Tag Archives: South Salem NY

S&P expects home prices to keep rising | South Salem Real Estate

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Surging home prices throughout the country have spurred talk of a housing bubble, as many markets are still recovering from the last bubble bursting in 2007.

But Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services states that, although double-digit gains are ultimately unsustainable, we may not have reached bubble status quite yet. 

Home price appreciation can be attributed to a number of factors, including historically low rates, property purchases by investors who are renting homes out and a shortage in home inventory. In fact, recently the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index hit an 11% year-over-year increase, from 8%. 

Across the U.S., home prices are back to 2003 levels, yet they remain far from their 2006 peak. Lack of available inventory coupled with high demand has played a large role in this. In April, the sales of existing homes were up 9.7% year-over-year, while existing housing inventory dropped 13.6% from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. 

Sadly, housing starts plummeted 16.5% in April after rising 1 million units in March for the first time in nearly five years. 

Yet, despite the slow climb for starts, analysts anticipate that builders will begin to break ground in the next few months. Permits increased 14.3% to a five-year high of 1.017 million, indicating a bounce in starts.

 

S&P expects home prices to keep rising | HousingWire.

New Mexico, Nebraska Realtor associations sign up with dotloop | South Salem Homes

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Transaction management platform provider dotloop announced today it has signed up state Realtor associations in Nebraska and New Mexico to use its service, and brought on two new local associations — the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches and the Toledo Board of Realtors.

In December, dotloop announced that the Delaware, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont state Realtor associations had signed up to use its platform.

One of the key features of dotloop’s platform, the latest version of which was released last week, is the ability for all members of a transaction to fill out digitized forms from a secure location in the cloud. That capability becomes available to agents when the owner of the forms libraries licenses them to dotloop, as the above associations and about 40 others have done.

The ability to license forms, which allows users to fill them out in its software, is a key component of dotloop’s business.

In many markets where dotloop doesn’t license forms or partner with a Realtor association, users still fill out the forms digitally using the platform, said Gregg Larson, CEO of Clareity Consulting, who’s looked into the issue. It’s not clear whether dotloop is knowingly maintaining those users’ form libraries or not, but many have been found on the platform, Larson said.

In April, the California Association of Realtors, which is not a dotloop partner, sent dotloop a cease-and-desist letter telling the company to stop allowing users to fill out CAR forms in the platform.

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/06/13/new-mexico-nebraska-realtor-associations-sign-up-with-dotloop/#sthash.PgyhCdbG.dpuf

 

New Mexico, Nebraska Realtor associations sign up with dotloop | Inman News.

Top 15 Design Trends in Single-Family Living | South Salem Real Estate

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From spalike master baths to super-large kitchens and beautiful outdoor spaces, a range of consumer preferences is driving home design. My newly compiled list of lifestyle and design trends details what consumers want in a home now and in years to come.

• Smaller homes. According to the results of a recent AIA Design Trends Survey, there is a growing interest in smaller home sizes and volumes due to an effort to contain energy costs. The era of the McMansion could be over, and a significantly higher number of architects have reported demand for smaller homes. The key is to create scale and function over size, while creating more financially attainable homes.

• Private outdoor spaces. Almost all homeowners—whether baby boomers, empty nesters, or Gen Y—want less maintenance and more privatized outdoor space to gather and entertain without the neighbors watching. This design trend can be achieved by positioning architecture around the outdoor space or by allowing the outdoor space to pierce architecture, affording more living spaces in the house to be exposed to the outdoor area.

• Better indoor/outdoor connectivity. The use of large floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding doors brings the outdoors into the home experience. These thresholds to the outdoors offer more light and access to private outdoor space, resulting in the interior feeling like it extends beyond the walls.

• Covered outdoor rooms. These outdoor rooms expand the utility of adjoining interior spaces. The rooms become outdoor retreats, providing intimate relaxing spaces, still covered and protected, but open to the outdoors. Often these spaces include a stone fireplace to complete the living room feel.

• Personalization. Whether for a resale or a new home, consumers are looking to find and purchase feature elements that reflect their personal tastes and preferences, from kitchen products and bath fixtures to custom flooring and even the overall layout of the home.

• Super-sized kitchens. In addition to food preparation, the kitchen serves as an entertainment area when guests are present, a conversation area among family members, or even a place for homework or a craft project. Islands and their seating capacity must expand in size, and utility spaces and pantries need to be able to store more packaged foods, which are now purchased in larger boxes and in multiple quantities.

• More seating for media areas. The typical home TV is now a large flat-screen TV capable of everything from games to 3D movies to surfing hundreds of cable channels or the Internet. The increasing TV sizes have created a design need for more wall space and larger seating capability.

 

Top 15 Design Trends in Single-Family Living – Architects, Design, In-House Design, Living Room, Outdoor Kitchens, Outdoor Rooms, Planning, Single Family – Builder Magazine.

Google Glass apps to download for real estate | South Salem Real Estate

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At HousingWire’s Real Estate Expo (REX Annual) this week,VaynerMedia Founder and CEO Gary Vaynerchuk advised the audience of real estate professionals to start eyeing up Google Glass. So, as a real estate agent, how should you be utilizing this new technology?

Google Glass allows users who walk down a street wearing the technology to see alerts about nearby houses on the market. The alerts are courtesy of Trulia which this week introduced an app for Google Glass. It is one of only a handful of apps available for the Internet-connected glasses, and is an example of how software developers are experimenting with the new device.

To read the full article, click here.

Google Glass apps to download for real estate | HousingWire.

Florida governor signs bill to speed up state’s foreclosure process | South Salem Real Estate

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Florida’s governor signed a much-discussed foreclosure bill Friday, enacting a series of provisions aimed at speeding up the default process in the state.

While the legislation is considered a response to Florida’s untimely foreclosure timelines, it’s a big shift that has attracted a great deal of attention.

Attorneys working within the foreclosure space note House Bill 87 comes with new legal and procedural requirements. Critics refer to it as the ‘rocket docket‘ legislation, in reference to the quickened foreclosure review system previously in place. However, there are many procedural caveats that could make that comparison less appropriate.

The office of Florida attorney Daniel Consuegra even published an alert for attorneys advising them that HB 87 reduces the statute of limitations for filing a deficiency action to only one year from the sale or date of the acceptance of a deed-in-lieu. That section of the bill takes effect July 1.

“As a result you will need to act quickly and secure your deficiency judgment,” Consuegra said.

Furthermore, attorneys says the bill requires additional items to be presented with the foreclosure complaint – namely a certification of possession of the original note, or a lost note affidavit filed concurrently with the complaint, Consuegra pointed out.

To meet these demands, Consuegra said forms used in the process are likely to require modification, and it could take time to adopt them.

HB 87 also changes state law to where now any named party can move for “an order to show cause” – not just a plaintiff, the attorney noted.

“This presents some interesting challenges and opportunities that should be prepared for,” Consuegra said.

“Further, the changes in the law provide an avenue for plaintiff’s, for property other than owner occupied, to request the court to enter an order to show cause why an order to make payments or order to vacate the premises should not be entered. This could be an effective tool in dealing with litigious owners who are renting the properties.”

The bill also establishes adequate protection for lost notes and is designed to prevent what Consuegra refers to as “collateral attacks on foreclosure judgments by borrowers who were served in the action when the property has been acquired for value by a third party and all time periods to appeal have expired.”

 

Florida governor signs bill to speed up state’s foreclosure process | HousingWire.

How rising mortgage rates may affect the recovery | South Salem Real Estate

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The news of rising rates has caused bond investors to begin selling out of their 10-year Treasury positions, driving yields for these bonds above 2%. Since mortgage rates correlate closely with Treasury yields, they have followed suit, rising about a quarter of a percentage point in just a week, writes Forbes.

“In Middle America I don’t see much impact since homes are so affordable,” explains Lawrence Yun, chief economist of National Association of Realtors. “The more expensive coastal regions… is where one will begin to feel the first decline or impact.”  

Yun suspects that California metro areas and east coast hubs like Boston, New York and Washington D.C. could begin to experience slackening sales because low-interest monthly mortgage payments in these relatively pricier places have helped make homes seem more affordable to more buyers despite the fact that relative to income, principal amounts are still expensive.

 

How rising mortgage rates may affect the recovery | HousingWire.

Homebuilders are building homes Gen Y wants: NAHB | South Salem Real Estate

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Since June is National Homeownership Month, the National Association of Home Builders is urging Gen Y’s to invest in a home.

More than 80% of Gen Y home buyers — people born in 1977 or later — said in NAHB’s 2012 consumer preference survey that they prefer an energy-efficient home.

“As the economy recovers and young people who had to live at home with their parents move forward with their lives and achieve their dreams of homeownership, home builders are delivering homes that cater to the floor plans, features and affordability that this generation desires,” said Rick Judson, chairman of NAHB.

 

Homebuilders are building homes Gen Y wants: NAHB | HousingWire.

Mortgage insurance activity picks up in April | South Salem Real Estate

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The month of April brought in a slew of new mortgage insurance applications, National Mortgage News reports.

During the month, 49,018 applications for coverage were filed, topping March’s 43,278 estimate.

The three members of the trade group—Genworth, MGIC and Radian—had NIW volume of $11.36 billion in April, compared with $10.04 billion in March, $11.46 billion in October 2012 and $7.1 billion in April 2012.

 

Mortgage insurance activity picks up in April | HousingWire.

5 Home Renovations That Could Hurt Resale | South Salem Real Estate

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pool

While a must-have for some buyers, swimming pools can also be a huge turn-off for other home shoppers.

Unlike the homeowner of 25 years ago, today’s typical buyers plan to live in their homes for just five to seven years. So it’s more important than ever to consider resale when making home improvements.

Even if you’re a buyer, it’s important to think like a seller, too, from the time you sign the purchase contract through any home improvement or renovation projects. The goal: Think about how your improvements might affect the sale of your home down the road.

Below are five home renovation/improvement projects that could actually hurt your home’s resale.

1. Going overboard on landscaping or gardens

A homeowner/seller may have a green thumb and be really proud of the time spent on the garden, the hedges or landscaping. But the next buyer might see it as too much maintenance, especially if you went overboard with your green thumb. Potential buyers may not be willing to pay for it (as part of the home’s overall price), hire a gardener or do the work themselves. This is especially true with Millennials and Gen X-ers. Of course, your property needs curb appeal, and nice landscaping does sell. But it could be just as easy to do a quick, inexpensive yard once-over before going on the market.

2. Converting a garage into a family room

Converting a garage into a family room may make sense if you don’t have a nice car or you simply want a bigger family room. Some people think a driveway is enough. But this is a huge “no-no” in real estate. A garage is expected, especially in the suburbs. If you take it out, you lose a huge chunk of buyers who simply won’t consider a home without a garage.

3. Taking out a bedroom

It’s common today for people to transform a bedroom into a huge master closet or into a home office with a built-in desk and cabinet. If you do, make sure the room can be easily turned back when you put the home on the market. Buyers with kids may need that bedroom. They’ll see the room you converted into a home office or closet as more money they’ll need to spend to turn it back into a bedroom.

A home office is the easiest to undo, as long as you haven’t built in intricate desks, shelves and cabinets. A large closet generally goes within a master bedroom, which includes taking out a door or putting up a wall — all of which is harder to undo.

4. Adding a swimming pool

Similar to landscaping, a pool requires maintenance and is an even bigger liability. This is very particular for certain parts of the country. If you’re in the South, in a warm environment, you can get away with it much more easily. A pool would be a common “must-have” on many buyers’ wish list.

If you’re in an area where it’s only warm a few months a year and pools aren’t common, adding one could be a big mistake. Then again, it’s your home, and if you plan to be there a long time, add the pool. Just know that it may be a turn-off to future buyers. When in doubt, consult your agent.

5. Adding highly personalized colors, finishes or fixtures

Often, homeowners put in tile, sinks, vanities, countertops and floor coverings that are hard to replace, and yet are specific to their tastes.

For example, you may be obsessed with the Moroccan tile from your Marrakesh vacation last year and want it in your kitchen. But the next buyer may not be so enthusiastic. Similarly, installing ceramic or marble tile all over the floors may be a costly mistake that others won’t want to pay for. Some homeowners assume that because they spent $50,000 in such upgrades, their homes will be worth so much more. But what may be a highly personal touch could make your home look like a “fixer-upper” to others. The end result: You’ll turn off a lot of buyers who don’t like your taste and don’t want to do the work to undo it.

 

5 Home Renovations That Could Hurt Resale | Zillow Blog.