Tag Archives: Cross River Homes

Faucets at $1,000 Abound as Home Equity Spigot Opens | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

A year ago, New Jersey contractor Michael Mroz’s customers were focused on saving money when renovating kitchens and baths, he said. Now, with a resurgence of home equity lending, they’re ready to pay for the best.

“People don’t want granite countertops — they want marble costing at least 25 percent more,” said Mroz, owner of Michael Robert Construction in Westfield, an affluent town less than an hour’s commute to Manhattan. “Money is so cheap today, people can splurge on $1,000 faucets.”

Spending on home renovations is rising to records as banks such as Wells Fargo & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) increase lending for home equity lines of credit, or Helocs, after property prices this year gained at a pace not seen since the last housing boom. Heloc originations could rise 16 percent this year and reach another five-year high in 2014, according to Mustafa Akcay, an economist for Moody’s Analytics, powering the earnings of Home Depot Inc. (HD) and boosting the economic expansion.

Helocs are making a comeback as the housing market recovers enough to make the junior mortgages a safer bet for banks more than seven years after the beginning of the housing crash that saddled them with billions of dollars of losses. The median price for an existing home probably will gain 11 percent this year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association in Washington, after plunging about 33 percent during the crash.

‘Enormous Impact’

“The biggest use of Helocs is renovations, and the biggest spur for renovations is Helocs,” said Kermit Baker, director of Harvard University’s Remodeling Futures program in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “When the two fuel each other, it has an enormous impact on the economy.”

After home prices began rising in 2012, the number of Americans with negative home equity — those who owe more on their properties than they are worth — began tumbling. At the beginning of last year, that was the case with almost 16 million home loans. By the third quarter of this year, that number had dropped to 10.8 million, property data firm Zillow Inc. said in a report last week.

“There is an increase in the amount people are willing to spend on their homes as the values go up,” said Joe Emison, chief technology officer at BuildFax, a real estate data company. “A lot of them feel in a better position today as the job market and the economy has improved.”

Bank Holdings

Helocs typically are held by banks in their mortgage portfolios rather than being sold in the secondary market to be securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, common for primary home loans, said Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH.com, a mortgage data firm in Riverdale, New Jersey.

 

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-25/

 

Realtor.com survey reveals a surprising number of buyers planning all-cash deals | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

Prospective homebuyers hoping to buy a home in the next four months say the lack of inventory is their biggest challenge, but many believe winter is a good time to buy because sellers are motivated to sell and more willing to negotiate.

That’s according to a survey of more than 1,300 visitors to realtor.com conducted from Nov. 7-16, which found 45 percent of buyers in the market said there’s not enough inventory in their price range.

The survey also found that a surprising number of prospective homebuyers — 19 percent — are planning to do all-cash deals.

Of those planning to buy without taking out a mortgage: 29 percent said they are downsizing to a smaller or less expensive home. 26 percent are relocation buyers. 11 percent are moving up to a bigger or more expensive home. 11 percent are buying a vacation home.

But most of those surveyed said they’ll need a mortgage to finance their home purchase.

Among that group, most did not have the 20 percent down payment that would allow them to qualify them for a conventional loan backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac without having to also purchase mortgage insurance.

More than 1 in 10 of those surveyed (13 percent) said they were planning to put just 3.5 percent down (the minimum down payment on FHA-guaranteed loans). Only 22 percent said they’d be able to make a down payment of more than 20 percent, which would allow them to avoid purchasing mortgage insurance.

 

 

 

 

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/11/20/despite-inventory-shortages-homebuyers-looking-for-bargains-this-winter/#sthash.r748HRyT.dpuf

Florida Sinkhole Destroys Another Pair of Homes | Cross River Homes

Leave a reply

Florida’s porous limestone geology claimed two more victims last week as a 50-foot sinkhole opened up in a Dunedin, Florida, neighborhood. Awakened at night by a loud sound, the family first feared an intruder, homeowner Michael Dupre told a reporter: “I grabbed a rifle and start walking through the house so I could see what was going on,” he said. “And I hear the banging. … As I approach the back of the house and I see our back screen room just sticking out 3 feet off the ground, I knew instantly it opened up.” (The full report by Shyann Malone, WTSP-TV, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla., is carried at the USA Today website: see, “2 houses likely lost because of Florida sinkhole.”)

Ironically, repair work at the location had just begun a few days before, according to a report in the Tampa Tribune (for the full story, see: “Sinkhole swallows parts of two Dunedin homes,” by Stephen Thompson). The paper reports: “The Dupre family has been engaged in a months-long court battle with its insurance company, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., after a sinkhole was discovered on the property two years ago, said the family’s attorney, Jason Salgado.” Citizens had proposed a repair plan calling for a deep-compaction grout injection, at an estimated cost of around $100,000, the paper reports, while the family was holding out for a more costly intervention that would have involved shallow grouting as well, along with a possible installation of support pilings.

Nature beat the engineers and lawyers to the punch, however; last week, demolition and backfill was the only work being done. Most of the Dupre family’s household possessions were lost, USA Today reports (for the full story along with TV coverage by Eric Glasser of WTSP-TV, see “Crews demolish 1 home that Fla. sinkhole claimed“).

Sinkholes are widespread in Florida, USA Today notes—and especially common in Dunedin, where the city actually maintains a list of sinkhole locations. The majority of Florida sinkhole reports come from a region sometimes called “sinkhole alley,” which includes the counties of Hernando, Hillsborough, and Pasco.

But as the Los Angeles Times notes, Florida’s geology makes sinkholes a risk throughout the state, experts say (see “Is there any place in Florida safe from sinkholes? Technically, no,” by Soumya Karlamangla). Still, events like this one stand out: “The people who have been around the city for quite a while, in excess of 30 years, have no recollection of anything ever this big, probably by a factor of three or four times,” Dunedin city engineer Thomas Burke said. “For us, this is a major, major situation.”

Going forward, Floridians may have more and better information about the sinkhole risk in specific locations: This month, the Florida Geological Survey started a study that experts hope will result in a detailed statewide map of the risk—eventually. The Suwanee Democrat reports on that story here: (“Florida Geological Survey begins sinkhole vulnerability study“). “Field work commenced with documenting multiple sinkholes on private landowner’s property in the pilot study area of Suwannee, Columbia, and Hamilton counties,” the Democrat reports. “The data will be part of Geologic Information System data that will be compiled and processed in the study … The project is a three year study that will produce two maps: one in the pilot area and the other statewide. The pilot study is slated to end in May 2014, at which point the statewide assessment will begin.”

 

 

http://www.jlconline.com/erosion-control/florida-sinkhole-destroys-another-pair-of-homes.aspx

 

JPMorgan reaches $4.5B settlement over mortgage-bond claims | Cross River NY Homes

Leave a reply

Mega bank JPMorgan Chase (JPM) reached a $4.5 billion agreement with 21 major institutional investors Friday to resolve legacy mortgage-backed securities issues.

The institution made a binding offer to the trustees of 330 RMBS trusts issued by Chase and Bear Stearns — a firm taken over by JPM in the wake of the financial crisis.

The settlement represents another critical step in the bank’s efforts to resolve mortgage-related legacy matters, the bank said.

“As agreed in today’s settlement, the institutional investors have committed to support the settlement and have requested that the trustees accept the settlement offer,” the company said.

The announcement continued, “The offer, which the trustees may seek court approval for, would resolve all representation and warranty claims as well as servicing claims on all trusts issued by JPMorgan Chase and Bear Stearns between 2005 and 2008.”

The offer will remain open until Jan. 15, 2014, but may be extended pursuant to its terms for an additional 60 days.

The offer includes six key terms, including payment by the bank of $4.5 billion in cash to settle all representation and warranty claims as well as servicing claims that were asserted by the RMBS trusts.

Additionally, it provides for the implementation of certain servicing changes to mortgages serviced by Chase in the RMBS trusts, as well as continuation of a previously agreed tolling and forbearance agreement among the bank and the trustees while the proposed settlement is evaluated.

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/27997-jpmorgan-reaches-45b-settlement-over-mortgage-bond-claims

 

Realogy and Trulia might make a nice couple, but are they really headed to the altar? | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

Rumors that real estate behemoth Realogy may be in talks to acquire Trulia pushed the price of the listing portal’s shares up 10 percent before markets closed today, but analysts who follow the companies didn’t think much of all the talk.

Realogy — which runs some of the biggest brands in real estate including Coldwell Banker Real Estate, Century 21 Real Estate and Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate — declined to comment. So did Trulia.

Stock analysts who follow the companies said the merger chatter — which put a $52-per-share price target on Trulia, implying a deal in the $2 billion range — was probably just that.

“To me, it feels like a bogus rumor because someone needed to get out of a position,” said Bradley Safalow, founder and CEO of stock analysis firm PAA Research.

Zachary Prensky, managing partner of Little Bear Investments, said he thought the rumor was a “complete fabrication.”

Still, suggestions that an established real estate company like Realogy would (or should) make a play for a listing portal like  Zillow or Trulia have been in play this year.

 

 

 

 

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/11/13/realogy-and-trulia-might-make-a-nice-couple-but-are-they-really-headed-to-the-altar/#sthash.0v2xongA.dpuf

Where the Next Huge Real Estate Bubble May Be Building | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

The 2000s real estate bubble—which burst in 2007 and precipitated a once-in-a-century financial crisis and recession—is not something most folks are excited to see a sequel of. But five years of declining or stagnating housing prices, the market turned around big time in 2012, making some analysts worry that we’re seeing the beginnings of Housing Bubble 2.0.

As you can see, home prices in most of the country are far from the bubble levels of mid-2000s, but if you drill down deeper to look at individual markets, one sees a different picture. Jed Kolko, housing economist with the real estate site Trulia, has been tracking home prices across the country to see which markets are over and undervalued. In a forthcoming “Bubble Watch” report, he finds that while most of the U.S. real estate market remains significantly undervalued, there are certain markets that are straying into bubble territory.

According to Kolko’s analysis, which looks at several factors like price-to-income ratio, the price-to-rent ratio, and prices relative to their long-term trend, markets in Orange County California and Los Angeles are more than 10% overvalued. Kolko also pegs the Austin, Texas market at 10% overvalued, while 7 other markets range from 4% to 7% overvalued. Those include:

San Antonio, TX;

Honolulu, HI;

San Francisco, CA;

Houston, TX;

Riverside-San Bernandino, CA; and

Oakland, CA

Unsurprisingly, these markets — concentrated in Texas and California, have also seen double digit home appreciation over the past year, with Orange County real estate appreciating a whopping 23.4% since October of 2012.

So are we in danger of another housing bubble like we experienced last decade? Not quite yet, at least nationally. According to Kolko, the market remains roughly 4% undervalued overall. And in some markets, like Cleveland, Ohio and Palm Bay-Melborne-Titusville, Florida, home prices are still 20% below their fundamental value. Furthermore, even the most frothy markets are less overvalued than the national market was in 2004, when home prices were 24% overvalued nationally.

 

 

 

Read more: Where the Next Huge Real Estate Bubble May Be Building | TIME.com

Homing In lets buyers and agents share pictures and comments about listings | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

Homing In lets buyers and agents take pictures and make comments about houses for sale or rent and share them with the world.

Its patent-pending technology allows potential buyers to find the nearest available real estate agent for showing requests.

No more waiting for a listing agent who doesn’t respond or can’t show a house because its not convenient for him.

The company is one of 13 in the inaugural class of the Inman Incubator program, a yearlong mentorship, advisory and promotional program to help new companies in the real estate industry succeed.

 

 

 

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/11/08/homing-in-lets-buyers-and-agents-share-pictures-and-comments-about-listings/#sthash.skGac8Pu.dpuf

Promises, promises: the new mayor’s agenda | Cross River Homes

Leave a reply

The day after his landslide election win, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio was already tempering expectations.

“Of course, the things I’m talking about, a lot of them are bold, a lot of them are big changes,” he said Wednesday at an event announcing his transition team. “And they are an attempt to address a problem that has been decades in the making.”

He added, “None of us is going to promise people perfection any day soon.”

Victories built on gleaming, progressive promises have been known to disappoint as they collide with the realities of governing (see: Obama, Barack). And Mr. de Blasio will be operating under higher expectations than most, having been elected to tackle income inequality.

Mr. de Blasio believes higher taxes on the wealthy to pay for universal prekindergarten will close the gap. But his proposal for $500,000 households to pay more exemplifies how much of the problem is beyond his reach.

First, he must persuade a recalcitrant state Legislature, including Senate Republicans, who run the chamber in a fragile alliance with a breakaway faction of Democrats. And 2014 is an election year for them, rendering a tax increase an even longer shot than usual in Albany. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, for his part, pledged last month to lower taxes, not raise them.

Even if Mr. de Blasio finds the money, observers doubt the city currently has the infrastructure to deliver on the promise.

“Do we have the capacity in New York City to provide universal pre-K for every 3- and 4-year-old?” asked Carol Kellermann, executive director of the Citizens Budget Commission. “It’s all done right now through the nonprofit sector. Do they have the capacity to just start adding tens of thousands of kids?”

In his policy book, the mayor-elect argues that New York needs universal pre-K in order to compete with countries such as India and China. But research on the matter has shown that the benefits of pre-K are decidedly mixed, though children from disadvantaged backgrounds gain the most from early education.

Mandating affordability

Real estate executives, meanwhile, wonder how Mr. de Blasio will make good on another campaign promise—200,000 new or preserved affordable-housing units in 10 years—without the traditional menu of tax breaks and other incentives for developers. Mr. de Blasio would require developers to build affordable units in exchange for allowing larger buildings to be constructed.

“If the goal is to make landlords build affordable housing, then reducing subsidies and requiring affordable units will result in fewer units,” said one real estate source. “People will just build condos instead of rentals or just not build at all. That’s basic economics.”

But the mayor-elect’s mandate from voters will help him handle developers. “I think Bill de Blasio is going to do just fine,” said de Blasio donor Steven Witkoff, president and CEO of the Witkoff Group, a real estate investment firm, at a recent Crain’s event. “I don’t think the city works unless we do have an affordable-housing component.”

Plea for patience

Questions surround a host of Mr. de Blasio’s other proposals. It’s unclear how he will go about persuading Albany to let the city raise its minimum wage or “end the era of stop-and-frisk” without totally doing away with the police tactic. Mr. de Blasio was elected in part because he embraced an aspirational vision of a more egalitarian city. His challenge now will be living up to those promises without bankrupting the city or isolating his liberal base.

 

 

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20131110/POLITICS/311109976#