Monthly Archives: July 2015

Obama calls Westchester County housing racist | Armonk Real Estate

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The Obama administration’s heavy-handed attempts at social engineering just moved to a disturbing new level — right in Westchester.

The Justice Department wants the county held in contempt of court, fined $60,000 a month and forced to set up an escrow account of $1.65 million — in a move growing out of its longstanding claim that the county’s housing policies are racist.

It’s a preposterous claim, of course. And Friday, County Executive Rob Astorino holds a press conference to decry it.

Good for him. Because the move is based on a technicality, and it actually says more about Team Obama’s overreach than about anything the county has or hasn’t done.

The Justice Department’s claim focuses on 28 units of “affordable” housing that are to be built in downtown Chappaqua, home of Hillary Clinton. Under a 2009 consent decree, Westchester agreed to build 750 units in wealthy, largely white towns and to “market them aggressively” to non-whites. Financing for the first 450 units was to have been approved by the end of last year.

Westchester actually met that deadline — but the feds disqualified the Chappaqua project anyway, because the town hadn’t yet issued all required permits by Dec. 31. And because Astorino’s office, the feds say, didn’t ride roughshod over the town and bully it into submission.

Let’s be honest: For years, the administration has been trying to, as one official put it, “remove zip codes in the quality of life in America.” Meaning anyone should be able to live anywhere, even if they can’t afford it.

Its legal case is based on the dubious notion of “disparate impact” — statistical differences by race without any specific proof of actual discrimination.

Want more evidence Justice’s act is politically motivated? Note, then, that it filed its motion despite the fact that the Chappaqua housing project was recently fast-tracked.

 

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http://nypost.com/2015/07/23/team-obama-claims-westchester-is-racist-in-latest-overreach/

Home Prices Level Out | Mt Kisco Real Estate

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Home prices increases may be leveling out, according to one closely-followed real estate report.

In 20 major American cities, home prices this May were about 4.9% higher than May of last year, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, released Tuesday. That’s the same pace of growth as April, and surprised economists when it fell short of expected growth.

Economists predicted a 5.6% year-over-year increase, according to an Econoday survey.

Price increases of single-family homes have settled at a steady pace of 4-5% this year, said David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. He said he expects price increases to slow over the next two years, as wages rise to catch up with housing costs.

“First time homebuyers are the weak spot in the market,” said Blitzer, citing research that high down-payments may be putting off first-time home purchases. “Without a boost in first timers, there is less housing market activity, fewer existing homes being put on the market, and more worry about inventory.”

Overall, 10 of the 20 cities surveyed saw housing price increases slow on a seasonally-adjusted basis.  Some real estate markets remain hot, however.

Home prices in Denver are 10% higher than this time last year, and San Francisco and Dallas are also seeing prices increase at almost twice the national pace. New York City and Phoenix have seen prices rise for six consecutive months.

Between April and May, the index slowed 0.2% on a monthly, seasonally adjusted basis. An analyst at Barclays said they were not inclined to “read too much” into the decline.

“This could be a pause for breath in the data after a strong performance for half a year,” wrote Blerina Uruçi in a research note.

 

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2015/07/28/home-price-increases-stay-steady/30773195/

 

Under Jeb Bush, housing prices fueled Florida’s boom | North Salem Real Estate

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On the campaign trail, Jeb Bush has repeatedly emphasized his record overseeing Florida’s boom economy as the state’s governor. He says it’s an example of an economy that created a huge number of jobs and benefited the middle class — an example of what he could do as president. “I know how to do this,” he said in Maitland, Fla., on Monday.

But according to interviews with economists and a review of data, Florida owed a substantial portion of its growth under Bush not to any state policies but to a massive and unsustainable housing bubble — one that ultimately benefited rich investors at the expense of middle-class families.

The bubble, one of the biggest in the nation, drove up home prices and had many short-term benefits for the state, spurring construction, spending and jobs. But the collapse of the housing bubble as Bush left office in 2007, after eight years of service, sent Florida into a recession deeper than that in the rest of the country, and hundreds of thousands lost their homes.

“Who got hammered? Lower- and middle-class America,” said Marshall Sklar, a real estate investor who, like other well-off financiers operating in the state, has benefited from the wreckage.

Sklar recently won an online auction for a small stucco condominium in Boca Raton that a married couple had bought in 2004 for no money down. They borrowed against it as the state’s housing bubble inflated and then, like so many others, had to walk away heavily in debt when it burst.

Marshall Sklar says that after the bubble burst, housing wealth was redistributed in Florida: “You took it out of the sheep and gave it to the wolves.” (Edward Linsmier/For The Washington Post)

After buying their busted dream, Sklar flipped it to a wealthy investor, banking a commission. His investor will probably earn a 12 percent return by renting out the condo. The value of the condo was redistributed upward, like so much of Florida’s housing wealth in recent years. “You took it out of the sheep and gave it to the wolves,” Sklar said after touring several houses he recently bought at bargain prices.

The story of this house and its owners is in many ways emblematic of much of the experience of Florida’s economy in the 2000s — a story that contrasts sharply with the record Bush recounts.

 

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/under-jeb-bush-housing-prices-fueled-floridas-boom-then-it-all-went-bust/2015/07/27/3cb40da2-2409-11e5-b72c-2b7d516e1e0e_story.html

Homeownership Falls, Household Formations Rise | South Salem Real Estate

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According to the Census Bureau’s Housing Vacancy Survey (HVS), the nation’s homeownership rate in the second quarter of 2015 fell to a post-1967 low point of 63.4%. The homeownership rate decreased by 130 basis points on a nonseasonally adjusted basis from the second quarter of 2014 to the second quarter of 2015.

Compared to the peak at the end of 2004, the homeownership rate has steadily decreased by 5.8 percentage points and remains far below the 25-year average rate of 66.3%.

Slide1

Homeownership rates decreased for all age groups on a year-over-year basis. The homeownership rate for household heads younger than 35 years old (34.8%) decreased by 110 basis points from the second quarter of last year. The largest decline, however, was for those aged 35-44 (58%), with an annual drop of 220 basis points.

Slide2

The nonseasonally adjusted homeowner vacancy rate continues to drop after the Great Recession. The current homeowner vacancy rate is 1.8%, 10 basis points lower than last quarter and the second quarter of 2014.

The national rental vacancy rate remains relatively low and declined by 30 basis points to a 6.8% rate for the second quarter on a nonseasonally adjusted basis. The rental vacancy rate was 7.5% for the second quarter of 2014.

Slide3

The HVS also provides a timely measure on household formations – the key driver of housing demand. Although it is not perfectly consistent with other Census Bureau surveys (Current Population Survey’s March ASEC, American Community Survey, and Decennial Census), the HVS remains a useful source of relatively real-time data.

 

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http://eyeonhousing.org/2015/07/homeownership-falls-household-formations-rise/

Home price gains ease | Waccabuc Real Estate

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Home price gains ease

S&P/Case-Shiller’s 20-City index notched a 4.9% yearly gain in May, down only a tick from 5% in April but missing expectations of 5.6%. A national index covering all 9 Census divisions accelerated to a 4.4% yearly rise from 4.3%. The seasonally adjusted national index was unchanged during the month, while the 20-City index declined 0.2%. The 20-City index is 14% below its ’05 peak.

Read More At Investor’s Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/economy/072815-763737-economic-news-home-price-gains-ease-consumers-wary.htm#ixzz3hDDsiHd5

Homeownership rate drops to 48-year low | Cross River Real Estate

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The homeownership rate in the United States in the second quarter declined to 63.4%, the lowest it has been since 1967, according to data from the Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau.

Further, the steady decline since 2009 continues.

Click to enlarge

(Source: Census Bureau)

On a quarterly basis, the rate was 1.3 percentage points (+/-0.4) lower than the second quarter 2014 rate (64.7%) and 0.4 percentage points (+/-0.4) lower than the rate last quarter (63.7%).

For the second quarter 2015, the homeownership rates were highest in the Midwest (68.4%) and lowest in the West (58.5%). The homeownership rates in the Northeast, Midwest, South and West were lower than the rates in the second quarter 2014.

Click to enlarge

(Source: Census Bureau)

National vacancy rates in the second quarter 2015 were 6.8% for rental housing and 1.8% for homeowner housing.

“The flipside of such strong rental demand is that the homeownership rate fell once again in the second quarter,” said Ed Stansfield, chief property economist at Capital Economics. “This suggests that homeownership has not kept pace with the cyclical rebound in household formation which is now underway, and gives weight to the idea that first-time buyers in particular are still struggling to gain a foothold in the market.

“However, foreclosure rates are declining steadily, employment and incomes are growing at a healthy pace and credit conditions are gradually loosening,” Stansfield said. “What’s more, there is no evidence of a fundamental shift in homeownership aspirations. Accordingly, we expect that the homeownership rate will soon find a floor.”

 

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http://www.housingwire.com/articles/34596-homeownership-rate-drops-to-48-year-low

New Home Sales: Growth for FHA-Backed Mortgage Share | Katonah Real Estate

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NAHB analysis of the most recent Census numbers reveals two consecutive quarters of higher market share of FHA-backed mortgages for the new home sale sector. This development comes after a reduction in FHA premiums announced at the start of 2015.

qtrly new home sales_2q15

Despite the surprising drop for the pace of new home sales in June (down 6.8%), the strong non-seasonally adjusted sales level for April (revised to 50,000 homes) pushed total sales for the second quarter of 2015 to a post-recession high of 143,000. This is according to data from the Census Bureau’s Quarterly Sales by Price and Financing and NAHB calculations.

New home sales due to FHA-backed loans increased to a quarterly count of 100,000 and a market share of 16% for the second quarter according to the Census numbers. This is higher than the approximate share of 11% from a year prior.

It is worth adopting some caution associated with these estimates. In particular, the statistical error associated with the FHA, cash, and VA sales estimates from this data set are relatively high. This reduces the reliability of measures of short-term market changes.

Mindful of this limitation, the current FHA-share estimate is lower than the 28% share determined for the first quarter of 2010 but is higher than the 10% 2002-2003 average. The FHA share has fallen as the conventional financing share recovered. However, the share increased from 10% to 16% from the end of 2014 to the start of 2015.

 

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http://eyeonhousing.org/2015/07/new-home-sales-growth-for-fha-backed-mortgage-share/

New Jersey has the highest rate of foreclosures | Bedford Hills Real Estate

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While a “zombie foreclosure” may sound like something you would find on a particularly messy episode of The Walking Dead, the term actually describes a problem plaguing towns around New Jersey.

Of all the American homes currently in the foreclosure process, one in four were vacated by homeowners prior to a bank repossessing the property, according to RealtyTrac, a company that tracks national housing data.

RealtyTrac calls these zombie foreclosures. These houses sit abandoned, with the homeowners gone and the bank not yet in possession of the properties.

New Jersey has the highest rate of foreclosures — and zombie foreclosures — in the nation.

RealtyTrac reported in June that 17,000 of the roughly 70,000 homes in foreclosure in New Jersey in the second quarter of 2015 were “zombies.”

As many Gloucester County towns have seen, these vacant properties quickly fall into disrepair. As the grass grows out of control, so do many other issues. Abandoned houses become targets for vandalism, squatters and drug dealers. Many are targets for metal thieves, who remove copper piping, wiring and other goodies to sell to scrap dealers.

These situations endanger neighboring properties both by introducing safety issues and dragging down property values in the area. When no one is accountable for these properties, it’s often local taxpayers who pick up the tab for mowing the grass and dealing with any other maintenance issues.

The current estimate on the number of abandoned or vacant properties in Gloucester County sits at 3,300, according to county officials — about 3 percent of the county’s more than 110,000 housing units.

 

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http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/index.ssf/2015/07/south_jersey_county_tracking_abandoned_properties.html

Turkish housing prices rose by 18.6 percent year-on-year | Bedford Real Estate

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Housing prices in Turkey increased at a rate surpassed by only one other country in the world in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same period a year ago, the Global House Price Index published recently by the real estate consultation firm Knight Frank has revealed.

Turkish housing prices rose by 18.6 percent year-on-year in Q1 of this year, the second highest behind Hong Kong, where prices increased by 18.7 percent in the same period, based on provisional data. While Ireland saw the greatest increase — 16.8 percent — after Turkey, fourth place belonged to Luxemburg, where prices surged in value by 12.1 percent. Ukraine came last, with housing prices in the country dropping by as much as 15.5 percent in the first quarter compared to Q1 of 2014. Cyprus and China followed Ukraine with declines of 8.2 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively. Turkey tops the list in Europe.

The index uses official governmental statistics or central bank data where available.

Despite the recent surge in prices, sector representatives often warn that further appreciation may occur amid unfavorable market conditions. Issuing a written statement on Monday, Mert Yıldızhan, a board member at construction firm Elit Yapı, said consumers may have to allocate a larger budget for housing expenditures due to a weakening Turkish lira against the US dollar.

Underscoring that some construction projects contain imported materials amounting to 60 or 70 percent of all their inputs, the depreciation in Turkish lira-US dollar parity — 20 percent since January — is likely to be reflected in prices as of the autumn months. “The rise in the price of construction materials will prompt sector representatives running out of stocks on hand to move to increase prices. There are several imported items in the sector including paint, plastic joints, elevators and iron,” Yıldızhan said.

 

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http://www.todayszaman.com/business_turkish-housing-prices-show-second-greatest-growth-across-globe_394740.html

Strong Chicago housing sales in June | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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Chicago’s housing market continued its rebound last month as existing-home sales in the nine-county area grew 14.2 percent in June from last year — to their highest level since 2006.

Existing-home sales rose to 13,100 in June, the highest since June 2006, when 13,193 homes were sold, the Illinois Association of Realtors reported Wednesday.

Also fueling the rebound are median housing prices, which, at $232,500, were 5.7 percent higher than a year ago, the trade group said.

Homes sales in the city of Chicago surged 9.3 percent, to 3,110 properties moved, at a median price of $290,000, up 5.5 percent from a median price of $275,000 reported a year ago.

Median prices on condominiums in the city, however, grew at a slower pace, rising 4.5 percent from a year ago to $324,000. Inventory in the city remains tight, down 10 percent from last year.

The number of condo units sold rose 8.4 percent to 2,027 from a year ago.

The burst in home sales growth was unexpected last month and it could be just a “one-month blip,” said Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory at the University of Illinois.

“We forecasted positive sales growth but not of this magnitude,” he said adding, “We’re very hesitant to say that it’s the start of a robust trend.”

Nor does the report signal a bubble forming. Adjusted for inflation, “We’re only at 89 percent of 2007 prices,” Hewings said. “Our prices are recovering in a classic Midwest, modest way.”

Nationally, existing-home sales increased 3.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.49 million homes, putting sales at their highest level since February 2007’s 5.79 million, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The strong uptick in activity, as well as fewer cash sales, larger average loan sizes and more loans getting approved, has caused the Mortgage Bankers Association to significantly boost its outlook for mortgage originations that it made just a month ago.

Home-purchase mortgage originations are now expected to increase to $801 billion, compared to a previous forecast of $730 billion.

“We expect this trend to continue into 2016 and beyond, as the broader economy and job market continue to improve,” Mike Fratantoni, the association’s chief economist, said in a statement.

The association also said it expects mortgage rates to hit 4.5 percent by year’s end.

Helping keep prices high in the Chicago area is the lack of homes listed for sale. Housing inventory in most counties was down in June, with the exception of Lake and DuPage counties, where inventory rose 1 percent and 4 percent, respectively.

 

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-june-housing-prices-0723-biz-20150722-story.html