5 Great Tax Breaks for Homeowners | Cross River Real Estate
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Deliquency, Foreclosure Rates Welcomed Back To Pre-Crisis Levels | Cross River NY Homes
The end of 2013 showed broad improvements in delinquency and foreclosure rates, dropping to their lowest levels in six years, reports the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) in its Q4 2013 National Delinquency Survey.
The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties decreased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 6.39% of all loans outstanding at the end of the fourth quarter of 2013 – the lowest level since the first quarter of 2008.
The delinquency rate decreased two basis points from the previous quarter and 70 basis points from one year before. (The delinquency rate includes loans that are at least one payment past due but does not include loans in the process of foreclosure.)
The percentage of loans in the foreclosure process at the end of the fourth quarter was 2.86%, down 22 basis points from the third quarter and 88 basis points lower than one year before. This was the lowest foreclosure inventory rate seen since 2008, the MBA notes.
The non-seasonally adjusted percentage of loans on which foreclosure actions were started during the fourth quarter decreased to 0.54% from 0.61% – a decrease of seven basis points and the lowest level since 2006.
The serious delinquency rate, the percentage of loans that are 90 days or more past due or in the process of foreclosure, was 5.41% – a decrease of 24 basis points from last quarter, and a decrease of 137 basis points from the fourth quarter of the year prior.
http://www.mortgageorb.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.15065
Historic Cliff-Top Victorian on the Maine Coast Asks $6.75M | Cross River Real Estate
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Location: Seal Harbor, Maine Price: $6,750,000 The Skinny: Overlooking the Atlantic Ocean from atop the pink granite cliffs on the south end of Maine’s Mt. Desert Island, the evocatively named Ravenscleft has stood watch for more than 100 years. The Shingle-style Victorian was designed by noted Boston architectural firm Peabody and Stearns, a pair perhaps best known today for municipal structures like Boston’s Custom House Tower, but who were also prolific residential architects in their day. They designed luxury homes up and down the Eastern seaboard in the late 1800s and early 1900s, including the original Breakers in Rhode Island and George Carnegie’s Plum Orchard estate on Cumberland Island, Georgia. Ravenscleft, whose long history allegedly includes playing host to Teddy Roosevelt in 1909, has recently been modernized, with an elevator and generator among the added amenities. The six-bedroom house, which is asking $6.75M, also features formal living and dining rooms, a library, an updated kitchen, and absolutely stunning ocean views.
http://curbed.com/archives/2014/02/18/historic-clifftop-victorian-on-the-maine-coast-asks-675m.php
Room of the Day: A Maine Guest Cottage Steeped in Charm | Cross River Real Estate
Refinances continue to drop, meaning good news for REITs | Cross River Homes
The Refinance Index fell 0.2% (from 1,693 to 1,690), as rates fell 2 basis points. Refinances have been dropping like a stone, as the people who have equity in their homes have already refinanced and the ones left with high rates are underwater.
The MBA reported that the share of refinance applications fell to 61.5%. Going forward, home price appreciation will drive refinance activity as previously underwater homeowners eventually get back to positive equity and take advantage of lower rates. Slowing refinance activity will be a negative for originators like PennyMac (PMT) and Redwood Trust (RWT). It has already taken its toll on Nationstar (NSM), which reported disappointing earnings
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/refinances-continue-drop-meaning-good-170008664.html
Ask Stacy: What’s the Best Way to Pay Off My Mortgage Early? | Cross River NY Homes
This week I’m answering three questions with a common thread. They’re from readers interested in ditching their mortgage ASAP.
Question No. 1:
Could you go over some different ways to pay off your mortgage early? I am retired and have a fixed income, and would like to retire the debt on this house. I make an extra payment a year, and tried to do a 15-year fixed, but the costs to get the APR down to a reasonable rate drove the mortgage back up to my original loan amount. I felt that I was starting all over again. Thanks. — Richard
Question No. 2:
I have a mortgage loan at 2.75 percent with a variable interest rate (that adjusts) every year, with 11 years remaining. I am making an extra payment of $100 every month. Can you help me lower my interest or years left? Thanks. –Fernando
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ask-stacy-best-way-pay-160035947.html
5 Essential Steps to Success in Social Media Marketing | Cross River Realtor
Social media accounts for 27 percent of all time spent online and has become a popular way for customers to discover and research brands, and for marketers to reach out to potential customers. 93 percent of marketers currently say they use social media for business, and in 2013 there was a surge in popularity of new networks like Pinterest, Vine, and Instagram. This year, expect more sites, specifically Google+, to gain additional traction and become a people’s daily lives. Before businesses jump into social media, here are the five essential steps to success in social media marketing.
1. Start with a Plan
1 in 4 small businesses have no strategy in place for social media marketing. If a business wants to be successful in driving sales and leads from social, they need to have a clear digital strategy that incorporates social media.
Each social network has different audience demographics, so businesses should strategically choose which outlets to utilize based on their target customers. Examples of demographic differences include:
- 67 percent of people online use Facebook, making it the top social network
- Facebook users are 60 percent female
- The average Twitter user is a 28-year-old woman
- Instagram users are most likely to be between 18 to 29
- Pinterest skews heavily female, with 80 percent of users being women
- Pinterest attracts women with more education and higher income
Think about your customer by outlining the personality types that are likely to purchase your product or service, including overall lifestyle, and add value for them online.
Once the appropriate social channels selected, take a look at what is working for competitors, and start to create a content calendar. This helps businesses organize, plan ahead and stick to a regular social content schedule.
2. Create Quality Content
Quality content engages audiences, is shared across multiple platforms, and garners more interest in a brand. It also makes a difference when it comes to SEO.
So what it quality content? It is:
- Informative
- Sharable
- Actionable
- Relevant to the target audience
Here is an example of quality social media content from Tic Tac.
Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/02/10/5-essential-steps-to-success-in-social-media-marketing/#Rb7CM695FryTslY1.99
How to Bring Out Your Home’s Character With Trim | Cross River Homes
China’s housing market is looking ugly | Cross River NY Real Estate
China’s surging property market might finally have hit the skids.
Sales have “showed a sharp decline” (paywall) in January, compared to Dec. 2013, according to China Confidential, a Financial Times research outfit, even when controlling for softness due to the Chinese New Year holiday. Official data show prices still high in December (the last month for which data were available), but those will likely be dragged down in the coming months.
A big blow to global markets
Housing investment is a big engine of China’s economy. And though slower growth could help end China’s dangerous reliance on credit-backed investment, an abrupt slowdown will freak out global markets and throttle commodity prices.
Devastating for China’s financial system
Property-sector loans accounted for one-third of total loans last year, equaling $380 billion. A slowdown would mean that real estate developers, many of whom borrow through shadow finance channels, would struggle to pay back retail investors who effectively loaned to them via wealth management products (more on those here). A lot of that investment has flowed one way or another through China’s shadow banking system, the unregulated credit that allows banks to shunt loans to dodgy borrowers.
But the threat to China’s financial system is much broader than that. Untold billions in corporate borrowing are supported by property used as collateral. There’s a cottage industry of auditors willing to appraise unoccupied or under-development property at whatever value is deemed necessary to get a bank manager to extend a loan. (In many cases, the borrower will turn around and lend to another business at a higher interest rate.) The fact that prices keep going up means there’s nothing challenging those face-value assumptions. A slump in prices would put a big dent in the value of that collateral.
London housing market showing ‘bubble-like’ conditions | Cross River Real Estate
London’s housing market is beginning to show “bubble-like conditions” as overseas investors bid up prices and buyers take on more debt to purchase properties, according to a report today by the EY Item Club.
Homeowners are now borrowing as much relative to their income to purchase real estate in the UK capital as they were before the financial crisis, the London-based economic forecaster sponsored by EY, formerly Ernst and Young, said.
The average London home will cost about £600,000 by 2018, it estimates. It is around £404,000 now, according to the land registry. Prices across most of the UK “remain well below their pre-crisis peaks and there seems little danger of a bubble,” Andrew Goodwin, senior economic adviser to the EY Item Club, said in the report.
“But London, which is suffering from a combination of strong demand and a lack of supply, is increasingly giving us cause for concern.”
Surging London home prices, buoyed by demand from overseas investors and government initiatives to aid buyers, have prompted economists, analysts and politicians to warn of unsustainable gains. Asia has been a particularly strong source of demand for the best London properties, EY Item Club said, citing brokers.
Investors from countries such as China and Singapore are taking advantage of the pound’s depreciation since the financial crisis to buy London homes.