Katonah, North Salem Lead in Highest Ask Price | RobReportBlog Katonah $18,995,000.00 Pound Ridge $3,950,000.00 South Salem $5,900,000.00 Mt Kisco $4,500,000.00 Chappaqua $4,750,000.00 North Salem $18,500,000.00 Armonk $12,499,000.00 Bedford $14,500,000.00
CLEVELAND — Seriously delinquent mortgages and foreclosures remain a much bigger problem in Greater Cleveland than in the rest of the nation, as new numbers from Mortgage Bankers Association in Washington D.C. show that one in 10 local homeowners was 90 days’ past due or in foreclosure in the fourth quarter.
Cleveland’s rate of 9.5 percent is 40 percent higher than U.S. rate and the average for the top 25 metropolitan areas. Greater Cleveland is defined as the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor region.
Overall, the U.S. delinquency rate dropped to the lowest level since 2008, declining about 4 percent from the third quarter and about 22 percent from a year ago.
“This is movement in the right direction,” Michael Fratantoni, vice president of research at MBA, said in a conference call.
The numbers in Cleveland, however, remained flat from the third quarter. This could stem in part from the jobs picture.
While the region’s unemployment rate of 6.7 percent is lower than the U.S. average of 7.8 percent, there is concern that the employment picture is skewed. Statewide, the labor force decreased by 8,000 in December, so the declining unemployment rate could reflect people who have dropped out of the work force and therefore don’t show up on state unemployment reports.
Cleveland also jumped up two spots among the 25 largest metropolitan areas, with the fifth highest level of homeowners who were 90 days’ past due or in foreclosure. Ranking higher were Miami, Tampa, Nassau/Suffolk, N.Y. and Chicago.
Cleveland’s rate of 90-day delinquency/in foreclosure was 9.5 percent. Miami’s was 20.7 percent. Chicago’s was 10.1 percent.
The percentage who were 90 days’ delinquent remained unchanged for Cleveland, at 3.7 percent. The percentage in foreclosure was 5.8 percent, down slightly from 6 percent in the third quarter.
Ohio, meanwhile, remains at No. 9 for the highest percentage of homes in foreclosure, at more than 4 percent. The rate is 12 percent in Florida and nearly 9 percent in New Jersey.
The Mortgage Bankers’ data covers 42 million first mortgages, or 88 percent of all such loans nationwide.
“We are seeing large improvements in mortgage performance nationally and in almost every state,” Jay Brinkmann, MBA’s chief economist and senior vice president of research, said in a statement.
The 30-day delinquency rate and incidence of new foreclosures decreased to their lowest points since 2007. The total in foreclosure is at the lowest level since 2008.
Brinkmann noted that the foreclosure start rate dropped by the largest amount in the nearly 50-year history of the MBA survey and is half of what it was at the peak in 2009. The percentage of loans in foreclosure also enjoyed a historic drop.
This is only the second quarter that MBA has broken out numbers for Cleveland and the other larger metropolitan areas. So there are no long-term trends that can be backed up with numbers.
Many homeowners have been able to catch up financially in part because mortgage interest rates have remained near historic lows. This week’s averages were 3.6 percent for a 30-year loan and 2.8 percent for a 15-year loan, according to Freddie Mac.
Fratantoni said it’s encouraging that delinquencies normally jump up in the fourth quarter, because of the first winter heating bills of the season and the holidays, but they decreased this time around.
Not surprisingly, the lowest overall delinquency rate (at least 30 days’ past due) is lowest among borrowers with the best credit ratings and fixed-rate loans. That delinquency rate of 4 percent is nearly half the U.S. average of 7.5 percent.
However, the overall delinquency rate is worst, at 23 percent, among borrowers with adjustable-rate loans aimed at people with bad credit.
Brinkmann noted delinquency rates for FHA loans are higher than for prime loans, but said the rates show improvement if you look at FHA loans originated in 2010 or later, when lending standards started tightening.
Q: I’ve allowed a college friend to stay at my rented home for some time, without paying rent or utilities. My friend changed his address on his ID cards to my address, and gets mail here. I’ve asked him to move on but he shows no signs of doing so. Does he have any tenant rights? If I need to get heavy, how can I evict him? –Betsy S.
A: You’re in a difficult position. Not only do you have an unwelcome house guest, but, depending on the terms and conditions of your lease, you may have a problem with your landlord, as well. Ironically, the landlord may be in the best position to bail you out.
First, is your freeloading friend a resident (with some legal rights) or a guest? That depends on a number of factors. That he pays you no rent or utilities suggests guest status; changing his ID and receiving mail at your house suggest tenant status. If your landlord is aware of his presence and seems to have accepted it, this may give him resident status too. For now, let’s assume that he’s no longer a guest, but has become a legal resident of some sort. Question is, what sort?
Most leases prohibit subletting — renting all or part of your rental to a third person — without the landlord’s consent. Landlords do this in order to make sure that they have an opportunity to screen all residents. Landlords who trust their tenants, or who are convinced that the situation will be short-lived, may agree to the sublet.
Katonah, North Salem lead in Average Ask Price | RobReportBlog Katonah $2,006,000.00 Pound Ridge $1,438,000.00 South Salem $792,000.00 Mt Kisco $1,118,000.00 Chappaqua $1,773,000.00 North Salem $2,152,000.00
Janet Choynowski
Sales of U.S. property to international buyers are heating up. According to the National Association of Realtors, international sales were up 24 percent last year, representing 9 percent of the total residential market.
NAR’s member surveys show that in the 12-month period ending in March 2012, international buyers bought U.S. property valued at more than $82 billion, generating about $5 billion in real estate commissions.
NAR defines international buyers as not only those who live outside of the U.S., but also recent immigrants and temporary visa holders.
Article continues belowIf international buyers perform a search for houses for sale in your city, does your website show up in their search results?
The chances are that your website is not being suggested to valuable international prospects unless you have taken steps to ensure that it can be indexed in other languages.
The reason is simple. Search engines are programmed to predict what their users want. That’s why when you perform a search in English, your search engine “knows” you expect to see results in English and that is what you get. The same is true for other languages.
Now here’s the catch: According to one estimate, about 72 percent of all people with Internet access speak a language other than English.
Because many people speak more than one language, it’s hard to say exactly what percentage of searches are conducted in a language other than English.
But across the globe, viewers get results that are relevant to them by using the approximately 165 international “Googles” and countless other regional search engines programmed to understand the habits and expectations of their own local users.
You can get a good feel for what a Brazilian prospect searching houses for sale in your market will encounter by performing this search: Visit www.Google.com.br and paste: “venda de casas em your city” into the search box to see which websites are included in the search results. You will find, no surprise, that the top search results are all websites with content in Brazilian Portuguese.
Buyers from Mexico were responsible for 8 percent of the international investment in U.S. residential property over the past year. A search on www.Google.com.mx for “Casas en venta en your city” will reveal who is most visible to prospects searching your area for houses for sale.
Chinese nationals made 11 percent of the 85 billion dollars in total international investment last year. A resident of China would likely visit www.Baidu.com to perform a search for ” your city 房产” to research your local real estate market. The search and results will be in Chinese of course.
Unless you already have some content in these languages, your website was probably not in any of the results above.
These search engines are programmed to deliver results in other languages and your English website is no more relevant to them than a page in Chinese is to Google.com.
There are two simple things you can do to start to improve your global visibility and increase the probability of attracting international prospects.
For a low tech and low cost solution, ask bilingual or multilingual associates or coworkers to write a few paragraphs about your local market in their own languages. Add this content to your website with links up at the top so search engines can easily index it. This content should actually be on a page within your website, not just linked from another site.
Write a blog in other languages if you can or hire someone to write the blog for you. Include hyperlinks from keywords in your blog post such as the translated phrases for “real estate for sale in your city” or “houses for sale in your city” linking back to relevant content on your website.
These small steps will allow international search engines to index your website and suggest it when an international prospect looks for real estate in your area.
Please do not add machine translation tools to your website in an effort to gain visibility, though.
This is what Google has to say: “We recommend that you do not allow automated translations to get indexed. Automated translations don’t always make sense and they could potentially be viewed as spam.”
Utilizing good-quality content in other languages can help you move your website to first-page results in the languages of your choice. After all, who knows where your next client might come from?
North Salem NY Weekly Real Estate Report
Homes for sale 52
Median Ask Price $799,500.00
Low Price $110,000.00
High Price $18,500,000.00
Average Size 3861
Average Price/foot $440.00
Average DOM 180
Average Ask Price $2,152,073.00
