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Pending Home Sales at 30-Month Low | South Salem Homes
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) Thursday morning released its data on pending sales of existing homes in February. The pending home sales index fell 0.8% from a downwardly revised index reading of 94.7 in January to the February reading of 93.9. That is 10.5% lower than in February 2013, when the index reading was 104.9. The consensus estimate called for a month-over-month decrease of 0.8% in pending sales. The index reflects signed contracts, not sales closings. An index reading of 100 equals the average level of contract signings during 2001.
Total existing home sales are expected to come to 5 million, below the 2013 total of 5.1 million. National median home prices are forecast to rise by about 5.5% to 6.0% this year, but existing home inventory levels need to increase to help keep prices in check. The median price forecast is slightly higher than last month’s forecast. Home prices rose 11.5% in 2013.
The NAR’s chief economist noted:
Contract signings for the past three months have been little changed, implying the market appears to be stabilizing. Moreover, buyer traffic information from our monthly Realtor® survey shows a modest turnaround, and some weather delayed transactions should close in the spring.
Pending home sales in the northeastern United States declined 2.4% in January, posting an index reading of 77.1, down 7.4% from February 2013. The index rose 2.8% in the Midwest but remains 8.5% below last year’s reading. Sales fell 4% in the South and rose by 2.3% in the West. Compared with February 2013, all regions are down.
Pending home sales do not have the economic impact of new home sales, which employ thousands of people in building and furnishing new homes. But it does give some indication of the market for housing
Read more: Pending Home Sales at 30-Month Low – 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/housing/2014/03/27/pending-home-sales-at-30-month-low/#ixzz2xGWrwkK4
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.
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
Swaying From Sleepovers to Dinner Parties in a Colorado Tree House | South Salem NY Homes
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.
Bankrate: Mortgage Rates Show Little Movement | South Salem Homes
Mortgage rates saw very little change this week, with the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rate inching lower to 4.48 percent, according to Bankrate.com’s weekly national survey. The average 30-year fixed mortgage has an average of 0.31 discount and origination points.
To see mortgage rates in your area, go to http://www.bankrate.com/funnel/mortgages/.
The average 15-year fixed mortgage stepped back to 3.50 percent, while the larger jumbo 30-year fixed mortgage climbed to 4.51 percent. Adjustable rate mortgages were slightly up this week, with the average 1-year ARM moving up to 3.29 percent and the 5-year ARM rising to 3.30 percent.
Mortgage rates have been in a docile state over the past few weeks, as uncertainty regarding global markets has receded. While the pace of the U.S. economic recovery is still an open question, things have transitioned to a wait-and-see mode that translates into tame movements in mortgage rates. The surge of monthly economic releases over the next ten days may answer some of those economic questions, and be a catalyst for renewed volatility in the bond market, and ultimately, mortgage rates. Mortgage rates are closely related to yields on long-term government bonds.
On May 1, 2013, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 3.52 percent. At that time, a $200,000 loan would have carried a monthly payment of $900.32. With the average rate currently at 4.48 percent, the monthly payment for the same size loan would be $1,011.00, a difference of $111 per month for anyone that waited too long.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bankrate-mortgage-rates-show-little-123000542.html