Best Places for a Real Estate Deal In America
November 28, 2010 by admin
Filed under New York, Real Estate Articles
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From the WSJ:
Real estate in Westchester , NY. Westchester, New York has become an even more attractive option to invest in real estate due to its historic appreciation in real estate. Purchasing a home in Westchester NY may be a terrific investment.
Westchester , NY is NY City close and is gorgeous countryside… rich in history, excellent schools and 20 – 25 minute train ride into Manhattan. Westchester County unemployment rate remained well below the national average at 7.3% in July, reflecting the health of New York City, where many local residents work.
<a href=”http://westchester-ny-real-estate.com/villages-of-bedford.htm “>Bedford homes</a> offer City closeness and the countryside.
People moving to New York to take high paying jobs and experience the cosmopolitan lifestyle of the few world financial capitals is the key for New York real estate now. The outlook is currently a little shaky. I will through out one new factor, which is that city’s with strong mass transit systems are the most cost effective places to live in a world where energy supply, not money supply will be the gating factor for growth.
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- Close to Home: Sales bounce back in Westchester, N.Y. (usatoday.com)
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Sold! Sheraton Delfina Santa Monica Hotel
November 25, 2010 by admin
Filed under Positive Real Estate, Real Estate Articles
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From the Luxist and LA Times
The Sheraton Delfina Santa Monica Hotel in Santa Monica, California has new owners. The LA Times reports that the luxury 310-room hotel has been bought for $102.8 million by Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, a Maryland real estate investment trust from Regis Properties, and investment group headed by hotelier Brad Korzen. Korzen’s Viceroy Hotel Group will continue to manage the hotel. Other Pebblebrook hotels include the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco, the InterContinental Buckhead in Atlanta, the Hotel Monaco in Washington DC. Back in October we mentioned that the Pebblebrook Hotel Trust had picked up the Grand Hotel in Minneapolis for $33 million.
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Mortgage APs Highest in 6 Months
November 24, 2010 by admin
Filed under Mortgages, Positive Real Estate, Real Estate Articles
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U.S. mortgage applications for home purchases rose to their highest level in more than six months last week, buoying activity otherwise weighed down by waning refinancing, an industry group reported on Wednesday.
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted purchase applications index jumped 14.4 percent to 205.0 in the week ended Nov. 19, the highest since the week ending May 7, the MBA said on Wednesday. The refinancing index slumped 1 percent to 3,793.6.
The composite index, which includes loans for home purchases and refinancings, increased 2.1 percent to 728.8, the MBA said.
“The increase in purchase applications last week aligns with other incoming data suggesting that consumers are feeling somewhat more confident with their financial situation,” Michael Fratantoni, the MBA’s vice president of research and economics, said in a statement.
Reuters
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U. S. Single Family Home Prices Up 3.6 Percent
November 19, 2010 by admin
Filed under Positive Real Estate
Fiserv, Inc. released an analysis of home price trends in more than 375 U. S. markets based on the Fiserv® Case-Shiller Indexes.
In the second quarter of 2010, U. S. single-family home prices rose an average of 3.6 percent over the year-ago quarter, driven by strong price increases in relatively high-priced markets, such as San Diego, Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco Bay Area.
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Housing Affordability Up in Cali
November 16, 2010 by admin
Filed under california, Positive Real Estate
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Housing affordability among first-time home buyers improved slightly in the third quarter of 2010, both on a quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year basis, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) reported today. The percentage of first-time buyers who could afford to purchase an entry-level home in California stood at 66 percent in the third quarter of 2010, according to C.A.R.’s First-time Buyer Housing Affordability Index (FTB-HAI). In the second quarter of 2010, the Index was a revised 65 percent and was 64 percent in the third quarter of 2009.
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Miami Condos Sales up 43%
November 16, 2010 by admin
Filed under Florida, Real Estate Articles
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Miami Condominium Sales Rise 43 Percent in 3rd Quarter
In the Miami Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), sales of homes increased 21 percent in the 3rd qtr. compared to the 3rd qtr. last year and 73 percent compared to the 3rd qtr. of 2008. This rise marks 9 straight quarters of increasing sales according to the Miami Association of Realtors and the Southeast Florida Multiple Listing Service.
Florida sales of condominiums also increased 15 percent.
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Credit Becoming More Liquid
The Federal Reserve says both large and small banks are beginning to ease back on their credit requirements for “some categories of loans” to households and businesses, according to DSNews.com.
However, standards continue to tighten on prime mortgages and home-equity loans, particularly at smaller institutions. The October 2010 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices addressed changes in the supply of, and demand for, bank loans to businesses and households over the past three months.
The October survey indicated that, on net, banks eased standards and terms over the previous three months on some categories of loans to households and businesses.
Both large and other domestic banks reported having eased some standards and terms; large banks were primarily responsible for the easing reported in July.
However, substantial fractions of banks reported in response to a set of special questions that standards for many categories of loans would not return to their longer-run averages for the foreseeable future.
Domestic survey respondents reported easing standards and most terms on C&I loans to firms of all sizes. As in the April and July surveys, banks mainly pointed to a more favorable or less uncertain economic outlook and increased competition from other banks or nonbank lenders as reasons for easing. Of the few banks that reported h
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- Fed Loan Surv Shows Modest Easing of Standards for Business (forexlive.com)
- Banks more willing to lend, Fed survey reports (usatoday.com)
- http://www.realtrends.com/go/view_media.php?mp_id=10097&cat_id=1524
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30 and 15 year mortgages hit new record low
November 12, 2010 by admin
Filed under Positive Real Estate
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30 yr and 15 yr Fixed-Rate Mortgages Fall to New Lows
The Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®) put out by Fredddie Mac reports that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) and the 15-year (FRM) set new records for all-time lows. The 5-year ARM also reached another new low in the survey while the 1-year ARM remained at its nadir.
30 yr fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.17 percent, the 15-year averaged 3.57 percent this week with while the 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 3.25 percent this week.
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Chicago Real Estate Market Registers Solid 9-Month Gain in 2010
November 10, 2010 by admin
Filed under Positive Real Estate
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Metro Chicago Real Estate Market Registers Solid 9-Month Gain in 2010 Despite Slower July-Sept. Quarter, RE/MAX Reports
Sales of detached homes were 34,922, up 10.6 percent for the January-September period in the metro area, while sales of attached home increased 11.5 percent to 19,520 when compared to 2009 results. During the third quarter, however, sales of attached homes were 5,580, 28 percent below the 2009 level, while sales of detached homes dipped 19.9 percent to 10,793.
Chicago, IL –
Home sales activity in the metropolitan Chicago real estate market registered a solid gain of 11 percent for the first nine months of 2010 when compared to the same period in 2009. That was achieved even as third-quarter transaction volume was 22.8 percent lower than the same period last year.
The sales figures, analyzed by RE/MAX, are for the seven-county Chicago metropolitan area and are based on information supplied by Midwest Real Estate Data, LLC. The seven-county metropolitan area includes the Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will.
The median sales price for homes in the metro area during the January-September period was $190,000, 5.7 percent lower than the median of $201,500 recorded for the same months in 2009. However, the average price of homes sold was more resilient, falling just 1 percent to $255,684 from $258,354 a year earlier.
“The market can now fully appreciate the impact of the homebuyer tax credit,” said Jim Merrion, regional director of the RE/MAX Northern Illinois real estate network. “Although it helped sales generally, especially sales of attached units (which consist primarily of condominium apartments and townhouses), once the tax credit expired, sales of attached units fell more sharply than sales of traditional detached homes. When you look at the first three quarters of 2010, attached homes registered a larger percentage sales increase than did detached homes.”
Sales of detached homes were 34,922, up 10.6 percent for the January-September period in the metro area, while sales of attached home increased 11.5 percent to 19,520 when compared to 2009 results. During the third quarter, however, sales of attached homes were 5,580, 28 percent below the 2009 level, while sales of detached homes dipped 19.9 percent to 10,793.
The average price of a detached home increased slightly $266,444 for the first nine months of 2010 from $265,639 during the same period in 2009. For attached homes the average price for the first nine months of the year slipped to $236,434 in 2010 from $245,215 in 2009, a 3.6 percent decline.
The average time on the market for detached homes sold during the third quarter was 148 days, down from 168 days a year earlier. The average market time of attached homes sold in the July-September period was 168 days, up from 165 days in 2009.
“The third-quarter slowdown in home sales was felt broadly,” said Merrion. “All seven counties in the metro area recorded an increase in sales activity for the first nine months of the year when compared to the same period in 2009, but all counties also showed declines in sales activity during the third quarter. Kane County turned in the best nine-month performance with a 31 percent total increase to 3,667 homes from 2,795 a year earlier.”
Of the 258 suburban market areas and 77 City of Chicago neighborhoods that RE/MAX tracks on a quarterly basis, 185 towns and 56 neighborhoods had increased sales activity during the January-September period when measured against 2009, but only 42 towns and 16 neighborhoods recorded gains in sales transactions when the third quarter of 2010 is compared to that same portion of 2009.
Detached Homes
Sales of detached homes rose in six of the seven counties over the first nine months of 2010 when compared to the same period in 2009. Only Kendall County failed to record an increase, and then only because sales fell by one unit. Kane County led the gains with a 32.2 percent increase generated by 2,995 sales. It was followed by Lake County with an 11.9 percent gain on 3,861 sales.
The results in the other counties were: Cook up 10.4 percent to 17,946 units, DuPage up 8.1 percent to 4,095 units, McHenry up 7.7 percent to 1,688 units and Will up 2.9 percent to 3,536 units. Chicago recorded a 10 percent sales increase to 6,451 units.
In the third quarter, however, sales of detached homes fell well below the 2009 pace in all counties and in Chicago. Kane County had the smallest decline at 6.8 percent on 935 transactions. Lake County was next with a 16.6 percent dip in sales based on 1,248 transactions. Other results: Cook County down 20.6 percent to 5,486 homes, DuPage down 26.3 percent to 1,242 homes, McHenry down 20.1 percent to 508 homes, Kendall down 23.9 percent to 245 homes and Will down 20.4 percent to 1,129 homes.
Attached Homes
For the first three quarters of this year, sales of attached homes rose in six counties and in Chicago. Only Will County saw a decline in its total attached sales for the period. Kendall County, with just 313 sales, recorded the largest year-to-year increase at 41 percent. Kane was the other county showing a major increase for the nine-month period, with sales up 31 percent to 672 units.
More modest increases were recorded in four other counties: Cook County saw sales of attached homes rise 12.1 percent to 14,154 units. DuPage County sales rose 6.8 percent to 2,004 units. Lake County scored a 9.9 percent increase on 1,009 sales, and McHenry County experienced a 10.4 percent rise in attached sales to 435 units. Sales in Chicago rose 10.1 percent to 9,117 units.
Results for the third quarter, on the other hand, revealed a much slower market, with total attached sales in the metro area off 28 percent from the same three months of 2009. Only Kendall and Kane Counties recorded sales declines of less than 10 percent for the quarter, with Kendall falling 3.9 percent to 99 units and Kane down 5.9 percent to 207 units.
In Cook County, which accounted for about 80 percent of all sales of attached homes during the quarter, sales fell 26.9 percent to 4,085 units. More than half those sales took place in Chicago, and there transaction activity declined 28.1 percent to 2,617 units.
Other third-quarter results: DuPage County recorded 554 sales, a 33.2 percent decline; 251 sales were completed in Will County, a 40 percent decline, and 264 sales in Lake County represented a 37.1 percent reduction. In McHenry County, 120 sales netted a decline in activity of 26.8 percent.
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New-Home Sales Rise 6.6%
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Sales of newly built, single-family homes rose 6.6% in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 307,000 units, their best pace since June, according to data released by the U.S. Commerce Department in Oct. 27.
“The fact that new-home sales are finally moving in the right direction — albeit slowly — is definitely good news following an exceptionally quiet summer at builders’ sales offices and model homes,” said NAHB Chairman Bob Jones. “The road to recovery will be a long one, however, and a key hurdle that must be surpassed is the lack of available credit for new-home construction so that builders can meet improving demand for new homes moving forward.”
“This suggests that builders continue to prudently winnow down their inventories,” he said. “That said, the concern is that builders’ ongoing difficulty in accessing production credit will keep the razor-thin supply of new homes from being replenished as consumer demand revives, thereby hindering the positive momentum.”
“Beyond the higher sales figure, another positive piece of data provided by September’s report was the number of newly built, unsold homes on the market, which has been steadily declining since spring of 2007 and fell again to a modest 205,000 units in September,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe.
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