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Most claims in Zillow home valuation patent deemed invalid | South Salem Homes
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Distressed sales down, investor activity wanes | South Salem Real Estate
Residential properties sold at an estimated annual pace of 5,083,241 in February, a 0.2% decline from January but up 7% from February 2013, according to the latest report from RealtyTrac.
February marked the fourth consecutive month where sales activity has fell on a monthly basis. This includes single-family homes, condominiums and townhomes.
There were monthly declines in 31 states, and year-over-year declines in six – including Massachusetts, California, Arizona and Nevada. Twenty-one of the nation’s largest 50 metropolitan areas likewise suffered sales volume declines, including Phoenix, Orlando, Las Vegas and Detroit, among others.
“Supply and demand have reached a bit of a standoff in this uneven real estate recovery,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “The supply of distressed properties — which buyers and investors have come to rely on over the past few years — is evaporating quickly in most markets, but that dwindling supply is not being adequately replenished by non-distressed homeowners listing their homes or by new homes being built.”
Blomquist noted that some of the volume decline is from institutional investors, a primary driver over the past two years. Investor activity has declined in the last several months.
“It’s not yet clear if that diminishing demand will be filled by first-time homebuyers and move-up buyers,” he said.
Trulia: 3 weights pull the housing recovery down | South Salem Real Estate
The housing market is recovering, albeit a slow and staggering pace, but it is still improving.
According to Trulia (TRLA) Chief Economist Jed Kolko’s latest Housing Barometer blog, “Of the Housing Barometer’s five indicators, all have improved over the last year except new construction starts. But only rising home prices and falling delinquencies + foreclosures have been steady. The other three measures – sales, starts, and young-adult employment – have zigzagged, both gaining and losing ground over the year.”
So what are the dead weights adding pressure to the strength of the recovery?
In the blog, Kolko defines three variables holding the recovery back.
1. Affordability is getting worse.
Kolko mentions that even though it remains cheaper to buy a home than to rent in the 100 largest metros, homeownership is pricier than last year. “And declining affordability is a bigger challenge for first-time home buyers than for current homeowners looking to trade in a home that has also increased in value,” Kolko said.
2. Investors are slowly exiting.
Since prices have risen and fewer people are losing homes to foreclosure, Kolko noted that investing-to-rent makes less sense. Previously, investors were a main driver in pushing up home sales and prices, but as they step back, price gains are slowing and sales volumes are sagging, he added.
3. The mortgage market is unstable.
Purchase applications and mortgage-based home sales are declining, as rates continue to rise and new regulations are short-term uncertainty. “But this reason may be only a temporary hurdle: rates remain low by historical standards, and the new mortgage rules offer longer-term clarity that should encourage banks to make more loans that are within the new rules,” Kolko said.
Although this unusual winter created some burden on the housing market, these reasons are the main drivers behind recent stumbles in sales and starts.
But the good news: the delinquency and foreclosure rate is dropping, and young adults are going back to work.
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/29441-trulia-3-weights-pulling-the-housing-recovery-down
25 richest US neighborhoods | South Salem Real Estate
Much like the rest of the country, America’s richest neighborhoods continue to evolve in terms of racial diversity.
In his latest Higley 1000, a list of the highest-income neighborhoods in the U.S., Stephen Higley, a professor emeritus of urban social geography at the University of Montevallo, found that the top neighborhoods are home to more Asian and Latino residents than ever before.
Higley ranked the most expensive neighborhoods in America based on American Community Survey 2006 – 2010 data. He aggregated contiguous block groups (subdivisions of Census tracts) with a mean income over $200,000. You can read his complete methodology here.
Big Investors Boosting Home Prices, And Not Everyone’s Pleased | South Salem Real Estate
It’s taken several years, but in many parts of the country, home prices are nearly back to where they were at the peak. In places like Florida, where the housing recession hit hard, home prices rose last year by one-fifth or more.
A major factor in the price rise is hedge funds, private equity firms and other large investors. They’ve moved aggressively into the residential market over the past two years, buying tens of thousands of distressed properties, often at bargain prices.
Some analysts are worried that those bulk purchases will leave middle-class buyers out in the cold.
One place where investors have been very active is Florida’s Palm Beach County. Jeff Lichtenstein is a real estate agent there, and he’s busy. He’s listing and selling homes at a pace reminiscent of the go-go days of the last real estate boom back in 2005 and 2006. “I have 19 or 20 under contract right now, which is the most I’ve had at any given time,” he says.
Lichtenstein is currently showing a home he has listed in PGA National, a resort and residential development with more than 5,000 homes. It’s a community of palm trees, lakes, golf courses and manicured lawns.
“This was built in ’92 or ’93. Three bedrooms, three baths,” he explains as he shows off the house, which has a back patio looking out onto a golf course. “The view is what people come here to Florida for.”
The home is listed for $499,000, a bit below what it would have sold for at the peak, Lichtenstein says. But in Florida, Arizona, Las Vegas and parts of California, prices are rising fast. In South Florida, home prices climbed 21 percent last year.
http://www.npr.org/2014/03/10/286261937/big-investors-boosting-home-prices-and-not-everyones-pleased
This Housing Indicator Continues Its Downward Spiral | South Salem Real Estate
After managing a bounce from levels not seen in decades, mortgage applications continued their downward spiral. In the latest update from the Mortgage Bankers Association, for the week ended March 7, applications for home loans fell 2.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the index decreased 1 percent.
There has been a steady slide in mortgage applications over the past nine months as the housing market returns to a more sustainable pace. As the chart above shows, applications are near their worst level in years. The Refinance Index also fell 3 percent from the previous week, while the Purchase Index declined 1 percent. On an unadjusted basis, the Purchase Index was 17 percent below year-ago levels.
Overall, the refinance share of mortgage activity accounted for 57 percent of total applications, the lowest shares since April 2011 and down from 58 percent a week earlier. Furthermore, interest rates rose in the latest report, which will likely hinder any momentum in refinance activity.
Get Your Fill of Burnt Orange in This 1953 Time Capsule | South Salem Real Estate
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Even in a city as laden with midcentury gems as Los Angeles, the hunger for cork floors, built-ins, glass walls, and period kitchens—that oven!—cannot be satisfied. So when homes like this untouched 1953 spread, on the market for the first time in half a century, become available, there’s no shortage of fanfare/drooling—and for good reason. In Silver Lake—the enclave once named Best Hipster Neighborhood in the country, in large part because of it’s imminently mockable obsession with Dwell-style architecture—this design by L.A. architect Al Martin is what Curbed LA calls “highly textural,” what with its acoustic tile ceilings, plastic-y kitchen cabinets, and raw brick. There’s also, for better or for worse, much in the way of original overhead lighting—including orb lamps at the bar and fluorescent strips in the kitchen—plus two clunky brick fireplaces, a workshop, and a wraparound deck. How much does one need to move in? $1.595M. Photos, however, are free.
http://curbed.com/archives/2014/03/10/get-your-fill-of-burnt-orange-in-this-1953-time-capsule.php
Fully Reno’d ‘House of the Day After Tomorrow’ Asks $5.5M | South Salem Homes
Location: Lake Forest, Ill.
Price: $5,499,000
The Skinny: When George Fred Keck designed a forward-looking sequel to his 1933 World’s Fair “House of Tomorrow” (inevitably, if unfortunately, dubbed the “House of the Day After Tomorrow”) there’s little chance that he could have foreseen what the the actual future had in store for his speculative creation. Originally built in 1936, the home received an extensive 1990s “renovation” which, according to a recent profile of the place in the Journal, added a second story and ballooned the floorplan to a whopping 15,400 square feet. Which begs the question: how much of a home can you drastically change while still attributing its design to the original architect? A look inside provides an answer, of sorts, where the etched glass, water feature, and recessed lighting scream “I come from the ’90s!” and the only remaining design aspect that can be attributed to Keck is its energy efficiency. The seven-bedroom, nine-and-three-tenths-bathroom manse (what exactly constitutes three-tenths of bathroom? A closet with a sink?) is asking $5.499M.
http://curbed.com/archives/2014/03/05/fully-renod-house-of-the-day-after-tomorrow-asks-55m.php
Do You Understand Income Tax Considerations of Rental Properties? | South Salem Real Estate
A rental property can generate “taxable losses” that can be used to reduce your normal salary income, hence the federal income taxes you pay. It’s difficult for most people to understand how taxes work, and even more confusing once we get into the realm of rental properties and taxes. Note that understanding how taxes impact personal residences are a completely different topic, as those are governed by totally separate tax codes and go elsewhere on your 1040 form.
Below are some of the basics to understanding rental properties and federal income taxes.
Often I hear people saying that they want to buy some real estate to save money on income taxes. However, depending on your tax situation, owning real estate might not save you a dime on taxes. It wholly depends on your specific tax picture and the IRS rules about Passive Activity Loss Limitations.
First and foremost you should never make real estate investment decisions based solely on tax considerations. The first order of business is do your due diligence and determine if an investment makes sense based on cash flows, cash on cash returns, renovation costs, rental income, financing, and the risk of any particular property. Once you believe it makes sense in every other sense, then you can contemplate the tax effects.
Important note: Always have a CPA, attorney or licensed tax professional guide you through your individual tax picture — this article is an illustration of one scenario but your scenario can be very different based on your financial picture.
To better understand, let’s first quickly discuss the IRS 1040 form.
The 1040 form you fill out each year does two things:
http://homes.yahoo.com/news/understand-income-tax-considerations-rental-properties-184514095.html
While S.F. prices rise, housing becoming less affordable all over the nation | South Salem NY Homes
San Francisco is not alone in demanding housing prices that present economic challenges—if not outright hardship—to its residents.
According to The Demand Institute, home prices will rise an average of 2.1% annually each year from 2015 to 2018, which indicates a healthy increase: real estate will no longer be tanking in the USA, and that increase would (in an ideal economy) line up decently with increased income. But like all averages, that figure obscures major differences between one area and the next.
The Demand Institute began studying developments in the U.S. housing market three years ago. Its latest report shows analysis of “2,200 cities, towns, and villages that are home to half the population of the U.S.” The Institute posits that “The home is often a family’s single most valuable and visible economic asset, and housing in a community is a reliable gauge of its prosperity.”
Yet prosperity is a relative term because wealth is concentrated unevenly in American towns and cities.