Tag Archives: Cross River Luxury Homes

Homeownership rate drops to 48-year low | Cross River Real Estate

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The homeownership rate in the United States in the second quarter declined to 63.4%, the lowest it has been since 1967, according to data from the Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau.

Further, the steady decline since 2009 continues.

Click to enlarge

(Source: Census Bureau)

On a quarterly basis, the rate was 1.3 percentage points (+/-0.4) lower than the second quarter 2014 rate (64.7%) and 0.4 percentage points (+/-0.4) lower than the rate last quarter (63.7%).

For the second quarter 2015, the homeownership rates were highest in the Midwest (68.4%) and lowest in the West (58.5%). The homeownership rates in the Northeast, Midwest, South and West were lower than the rates in the second quarter 2014.

Click to enlarge

(Source: Census Bureau)

National vacancy rates in the second quarter 2015 were 6.8% for rental housing and 1.8% for homeowner housing.

“The flipside of such strong rental demand is that the homeownership rate fell once again in the second quarter,” said Ed Stansfield, chief property economist at Capital Economics. “This suggests that homeownership has not kept pace with the cyclical rebound in household formation which is now underway, and gives weight to the idea that first-time buyers in particular are still struggling to gain a foothold in the market.

“However, foreclosure rates are declining steadily, employment and incomes are growing at a healthy pace and credit conditions are gradually loosening,” Stansfield said. “What’s more, there is no evidence of a fundamental shift in homeownership aspirations. Accordingly, we expect that the homeownership rate will soon find a floor.”

 

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http://www.housingwire.com/articles/34596-homeownership-rate-drops-to-48-year-low

Why Our Credit Scores Are Improving | Cross River Real Estate

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As of March 2015, credit scores have never been higher! In fact, The Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that the average credit score was 699. It is even predicted that if present trends continue, the average credit score could cross the 700 threshold within coming months.
The increase in the average credit score can benefit consumers by increasing their flow of credit. This in turn encourages more people to apply for new credit. Additionally, with increasing scores, banks are more willing to lend to the consumer.
Before 2008, getting approved for a new line of credit or for a loan from a bank was relatively easy. However, after the banking crisis, this ‘easy credit’ that consumers were so used to changed drastically. Banks were no longer willing to give out loans unless borrowers had a stable income they could document and could afford the loan they were applying for. This forced consumers to reduce their bad debt by deleveraging and to start paying attention to how credit scores work.
Some articles suggest that increasing credit scores are due to time frames that have gone by since the banking crisis. A recent article in Forbes stated that since the crisis occurred in 2008 and negative information on credit comes off after 7 years, this is why credit scores will continue to rise. There may be a certain amount of individuals that have seen higher scores due to time passing from the crisis, but many began experiencing losses years after the crisis hit and continued to have damaged credit. Individuals lost employment as well as their homes over many years, so it is highly doubtful that scores are on the rise due to the time passing from the banking crisis and the time frames for negative information to remain on credit.
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northshoreadvisory.com

Rotterdam to consider trialling plastic roads | Cross River Real Estate

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Dutch city could be first to pave its streets with recycled plastic bottles, a surface claimed to be greener, quicker to lay and more reliable than asphalt

Plans unveiled for recycled plastic roads are being considered by Rotterdam city council.
Plans unveiled for recycled plastic roads are being considered by Rotterdam city council. 

 

The Netherlands could become the first country to pave its streetswith plastic bottles after Rotterdam city council said it was considering piloting a new type of road surface touted by its creators as a greener alternative to asphalt.

The construction firm VolkerWessels unveiled plans on Friday for a surface made entirely from recycled plastic, which it said required less maintenance than asphalt and could withstand greater extremes of temperature– between -40C and 80C. Roads could be laid in a matter of weeks rather than months and last about three times as long, it claimed.

The company said the environmental argument was also strong as asphalt is responsible for 1.6m tons of CO2 emissions a year globally – 2% of all road transport emissions.

Rolf Mars, the director of VolkerWessels’ roads subdivision, KWS Infra, said: “Plastic offers all kinds of advantages compared to current road construction, both in laying the roads and maintenance.”

The plastic roads are lighter, reducing the load on the ground, and hollow, making it easier to install cables and utility pipelines below the surface.

Sections can be prefabricated in a factory and transported to where they are needed, reducing on-site construction, while the shorter construction time and low maintenance will mean less congestion caused by roadworks. Lighter materials can also be transported more efficiently.

Mars said the PlasticRoad project was still at the conceptual stage, but the company hopes to be able to put down the first fully recycled thoroughfare within three years. Rotterdam, a keen supporter of sustainable technology, has already signalled its interest in running a trial.

Jaap Peters, from the city council’s engineering bureau, said: “We’re very positive towards the developments around PlasticRoad. Rotterdam is a city that is open to experiments and innovative adaptations in practice. We have a ‘street lab’ available where innovations like this can be tested.”

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/10/rotterdam-plastic-roads-trial-netherlands

Employment Situation in June for Housing | Cross River Real Estate

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Strong job gains in April and May were revised downward by 60 thousand and the unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage points based on a reversal of the labor market expansion in May. Overall, the employment situation in June was decent, but the recovery from the weakness in March was less vibrant than originally estimated.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that payroll employment expanded by 223 thousand in June. This brings average monthly payroll gains to 208 thousand in the first half of 2015 compared to 239 thousand in the first half of 2014 and 260 thousand for all of 2014. The unemployment rate dropped to 5.3% in June from 5.5% in May despite a decline in employed persons in the household survey and based on a reduction in the labor force of 432 thousand. The labor force expanded by 397 thousand in May.

blog emp 2015_06

 

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http://eyeonhousing.org/2015/07/

Mortgage Rates at 4% | Cross River Real Estate

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Freddia Mac today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing average fixed mortgage rates moving lower from the previous week’s new highs for 2015 while housing data was generally positive.

News Facts

  • 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.00 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending June 18, 2015, down from last week when it averaged 4.04 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.17 percent.
  • 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.23 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 3.30 percent.
  • 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.53 percent this week with an average 0.2 point, unchanged from last week. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 2.41 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 theRegional and National Mortgage Rate Details and Definitions. Borrowers may still pay closing costs which are not included in the survey.

Quotes
Attributed to Len Kiefer, deputy chief economist, Freddie Mac.

“Mortgage rates were down this week while housing data were generally positive. Although housing starts dropped 11.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted pace of 1.04 million units in May, housing permits surged 11.8 percent to its highest level since August 2007. Reinforcing this positive momentum, the NAHB housing market index rose 5 points in June, suggesting home builders are very optimistic about home sales in the near future.”

Own the Original Lease for Andy Warhol’s First NYC Studio | Cross River Real Estate

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[159 East 87th Street photo via PropertyShark]

In the early 1960s, Andy Warhol, pop art icon and then-Upper East Side resident, was beginning to outgrow his workspace in his home on Lexington Avenue, so he did what anyone else would do: he wrote a letter to the city and asked if he could rent an old fire house on East 87th Street. The city agreed, and gave Warhol run of the space for just $150/year. It became Warhol’s first ever studio in New York City, and now the lease that Warhol signedis going to hit the auction block at part of Sotheby’s inaugural New York Sale. The faded, torn document, signed on December 10, 1962, is a one-of-a-kind artifact from Warhol’s life, and it’s expected to sell for $8,000 to $12,000—a downright steal compared to how much one could pay for a piece of Warhol’s art.

 

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http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2015/03/24/

North American Passive Building Standard Introduced | Cross River Real Estate

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To adapt the European Passive House standard to North American markets, PHIUS (Passive House Institute US) will launch the new PHIUS+ 2015 passive building standard on March 25 at Seattle’s Bullitt Center.

The event, cosponsored by PHIUS/PHAUS, the passive building research institute and alliance, and Sam Hagerman, past president of PHAUS and owner of passive builder Hammer & Hand, marks implementation of the new energy performance targets in the PHIUS+ project certification program. PHIUS+ is the leading passive building certification program in North America.

“For years we have worked to increase awareness and market penetration of the passive building concept in North America,” said Hagerman. “The new PHIUS+ 2015 standard is a giant leap in this process.”

Executive Director Katrin Klingenberg will will give a brief overview of the impetus for the new standard, as well as a capsule summary of what’s new and what’s better.

Klingenberg said that “PHIUS+ 2015 gives designers and builders a powerful new tool: A building energy performance target that’s in the “sweet spot” where cost effectiveness overlaps with aggressive energy and carbon reduction. As such, it promises to ignite tremendous growth in the application of passive building principles.”

Formally known as PHIUS+ 2015 Passive Building Standard: North America, the standard is the product of nearly three years of research conducted by the PHIUS Technical Committee in partnership with Building Science Corporation under a U.S. Department of Energy Building America grant. The effort employed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s BEopt tool (a cost-optimizing software tool) to develop optimized design guidelines for use in North America’s wide-ranging climate zones.

Passive building has gained great attention in recent years because of its potential for reducing carbon levels and mitigating climate change, for comfort and resiliency, and for saving energy costs in general. But the adoption of passive principles—superinsulation, airtight envelope, energy recovery ventilation, e.g—has been slower than hoped because of cost and other disincentives.

The new formula and standards remove those obstacles. In addition, passive building is increasingly being adopted as a platform for achieving Net Zero or Net Positive buildings—by reducing building energy requirements from the start, it brings those targets well within reach. The U.S. DOE recognized the synergy between Net Zero and passive building by partnering with PHIUS from 2012 onward. Buildings that earn PHIUS+ certification also earn the U.S. DOE’s Zero Energy Home Ready label. Since the partnership, PHIUS+ certifications have increased exponentially, and the new standard promises to not only sustain but also dramatically increase that growth.

 

 

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http://www.proudgreenhome.com/news/phius-to-launch-north-american-passive-building-standard/

Buy an Abandoned Key West School | Cross River Real Estate

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Key West’s Jeptha Vinning Harris School was “built as one of the first schools in Florida” in 1905. It was dedicated in 1909, and served as Key West’s elementary school until the last class graduated in 1986 (it also served as a high school until 1915, when another school was built). Then it was “used as the district’s alternative school site and as an office for various social service and government offices”, although in reality it was mostly abandoned. A developer bought it from the school board in 2009 for $4.25 million, and apparently did little with it, and now the old school, which, although the listing photos don’t include any interiors, appears hardly changed over the years, is back on the market for$12.5 million. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, both floors have original 14 foot ceilings, lots of wood, and grand staircases.

 

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http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2015/03/10/abandoned-key-west-school-listed-for-125-million.php

U.S. Housing Stability Improves for Fourth Consecutive Month | Cross River Real Estate

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Freddie Mac today released its newly updated Multi-Indicator Market Index® (MiMi®) showing the U.S. housing market continuing to stabilize at the national level for the fourth consecutive month. Thirty-eight of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, and 40 of the 50 metros, are now showing an improving three month trend. Three additional metros entered their benchmarked stable ranges of housing activity including Buffalo, Boston and Nashville.

News Facts:

  • The national MiMi value stands at 74.9, indicating a weak housing market overall but showing a slight improvement (+0.37%) from November to December and a positive 3-month trend of (+1.09%). On a year-over-year basis, the U.S. housing market has improved (+4.41%). The nation’s all-time MiMi high of 121.7 was April 2006; its low was 57.2 in October 2010, when the housing market was at its weakest. Since that time, the housing market has made a 31 percent rebound.
  • Sixteen of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia have MiMi values in a stable range, with the District of Columbia (97.6), North Dakota (97.2), Montana (91.1), Hawaii (89.9) and Wyoming (89.1) ranking in the top five.
  • Eleven of the 50 metro areas have MiMi values in a stable range, with Los Angeles (86.4), Austin (86.3), San Jose (83.9), Houston (83.3), and Pittsburgh (83.3) ranking in the top five.
  • The most improving states month-over-month were Delaware (+1.87%), Michigan (+1.28%), North Carolina (+1.18%), Oregon (+1.18%) and Texas (+0.85%) On a year-over-year basis, the most improving states were Nevada (+19.87%), Colorado (+11.42%), Rhode Island (10.52%), Illinois (+10.14%), and Ohio (+9.27%)
  • The most improving metro areas month-over-month were Detroit (+1.40%), Tampa (+1.28), Kansas City (+1.13%), Louisville (+1.12%), and Charlotte (1.04%). On a year-over-year basis the most improving metro areas were Las Vegas (+19.76%), Denver (+12.14%), Chicago (+10.93%), Providence (+10.35%) and Columbus (+9.36%).
  • In December, 38 of the 50 states and 40 of the 50 metros were showing an improving three month trend. The same time last year, 47 states plus the District of Columbia, and 47 of the top 50 metro areas were showing an improving three month trend.

Quote attributable to Freddie Mac Deputy Chief Economist Len Kiefer:

“Housing markets are getting back on track. The national MiMi improved for the fourth consecutive month. Nearly 80 percent of the state and metro housing markets MiMi tracks are improving or in their stable range of activity. We’ve even seen the MiMi purchase application indicator increase 0.07 percent on a year-over-year basis. Low mortgage rates and moderating house price growth are helping to keep payment-to-income ratios favorable for the typical family in most of the country. In fact, Los Angeles is the only metro market with an elevated MiMi payment-to-income indicator whereas most other markets remain quite affordable. And of course, labor markets are generally improving.

“As we mentioned last month, we’re keeping an eye on markets with deep ties to energy. We’ve seen some deterioration on a month-over-month basis in some of these energy markets. For example, Louisiana has seen its state employment situation deteriorate over the last several months. A declining employment indicator has caused its MiMi score to move from 86.7 in April down to 80.2.”

The 2015 MiMi release calendar is available online. The February release of MiMi includes revisions to the Purchase Applications indicator based on the latest The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data.

MiMi monitors and measures the stability of the nation’s housing market, as well as the housing markets of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the top 50 metro markets. MiMi combines proprietary Freddie Mac data with current local market data to assess where each single-family housing market is relative to its own long-term stable range by looking at home purchase applications, payment-to-income ratios (changes in home purchasing power based on house prices, mortgage rates and household income), proportion of on-time mortgage payments in each market, and the local employment picture. The four indicators are combined to create a composite MiMi value for each market. Monthly, MiMi uses this data to show, at a glance, where each market stands relative to its own stable range of housing activity. MiMi also indicates how each market is trending, whether it is moving closer to, or further away from, its stable range. A market can fall outside its stable range by being too weak to generate enough demand for a well-balanced housing market or by overheating to an unsustainable level of activity.