home flip in the second quarter of this year, the highest number in nine years. Home flipping peaked about 10 years ago, during the height of the housing boom, when mortgages were easier to pick up than a quart of milk. That is not the case today.

“While an increasing number of flippers are financing their purchases, more than two-thirds are still using cash to purchase compared to about one-third using cash to purchase back in 2006,” said Blomquist.

With so many new flippers in the market, the concern is in the craft. Rice actually spent more than a year remodeling her house, her fourth flip. That is longer than usual, but at her price, the house had to match the high-end market.

“The market is pretty strong for fixtures, finishes — everybody watches the TV shows. They have an expectation, and we want to meet it,” said Rice.

There were also a few bumps along the way.

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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-million-bet-anatomy-high-123425218.html

Builder Confidence Surges in September | Chappaqua Real Estate

Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes in September jumped six points to 65 from a downwardly revised August reading of 59 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). This marks the highest HMI level since October 2015.

With the inventory of new and existing homes remaining tight, builders are confident of positive market conditions for new construction. Solid job creation and low interest rates are also fueling demand, while builders continue to be hampered by supply-side constraints that include shortages of labor and building lots.

hmi-sept

As household incomes rise, builders in many markets across the nation are reporting they are seeing more serious buyers, a positive sign that the housing market continues to move forward. The single-family market continues to make gradual gains and we expect this upward momentum will build throughout the remainder of the year and into 2017.

Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for 30 years, the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as “good,” “fair” or “poor.” The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as “high to very high,” “average” or “low to very low.” Scores for each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good than poor.

 

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http://eyeonhousing.org/2016/09/builder-confidence-surges-in-september/

How Have Rents Changed Since 1960? | Chappaqua Real Estate

With rents rising in cities and states across the US, many renters struggle with affordability. In Miami, Los Angeles, and Orlando, for example, more than 55% of renters were cost-burdened in 2014, spending more than 30% of their income on rent. Rents have moderated recently in expensive metros like San Francisco and New York, but continue to climb rapidly in Dallas, Seattle, and Denver.

To better understand how rents and affordability have changed over time, Apartment List analyzed Census data from 1960 – 2014. We find that inflation-adjusted rents have risen by 64%, but real household incomes only increased by 18%. The situation was particularly challenging from 2000 – 2010: household incomes actually fell by 9%, while rents rose by 18%. As a result, the share of cost-burdened renters nationwide more than doubled, from 24% in 1960 to 49% in 2014.

These trends are repeated in cities and states across the country. Since 1980, incomes in expensive areas like DC, Boston, and SF have risen rapidly, but rents have increased roughly twice as fast. In Houston, Detroit, and Indianapolis, incomes have actually fallen in real terms, while rents have risen by ~15-25%. The only urban areas where incomes kept pace with rising rents were Austin, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.

Inflation-adjusted rents have increased by ~64% since 1960

First, we took a look at median rents in the United States, from 1960 to 2014. All data was adjusted for inflation, allowing us to compare rents across decades. Median rents have increased steadily during that time period, from $568 in 1960 to $934 in 2014 – an increase of 63%. Rents rose the fastest during the 1960s (18% increase), followed by the 1980s (16%). In contrast, the 1970s and 1990s saw relatively small rent increases, at 4% and 2% respectively.

Rents increased by 12% from 2000-2010, but median income fell by 7%

Next, we compared the change in rents with household income, over the same period. Both sets of data were adjusted to 2014 dollars, and indexed to 1960. Looking at the results, the 1990s were the best decade for renters, as rents barely budged (+2% over the course of the decade), whereas incomes increased by nearly 10% – a 7% difference overall, and the only decade in which rents increased less than incomes. Renters did relatively well in the 1970s as well, with both rents and incomes showing small increases.

The decade from 2000-2010, however, was the worst for renters. They were hit by rising rents (+12%) and declining incomes (-7%), making them significantly worse off overall. That decade was also the only decade in which real household incomes fell. Things have improved a bit since, as rents and incomes flattened from 2010-2014, but it’s not surprising that many Americans say that they are worse off now than eight years ago.

The share of cost-burdened renters has risen from 24% to 49%

What has the combination of rising rents and stagnant incomes done to renters? To answer the question, we used JCHS tabulations of cost-burden rates (the share of renters spending more than 30% of income on rent). Unsurprisingly, the share of cost-burdened renters increased from 1960 – 2014, but the magnitude of the increase is dramatic. 24% of renters were cost-burdened in 1960, but that number jumped to more than 50% in 2010, before declining slightly in the years following. Mirroring the data on rents and income, the share of cost-burdened renters actually declined slightly in the 1990s, but spiked from 2001-2005, and again from 2007-2011. The US renter population is larger than it has ever been (43 million households, or 37% of the total population), and nearly half of them are struggling to pay rent.

Renters in lower income quintiles hit especially hard by rising rents and declining incomes

Next, we looked at cost-burden rates by household income quintile. Renters with incomes in the lowest 20% have had cost-burden rates greater than 70% since the 1970s, and affordability has continued to decline in recent years. Among renters in the lower middle bracket (making up to $41,186 a year), however, the increase in cost-burden rates has been significant, with an increase of 22% since the year 2000. Renters in other income brackets have fared better, but cost-burden rates have risen across the board.

Rents have risen faster than incomes in nearly every urban area

We know that rents have increased faster than incomes nationwide, but how do the results vary across cities? To answer this question, we took Census data from 1980 – 2014, and compared median renter incomes and rents in different urban areas across the US. As before, data was adjusted for inflation. In nearly every urban area we examined, rents increased significantly more than incomes, with results clustering into five groups:

  1. Expensive coastal cities saw significant increases in incomes, but not enough to keep pace with rising rents. Washington, DC, for example, had a 33% increase in real incomes, but rents rose by 86%. Similar results were seen in San Francisco, New York City, and Boston. Renters in Los Angeles struggled the most, as rents jumped 55%, even as incomes only increased 13%.
  2. Renters in the Midwest and South had stagnant or declining incomes, even as rents increased. Incomes in Dallas, Nashville, and Chicago barely budged, even as rents rose by 25% or more. In Houston, Detroit, and Indianapolis, incomes actually fell by ~10-15%, even as housing costs continued to climb.
  3. Other cities saw incomes increase, but not fast enough to keep up with rents. This was the biggest group, comprising a varied list of cities, from Seattle and Portland on the West Coast; to Orlando, Atlanta, and Miami on the Southeast; and Denver and Salt Lake City on the interior. In some ways, this group mirrors what has happened in the US as a whole: incomes have increased by 15-25% since 1980, but rents have grown twice as fast.
  4. Cities with room to grow – Las Vegas and Phoenix – had relatively small rent increases, allowing incomes to keep up. Both cities added large amounts of housing inventory in the 1990s and 2000s, which helped keep a lid on rents. Incomes in these urban areas did not increase any faster than most other cities, but small rent increases mean that renters are not much worse off than before.
  5. Only one city had high income growth that matched rent increases – Austin, TX. Rents in Austin rose rapidly from 1980 – 2014, but incomes grew even faster. Austin’s population has more than doubled since 1980, causing rents to increase by more than 40%, but real incomes increased even faster. Strong employment growth in Austin has attracted many millennials, but wage growth means that Austin is the only urban area where incomes have risen more than rents.

The rent is (still) too damn high

Rents have risen rapidly in many cities across the US, but looking at things over more than fifty years helps us understand the impact of these trends. If rents had only risen at the rate of inflation, the average renter would be paying $366 less in rent each month, which would allow many to more than double their down payment savings.When coupled with stagnant incomes and soaring student debt, it is no wonder that renters across the country are struggling with affordability. Nearly half of them are cost-burdened, compared with less than a quarter in 1960.

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https://www.apartmentlist.com/rentonomics/rent-growth-since-1960

US homebuilder sentiment holds steady in March | Chappaqua Real Estate

U.S. home builders remain optimistic that the housing market will improve, but their expectations for sales over the next six months have dimmed just as the spring home-selling season gets under way.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index released Tuesday held steady at 58 this month.

Readings above 50 indicate more builders view sales conditions as good rather than poor. The index had been in the low 60s for eight months until February.

Builders’ view of current sales conditions held steady, while a measure of traffic by prospective buyers increased. But builders’ outlook for sales over the next six months declined to the lowest level in 12 months.

The latest readings come as the annual spring buying season ramps up. Typically, the season sets the pattern for residential hiring and construction for much of the rest of the year.

Sales of new homes surged 14.5 percent last year to 501,000, marking the strongest year for this segment of the housing market since 2007.

But that momentum didn’t carry over into January, when new-home sales fell 9.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 494,000. That’s well below the historic 52-year average of 655,200. February’s sales figures are due out next week.

This month’s builder index was based on 288 respondents.

Builders’ view of current sales conditions for single-family homes held steady at 65, while their gauge of traffic by prospective buyers rose four points to 43. Builders’ outlook for sales over the next six months fell three points to 61, the lowest level since a reading of 59 in March 2015.

Even so, this month’s index builder sentiment index remains in line with the NAHB’s forecast of a slow-but-steady improvement for the single-family home market this year.

“Solid job growth, low mortgage rates and improving mortgage availability will help keep the housing market on a gradual upward trajectory in the coming months,” said David Crowe, the NAHB’s chief economist.

Though new homes represent only a fraction of the housing market, they have an out sized impact on the economy. Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in tax revenue, according to NAHB data.

 

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www.ap.com

Is Bad Information Keeping Potential Buyers in Apartments? | Chappaqua Real Estate

A new survey from Bank rate found that primary reason 29 percent of renters can’t buy a home is they can’t afford a down payment.  However, at least one out of five of them are overestimating how much they think they will have to raise for a down payment.

The more than 3250 non-homeowners participating in the survey expect that they would have to put down 24 percent of the purchase price.  Some 21 percent of those non-owners, or one in every five of those who think they can’t afford a down payment, believe they would have to put down more than 20 percent of a home’s price.

In fact, the average down payment last year was nearly ten points lower, about 14.8 percent of the purchase price, according to RealtyTrac.  Millennials, many of whom use FHA financing or the new low down payment programs from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, put only about 7 percent down, according to an NAR report on Millennials.

NAR’s 2015 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers reported virtually the same down payment levels.  First-time buyers financed 94 percent of their homes and put down 6 percent; repeat buyers financed 86 percent and paid the remaining 14 percent in cash.

Even the average down payment for just conventional loans was lower than the 24 percent average of renters in the Bankrate survey– 17.36%, according to a Lending Tree.

The Bankrate study raised eyebrows when it reported that the survey found that 35 percent of non-homeowners “just don’t want to own a home yet”.   However, the real news may be the rampant and harmful misinformation about down payments that it has surfaced.

 

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http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2016/02/is-bad-information-keeping-potential-buyers-in-apartments/