By Steve Harney
RISMEDIA, May 26, 2010—The various government stimulus packages helped real estate agents across the country create a sales momentum this spring. Now that the Federal home buying tax credits have ended, it’s even more important that we all work together to keep home sales on the rise throughout the summer and into the fall. As such, what you do during the next 90 days will have a major impact on the success of your real estate career throughout 2010 and into 2011.
To help you maximize your opportunities this summer, here is the 5-step action plan that you need to implement immediately. Doing so will help boost your career and your bottom line.
1. Sharpen your axe
To thrive in today’s market, you need to identify opportunities and act upon them immediately. In order to guarantee this, you have to be mentally sharp. Therefore, like a lumberjack, you need to occasionally take the time to stop chopping and sharpen your axe, which in this industry is your mind. (More …)
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Make This Summer Your Best Sales Season Ever: 5-Step Action Plan for the Next 90 Days
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A Time to Sell, a Time to Buy – Opportunities Abound for All in 2010
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By Industry Advisor by Jose PerezRISMEDIA, April 1, 2010—The real estate brokerage industry is in the process of coming out of a significant storm that has wreaked havoc on a large percentage of firms. Some have failed, some are hanging on, and yet others are reinventing themselves for the future. Regardless of your company’s situation, it’s time to assess where you want to be in the next few years and what it’s going to take to get there. Doing nothing is simply not an option.
For three years, innovation has been stifled due to the fact brokerages have been in “survival mode” and investments in the future, by necessity, have been largely ignored. Unfortunately, the expectation of agents and consumers has never been higher, thus forcing the industry to now start playing catch-up as the market begins to show signs of life. (More …)
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New Year Brings New Lows in Home Price Reduction Levels, Says Trulia
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RISMEDIA, January 14, 2010—Trulia.com recently announced that 21% of homes currently on the market in the United States as of January 1, 2010 have experienced at least one price cut. This represents the second straight month price reduction levels have decreased and the lowest level since Trulia started tracking price reductions in April 2009. The total amount slashed from home prices also dropped to $21.2 billion compared to $24.7 billion in December, a 14% decrease. The average discount for price-reduced homes continues to hold at 11% off the original listing price. This was also the second straight month where inventory levels have dropped for single-family homes and condos across the United States. (More …) -
Tax Credit May Offer Foreclosure Buffer
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By Tom Bayles, Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Stan Humpfries, Zillow.com Chief Economist
Home values are still falling in the Sarasota-Bradenton market, but the trend is showing signs of slowing — and might slow further with the recent passage of an extended home buyers tax credit, Zillow.com’s chief economist said Monday.
Stan Humphries, who last month predicted through an analysis of the regional market for the Herald-Tribune that a new wave of foreclosures would further depress prices in Manatee and Sarasota counties, said Congress’ move to extend the tax credit both in length and breadth could ameliorate some of the potential drop in Southwest Florida.
“We could see a bump in demand that could partially offset the increased supply of foreclosed homes on the market,” said Humphries, chief economist for the online home valuation service. “The credits are likely to bring continued stabilization in prices over this period versus the price declines that we almost certainly would see otherwise.“ Zillow released an analysis on Monday that showed home values in Sarasota-Bradenton fell 14 percent in the third quarter compared with the same period in 2008. Prices in the Charlotte County market dropped 10 percent during the same time frame. But prices in the region were near what is considered statistically flat from the second quarter to the third, which ended in September.
Meanwhile, another set of data from housing tracker Metrostudy also found some signs of life in new home construction in Southwest Florida.
Builders in the region started more homes in the third quarter than in the previous two quarters combined, and the boost was not limited to the lower price ranges, which has been where the builders who have remained busy during the downturn have focused.
There were 155 new homes started in the region at a price below $200,000 during the most recent quarter, a 9.9 percent increase from the second quarter. In the $200,000 to $350,000 range, there were 131 starts, up 4 percent. Forty-three homes priced above $350,000 were started in the third quarter, nearly double the second quarter tally, Metrostudy reported.
The company also uses finished vacant inventory as a fundamental indicator to monitor the health of housing markets. That inventory in this region dropped 30 percent in all price ranges, though the total still remains above a level of equilibrium, Metrostudy said.
HOME FACTSThe Zillow Home Value Index measures the value of all homes, not just those those that were on the market and sold. The online home valuation service released this data Monday on Southwest Florida’s real estate market.
SARASOTA-BRADENTON
Nearly 50 percent of single-family homes with mortgages were underwater at the end of September.Homes that sold for a loss numbered 47.2 percent of all homes sold in September.
Home values dropped an average 14.3 percent in September compared with the same month in 2008 to $155,300. But in the short-term, home values were nearly statistically flat with a drop of 1.1 percent from the second quarter to the third.
CHARLOTTE COUNTY-NORTH PORT
About 40 percent of single-family homes with mortgages were underwater at the end of September.Homes that sold for a loss numbered about 41 percent of all homes sold in September.
Home values dropped by 10.6 percent in September compared with the same month in 2008 to $122,400. But similar to Sarasota-Bradenton, the drop was nearly statistically flat with an increase of 1.1 percent from the second quarter to the third.
SOURCE: Zillow.com
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Moody's bearish on housing recovery
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Analysts say it will take more than 10 years to recapture peak home prices
By John Spence, MarketWatch
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Moody’s Investors Service threw cold water on optimistic projections of a V-shaped recovery in the battered U.S. housing market, predicting it could take more than 10 years to get back to boom-level prices.
“For many reasons, the rebound will be disproportionately small compared to the decline,” Moody’s said this week in its latest outlook on the residential market. “It will take more than a decade to completely recover from the 40% peak-to-trough decline in national home prices.”
The housing market is in the third year of the current downturn, one of the worst corrections in U.S. history as a result of the economic recession and the mortgage industry nearly grinding to a halt during the credit crunch.
“The bursting of the housing bubble precipitated a crisis in financial markets the likes of which have not been seen since the Great Depression and plummeted the nation into recession,” Moody’s said.
To view the entire article, click here.
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Pending Home Sales on a Record Roll
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Washington, September 01, 2009
Contract activity for pending home sales has risen for six straight months, a pattern not seen in the history of the index since it began in 2001, according to the National Association of Realtors®.
The Pending Home Sales Index,1 a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in July, increased 3.2 percent to 97.6 from a reading of 94.6 in June, and is 12.0 percent higher than July 2008 when it was 87.1. The index is at the highest level since June 2007 when it was 100.7.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the housing market momentum has clearly turned for the better. “The recovery is broad-based across many parts of the country. Housing affordability has been at record highs this year with the added stimulus of a first-time buyer tax credit,” he said. – National Association of Realtors
To read the entire article, please click here.
Information about NAR is available at http://www.realtor.com.
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Wall Street Journal Essay - A Toe in the Water
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A Toe in the Water
Real estate is starting to look cheap enough to buy. Or at least think about buying.
By DAVE KANSAS
Recently over dinner, a friend of mine startled me by saying he and his wife were looking to buy a lake cabin. I figured that in this time of economic uncertainty, people would still be stuffing their mattresses with hard, cold cash. But buying real estate? That seemed particularly surprising.
The Journal Report
See the complete Your Money Matters report.
The more I’ve talked to people, though, the more I get a sense that things have started to change. While the economy remains in rough shape and the jobless rate continues to rise, the frantic desire to save and build cash reserves has ebbed. Those fortunate people who have weathered the storm are emerging from their fetal crouch and starting to think more about taking some investment risks.
What I find especially interesting is where most of my risk-taking friends are headed. It isn’t the stock market; in fact, the only folks I know who have waded back into the stock market are the gunslinger types who never really left it.
Instead, they seem to be heading for real estate. At first I found this puzzling, given the brutal battering real estate has taken. But that’s the point: An increasing number of my friends see this as the perfect opportunity to find something at a bargain-basement price.
And so, among my friends: A New York executive and his wife are looking for a summer place in New England; a small-business owner in Minnesota is thinking about acquiring some rental property; a New Jersey technology consultant is considering buying a small apartment in New York, perhaps with some other friends. (More …)
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Sarasota-Bradenton Home Sales Spike 30% in July
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National home sales, as reported by the National Association of Realtors for the month of July, were the best in several years.
Friday, August 21, 2009Home sales in the Sarasota-Bradenton market rose 30 percent during July as buyers scurried to lock in a tax credit of 10 percent of the purchase price, or up to $8,000.
Prices in the market were down 22 percent from a year ago at $179,500, but continued to show stability, rising 10 percent from $162,700 in June, according to data released Friday by the Florida Association of Realtors.
In Charlotte County-North Port, sales rose 24 percent in July, but the median sales price of $105,000 was down 26 percent from a year ago and 28 percent from June.
Statewide, home sales rose 37 percent, with the median dropping 24 percent to $147,600. That price was roughly flat with $148,000 last month.
Nationally, sales in July posted the largest monthly increase in at least 10 years, perhaps a sign that the U.S. housing market is rebounding quicker than expected. – HeraldTibune.com (article by Tom Bayles & Aaron Kessler)
To read the entire article, please click here.
Related Links (Provided by, Florida Association of Realtors and the University of Florida Real Estate Research Center):- Homes prices and sales | Graphics
- Condo prices and sales | Graphics
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2nd Quarter Home Sales Rise
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Washington, August 12, 2009
Existing-home sales in the second quarter showed healthy gains from the first quarter in the vast majority of states, and price declines have increased affordability in most metro areas, according to the latest survey by the National Association of Realtors®.
Total state existing-home sales, including single-family and condo, rose 3.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 4.76 million units in the second quarter from 4.58 million units in the first quarter, but remain 2.9 percent below the 4.90 million-unit pace in the second quarter of 2008.
Thirty-nine states experienced sales increases from the first quarter, and nine states were higher than a year ago; the District of Columbia showed both quarterly and annual rises. – National Association of Realtors
To read the entire article, please click here.
Information about NAR is available at http://www.realtor.com.
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The Consequences of Overpricing
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Overpricing results in a significant decrease in interest in your property, leading to fewer showings, less qualified buyers and limited mortgage options.
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