Real Estate Information

Since the housing bubble burst, it seems like everyone and their mother can’t stop talking about what a great time it is right now to buy a home, but how good is itreally? After years of seeing home prices drop like flies and rental markets tightening up better than pair of Spanx, it’s safe to say that homeownership is very affordable almost everywhere. In fact, it is now cheaper to buy than to rent in 98 of the 100 most populous metros – including (shocker!) pricey places to live like New York, Los Angeles and Boston.

Says who you ask? Our Trulia’s Winter 2012 Rent vs Buy Index – that’s who!To give you a little bit of background, this Index is what we use to figure out whether buying a home or renting in a given metro is easier on the pocketbook. To do this, we look at asking prices for rentals and homes for-sale on Trulia.com while also factoring other costs like taxes, insurance and maintenance, etc.

Click here to view the full-size interactive graphic.

Just see for yourself. After ranking all the metros (marked as dots in the chart below) in order of where buying is most expensive relative to renting, notice that the two metros at the top of the list —Honoluluand San Francisco — are no where close to being orange, let alone being in the red (read: renting is cheaper relative to buying). At best, they are a nice mustard yellow, which means that the asking price between renting and buying isn’t all that different. Instead, what really matters if you’re only doing a basic cost comparison is (1) your tax bracket and whether you can benefit from the mortgage interest deduction and (2) how long you actually plan to live in the house.

The Sales Reports for March are in, and the Palm Springs Valley is booming!! La Quinta, which is one of our newer cities in the Palm Springs area reported strong increases over the past 12 months. One year and we have seen tremendous changes..all positive. It could very well be that we will be looking back at 2011 as the "bottom in the Palm Springs Valley."

La Quinta Sales Stats:

Total Number of Sales: 166 homes in March of 2012 (A 19.4% increase from March 2011)

Median Price: $322,500 An increase of 13.2% from last year

Highest Priced Home sold: $3,300,000

Median price/sf: $155 This is an increase of 6% over last year

La Quinta entry level homes almost always generate multiple offers now. The price/sf is about $10/sf more than it was a year ago. This is what I am seeing when I write my own offers!

I think the median price/sf has increased due to the luxury properties now selling, pulling up both the median Sales price and median Price/sf. Medians don't mean much to me other than as a signal that different price points are moving.

Good news for La Quinta and the Palm Springs Valley!

The housing industry is staging a recovery with increasing sales and stabilizing prices, according to a national survey of RE/MAX agents. Four out of five agents believe U.S. home prices won’t decline further. In fact, nearly 70 percent predict prices will go up, led by a strong demand for homes in the low to middle price ranges.

“To active real estate agents, this market is definitely heating up,” says Margaret Kelly, RE/MAX CEO. “They are witnessing a recovery across the country fueled by home buyers and sellers taking advantage of a significant market opportunity.”

Agent opinions are documented in the quarterly RE/MAX Market Insights, an online survey of 1,022 residential experts. Collectively, RE/MAX agents sell more real estate than any other real estate network in the U.S.

Key findings include:

• Price rebound: 68 percent say prices will be higher by the end of 2012.
• Today’s prices: 29 percent below the peak reached during the housing bubble.
• Demand for lower-priced properties: 80 percent of agents say it’s good or very good.
• Demand for homes in the middle-price ranges: 71 percent rate it as fair to good.
• Demand for high-priced homes: 58 percent call it poor to fair.

A snapshot of today’s homebuyers served by RE/MAX agents:

• Roughly one third are first-time buyers. Another third are homeowners looking to sell so they can move up or downsize. The remainder are mostly investors, who believe the market has hit bottom.
• One in five buyers pays cash, receiving an average discount of 15 percent.

The most significant challenges facing first-time homebuyers are having an acceptable credit score, posting a down payment, and facing a shortage of homes for sale. Repeat buyers have the added burden of selling their current home. They, too, are facing a scarcity of homes to purchase in the lower and middle price ranges.

Nearly half of the agents say lower priced homes in their markets are selling for slightly less than the asking price, while 17 percent say buyers are paying full price and 11 percent say buyers are paying slightly more than the asking price.

For homes in the middle-price ranges, 49 percent report sale prices are slightly less than the asking price, while 8 percent say full-price is being paid. For the high-priced homes, 43 percent report that sale prices are moderately less than asking prices, with another 2 percent saying it is slightly less.

With bank-owned homes making up a significant portion of the current inventory, agents report that 62 percent of their non-investor buyers have a favorable attitude toward foreclosures, while only 27 percent have a favorable attitude toward short sales.

“With distressed properties still making up a sizeable portion of homes on the market, this inventory is being cleared effectively by buyers, who don’t mind investing a little to fix up a property in return for an attractive bargain,” Kelly adds.

Among buyers’ highest priorities were quality of schools, and condition and size of the home. The lowest priorities included public transportation, walkability and energy efficiency.

Most RE/MAX agents advise their buyers to hire a professional home inspector and to attend the inspection. Getting pre-approved for a mortgage, not merely pre-qualified, is also recommended.

Most buyers have a wish list of features they'd like to have in a home. Often missing from that list is how salable the home will be when they later decide to sell.

Generally, buyers deal indirectly with resale value. They want a home they can buy at market value or less. They want to buy a home that will retain its value. They want to buy a home that will suit their needs. They want to buy a home they can make their own.

A listing that's priced low to sell fast may be one that will have good resale value only if you use this marketing strategy. The low price may offset an incurable defect, such as a location on a busy street.

There's nothing wrong with buying a home on a busy street as long as (1) you buy it at a price that reflects the location issue; (2) it suits your long-term needs; and (3) you understand that you will probably have to discount the price accordingly when you sell, depending on the market at the time.

In a hot seller's market, buyers are desperate to buy. They often overpay, and they are more likely to overlook defects that they would shun in a sour market.

Resale value has become a bigger issue since the housing recession began five years ago. Buyers are more cautious in their homebuying decisions. They don't want to buy just any home; they don't want to make a mistake and end up wanting to move in a slow market in which they might lose money.

The homes that hold their resale value well are the ones that appeal to a broad cross section of buyers; offer a good floor plan that works for different lifestyles; have a good amount of space but are not enormous and expensive to maintain; and exhibit a pride of ownership. They should also be in good condition.

Location is also a critical element of resale value. There are market niches that are always in demand, in both hot and soft markets. For example, there are always buyers for homes in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland, Calif., and the adjacent Elmwood neighborhood in Berkeley. Both are conveniently located to shops, cafés and a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) stop for easy commuting to work.

That's not to say that every listing in these areas sells quickly. To sell, it needs to be priced right for the market.

It's easier to recognize a home with good resale value in the current market than it was in the bubble market of 2005 and 2006 when virtually all homes sold in many areas. In a soft market, the homes that sell within 30 to 60 days are either good homes or good deals.

Ideally, you want to buy a home that has good resale value. Not one that's just a good deal. There's no urgency to buy now in many areas, although it would be nice to take advantage of record-low interest rates. But you shouldn't buy a home that won't work for you long term just to lock in a great interest rate.

Even though there are a lot of homes for sale on the market, in many areas there is a not a surplus of quality inventory on the market. One reason for the lack of quality homes on the market is that many sellers are waiting for a better time to sell. Another reason is that homes with good resale value don't tend to change hands that often.

THE CLOSING: There may be good news ahead. Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors, predicts that sellers who have been waiting for a better time to sell may decide they've waited long enough and list their homes for sale in 2012.

After falling 34% over the past six years, U.S. home prices will soon bottom. They could turn back up by spring 2013.

 hit with the ferocity of an Old Testament plague, wiping out large populations of homeowners in the U.S. Five million of the country's 76 million mortgage holders have lost their homes to foreclosure or lender-ordered short sales since 2006, and an estimated 14 million more owe more on their homes than their properties are currently worth. In all, some $7.4 trillion in homeowners' equity has been destroyed, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, and more than two million jobs in the home-building industry disappeared.

At year end 2011, the S&P/Case-Shiller National U.S. Home Price Index fell to a record low, 33.8% below the boom peak level, recorded in 2006's second quarter. The descent has been all the more hideous in such once-manic markets as Las Vegas, Phoenix and Miami, which, according to the Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Index, have fallen 61%, 55% and 51%, respectively, from their high-water marks.

Everyone has shared the pain. The negative wealth effect from the price decline both contributed to the virulen

Yet as grim as these year-end readings appear to be, there are signs that the long nightmare for American homeowners is in its terminal stage, and that, maybe, just maybe, home prices will bottom and begin to turn by the spring of 2013—if not before. Certainly, the economy is doing better these days—the sine qua non for improved demand for housing. Jobs numbers have been up sharply three months in a row, leading to a jump in consumer confidence of late.

The near-record low in mortgage rates and concomitant slide in home prices has made houses and condos stunningly affordable (although stiff underwriting standards have made getting home loans more difficult). This is captured in the National Association of Realtors Housing Affordability Index, which measures how much purchasing power a median-income family needs in order to buy a median-priced home, using conventional mortgage financing.

This measure stood at 206 in January, which meant that the typical family has more than double the income needed to purchase an average home. That reading is more than twice the 102.7 at the peak of the bubble in July 2006.

MUCH OF THE HOME-PRICE DECLINE in the past six years has been fueled by the distress sales of foreclosed properties, which typically sell at discounts of 30% or more to dwellings in the conventional sales market. Distressed sales, along with vacant houses and condos awaiting a sale, trash property values for all the other homes in the immediate area.

These forced sales have weighed heavily on overall market prices that are typically reported on a metropolitan-area basis that includes cities, surrounding communities and suburbs, which are a good distance from downtown. 

If you are thinking about purchasing a home right now, you are surely getting a lot of advice. And some of that advice is probably negative. Why buy now with prices still falling? Don’t you realize real estate is no longer a good investment? Don’t you know that people who bought six years ago lost their shirt? We understand the concern your friends and family have. However, let’s look at whether or not now is actually the perfect time to buy a home.

There are three questions you should ask before purchasing in today’s market:

1. What are the experts recommending?

In the last 120 days, many experts have said that buying now makes sense. This list includes: John Talbott, Christopher Thornberg and Warren Buffett.

2. When will I begin to see appreciation if I buy now?

This is a great question. Macro Markets, LLC is a company that studies housing prices. They started their Home Price Expectation Survey in 2010. They ask 100+ housing industry experts to project housing prices through 2016. The most current survey shows that the experts are predicting prices to remain relatively flat in 2012. The experts then project prices to rise reaching a cumulative appreciation of over 10% by 2016.

Purchasing a home today makes great sense from a financial standpoint. Think of the old axiom: you want to buy low and sell high. This decision should not only be a financial one however.

That leads us to our third and final question:

3. Why am I buying a home in the first place?

This truly is the most important question to answer. Forget the finances for a minute. Why did you even begin to consider purchasing a home? For most, the reason has nothing to do with finances. The Fannie Mae National Housing Survey shows that the four major reasons people buy a home have nothing to do with money:
A good place to raise children and for them to get a good education
A place where you and your family feel safe
More space for you and your family
Control of the space

What non-financial benefits will you and your family derive from owning a home? The answer to that question should be the reason you decide to purchase or not.

Bottom Line

Don’t allow money to get in the way of you making the right decision for you and your family. In the long run, the finances will work in your favor anyway.

We can’t resist commenting on the story which recently appeared in the Wall Street Journal regarding Colby Sambrotto, the founder and former CEO offorsalebyowner.com. It seems the founding father and lifelong evangelist of the concept of selling your home without a real estate agent was forced to hire a broker to sell his home after failing at what he preaches others should do.

After failing to sell his NYC apartment on his own as a For Sale By Owner (FSBO), Sambrotto hired a broker and paid a 6% commission in order to get the job done. His personal experience helps refute some of the myths Sambrotto has been espousing for over a decade. Let’s look at two of those myths:

Myth #1 – You Will Pocket More Money Selling on Your Own

Most FSBO sites say you can save the commission by selling on your own. What happened in Sambrotto’s sale?

From the WSJ article:

“The broker, Jesse Buckler, said he told Mr. Sambrotto the apartment in the Lion’s Head building on West 19th Street near Sixth Avenue was priced too low and wasn’t drawing the right buyers.

By May, it went into contract, he said, after attracting multiple offers. It closed in the last few days for $150,000 more than the original asking price.”

Myth #2 – The Internet Alone Can Sell Your Home

Many have said that, with the introduction of home search on the internet, hiring an agent is no longer a necessity. What happened to the FSBO guru when he attempted to only depend on the internet?

From the WSJ article:

“Looking to move his family to the suburbs, [Mr. Sambrotto] said he carefully staged his apartment for sale himself, and put it on the market. But after using a mix of websites to publicize his apartment, he said he had only ‘middling success’ and switched to a broker because many buyers were so reliant on brokers.”

Bottom Line

There is a reason the real estate industry has been around for centuries: it performs a valuable service.

This is a quote right from “Forbes”. “Certainly prices have continued to fall

nationally but rents have been rising so this would be the lowest price to rent ratio that we’ve seen.” That was an article in “Forbes” magazine talking about the Trulia Report that showed in 98 percent of the country, 98 98 percent of the major metros in the country, 98 out of 100 of the major metros in this country right now it’s cheaper to buy a house than rent the house. That’s important that people understand that. And in the other

two metros what Trulia found was the fact that if we take into the mortgage interest deduction, if we factor that

in, even in those two cities if a person’s going ahead and itemizing deductions even in those two cities it’s

cheaper to buy a house than rent. So if a person is going ahead and itemizing deductions and we put in the

mortgage interest deduction, in 100 out of 100 of the major metros in this country it makes more financial sense

to buy than to rent.

Sales of investment and vacation homes jumped in 2011, with the combined market share rising to the highest level since 2005, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

NAR’s 2012 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey, covering existing- and new-home transactions in 2011, shows investment-home sales surged an extraordinary 64.5 percent to 1.23 million last year from 749,000 in 2010. Vacation-home sales rose 7.0 percent to 502,000 in 2011 from 469,000 in 2010. Owner-occupied purchases fell 15.5 percent to 2.78 million.

Vacation-home sales accounted for 11 percent of all transactions last year, up from 10 percent in 2010, while the portion of investment sales jumped to 27 percent in 2011 from 17 percent in 2010.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun says investors with cash took advantage of market conditions in 2011. “During the past year investors have been swooping into the market to take advantage of bargain home prices,” he says. “Rising rental income easily beat cash sitting in banks as an added inducement. In addition, 41 percent of investment buyers purchased more than one property.”

Yun says the shift in investment buyer patterns in 2011 shows the market, for the large part, is able to absorb foreclosures hitting the market. “Small-time investors are helping the market heal since REO (bank real estate owned) inventory is not lingering for an extended period. Any government program to sell REO inventory in bulk to large institutional companies should be limited to small geographic areas. Even where alternatives are needed, it’s best to rely on the expertise of local businesses, nonprofit organizations and government,” he says.

All-cash purchases have become fairly common in the investment- and vacation-home market during recent years: 49 percent of investment buyers paid cash in 2011, as did 42 percent of vacation-home buyers. Half of all investment home purchases in 2011 were distressed homes, as were 39 percent of vacation homes.

“Clearly we’re looking at investors with financial resources who see real estate as a good investment and who aren’t hesitant to use cash,” Yun says. Of buyers who financed their purchase with a mortgage, large downpayments were typical. The median downpayment for both investment- and vacation-home buyers in 2011 was 27 percent.

“Given the tight credit in recent years, many would-be normal home buyers for owner occupancy declined,” Yun says.

The median investment-home price was $100,000 in 2011, up 6.4 percent from $94,000 in 2010, while the median vacation-home price was $121,300, down 19.1 percent from $150,000 in 2010.

Investment-home buyers in 2011 had a median age of 50, earned $86,100 and bought a home that was relatively close to their primary residence—a median distance of 25 miles, although 30 percent were more than 100 miles away.

“The share of investment buyers who flipped property remained low in 2011, and many of those homes likely were renovated before reselling,” Yun says. Five percent of homes purchased by investment buyers last year have already been resold, up from 2 percent in 2010. The typical investment buyer plans to hold the property for a median of 5 years, down from 10 years for buyers in 2010.

The typical vacation-home buyer was 50 years old, had a median household income of $88,600 and purchased a property that was a median distance of 305 miles from the primary residence; 35 percent of vacation homes were within 100 miles and 37 percent were more than 500 miles. Buyers plan to own their recreational property for a median of 10 years.

Lifestyle factors have consistently been the primary motivation for vacation-home buyers, while the desire for rental income drives investment purchases. Vacation homes purchased last year were more likely to be in suburban or rural areas; investment homes were concentrated in suburban locations.

Eighty-two percent of vacation-home buyers said the primary reason for buying was to use the property themselves for vacations, or as a family retreat. Thirty percent plan to use the property as a primary residence in the future, and only 22 percent plan to rent to others.

Half of investment buyers said they purchased primarily to generate rental income, and 34 percent wanted to diversify their investments or saw a good investment opportunity.

Sixteen percent of vacation buyers and 14 percent of investment buyers purchased the property for a family member, friend or relative to use. In many cases the home is intended for a son or daughter to use while attending school.

Forty-two percent of vacation homes purchased last year were in the South, 30 percent in the West, 15 percent in the Northeast and 12 percent in the Midwest; 1 percent were located outside of the U.S.

Forty-four percent of investment properties were in the South, 23 percent in the West, 17 percent in the Midwest and 15 percent in the Northeast.

Eight out of 10 second-home buyers said it was a good time to buy. Nearly half of investment buyers said they were likely to purchase another property within two years, as did one-third of vacation-home buyers.

Currently, 42.1 million people in the U.S. are ages 50-59—a group that has dominated second-home sales since the middle part of the past decade and established records. An additional 43.5 million people are 40-49 years old, while another 40.2 million are 30-39.

“Given that the number of people who are in their 40s is somewhat larger than the 50-somethings, the long-term demographic demand for purchasing vacation homes is favorable because these younger households are likely to enter the market as their desire for these kinds of properties grows, and individual circumstances allow,” Yun says.

NAR’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data shows there are 8.0 million vacation homes and 42.8 million investment units in the U.S., compared with 75.3 million owner-occupied homes.

NAR’s 2012 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey, conducted in March 2012, includes answers from 2,241 usable responses about home purchases during 2011. The survey controlled for age and income, based on information from the larger 2011 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, to limit any biases in the characteristics of respondents.

For more information, visit www.realtor.org ^[2].