October Employment Report in South Salem New York | South Salem Real Estate
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Tag Archives: South Salem Real Estate for Sale
Delinquency, foreclosure data shows drop in shadow inventory | South Salem NY Real Estate
via housingwire.com
Morning Cup of Coffee: FDIC trial against IndyMac execs under way | South Salem NY Real Estate
via housingwire.com
NAR likely to cede social media listings policy to MLSs | South Salem NY Real Estate
The National Association of Realtors is one step closer to adopting a policy that would leave it up to individual multiple listings services whether or not to allow member brokers and agents to display for-sale listings represented by other consenting members on social media sites.An MLS policy statement approved Saturday by NAR’s Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee would, for the most part, let MLSs that choose to allow the display of shared listings on social media sites write their own rules.
But the policy statement — to be voted on Monday by NAR’s board of directors — would prohibit MLSs from requiring that their member brokers and agents allow their listings to be distributed through social media, or other non-traditional channels such as text messaging.
NAR had considered adopting a blanket policy for the display of shared listings on social media sites that would have applied to all MLSs affiliated with the trade association– in effect, taking away from MLSs the decision on whether to allow the practice or not.
But NAR leaders backed down after a number of MLSs raised objections about the difficulty of policing social media sites for compliance with rules that govern the display of shared Internet data exchange (IDX) listings on websites operated by MLSs, brokers and agents.
Instead of amending its policies governing the display of IDX listings so that those rules also governed the display of IDX listings on social media sites, NAR is creating another avenue for the display of a different set of shared listings, outside the context of IDX policy.
Article continues below“We’re taking a different approach here — give the MLSs that want to go down this road the authority to do it,” said Cliff Niersbach, the NAR staff executive who serves as liaison to the committee. “We’re basically saying OK, we want to participate — we’ll identify issues (as they) come up. We tried to be all knowing, and that approach didn’t work.”
It’s an important distinction, because the high rate of participation in IDX allows MLS, broker and agent sites to display all, or nearly all, of the homes for sale in a given market.
Third-party sites like Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com cannot display IDX listings — the companies that operate those sites must obtain listings directly from MLSs, listing syndicators, or brokers (thanks to its ties to NAR, Realtor.com receives listings from nearly all of the nation’s 900 MLSs).
Brokers have the option of “opting out” of distributing listings they represent to third-party sites, so listing coverage on those sites can be spotty.Brokers who want to participate in IDX, however, are either “all in” or “all out.” They can’t choose whether or not to display listings represented by other participating brokers on their own websites, or prevent listings that they contribute to the IDX pool from being displayed on the websites of other participating MLS members.
Broker participation in IDX is nearly universal in many markets. Consumers are drawn to websites that provide access to a nearly comprehensive set of listings, and not offering access to IDX listings in markets where IDX participation is high could put a brokerage at a competitive disadvantage.
If the only option for brokers with strong objections to their listings appearing on social media sites was to withdraw from IDX altogether, the system might begin to fall apart. If IDX participation dropped, MLS, broker and agent websites might no longer be able to offer consumers a comprehensive set of listings, and lose an important advantage they hold over many third-party sites in some markets.
While NAR’s decision to separate the display of shared listings from IDX policy could protect the IDX system from controversy, it also leaves brokers who want to display shared listings on social media channels at the mercy of their MLS.
The policy statement approved by the committee Saturday, and scheduled to be considered by NAR’s board of directors on Monday, reads, in part:
“MLSs may but are not required to give participants the ability to authorize electronic display of their listings by other participants outside the context of the (IDX) policy and the Virtual Office Website (VOW) policy and rules.
“Participants may not be required to consent to display or distribution of their listing through non-IDX and non-VOW channels as a condition of participation in MLS or as a condition of participation in IDX.”
In other words, while MLSs can’t force their members to allow listings they represent to be displayed on social media sites, they can refuse to put a system in place that would facilitate the display of members’ shared listings outside of the approved IDX channels.
Brokers and agents are always free to publicize their own listings on Facebook and other social media sites, but some social media and marketing experts say that’s the wrong way to go about using such sites.
NAR’s former director of social media and online engagement, Todd Carpenter, ran down a long list of companies he said had tried and failed to use Facebook to make sales: Starbucks, Sears, Ikea, Wells Fargo, Delta Airlines.
“People use Google to find things,” Carpenter — now Trulia’s senior manager of industry engagement — told members of the Multiple Listing and Issues and Policies Committee. “People go to Facebook or other social media sites to find people.”
There are many successful real estate professionals using Facebook and social media, Carpenter said, “but it’s because they are connecting with people.”
Before voting to approve the MLS policy statement on social media, a few committee members expressed reservations about leaving the matter in the hands of MLSs. Some doubted that MLSs would be able to solve some of the knotty problems that came up when the committee tried to amend IDX policy to accommodate display of shared listings on social media sites.
But the policy statement passed in a nearly unanimous voice vote.
The proposal does “exactly the right thing, to allow local associations to move forward,” said committee member Bill Lublin, CEO of Century 21 Advantage Gold. “Every time you hear (a problem raised) it drills down to the local level,” he said.
In some respects, NAR is merely putting an official stamp of approval on events that are already transpiring — many MLSs currently allow members to display IDX listings on social media sites.
Real estate app developer N-Play reports that 40 MLSs representing 300,000 Realtors have signed up in the last 90 days to offer members the company’s IDX listings search application for agent and broker Facebook pages.
If approved by the full board on Monday, NAR’s policy statement would guarantee the right of brokers that belong to those MLSs to opt out of having listings they contribute to IDX feeds appear on social media sites, while remaining in the IDX program.
Contact Matt Carter: Letter to the Editor
Copyright 2012 Inman NewsAll rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.
via inman.com
Thirty-Two Percent of Houses Sold in One Month | South Salem Realtor
Fix for a sinking fireplace hearth | South Salem NY Real Estate
Q: I live in a Craftsman cottage in Davis, Calif. Like many Craftsman homes, it has a fireplace in the living room with a handsome mantel, a tile surround around the firebox, and a tiled hearth. All appear to be original. My problem: The hearth is sinking.
Currently the hearth sits about 1/2 inch below the hardwood floor. I’ve been under the house to take a look from that angle. The tile appears to be laid on a cement slab, which is supported by 4-by-4-inch posts resting on a couple of concrete piers. I’m not quite sure how to get the hearth back to level with the hardwood floor. I don’t want to break any of the tiles.
What is the best way to elevate the slab to be level with the floor and have the least chance of cracking any of the tiles?
A: We think you may be able to gently ease the hearth back into place using house jacks and two 5-foot lengths of 2-by-12 framing lumber. Then you’ll need to pour new concrete footings and add new posts.
We caution you that this is not a job for the casual do-it-yourselfer. It requires B or B-plus carpenter skills. Also, this type of structural work often requires a building permit and inspections so make sure to check with the city before you get started.
Your first job is to lift the hearth back into place.
House jacks are large screw-type jacks used by house movers to raise houses in order to place large beams under a house for transport via truck and trailer. You’ll need to rent two or three of these. Place one of the 2-by-12s on the ground near the existing piers. The wood base will prevent the jacks from sinking into the ground when lifting the slab.
Next, place one jack at each end of the board and use the jacks to snug the second 2-by-12 against the concrete substrate of the hearth. Make sure the jacks and the 2-by-12s overlap the slab. The upper 2-by-12 will distribute the load evenly across the substrate, lessening the chance of cracked tiles.
Gently turn the screws on the jacks about a quarter turn at a time, alternating jacks in the same order to lift the slab evenly. If the lift is uneven, a third jack should be used to ensure the slab rises evenly. If a third jack is needed, make sure to support it top and bottom with wooden blocks. (A second pair of 2-by-12s isn’t necessary.)
This is a delicate, two-person job — one turning the jacks, the other in the living room monitoring the progress of the lift. If all goes well the substrate will move into level with the floor.
Once the substrate is in place and supported by the jacks, remove the old posts and piers and replace them with new ones. Use the old excavations, but widen and deepen them so they measure 12 by 12 inches square and 12 inches deep. Pour fresh concrete to fill the holes and set new precast piers in the wet concrete, making sure to level the piers side to side and front to back. Let the concrete dry for a couple of days.
Then place a 4-by-4 beam against the slab and support it at each end with 4-by-4 pressure-treated posts nailed to the wooden blocks on the top of each pier with four 16d nails. The finished product will look like an upside-down “U.” Make sure this structure fits tight to the slab by using shims between the slab and the beam.
An alternative to precast piers is to imbed metal anchors into the concrete to accept pressure-treated posts. Pressure-treated material is required for this application because the wood is too close to the ground and is more susceptible to termite or carpenter ant infestation.
Let the new concrete cure for a week. Remove the jacks and the hearth should be level once again for a long time.
A final word: No matter how careful you are, there’s no guarantee that you won’t crack a tile or two, and it’s possible that you’ll end up searching the salvage yards for pieces that match your fine old hearth. Good luck.
via inman.com
Home prices continue steady rise | South Salem NY Real Estate
The 10- and 20-city S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices posted monthly increases for the fifth month in a row in August, according to a report released today.
Seventeen of the 20 metros tracked by the index posted annual gains in August, with home prices up by an average of 2.0 percent from a year ago.
All but one of the markets tracked in the 20-city composite index posted gains from July to August. The 20-city composite was up 0.9 percent from July on a non-seasonally adjusted basis.
A home price index maintained by the Federal Housing Finance Agency showed home prices up 4.7 percent from a year ago. That index — which tracks homes with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — showed home prices returning to June 2004 levels, but still down 15.9 percent from an April 2007 high.
The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite index shows home prices approximately 35 percent below a June/July 2006 peak. But August’s numbers indicate to industry watchers a positive position for the housing market.
“The sustained good news in home prices over the past five months makes us optimistic for continued recovery in the housing market,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a statement. “Single family housing starts are 43 percent ahead of last year’s pace, existing and new home sales are also up, the inventory of homes for sale continues to drop and consumer mortgage default rates are reaching new lows.”
Writing on his blog, Calculated Risk, Bill McBride called the recent change to year-over-year annual increases for the Case-Shiller indices a “significant story.”
“The year-over-year gain is better than it sounds,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist for home marketplace Trulia. Since the composite indices only focus on a few metros, some of which have been hard hit in terms of home pricing, the indices have actually “been understating year-over-year national price growth,” he said.
Source: Calculated RiskMetros in the 20-city composite posting annual declines were Atlanta (-6.1 percent), New York (-2.3 percent), and Chicago (-1.6 percent).
Metro area July 2012 index level Change from July Change from a year ago Atlanta 95.80 1.8% -6.1% Boston 158.27 0.7% 1.7% Charlotte 116.58 0.6% 2.8% Chicago 117.45 0.7% -1.6% Cleveland 103.04 1.0% 1.1% Dallas 121.34 0.1% 3.6% Denver 133.48 0.5% 5.5% Detroit 79.18 2.3% 7.6% Las Vegas 96.04 1.6% 0.9% Los Angeles 173.02 1.3% 2.1% Miami 150.12 1.0% 6.7% Minneapolis 124.65 1.2% 7.4% New York 166.32 0.7% -2.3% Phoenix 119.28 1.8% 18.8% Portland 140.80 0.5% 3.6% San Diego 157.84 0.9% 1.9% San Francisco 142.37 0.5% 5.3% Seattle 141.69 -0.1% 3.4% Tampa 134.91 0.4% 4.2% Washington, D.C. 194.00 1.1% 4.3% Composite-10 158.62 0.9% 1.3% Composite-20 145.87 0.9% 2.0% Sources: S&P Dow Jones Indices and Fiserv.
via inman.com
Stiglitz: Obama, Romney still need to address housing market | South Salem Realtor
Stiglitz: Obama, Romney still need to address housing market
Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz speaks during The Economist’s Buttonwood Gathering in New York October 24, 2012.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz chided U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for not seriously addressing the troubled U.S. housing market during the recent series of presidential debates.
The Columbia University economics professor said in an interview with Reuters TV that the two men have shied away from discussing the uneven U.S. housing market recovery because neither has concrete solutions for helping financially strapped homeowners and both are wary of offending the banks.
“I find that shocking” that neither has talked about housing market issues, Stiglitz told Reuters. “It is one of the things that precipitated the crisis. In some sense, they don’t want to offend the banks … . The banks have been a major problem to doing something about the problem.”
Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize for economics in 2001, spoke less than two weeks before what could be one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history.
Romney was 1 percentage point ahead of Obama in Wednesday’s Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll in a race that is effectively a dead heat ahead of the November 6 vote.
The biggest weak spot in the domestic economy continues to be the housing market, despite signs of life in cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix and Miami – some of the hardest-hit areas during the financial crisis.
Miami home prices rose again in September, marking 10 consecutive months of appreciation, according to the 26,000-member MIAMI Association of REALTORS.
But there are many skeptics about how solid the recovery is and whether some uptick in home building has been the result of the Federal Reserve’s recent action to buy mortgage securities to reduce borrowing costs.
On Wednesday the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that last week, applications for new mortgages in the United States registered their biggest percentage decline in a year as rates for a 30-year mortgage rose 6 basis points to an average of 3.63 percent, the highest in a month.
SHRINKING MORTGAGE DEBT
The country is still way off from its long-term average rates in construction, housing sales and foreclosures.
About 3.8 million homes have been foreclosed on since the financial crisis began in 2008, according to CoreLogic, which also reports another 1.3 million homes are in some stage of foreclosure.
Stiglitz said any meaningful discussion about housing must include a plan for reducing the level of mortgage debt held by U.S. homeowners, given how far property values dropped during the crisis.
“As soon as you start talking about mortgages and the housing problem, both sides feel uncomfortable,” Stiglitz said.
“Obama hasn’t done enough and Romney has no real proposals,” and yet both candidates have raked in millions of dollars from the banks in campaign contributions, he said.
Stiglitz is not the only economist who argues that reducing mortgage debt is the surest way to boost the economy by providing financial relief to struggling homeowners.
The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that if Obama is re-elected, he will push to oust Edward DeMarco, the acting head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, who has opposed using principal reductions to reduce debt obligations on mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The FHFA is the chief regulator of the two government-sponsored mortgage finance firms.
Others have promoted even more controversial measures to fix the housing market, like giving local governments the power to seize distressed mortgages through eminent domain so they can be restructured to enable homeowners to remain in their residences.
The idea of using eminent domain, which has been vigorously opposed by Wall Street bond investors, is being considered by San Bernardino County in California and a handful of other communities across the country.
Stiglitz said there are some good ideas about the restructuring of mortgages but neither candidate is addressing them.
One way or the other, the candidates could consider reduction in mortgage principal but “the banks don’t want to do it because they would be forced to recognize losses.”
via reuters.com
New Home Sales in September | South Salem NY Real Estate
Top reasons to opt for seller financing | South Salem NY Realtor
The son of a longtime friend recently caught me at a Friday night high-school game and informed me he and his wife had turned down an older home in the neighborhood they always wanted, for a new home in a subdivision.
They also declined the possibility of no-cost seller financing from the owner of the older home because the builder offered a slightly lower rate on the new home.
“We just felt like we wouldn’t have to do anything on the home for years,” Patrick said. “We couldn’t afford any expensive surprises.”
While I disagreed with him on both topics, I kept my opinions to myself because he had already made his decision and was looking forward to moving into his new home. Here’s why I would have chosen differently.
First and foremost, you can always repair or remodel a home, but you can never single-handedly fix a neighborhood. If you know the schools, churches and streets that are important to you, it’s usually best to buy where you have done your primary research. And, new homeowners often underestimate upkeep.
But just as important are the credit and cash needed to get a loan today. Lenders are being more cautious and are demanding more skin in the game.
Recently, Fair Isaac Co., the developer of FICO scores, revealed that 78.5 percent of all consumers have scores that fall between 300 and 749. The FICO score ranges from 300 to 850. So only about one in five American have a FICO score of 750 or higher.
Ellie Mae Inc., a provider of mortgage origination software to lenders, reports that borrowers approved for mortgages in September had an average FICO score of 750. What message does that send to prospective homebuyers?
Besides high credit scores, borrowers are coming in with higher down payments to satisfy lender requirements. According to Ellie Mae, homebuyers who used a Fannie or Freddie loan had, on average, a 21 percent down payment. Homeowners who refinanced had average equity in their homes of 30 percent.
Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s chief economist, recently said he thought that loan standards will eventually ease as banks reduce some extra risk-based fees that they have added to benchmark quotes since the mortgage meltdown.
But is there a viable plan B? What if you didn’t have to go to a lender for a home loan?
Seller financing is an underestimated benefit not only because of today’s increased lender scrutiny, but also because the buyer dodges most all the fees associated with the loan. For example, in Patrick’s case, he decided on a 3.5 percent loan from a lender rather than a 4 percent loan from the homeowner.
Let’s say the total costs of a $200,000 loan come to 2 percent of the loan amount, or $4,000. The monthly difference between a 3.5 percent loan and 4 percent loan is approximately $57 a month. Not only would Patrick have to borrow more or come out of pocket with the extra funds (in addition to the down payment needed on the house), but he would also need more than seven years to make up the monthly difference.
While many owners make “cash-out, conventional” financing a requirement when selling a home, others are more than willing to negotiate price and terms. Homes are selling quickly in many neighborhoods, but others continue to sit. It’s those owners who can be “all ears” if it means closing a deal and moving on with their lives.
And, some sellers, particularly seniors with no high-rate place to park their cash, are not opposed to accepting a healthy down payment and “carrying the paper” on their real estate as long as they are guaranteed 4 percent interest on their money. In most cases, it’s difficult to get that rate in non-risk accounts.
Buyers and sellers can build in safety features to make carrying the paper palatable for both sides. If you are a buyer, there’s no harm in asking. You could save time, anxiety and a lot of cash — an inexpensive surprise.
via inman.com