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Armonk Luxury Real Estate

Existing home sales stay in winter slump | Armonk NY Homes

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Existing-home sales slowed again in February, falling to their weakest pace in 19 months.

Last month’s seasonally adjusted annual sales rate was 4.6 million, down 0.4% from the previous month, the National Association of Realtors said. January’s sales rate was down 5.1% from December.

Cold weather, limited supplies of homes on the market and higher interest rates than a year ago have held back the real estate market over the fall and winter months.

The sales rate has been trending lower since last July, when it peaked for last year at 5.38 million.

Sales of single-family homes also are lower. Last month, they fell 0.2% from January’s level and 6.9% from a year ago.

The harsh winter’s impact showed in last month’s sales by region. The annualized rate of sales fell 11.3% in the Northeast and 3.8% in the Midwest, but rose 5.9% in the West and 1.5% in the South.

NAR said higher prices and restrictive mortgage lending standards are also affecting the sales. Many first-time buyers have been priced out of the market. They accounted for 28% of February’s sales, down from 30% a year ago, 32% in 2012 and 34% in 2011.

“Some transactions are simply being delayed, so there should be some improvement in the months ahead. With an expected pickup in job creation, home sales should trend up modestly over the course of the year,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/03/20/feb-existing-home-sales/6632595/

3-D models vs. Craigslist ads | Armonk NY Homes

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1. To help prospects “envision life” at a beachfront lot he’s representing, Larry Revier, an agent at Florida brokerage Re/Max Preferred, commissioned an architect to produce a 3-D model of a home that could be built on it, and wove the model into a video tour.

2. While Trulia, Zillow and other sites may have stolen a bit of its thunder, old-timer Craiglist can still prove to be a fruitful marketing tool, said Amy Gerrish, managing Realtor at The Phoenix Metro Group.

Gerrish recently sold a home to a buyer who learned about it through a Craigslist ad she posted. “They called my buyers’ agent directly to schedule a showing,” she said.

– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2014/03/03/3-d-models-vs-craigslist-ads/?utm_source=20140303&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyheadlinesam#sthash.PEpDXBPf.dpuf

5 Ways to Sell Your Home Faster This Spring | Armonk NY Homes

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A polar vortex may still have much of the country singing the winter blues, but real estate experts say it’s not too early to prep for – the busy spring and summer selling season.

Sellers who get their homes listed early in the season actually have a better shot at closing a deal and doing so at a better price. While peak season varies by region, home asking prices peak nationally in May and inventory peaks in the summer – but buyers tend to start searching for homes as early as March, according to Trulia data.

“Buyers wake up from hibernation before sellers do,” says Trulia housing analyst Jed Kolko. “Sellers who list earlier may get higher prices and face less competition.”

 

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/5-ways-sell-home-faster-180600658.html

Is real estate still a good buy? | Armonk Real Estate

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Buying a home is no longer a no-brainer, whether you are buying as an investment or to live in it.

That is the message to draw from current measures of value in many metropolitan markets.

The fundamentals have changed from six months ago, when some economists and analysts said that low prices and low mortgage rates made it a great time to buy a home in most of the U.S.

The latest thinking is a reflection of how far and how fast home values have climbed. In the year ended in November, home prices rose 14%, as measured by the most-recent S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite index.

Some markets, such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco, saw prices rise by more than 20%.

In general, “you can’t buy now and expect a big gain,” says Morris Davis, an associate professor in the real-estate department at the University of Wisconsin’s business school in Madison. “There’s more risk than there was.”

One widely tracked measure of housing costs is the average national home price divided by the average rent. That ratio stood at 14 in the third quarter, according to Moody’s Analytics, using the most recent data. That is above the average ratio of 12 between 1989 and 2003, which is considered a “normal,” preboom home market.

 

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/real-estate-still-good-buy-193500720.html

Owners again borrowing against homes as housing market recovers | Armonk Homes

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Retired aerospace engineer Owen Klasen was rejected last year when he sought  a second mortgage to paint and re-roof his house.

Home prices hadn’t risen enough, the loan officer told him.

But last month, the same loan officer offered him more than  double the credit he needed.

“I told him I needed $25,000” on a home equity line of credit, said Klasen,  who lives in Fillmore in Ventura County. “He said we were qualified to go up to  $60,000.”

Klasen is among a wave of homeowners in California and nationally who are  again putting their homes in hock — despite the costly lessons of the housing  meltdown.

After a home equity credit binge during the housing bubble, banks shut off  the tap as home prices plummeted. Sobered homeowners stopped viewing equity as  free money for cars, vacations and college educations.

But now second mortgages are back in vogue. Homeowners in the six-county  Southern California region took out 47,542 home equity lines of credit last year — 48% more than in 2012, according to research firm DataQuick. The median credit  line was $100,000.

The same trend is taking hold nationwide. Bank  of America, for instance, saw its home equity business surge 75% last year  compared with 2012, said Matthew Potere, who oversees home equity lending for  the Charlotte, N.C., giant. In the fourth quarter, BofA issued $1.9 billion in  new home equity credit lines, up from $1 billion a year earlier.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-home-equity-20140219,0,1496901.story#ixzz2ty5oOA3k