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30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate Unchanged | Katonah Real Estate

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Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed mortgages were unchanged this week, with the current rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace at 3.24 percent.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate hovered between 3.2 and 3.25 percent for the majority of the week, rising to the current rate this morning.

“This past week rates remained flat, still buoyed by optimism that lawmakers might be able to reach a compromise on the fiscal cliff before year-end,” said Erin Lantz, director of Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. “However, as we enter the last week of the year rates may reverse course back downward unless lawmakers are able to quickly agree on a plan”

Additionally, the 15-year fixed mortgage rate this morning was 2.59 percent, and for 5/1 ARMs the rate was 2.52 percent.

*The weekly rate chart illustrates the average 30-year fixed interest rate in six-hour intervals.

Given the U.S. public holiday of New Year’s on Tuesday, Jan. 1, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace weekly rates will be published on Wednesday, Jan. 2. For more information on mortgage rates, please visit: http://www.zillow.com/mortgage-rates/

via zillow.com

Pending Sales of Existing U.S. Homes Climb for Third Month | Katonah Homes

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Pending home sales rose for the third month in November, a sign of the housing recovery’s resilience in the face of fiscal threats facing the U.S.

The index of pending home sales climbed 1.7 percent to 106.4, the highest reading since April 2010, after a revised 5 percent gain in October, the National Association of Realtors reported today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a 1 percent advance.

Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) — Robert Shiller, a professor at Yale University and co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values, talks about the outlook for the U.S. housing market. He speaks with Sara Eisen on Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance.” (Source: Bloomberg)

Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) — James Lockhart, vice chairman of WL Ross & Co., talks about the outlook for the residential real estate mortgage market and the so-called fiscal cliff of automatic tax increases and spending cuts. Lockhart speaks with Sara Eisen, Mike McKee and Alix Steel on Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance.” (Source: Bloomberg)

Low borrowing costs and stable prices are drawing homebuyers three years after a recession triggered in part by a collapse in housing prices. Fewer foreclosures are coming onto the market, easing concerns that values could fall.

“Housing is building some momentum,” Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania, said before the report. “There is a growing perception that now is a good time to buy. Prices are starting to tick up, mortgage rates are still rock-bottom and the job market has shown some signs of improvement.”

Another report today showed the economy picked up in December. The MNI Chicago Report’s business barometer rose to 51.6 in December, a four-month high, from 50.4 in November. A reading of 50 is the dividing line between expansion and contraction.

Shares Drop

Stocks slumped, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lower for a fifth day, amid concern talks between President Barack Obama and Republican lawmakers may not yield a budget deal by the year-end deadline. The 500 Index fell 0.6 percent to 1,408.99 at 10 a.m. in New York.

Estimates for pending home sales in the Bloomberg survey of 35 economists ranged from a 2.7 percent drop to an increase of 6 percent.

Three of four regions showed a gain last month, including a 5.2 percent increase in the Northeast and a 4.2 percent advance in the West. Sales contracts were little changed in the South.

Pending sales are considered a leading indicator because they track purchase contracts in advance of actual transactions, which are tabulated a month or two later. Existing or previously owned homes account for more than 90 percent of the housing market.

Sales of existing homes reached a three-year high in November, rising 5.9 percent to a 5.04 million annual rate, the Realtor group reported last week.

Sales Climb

New-home sales, also logged when contracts are signed, rose 4.4 percent in November to a 377,000 annual pace, the highest level since April 2010, the Commerce Department reported yesterday.

Property values, too, are picking up. The S&P/Case-Shiller index last week showed home prices rose 4.3 percent in October from a year earlier, the biggest 12-month advance since May 2010.

Record-low borrowing costs have helped fuel demand for would-be buyers who qualify for financing. The average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 3.35 percent this week, according to Freddie Mac. A late November reading of 3.31 percent was the lowest in data going back to 1972.

Federal Reserve policy makers this month expanded asset purchases in a continuing bid to reduce unemployment and spur growth. Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has said that tight credit availability remains a concern to the housing market.

Stronger Traffic

Homebuilders are taking advantage of strong demand and tight inventory by breaking ground on new communities and raising prices. Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL) and KB Home (KBH) are reporting stronger traffic at their sales offices.

“New demand is now being created due to increased urgency to take advantage of incredible affordability as prices are now on the rise,” KB Home Chief Executive Officer Jeff Mezger said on a Dec. 20 earnings call. “While it’s been a few years in the making, housing is becoming a bright spot for the economy and the industry is once again positioned to play its historical role of being a job creator and leading the national economy into a full recovery.”

via bloomberg.com

6 Cliches You Need to Develop Killer Web Series Content | Katonah NY Real Estate

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Below is a list of cliches every creator should know when developing a web show or web series. Development is the first chance a show has to “get it right” or “get it wrong” before entering into production and ultimately published online. These tips on programming, format, audience and overall strategy will help you save time, money and increase your chance for web show success:

6 Cliches You Need to Develop Killer Web Show Content

1) “Two’s a failure, three’s a success”

Your content should satisfy your brand, your audience and you personally. These 3 areas are the sweet spot of successful web content. Your brand is the channel, business or identity that you’ve created that exists when you’re not in the room. Your audience is someone specific (#3 below). And YOU are the one who needs to be inspired to create the content consistently. A perfect example of this is ReelSEO’s very own Creator Tip series.

2) “For every $1 spent in pre-production, you save $5 in production & $10 in post”

This rule extends to content development. Spend time crafting a strong show format and script first, and you’ll reap benefits from production to audience development. FreddieW spent over a year writing Video Game High School and EpicMealTime’s Epic Chef was hinted at many months before we saw it publised.

3) “If your audience is everyone, your audience is no one”

When developing content I always create 3 audience personas: target, broad and opportunity. These fictional people have names and behaviors and allow me to understand who we’re creating the show for. Use YouTube Analytics and Facebook Insights to extract demographics and content trends. There’s a reason AOL On serves entertainment news and Revision3 is exclusively unscripted content.

4) “Bad creators steal, good creators iterate”

See what I did there? On the internet it’s fine to be blatantly “inspired” by others work. Just make sure you give it your own voice, personality and a fresh twist. Make a new version, also known as “iterating”. Audiences are drawn to content they already know. SourceFed wasn’t the first web show to cover a news topic, but they developed a unique show with personality.

5) “Shoot for the low hanging fruit”

when developing a new channel use popular, social trends to draw in audiences. Then retain them with your original, but less social, creations. I recently worked with DustFilmsOriginals on is content strategy. His wonderful shorts couldn’t find an audience so he made a Man of Steel parody to draw in audiences. Now they’re watching his originals too!

6) “This program is part of a balanced diet”

Have you considered adding a show to your programming slate? If you can afford the investment, more content can help you grow your audience, brand and ultimately revenue. But make the new show compliments the existing program. A solid channel supports their flagship content with talk show, behind the scenes and Q&A content. Just look at MyMusic Show and IGN Start for a balanced programming diet.

via reelseo.com

New Home Construction is Still Only 40 Percent of Normal | Katonah NY Real Estate

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Single family home construction, the largest segment of the nation’s home building industry, is operating at only 40 percent of its normal capacity despite a healthy improvement in starts and production over last year.

Single-family home starts are projected to climb to 534,000 units this year, up 23 percent from 2011. NAHB is forecasting that single-family new-home production will post a healthy 21 percent gain in 2013 to 647,000 units. Starts are expected to continue their upward climb in 2014, posting a further 29 percent rise to 837,000 units, the chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders forecast today.

“Consistent, positive reports on housing starts, permits, prices, new-home sales and builder confidence in recent months provide further confirmation that a gradual but steady housing recovery is underway across much of the nation,” said NAHB’s David Crowe. “However, stubbornly tight lending standards for home buyers and builders, inaccurate appraisals and proposals by policymakers to tamper with the mortgage interest deduction could dampen future housing demand.”

“It’s the single-family market that has the farthest to go, standing at only 40 percent of what is considered a typical market,” Crowe said.

Noting that there is no consistent national trend, Crowe noted the housing recovery is local but spreading. “We are transitioning from a very low demand level, where most people hold themselves out of the marketplace, to a case where supply will start being the problem,” he said. “As we begin to build more homes to address that supply, the new home stock will be a much more important element of the recovery.”

The number of improving housing markets across the nation continues to show considerable advancement. When the NAHB/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI) was launched in September of 2011, only 12 metropolitan areas out of 360 were on the list. As of December 2012, the list stands at more than 200 metro areas. The index is based on a six-month upswing in housing permits, employment and house prices.

Another factor spurring the recovery is that household formations are on the rise. In the early part of the decade, the nation was generating 1.4 million new households each year. This collapsed to 500,000 annually during the housing downturn and currently new households are being formed at close to a 900,000 clip per annum.

As new households form at a growing rate, so too does builder confidence. The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, which measures builder confidence in the single-family housing market, has posted gains for eight consecutive months and now stands at a level of 47. This is very close to the critical midpoint of 50, where equal numbers of builders view the market as good or bad. The HMI has not been above 50 since April of 2006.

Multifamily production is expected to rise 31 percent in 2012, reaching the 233,000 level, and posting a solid 16 percent gain in 2013 to 270,000 units. Multifamily starts are anticipated to rise an additional 9 percent in 2014 to 294,000 units.

via realestateeconomywatch.com

Housing recovery crosses halfway mark: Trulia | Katonah NY Realtor

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The housing industry is 51% back to normal, according to a Trulia assessment of key housing statistics.

Trulia’s November Housing Barometer compares three key indicators — construction starts, existing-home sales, and delinquencies combined with foreclosures — to their worst point during the housing crisis and their pre-crisis levels.

In its journey toward normalcy, some markets experienced some headwinds after Hurricane Sandy tore through the Northeast recently, lowering construction and, to a lesser extent, sales in the area.

The nation as a whole saw a 14% rise in construction starts in October and November (the months affected by Sandy), while the Northeast fell 5% in those same months. Likewise, national home sales increased by 7% in the past two months, but the Northeast only saw a 3% rise.

Year-over-year, November housing starts were up 22% nationwide. According to the Trulia barometer, housing starts are 37% of the way back to normal.

Existing-home sales hit 5.04 million in November, the highest level since the same month in 2009. Trulia said sales are 73% back to normal. Additionally, distressed sales are continuing to become a smaller and smaller portion of overall sales.

The combined delinquency and foreclosure rate dropped to 10.63%, the lowest level in four years and 41% back to normal.

Last month, the barometer revealed the housing market was 47% back to normal.

via housingwire.com