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Katonah-Lewisboro Parents Not Surprised By Kreutzer’s Departure | Cross River Real Estate
News of Superintendent Paul Kreutzer’s Tuesday resignation came as no shock to several Katonah-Lewisboro parents.
Nat Mundy, owner of Caps Country Market on Spring Street, said he thought Kreutzer would finish out the year, but didn’t expect him to stay long term.
“I always sort of felt like he was brought in to serve a purpose: find budget cuts, find ways to save the system money,” he said. “He did his job and he probably has another job offer somewhere else.”
Kreutzer’s departure comes less than a week after the board voted 5-2 to close the Lewisboro Elementary School in the fall, which is expected to save about $1.7 million annually. The 300-plus Lewisboro Elementary students will move to Increase Miller and Meadow Pond elementary schools, including Mundy’s fourth grade son, Hunter.
“He’ll change schools. Some friendships will be more distant than they were before. The hard part is he’s only been there three years and was just settling in,” Mundy said. “He was finding his clique of buddies and comfortable socially, and now that all changes.”
The Katonah-Lewisboro School Board announced the resignation at a special meeting Tuesday night. Kreutzer, 42, will receive a $90,000 buyout of the existing portion of his five-year contract in order to avoid litigation, the school district said in a message on its website.
http://bedford.dailyvoice.com/schools/katonah-lewisboro-parents-not-surprised-kreutzers-departure
Bay Area home prices are taking a breather | Cross River Real Estate
The Bay Area’s roaring housing market appears to be quieting down to more of an inside voice.
In November, home prices in the region increased by about 1.3 percent — a gain, but not nearly as strong as the city’s 23.2 percent year-over-year leap, according to the SP/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, which tracks home prices across the country.
Nationwide, home prices in November fell by 0.1 percent, but showed 13.8 percent growth during the previous year. San Francisco remains in the country’s top 10, but experts expect the market to return to lower home price appreciation levels.
“Individual markets are showing signs of slowing down, which is helping to set up a mixed bag this year for buyers and sellers,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist with Zillow, a real estate information company. “Buyers can expect more inventory and less investor competition, while sellers used to seeing huge price gains month after month may feel some whiplash as that slows down.”
A slowdown maybe be good news for prospective buyers, but another major concern is rising interest rates, which can curb rising prices since they increase the cost of owning home.
Drop in New Home Sales | Cross River Real Estate
Monthly data out this morning show sales of new homes fell 7 percent in December, to an annualized rate of 414,000, which was below the estimates of all 75 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Sales are up 35 percent since the bottom of the market in 2011, but as Calculated Risk notes, they are still basically at or below the levels seen during the bottom of every previous recession. New homes sales are just one piece of the market. And as Trulia’s Jed Kolko points out on Twitter (TWTR), they’re a historically small piece right now.
More broadly, there are signs of “remarkable resilience” in the recovery, according to a Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey released last week. It found that nondistressed homes spent an average of 9.7 weeks on the market in December, or 20 percent less time than in December 2012. Also, homes are selling closer to their asking prices. In December, homes sold for 97.1 percent of their list prices, on average, up from 95.5 percent a year earlier.
New home sales fell 7% in December | Cross River Real Estate
New home sales fell in December, falling 7% below November’s revised rate of 445,000 sales to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 414,000 units, the Commerce Department reported Monday.
However, December statistics are still 4.5% above the December 2012 estimate of 396,000 units.
Additionally, the median sales price of new houses sold in December 2013 fell to $270,000, while the average sales price for the same month came in at $311,400.
The estimate of new houses up for sale at the end of December came in at 171,000, representing a 5-month inventory supply at the current sales rate.
Meanwhile, 428,000 new homes were sold in 2013, which is 16.4% above the 2012 figure of 368,000 units.
Despite the dampening numbers, Jeff Taylor, managing partner at Digital Risk, is still very bullish on new home sales going into 2014 since you still have historically low interest rates and you will get more for your money.
“I think last year the market got so hot nationally that a lot of investors bought a lot of these houses and started to put them on the market, but since they were not doing significant repairs to the houses, people took a step back from buying them,” Taylor said.
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/28729-new-home-sales-fell-7-in-december
Baby boomers key to robust real estate market | Cross River Real Estate
“Build it and they will come.” That phrase had characterized Clark County’s real estate market for decades. But are we ready to build the housing that will meet the needs of those who help drive the local market: the baby boomers?
The year 2013 was a continuation of the momentum in home sales that started in 2012. Prices continued to modestly increase. With this stability in the market, many savvy but cautious buyers were ready to take the plunge.
This improvement in the housing market also created hope for many homeowners who had suffered substantial losses in value over the past several years and now found themselves in a more favorable position to sell.
The shift from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market came early in the year, when buyers very aggressively returned to the market. The listing inventory in certain price ranges was quickly depleted.
A seller’s market emerged, with multiple offers on some properties, especially in the lower price ranges — less than $200,000, and $200,000 to $250,000. Prompted by low interest rates and good values, buyers continued to pursue homeownership.
The next 12 months should be characterized by an increase in housing inventory. More homeowners will be reaching the point where their equity position is improved enough to no longer be “underwater.” As those sellers enter the housing market, we should see inventories adequate to satisfy a thirsty supply of buyers.
Many baby boomers are homeowners who want to move from a large two-story into a single-level home in a quality, secure neighborhood with perhaps a smaller yard. They are not finding many choices in this category, particularly if they aren’t interested in paying more than $400,000 for the home. They want newer, quality construction — they don’t want to downgrade, they just want to downsize.
http://www.columbian.com/news/2014/jan/23/baby-boomers-key-to-robust-real-estate-market/
Buyers want a photo-driven search experience | Cross River Real Estate
Upwards of 80 percent of buyers want to see property photos first when searching for a home, according to Robyn Woodman, a real estate broker and head of business development at Portland, Ore.-based real estate startup Househappy.
Househappy, a participant in Startup Alley at Real Estate Connect New York City, was founded in 2011 by Kevin McCloskey, a real estate broker with 27 years’ experience in the business.
The startup launched its visually based search site in March 2013. Househappy.org is free for consumers, agents and brokers, and McCloskey has vowed it will remain so. He plans to monetize the site with advertising from home services and other merchants near properties. Listing agents or brokers are posted directly on a listing page with no competing advertising from other agents.
The site obtains its listings from broker data feeds and manual uploads from listing agents or brokers. A deal with a major listing syndicator is also in the works.
Househappy recently raised $1.5 million in a funding round lead by Skechers exec Jeff Greenberg. That funding was on top of $1 million in seed funding previously raised from angel investors.
– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2014/01/15/buyers-want-a-photo-driven-search-experience/?utm_source=20140116&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam#sthash.S2Yc3QBi.dpuf
The Google Bus Protests Are Really About Bay Area Home Prices | Cross River NY Homes
So I haven’t been following this very closely, but I’m catching up on the Google bus controversy in the Bay Area.
From what I’ve gathered, a growing number of Silicon Valley workers, from Google and other companies, are finding themselves in San Francisco, some 40 miles from San Jose, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Mountain View and the other towns that make up the high-tech hub.
Workers are moving to the City By The Bay presumably because they’re drawn to the city’s attractiveness, amenities and dynamism, which the Valley apparently lacks (never been there, so this is totally impressionistic).
In response to this shift, Google and others are orchestrating private buses to transport workers from the City to the Valley, and paying the City of San Francisco good money to use its bus stops. This has prompted protests from SF residents decrying the impact of the Valley workers on affordable housing and in altering the character of the city.
Read more: http://cornersideyard.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-wheels-on-bus-go-round-and-round.html#ixzz2qI1vy4Kg
Government thinks it can fix struggling communities | Cross River Real Estate
The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development joined the education and agriculture secretaries Thursday in a press conference to elaborate on what will be involved in President Obama’s new “promise zone” initiative.
President Barack Obama announced that he is starting a new government program designed to help economically challenged communities.
The promise zone initiative, Obama said, will focus on attracting private investment to replace distressed housing with what they call “mixed-income” housing, reducing crime, providing tax incentives to stimulate economic growth, and promoting programs to help high schools retain and graduate students.
The first five locations will be San Antonio, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Southeastern Kentucky, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. The White House plans to announce 15 more promise zones over the next two years in blighted rural and urban areas.
HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said the effort will integrate housing, education and crime relief efforts, and bring together local community leaders with businesses through tax credits, coordinated by federal oversight.
“This is a sharp departure from the way the government provided aid in the past,” Donovan said. “Washington would swoop in and impose solutions without working with local leaders to support their visions and strengthen all assets needed for communities to thrive.”
“We want to bring together a wide variety of stake holders to better communities,” Donovan said. “Home is the foundation of all of our lives. Now we are going to connect housing with other efforts to expand opportunity.”
Donovan said that the tax credit component of the promise zone initiative is critical, especially for housing and job creation.
“Yes, these zones will work without tax credits, but no, not to full capacity,” he said. “Those tax credits that will be proposed are critical in accelerating job creation and improving housing.”
He added he believed the promise zones initiatives and tax credits will receive bipartisan support in Congress.
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/28537-big-promises-the-white-house-is-making-now-about-housing