In some housing markets, all-cash deals still rule

Buying a home? You still have to compete against the big money bringing all-cash. But it's getting a little easier.

All-cash deals made up 38% of all home sales in the second quarter, according to RealtyTrac, down from 42% in the prior quarter.

One reason is that big institutional buyers, those buying at least 10 homes a year, are finding fewer deals.

They accounted for 4.7% of all homes sold, down from a peak of 6% in 2013.

As the housing market recovered, these investors were buying up homes in deeply troubled markets, like Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Those bulk buys helped to reverse the slide in home prices.

But now, home prices are up more than 20% from their 2012 lows.

This has created a "classic good news/bad news scenario" for the housing market, said Daren Blomquist, a spokesman for RealtyTrac.

The good news is that first-time homebuyers have more of a shot. The bad news is that some of them may already be "priced out of the market," said Blomquist.

Cash buyers are much more attractive to sellers because they know the investors are able to act quickly and that the sale will almost certainly go through.

There are still plenty of markets where cash rules.

In Las Vegas, a recent spike in defaults has sparked an increase in cash sales to more than 50% of all home sales. Detroit, Kansas City, Cleveland and Philadelphia all had at least 45% of sales in cash.

Cities attractive to foreign investors are also seeing a lot of cash exchange hands. In the Miami metro area, with its huge demand from Latin Americans, a whopping 64% of sales were all cash. Other Florida cities like Orlando, Cape Coral, Sarasota and Tampa scored nearly as high. In New York, 48% of sales were cash.

Original CNN Article

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Real Estate Firm Achieves National Ranking

The largest real estate firm in terms of local agents in Southeastern, NC is also one of the top-selling franchises of its kind in the nation.

Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage announced this week that it ranked No. 2 out of about 1,300 Coldwell Banker franchises in the nation for total units sold in the second quarter of 2014 and No. 3 in the nation for adjusted gross commissions, according to national Coldwell Banker corporate numbers.

Since 2012, the local agency has ranked among the top five Coldwell Banker franchises in the U.S., and in 2013, it was the No. 3 Coldwell Banker franchise in the nation in gross commissions and No. 4 in units sold, officials said.

“We pride ourselves on being the No. 1 real estate company in southeastern North Carolina, and it is extremely gratifying to be recognized nationally as well,” said Tim Milam, president of Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage, which has 375 agents in 11 offices in Wilmington, Leland, Jacksonville, Carolina Beach, Topsail Island, Hampstead, Southport, Sneads Ferry, South Brunswick, Oak Island and Holden Beach.

Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage closed more than $1.1 billion in home sales in 2013.

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Millennial-driven housing boom coming

The Millennials who for years have been holed-up in their childhood homes, won't be there forever.

They really do want to move out, according to a study by Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, and by 2025 could form 24 million new households.

Some 11 million recent grads were living with a parent in 2012, according to Pew. The homeownership rate for those under age 35 was 36% in the first three months of 2014, down from a high of 43% in 2005, according to the Census.

Three main factors have been holding them back, said the Harvard study: A weak job market for recent graduates. Student loans. And tight lending standards.

But as the economy turns around, the obstacles have begun to fall.

"When the job market recovers and their income recovers, they are going make their mark on this housing market," said Christopher Herbert, research director at the Harvard division, in a panel discussion following the release of the Harvard report.

Buying by Millenials should give a boost to the overall housing market.

"If somebody wants to move up from a starter house to a larger house, they need someone to sell the starter house to," said Mike Calhoun, the president of the Center for Responsible Lending, at the panel.

The report pointed out that some factors could restrain household formation. Despite economic news improving, Millennials face only slow economic gains. Unemployment is falling, but wage growth has been persistently stagnant. Plus, Millennials must still confront increasing student debt burdens and tight lending standards.

Instead of a mass exodus from their parents' homes, the authors said Millenials' might just trickle out, mirroring what Herbert called the economy's "steady, slow recovery."

The report also pointed out that borrowers of color, who are expected to see demographic growth that could help drive household formation and building, face mortgage denials at far higher rates than white counterparts, which might well imperil a housing surge.

Original CNN Article

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How much house can you afford?

Great Calculator to determine your home affordability!

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New Gandy road extension expected to ease Southport traffic congestion

Relief for the parade of frustrated drivers who sit in traffic on Howe Street and N.C. 211 could soon be en route, as the City of Southport announced Tuesday that the planned extension of Rob Gandy Boulevard from N.C. 87 to East Leonard Street will now begin. 

 

The city’s board of aldermen met in special session Tuesday afternoon to unveil the private-public partnership endeavor that could be completed within three to four months.

 

The project is a major collaboration between the city, the N.C. Department of Transportation, local legislators, adjacent property owners and Capital Power, a biomass power generation facility on Powerhouse Drive, off Leonard Street. 

Mayor Robert Howard praised each of the entities during the meeting, and announced that Capital Power had agreed to donated between $1-million and $1.1-million towards the effort, fully financing the road portion of the project. Additionally, DOT has awarded the city a grant of $180,000, which will go toward the $196,000 needed for intersection improvements.

“A second entrance into Southport has often been talked about over the years,” Howard said. “As everyone knows, it will deliver the radical improvement needed to get traffic moving. The completion of this additional roadway will provide a much-needed relief for our city, and our friends living on Jabbertown Road.”

During a summit meeting held in May 2012 between the city, legislators and DOT, Howard was notified that it would be 2021 or 2022 before the road would qualify as a project under the state’s transportation improvement plan and operating budget. Howard said at the time he felt that would not be soon enough to solve congestion problems plaguing the area.

“On behalf of the board, we wish to thank Michael Lee, our transportation board member, DOT’s Division 3 engineer Karen Fussell, and Rep. Frank Iler and Sen. Bill Rabon for their support of this venture,” Howard said. “This was truly a group effort to make it happen.” 

Howard praised the role of facility plant manager Dave Groves and Capital Power for their contributions. 

Once the road extension is constructed, city and company officials are hopeful that truck traffic that currently utilizes Jabbertown Road to transport fuel to the facility will be eliminated.

“Traffic and road safety is a priority for Capital Power and it’s important to us to minimize disruptions to our neighbors,” Groves said. “That is why we are developing this road. A good happy community is a great benefit to us.”

The city also reached out to adjacent property owners Cameron Smith, Howard Lee and Aleyah Muhammad, all of whom Howard said gave easements to the state and city. 

Original Article from State Port Pilot

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House hunting? Download these apps first

From enabling us to virtually walk through an open house to instantly learning about the social scene in a neighborhood we're thinking about moving to, a new generation of apps and other technologies are taking the real estate shopping experience to the next level.

"There's been a revolution in innovation," said Alex Perriello, CEO of Realogy Franchise Group, which sponsored a conference last month showcasing several new real estate technologies.

Matterport, of Mountain View, Calif., recently unveiled 3D Showcase, which produces high-quality, 3-D images of homes that can be embedded in online listings. Users can virtually walk room-to-room, behind sofas, around beds and past corners. 

Then, at a click of a button, walls peel away revealing a photographic image of the house with all the spaces exposed. The 3D image can be rotated, turned and zoomed in on.

Matterport's CEO, Bill Brown, said that until now, listing sites usually contained slideshows of photos but, "There was no context to the space as a whole."

Furniture can be erased, leaving empty space behind. Or, it can be replaced with other furniture to re-stage rooms. Homebuyers can see what the place would look like after they buy it and put in the sofas, chairs and table they choose.

"This takes the dreaming part of house hunting and takes it to the next level," said Sherry Chris, CEO of Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate.

Meanwhiles, to avoid crowded open houses where you can't get an answer to your questions, or agents who are unfamiliar with the property, a company called BrightDoor is offering Beamly.

It uses small Bluetooth-enabled devices located throughout the home to send home shoppers information via their mobile phones or other devices. When a buyer goes into the kitchen, for example, they can learn more about the appliances or wood cabinet options available to them.

With Boston-based CO Everywhere, users with Bluetooth-equipped mobile devices can draw boundaries around interactive maps of neighborhoods they are looking to move into and the site will display an array of local social media content from Twitter, Instagram and Facebook from that area. It also posts local Meetup events and deals and coupons from local businesses through sites like YipIt.

"It's like the NSA for real estate," said Tony Longo, CEO of CO Everywhere.

Longo drew a two-block area of Greenwich Village in New York and found 49 people he could connect with at that moment. "The social intelligence that comes out of an area can be rich," he said.

Zumper, which specializes in rentals, has produced the Zumper Pro app that enables agents to quickly create new online listings in a matter of minutes. Using their smartphones or tablets, agents can take photos, write descriptions and fill in details, such as the number of bedrooms, baths and square footage.

Then, even before they leave the apartment, agents can post the listing online and send alerts to prospective renters with the app that a new place is on the market.

CNN Real Estate Article

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One in three Americans are spending too much on rent

One out of three Americans now live in a housing market where rent for a three-bedroom home eats up more than 30% of the monthly median income, the traditional threshold for affordability, according to RealtyTrac. And in some cities, residents are doling out a much larger percentage of their paychecks.

n New York City's borough of the Bronx, the typical household spends nearly 66% of their monthly income to rent a three-bedroom house -- by far the highest percentage of any U.S. county, RealtyTrac found.

Related: How far will your salary go in another city?

With an overall median income of less than $35,000, not only does the Bronx contain some of the nation's poorest communities, but average rent is high at nearly $1,800 a month.

Similar trends are occurring in other cities that are home to large pockets of low-income residents. Renters in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Baltimore and Miami are paying nearly 50% of their income toward rent, RealtyTrac reported.

The foreclosure crisis turned millions of former homeowners into renters, while years of economic uncertainty has kept many would-be buyers from leaving their rentals and making the leap into home ownership, according to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies.

That has created big demand for rental housing and has helped push rents more than 21% higher since the housing market peaked in 2006.

Meanwhile, renters have been getting squeezed on another front: Real income -- income after inflation is taken into account -- has fallen some 14% over the past six years, according to Chris Herbert, the research director at Harvard's housing studies center.

In a report released in December, the center found that nearly one in four renters were devoting more than 50% of their income toward rent, forcing some to make "dire" cutbacks in spending on food, health care and retirement.

When housing becomes this unaffordable, it starts holding people back, said Laura Bailey, the managing vice president of community development at Capital One. It can prevent a person from taking a lower paying job that offers more opportunity for advancement or from pursuing a degree that will enable them to enter a higher paying profession, she said. It can also inhibit them from saving money for a down payment on a home.

"When they get affordable housing, their lives can take an entirely different, more productive path," she said. 

Original Article

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