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Consumer Confidence in U.S. Falls to Lowest Level Since 2011 | Pound Ridge Realtor
via bloomberg.com
The Morning Ledger: Housing Lifts Corporate Results | Pound Ridge Real Estate
WOW SOME SIGNS OF GROWTH IN HOUSING BUT MAINLY IN MULTIPLES NOT MUCH IN SINGLES. WHY?BERNANKES EASY MONEY FOR INVESTORS BUT TIGHT FOR JOE VOTER AS LABOUR MUST MOVE TO GET THEIR SHARE OF THE RECORD PROFITS TO OUTPUT ECONOMIC PIE WITH 10000 BABYBOOMERS TURNING 65 DAILY WITH A 1% RETIREMENT SAVING ACCOUNT WITH SILVER SPOON PROGRAMS WITH A MILLION $ DEFICIT ADDED ONTO A 16.4 TRILLION $ FED .DEBT WE SHOULD ALL BE HAPPY THAT THE CART CONTINUES TO GET FED AND NOT THE HORSE. HOW CAN WE INCREASE EMPLOYMENT WHEN W EFOCUS ON FOREIGN MARKETS INSTEAD OF FEEDING OUR OWN HOUSE FIRST AS WE DO NOT USE TARIFFS BUT DEVALUE OUR CURRENCY TO GROW IN THE GLOBALMARKET.
via blogs.wsj.com
Pending Sales of Existing Homes in U.S. Decreased 4.3% | Pound Ridge Real Estate
Pending U.S. home sales declined in December for the first time since August, showing uneven progress in the housing market.
The index of contracts for the purchase of previously owned homes fell 4.3 percent to 101.7 after a revised 1.6 percent increase, the National Association of Realtors reported today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey projected no change in the gauge. Compared with a year earlier, pending sales before seasonal adjustment climbed 4.9 percent.
Cheaper borrowing costs, improved property values and job gains may combine to drive further gains in housing demand, a source of strength for the expansion.
Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) — Susan Wachter, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and Keith Jurow, author of a report on the U.S. housing market for Minyanville, discuss the outlook for the housing market. They speak with Mark Crumpton on Bloomberg Television’s “Bottom Line.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Cheaper borrowing costs, improved property values and job gains may combine to drive further gains in housing demand, a source of strength for the expansion. The Realtors group said fewer homes in inventory are holding back sales after the best year for the industry since 2007.
“Our expectation is that the U.S. housing market will deliver more of the same in 2013 — increased start activity, modest home price appreciation, and continued cleansing of the stock of shadow inventory,” Michael Gapen, a New York-based senior economist at Barclays Plc, said in a research note before the report.
Estimates in the Bloomberg survey of 37 economists ranged from a 5 percent drop to a 5 percent gain after a previously reported 1.7 percent increase.
Another report today showed orders for durable goods rose more than forecast in December, reflecting gains in demand for aircraft, communications equipment and electronics. The 4.6 percent surge last month followed a 0.7 percent gain, according to the Commerce Department in Washington. The median projection in the Bloomberg survey called for a 2 percent advance.
By Region
Three of four regions showed a drop in pending home sales last month, including an 8.2 percent decrease in the West and a 5.4 percent drop in the Northeast. Sales contracts advanced 0.9 percent in the Midwest.
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 U.S. existing homes unexpectedly dropped in December, restrained by the lowest supply of properties in more than a decade, the Realtors group reported last week. Purchases fell 1 percent to a 4.94 million annual rate last month.
“The supply limitation appears to be the main factor holding back contract signings in the past month,” Lawrence Yun, the Realtors group’s chief economist, said in a statement. Still, “buyer interest remains solid.”
New Homes
New-home sales, logged when contracts are signed, declined 7.3 percent in December to a 369,000 annual pace, following a revised 398,000 rate the previous month that was higher than previously estimated and the strongest since April 2010, the Commerce Department reported last week.
For all of 2012, 5.02 million new and previously owned homes were sold, the most since 5.03 million in 2007.
Borrowing costs have remained affordable for those who qualify for financing. The average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 3.42 percent last week, according to Freddie Mac. A reading of 3.31 percent in November was the lowest in data going back to 1972.
Low interest rates are driving activity for lenders such as Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc. (STI), which saw gains in 2012 bolstered by refinancing applications.
Sales Improving
“We do expect a current favorable mortgage market to remain, certainly for the near-term,” Chief Executive Officer William Rogers said on a Jan. 18 earnings call. “There are a lot more clients that can benefit from refinancing, the purchase market is improving and so is the overall housing market.”
Rising home prices also have helped heal the real-estate market that triggered the last recession. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities increased 4.3 percent in the year to October, the biggest 12-month advance since May 2010, according to data released Dec. 26. The group will report November figures tomorrow.
via bloomberg.com
Ireland’s Real Estate Market Improving | Pound Ridge Real Estate
ireland real estate | robert paul realtor
Check out this website I found at nuwireinvestor.com
3 Lessons for Bloggers, Gangnam Style | Pound Ridge Real Estate
The PSY Gangnam Style video: you watched it … but missed some key points about blogging.
That’s right, blogging. As bloggers, we can learn extremely useful lessons from things that are unrelated to our topic.
Yesterday, I listened to the song. Replayed it, and replayed it again. I kept listening to the song for around half an hour.
Why did I keep listening to the song? Was there a marketing trick hidden in it?
I did some research and discovered three aspects of Gangnam Style which can be applied to your blog.
1. Innovate
Innovation was a major reason for my addiction to the song.
I’d never seen anyone getting inspiration from horse-back riders, and turn it into a dance move. That move is completely new, and people love new.
Look at your blog. Look at your competition. Is there a difference between you? When you are the same as others, how can you stand out of the crowd?
Innovation takes effort, but it doesn’t need to be difficult. Focus on doing something extra that can be loved by your readers. Yes, you will have to think hard, but if your mind is caught by the right idea, you will be on fire like Gangnam style…
2. Never take anything as insignificant, even if it’s small
Another big cause of Gangnam Style’s popularity is Gangnam itself. Gangnam is a city in Korea which is not big. People never proclaim that they are from there. But now, everybody wants to be from Gangnam, and to have Gangnam Style. It’s a case of the small thing gone big.
Most of the bloggers follow the big trends that are mostly created by the top blogs in their niche. Yes, those topics might be trending, but there is problem: everyone is writing about the same topic, so it’s difficult to get attention by writing on it.
If you start writing about something else that is given little importance, you have the chance to create a new trend in your industry. This also leads back to innovation. The more innovative your idea is, the better your chances are that it will go viral.
3. Inspire the influencers
PSY was not a big pop star before. The thing that took him to that position was the fact that he inspired the influencers in the music world, who spread it all over social media.
You made an innovation. You’ve spent time thinking about it and developing it, but now you’re wasting that effort by keeping it limited to your blog only. Step outside your blog! Tell the big names in your niche. They might like it and tell their audience, too.
In a nutshell: you can learn a lot of things from the famous song Gangnam Style including the importance of innovation, never under-estimating the power of small things, and the potential to inspire the influencers in your niche.
Tell me now. Have you learned anything from Gangnam Style?
via problogger.net
Twitter Mobile Video: This Week in Social Media | Pound Ridge Homes
How not to vent your clothes dryer | Pound Ridge Real Estate
This is a 50-year-old-plus brick home on a slab with pilings. It had underslab plumbing work in last 10 years, and this problem started after that work was done. The only access to this area is through the closet wall.
Someone suggested using spray foam to seal off the area, but I don’t know how you could keep it from just falling to the ground, and the ground is considerably below the slab. Can you help? –Emily S.
A: It sounds to me like the problem isn’t so much with how to stop the moisture from coming up as it is with what’s causing that moisture in the first place. As soon as you mentioned that the problem started right after you had underslab plumbing work done, the warning flags really started waving for me.
I’m very concerned that whatever plumbing work was done either a) wasn’t done correctly or b) triggered another leak somewhere else, which wouldn’t be uncommon in a house that’s more than 50 years old. You certainly don’t want to close off that moisture site around the tub, because you could potentially be ignoring other problems under the house, as well as trapping a lot of moisture under there where it can cause mold and structural problems.
I would encourage you to contact a licensed plumbing contractor who’s experienced in underslab repair work and have them come out and take a look. They can diagnose what problems, if any, you might have with the plumbing, and after that’s taken care of the moisture problems should dissipate as well.
Q: We have a beautiful spiral stairs, railings and wooden spindles, and they need to be painted. What would you suggest? –Kenneth C.
A: First, any old paint that is peeling needs to be removed, and then you need to sand these areas smooth. Next, clean and lightly sand all the old wood to remove dirt, grease and oils, and to slightly roughen the wood. Finally, apply a top coat of gloss or semigloss paint, depending on your preference. Do not use flat paint, as it won’t hold up well in this application and doesn’t look very good either. You can use either latex or oil-based paint, but use a good-quality material.
You can apply the paint using a brush. However, you will get a nicer, more consistent result if you spray the paint instead. If you are spraying, you might also want to consider using pigmented lacquer, which is often used on kitchen cabinets. It’s a durable finish that is also very smooth and attractive.
Getting a good result on something as intricate as a set of spiral stairs requires a lot of patience, and you need to work slowly and methodically to get a good finish. For that reason, you might also want to consider having a professional painting contractor do this for you.
Q: I was on the roof of a friend’s house and smelled sewer odor coming from the pipe coming out of the roof. Is this normal? I never smelled it coming from my vent pipe on my roof. –Ruth C.
A: The purpose of the plumbing vents is twofold. They provide an opening into the drain and waste system that allows the pressure to be equalized so that the water in the drains will flow. It’s similar to the fact that if you punch one small hole in the lid of a can and then try to pour out the contents, they will flow out very slowly. But if you punch a second hole in the lid, the flow increases dramatically.
The other purpose of the vent is to allow sewer gasses present in the system to escape to the outside so that they cannot build up in the system or in the house. How much gas is present in the system at any one time will vary, which is why you may smell it coming out of the vent at one time but not at another.
via inman.com
Elliman Releases Palm Beach FL Market Report | Pound Ridge Realtor
“There was a significant uptick in Palm Beach sales activity this quarter compared to the results last year. We also observed a significant shift towards high end properties as indicated by the jump in overall market prices and luxury market prices. The longer marketing times largely reflected older inventory being sold off. The market improvement has been an encouraging development that we expect to see through most of 2013.
As housing conditions change in South Florida, we strive to present our clients with timely insights on the markets we cover. In a region where housing markets are often mischaracterized and misunderstood, we firmly believe that neutral market analysis is one of the best resources we can offer to enable our clients to make more informed decisions. Douglas Elliman is firmly committed to providing information and services to meet our clients’ needs. Explore our full market report series covering south Florida including Miami, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach at http://www.ellimanflorida.com/market-reports/“
via trulia.com
