| Pound Ridge NY Real Estate Report | RobReportBlog | ||
| 2013 | 6 months ending 7/8 | 2012 | |
| 27 | Sales | 38 | |
| $747,500.00 | median sold price | $712,500.00 | |
| $399,000.00 | low sold price | $367,500.00 | |
| $2,550,000.00 | high sold price | $2,350,000.00 | |
| 3625 | average size | 3302 | |
| $267.00 | ave. price per foot | $259.00 | |
| 244 | ave days on market | 205 | |
| $980,672.00 | average sold price | $960,967.00 | |
| 95% | ave. sold to ask | 93% |
Pound Ridge sales down 28% – Prices up 5% | RobReportBlog | Pound Ridge Homes.
Flush with cash, Chinese homebuyers are flooding into the U.S. housing market, and paying top dollar.
“The Chinese came out really huge in the past year,” said Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel, a New York-based appraiser. Chinese buyers accounted for 18 percent of the $68.2 billion that foreigners spent on homes during the 12 months ended March 31, according to the National Association of Realtors.
At a median price of $425,000, the Chinese are also buying more expensive homes than otherforeign buyers, who spent a median of nearly $276,000 on U.S. homes. And nearly 70 percent of those pricey Chinese deals were made in all cash.
Nowhere is the influx of Chinese homebuyers felt more strongly than in California, where more than half of the homes sold to foreign buyers went to Chinese nationals.
Sally Forster Jones, an agent with Coldwell Banker International in Los Angeles, said Chinese are snapping up many of the trophy properties on the city’s Westside. She estimates that she’s sold about 10 multimillion dollar homes to Chinese nationals over the past 12 months.
“The uptick in sales to Chinese buyers started several years ago but it has increased dramatically lately,” she said.
Most of her Chinese clients are wealthy industrialists or real estate tycoons, many of whom spend less than half the year in the States.
“Some have children going to school in Los Angeles and use the homes as residences for them and [as a place] to stay at when they visit their kids,” said Jones.
China’s gross domestic product has grown by high single-digit, sometimes double-digit rates for the past 10 years, producing a lot of cash for the country’s top business people who view U.S. real estate as a safe and stable investment.
Rick Turley supervises real estate offices for Coldwell Banker in eight counties in and around San Francisco, including Silicon Valley. Many of his Chinese clients work in technology.
“The current hot spots are Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Cupertino, near Apple headquarters,” he said.
Most purchase the homes to raise their family and they pay special attention to the local school systems. Turley also has Chinese clients who buy homes for their kids. Last year, a family from Shanghai bought a condo for their daughter who was attending Stanford. The daughter has since graduated and now works at Google, he said.
San Luis Obispo County’s housing market is on the rebound.
The median price — the point at which half of residences sell for more and half for less — continues to rise, sales have picked up and foreclosures have fallen.
A strengthening economy has played a key role in the housing market’s comeback, and real estate will be a significant contributor toward economic growth this year, economists say.
“It’s on an upward trend,” said Jordan Levine, economist for Beacon Economics, a Los Angeles-based independent research and consulting firm. “The economy is improving, tourism is doing well and more people are back to work, and there’s not a lot of inventory.”
California traditionally suffers from an undersupply of housing, Levine added. That lack of housing supply has kept prices higher in California relative to other states, and has resulted in pent-up demand.
“The supply issue is starting to express itself,” he said. “It wasn’t as big an issue when the housing market was in the doldrums. But now, it has become more obvious as demand rises.”
The unsold inventory index for San Luis Obispo County, which indicates the number of months needed to sell the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate, was 3.5 in May, according to the California Association of Realtors. A six- to seven-month supply is considered normal.
But some inventory relief should come in the second half of this year, as homeowners who had been holding back decide it’s time to sell, said Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the association.
“There are people that are still underwater; over 20 percent of the mortgages in California are underwater,” she said. “But that’s changing rapidly as prices go up. More will be above water and will either stay or list their home.”
The all-home median price for the county, which includes new and resale single-family detached homes and condos, was $421,500 in May, 12.4 percent higher than the same month in 2012, according to DataQuick, a Southern California-based real estate tracking firm. May marked the 13th consecutive month in which the county’s median home sales price saw a year-over-year increase.
However, the May median sale price was still 23.4 percent lower than the peak May median of $550,000 in 2006.
A total of 394 homes were sold in May 2013, up from 361 sold in May 2012, a 9 percent year-over-year increase. Most of the homes sold in the county are existing, single-family homes.
The median price for resale homes was $435,500 in May, a 13.1 percent year-over-year increase. Sales for existing, single-family homes grew to 325, a nearly 5 percent year-over-year increase.
Read more here: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2013/07/06/2574290/real-estate-market-looking-up.html#storylink=cpy
Real estate market looking up in county | Local News | SanLuisObispo.com.
You’ve probably seen some of the reports during the past week about home sales and prices. Housing is hot.
• New home sales in May were almost 30 percent higher than a year ago, and average prices jumped by about 10 percent during the past 12 months to $308,000.
• Resales of homes were up by 13 percent in May over May 2012. Median prices increased by 15.4 percent, the sixth straight month of double-digit gains and the largest monthly advance since October 2005.
• Median prices of new listings in some cities where inventories of homes listed for sale are tight and multiple bidding situations are routine have gone off the charts. In the Los Angeles-Long Beach area, list prices were nearly 28 percent higher in May than the year before, according to data compiled by Realtor.com from local multiple listing services. In San Diego, median list prices were 21 percent higher. Washington D.C., 18.8 percent. Seattle, nearly 18 percent. Charlotte, N.C., 11 percent.
But one key housing number that hasn’t gotten as much attention – yet directly affects the financial health of millions of Americans – is home equity. Thanks to the big gains in home values, total home equity balances have grown by more than $2 trillion within the past 12 months to nearly $9.1 trillion, a 28.6 percent gain, according to the Federal Reserve.
That’s $2.5 trillion above where it was at the end of 2011, but still below the $10 trillion it hit in 2007, on the eve of the market crash. During the last three months of 2012 alone, total home equity grew by a stunning $816 billion.
Numbers like these may be hard to get your head around, but they can be distilled down to the personal level: Home equity is the value of your home minus all the debt you have against it – generally first mortgages, junior liens and equity credit lines. If your house is worth $400,000 and your mortgage is $200,000, you’ve got positive equity of $200,000. If your home is worth $200,000 and your debt is $400,000 you’ve got $200,000 of negative equity.
If you were at $60,000 negative equity three years ago, and the resale value of your home has gained by $70,000 plus you’ve paid down $5,000 in principal balance on your mortgage, you now have positive net equity of $15,000. That’s what’s happening across the country as real estate markets rebound from five years of recession.
Not everybody is sharing equally in the realty wealth boom, however. New data from a study by realty information firm CoreLogic reveal that current equity holdings vary widely around the country. In some metropolitan areas, just about every owner has positive equity. In Dallas and Houston, and on Long Island, N.Y., more than nine out of 10 homeowners have positive equity. Pretty much the only people with negative equity are those who overpaid on their last purchase and mortgaged the house to the hilt. In Seattle, 87 percent of owners have positive equity. In Los Angeles, just under 84 percent do. And in Washington, D.C., and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs, it’s 78 percent.
In other metropolitan areas, the economic rebound hasn’t replenished equity quite as fast. In Miami and Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla., more than 40 percent of owners are still in negative territory; just under 60 percent have positive equity. Chicago also has been a relative laggard in the recovery – with just 65.8 percent of homeowners having positive equity, 34.2 percent with negative.
Nationwide, roughly 57 percent of all homeowners have at least 20 percent equity in their homes, but another 23 percent are what CoreLogic calls “under-equitied” – they’ve got less than 20 percent. As of the first quarter of 2013, 19.8 percent of all homes with mortgages continued to have negative equity, but that’s falling fast – down from nearly 22 percent at the end of 2012. If home prices rebound another 5 percent nationally, says Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, another 1.6 million homeowners will regain positive equity.
So the overall outlook on home equity appears to be encouraging. But last week another research organization, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, sounded an alarm for one segment of owners: seniors. More and more owners in their 60s are carrying heavy mortgage debt loads. Between 1989 and 2010, the share of owners aged 60 to 69 with mortgage debt rose from just 32 percent to 60 percent.
1 W Century Dr, Los Angeles, CA
For sale: $15.5 million
A penthouse sitting atop a 42-story building in New York is one of many, a dime a dozen in a city where homes don’t often come with garages or backyards.
A penthouses in a Los Angeles high-rise, however, is a rarity — but a trend that developers are banking on for the City of Angels.
Once upon a time, Los Angeles was a city with loads of land. The wealthy could move in and buy swathes of real estate, creating estates on an acre or more.
Today Los Angeles is enormous, with a population more than 3.8 million, and growing. Traffic while always bad, is increasingly so, and the idea of a private, gated villa on a hill is no longer attractive.
Enter a new market for New York-style residences, starting with The Century, a brand new, 42-story luxury building.
“Certainly the market has changed,” explained Mary Ann Osborn, vice president of sales at The Related Companies, which developed New York’s Time Warner Center and is now behind The Century. “A lot of people were not living in high-rises, but it’s been an educational process.”
The process has had success. The building is already 65 percent sold, with buyers including Candy Spelling, who dumped her massive estate back in 2008. She was one of the first buyers, picking up a penthouse before the building was completed for $34.8 million. Other celeb residents have followed suit, including Paula Abdul, Elizabeth Berkley and Cheryl Cole.
The stars are among a growing L.A. population looking for amenity-heavy and worry-free living.
“They are looking for a turn-key home; they want the conveniences,” Osborn said. “It’s estate living vertically — you’re keeping or enhancing their standard of living.”
The Century sits on 4 acres in Century City, with lush outdoor gardens and high-ranked security. All of the condos have access to the tower’s features, which include an entertainment suite with a private, 16-person seating room, as well as a gym, 75-foot lap pool and new restaurant by chef David Myers.
Although modeled after New York, the units are not New York sized.
“This is a building you would see in New York on Fifth Avenue but on acreage,” Osborn said. “People are surprised at the size of the closets compared to New York.”
And of course the unit with the largest closets is the last remaining penthouse, listed at $15.5 million. Measuring 5,665 square feet, the condo has 3 bedrooms and 4.5 baths, as well as a 746-square-foot terrace. The master suite features a private home office with fireplace and “midnight kitchen.”
Home of the Week: New High-Rise Offers NY Living in LA | Zillow Blog.
The pair snatched up the penthouse in the newly built Azzurra building in 2008, paying a nice $3.7 million for the modern pad.
By 2009 or 2010, depending on reports, the romance between Handler and Harbert fizzled, and the two parted ways, as well as real estate. According to property records, Handler sold her half of the penthouse to Harbert, and his name is currently on the deed.
Now with some growth in the real estate market, Harbert is ready to dump the property for more than he paid for back in ’08. The home at 13700 Marina Pointe Dr #1901, Marina del Rey CA 90292 is currently listed for $3.95 million.
The 3-bedroom, 3.5-bath place has what every penthouse should: loads of windows with panoramic views and plenty of space. Upgrades include an automated system for the lights and a sound system. The 3,319-square-foot home has a 400-square-foot wraparound terrace, steam shower and 100-gallon fish tank in the foyer.
Chelsea Handler and Ted Harbert’s Former Love Nest for Sale | Zillow Blog.
Daniel DiManno sold his Toronto house for less than he had hoped and wanted to see if prices would cool before he bought a new one. But Canadian mortgage rates are rising again and that’s spurring DiManno and others to jump back into the market, cutting short an already brief housing downturn.
“I saw that they are going to increase rates, so I called my bank last Friday and locked in 2.5 percent for 120 days,” said the 31-year-old accountant, starting the clock on a four-month search for a new home before borrowing gets more expensive.
After nearly a year of cooling sales and plenty of concern that Canada could head for a U.S.-style housing crash, demand has roared back in key markets. What’s still unclear, however, is whether the recent surge is a reinflation of a real estate bubble, a final rush of buyers before rising rates choke off demand, or just a sign of market resilience.
The rise in mortgage rates comes after North American bond yields jumped on fears that an improving U.S. economy will cause the Federal Reserve wind down its monetary stimulus program, known as quantitative easing, more quickly than expected.
After a long cold spring that dampened house hunting, May sales of existing homes rose 3.6 percent, the biggest monthly gain in almost 2-1/2 years, returning the market almost to where it was before Canada’s Conservative government tightened lending rules in mid-2012 to stave off a housing bubble.
Analysis – The buyers are back, Canada housing market defies doomsayers – chicagotribune.com.
Applications for purchase loans increased last week, even as interest rates skyrocketed to their highest level in nearly two years on news that the Fed may begin to wind down its stimulus program this year, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported today.
Despite market volatility, “applications for conventional purchase loans picked up by more than 3 percent over the week, and total purchase applications were 16 percent higher than one year ago, indicating that homebuyers are not yet dissuaded by the increase in mortgage rates,” said Mike Fratantoni, vice president of research and economics at the MBA, in a statement.
“Government purchase applications dropped again, likely a function of the recent increase in FHA mortgage insurance premiums,” he added.
The increase came as the average interest rate for a 30-year-fixed-rate mortgage with a loan balance of $417,500 or less spiked to 4.46 percent from 4.17 percent a week earlier, according to the MBA’s latest Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.
That was the highest rate recorded since August 2011, the MBA said.
“Interest rates moved up sharply following the Federal Reserve press conference last Wednesday where it was indicated that the Fed could begin tapering their asset purchases later this year,” Fratantoni said. “Mortgage rates increased by the most in a single week since 2011, and refinance application volume dropped to its lowest level in almost two years.” Source: MBA
– See more at: http://www.inman.com/wire/purchase-loans-increase-even-as-interest-rates-spike/#sthash.Xu7JOtZU.dpuf
Purchase loans increase even as interest rates spike | Inman News.
Seattle-based Microsoft founder Bill Gates — and second richest man in the world — remarkably, doesn’t own an excess of properties. Previously, when his horse-loving daughter competed in Florida, the multi-billionaire rented homes for his family rather than buying.
Not any longer. According to South Florida’s Gossip Extra and property records, Gates now owns a place in Wellington, FL, paying $8.7 million in cash. The Mediterranean-style residence is vastly different and much smaller than Gates’ high-tech and modern compound spanning over 5 acres with 50,050 square feet of living space on Lake Washington, about 8 miles east of Seattle.
The home Gates just purchased in Wellington is reportedly a residence he and his family rented last year in January while his teenage daughter competed in the Winter Equestrian Festival. Built in 2010, the estate has 4 beds and 4 baths with a 7,234-square-foot, open floor plan. Horse-friendly features like a 20-stall barn and show-jumping arena were likely part of Gates’ decision to buy the home.
Gates isn’t the only business man buying in Wellington. New York City Mayor and Bloomberg Founder Michael Bloomberg has a home there as well as the former owner of the L.A. Dodgers, Frank McCourt.
Report: Bill Gates Buys FL Equestrian Estate for $8.7M | Zillow Blog.
Location: Aspen, Colo.
Price: $8,750,000
The Skinny: In most mountain towns, spending close to $9M would earn a buyer a substantial piece of property and a sprawling mansion, but not so in the favored mountain playground of the rich and famous, Aspen, Colo. This newly built penthouse on Main Street is asking $8.75M and measures just 3,200 square feet. Aside from the high price, the location is prime for those looking for easy access to Aspen’s many bars and restaurants—nevermind the annual Food & Wine Classic, which just wrapped up—and offers a short walk to the lifts at Aspen Mountain. The modern interior is home to four bedrooms, three bathrooms, “wide-planked European rift-cut white oak floors, custom cabinetry, diamond finish plaster walls, and slab stone countertops,” while 1,250 square feet of outdoor space and a three-car garage round out this low-maintenance offering.
Mountain Penthouse on Aspen’s Main Street Asks $8.75M – House of the Day – Curbed National.