Tag Archives: South Salem Luxury Real Estate

Million Dollar Hamptons Summer Rentals | South Salem Real Estate

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The Hamptons is the proud home of the million-dollar summer rental. Since you as a hedge funder, Russian oligarch, or A-list rapper of course have one million or so to drop on your vacation house next year, assuming Wall Street stays hot, you evade the polonium-equipped assassins on your trail, and/or your next album doesn’t bomb, you’re planning to snap up one of them. Let’s look at some of your options for summer 2014.

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535 and 533 Flying Point Road, Water Mill, BHS Your first option is this eight-bedroom, four-acre compound in Water Mill. “A spectacular 14,000+/- sf manor, 50’x20′ heated gunite pool, luxurious pool house with outdoor kitchen and bar on 1.9+/- acre. Tennis court with Hydrocourt system and a 3-bedroom, 2 and one-half bathroom guest house on the adjacent 2.1+/- acres.” Hedgies: This is the place for you. It’s low key, elegant, and there’s room in the guest house for your peons spending the weekend working. Oligarchs: Pass. Not defensible enough to foil the assassins, though the guest house does offer room for security. Rappers: Pass. Not impressive enough.

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396 Meadow Lane, Southampton, Sothebys Your second option is this oceanfront house in Southampton. There’s nine bedrooms, seven baths, 7000sf, pool with pool house, tennis court, all on 3.2 acres; the interiors are kind of French and fussy. Hedgies: Maybe. The house is impressive but the French-style interiors might ping the radar of stuffy WASP Wall Streeters. Oligarchs: Go for it! This house’s setting is defensible from many sides. Plus the French style interiors ought to make you happy. Rappers: Maybe. Still, could be blingier.

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315 Rose Hill Road, Water Mill, Elliman The next rental is slightly less expensive than a mil, at 895K for the summer. Keep in mind, though, last year, Rose Hill was offered at $1.2M for the season, so it’s cheeeeeap now. The 20,000sf house features twenty-first century technology including state-of-the-art security and a Crestron entertainment system. Retire to the “grand master suite,” four guest suites, three staff bedrooms and eight fireplaces with antique mantels. Hedgies: Pass. PASS. Oligarchs: Worth a look. Supplement that “state-of-the-art security” with some burly Cossacks with semi-automatics. Rappers: We had you at “staircase in cast bronze and silver & gold leaf,” didn’t we? Don’t forget the “Crestron entertainment system,” though. · All Renters Week 2013 posts [Curbed Hamptons]

Dive Into Rental Listings Across Miami’s History | South Salem NY Real Estate

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In Miami, renting an apartment always had a certain appeal, and was marketed—with reservations—towards tourists. Renting for the winter season was a halfway point between hotels and owning property. A renter was already someone who came to Miami Beach but who wasn’t ready, or perhaps couldn’t afford, to commit to purchasing.

It was a strange middle-space that ad-men marketed to with pretty ads, showing the beautiful spaces one could occupy, but without full embrace, and always next to the much flashier, much bigger, and much more glamorous ads of those spaces one could own. We tore through old issues of the Miami News on the Google News Archives. So here we present, without further ado, a selection of apartment advertisements from some key boom times in Miami’s history, the 20s, the 40s, and the 50s.

  • A ceiling fan, gas heating, closet space, jalousies!
  • The Carl T. Fisher company, builders of Miami Beach, which placed many, many luscious advertisements for land for sale, limited their rental advertisements to modest, one column listings in the classified section. Bias much?
  • It’s a ‘cooperative apartment’, a.k.a. a Co-op, not actually a rental and a total rarity in Miami.
  • Towards the middle of the century oceanfront, and near-to-oceanfront apartments became more common. An extension of the resort hotel experience, the resort ‘apartment’ duplicated the hotel but one lived there on a longer term basis. You’d rent an apartment for the season, or perhaps buy a condo.
  • The real money was always, of course, in real estate for purchase, not rent. From the beginning realtors and builders knew this. Although you could rent a garden apartment in Coral Gables, what they really wanted you to do was buy. The Biltmore wasn’t built in the middle of a residential neighborhood for nothing.

 

 

http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2013/11/18/dive-into-rental-listings-across-miamis-history.php

More properties going to the auction block as judicial foreclosure states clear backlogs | South Salem Real Estate

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Foreclosure backlogs continue to ease in states where courts handle the process as the number of properties headed to the auction block climbed for the 16th month in a row in October, according to the latest report from foreclosure data aggregator RealtyTrac.

Overall U.S. foreclosure activity — filings of default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — rose 2 percent from September to October, but was down 28 percent year over year. Filings came in on 133,919 U.S. properties, or 1 in every 978 units. Florida, Nevada, Maryland, Ohio and Illinois posted the nation’s highest foreclosure rates among states.

But the total number of scheduled judicial foreclosure auctions, or “notices of foreclosure sale,” increased 7 percent on an annual basis last month and 10 percent on a monthly basis to 30,023. Judicial foreclosure states with the biggest annual spikes in auctions included Maryland (up 177 percent), Delaware (up 142 percent), New York (up 98 percent), New Jersey (up 97 percent), Pennsylvania (up 58 percent), Connecticut (up 35 percent), and Florida (up 32 percent), RealtyTrac said.

“The backlog of delayed judicial foreclosures continues to make its way through the pipeline, with many of these properties now being scheduled for the public auction after starting the foreclosure process last year or earlier this year,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, in a statement.

“Lenders are likely moving these properties more rapidly to the public auction given that there is strong demand from institutional buy-to-rent investors at the auction and that rising home prices mean more of the loan losses can be recouped, either by selling to an investor at the auction or by repossessing the property and reselling as bank owned.”

 

 

 

 

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/11/13/more-properties-going-to-the-auction-block-as-judicial-foreclosure-states-clear-backlogs/#sthash.O8QuuyEh.dpuf

Home equity lines due for reset may be looming financial disaster | South Salem Real Estate

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Could the real estate market be heading for a new financial storm? Maybe.

Some mortgage and credit experts worry that billions of dollars of home equity credit lines that were extended a decade ago during the housing boom could be heading for big trouble soon, creating a new wave of defaults for banks and homeowners.

That’s because these credit lines, which are second mortgages with floating rates and flexible withdrawal terms, carry mandatory “resets” requiring borrowers to begin paying both principal and interest on their balances after 10 years. During the initial 10-year draw period, only interest payments are required.

But the difference between the interest-only and reset payments on these credit lines can be substantial — $500 to $600 or more per month in some cases. If borrowers cannot afford or choose not to make the fully amortizing payments that reduce the principal debt, the bank that owns the note can demand full payment and foreclose on the house if there is sufficient equity.

According to federal financial regulators, about $30 billion in home equity lines dating to 2004 are due for resets next year, $53 billion the following year and a staggering $111 billion in 2018. Amy Crews Cutts, chief economist for Equifax, one of the three national credit bureaus, calls this a looming “wave of disaster” because large numbers of borrowers will be unable to handle the higher payments. This will force banks to either foreclose, refinance the borrower or modify their loans.

But refinancings often will not be possible, Cutts says, because the homeowners won’t qualify under the tougher mortgage rules taking effect in January, or the combined first and second mortgages may exceed the value of the house. Complicating matters further, interest rates are likely to rise from their current low levels as the Federal Reserve tapers its purchases of Treasury and mortgage-backed securities. Higher base rates would make the payment shocks even worse. Plus, according to Cutts, many of the owners with high-balance credit lines already have low credit scores — legacies of the housing bust and recession — and have an elevated statistical risk of default after the reset.

Financial regulators, including the comptroller of the currency, are aware of the coming bulge in high-risk resets and have been urging the biggest banks to set aside extra reserves for possible losses. Last month, Citigroup said it was increasing reserves on its nearly $20 billion in home equity lines and acknowledged that the reset payment shocks for borrowers could be a major challenge.

 

 

 

http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-harney-20131110,0,6997479.story#axzz2kHRdpZUW

Consumer confidence in homebuying hits all-time low | South Salem Real Estate

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Consumer confidence in housing significantly widened last month, as most taxpayers were turned off by the federal government shutdown and the ongoing debt ceiling debate, taking a toll on American’s outlook toward the housing market.

The share of consumers who believe it’s a good time buy a house declined to 65% — an all-time low — while the number of those who believe mortgage rates will go up in the next year fell to 57%, according to Fannie Mae’s latest monthly survey.

It’s important to note that the survey was conducted primarily in the first two weeks of October – before the government shutdown ended and the debt ceiling agreement was reached.

Generally speaking, buying a home is a bet on the future and the federal freeze created a lot of uncertainty about the near-term economic state, explained Trulia (TRLA) chief economist Jed Kolko.

“Also, affordability has worsened: both rising mortgage rates and rising home prices have pushed more homes out of reach of the middle class, which would also lead to a decline in people thinking it’s a good time to buy,” he added.

The gap between the share of consumers who say the economy is on the wrong track and those who believe all engines are a-go widened from 16 percentage points in September to 40 percentages points in October — a record month-over-month change.

Nonetheless, the steep decline in Americans’ housing sentiment, which is expected to continue to tumble down as housing debates continue to heat up, Fannie Mae senior vice president and chief economist Doug Duncan doesn’t believe it will derail the gradual healing in housing.

“While this decline in consumer optimism may portend a slowing of the housing recovery, supply constraint data suggest that we are likely to see continued positive growth in home prices,” Duncan said.

He added, “That being said, October’s survey results suggest that consumer attitudes are highly responsive to ongoing debate and decision-making in Washington. Three key budget and debt ceiling dates loom in December, January, and February. The handling of each will likely play a key role in determining the pace and timing of any recovery in consumer sentiment.”

The average 12-month price change expectation continued to fall, dropping 0.2% to 2.9%.

Additionally the share of people who believe home prices will go up in the next 12 months fell to 36%, while those who say prices will go down, increase to 10%.

The share of respondents who say they would buy if they were going to move increased to 70%, a new high.

Interestingly, the share of consumers who said their personal financial situation would get worse in the next 12 months hit a new high of 22%.

Consequently, the amount of respondents who say the economy is on the right track fell 12 percentage points, which is the biggest monthly record change in the survey’s history.

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/27847-consumer-confidence-in-homebuying-hits-an-all-time-low

Mortgage applications tumble 7% | South Salem Real Estate

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Mortgage applications spiraled down for the week ending Nov. 1, decreasing 7% from a week earlier, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday.

The refinance index slid 8%, while the purchase index dropped 5% as refinance applications ticked up.

The refinance share of mortgage activity declined to 66% of total applications, slightly down from 67% the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage with a conforming loan limit dropped to 4.32% from 4.33%.

Meanwhile, the 30-year, FRM jumbo rose to 4.37% from 4.46%.

The average 30-year, FRM backed by the FHA grew to 4.07% from 4.06%, and the 15-year, FRM increased to 3.44% from 3.42%.

In addition, the 5/1 ARM tumbled to 3.08%, compared to 3.17% a week prior.

 

 

http://www.housingwire.com/articles/27818

 

 

South Salem NY Weekly Real Estate Report | #RobReportBlog

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South   Salem NY Weekly Real Estate Report11/5/2013
Homes for sale75
Median Ask Price$699,000.00
Low Price$205,000.00
High Price$12,200,000.00
Average Size3029
Average Price/foot$338.00
Average DOM178
Average Ask Price$1,078,984.00

 

 

August Values Rose in Fewer Local Markets | South Salem NY Homes

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Prices increased on a month-over-month basis in 253 of the top 300 markets, fewer than 293 in July, according to Homes.com’s Local Market Index for August.

The downtrend in the number of markets that gain monthly is likely due to both seasonal trends and the state of recovery for these markets. Of the 47 markets that saw declines last month, 40 percent have fully recovered their decline in home prices from the housing bubble, while another 28 percent were found to be unaffected by the boom-bust scenario, illustrating that the weakness is a result of leveling off in home prices.

As a complement to Local Market Index, Homes.com publishes an exclusive Rebound Report, highlighting how the housing recovery process is unfolding across the country. It measures each market’s peak-to-trough decline in index value, which had been attributed to the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble.

Rising home values in the third quarter saw four more top 100 markets reach full recovery. More than a quarter of the top 100 real estate markets have now fully recovered the value they lost in the housing crash. Nearly half of the remaining markets have recovered 50 percent of their lost value, increasing by four markets from the previous month.

Twenty-two midsized markets showed little to no effect from value lost in the 2007 housing bubble and experienced more stable changes in index values. Half of those 22 bubble-proof markets are from Texas, and more than 70 percent are from energy producing states where typical housing boom-bust scenarios did not occur. The remainder of midsized markets showed 51 markets, or 29 percent, with a 100 percent recovery and 94 markets with a 50 percent or more recovery.

“We found the effects of the housing boom-bust lingering in some areas because of the instability they suffered and the long, steep price slope needed for rebound.  While these particular markets are improving somewhat, higher rates of negative equity increase risk of foreclosure and can lock move-up buyers-who are also sellers-out of the marketplace, thus slowing overall recovery in certain local areas. Yet other markets that did not experience the bursting bubble to the same degree are in a better position to take full advantage of the recovery.  Their prices are appreciating faster, and they are rebounding earlier,” said Brock MacLean, executive vice president of Homes.com.  “The important thing to realize is that all markets are in some form of recovery, and different factors contribute to recovery scenarios across the country.  With data from the top 300 markets, the Homes.com Local Market Index and Rebound Report analyze trends in local communities where millions of Americans live-key trends missed by other real estate reports.”

 

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/10/6784/

 

Gruesome incidents may not be disclosed to homebuyers | South Salem NY Real Estate

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Halloween is upon us and some house hunters out there may be wondering what spooky things have occurred in the homes they’re eyeing. Tales of haunted real estate abound at this time of year, and they are often tied to a particularly traumatic incident in a home’s history. But the reality is that most prospective buyers may not find out about any such incident unless they ask.

In most states, a murder, suicide or other violent crime occurring in a home does not have to be disclosed, Walt Molony, spokesman for the National Association of Realtors, told USA Today.

Most lawmakers agree the psychological damage of such an incident in a home would not be a material defect that should be required to be disclosed to buyers, the paper said.

But at least one case is heading to a state supreme court next month. In 2007, Pennsylvania homeowner Janet Milliken found out her home, purchased the year before, had been the scene of a murder-suicide after experiencing several disturbing incidents in the home, including the sound of a gun clicking.

She filed suit against the former owner of the house and the real estate agents involved in the deal, alleging fraud and breach of the state’s real-estate disclosure law.

Source: USA Today

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/wire/gruesome-incidents-may-not-be-disclosed-to-homebuyers/#sthash.CgJAr5ol.dpuf

Bidding wars erupt in California housing market | South Salem Real Estate

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As the spring home-buying season gets under way, bidding wars are breaking out on Sacramento’s tree-lined streets.

People trying to land a house while prices and interest rates remain relatively low suddenly find few choices – and considerable competition.

There were fewer than 1,100 active home listings in Sacramento County and West Sacramento in February, according to the Sacramento Association of Realtors.

That is less than a month of inventory, meaning it would take that long to sell all the houses. A healthy real estate market has about a six-month supply of homes for sale. Three months or less is considered a seller’s market. A month’s supply is almost unheard of.

“It’s the ultimate seller’s market,” said Chris Little, president of the local Realtors’ association.

The lack of homes on the market is leading to multiple offers, fast sales and offers above the asking price in some of the region’s more desirable neighborhoods.

Real estate tracker Zillow estimated this week that area prices rose by more than 15 percent in February compared with the same month a year ago.

It’s frustrating for buyers, great for sellers, but unlikely to last, experts said. Eventually supply will catch up and slow the surge in prices.

“I think we’ll see a gradual uptick, a natural movement of people, and then hopefully it will continue to build as people feel more confident,” Little said.

For now, however, a variety of factors are creating a bottleneck in the supply pipeline. Builders, who have only recently started to ramp up, could take months to get new homes built.

At the same time, more than 150,000 homeowners in the region still owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth – making it difficult for them to sell without taking a loss. Others are worried about their jobs or finding a replacement house. Many are waiting for prices to rise further.

The number of listings has increased only slightly this month compared with February, said TrendGraphix, a Sacramento-based real estate information service. Yet experts say the supply constraints will gradually ease, adding more homes to the market and curtailing upward pressure on prices.

It’s as simple as the law of supply and demand.

“As we elicit more and more supply response, the rate of price increase will moderate. There’s no question about that,” said Stuart Gabriel, director of the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate. But, he added, “I think in the short run, there will be nice upward movement of prices in Sacramento.”

Sellers have been finding that out first-hand.

via miamiherald.com