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Home prices continue to rise | #Chappaqua Real Estate

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Home prices continue to rise from last year, according to the S&P CoreLogic, Case-Shiller Indices.

S&P Dow Jones Indices is a division of S&P Global, which provides essential intelligence for individuals, companies and governments.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, reported an annual increase of 5.1% in June, unchanged from the month before. The 10-City Composite increased 4.3%, slightly less that May’s 4.4% increase. Similarly, the 20-City Composite increased 5.1% annually, down from May’s increase of 5.3%.

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case-shiller

(Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices and CoreLogic)

Of those 20 cities, Portland, Seattle and Denver posted the highest annually gains over each of the last five months. In June, Portland increased the most at 12.6%, followed by Seattle at 11% and Denver at 9.2%. Overall, six cities reporter a higher price increase in June than in May.

“Home prices continued to rise across the country led by the west and the south,” says David Blitzer, S&P Dow Jones Indices Index Committee managing director and chairman. “In the strongest region, the Pacific Northwest, prices are rising at more than 10%; in the slower Northeast, prices are climbing a bit faster than inflation.”

“Nationally, home prices have risen at a consistent 4.8% annual pace over the last two years without showing any signs of slowing,” Blitzer said.

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case-shiller

(Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices and CoreLogic)

After seasonal adjustment, the National Index increased 0.2% monthly in June. The 10-City Composite and the 20-City Composite increased 0.1% monthly.

On the other hand, after seasonal adjustment, nine cities saw a decrease in home prices.

“Overall, residential real estate and housing is in good shape,” Blitzer said. “Sales of existing homes are at running at about 5.5 million units annually with inventory levels under five months, indicating a fairly tight market.”

“Sales of new single family homes were at a 654,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate in July, the highest rate since November 2007,” he said. “Housing starts in July topped an annual rate of 1.2 million units.”

 

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Case-Shiller: Home prices continue upward trend

Rates average 3.97% | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing mortgage rates mixed with the 30-year fixed-rate falling back below four percent to start the year.

News Facts

  • 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.97 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending January 7, 2016, down from last week when it averaged 4.01 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.73 percent.
  • 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.26 percent with an average 0.5 point, up from 3.24 percent last week. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.05 percent.
  • 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 3.09 percent this week with an average 0.5 point, up from last week when it averaged 3.08 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 2.98 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 link for theDefinitions. Borrowers may still pay closing costs which are not included in the survey.

Quote
Attributed to Sean Becketti, chief economist, Freddie Mac.

“Concerns about overseas economic developments have dominated financial markets to start the year. U.S. Treasury bond yields fell amidst a global equity selloff and flight to safety. In response, the 30-year mortgage rate dipped 4 basis points to 3.97 percent.”

Permits to build new homes increased 4.1% | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Permits to build new homes increased 4.1% in October to a level of 1.15 million per year. Both single-family and multifamily levels increased by 2.4% and 6.8% respectively. On a year-to-date basis, total permits are up 11.9%; single-family are up 8.6% and multifamily are up 17.2% as the housing market continues its modest pace of recovery.

Housing starts were down primarily due to a fall in multifamily activity which was up significantly in September and expected to readjust. October multifamily starts at 338,000 were the lowest since March 2015 but increased by 10.4% year to date compared to last year.

Multifamily Construction (000s)

Single-family starts were down 2.4% to 722,000 on an annual basis. Three of the four census regions reported slight increases while single-family starts in the South were down 6.9%. The drop appears to be due to especially stormy weather throughout the southern coast in October. Year-to-date single-family sums are up across all regions as are single-family permits suggesting that the slight October drop is temporary.

Single-family Construction (000s)
The steady increase in residential starts in 2015 has produced a steady increase in the number of homes under construction although carrying them through to completion slowed a bit as labor shortages, especially finishing carpenters, slow the ability to get finishing touches done.

 

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http://eyeonhousing.org/2015/11/housing-construction-continues-forward/

Forecasted Values in 17 Top Markets on Weiss Maps | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Here are 17 digital maps from the 100 million house database created by Allan Weiss, former CEO of Case Shiller Weiss.  Each house is a repeat sales index, which enables each index to anticipate values accurately up to 12 months in the future.

The colors represent month-over-month trends.  Red indicates depreciation, green appreciation and gray neutral.

A full set of 90 metros and 5500 Zip codes can be found on Weissindex.com and Owners.com.  Dynamic maps on the sites begin in 2006 and show changing values a month at a time.

Copyright Weiss Residential Research LLC. Provided by Owners.com.  Forecasted values have a margin of error of 3 ½ percent.

 

Atlanta July 2016

Atlanta

Chicago July 2016

chicag

Cleveland July 2016

cleveland

Denver July 2016

Denver

 

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http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2015/09/weiss-forecast-maps-of-top-markets/

Mortgage Modifications have changed | Chappaqua Real Estate

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There’s been a dramatic change in the assistance offered to struggling homeowners.

In February, 49% of borrowers with a loan backed by federally controlled housing-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac received modifications that only extended the length of their mortgage. That share was up 20 percentage points from a year earlier, according to a report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates the government sponsored enterprises. Over that same time period, the share of borrowers receiving a modification that combined an extended term with other actions, such as a rate reduction and principal forbearance, fell by 19 percentage points.

Similar trends are seen in quarterly data from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which publishes a snapshot of the U.S. mortgage market. According to the OCC, the chance that a modification included a term extension rose by 10% in 2014. Meanwhile, the likelihood dropped 15% for a rate reduction and 66% for a principal deferral.
The reason? The big rise in home prices since 2012.

“As the market improves, the number of borrowers who are in deep distress goes down, so the average modification tends to get lighter because they don’t need to provide as much relief,” said Jim Parrott, a former housing-policy adviser for the White House’s National Economic Council and a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank.

Also, as time has passed, the pool of borrowers who are eligible for the most rigorous modifications has narrowed.

Officials have tweaked mortgage-help programs since the bubble burst, including an important change in 2014 to enable borrowers with loan-to-value ratios under 80% to receive a GSE modification that will generally only extend the term of a mortgage. Thanks to rising home prices — they bottomed out in early 2012 and are now about 9% down from a bubble peak — owners have become increasingly likely to have equity.

“The practice of providing a modification to somebody with significant equity is fairly new,” said Julia Gordon, senior director for housing and consumer finance at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank in Washington. “The assumption in the past, pre-crisis, was if you get into terrible trouble with your mortgage, your solution was to downsize.”

 

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http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-changing-face-of-mortgage-modifications-2015-06-18?link=MW_Nav_NV

Come Have a Good Look at 2013’s Best Designer Dwellings | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

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1item1.rendition.slideshowWideVertical.timothy-corrigan-02-grand-salon-chateau-du-grand-luce.jpgPhoto by Eric Piasecki/Architectural Digest

This year shelter magazines tilled their terrain with many many a designer home—and why wouldn’t they? Parading the over-the-top digs of aesthetes whose entire lives drip with the glamour and point of view that made them gazillionaires is fascinating. More to the point, as much as any human’s habitat reflects his or her personal style, designers use their home to cloy the senses with their signature ballsiness—be it Ralph Lauren’s red, white, and blue tartan, Jonathan Adler’s pillows embroidered with with 1960s bouffant hairdos, or Orla Kiely’s groovy, ’70s inspired prints. These highlights (and so much more) below.

Photos by Roger Davies/Architectural Digest↑ Waldo Fernandez in Beverly Hills. Fernandez, a prolific Cuban-born interior designer, not only boasts Elizabeth Taylor, Jennifer Aniston, Sean Connery, and the Pitt-Jolie clan as clients, but also a SoCal a midcentury spread lacquered to a high shine and laced with contemporary art. After replacing the pool and adding a second-story bedroom suite, Fernandez called upon what Arch Digest calls his “perfectionist disposition” for the interiors, bringing in wenge-wood flooring, large doors “finished in exactly 17 coats of deep brown–black lacquer,” and a collection of carefully curated art and furniture. “I’m obsessed with keeping the house fresh,” he told AD. [link]

Photos by William Waldron/Architectural Digest↑ Jamie Drake in NYC. After spending years waiting for his two-bedroom unit in NYC’s Annabelle Selldorf-designed 200 Eleventh Avenue condo building to be finished—”it taunts me,” he said about the work-in-process in ’09—Drake, a big-name famed for his use of high-octane color, finally settled into his 3,000-square-foot apartment last year. Unsurprisingly, he took little time to swath it in the go-to garb—punches of bright hues, assertive art—that’s ensnared clients like Madonna and (outgoing) New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The home is also stuffed with pieces Drake designed, including the living room’s marble-and-granite table and his bed and headboard. [link]

↑ Howard Slatkin in NYC. In October, interior designer Howard Slatkin, who’s made a living off a layered more-is-more approach to florals, chintz, gilding, tassels, and chair skirts, released a monster tome all about a single 6,000-square-foot New York City apartment: his. Frustrated by the penchant of shelter magazines to breeze over the private, and possibly the most interesting, areas of a home—the pantries, the linen closets, the crowded, computer-topped desks—Slatkin opened up every cranny of his pad: the elevator vestibule, the back hall, the laundry area, and, duh, the “flower room” and “candle room.” For any other apartment, an editorial dive this deep would be silly, but for an apartment overflowing with ivory objets, curtains made of “17th-century Portuguese polychrome embroidered bedcovers,” French Chantilly plates, and—oh my—mahogany doors “embellished with Japanese lacquer panels inset in gild-wood frames, which are bordered with patinated mirrors,” 240 pages is really the only way to go. [link]

Exploring Fisher Island’s Historic, Restored Vanderbilt Mansion | Chappaqua NY Homes

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46 images

[Photos by Silvia Ros]

Last Thursday, the historic Vanderbilt Mansion on Fisher Island, heart of the Fisher Island Club, emerged from an extensive restoration, part of a $60 million upgrade of the hotel and club facilities, for a gala theme party like a grand, old dowager queen, pristine and glowing. The house was originally designed by Maurice Fatio for Rosamond and William K. Vanderbilt II, who famously traded Miami Beach developer Carl Fisher a yacht for seven acres of the island. The restoration is by Richard Heisenbottle, with interiors by Hirsch Bedner & Associates. Curbed photographer Silvia Ros checked out the restored mansion and grounds.

On that original seven acres, later extended to 13, Vanderbilt commissioned Fatio to design a somewhat small, but magnificent house, replete with many outbuildings including a cottage for his stepdaughter Rosemary and a large boat slip for his other yacht, the 264 foot long Alva, probably named after his mother, Alva. Vanderbilt would then name his Fisher Island estate Alva Base. Two more cottages were for the servants, a larger building housed the crew for the yacht, and finally there was an airplane hangar. The cottages now make up hotel rooms and suites, and the hangar is now the spa. · Fisher Island coverage [Curbed Miami] · Historic Vanderbilt Mansion gets a new life on ultra-private Fisher Island [Miami Herald

Homes That Might Be Trying to Tell You Something | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

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Remember the Virgin Mary in the grilled cheese? Or Mother Teresa in a cinnamon bun? And wasn’t there a Cheeto that looked like Abraham Lincoln? Or was that a McNugget? Anyway, humans see faces everywhere. It’s a phenomenon called pareidolia: interpreting a random stimulus as being more significant than it really is.

Food visions aside, architecture is rife with face-like imagery. The abundant shapes and symmetry can easily form what looks like two eyes, a mouth and sometimes a nose.
The funny thing is, once you notice these faces, it’s impossible to ever look at a house the same way again. Just look at the smirk on this window’s face. Shameful!
Nooooo! Come back! You’ve left me naked and stone cold out here!
Hey, you, somebody, anybody. I’d kill for a glass of that scotch over there.
Come in, dear. Don’t you look ravishing. Let my Bette Davis eyes watch over you while you do your toilette.
Did you say you’re here to reclaim my reclaimed barn wood?
What’s happening over there? No, not another turkey, please. It’s too big. Help!

Guards Raise Indian Point Security Concern | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Several former and current security guards raised concerns about the state of security at Buchanan’s Indian Point Nuclear Facility in a recent Fox 5 report.

Guards falling asleep on the clock, failed drills and faulty computer systems are just some of the problems the five current and former security guards spoke about with Fox 5.

 

 

http://chappaqua.dailyvoice.com/news/guards-raise-indian-point-security-concern-fox-5-report