The New York Times recently visited with North Salem resident David Letterman to discuss his new book, “This Land Was Made for You and Me (but Mostly Me).”
Letterman teamed up with illustrator Bruce McCall to create a book of satire that pokes fun at some fictitious habits of the cultural and financial elite.
The Times describes the book as a vehicle for some of Letterman’s ideas that he wouldn’t be able express on his late night talk show.
Though most observers forecast rising home prices would drive investors out of the market for single family rentals, that fact is that to date investors have purchased more homes than they did in all of 2012 or 2011.
Investors have purchased more than 370,000 properties so far in 2013, already more than in either of the previous two full years according to a new investor insight report released today by RealtyTrac.
The report also found that:
RealtyTrac’s report, Real Estate Investor Purchase and Finance Patterns: 2011 to 2013, looks at a number of investor habits relating to real estate purchases since 2011, including the volume of properties purchased, breakdown of cash versus financed purchases, property situation (distressed, non-distressed, underwater etc.), investor purchases by property value, and number of investor-purchased properties that have since resold.
“The new investor insight report is the first of its kind and offers customers an exclusive look into investor decision making that has never been done on this scale before,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “We examined in-depth a variety of factors from cash sales to lender financing that impact real estate investing and offers key insight that no one else in the market can deliver.”
This report features purchasing activity of real estate investors across the U.S., identifying key variables by state and quarter within the last three years. The report identifies an investor as any person or entity that purchased three or more properties within a 12-month timeframe and provides key insights into the transactions made by investors over this time period, which was marked by the U.S. housing market moving from full distress mode to full recovery mode including.
Key metrics covered by the Investor Insight report:
http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/10/investors-have-doubled-purchases-over-2012-or-2011/
he leaves are changing, the nights are crisp. In much of the world, gardeners are laying down their tools, cleaning up their gardens and perhaps breathing a sigh of relief that another gardening season has come and gone.
But the planting season isn’t over. Fall — particularly until late October in colder areas of the country and until November in the South — is the preferred time to plant many species of trees. Planting conditions are near perfect: The soil is warm, the sun isn’t too hot and there’s usually more rain. The weather that makes people say, “Fall is my favorite time of year,” is ideal for many newly planted trees, too.
Different types of trees prefer different living conditions. Not every tree should be planted in fall, of course. The reason is in the roots: Trees with larger, thicker roots that reach deeper into the soil, such as magnolias and oaks, are better off planted in spring. Trees best planted in fall, such as crabapples, maples, elms and honeylocusts, have fibrous root systems shallow enough to readily reach water and nutrients. This allows them to settle in and put out new root growth before the weather turns frigid.
It’s getting harder for many first-time buyers to afford a home in many markets across the country. The average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage has climbed 16% in the past year, at the same time that the median home price shot up 14%.
In the past couple of months, lenders say, buyers looking to lower their monthly payments have started inquiring about adjustable rate mortgages, those riskier mortgages often blamed for the housing bust.
“We are definitely seeing more interest in ARMs,” says Malcolm Hollensteiner, director of retail lending for TD Bank.
Can they be trusted this time around? Who should consider these loans, which vary in rate after an initial fixed period? And who should stick with the standard 30-year fixed-rate loans?
In this September installment of Buying Advice, we’ll school you on the pros and cons of today’s adjustable-rate mortgages, check in with the latest housing statistics and help you understand origination fees when shopping for a mortgage.
No place on the East Coast took a harder hit from last October’s Hurricane Sandy than the blue-collar neighborhood of Breezy Point, in Queens. When the storm surge swept over the low-lying streets, electrical power was still on—and soon, fires broke out. By the end of the night, nearly 130 houses burned. In all, some 350 houses were totaled by flood, fire, or both.
Nine months later, Breezy Point is far from recovering, reports the Huffington Post (“Breezy Point Sees Little Rebuilt After Devastating Superstorm Sandy Fire,” by Meghan Barr). “Rows of rectangular boxes sunk into the sand form a graveyard of wrecked homes. American flags waving feebly from the ground help mark where a street once existed,” the Post reports. “A perfect storm of government inefficiency, cumbersome permit laws, and general confusion has hampered the recovery effort in Breezy Point.”
The Wall Street Journal chimes in (“Recovery Is Choppy in Breezy Point,” by Josh Dawsey): “Some leaders and homeowners in Breezy Point, where all the homes are owned by a cooperative, said they had been stymied by city and federal rules.”
But the New York Daily News is focusing on success (“First new Breezy Point homes are starting to rise after Superstorm Sandy,” by Clare Trapasso) — highlighting the story of residents Rich and Tracy Whalen, whose modular house has just been set on a new poured concrete foundation. “The couple is racing against the clock to be in their two-story, three-bedroom modular home by Labor Day — right around the time their second child is due,” the paper reports. Whalen, a volunteer firefighter, told the paper, “This is our home. This is where we grew up. A little water’s not going to scare us away.”
For Christine and George Donley, an older couple, rebuilding is a hard slog — but they’re not giving up, reports NBC News: (“‘It will be beautiful again’: Breezy Point couple returns home, and recovers through rebuilding,” by Miranda Leitsinger). “Sixty-three years old sleeping on a mattress on the floor is tough,” Christine said as she presented the single habitable room of their Breezy Point home. “He sleeps on the couch, and this is where we live now.”
But Christine Donley’s determined: “”We will get through this,” she told NBC. “I am stronger than the storm. I am. It took me a long time to say that, but I said it the other night. I am stronger.”
Price rises in most parts of Britain’s economy are cooling but a red-hot property market is raising questions about whether the Bank of England will be able to keep rates low for as long as it would like.
Official data on Tuesday showed consumer price inflation slowed to 2.8 percent last month, moving closer to the central bank’s 2 percent target. However, house price inflation – which does not feed directly into the consumer price index – sped up.
A July survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors found the fastest growth in house prices since 2006. Official data showed house prices in London, which typically lead the rest of the country, jumped 8.1 percent in June compared with the same month a year ago.
Britain’s central bank pledged last week to keep rates at a record low until unemployment falls to 7 percent – something it does not expect to happen before 2016 – as long as this does not threaten inflation expectations or financial stability.
While the BoE’s new boss, Mark Carney, has played down concerns about rising house prices, signs the market is overheating could force the central bank to raise interest rates from their current 0.5 percent earlier than planned.
“The recovery in the UK housing market and rising house price inflation will simply add to the Bank’s concerns that it might need to nip any impending housing bubble smartly in the bud,” said David Brown at New View Economics.
“It is no surprise that the UK pound is starting to get a better spring in its step versus the dollar. The market is starting to get a strong whiff of an early rate rise.”
LOW FOR HOW LONG?
Sterling rose after Tuesday’s data as investors increasingly bet that the Bank of England would start raising rates in 2015 – a year before the BoE’s guidance suggests.
How much the other eight members of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee worry about house prices will become clearer on Wednesday, when minutes of this month’s policy meeting are published.
Analysts expect the vote to implement so-called forward guidance was unanimous, but reckon the knockout clauses allowing the Bank to raise rates earlier were included in order to keep the more hawkish members of the committee on board.
“We will look to the minutes to see how concerned some policymakers were about credibility, as well as further signs of controversy over the setting of the threshold level,” said Philip Shaw at Investec.
Britain is one of the few major Western economies facing the problem of above-target inflation but the BoE is confident that price pressures will ease over the next two years – although it has been wrong before. Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy costs, has already returned to 2 percent.
Property inflation, however, could be harder to tame.
The second phase of the government’s Help to Buy scheme – which offers state-backed mortgage guarantees – will come into force from January. Despite criticism from the International Monetary Fund, Britain’s Office for Budget Responsibility and a senior minister, the government has insisted the scheme will last for three years, as planned.
read more…
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/13/us-britain-economy-idUSBRE97C0I620130813
Measuring your startup’s Web analytics seems complicated enough. But with the rise of mobile-only users and visitors, there’s an added layer of complexity for startups to consider.
To figure out which tools are robust enough to handle both, I asked a panel of 9 successful entrepreneurs the following question:
Their answers are below:
1. Segment.io
We use Segment.io so that we can track analytics in a number of tools: Google Analytics, Mixpanel and KISSmetrics. We only have to implement the tracking of events on time from a development perspective this way. We tend to use Mixpanel to segment out the difference in usage between native mobile and Web browser usage across our user base.
– Danny Boice, Speek
2. TestFlight
We use TestFlight’s analytics package to monitor a variety of core mobile behaviors. This varies drastically from what we do on the website.
3. Google Analytics
With recent improvements to Google Analytics’ filters and segments, we no longer have any reason to use any other analytics program to track where visitors are coming from and what devices they’re using. For instance, you can filter mobile devices or go one step further and see who is using a tablet because Google Analytics now takes screen size into consideration.
Additionally, manufacturer model and marketing names have become available, so you’ll know exactly who is using an iPhone and who prefers Android. Using both filters and segments allows you to compare mobile to overall visitors.
4. Localytics
There is no substitute for Localytics when trying to turn your mobile data into information that will drive your business.
5. Geckoboard
For a while now, we’ve been using Geckoboard for monitoring a wide variety of analytics. One of our favorites is to monitor sign-up conversion rates from mobile. Although desktop users still sign up three to four times more than those browsing with mobile devices (especially true with smartphones), this trend is changing fast.
By tweaking our mobile experience and monitoring in real time how that affects our conversion rates, we are now able to understand much better which works and which does not.
– Juha Liikala, Stripped Bare Media
read more…
As the economic recovery has sputtered along in recent years, those looking for signs of progress have focused intensely on two metrics: the unemployment rate and housing prices.
Much of the investor optimism about the economy is now being fueled by various measurements showing housing prices surging across the country. Just this week CoreLogic, one of several real estate data providers that tracks home prices around the country, reported that prices rose 12.1 percent in April compared to the period a year ago.
The Triangle market, while not experiencing double-digit growth, is also seeing solid appreciation, according to CoreLogic. Home prices, including distressed sales, increased 4.4 percent in the Raleigh-Cary market in April while Durham-Chapel Hill market increased 5.3 percent.
It can be tantalizing to view these numbers as having the finality of a company’s stock price, with sellers assuming they will now be able to get X percent more for their home.
But, in the same way that a lower unemployment rate doesn’t necessary mean an unemployed person’s job prospects have improved, the reality is more complicated.
Real Deals: Home prices surge despite sluggish wage growth | Real Deals | NewsObserver.com.
Wade Corbett
A very wise man named Obi Wan once said: “I feel a great disturbance in the Force.” OK sure, it’s a Star Wars quote, and I’m talking about the housing market and not a metaphysical power, but the overall message still applies! If you pay close attention, you’ll notice the market has begun to shift. Depending on your area, you may be seeing a little change, or you may be seeing a lot of change already. The latest numbers reflect this positive upturn and show that real estate is drastically improving.
If you’ve been in this industry for the last six or seven years, you know that selling real estate takes a certain amount of hustle. When the market is less than stellar, you’ve got to work harder in order to keep business alive. Maybe you’ve had to hold your transactions together with duct tape to prevent them from falling apart. Or maybe you’ve been working 60 hours to do what 40 hours used to accomplish. Either way, kudos to you! But with the market springing back to life, does this mean an end to the “hustle era”?
Two weeks ago, I had the immense pleasure of addressing a class full of aspiring new REALTORS®. If I had given my speech in 2009, this class would have had 25-30 students in attendance. In 2013, the class consisted of 50-70 eager students, all scheduled to take their licensing exam the following week. As I addressed the students, I began to notice that a large majority of these future REALTORS® were very young! Why are these young people hoping to join the real estate sales force? I believe they know about the shift! They know the real estate marketing is going to gather steam, and they want to get in before things really start to pick up.
As the stock market, jobs, and overall economy continue to improve, the real estate market will inevitably follow suit. But is your business model prepared to handle the improving market demands? Do you have your systems in place to take on a larger work load while still trying to hold those difficult transactions together? You may want to consider tweaking the way you run your business to accommodate for the changes that are to come. Foresight is essential to success.
