Archive for the ‘Home Sales’ Category

Single Buyers Choosing Suburbia Over Cities

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

Some 52 percent of single home buyers in April chose suburban locations over urban and rural areas, according to a survey by Coldwell Banker of 1,000 single buyers.

· More than 53 percent of single home owners reported that they purchased a home because it was more cost effective than renting in their area, while 68 percent of single home owners purchased a home that was less expensive than they believed they could have afforded to pay.

· Some 55 percent have less than a 30-minute commute to their office or work from home.

· Singles don’t shy away from foreclosures – especially single men. Thirty-eight percent would currently consider purchasing a foreclosed/short sale home, compared to 29 percent of single women.

· Of the 13 percent of single home owners who own their home jointly with another person, 49 percent made the purchase with their parents. Forty percent live less than 30 minutes or even in the same neighborhood as their parents or extended family. An additional 12 percent live with at least one family member.

· Number of bedrooms is important to 27 percent of single women, while only 18 percent of men were concerned.

Source: Coldwell Banker Real Estate (06/18/2010)

Posted in Anti-Foreclosure, Home Sales, best cities | No Comments »

TEXAS LEADS ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

 

Texas is leading the nation’s current economic recovery with two months of positive annual employment growth after 16 months of job losses.

The state’s annual employment growth rate was 0.9% from June 2009 to June 2010, compared with a negative national 0.1% rate. After 17 months of job losses, the state’s private sector posted a positive annual 0.4% employment growth rate.

The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 8.2% in June 2010, up from 7.8% in June 2009. The U.S. rate was 9.5% in both June 2009 and 2010. The actual unemployment rate in June 2010 was 8.5%.

Six Texas industries — education and health services; mining and logging; professional and business services; leisure and hospitality; manufacturing; and transportation, warehousing, utilities — and the government sector had more jobs in June 2010 than in June 2009.
Source: RECON, July 23, 2010

Posted in ECONOMIC RECOVERY, Home Sales, Media, Reports, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Is Real Estate Really a Relationship Business?

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

Have your heard this comment before? Real estate is a relationship business. This means the more people who know you and like you, the more real estate business you will receive.

And it’s true. The more people who know you and like you, the more real estate business you will receive.

But is real estate really a relationship business?

Inspired by the Bravo reality series, “Million Dollar Listing,” just one of the dozens of real estate reality shows currently gracing the television, it begs for this question.

The young male stars of this show seem to have an unending supply of “dear friends” with dollars to spend on real estate. “After all,” says Chad, one of the agents, “Real estate is a relationship business.”

If you’ve ever watched the show with a cynical eye, you might have noticed that these young men tend to give sometimes laughably self-serving advice. Such advice as their advice to their “dear friends” to make full price offers in a declining market before the house even hits the market. They allow their sellers to dictate the price and terms of their listings, whining all the while that the seller is being unreasonable. They talk their buyers out of even asking for repairs at inspection because the seller has already come down on his price (again, in a recessionary market).

So, what does this have to do with real estate and relationships?

Selling real estate is about knowing how to sell real estate. Let’s say that differently. It’s about knowing how to manage and facilitate the exchange of real property so that the buyer or seller who hired you is satisfied with the outcome.

Sure, building a real estate business may have everything to do with your relationships, but, as agents, that’s not what we do. Is tax preparation a relationship business? Is dentistry a relationship business? Is dog-training a relationship business?

No, we expect our tax preparers to know how to prepare taxes. We hope our dentists know how to fix cavities. We expect a dog-trainer to be a master in dog behavior. That’s their business.

Our buyers and sellers have the right to expect that we know our business. This means how to manage and facilitate the exchange of real property, not how to persuade our “dear friends” to provide us with easy paychecks.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Home Sales, real estate relationship | No Comments »

Real Estate Outlook: Up or Down?

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

You may have seen the latest home sales and price numbers and wondered: What’s going on here? Are we up? Are we down?

Depending on which TV network reported the news last week, it sounded either like real estate is continuing along its steady road to recovery – -or that we just hit a pothole in the road.

One major business news channel reported it this way: “Home sales down 14 percent in the first quarter.” Other media reported an 11 percent GAIN.

So what is it?

Well, dig down into the actual numbers from the National Association of Realtors and you find that, yes, 2010 first quarter home sales were 14 percent lower than they were in the final quarter of 2009.

Home sales nationwide, however, in the first quarter of 2010 were 11.4 percent higher than they were during the same quarter the year before. And any economist will tell you: year to year comparisons are more meaningful than quarter to quarter data, which tend to be more volatile.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, pointed out that sales in the fourth quarter of last year were unusually high because of a surge of closings related to the original expiration date of the housing tax credit.

We can probably expect a similar surge to show up some time in the coming two quarters caused by sales closings before the June 30 termination date of the credit program.

The 11 percent year over year gain is a much more reliable gauge of where the market really is, says Yun — and that’s a very healthy trajectory because consumers have more confidence in the economy, are spending more, and mortgage rates remain near all-time lows.

Gains in prices year over year in local markets are especially encouraging: Of the 152 metropolitan statistical areas surveyed by the National Association of Realtors, median prices in 91 were higher than the year before. Though most of the gains were in single digits, 29 markets saw median price increases in double digits.

Economists say the price and sales gains reflect the improvements underway in the overall US economy. The latest federal employment numbers saw a 290,000 net job increase in March, plus a drop in new filings for unemployment insurance claims.

Manufacturing jobs are expanding again, after years of declines, and the Gross Domestic Product (or GDP) is up by more than 3 percent.

In the words of Freddie Mac’s chief economist, Frank Nothaft, “the underlying fundamentals for housing markets are improving rapidly” — and should continue to do so through 2010.

Posted in Home Sales, Media, Reports | No Comments »