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Category Archives: Lewisboro
Mortgages One Of Bove’s Four Apocalyptic Risks For U.S | Cross River Homes
Recent news out of the home finance industry has been rather sombre.
The results of a survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that mortgage applications declined 7.2% in the week ending September 5, 2014 compared to the preceding week, as measured by the Market Composite Index which tracks mortgage loan application volume. On a seasonally adjusted basis this index was down 7.2% versus the previous week, and touched its lowest level since December 2000.
The above chart, courtesy of Mortgage News Daily, plots the Market Composite Index versus the 30 Year Fixed Mortgage. Note that mortgage volume as evidenced by the index has trended inversely to the 30 Year Fixed from 2010 through mid-2013. Subsequently, however, both have tended down as shown by the red arrows. That could be partly explained by the fall in refinance volumes, but other factors are probably at work, judging from a recent survey result from Fannie Mae.
“The August National Housing Survey results lend support to our forecast that 2015 will likely not be a breakout year for housing,” said Doug Duncan, senior vice president and chief economist at Fannie Mae / Federal National Mortgage Assctn Fnni Me (OTCBB:FNMA). “The deterioration in consumer attitudes about the current home buying environment reflects a shift away from record home purchase affordability without enough momentum in consumer personal financial sentiment to compensate for it. To date, this year’s labor market strength has not translated into sufficient income gains to inspire confidence among consumers to purchase a home, even in the current favorable interest rate environment.”
As a result, total home sales during 2014 may actually turn out to be lower than they were in 2013, primarily due to a weak performance the first half of the year.
read more….
http://www.valuewalk.com/2014/09/mortgages-fannie-mae/
5 Best Places to Hide Emergency Cash at Home | Katonah Real Esate
They call it saving for a rainy day, but when we wait for the rainy day before we begin saving, we’re left in a quandary if we need funds on hand in the event of an emergency. Personal finance experts suggest keeping a financial reserve of three to six months of living expenses at all times. But according to a recent poll by the nonprofit Corporation for Enterprise Development, 44 percent of Americans don’t readily have the liquid assets they need to cover surprise expenses — and even fewer people hold it in the form of that classic currency: cash.
In the event of some national emergency, major catastrophe or just a bad power outage, financial institutions could be rendered temporarily inoperable, as well as your ability to withdraw money or use your credit or debit card. Having some physical cash is practical, though you might hesitate to position any in your home since a suitable, theft-proof hiding spot is hard to find. The old money-taped-to-the-underside-of-the-toilet-lid trick doesn’t work. (Just like under your mattress, it’s one of the first places burglars look.)
Consider these unique and safe hiding places right in your own home to tuck your emergency savings fund.
1. Inside false infrastructure. Constructing fake fixtures around the house, like a drain pipe in the basement, return air vent in the living room or power outlet on a bedroom wall, gives the appearance of working household parts, but in fact, acts as a facade for hiding your emergency money inside. Some homeowners may need to be on the handier side for this idea, since it may involve some do-it-yourself drilling, fitting and securing. Too DIY intensive? Many online vendors sell installation-ready versions that double as light switches or electrical plates.
2. Buried outside. What better way to hide money inside your house than hiding it outside? Pick a reasonably conspicuous spot in your yard or garden to bury your money, and carefully protected, nobody will find it — except you, as long as you remember where you dug. Be sure not to leave your $20s, $50s and $100s uncovered, since the elements can decompose the paper over time. Instead, zip cash up in bags, put it in glass jars and/or wrap the bills in plastic or a small tarp. Unless would-be thieves have a shovel, light and plenty of time on their side, they’re unlikely to look in the ground.
3. Disguised and dispersed. Sometimes, hiding your money in less conspicuous places can be the most inconspicuous hiding spot that a thief might overlook. Are you a devout bibliophile? Hollowing out a book to stuff some bills into is an outdated method, but not for anyone with an extensive library of tomes floor to ceiling, where the “money book” is hidden among hundreds of other books and more difficult to find. What about hiding some cash in an envelope in a box of blank envelopes? Odds are the irony will be lost on a burglar with a low IQ. Money doesn’t have to be folded or stacked, either: It can be rolled into bike tires, curtain rods, hollow broom handles, table legs, or anything cylindrical that needs more than a bit of dismantling. (Remember, you don’t need to keep all your emergency money in one place, either.)
4. Sleeping with the fishes. If you own some pets of the aquatic kind, and their tank is large enough, roll your emergency proceeds securely in a solid color jar and hide it among the coral, seaweed, Atlantis ruins or behind the water filter — places that even the most concentrated, keen eye might miss. If that’s not opaque enough, go for an envelope wrapped in plastic, more plastic and a Ziplock bag, and place it flat at the bottom of the tank under colored gravel. Homeowners with a fish pond can do better by nestling a jar of money at the pond bottom, making sure it’s submerged and heavy enough to prevent flotation to the top. Don’t worry — the fish won’t tell.
read more…
http://news.yahoo.com/5-best-places-hide-emergency-cash-home-130600032.html
Teatown Lake News | #Katonah Real Estate
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Why the Housing Market Hasn’t Recovered From the Financial Crisis | #SouthSalem Real Estate
This month marks the sixth anniversary of one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of the U.S. economy.
Over the course of three weeks in Sept. 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were nationalized, Lehman Brothers filed bankruptcy, Bank of America agreed to acquire Merrill Lynch, the Federal Reserve bailed out AIG with an $85 billion loan, and the FDIC seized savings-and-loan giant Washington Mutual.
Had the financial crisis been a typical recession, it would have been long forgotten by now. But it wasn’t. And, as a result, we’re still living with the consequences.
Nowhere is this more apparent than the housing market. Even though soaring home prices have led some to proclaim a new bubble, the evidence is clear that the markets for both new and existing homes remain a fraction of their former selves.
The lack of demand for new homes
The natural place to start a discussion about the state of housing is the market for new homes. There are two reasons for this. First, new home construction is intimately intertwined with the demographics of the United States, fueled in large part by population growth and household formation. And second, the homebuilding industry is a critical component of the domestic economy.
Since 1950, residential investment as a share of gross domestic product has averaged 4.7%. Last year it was only 3.1%. That equates to an annual shortfall of $288 billion. If you add this back in, it’s projected that economic growth would jump to 4%, or nearly double that of the last few years, and that upwards of 1.5 million jobs would be created.
The main problem is that fewer homes are being built than at any time since 1960. When you factor in population growth and the need to demolish 300,000 dilapidated homes each year, it’s estimated that an average of 1.5 million homes must be built on an annual basis to keep up with long-term demand. Yet, in the six years since the financial crisis, we’ve averaged 727,000.
The drop originally appeared to be the result of past oversupply. From 2002 to 2006, homebuilders turned out almost 1.9 million units a year. This generated a cumulative surplus of almost 2 million new homes. If you do the math, however, this theory only accounts for the drop in construction through the middle of 2010. Since then, a cumulative deficit has emerged to the tune of 2.6 million units.
One explanation is that homeownership has lost its appeal. At the end of 2004, 69% of American households owned their home. The same figure today is 64.7%. Another answer is that fewer households are being formed each year due to the downbeat economy. Prior to the crisis, 1.35 million new households were created on an annual basis. Since then, the figure has fallen to 569,000.
VT housing prices remain below 2007 peak | Cross River Real Estate
Vermont is the only state in the nation with housing prices today less than they were 12 months ago. That’s according to data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the federal agency that regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
We should always take these types of data with several grains of salt. Nonetheless, it is worthwhile to use the FHFA data to see the general course of housing prices in Vermont. And the FHFA numbers show some interesting patterns.
For those old enough to remember, Vermont experienced a housing boom in the mid-and-late 1980s when house prices rose by 75 percent in just six years. By today’s standards, the actual prices people paid for houses look absurd. According to the 1980s Census, Vermonters who owned their own homes told the Census Bureau that their median house price in 1980 was $42,000. In the 1990 Census they reported a median price of $96,000 in 1990. (Today the median price is $216,000.)
Since 1980, the overall price level in the U.S. has nearly tripled, and it’s nearly doubled since 1990, so we need to look at housing prices in inflation-adjusted dollars. Even adjusting for inflation, housing prices rose by 44 percent during the 1983 to 1989 boom, meaning they increased that much faster than the average price of everything in the economy.
The 1980s housing boom was not too different from the more recent Vermont housing boom of the early 2000s. And Vermont did not escape the national housing boom. It did not experience the worst of it, which was in states such as California, Arizona, Florida, and Nevada. But prices in Vermont actually rose faster than the national average between 2000 and 2007.
read more…
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/money/2014/09/03/vermont-housing-prices-peak/15038887/
Company Restoring Egypt’s Oldest Pyramid Has Actually Made It Worse | #Katonah Real Estate
Egypt’s oldest pyramid, the Pyramid of Djoser, in the ancient burial ground of Saqqara, is looking a little worse for the wear. After more than 4,600 years in the desert, some of the stones have eroded or fallen away, a rising water table has weakened the bedrock below the tombs, and a 1992 earthquake put the structure at risk. Unfortunately, the company hired to restore the ancient pyramid starting in 2006 may have made it worse.
Activists tell the Egypt Independent that the company, Shurbagy, has continued working on the pyramid after overseeing its deterioration and partial collapse.
Activist Amir Gamal of the “Non-Stop Robberies” movement told Egypt Independent that “New walls were built outside the pyramid as if the pyramid were a modern construction, which is opposite to international standards of restoration, which prevents adding more than 5% of construction to antiquities if necessary.” He continued to say that “Adding the modern construction is a large pressure on the decaying pyramid, which threatens catastrophe.”
Built in the 27th century B.C. for Pharaoh Djoser, the 200-foot-tall step pyramid was designed by one of the earliest known architect-engineers in history, Imhotep. It’s considered the earliest example of large-scale construction with cut stone in the world, a major deviation from the low, flat-roofed, mud-brick design of earlier Egyptian burial sites. Archeologists have criticized Egyptian authorities for choosing Shurbagy to oversee the restoration, as the company had not previously completed any restoration projects.
read more…
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3035117/fast-feed/the-company-restoring-egypts-oldest-pyramid-has-actually-made-it-worse?partner=rss
Mortgage Rates Hold Steady | #Waccabuc Real Estate
reddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing average fixed mortgage rates holding largely steady for the third straight week amid light economic reports.
News Facts
- 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.10 percent with an average 0.5 point for the week ending September 4, 2014, unchanged from last week. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.57 percent.
- 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.24 percent with an average 0.5 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.25 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.59 percent.
- 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.97 percent this week with an average 0.5 point, unchanged from last week. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 3.28 percent.
- 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.40 percent this week with an average 0.4 point, up from last week when it averaged 2.39 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 2.71 percent.
Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining the mortgage. Visit the following links for the Regional and National Mortgage Rate Details and Definitions. Borrowers may still pay closing costs which are not included in the survey.
Quotes
Attributed to Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist, Freddie Mac.
“Mortgage rates were little changed amid a week of light economic reports. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate remained unchanged from the previous week at 4.10 percent. Of the few releases, the ISM’s manufacturing index rose to 59.0 in August from 57.1 the previous month. This was the highest reading of the index since March 2011.”
US pending home sales rebound | #Waccabuc Real Estate
US pending home sales rebounded last month to their highest levels in nearly a year, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday, in report providing further evidence of a steadying housing market.
The NAR’s pending home sales index surged 3.3 percent in July to 105.9, its highest level since August 2013.
The increase in the forward-looking indicator, which is based on contract signings, came in much stronger than expected. The average estimate was for a modest 0.5 percent rise.
Pending home sales have climbed in four of the past five months. The June decline in pending home sales was steeper than first thought, with the drop revised to 1.3 percent from 1.1 percent.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said that favorable housing conditions spurred increased contract activity last month.
“Interest rates are lower than they were a year ago, price growth continues to moderate and total housing inventory is at its highest level since August 2012,” he said.
“More importantly, steady job additions to the economy are helping family finances and giving them added confidence to enter the market.”
read more…
http://news.yahoo.com/us-pending-home-sales-rebound-142758667.html
4 charts show how even Realtors are losing confidence in housing | Katonah Real Estate
The July 2014 Realtor Confidence Index shows that Realtors aren’t enthusiastic about current conditions and the outlook for the next six months.
Concerns about federal regulations burdening the process, the drop in demand for middle and lower-cost homes, and rising affordability problems headlined their concerns.
Realtors reported some uptick in inventory in some areas, but generally, supply remained tight relative to demand in many areas, especially for “lower” and “middle-priced” homes, according to the July survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors.
Distressed sales continued to account for a smaller share of the market.
Realtors continued to report about the restrictive effects of the current credit conditions, especially in relation to the credit score and down payment requirements that will qualify buyers for a mortgage.
The home buying process was reported to be “long and difficult” even for “quality borrowers”.
Although the home price recovery has encouraged more listings, the strong price growth amid modest wage income gains has also made homes less affordable, creating a demand for lower-priced homes that are, unfortunately, in short supply.
read more….
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/31169-charts-show-how-even-realtors-are-losing-confidence-in-housing