The Kallhoff Team

Friday, April 5, 2013

Get Ready for Big Bidding Wars This Spring

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | FRIDAY, APRIL 05, 2013

With tighter inventories of homes for sale, buyers are finding increased competition through bidding wars. But the bidding may not be between only one or two other buyers -- more bidding wars are popping up where dozens or even hundreds of other buyers are all competing for the same property.

"The only question is not whether a new listing will get multiple bids but how many it will get," Kris Vogt, who manages Coldwell Banker offices in the Sacramento area, told CNNMoney.

For example, a home in Elk Grove, Calif., reportedly received 62 separate bids, with the final sales price more than $150,000 above its $129,000 asking price. In Cambridge, Mass., real estate brokers stopped accepting bids after the tally reached 250 bids for two condos listed at $800,000 each. The two condos ended up selling together for $2 million.

Seventy-five percent of real estate agents with the brokerage Redfin surveyed in March say their clients have faced multiple bid situations for properties -- up from 56 percent in late 2011.

Bidding wars appear to be most prevalent in California. Ninety percent of homes sold in San Francisco, Sacramento, and throughout Southern California saw multiple bids during the month, CNNMoney reports. What’s more, at least two-thirds of listings in Boston, Washington, D.C., Seattle, and New York had bidding wars for homes too.

Meanwhile, inventories of for-sale homes continues to be low. The National Association of REALTORS® reported a 19.2 percent drop in inventories year-over-year in February.

Source: “The home bidding wars are back!” CNNMoney (April 4, 2013)

http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2013/04/05/get-ready-for-big-bidding-wars-spring

arizona homes sale, arizona house,arizona real estate, az houses, az real estate, business, chief economist, economy, for sale by owner, FSBO, gilbert arizona, gilbert az, gilbert real estate, home for sale in arizona, homes for sale in san tan valley az, homes for sale in san tan valley az san tan valley arizona arizona homes sale home for sale in arizona real estate az real estate arizona arizona real estate san tan san tan heights homes in az for sa,homes for sale valley, homes in az for sale, houses for sale, houses in Arizona for sale, how to sell my home, johnson ranch, queen creek,queen creek arizona, queen creek az, real estate arizona, real estate az, real-estate, san tan, san tan heights, san tan valley arizona, san tan valley real estate, Selling my home, short selling my home, valley homes sale, where is san tan valley az

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Home Prices Pick Up at Fastest Pace in 7 Years

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | THURSDAY, APRIL 04, 2013

Home prices nationwide, which includes distressed sales, soared 10.2 percent year-over-year, according to CoreLogic’s February report. It’s the largest year-over-year increase in home prices since March 2006. It also marks the twelfth consecutive monthly increase in national home prices, according to CoreLogic’s report.

When excluding distressed sales, home prices rose 10.1 percent year-over-year in February, according to CoreLogic.

“Nationally, home prices improved at the best rate since mid-2006, marking a full year of annual increases and underscoring the ongoing strengthening of market fundamentals,” says Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic.

CoreLogic predicts that home prices -- excluding distressed sales -- will likely rise 11.4 percent year-over-year from March 2012.

“The rebound in prices is heavily driven by western states,” says Mark Fleming, CoreLogic’s chief economist. “Eight of the top ten highest appreciating large markets are in California, with Phoenix and Las Vegas rounding out the list.”

The five states with the highest price appreciation as of February 2013, according to CoreLogic, were:

Nevada (+19.3%)
Arizona (+18.6%)
California (+15.3%)
Hawaii (+14.6%)
Idaho (+13.5%)

Source: CoreLogic

http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2013/04/04/home-prices-pick-up-fastest-pace-in-7-years

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

First-Time Home Buyers: This Spring's 'Wild Card'?

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 03, 2013

First-time home buyers represented the fastest growing segment of home purchasers for January and February, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey.

Meanwhile, current home owners looking to move up posted the largest drop in market share in the month, dropping to the lowest market share recorded of current home owners since last June.

Current home owners make up 42.5 percent of the market share, while first-time home buyers share climbed to 34.5 percent of home purchase transactions in February, based on a three-month moving average. First-time home buyers posted its second monthly increase, after reaching a four-year survey low of 32.9 percent in December.

The survey showed that first-time home buyer traffic reached a four-year high in February.

“First-time home buyers are the wildcard in the upcoming spring-summer home buying season,” says Thomas Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys. “We see strong first-time homebuyer traffic, but it’s still not clear that the traffic will translate into increased purchases, because first-time home buyers are dependent on low-down-payment financing, such as FHA mortgages, and announced FHA program changes will take effect this spring.”

Current home owners are expected to increase their home purchases this spring, with the survey measuring a big jump in home buyer traffic among this group of buyers too.

Also, investors’ share of home purchases climbed to a four-month high in February, accounting for 34.5 percent of transactions.

Source: Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey

http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2013/04/03/first-time-home-buyers-springs-wild-card

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Study: Buyers Can Afford Bigger House If It's New

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | TUESDAY, APRIL 02, 2013

The National Association of Home Builders says its new study shows that home buyers can buy a more expensive, newer house and still have the same operating costs as owning an older existing home.

NAHB examined data from the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2011 American Housing Survey to determine how utility, maintenance, property tax, and insurance costs vary depending on the age of a home.

Houses built prior to 1960 have average maintenance costs of $564 per year. On the other hand, homes built after 2008 have average maintenance costs less than half that — $241, according to the study.

For homes built prior to 1960, operating costs average nearly 5 percent of the home’s value while the average was less than 3 percent for homes built after 2008, the NAHB study found.

The study also took into account the first year after-tax cost of owning a home by its age, examining the purchase price, mortgage payments, annual operating costs, and income tax savings. “A buyer can afford to pay 23 percent more for a new house than for one built prior to 1960 and still maintain the same amount of first-year annual costs,” according to NAHB.

New houses tend to cost more than existing homes, so the mortgage payments will likely be higher — but the lower operating costs of a newer home will give buyers annual costs that could be about equal if they purchase a lower priced, older home with a smaller mortgage payment but higher operating costs, NAHB says.

"Home buyers need to look beyond the initial sales price when considering whether to buy new construction or an existing home," says NAHB Chairman Rick Judson. "They will find that with the higher costs of operating an older home, they can often afford to spend more to buy a new home and still have annual operating costs that fit their budget."

Source: National Association of Home Builders

http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2013/04/02/study-buyers-can-afford-bigger-house-if-its-new

homes for sale in san tan valley az san tan valley arizona arizona homes sale home for sale in arizona real estate az real estate arizona arizona real estate san tan san tan heights homes in az for sa,homes for sale in san tan valley az,san tan valley arizona, arizona homes sale, home for sale in arizona, real estate az, real estate arizona, arizona real estate, san tan, san tan heights, homes in az for sale, az houses, queen creek az,gilbert arizona, az real estate,houses for sale, queen creek arizona, san tan valley real estate,gilbert real estate, homes for sale valley, arizona house, queen creek,valley homes sale, gilbert az,houses in Arizona for sale, where is san tan valley az, johnson ranch,Selling my home, short selling my home, FSBO, for sale by owner,how to sell my home, real-estate,chief economist, economy,business

Monday, April 1, 2013

'Zombie' Foreclosures Haunt Housing Market

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | MONDAY, APRIL 01, 2013

A new study finds that 301,874 “zombie” homes exist in the U.S.—properties where home owners receive foreclosure notices and move out, leaving the home vacant and deteriorating.

The state with the highest number of “zombie” properties is Florida, with 90,556 vacant homes in foreclosure, according to data by RealtyTrac, in their first analysis of “zombie” properties. Illinois ranks second with 31,668 “zombie” properties and California ranks third with 28,821.

However, Kentucky leads overall in percentage of zombie properties; abandoned homes represent 54 percent of Kentucky’s total foreclosure inventory. Abandoned foreclosures also represent 50 percent or more of the properties in foreclosure in Washington, Indiana, Nevada, and Oregon, according to RealtyTrac.

In January, Reuters reported a problem with “zombie” titles—home owners who received a foreclosure notice and walked away from their home but did not realize their names remained on the deed and they were still financially liable for the property. In some cases, the banks never ultimately pursued the foreclosure, but the home owners were unaware of that since they already had moved out.

RealtyTrac counted any property that had been in foreclosure longer than the state average and that showed no significant recent activity on it as a “zombie” property in its report.

"I think the empty foreclosures is less of a long-term threat but it certainly is affecting individual communities and neighborhoods," says Daren Blomquist, RealtyTrac’s vice president.

Source: “More than 300,000 homes are foreclosed ‘zombies,’ study says,” Reuters (March 28, 2013)

Read more

'Zombie Titles' Plague Home Owners

http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2013/04/01/zombie-foreclosures-haunt-housing-market