Entries from October 2006 ↓

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While not a surprise, the Federal Reserve announced formally that mortgage demand declined over the past 3 months. With layoffs, slower homes sales, and higher interest rates, I would  have been very surprised if the activity had increased.

Demand for both residential mortgage loans and commercial real estate loans weakened over the last three months, the Federal Reserve said in a report Monday. The lower demand for home mortgages comes in spite of little changed credit standards for such loans, the Fed said in a survey of bank loan officers. At the same time, more banks reported a dwindling demand for consumer loans of all types in the past three months compared to the quarter before. The Fed survey is based on responses from 55 domestic banks and 17 foreign banks via  MarketWatch.

If you are selling a home, here is a tip. Advertise online quickly and you will be ahead of your competitors and also in front of your potential customers. Real Estate classified advertising spending is moving online, but sellers tend to want their agents to advertise in print first, then head online. Meanwhile, buyers start and typically stay online.

And the real fly in the ointment is Craigslist where except for a couple of markets, advertising online is free. Thats right, free. I wonder if Craigslist started charging what the ratio would be,

REAL ESTATE CLASSIFIED SPENDING IN 2006 will reach $7.75 billion, according to market research firm The Kelsey Group. Of the total, 44.3%, or around $3.43 billion, will come from online listings, paid search, newspapers’ Web sites and other online sources.
“Clearly, the underlying buyer and seller trends suggest we are reaching a tipping point regarding the transition of ad dollars from offline media to online media,” said Matt Booth, Kelsey Group senior vice president and program director, interactive local media and marketplaces, in a statement.  via MediaPost Publications

And just to add insult to injury, newspaper circulation is in free fall, so do not expect your local paper to help in selling your home anytime soon.

For those looking at relocating to a new job and are scared that you will be stuck in a hotel for forever, there are some options out there that can help you. Corporate housing is an alternative that is coming more and more into favor for those looking to relocate and need a short term housing alternative while homes sell or children finish the school year.

Apartment complexes typically offer corporate housing plans that have leases for a short as one month. These units come fully furnished and are available at a cost of up to 30 percent less than local hotels would charge for an equivalent quality living experience.

Cameris says some employees prefer hotels because they offer maid service and reward programs, which allow them to amass points toward future stays.
Extended-stay hotels also have been upgrading their amenities. Last year, for example, Homewood Suites, which is owned by Hilton, offered to have the rooms stocked with food and other supplies if guests requested them online before their arrival.
Kim Salzano, the employee who suggested the corporate housing program to Ashley, says corporate apartments are not only about 30 percent cheaper than hotels but can also offer many of the same conveniences.
“We offer many amenities and give choices of furnishings,” she says. “We try to make it feel like a home on a hotel basis. The renters don’t have to lift a finger, but it’s more like a home setting for them. About the only thing we don’t do is deliver croissants and coffee to your door.” via the AP Wire

For a little break as Halloween comes up, I found this list of the top 10 haunted houses in the United States. I figured there could not be a haunted house without real estate so lets enjoy it.

Top 10 Haunted Houses in America

1. Headless Horseman,  Ulster Park, New York (www.headlesshorseman.com)
2. Netherworld. Atlanta, Georgia  (www.fearworld.com)
3. The Darkness, Saint Louis, Missouri   (www.scarefest.com)
4. Bates Motel, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (www.thebatesmotel.com)
5. Rocky Point Haunted House, Salt Lake City, Utah (www.rockypointhauntedhouse.com)
6. Shocktoberfest, Reading, Pennsylvania  ( www.shocktoberfest.com)
7. Fright World, Buffalo, New York  (www.hauntedbuffalo.com)
8. Horror Hotel, Chatfield, Ohio   
9. Dead Acres, Columbus, Ohio  (www.deadacres.com)
10. Erebus Haunted House, Pontiac, Michigan  (www.hauntedpontiac.com)

Source Haunted House Magazine

If you are not a big fan of driving and do not mind being outside of the larger metropolitan area’s, here is the 10 ten cities with the shortest commute. 

Cascade County, Mont. — 14.0 minutes
Grand Forks County, N.D. — 14.1 minutes
Laramie County, Wyo. — 14.3 minutes
Dubuque County, Iowa — 14.7 minutes
Taylor County, Texas — 14.8 minutes
Wichita County, Texas — 14.8 minutes
Payne County, Okla. — 15.1 minutes
Adams County, Ill. — 15.4 minutes
Story County, Iowa — 15.5 minutes
Twin Falls County, Idaho — 15.6 minutes

REALTOR® Magazine - Daily News.

If you are looking at selling your home quickly, a growing trend in the country is using the auction system. Homes sold via auction increased by 5.9 percent in 2006 and auctions have been trending upwards over the past 5 years.

While using an auction may seem unconventional, people interested in a quick sale have used this effectively. There is an excitement that auctions bring that is done correctly can significantly increase the price of a sale, and if you use the minimum bids correctly, you will be out only the fees to the auctioneer if the home does not sell.

As the real estate market cools and homes languish longer awaiting a buyer, both residential real estate “buyers and sellers are turning to the auction method, and we foresee this trend continuing to increase,” William Sheridan, president of the Overland Park, Kan.-based trade group, said in a statement.

The number of residential real estate auctions, the industry’s fastest-growing segment, grew 4.5 percent in the third quarter.

While residential real estate has the hottest hand, the three biggest segments of the auction industry are automobiles, land and agricultural real estate, and agricultural machinery and equipment.

The auction industry is expected to generate total revenue of $254.4 billion in 2006, up from $240.2 billion in 2005.via the Chicago Tribune.

As we predicted when the speculators fell out of the market, housing prices would come down a bit. The numbers released state a drop of 9.7 percent nationwide but compared to the multiple years of double digit appreciation this is not so bad. The nugget in the numbers is that home sales increased, not decreased, so that homes are still selling.

The Commerce Department reported that the median price for a new home sold in September was $217,100, a drop of 9.7 percent from September It was the lowest median price for a new home since September 2004 and the sharpest year-over-year decline since December 1970. The weakness in new home prices was even sharper than a 2.5 percent fall in the price of existing homes last month, which had been the biggest drop on record.

The price decline for new homes came while the sales pace picked up, rising by 5.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate 1.075 million homes. It marked the second consecutive increase in sales following three months of declines.

On the other hand, rental rates are soaring as many of the people sitting on the sideline that normally would have bought are waiting it out. The demand for rental units is going up combined with a strong economy is raising rents. The fun part is when the damn breaks and people think it is time to buy again, housing prices are going to go right back up with all this pent up demand. So those sitting on the sidelines better be prepared to jump quickly when the market turns.

Apartment rents and demand are soaring nationwide as the economy produces good jobs and people who might have bought homes a year ago settle for apartments while they wait for housing prices to tumble.
In addition, the supply of rental housing tightened in the past year as many apartments were converted into condominiums in places like Florida and Southern California. Some of those units are now returning to rental markets at high prices as owners struggle to sell them.  via BREITBART.COM

The Mills Corp. was once a high flyer in the building of mega-malls around the country. But the combination of a few setbacks and turnover in the executive ranks has had the company looking to sell out. That is, until yesterday when Gazit-Globe’s Chairman Chaim Katzman expressed concern to Mill Corps. CEO Mark Ordan that a sale would be at a distressed price and not to do so.

Gazit-Globe Ltd. said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it has acquired 9 percent of Mills’ shares. The firm, Israel’s largest real estate investment company, said it wants Mills’ board of directors to agree to recapitalize and not go ahead with plans to sell all or part of the company.

Following the announcement, shares of Mills rose more than 13 percent Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange, rising $2.34 to close at $19.35. The stock has traded between $12.27 and $53.57 over the last 52 weeks via  International Herald Tribune.

Keep an eye out for Mills Corp. in the short term. With the backing of Gazit Globe, they may be a position to revitalize their assets and manage themselves out of the hole they got into with their ill fated New Jersey Xanadu project.

There is an article in the San Jose Mercury News that shows there is anectdotal evidence that the number of real estate agents in California is starting to decrease. With there being one agent for every 52 citizens, the ability to make a living as a new agent in California is slim to none. I think we will see a pull back of at least 25 percent as the combination of a slowing market and tighter commissions take out many of those holding a license and not selling many homes.

The slowdown has hit Chicago with sales down 26 percent over last years speculator infused numbers. Real estate analysts see things remaining slow for the next 6 months on a year over year basis, and then picking up in the spring of 2007. This is another example of a hyper market returning to normal after a readjustment.

The sales numbers were particularly ugly: Illinois existing-home sales fell about 20 percent in September, with Chicago-area sales plummeting 26 percent from last year’s record levels, according to an Illinois Association of Realtors monthly report released Wednesday.

Chicago-area condo sales were off 18.7 percent in September, though the median price was up 2.5 percent compared with the year earlier.

Yet prices generally remained steady. The median for a single-family home in the nine-county area declined $1,000 from last year’s median, to $269,000, the Realtors said. Statewide, prices fared less well, with the median dropping about 8 percent.

That Chicago prices have not declined as precipitously as the sales figures may be due to a number of factors, experts say, and some warn that prices may be poised to head south.

“The sellers in Chicago are very stubborn,” said David Lereah, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors. “They’re not bringing their prices down, so sales are going down.” via the Chicago Tribune.