Front porches add character and curb appeal as well as enviable outdoor living space. If you are lucky enough to have one, are considering adding one or just like to dream, check out these inspiring photos from our friends at Houzz.
read more…
http://glo.msn.com/living/10-fabulous-front-porches-10209.gallery
U.S. home buyers signed more contracts to buy existing homes in March, as weather in much of the country warmed and as more listings came onto the market. An index of so-called “pending” home sales from the National Association of Realtors rose 3.4 percent from February, the first gain in nine months, but is still down 7.9 percent from March of 2013.
“After a dismal winter, more buyers got an opportunity to look at homes last month and are beginning to make contract offers,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors. “Sales activity is expected to steadily pick up as more inventory reaches the market, and from ongoing job creation in the economy.”
Regionally, sales in the Northeast increased 1.4 percent, but are 5.9 percent below a year ago. In the Midwest, sales slipped 0.8 percent and are 10.1 percent below March 2013. Pending home sales in the South rose 5.6 percent, but are 5.3 percent below a year ago. The index in the West increased 5.7 percent monthly, but is 11.1 percent below March, 2013. The Realtors still predict overall home sales for 2014 will come in lower than last year, at 4.9 million units sold.
Fast-rising home prices have caused at least some of the slowdown in sales during this spring season. In fact, prices in several major metropolitan markets hit new peaks in February. With median home values well above the national average, Denver, San Jose, Austin, Dallas and Houston hit new price highs, according to Black Knight Financial Services. Metropolitan markets in California made up eight of the top ten biggest price gains in February, with Portland, Ore., and Seattle, rounding out the list. Home prices fell in several Northeast and Midwest markets, like Cincinnati, Allentown, Pa. and Atlantic City, N.J. Nationally, home prices are still 13.5 percent below their June, 2006, peak, but that gap is closing fast.
read more…
https://homes.yahoo.com/news/home-sales-finally-thaw-just-140000849.html
Sales of new U.S. homes unexpectedly plunged in March to the lowest level in eight months, reflecting a broad-based retreat that signals the industry is facing bigger challenges than just bad weather.
Sales dropped 14.5 percent to a 384,000 annualized pace, lower than any forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg and the weakest since July, Commerce Department data showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 74 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for the pace to accelerate to 450,000.
The housing recovery has slowed as higher borrowing costs and rising prices make properties less affordable. Shortages of buildable lots and skilled labor also have hindered construction as the market heads into its busiest time of year.
“The housing market is in a rut that’s so far not showing signs of getting better,” Guy Berger, a U.S. economist at RBS Securities Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut, said before the report. “They don’t have enough lots, they don’t have enough workers. That’s playing a big role.”
Stock extended earlier losses after the report. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 0.3 percent to 1,874.04 at 10:05 a.m. in New York.
Economists’ estimates ranged from 428,000 to 476,000. The Commerce Department revised the February reading up to a 449,000 pace from a previously estimated 440,000.
read more…
We wish the pictures were better with this listing. It starts out very well. “Built in 1902, this Georgica mansion sits high and majestically on meticulous grounds and is situated on the treasured Apaquogue Road in East Hampton Village.” Can’t argue with that. The 6000sf house has got six bedrooms and 5.5 baths and its own two-bedroom, one-bath carriage house. There are lovely brick pathways, mature plantings and a pool set on one acre. We’d like to see more and better pictures of the interiors. The kitchen and baths, for one. The property last sold in October 2007 for $8.5M, which would have been the top of the market. What do you think?
http://hamptons.curbed.com/archives/2014/04/15/oldschool_east_hampton_mansion_for_105m.php
It’s not always easy to build loyalty with your clients in the real estate business — or any business for that matter. Building loyalty takes time and there are a number of essential things that you should be doing. Here are six practical tips you can use to foster client loyalty.
1. Plan loyalty-building events Events such as client appreciation days and seminars can be fantastic loyalty-builders.
Both of these events are not only great for strengthening relationships with your clients, they’ll also help you get introduced to more people (potential real estate leads) if you encourage your clients to bring friends and family members along.
A client appreciation event can be anything from bowling to a barbecue to a fireworks show. And remember that seminars are perfect for positioning yourself as a “home expert” because the purpose of the seminar will be to educate your clients on any number of topics relating to homeownership. You can conduct the seminar yourself or invite an expert in to speak. It could be an interior designer, hardwood flooring specialist or any other professional who can offer valuable advice your sphere would be interested in.
2. Send a real estate newsletter In addition to a real estate newsletter or e-newsletter being a great keep-in-touch tool, it’s a powerful instrument for establishing trust, credibility and expertise. It’s important for the e-newsletter to include helpful and interesting information such as how to assess the value of one’s home, advice for boosting curb appeal, and more. A good real estate customer relationship management (CRM) platform will come with a professionally designed and written monthly e-newsletter so you don’t have to spend the money, or take the time, to create one each month.
3. Offer a homeowner’s checkup It is a good idea to meet with clients occasionally to do a homeowner’s checkup. You can provide current information and available services such as a local market update, a simple inspection of their home, a review of their current mortgage, and more. These checkups are also good opportunities to have a discussion about the client’s home goals. As this type of meeting can be time-consuming, I recommend you offer this to only your best clients (your “A list”).
4. Make quarterly check-in calls Again, this is something you’d do for only your top clients, but after meeting with them face to face, phone calls are the next best thing from a relationship-building standpoint. Schedule quarterly “keep-in-touch calls” and after the call, record in your real estate CRM what you spoke about. This is important because next time you talk with that client, you can ask how Jimmy’s baseball tournament or Mary’s surgery went. During these calls, you can also offer recommendations on reputable home professionals, which is a win-win-win situation.
Showing genuine interest in your clients’ lives is instrumental to relationship-building, and of course developing a referrals-based business. 5. Send a real estate thank-you card to clients who referred you These days, a handwritten card is rare, which is why you should send them out to express your appreciation each time you get a referral.
In the card, thank the referrer, mention that you rely on referrals to build your business, and promise to take good care of the person he referred. You’ll also want to keep the referrer in the loop and let him know the outcome of the person he referred.
– See more at: http://www.inman.com/next/6-tips-for-fostering-client-loyalty-its-about-providing-wow-experiences/?utm_source=20140414&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam#sthash.BEwHCiLI.dpuf
The housing boom is spreading across the country, with rapidly rising prices and long queues of buyers no longer restricted to London, experts are to announce.
Property sales in the first three months of 2014 reached a six-year high as the market recovered on a “truly national” scale, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics).
Activity is at levels last seen in early 2008, before the banking crisis took hold, and is spreading to the Home Counties and beyond, figures suggest.
The trend is “striking in that it is clearly broadening out”, said Simon Rubinsohn, a Rics economist. “There has been a sense that it was one story for London and a very different outlook everywhere else, with perhaps a few other city centres edging ahead. But that is not the case any longer,” he added.
“Now that the housing market recovery is well and truly under way and mortgage finance is more readily available, buyers seem to be looking to test the market right across the country, not just in the usual hotspots of the South East.”
March housing inventory was up for the first time since 2010, but this is taking a back seat to the continuing rise in home prices.
Looking at 38 unique markets, Movoto Real Estate’s monthly report found that the median list price per square foot index was up 7.1% over where it was in March of 2013 to $186. Compared to March 2012, it is drastically up 23.2%.
Out of all the markets studied, 34 witnessed a year-over-year increase in median list price per square foot, with only two remaining the same and two recording slight decreases.
But nothing tells the story better than an infographic (see below), which shows the state of the April 2014 housing market.
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/29584-picture-this-april-housing-market
Average fixed mortgage rates were up a bit from last week, applying additional pressure for those local markets that are already feeling an affordability pinch, according to Freddie Mac. This follows last week’s slight downtick.
“Mortgage rates rose following the uptick on the 10-year Treasury note after comments by the Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen indicated a possible increase in interest rates as soon as early 2015,” said Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft. “Also, the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite house price index rose 13.2% over the 12-months ending in January 2014.”
Freddie Mac’s new blog noted this week: “One thing seems certain: we aren’t likely to see average 30-year fixed mortgage rates return to the historic lows experienced in 2012. The all-time record low – since Freddie Mac began tracking mortgage rates in 1971 – was 3.31% in November 2012. Conversely, the all-time record high occurred in October of 1981, hitting 18.63%. That’s more than four times higher than today’s average 30-year fixed rate of 4.32% as of March 20.”
The 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 4.4% with an average 0.6 point for the week ending March 27, 2014, up from last week when it averaged 4.32%. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.57%.
The 15-year FRM averaged 3.42% with an average 0.6 point, up from last week when it averaged 3.32%. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 2.76%.
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/29458-mortgage-rates-tick-up-after-slight-decline
Loria Manne, who has designed her signature Lamontage rugs for such venerable institutions as Brown University, the University of Chicago, the Rubin Museum of Art, and the Gramercy Hotel, acquired this Murray Hill townhouse along with her husband in 2000 for $2.85 million. Now they have put it back on the market asking $6.195 million, though it appears that they made some improvements in the meantime—the house is still described on Streeteasy as a three-unit, four-story building, while the listing says that it is a six-story single-family home. The teal facade also looks fairly recent, as do all the colorful walls inside. Other highlights include the roof terrace, many fireplaces, and, of course, lots of rugs.
http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/03/18/rug_designers_funky_murray_hill_townhouse_wants_62m.php
LOWER consumer confidence could put a dampener on a housing market, which had shown strong improvements since the start of the year.
The latest consumer sentiment data from Westpac and the Melbourne Institute revealed that consumer confidence had fallen for the fourth consecutive month.
RP Data research director Tim Lawless said the index did move around a lot from month to month, so as a result following the trend was more important than the monthly result.
“However we have seen the index move lower over five of the past six months which indicates a softening consumer mind set,’’ he said.
Mr Lawless said consumer confidence and housing market conditions were highly linked.
“If a consumer is lacking confidence in their household finances they aren’t going to be as prepared to make a high commitment decision such as purchasing a property,’’ he said.
Mr Lawless said if consumer confidence continued at similar levels in the coming months, he thought the “exuberant’’ housing market conditions would taper off.
He said at the moment even though confidence levels had eased, consumers still viewed the housing market as a ‘wise’ place for their savings.
“Consumer confidence can be fickle, and we may see the consumer mind set bounce back to a more optimistic position if the jobless rate stabilises and economic data flows improve,’’ he said.
