Los Angeles industrial real estate outperforms nation

Image via WikipediaFrom LA Times

Industrial property landlords are suffering in most of the country – but not so much in Los Angeles, a real estate brokerage said Tuesday.

Vacancy in the U.S. increased for a 10th consecutive quarter to 10.9% in the first three months of this year, Grubb & Ellis said. Asking rents were down almost 7% from a year ago. With the economy finally starting to improve a bit, the pace of deterioration in the industrial real estate market is easing, “but not quickly,” said the brokerage in a report.

In Los Angeles, vacancy rose a smidgen from a year ago to a mere 3.4% in the first quarter, though that was a six-year high. Asking rents have been coming down for the most part since 2008.

Real Estate Optimism

More than 48 percent of first-time buyers expect home prices to increase by this time next year, according to a survey by Century 21 Real Estate.

Sixty percent of first-time home buyers say they didn’t understand the process of buying a home, and more than 85 percent of both first-time buyers and sellers said that using a real estate professional was important.

The top three skills valued in a real estate professional by both buyers and sellers were knowledge of the area, trustworthiness, and responsiveness.

More than 80 percent of buyers believe now is a good time to buy a home. First-time home buyers rated these three factors as the most influential in their decision:

• Current housing prices: 66 percent
• Home Buyer tax credit: 63 percent
• Low loan rates: 60 percent

In choosing a home, 95 percent of first-time home buyers thought price was the most important consideration, but 90 percent were also very concerned about neighborhood safety.

About 54 percent of first-time sellers think home prices are more affordable now than they were this time last year, and 50 percent were selling because they were purchasing a property they saw as more attractive and better suited to their needs.

Source: Century 21 Real Estate LLC (04/21/2010)

Signs of a Housing Recovery

• Pending Home Sales
• Mortgage Applications
• Mortgage Interest Rates
• Real Estate Mutual Funds
• Mixed Signals

Get the rest here:

http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/23/real-estate-rebound-personal-finance-home-prices_2.html

Hamptons’ Real Estate Sales Jump 141.8%

Hamptons‘ Real Estate Sales Jump 141.8% Year-Over-Year in Q-1, Says New Prudential Douglas Elliman Report

According to Manhattan-based Prudential Douglas Elliman’s latest Hamptons and North Fork market reports, there were 486 sales in the first quarter, 141.8% more than the 201 sales of the prior year quarter, but 13.8% below the 564 sales in the prior quarter, which was a two-year high. The last three quarters of sales activity has been consistent with the quarterly average of the past 5 years. Gains in the financial markets, Higher Wall Street compensation, low mortgage rates and improved affordability have stimulated demand. Despite economic turmoil of the past two years, the East End housing market, which is driven by its second home market, has continued to keep pace with the New York City housing market. Although there were sharp gains in the number of sales, up from levels not seen in at least six years, listing inventory rose. There were 2,318 listings, up 1.3% from 2,289 listings in the same period last year and up 7.4% from 2,159 listings in the prior quarter. Re-sale shadow inventory, which consists of listings that were removed from the market in the prior year due to unfavorable market conditions, is being added to the current market. The recent inventory increase is consistent with a seasonal pattern of a rising number of listings after the first of the year as sellers anticipate higher demand in the spring. As a result of a rising number of sales and stable inventory, the rate of absorption–the number of months to sell off existing inventory at the current pace of sales–was 14.3 months, down from 34.2 months in the same period last year and slightly above the 13.1 month absorption rate of the past four years.

More:

http://www.realestatechannel.com/us-markets/residential-real-estate-1/real-estate-news-the-hamptons-real-estate-sales-prudential-douglas-elliman-dottie-herman-luxury-home-sales-in-the-hamptons-2416.php

St. Louis home sales soar 22 percent in March

St. Louis-area home sales rocketed up 22% in March there were 2,620 single-family homes sold in the 11-county region, according to data compiled by the Post-Dispatch from local real estate services. Sales grew in every county from last March, and the median price increased across much of the region.

The gains echo national figures released this morning by the National Association of Realtors, which reported a 16.1 percent bump in sales nationwide from last March, and a 6.8 percent increase from February.

REITS Showing Signs of Recovery