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North Salem NY

Reese Witherspoon Is Girl Next Door With Third Brentwood House | North Salem Real Estate

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Source: IMDb

Source: IMDb

If you live in Brentwood Circle, there’s a good chance Reese Witherspoon is the girl next door. With two existing homes in the neighborhood, the Oscar-winning actress has purchased another for $3 million.

The ranch-style home is described by the listing agent as an “enchanted cottage” that’s “warm and inviting.” With a glass art studio and hillside gardens, the home offers a retreat from downtown L.A.

It isn’t surprising Witherspoon would choose a getaway outside the city center — her Ojai ranch provided the feeling of being in the country while only an hour removed from Los Angeles. And, with a recent trip to jail on a disorderly conduct charge, the actress is likely looking to steer clear of the paparazzi.

It also isn’t surprising Witherspoon bought a few houses down from her existing property; celebs have a track record for hopping around the same neighborhood or owning several properties within the same ZIP code. Actress Kate Hudson is known for buying a $5.8 million home next door to her longtime Pacific Palisades residence, and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison also recently added to his collection of homes on Malibu’s “Billionaires’ Row.”

While celebs typically move up with successive home purchases, however, Witherspoon paid less for this property than her two other Brentwood homes. It’s also the smallest of the three, measuring 3,053 square feet

 

 

http://www.zillowblog.com/2013-05-07

US home prices up 9.3 pct., most in nearly 7 years | North Salem Homes

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U.S. home prices rose 9.3 percent in February compared with a year ago, the most in nearly seven years. The gains were driven by a growing number of buyers who bid on a limited supply of homes.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index increased from an 8.1 percent year-over-year gain in January. And annual prices rose in February in all 20 cities for the second month in a row.

Phoenix led all cities with an annual gain of 23 percent in February. Prices jumped nearly 19 percent in San Francisco. In Las Vegas, home prices increased 17.6 percent and in Atlanta they rose 16.5 percent.

Eleven of the 20 cities reported price gains in February compared with January. Those monthly numbers are not seasonally adjusted and reflect the slower winter buying period.

The index covers roughly half of U.S. homes. It measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The February figures are the latest available.

Steady hiring and near-record low mortgage rates are driving up demand, helping sustain the housing recovery that began last year. Buyer traffic was 25 percent higher in March than it was a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors.

 

 

http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com

Construction Spending, ISM Index, ADP Payroll, Mortgage Purchase Applications | North Salem Real Estate

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In each Economic Update, the Research staff analyzes recently released economic indicators and addresses what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update discusses construction spending, the ISM index, ADP payroll figures, and mortgage purchase applications.

 

  • A stream of fresh economic data appears on the first day of every month. Here is a quick summary of today’s data and what it may mean to you.
  • Construction spending on residential buildings rose, but activities on new commercial buildings and government-funded projects declined. This means there is and will be more construction job opportunities for homebuilding.
  • The manufacturing sector is barely holding on. The ISM index, which measure activity in this sector, fell for the second consecutive month. The latest reading of 50.7 is only marginally above the critical 50 mark, which separates expansion and contraction. This means job gains in the manufacturing sector will slow or even possibly reverse in a few months.
  • ADP, a company that processes payroll checks for many firms, revealed 119,000 net new jobs in April in the private sector. This data has smaller coverage than the official employment data from the government, which is scheduled to come out this Friday. This likely means that official job gains will be comfortably positive, but the job creation pace is still not strong enough to meaningfully bring the unemployment rate down.
  • Mortgage applications for a home purchase fell slightly, though are up by 13 percent from one year ago. Applications for refi rose and are up 31 percent from one year ago. This means that home buying demand remains strong, but mortgage brokers need to prepare for a potentially sharp decline in mortgage refi activity in 2014.
  • Finally, the big cities are creating jobs. The L.A.-Santa Ana region added 116,000 net new jobs in the past 12 months. The Greater New York City area put 106,800 new people to work. However, La-La land and the Big Apple have huge populations so the job growth rates were only in line with the national pace. Dallas and Houston are the true stars. Dallas added 101,000 net new jobs in the past 12 months, while Houston put 102,300 more people to work. These Texas job growth rates were triple the national job growth rate. This means there will be greater housing demand per each REALTOR® in Texas versus other parts of the country.

 

 

 

http://economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org/2013/05/01

How to Herd Cats on Twitter | North Salem Realtor

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If there is one thing you have to love about Twitter is that sometimes it seems like the “Wild West”. Untamed but with many opportunities.How to herd cats on Twitter

At other moments it feels like you are herding cats.

A chaotic stream of tweets that have no apparent organisation, theme or filters.

Wikipedia says this on herding cats:

“An idiomatic saying that refers to an attempt to control or organize a class of entities which are uncontrollable or chaotic. Implies a task that is extremely difficult or impossible to do, primarily due to chaotic factors.”

Now doesn’t that sound like Twitter?

It is trying to make sense of its chaos, embracing a jumble of jellyfish or throwing a net over a swarm of bees.

Always fun, sometimes dangerous but with a lot of potential.

Twitter has its own rhythm

Facebook is filtered for family and friend fun. Google+ is like Twitter on intelligence steroids…. Long form content preferred, geeky and very visual….with an overdose of males from Silicon Valley.

Well… what about Pinterest?…..It needs no explaining, just pin your image and let it speak its thousand words.

And Instagram?
Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/#fdqVDq4OumJ51rAX.99

Wall Street banks on distressed single-family homes | North Salem NY Real Estate

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Wall Street investors, hedge funds and other institutions are crowing out individuals home buyers because they are drawn by the prospect of double-figure profit margins on rents and the resale of homes whose prices plummeted in the crash. 

If the chain of easy credit and dangerous leverage that started on Wall Street fanned the housing bubble and eventual crash, some analysts find it disturbing that major investors are the ones snapping up the bargains — and eventual big profits — left in its wake.

“There is the possibility that Wall Street and the banks and the affluent 1% stand to gain the most from this,” said Jack McCabe, a real estate consultant. “Meanwhile, lower-income Americans will lose their opportunity for the American Dream of building wealth through owning a home.”

via housingwire.com

Renters Fade as Recovery Takes Hold | North Salem NY Real Estate

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With home sales reaching multi-year highs and prices outpacing expectations in the first quarter, the housing recovery is restoring public confidence in homeownership and raising questions about the future demand for expansion of single and multi-family rental capacity.

Even though first-time home buyers are frustrated by difficulties getting financing and meager inventories of entry-level homes for sale, the robust recovery seems to be changing public attitudes towards homeownership.

In its quarterly forecast last week, Fannie Mae’s economists projected that existing-home sales, which were up 9.4 percent last year, will grow by an additional 6.9 percent this year, to 4.98 million homes, compared to last month’s projection of a 10.5 percent jump this year, to 5.15 million homes. They estimated existing-home sales will rise 5.5 percent in 2014, to 5.26 million homes, compared to last month’s prediction of a 6.2 percent rise.

via realestateeconomywatch.com

SoCal home sales reach six-year high | North Salem Real Estate

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February home sales in Southern California reached their highest point in six years, according to a recent report from DataQuick.

While the median sales priced inched down slightly from January, it was up nearly 21% from a year earlier, representing the 11th straight month in which the median has shown growth year-over-year, according to DataQuick.

Down 0.7% from 16,058 sales in January, total sales in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties reached only 15,945 in February. This was up 1% from 15,780 sales in February 2012.

February sales totaled 17,680 units, the highest recorded level since February of 2007. However, sales last month were still 9.9% below the February average of 17,696 sales.

“Our January and February stats certainly indicate housing remains a big target for investors. But typically those two months don’t offer much insight into how the market will behave the rest of the year,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president.

Walsh says March and April will offer a better view of how broader market trends are shaping up this year.

“One of the real wild cards will be how many more homes go up for sale,” Walsh said. “More people who’ve long been thinking of selling will be tempted to list their homes at today’s higher prices. Fewer people will be underwater and therefore could at least break even on a sale. Some investors who’ve held for a while will consider cashing in. A meaningful rise in the supply of homes on the market should at least tame price appreciation.”

via housingwire.com