Tag Archives: Cross River Real Estate

Mortgage rates fall to 2-month low after Fed announcement | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped to a two-month low this week following a recent announcement from the Fed that it would not begin to wind down its bond-buying program.

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate loans averaged 4.32 percent with an average point of 0.7 percent for the week ending Sept. 26, down from 4.5 percent last week but up from 3.4 percent a year ago, according to Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

“Mortgage rates fell following the Federal Reserve announcement that it will maintain its bond-buying stimulus,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s vice president and chief economist, in a statement. “These low rates should somewhat offset the house price gains seen the last number of months and keep housing affordability elevated.”

Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) loans and one-year Treasury-indexed ARMs also fell.

 

Source: Freddie Mac

 

 

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/wire/mortgage-rates-fall-to-2-month-low-after-fed-announcement/#sthash.sZ0FPtml.dpuf

Single-family housing starts improve | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

The increase in housing starts fell short of expectations in August, up a slight 0.9% from July, the Census Bureau revealed Wednesday.

Housing starts in August were at a seasonally adjusted rate of 891,000, compared to the revised July estimate of 883,000.

“The small rise in starts in August, which was below expectations and would have been a fall were it not for downward revisions to earlier data, is not as disappointing as it first appears,” said analysts at Capital Economics. “The figures are skewed by the volatile multi-family sector; single-family starts posted an encouraging gain.”

The August rate is 19% higher than the August 2012 rate of 749,000.

Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac, believes that the latest report suggests builders are looking much more carefully at the market.

“Builders continue to be very cautious given what they’ve been through the past seven years,” said Blomquist. “They do recognize that you have several things at play that could change this sort of frenzied buying activity that we’ve been seeing over the last six months,” he added.

According to Blomquist, the current market is similar to the market we were seeing 5-to-10 years ago, so many of the builders that experienced that market aren’t assuming this one will last.

“That’s what got them into trouble last time,” said Blomquist. He added that Wednesday’s report may not be what some people want to see from an economic perspective, but he believes it is a good sign that builders are being cautious and not overextending themselves.

Auction.com Executive Vice President Rick Sharga has a much brighter view of Wednesday’s housing starts data.

“The most positive aspect of today’s numbers were the fact that single-family starts were up pretty significantly,” said Sharga.

In August, single-family housing starts were at a rate of 628,000, up 7% from the revised July figure of 587,000. The August rate for homes in buildings with five units or more reached a pace of 252,000 units.

Sharga noted that it’s not unusual on a month-to-month basis to see some ebb and flow. “What we’re seeing is really an adjustment as builders try to figure out where they really are,” he added.

When reports fall short of expectations, it’s easy to take a negative view of it, said Sharga. However, it’s important to look at the composition under the top-line numbers, he explained.

 

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/26903-single-family-starts-improve

Information overload to blame for fewer home sales? | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

Forget about inventory shortages, tight mortgage underwriting and the lack of affordability in many markets.

The real reason home sales remain below historical levels is the “explosive growth of real estate websites and online homebuying tools,” says Qazzoo founder Michael Urbanski.

“Potential homebuyers search the Internet for information to purchase a home and miss out on the valuable counsel of Realtors, who are the real estate experts in that area,” Urbanski says.

“Often, potential homebuyers become overwhelmed by all the information they collect online and the process ends there.”Urbanski says Qazzoo “improves the house-hunting and homebuying experience by connecting interested homebuyers and Realtors in their area.”

Translation: Qazzoo sells the contact info of consumers visiting the site to real estate brokers and agents (“for less than $2 per lead“).Which pretty much describes the business model of every listing portal on the Web, including the big three: Zillow, Trulia and realtor.com. Source: prweb.com

 

 

read more…

 

 

http://www.inman.com/wire/information-overload-to-blame-for-fewer-home-sales/#sthash.PXa8UZU4.dpuf

Citigroup to pay Freddie Mac $395 million to resolve mortgage claims | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

According to Businessweek, Citigroup (C) agreed to pay Freddie Mac $395 million to resolve potential future repurchase claims tied to about 3.7 million loans sold to Freddie between 2000 and 2012.

The deal with Freddie Mac is “another important milestone in successfully resolving Citi’s remaining legacy mortgage issues,” Jane Fraser, chief executive officer of CitiMortgage, said.

The deal doesn’t release the bank from liability tied to servicing the loans. It excludes less than 1,000 loans from the period, and Citigroup said it believes it is adequately reserved for those.

                    Source: Businessweek

5 tips for career longevity in real estate | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

Have you ever wondered what differentiates those who stay healthy and engaged well into their 80s or even their 90s as opposed to those who don’t? If you want to have a healthier, happier and more fulfilling life, take a few hints from some people who have managed to do it.

I recently had a conversation with fellow real estate coach Joeann Fossland about a session she will be doing for our Awesome Females in Real Estate group called “Being Beautiful at Any Age.”

As we were chatting about the session, she shared an interesting conversation that she had with one of her coaching clients. She was having some issues with her back and she flinched when she moved. Her client asked her, “Do you have arthritis?”After careful thought, Joeann responded by saying, “Having arthritis sounds like something is broken and that it can’t be fixed.

I prefer to think that there are some days when I have some pain and other days when I don’t.”She then shared another story about a speaker who had been told he would need knee surgery.

He was a runner and refused to stop running. Each time he ran, he kept telling himself that the pain he was experiencing was his body healing itself. Several months later when he went in for another MRI, and his knee had healed.

 

read more…

 

http://www.inman.com/2013/09/19/5-tips-for-career-longevity-in-real-estate/#sthash.CGbxtIRc.dpuf

Hidden single-family rental markets remain profitable for investors | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

There have been a number of reports out recently indicating that institutional investors are losing interest in real estate. However, a recent report from RentRange and RealtyTrac revealed that there are still a number of single-family rental markets that investors would benefit from checking into.

The markets were determined by evaluating gross rental yield data, a commonly used method of comparing properties. The rental yield is determined by dividing the gross annual rental income by the purchase price or market value of the property.

The analysis was limited to single-family homes with three bedrooms. The top 25 markets had the highest gross rental yields in counties where institutional investor like Gainesville Coins purchases accounted for 5% or less of all residential sales in the three-month period ending in July, and the unemployment rate was 7.5% or lower.

“Buying single-family homes as rentals still yields solid returns in many markets across the nation, but it is difficult for individual investors and even small-to medium-sized institutional investors to find reasonably priced inventory in markets dominated by the 800-pound gorillas in the single-family rental space,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.

A September report from Preqin, based on interviews with 140 private real estate investors, revealed that the proportion of investors making new private real estate commitments dropped in the last year, with smaller investors becoming more hesitant to make commitments.

Blomquist noted that this analysis has identified the top overlooked markets where single-family rentals still make good financial sense but where there is little to no competition from the big players.

According to Wally Charnoff, CEO of RentRange, “Real estate investment opportunities vary greatly market by market. “The availability of gross rental yield information and other valuable analytics empower buyers to make more scientific decisions about where to invest,” he added.

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/26921-hidden-single-family-rental-markets-still-profitable-for-investors

As Mortgage Applications Fall, Lower Loan Limits Loom | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

Rising rates continue to have an impact on home purchase applications. The number of mortgage applications filed last by 13.5% from the prior week on a seasonally adjusted basis as interest rates increased, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday.

The purchase component eased 2.7% this week relative to last and has fallen 16.8% since the first week in May on a seasonally adjusted basis. Rates reversed course last week and turned upward after easing in the prior week. The average rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage was 4.57% last week according to Freddie Mac.

On an unadjusted basis, MBA reported the market composite index declined 23%. The refinance index slipped 28% from a week earlier, while the seasonally adjusted purchase index slid 2.7%.

The sudden drop in purchase applications comes as loans for new homes have taken market share away from refinancing since January, raising its market share from 27% to 53% in July.

While the average rate has been on the rise, the National Association of Realtors reported that the Federal Housing Finance Agency is considering reducing the limits on mortgages that can be backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Currently, the GSEs can support loans up to $417,000 in most markets and up to $625,500 in higher cost markets, while loans above this are supported by the private “jumbo” market made up of banks and private MBS securitizers.

Rates on jumbo loans have eased to party or slightly better than conforming loans in recent months as banks have started taking more loans into portfolio to compensate for weak commercial and refinance business. However, these loans are very high quality with large down payments and high FICO scores. The concern then is that if the loan limits decline, the private sector may still not be ready to pick up the non-pristine lending activity in the high cost portion of the market, cutting off access to credit for this portion of the market, resulting in reduced demand and sales.

 

 

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/09/

Three Cents Worth: Manhattan’s Middle Market Shows Life | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

This week I thought I’d take a look at the breakdown of sales by price in the most recently completed quarter.  Last year I was using a donut analogy to describe the Manhattan apartment market—weak in middle and strong on the outside (bottom/top). I wanted to illustrate how the mix in 2013 could be showing signs of change rather than continuing to see a disproportionate amount of activity on the margins. For reference I provided an inset in the form of a pie (sorry) chart to show a simple breakdown of the market in the second quarter of 2013.  The column chart was a bit more involved.  It represents the difference between 2Q 2013 and 2Q 2012 as measured by percentage to illustrate any market shifts that may be occurring. For example, the market share of the $1K-$500K was 21.3 percent (in pie chart), 4.1 percent less (in column chart) than 25.4 percent in the year ago quarter.

· Sub $500k market lost share (4.1 percent) likely due to lack of supply and tight credit.  Too soon in the data to see rise in mortgage rates but expect more weakness. · $501k to $4M or middle, upper middle of market showed slight gains from a year ago—something we haven’t seen in quite a while.  This is nearly 3/4 of the entire market so “middle” is quite a broad description. · $4M+ showed mixed results but generally unchanged.

With rising mortgage rates and little gain in supply across much of the market, I suspect we will continue to see an erosion in market share at the entry level sales as more first time buyers get shut out.  I’d like to think the middle of the market would continue to improve in share—a market starting to see more trade-ups and lateral movement but perhaps not at the pace we’ve seen year to date.  The overhyped high end will probably muddle along in balance with no real change in supply.

 

 

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/08/20/