Tag Archives: Cross River NY Homes

Local Housing Prices hit 31-Month High | Cross River Real Estate

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A significant jump in July home prices and leap in housing inventory are the latest statistics confirming that the Rockford real estate market is realizing the return of home sellers.
The three-month rolling average price hit $113,178 in July, the highest monthly average since $117,520 in January 2011.
The July 2013 price was up slightly from $112,679 in July 2011. However, this marked seven out of the last eight months of year-over-
year price increases.
Housing sales were up 2.7 percent in Winnebago, Boone and Ogle Counties from 364 home sales in July 2012 to 374 home sales this July.
Year-over-year monthly sales have been up 10 out of the last 12 months.
“This extended run of year-over-year sales gains shows the drive to own a home is powering the Rockford housing market,” said Steve Bois, CEO of Rockford Area Realtors.
“Rising home prices fuel the selling market because existing home owners feel more secure about selling their current homes at a profit and moving up to bigger houses.”
Rockford area housing inventory reached 2,093 homes in July, the highest all year and marking the first time properties hit the 2,000 level this year.
“Enthusiasm on the part of buyers shows no signs of flagging,” Bois commented, “and add to that the addition of more than 100 sellers to the market. This indicates that both buyers and sellers believe the time is right to get into the market.”
Driving sales are the return of two key home buyer groups: millennials and move-up buyers.
Almost a quarter of now-married millennials purchased a home with their current spouse before their wedding, according to Coldwell Banker’s new Mortgage and Homebuying study.
By comparison, just 14 percent of those 45 and older purchased a
home with their current spouse before marriage.
Rising Rockford housing inventory levels indicate the return of sellers to the market.
“Existing home owners looking to purchase a better or larger home are coming back in the housing market,” Bois remarked.
“Move-up buyers coming back into the market is a true sign of housing recovery and economic growth.”
Bois said inventory should continue to expand as existing homeowners put their homes on the market, giving first-time buyers more opportunities to find a suitable home.
New national research confirms this move. Nearly half of Americans (47 percent) say they feel more comfortable purchasing a home today than at any other time in the past five years, say results of a survey by Mayflower Research.
“The data reflects an easing of the wariness Americans have felt in recent years following the housing bubble.” Bois said.
“The top two reasons for a delay—economic instability and declining real estate market—are now falling by the wayside. Americans
have rising faith in the housing market.”

 

Local Housing Prices hit 31-Month High.

Six Ways to Grow a LinkedIn Group, Tips From the Pros | Cross River Realtor

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Are you part of a LinkedIn group that has stalled?

Do you want to create a LinkedIn group?

LinkedIn groups can be a great way to network with your customers, peers and other professionals in your industry.

But it can be challenging to grow your group and get the people you want to join and participate in the discussions.

We asked the pros to share their best tips to grow your LinkedIn groups.

Follow these tips and you’ll find it easier to create the type of community you’re looking for.

#1: Use Email to Send Invitations That Convert

viveka von rosen

Viveka Von Rosen

You’ll need to send out invitations to get your contacts to join your LinkedIn group and LinkedIn has a form for you to do this.

The default LinkedIn message that’s sent when you fill out the form below is: “Subject: Name invites you to join Group” and “Welcome Message: I would like to invite you to join my group on LinkedIn.” Unfortunately this has about 1% chance of getting someone to your group.

linkedin tweetchat participants

Standard LinkedIn group invitations can be boring. (Note the link field at the bottom gives you the link to your group. Copy this and create a custom URL for your group to use in your email invitations.)

Let’s face it. There’s enough noise out there. If you want to get someone to join your group, you need to give them a good reason. Instead of using the standard LinkedIn invitation, use email to craft the kind of message that will get your contacts to join your LinkedIn group.

In my opinion, the person who does this best is Jill Konrath. She has created a beautifully branded email that she sends out to her email list. It not only shares the link, but some of the reasons you might want to join her group, Fresh Sales Strategies.

 

Six Ways to Grow a LinkedIn Group, Tips From the Pros | Social Media Examiner.

Chicago Property Once Part of Original Playboy Mansion for Sale | Cross River Real Estate

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Before the Playboy Mansion was in a location beneath palm trees and the Hollywood sunshine, it was on the Gold Coast in Chicago. Today, the original mansion holds condos, and one of the connected properties is currently on the market for $7.85 million, according to the Huffington Post.

Hugh Hefner bought the limestone-and-brick building at 1340 N State Parkway in 1959, shortly after his divorce. Newly single and pouring money into his new Playboy Magazine, Hefner wanted to create a space for people to live out the lifestyle showcased in the publication. The historic mansion was just the place.

Built in 1899 for a prominent Chicago doctor, the mansion had previously entertained prestigious guests, including Theodore Roosevelt. The kind of guests Hefner envisioned for the home were slightly different. He created an enormous ballroom, measuring 60 feet by 30 feet, added an indoor pool, underwater bar accessed by a fireman’s pole and furnished suites for live-in guests. The house also included a game room, movie theater, steam room and tanning beds.

For several years the home and the nearby Playboy Club were at the height of popularity, with well-known celebrities, writers and artists continually dropping in to party. However, by the 1970s, the death of a friend and following drug investigation led Hefner to spend more and more time in Hollywood, where he had purchased another mansion. In 1984, Playboy lent the Chicago mansion to the School of the Art Institute, and in 1993 the house was finally sold to developers, who turned the residence into condos.

No evidence of the pool, underwater bar or any of the other Playboy amenities remain. The particular property for sale today — located at 1336 N State Parkway, Chicago, IL 60610 — was once connected to the Playboy Mansion; the original owner built the home for his daughter.

Measuring 9,000 square feet, the home has 5 bedrooms, 7 baths and according to the listing, was updated with “no expense spared.”

 

Chicago Property Once Part of Original Playboy Mansion for Sale | Zillow Blog.

Xinyuan Real Estate: Trading At 36% Of Book Value | Cross River Real Estate

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Xinyuan Real Estate (XIN) has been growing its book value steadily and consistently for 16 consecutive quarters. It pays quarterly dividends and does share buybacks. It is conservatively managed and has built a strong balance sheet. It trades at 1.87x P/E and 0.36x P/B. The current share price of $4.16 is about 68% of its unencumbered cash on the balance sheet.

 

 

Xinyuan Real Estate Co., Ltd. (ADR) (XIN): Xinyuan Real Estate: Trading At 36% Of Book Value – Seeking Alpha.

Home sales dip, but still ‘enough momentum’ to sustain housing | Cross River Real Estate

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It was an up and down month in June for the real estate market. While existing-home sales dipped compared with the prior month, the trend line was still upward as sales surpassed their prior-year level. The median price popped for the 16th consecutive month and sales of new homes—counted separately–rose significantly.

Existing-home sales

 

Completed sales of existing detached houses, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops dipped 1.2 percent in June compared with May, but remains above levels seen in June 2012, according to the National Association of Realtors. The national median price for those homes was $214,200 in June, up 13.5 percent from June 2012.

These numbers are seasonally adjusted, so the normal cyclical rise in springtime home-buying activity is factored in.

In a statement, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said there was “enough momentum” to sustain the market, despite a mid-month spike in mortgage rates. Houses are still affordable–in terms of price and financing–in most of the country and pent-up demand from buyers is still strong, though higher mortgage rates will “bite into” high-cost regions of California, Hawaii and New York City, Yun said.

Supply broadens some

 

The supply of for-sale homes rose nearly 2 percent to 2.19 million existing homes on the market at the end of June. That represents a 5.2-month supply at the June pace of sales, up from 5 months’ supply in May. A year earlier, the supply stood at 6.4 months.

“Inventory conditions will continue to broadly favor sellers and contribute to above-normal price growth,” Yun said.

Distressed sales

 

Short sales and foreclosure sales dipped to 15 percent of the total in June, down from 18 percent in May. In June 2012, these so-called distressed sales made up 26 percent of the transactions. Both short sales and foreclosures typically sell at a discount, so their shrinkage as a percentage of the total accounts for some of the increase in the median price, NAR said.

Homes sold in June were on the market a median of 37 days compared with 41 days registered in May and 70 days recorded in June 2012. Short sales took much longer while foreclosures and non-distressed homes sold slight faster than 37 days. Forty-seven percent of all homes sold in June were on the market less than one month, NAR reported.

 

Home sales dip, but still ‘enough momentum’ to sustain housing | HSH Financial News Blog.

Study: Consumers more loyal to real estate companies than agents | Cross River Real Estate

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Agents, think your clients would follow you if you were to hang your license elsewhere? That may not be the case.

Less than 20 percent of recent homebuyers and sellers said they “definitely will” switch real estate companies if their sales agent moved to another company, according to a buyer and seller satisfaction study from global marketing research firm J.D. Power.

“A real estate company’s agent remains the most important aspect of the customer’s experience among first-time and repeat homebuyers and sellers; however, customer loyalty is first to the company and second to the agent,” said Christina Cooley, director in the diversified services industries practice at J.D. Power, in a statement.

“In the end, it is the combination of the company’s standards, processes and approach to addressing customer needs combined with outstanding execution by the sales agent that will truly differentiate the customer experience.”

The sixth annual study included 3,930 respondents who bought or sold a home between March 2012 and April 2013 with one of the nation’s largest real estate companies.

The shares of first-time homebuyers and sellers in the market jumped from last year’s study, opening up an opportunity for real estate companies who can better serve their needs, the study said.

 

 

Study: Consumers more loyal to real estate companies than agents | Inman News.

8 Reasons to Consider Marketing with Google+ | Cross River Real Estate

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When Google+ was launched there were mixed reactions.8 Reasons for Marketing with Google+

The responses ranged from people with social media fatigue who thought “not another social network! “. There were also those curious personalities who said “I wonder if Google will offer a true competitor for Facebook?”

As Google watched the rapid rise of Facebook, Twitter and the social web, it realised that it couldn’t ignore this important internet evolution any longer. It invested over $550 million in the platform and its supporting technology and offered incentives for its executive management to make Google+ a success.

On June 28, 2011 Google+ was launched and proceeded to make an impact and inroads into the social media world.

The Google+ advantages

Google plus had several advantages over Facebook that had commenced six years earlier.

  • Google had started with a fresh design and a clean sheet (Facebook’s interface after launching in 2004 was looking dated)
  • Deep pockets to fund the technology
  • It was designed for a mobile web (Smart phones and tablets didn’t even exist when Facebook launched)
  • Created for a more visual online environment

Facebook had to respond and it quickly launched a range of upgrades and acquisitions (Instagram) that met the competitive challenge.

So what are the numbers?

After just two years the numbers are in and they are compelling, but not many people are aware of the penetration and popularity of Google plus.

  • 602 million registered users
  • 359 million monthly active users according to a GlobalWebIndex study
  • Its active users base grew by 33% from June 2012 through to March 2013

Marketing is always about fishing where the fish are and Google+ has a lot of fish .

8 reasons to consider marketing with Google+

With most marketers comfortable with using Facebook for their primary social media marketing tactics they quite often don’t see the other opportunities.

Here are some compelling reasons to register and start using a Google+ page to complement your Facebook page, your social media and digital marketing activities.

1. Google+ hangouts

Google+ hangouts have been an important part of the Google+ platform since day one. They allow you to create online meetings that are limited to 10 active users but it allows you to stream YouTube video to an unlimited number of viewers.

Hangouts provide a way to engage with small groups of customers that you may want to share important information and/or educate.

2. No update filtering

Google doesn’t need to make money from Google+ as its major revenue (over $30 billion) is from its Google adwords and search advertising. It doesn’t need to force you to pay to be visible on Google+.

Facebook has increasingly applied its Edgerank technology that filters the updates that are seen by people that have liked your brand’s “Facebook page”. Some research shows it at less than 15% and shrinking.  This is so they can force you to spend to advertise on Facebook to get attention.

It has become “pay to play”

Google plus does not filter (censor) your updates to followers that are following your page.


Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/07/22/8-reasons-to-consider-marketing-with-google/#rYGw8zOzDwBqKZTS.99 

 

 

8 Reasons to Consider Marketing with Google+ – Jeffbullas’s Blog.

California Is Proof That Energy Efficiency Works | Cross River Real Estate

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California’s 40 years of remarkable success in using energy efficiency to avoid dirty power generation and save utility customers billions, as detailed in a new NRDC fact sheetreleased this week, offers valuable lessons to help meet President Obama’s climate action plan.

Cutting energy waste by improving the efficiency of America’s homes and businesses — and the appliances and electronic devices within them — is essential to reduce the nation’s need to build new power plants and to cut dangerous emissions from existing ones. Power plants are the largest source of America’s carbon pollution, and the president is ordering his administration to take steps to help curb it.

California’s energy efficiency achievements over the past four decades can serve as a model for how to avoid those dirty emissions. And, as we know well in California, investing in energy efficiency programs to allow us to do more with the same or less energy — such as upgrading our lighting or weatherizing our homes — also costs less than half the price of fossil-fuel alternatives. Efficiency also drives innovation and creates jobs.

NRDC is publishing a new fact sheet that highlights the enormous economic and pollution reduction benefits California has reaped thanks to its longstanding and bipartisan commitment to energy efficiency. Our paper also busts some of the myths about the reasons behind the state’s significant progress.

Efficiency’s huge benefits

California’s energy efficiency efforts over the past several decades have helped:

  • Save residents and businesses more than $65 billion
  • Make household electric bills 25 percent lower than the national average
  • Create a more productive economy, generating twice as much economic output for every kilowatt-hour consumed compared to the rest of the country
  • Decrease utility bills for millions of low-income households
  • Cut as much climate-warming carbon pollution as is spewed from 5 million cars annually

Despite the state’s clear success, some naysayers incorrectly claim that it all would have happened even without our efficiency policies. But California policymakers and utilities know the facts: that’s why they continue to invest around $1 billion every year to expand on the state’s success with energy efficiency.

Utilities are required to turn first to energy efficiency to “keep the lights on” before investing in more expensive sources like natural gas-fired power plants. And the state sets standards for new buildings and appliances to minimize energy waste. Thanks in part to these efforts, California’s per capita electricity consumption has remained nearly flat over the past 40 years, while the rest of the United States increased by 50 percent.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration

California’s efficiency success can’t be “wished away”

Nonetheless, there are those who try to “wish away” California’s efficiency success by trying to prove that energy efficiency isn’t the only factor responsible for our flat per-capita consumption. Everyone knows multiple factors affect electricity use, but energy efficiency is a critical one. And just as you don’t have to be an only child for your parents to love you, efficiency doesn’t need to be the only contributor for it to represent an invaluable example to other states looking to cut utility bills and curb pollution.

 

 

California Is Proof That Energy Efficiency Works : Greentech Media.

Realtor.com: Inventories are Returning to Normal | Cross River Real Estate

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While June inventories continue to be down on year-over-year basis, they rose for the sixth consecutive month and are steadily returning to more normal levels. The number of homes listed for sale increased by 4.3 percent in June to 1.9 million homes, the highest level in the last year, according to monthly data released Monday by realtor.com.

Inventories on realtor.com reached their highest level in more than a year, suggesting that market fundamentals continue to be strong and that housing supply in many markets is gradually catching up with housing demand.  At same time, the median age of the inventory increased by just one day in June, suggesting that housing sales are generally keeping pace with new property listings.

Both year-over-year list prices and inventories rose simultaneously. While the median list price has stabilized somewhat, it remains 5.27 percent higher than it was one year ago. Rising inventories appear to be having a moderating effect on median list prices, although on a year-over-year basis, median list prices were up by 1 percent or more in 98 of the 146 MSAs covered by realtor.com, compared to 103 markets in June, while the number of markets with a list price decline of at least 1 percent rose from 23 to 25.

Key Market Indicators for June 2013

June 2013

Year-over-Year % Change

Month-over-Month % Change

Number   of Listings

1,931,713

-7.29%

4.26%
Median   Age of Inventory

80

-15.79%

1.27%

Median   List Price

$199,900

5.27%

0.45%

Despite six consecutive months of steady growth, inventories continue to be down by 7.29 percent on a year-over-year basis, although they are now approaching more normal levels. The median age of the inventory rose to 80 days in June, up by one day (1.27 percent) over the month but down by 15.79 percent on a year-over-year basis.

The geography of low inventories changed during June. The top ten markets reporting year-over-year inventory declines are no longer dominated by California markets but now include Boston, Lansing, Grand Rapids and Monmouth NJ.  Their potential shortfalls in supply are likely to support robust house price appreciation going forward.  Inventories remain depressed in markets where prices have not improved significantly or where negative equity is greater than elsewhere, making it difficult or owners to sell

 

 

Read more…

 

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/07/realtorcom-inventories-are-returning-to-normal/print/

 

Memphis real estate market continues improvement | Cross River Real Estate

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The rebound in the Shelby County housing market continued in the second quarter.

Total home sales in the quarter were up 11 percent from previous year levels, with a total of 4,226 total homes sold in the county. According to Chandler Reports,total sales volume was up 21 percent as well.

The average sales price in Shelby County was $141,303, a 9 percent improvement over the $129,316 average sales price in the second quarter of last year.

The 38017 ZIP code in Collierville saw the highest number of sales in the quarter. A total of 290 homes were sold in that area alone.

 

Memphis real estate market continues improvement – Memphis Business Journal.