Tag Archives: Chappaqua NY Real Estate

Chappaqua NY Real Estate

Home prices post biggest gains in over 6 years | Chappaqua Homes

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Home sold in south Denver in March 2012.(Photo: David Zalubowski, AP)

 

U.S. home prices jumped by the most in 6½ years in December, spurred by a low supply of available homes and rising demand.

Home prices rose 8.3%in December compared with a year earlier, according to data Tuesday from CoreLogic, a real estate data provider. That is the biggest annual gain since May 2006. Prices rose last year in 46 of 50 states.

 

Home prices also rose 0.4%in December from the previous month. That’s a healthy increase given that sales usually slow over the winter months.

Steady increases in prices are helping fuel the housing recovery. They’re encouraging some people to sell homes and enticing some would-be buyers to purchase homes before prices rise further.

 

Higher prices can also make homeowners feel wealthier. That can encourage more consumer spending.

Most economists expect prices to keep rising this year. Sales of previously-occupied homes reached their highest level in five years in 2012 and will likely keep growing. Home builders, encouraged by rising interest from customers, broke ground on the most new homes and apartments in four years last year.

Ultra-low mortgage rates and steady job gains have fueled more demand for houses and apartments. More people are moving out into their own homes after doubling up with friends and relatives in the recession.

At the same time, the number of previously-occupied homes for sale has fallen to the lowest level in 11 years.

 

“All signals point to a continued improvement in the fundamentals underpinning the U.S. housing market recovery,” said Anand Nallathambi, CEO of CoreLogic.

The states with the biggest price gains were Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, California, and Hawaii. The four states were prices fell were Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The housing recovery is also boosting job creation. Construction companies have added 98,000 jobs in the past four months, the best hiring spree since the bubble burst in 2006. Economists forecast even more could be added this year.

Housing has been a leading driver of past recoveries. But the bursting of the housing bubble pushed a flood of foreclosed homes on the market at low prices. That made it hard for builders to compete.

And a collapse in home prices left millions of homeowners owing more on their mortgages than their houses were worth. That made it difficult to sell.

Now, six years after the bubble burst, those barriers are fading. Some economists forecast that housing could add a point or more to economic growth this year.

 

via usatoday.com

 

Condo association can recover for damage caused by guest | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

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Q: I own a townhouse that I rent out. The rules of the association make owners responsible for damage that is done by themselves, guests or renters. Our renter had a guest who was involved in a robbery attempt at the complex; he damaged a sign and light pole, but he escaped and the police haven’t been able to find him or the owner of the car he was driving. Now the association is trying to get me to cover the repair costs. Can the association do this? –Alex B.

A: Your association’s rules are common and legal. You are responsible for common-area damage you might cause, and if you invite people to your home, you likewise become responsible for the damage they might cause. The same is true for renters. Because they stand in your shoes, if they cause damage, you are ultimately on the hook.

This doesn’t mean, however, that you cannot attempt to recoup any money you pay the association by looking to the real cause of the damage: your guests, your renters or your renters’ guests. That would require a lawsuit if the responsible party doesn’t pay up. Meanwhile, the association will have been paid by enforcing its rule, and if you don’t comply, it will take whatever actions its rules provide for when members fail to make good on financial obligations.

Sometimes, an insurance policy can cover the costs of these mishaps. If, for example, you accidentally hit a sign while backing out of your driveway, your auto insurance would cover; and the same is true for your renters and their car insurance. Or, if the renters damaged association property by accidental misuse (of a meeting room, for instance), their renters insurance would cover (assuming they had the “liability” part). Even a guest’s accidental damage of association property, in a non-auto situation, might be covered by that guest’s own homeowners or renters policy.

via inman.com

Wall Street bonus woes slam NY housing market | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Wall Street’s bonus blues are holding back Big Apple home prices.

While the housing market is on the mend and every other major metro area is on the upswing, New York stands out as the sole city to see an annual price decline, according to Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller index released yesterday.

Home prices in the New York area were down 1.2 percent in November compared to a year ago — the only decline out of the 20 metro areas tracked by the closely watched index.

By comparison, home prices on average were up 5.1 percent from a year ago nationwide.

David Blitzer, chairman of S&P’s Index Committee, singled out the city’s shrinking financial sector as one reason it is lagging the rest of the country.

“Financial services is not in the best shape, and that has put a damper on the home prices and how people view job growth,” said Blitzer.

In fact, Wall Street bonuses have been shrinking ever since the financial meltdown.

Bonuses paid out this year are expected to decline, after falling 13.5 percent last year for work done in 2011.

“If it’s a good year for bonuses, it’s a good year for people selling real estate,” Blitzer said.

And for at least some of the well-heeled Gucci loafer set, who typically drive real-estate values in the city, bonuses could be off as much as 35 percent, according to Wall Street recruiters.

The office of New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’ estimates that the Street’s base salaries fell 9.5 percent to $362,000 last year, from $400,000.

Job growth in the Big Apple also has been relatively flat, with just about 500 jobs added in the securities sector over the past year, according to the Independent Budget Office.

That follows several rounds of deep cuts across the securities industry since the financial meltdown.

During the height of the crisis, some 140,000 jobs were lost, IBO data shows.

New York home prices held up far better than those in other major metro areas during the crisis, and the city wasn’t nearly as hard-hit as financially overheated areas like Phoenix and Atlanta, a spokeswoman with Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office noted.

The index does not factor in co-ops and condos and covers territory including Long Island, Westchester and Northern New Jersey.

Median home prices within the city’s five boroughs stand at $445,000 and $380,000 in the broader New York metro area, while national median is closer to $175,000, according to Moody’s Analytics data.

Pay within the five boroughs on average is $61,0000 and $68,000 in the broader New York area, while the national average is $53,000. according to Moody’s.

New York’s housing market is very sensitive to the metro economy, said Michael Zoller, an economist at Moody’s Analytics.

“If the metro economy isn’t producing high-paying jobs, nobody’s going to be able to pay high real-estate prices,” Zoller aid.

via nypost.com

Local foreclosure activity dropped in December | Chappaqua Real Estate

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There were 265 foreclosure deeds recorded in Massachusetts during December, a 65 percent decrease from the number recorded in the same month a year ago, the Warren Group said Monday.

Foreclosure deeds represent completed foreclosures. The first step in the foreclosure process is a foreclosure petition.

In December, 835 foreclosure petitions were started in Massachusetts, down 17 percent on a year-to-year basis, said the Warren Group, a Boston firm that tracks real estate activity.

For all of 2012, the number of completed foreclosures in Massachusetts dropped by nearly 13 percent to 7,424, the Warren Group said in a press release.

Timothy M. Warren Jr. Photo taken from the Warren Group’s website.

But the number of foreclosure petitions started in the Bay State increased by more than 35 percent to 17,152. In 2011, there was a big drop in petitions as lenders slowed the process as their procedures came under scrutiny.

“Foreclosure activity nationwide is declining, and Massachusetts is following the same path,” Warren Group chief executive Timothy M. Warren Jr. said in a statement. “Deeds were down for the year, petitions declined for the past two months, and I think that will continue.”

Timothy Warren added: “Foreclosures have been trending down for several years now. A robust real estate market will ensure that this trend continues in 2013.”

via boston.com

 

U.S. home prices crawl upward | Chappaqua Realtor

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U.S. home prices continued to inch their way up, showing a 0.5% increase from October to November, according to the latest Lender Processing Services home price index.

Home prices grew 5.1% year-over-year, based on LPS’s analysis of homes in 15,500 ZIP codes.

The LPS HPI is a study of non-distressed home sales and discounts the influence of REO sales and short-sale transactions.

The average price for a home sold in the U.S. in November reached $207,000, dropping from a peak of $266,000 in June 2006, but up from $197,000 in November 2011.

The states that saw the greatest price appreciation in the report were Florida (prices up 1.5%); New York (prices up 1.1%); Washington D.C. (prices up 1.0%); and Georgia, Minnesota and Nevada (all up 0.9%).

Conversely, Rhode Island and Massachusetts both saw negative monthly movement, dipping 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively.

Individual metros that saw strong price gains included Chicago (prices up 0.7%), Dallas (prices up 0.3%), Los Angeles (prices up 0.8%), New York (prices up 1.0%) and Washington (prices up 0.5%).

Click on the table below to see the recent HPI changes.

 

 


Jonathon Weiner, vice president of research & development at LPS Applied Analytics believes the upward trajectory of home prices will continue throughout the year.

“Given the duration and strength of the recent upturn, and the absence of any obvious short term cause, it is probably related to a fundamental demand for housing,” said Weiner. “While there are any number of external events which could yet impact home prices, barring any unseen developments, we expect this trend to continue through 2013.”

 

via housingwire.com