Tuesday, October 21, 2014

10 Best ZIP Codes in 2014

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2014
The ZIP code of the country's best place to call home is 20004, according to real estate company Movoto.com. Right smack in the heart of the nation's capital, it's where you'll find portions of the Smithsonian museums, Ford's Theatre, and it's close to the White House. The ZIP code boasts an average household income of $131,111 and an unemployment rate of 1.93 percent.
It's All About the ZIP
Movoto ranked the following top 10 ZIP codes top for 2014:
  1. 20004: Washington, D.C.
  2. 77005: Houston
  3. 98039: Medina, Wash.
  4. 95497: Sea Ranch, Calif.
  5. 11930: Amagansett, N.Y.
  6. 92121: San Diego
  7. 60603: Chicago
  8. 60602: Chicago
  9. 67230: Wichita, Kan.
  10. 64113: Kansas City, Mo.
To compile its rankings, Movoto factored in data from the U.S. Census' American Community Survey, researching ZIP codes for median household income (the higher, the better); unemployment rate (the lower, the better); average commute time (the lower, the better); median rent (higher rents indicate a more desirable area); median house worth (higher values indicate a more desirable area); and more.
Source: “These Are the Best ZIP Codes in America,” Movoto.com (Sept. 30, 2014)


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

Markets Still Plagued by Inventory Crunch



DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2014
The number of homes for sale is still low in many markets: Supply nationwide in September was at five and a half months; most economists consider a normal level to be six to seven months. The supply of new homes was even lower, at nearly five months, according to realtor.com®'s September National Housing Trend Report.
Inventories Show Signs of Improvements
"To truly relieve the inventory shortage on a sustained basis, new-home construction needs to rise by at least 50 percent from the current levels," says Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS®. 
The following markets have posted some of the biggest drops in listings year-over-year:
  • Las Vegas: -37.9%
  • San Jose, Calif.: -36.2%
  • Columbus, Ohio: -29%
  • Cincinnati: -26.5%
  • Houston: -25.2%
  • Washington, D.C.: -25%
  • San Francisco: -23.4%
  • Chicago: -22.8%
Meanwhile, in some markets, home buyers have found more choices in the past year. These markets have seen the biggest growth in inventory levels year-over-year:
  • Honolulu: +27.5%
  • Orlando, Fla.: +25.8%
  • Miami: +22%
  • Charleston, W.Va.: +20.1%
Nationwide, the median age of inventory fell slightly year-over-year in September due to the reduced number of homes on the market, according to realtor.com®. Homes spent about 90 days on the market in September, three days less than a year ago.
Also, median listing prices held steady for the fourth consecutive month, maintaining a 7.7 percent gain year-over-year. The median list price in September was $214,900 nationwide.


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

Monday, October 20, 2014

Fannie, Freddie to Loosen Up on Lending

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014
The regulator of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is reportedly working on a deal with the financing entities that will loosen up lending standards and make mortgages more affordable for those with less-than-perfect credit. The move is expected to expand home buyers’ access to financing, as tight credit the last few years has kept many sidelined. 
The new rules reportedly will include a lower minimum down payment requirement (from 5 percent to 3 percent), in order for lenders to qualify to sell a loan to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That would bring down payment in sync with the Federal Housing Administration, which insures loans made to lower-income borrowers and first-time buyers. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee about 59 percent of all mortgages written.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie and Freddie, reportedly will include more safety measures to help lenders protect themselves from making bad loans. Lenders have faced numerous high-dollar settlements after issuing loans that later defaulted. The new agreement would give greater confidence to lenders so they won’t be penalized years after a loan is made, The Wall Street Journal reports. 
The potential agreement “would allow credit to flow more freely to lower- and middle-income households,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told The Wall Street Journal. “That’s vital to getting the housing recovery moving forward.”
During the financial crisis, the financing giants faced steep losses as home loans defaulted. The spike was blamed on poor underwriting by lenders in ensuring that borrowers could afford their mortgages. In response, the companies, which were seized by the government in 2008, have had banks tighten their credit standards, which some critics say has gone too far and prevented many home buyers from qualifying for a home loan. 
The Urban Institute has estimated that 1.2 million more mortgages would have been issued in 2012 alone if lending standards that were commonly used in 2001 were still in place. 
"Understandably, after the [financial] crisis the pendulum of mortgage credit standards swung to a far extreme” Paul Leonard, California director of the Center for Responsible Lending, told the Los Angeles Times. “It's now working its way back to a more moderate position.”
The FHFA is expected to formally announce the plans later this week. 
Source: “Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Reach Deal to Ease Mortgage Lending,” Los Angeles Times (Oct. 17, 2014) and “Mortgage Giants Set to Loosen Lending,” The Wall Street Journal (Oct. 17, 2014)


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Foreclosures Back to Pre-Crisis Levels

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2014
A new sign that the foreclosure crisis may largely be in the rearview mirror, new filings in the third quarter of this year were down 16 percent from a year ago — bringing overall foreclosure activity down to its level before the housing crisis, according to RealtyTrac's Foreclosure Market Report. What's more, default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions in September dropped 9 percent from the previous month and were down 19 percent from a year ago. That's the lowest level since July 2006.
Not so fast. Could it be that thedip in foreclosures is only temporary?
"September foreclosure activity was back to pre-housing-bubble levels nationwide, in large part thanks to a continued slide in bank repossessions," says Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. "However, a recent rise in scheduled foreclosure auctions in many markets across the country shows lenders are continuing to clean house of lingering delinquent loans. This rise in scheduled auctions foreshadows a corresponding rise in bank repossessions and auction sales to third-party buyers in the coming months."
While foreclosure filings fell last month, they were up slightly by 0.42 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter. It's a small percentage, but it does mark the first quarterly increase since the third quarter of 2011, according to RealtyTrac. The uptick was largely attributed to a 2 percent increase in default notices and a 7 percent quarterly increase in scheduled foreclosure auctions.
That proves the foreclosure crisis isn't over in every market quite yet. Default notices in the third quarter rose from a year ago in 10 states, including Indiana (up 59%); Oklahoma (49%); Massachusetts (38%); New Jersey (19%); Iowa (12%); and New York (2%).
Lenders are taking longer to process foreclosures, too. The foreclosure process took an average of 615 days in the third quarter, up 13 percent from a year ago. That's the longest average time to complete a foreclosure since RealtyTrac began tracking such data in 2007. The states with the longest foreclosure wait times are New Jersey (1,064 days); Florida (951 days); Hawaii (937 days); New York (902 days); and Illinois (889 days).
The five states with the highest foreclosure rates in the third quarter were:
  • Florida
  • Maryland
  • New Jersey
  • Nevada
  • Illinois
Source: RealtyTrac


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Major Incentives for Home Buyers This Fall

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2014
Homebuilders are throwing in some extras to lure home buyers back this fall. For example, 10 homebuilders in a new suburban Phoenix community called Bridges at Gilbert are offering swimming pools, built-in barbecues, and subsidized mortgages.
Unique Incentives
Joseph Beben, a home buyer in the Phoenix area, says he chose to have a house built by Woodside Homes, which agreed to cover up to $10,000 of his closing costs as well as the price of a swimming pool. Beben will pay $332,000 for a 3,000-square-foot house. 
"Builders in volatile housing markets, such as Phoenix, Sacramento, Las Vegas, and Orlando, are sweetening offers as sales slow," Bloomberg Business reports.
The large increases in home prices last year have discouraged some buyers. The number of new-home communities in Phoenix rose by a third in the past year to 457, but sales per community dropped 45 percent last month from a year prior, according to Jim Belfiore, president of Belfiore Real Estate Consulting.
Builders in Nevada also saw a big drop in sales this year. In Las Vegas, new-home sales surged 32 percent in 2013 — but in the first eight months of this year, they have fallen 26 percent from the previous year, says Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research, a Las Vegas-based consulting company. A similar trend is taking hold in Sacramento, Calif., where new-home sales plunged 16 percent last month year-over-year.
Builders are beginning to discount homes and look for ways to boost sales. Orlando builders, for example, reportedly are advertising discounts and appliance packages, as well as offering to cover closing costs, after new-home sales dropped 19 percent year-over-year in June.
Buyers are enjoying being the drivers at the moment in some of these markets. Bob Berg, a retiree from Chicago, was looking for homes in the Phoenix area. "A couple of builders said to me, 'What will it take for you to buy this home?'" Berg says. "That's kind of drastic when they say something like that. It tells me they want to move that home."
Source: "Homebuilders Offer Goodies as Sales Slow," Bloomberg BusinessWeek  (Oct. 9, 2014)


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

10 Best College Towns for House Flippers

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2014
College towns have long been known as havens for investors looking to cash in on rentals or turn a profit on a home flip. RealtyTrac recently ranked the best college towns for flippers in 2014.
Want to Flip? Know This
RealtyTrac analyzed public four-year universities that had enrollment of 20,000 or more as of 2012 and also were located in counties that had unemployment rates below the national average of 6.2 percent. The top 10 college towns for flipping were ranked based on the average gross return on investment (ROI) percentage for single-family home flips there during the first eight months of 2014. (Note: Some college towns did not have sufficient sales or flipping data to be included in the rankings).
Here are the college towns that topped RealtyTrac's 2014 list:
  1. University of Minnesota (Minneapolis)
    Average gross flip profit: $105,292
    ROI: 65.59%
  2. University of Washington (Seattle)
    Average gross flip profit: $168,247
    ROI: 61.88%
  3. University of Nebraska (Lincoln, Neb.)
    Average gross flip profit: $53,763
    ROI: 55.01%
  4. San Francisco State (San Francisco)
    Average gross flip profit: $402,790
    ROI: 54.16%
  5. Thomas Edison State College (Trenton, N.J.)
    Average gross flip profit: $40,497
    ROI: 48.06%
  6. University of Florida (Gainesville, Fla.)
    Average gross flip profit: $41,235
    ROI: 47.95%
  7. University of Colorado (Denver)
    Average gross flip profit: $103,658
    ROI: 45.86%
  8. University of Cincinnati
    Average gross flip profit: $45,929
    ROI: 44.88%
  9. University of Akron (Akron, Ohio)
    Average gross flip profit: $35,909
    ROI: 42.95%
  10. North Carolina State (Raleigh, N.C.)
    Average gross flip profit: $61,028
    ROI: 38.52%
Source: RealtyTrac


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Landscaping Boosts Home Values Up to 12%

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2014
You might want to take a closer look at your listing's curb appeal: Upgrading a home's landscape from average to excellent can raise its overall value by 10 percent to 12 percent, according toresearch from Virginia Tech.
Up Your Curb Appeal
Researcher Alex X. Niemiera with the Department of Horticulture at Virginia Tech found that a $150,000 home with no landscaping could fetch an additional $8,300 to $19,000 by adding a landscape with color and large plants.
The value of landscaping differed greatly from state to state. For example, the change in value from a home with no landscape to well-landscaped ranged from 5.5 percent in Louisiana to 11.4 percent in South Carolina. Michigan homes saw the biggest difference in landscaping appeal, with a home's value being increased by 12.7 percent.
"The most preferred landscape included a sophisticated design with large deciduous, evergreen, and annual color plants and colored hardscape," according to Niemiera. Adding different plant sizes to a front yard, for example, can boost curb appeal, as well as mixing fruit trees and flowers for added color.
The following landscape elements were found to be most important to survey respondents:
  • Design sophistication
  • Plant size
  • Diversity of plant material type
"Survey results showed that relatively large landscape expenditures significantly increase perceived home value and will result in a higher selling price than homes with a minimal landscape," Niemiera writes in the paper. "Design sophistication and plant size were the landscape factors that most affected value. The resulting increase in 'curb appeal' of the property may also help differentiate a home in a subdivision where house styles are similar and thereby attract potential buyers into a home. This advantage is especially important in a competitive housing market."
Source: “Does Landscaping Increase Your Homes Value?” Realty Times (Oct. 13, 2014)


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)