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A new report from CoreLogic highlights a recent strengthening of California’s housing market, with positive results for both new and existing home sales in June.
California’s housing market picked up steam last month, when it logged its highest June home sales in nine years and the largest year-over-year increase in sales for any month in nearly three years.
An estimated 46,095 new and existing houses and condominiums sold in the Golden State during June 2015, up 10.8% from May and up 16.8% from June 2014. Last month’s sales were the highest for the month of June since June 2006, when 59,018 homes sold, and the highest for any month since September 2006, when 46,464 homes sold, according to CoreLogic public records data.
The increase in sales between this May and June was roughly double the average gain of about 5% between those two months since 1988, when the data for this report begin. Statewide home sales have now increased on a year-over-year basis for four consecutive months, following a yearlong period in which sales fell year over year in 11 out of 12 months. The June 2015 annual sales gain of 16.8% was the highest for any month since October 2012, when sales rose 22.3% year over year. Before June the highest year-over-year gain this year was 12.2% in March.
Why the bigger sales increase last month? California’s job growth has to be high on the list of reasons. The state’s Employment Development Department reports non-farm jobs rose 3% – an increase of nearly 462,000 jobs – between June 2014 and June 2015. In addition, low mortgage interest rates and a growing consumer belief that rates will begin to rise soon may have helped to spur some buyers.
Black Knight Financial Services released its June 2015 Mortgage Monitor today, and the report shows some interesting results relative to the dropping number of U.S. homeowners who have negative equity in their homes. Here’s the article from DS News.
The number of borrowers who have negative equity (“underwater” on their mortgages), declined by approximately one million (a 26% drop) in the five-month period from January 1, 2015, until the end of May, according to Black Knight Financial Services’ June 2015 Mortgage Monitor released Monday.
Though three million borrowers nationwide remain underwater, representing about 6.1% of the active mortgage universe, the number of underwater borrowers is down about 79% from the peak of 15 million in 2010, according to Black Knight.
The 26% decline for the first five months of 2015 outpaced the decline rate for the same period in 2014, which was 20%, Black Knight reported.
Approximately 158,000 of the one million fewer underwater borrowers since the start of 2015 were located in California, making it the state with the largest reduction in underwater borrower volume (34%) for that period, according to Black Knight. California’s home price appreciation since December (6.3%) has been about 50% higher than the national average of 4.1%.
The state that experienced the second-largest decline in underwater borrower volume for the first five months of 2015 was Florida.
Together, the top five states accounted for close to half of the overall national reduction of one million underwater borrowers from the start of 2015 until the end of May.
If you’re thinking of selling your home, or even if you’ve already put your home up for sale, there are steps you can take to ensure the best possible price for your home. This article from U.S. News outlines nine factors that can keep you from getting the best price.
When you put your house on the market, it goes without saying that you want the best price when it sells. But many sellers shoot themselves in the foot, doing things that will torpedo their home’s selling price and net them less money. Plus, there are certain home and neighborhood characteristics that all the staging in the world can’t overcome, once again dragging down the price.
In a really hot market, or in certain desirable areas, as Redfin Chief Economist Nela Richardson puts it, “any house standing upright can get a bid.” But she also notes that Redfin’s new Housing Demand Index shows that home sales are slowing.
“What we’ve seen is that the market has changed dramatically in the last two months,” Richardson says. “Prices are slowing considerably.”
While inventory of homes for sale is still low and many buyers are still looking for homes, they’re not willing to pay just any price. “They’re making more conservative decisions,” Richardson says. “What our agents are telling a lot of buyers is just wait.”
“Sellers are still firmly in control, but they’re not getting a free pass,” Richardson says.
By far, the biggest mistake sellers make is to set their home price too high, thinking would-be buyers will offer a lower price and they can use that as the starting point for negotiations. “If you misprice it in the beginning, it can tend to languish, and you may end up selling it for less than you would have if you had priced it correctly to begin with,” says Kevin Brown Jr., president of Praedium Real Estate Services in Pittsburgh. Homes that are overpriced tend to stay on the market longer, which makes buyers suspicious that there is something wrong with the home. “Right now, people are expecting they will receive multiple offers, and their house will sell for over asking price, no matter what,” says Sabrina Booth, an agent with Redfin in Seattle. “They tend to shy away from houses that come on the market overpriced. We’re seeing less competition at this time.”
Nearly all home shoppers these days start their searches online, and they decide which homes they want to see based on the photos posted with the listing. Not surprisingly, blurry cellphone shots don’t draw much interest. “People just skip over it,” says Matt Francis, branch manager of Better Homes and Gardens Mason-McDuffie Real Estate in the San Francisco Bay Area. “The millennial buyer is not interested in what it can become.”
In these days of instant gratification, home shoppers want to see homes as soon as possible and at their convenience. If you make your home difficult to show, fewer prospects will see it, and it can take you longer to find a buyer. “If you don’t show it, you can’t sell it,” Francis says.
If your house is messy, your yard is unkempt and the windows are grimy, it is not going to put its best foot forward. Most buyers will have a hard time getting past that initial negative first impression, and failing to clean up your home could cost you a lot of money.
How does Generation Y compare to Generation X when it comes to credit scores and credit management? This article from HousingWire offers a snapshot of credit characteristics by generation, and highlights an interesting infographic from Experian that shows the borrowing trends of Generation X when they were young adults, compared to today’s millennial generation.
Millennials are not as savvy as their predecessors when it comes to their finances and credit management, a new report from Experian revealed. However, this same generation also has a lot of potential to improve their credit for the future.
“While this generation may not look like they are on the right track financially, it’s important to keep in mind that credit scores are built on credit experiences, and while this generation has been slower to use credit, they have plenty of opportunities to build a positive credit history,” said Michele Raneri, vice president of analytics and business development at Experian. “The best way to do that is to understand credit before using it.”
[Read the full article, and view the infographic here]
Here at Lennar, we’ve always believed that a happy home makes for a happy homeowner. But sometimes, keeping your home happy and healthy takes some extra effort, or some extra time that you can’t afford to give up from your busy schedule. This article from BrightNest offers nine ideas that can help.
According to a study by European Journal of Social Psychology, it takes about 66 days to ingrain a new habit into your routine. It’s a good idea to start now, so you’ll reap the benefits all year. Here are nine ideas that’ll lead to a happier, healthy home.
Leaving the blinds open, or switching heavier curtain fabrics for sheer curtains, will help you can wake up earlier, and more naturally. When the sun hits your sleeping body, it causes it to stop producing melatonin and start producing adrenalin, which means you’ll be halfway awake before your alarm goes off.
Even if you’re just pulling up your comforter and adjusting your pillows, making your bed in the morning sets the intention for your day and gets you in a productive mindset. Plus, there’s an easy way to do it in under five minutes. Making your bed in the morning is considered a keystone habit, meaning it leads to other productive morning behaviors like exercising or making a healthy breakfast. Basically, if you add this habit to your routine, adding any or all of the others will become a lot easier.
Get in the habit of cleaning 20 minutes or so every weekday so that you have the weekends all to yourself. By cleaning in little segments, you’ll avoid that terrible feeling of a home that’s so messy you don’t even know where to begin. You’ll also free up your Sunday to do something fun, instead of feeling sad and depressed about the impending Monday.
All it takes is skipping one day of dish duty for dishes to start to pile up. Tackle the mountain in the kitchen sink by running your dishwasher every night, and emptying it every morning before you head out to work. This will make your evening routine a little bit simpler, which will help you stay more relaxed as your winding down for the night.
They say never go to bed angry, but “never go to bed with a dirty kitchen” is a more practical proverb. Make a point to always do a quick food cleanup and countertop wipe down before you call it quits. Keeping your most-used room organized will make a huge difference in the overall “put together” feeling of your home. It’ll also make it easier to cook breakfast in the morning!
You probably have some friends or family members who are home renters, and some who are homeowners. And you’ve probably heard all of them tell you why renting your home – or owning it – is the way to go. But determining whether you should rent or buy a home is a very personal decision, with a lot of different factors to consider. And there may not always be one right answer. This article from TIME offers some suggestions that might help you come to a decision that’s right for you.
Today in the U.S., buying a home is 35% cheaper than renting, according to Trulia.com. With 30-year mortgage rates available below 4%, home ownership appears more affordable than many might think.
Sheryl Grider Whitehurst, regional vice president for the National Association of Realtors, says that despite the potential attractiveness of renting, most people want to own a home at some point in their lives.
“Overwhelmingly, Americans see home ownership as a good investment,” she says. “You have to pay to live somewhere – whether you rent or own. You just have to know when is the right time for you.”
The economics of where you live certainly weigh heavily on the decision to buy or rent, but what other factors should you consider?
After 20 years of owning a three-bedroom, three-bath, two-story home on a steeply sloped lot, empty nesters Gay and Harry Stephens were ready to downsize. They now live in a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment in a building that was once an all-girls Catholic school in Newport, Kentucky.
“We wanted to rent because it’s easier to take care of and we have the ability to turn the key and walk away when traveling,” she says. “There’s no yard work, and someone else is now responsible when there are maintenance issues.”
Gay Stephens says the couple also likes their location and accessibility to favorite restaurants and entertainment venues in Northern Kentucky and downtown Cincinnati.
“I was surprised how much I enjoy urban living,” she says, adding that there are some negatives to renting, such as slow response times for repairs and not building equity through their housing costs.
Other disadvantages to renting can include unanticipated rent increases, non-renewal of a lease, and not being able to customize the living space.
“On the other hand, you’re not tied to the property nor do you have to come up with a down payment and closing costs to live there,” says Realtor Josh Bushner in Austin, Texas. “If you’re new to a city or not sure you’ll be there for longer than three years, I usually recommend renting until you’re certain you’ll be staying longer. Also, make sure coming up with a down payment won’t put you in a cash-strapped position. Take time to get familiar with a city and find neighborhoods that will meet your lifestyle.”
Home equity is one of the biggest assets to buying instead of renting. In addition, most buyers can obtain tax benefits by writing off real estate taxes, mortgage interest, and specific closing costs, whereas renters don’t typically get federal tax deductions. Although, some states will offer a tax break for renters.
In addition, home renters often don’t realize that they’re paying the principle, interest, taxes, and insurance (and usually some extra padding for landlord repairs) in their monthly payments, which could be put toward building equity in their own homes.
Newlywed Leslie Radigan-Yodice of Albuquerque, New Mexico, initially thought she and her expanded family would move from an apartment into a rental home, but after figuring out the finances, they decided in the summer of 2014 that it was a great time to buy.
“My monthly payment is about $300 more, but we have a four bedroom, two-bath house with a garage,” she says. “I love that we’re building equity while creating a true home. And I love that I don’t have to walk across the street to do my laundry.”
Sometimes, the decision to own a home comes down to certain intangibles.
“While there’s definitely a strict financial answer to whether it’s better to rent versus buy, don’t discount the emotional part of the process,” says Deb Agliano of Re/Max Andrew Realty in Medford, Massachusetts. “For some people, it’s not a matter of what makes more financial sense, emotionally they want to know that they own their own home.”
According to a study in the Journal of Planning Education and Research, there are some common design traits that make certain New York City streets more walkable. This article from CityLab looks into whether these same design characteristics are applicable in smaller cities.
After counting pedestrians on hundreds of blocks in New York City, researchers found that active uses (well-trafficked buildings or busy parks, schools, and cafes), street furniture or items (from benches to fire hydrants to ATM machines), and first-floor windows (measured by window-to-facade ratio) all had statistically positive relationships to the number of pedestrians.
But what about smaller towns? What are the design traits that most encourage pedestrian activity on these streets?
Reid Ewing, a planning scholar at the University of Utah and lead author on the New York City paper, helped a slew of graduate students apply this question to Salt Lake City, Utah. Using similar methodology as in the New York study, the researchers spent 30 minutes counting walkers on 179 blocks in downtown Salt Lake City. Out of five broad categories of design features, they found that two had statistically significant relationships to the number of people on foot.
The first key factor was what the researchers call transparency, or “the degree to which people can see or perceive what lies beyond the edge of a street and what human activity is contained there.” Transparency includes the proportion of first-floor facades to windows, and the proportion of active uses at the street level.
The second key factor highly related to pedestrian activity in Salt Lake City was imageability – a visual identity that could be made of parks or plazas, unique views or vistas, old or unusual architecture, and al fresco dining.
The findings should remind planners in smaller and midsized American cities that walkability is more than about density, street-level retail, or any one design quality in isolation.
Earlier this year, Travel + Leisure readers participated in this year’s America’s Favorite Cities survey, placing Charleston, South Carolina at the top of the list of America’s most uniquely charming cities. Other cities on the survey’s top 20 list include Minneapolis/St. Paul, Portland, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Nashville, Atlanta, Seattle and Baltimore.
In this year’s America’s Favorite Cities survey, readers voted on dozens of features that make 38 cities special, from museums to bakeries and flea markets. To highlight the most bewitching cities, rankings were combined for interesting architecture, pedestrian-friendly streets, quaint bookstores, a sense of history and a friendly atmosphere – and nice wine bars didn’t hurt, either.
Several winners had one thing in common: old neighborhoods that have found new life, with cobblestone streets as well as cool shops and little cafes. Otherwise, in some winning cities, charm means easy access to public art, or food truck pods where locals gather around the fire pit with guitars.
With most of the winners, too, those walkable streets are key – assuming you stray off the tourist grid.
In Charleston, “every main street, alleyway and market feels as though it holds centuries of stories,” said Rachel Rudman, co-creator of the travel series How 2 Travelers. The city dazzled readers with its charm offensive, including horse-drawn carriages, world-class antique shops, and some breathtakingly attractive residents.
According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the majority of retirees stay in their homes until they’re no longer able to do so. But retirees who move to a new home are happier than those who stay in their own homes, according to a study by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. This article from U.S. News highlights six things to consider when deciding about relocating in retirement.
People spend half their lives trying to imagine their retirement lifestyle, and it often involves moving from their so-called boring suburban development to a more charming town, or to another state or even another country. But the reality is often quite different and a lot less exotic, but not necessarily less satisfying or less fulfilling.
Only about 2% of the 36 million Americans who move in a year – or fewer than 1 million people – say they’re relocating because of retirement, according to Census Bureau data. People age 65 and older were more likely to relocate for health reasons than other age groups.
But according to a 2009 study by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, homeowners who move “experience improvements in psychological well-being.” Even for households with a negative shock, such as sickness or financial difficulties, the experience of moving had benefits. The movers experienced either more positive or less negative emotions than the non-movers.
More people are moving to age-restricted communities focused on senior living. The number of new single-family home built in age-restricted communities jumped from 15,000 in 2013 to 21,000 in 2014, according to Department of Commerce data. One survey from Better Homes and Gardens says more than a quarter of baby boomers, or 27 percent, would consider moving into a traditional retirement community.
People moving into senior communities are not usually looking for a bigger home. They want a nicer home in a more convenient location. New developments tend to offer more contemporary design features, modern appliances and access to technology. Furthermore, many facilities offer community activities such as adult education classes as well as health and fitness opportunities.
