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The Wall Street Journal takes a look at some of the most recent housing reports, highlighting some promising national trends, and noting that we could be seeing signs of the housing market’s long-awaited sustainable recovery.
The spring home-selling season is off to a promising start, sparking optimism that the market has finally gained momentum after a slow recovery and last year’s stall.
Nationally, finalized sales of previously owned homes were up 4.7% in February compared with a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. But in cities with robust job growth, like Jacksonville, sales gains ran in the double-digits in March, including a 17.7% increase in Seattle and 20.3% in Charlotte, N.C.
Sales could accelerate in the months ahead, according to an index produced by the Realtors association that tracks signed home-sale contracts. Nationally, the pending-home-sales index in February jumped 12% from a year earlier.
Meanwhile, sales of newly built homes in February registered their strongest pace in seven years.
Although sales still remain well short of the peak of nearly 1.3 million new homes sold in 2005, the uptick of recent months is an early indication that “the market is continuing to improve at a very steady pace,” Lennar Corp. Chief Executive Stuart Miller said on a conference call with investors.
For many millennials, coming up with funds for a down payment is still a challenge. This new article from U.S. News looks at how some millennials overcame their homeownership challenges.
It could take a decade (or decades) for many members of the millennial generation to ditch student loans and become debt-free, but that doesn’t mean they want to delay homeownership until their late 30s or early 40s.
Instead, millennials are coming up with resourceful ways to balance the debt of a mortgage with their financial situations.
Allison Hines, a 26-year-old high school math teacher in North Carolina, made the decision with her husband Josh, a firefighter, to sacrifice a newlywed’s rite of passage.
“We couldn’t go on a honeymoon right away because of Josh’s job situation, so we planned on going over the summer,” Hines explains. “When the house process came up we had to decide what was more important: honeymoon or house?”
The couple ultimately opted for “mini-moons” and took cost-effective weekend trips. They then put their honeymoon fund, surplus wedding budget and monetary gifts from wedding guests toward a down payment.
In a new post on Bankrate’s Mortgages Blog, Jean Chatzky offers some great advice for those who are trying to decide if 2015 is the right year for them to buy a new home.
For years, analysts have been saying that interest rates are headed up – that there is, in fact, nowhere for them to go but up. But they’ve instead held low for much longer than expected – and will likely continue to hold for some time.
Those continued low interest rates, though, are just the tip of the iceberg. There are several other reasons why 2015 is looking attractive to homebuyers: Rents are up, making buying a more cost-effective option in many cities. Lending requirements have loosened, and there are more financing options available. The government lowered mortgage insurance premiums on FHA loans from 1.35 percent to 0.85 percent, saving the typical FHA borrower around $80 a month, according to CoreLogic. And, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have agreed to back loans with as little as 3 percent as a down payment, allowing more first-time buyers into the market.
If all of that has you considering jumping in, here’s what you need to know.
Whether for family retreats today or for converting into their primary residence in the future, more and more homebuyers are purchasing vacation homes, according to an annual survey released this week by the National Association of Realtors.
NAR’s 2015 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey shows vacation home sales boomed in 2014 to above their most recent peak level in 2006, and catapulted to an estimated 1.13 million last year, the highest amount since NAR began the survey in 2003. Vacation sales were up 57.4% from 717,000 in 2013.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says vacation sales in 2014 showed astonishing growth, nearly doubling the combined total of the previous two years. “Affluent households have greatly benefited from strong growth in the stock market in recent years, and the steady rise in home prices has likely given them reassurance that real estate remains an attractive long-term investment,” he said. “Furthermore, last year’s impressive increase also reflects long-term growth in the numbers of baby boomers moving closer to retirement and buying second homes to convert into their primary home in a few years.”
More room for friends and family members to visit. More room for family members to move in. A more prestigious home. These are a few of the reasons why some seniors are choosing to upsize to a larger home for retirement, rather than downsize to a smaller home. This article from U.S. News highlights why upsizing for retirement may be a smart move.
A 2014 Merrill Lynch survey of 3,638 adults, including 2,192 baby boomers, found that half of pre-retirees who expect to downsize in retirement don’t do so. What’s more, 30% of those surveyed actually moved into larger homes after they retired. This trend is one of the unexpected ways seniors are approaching their golden years.
“Retirement isn’t all about being practical,” said Ken Dychtwald, founder and CEO of the consulting firm Age Wave, which partnered with Merrill Lynch on the survey, during a media briefing on the report last month. “More and more people are turning their empty nests into nurturing nests.”
Happy New Homes Month! Throughout the month of April, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is highlighting the advantages of owning a new home instead of an older one, with a special focus on how new homes offer more of the energy-efficient features that are so important to today’s home owners.
“Our builder members are telling us that more and more buyers are looking at new homes for their efficiency in design and functionality,” said NAHB chairman Tom Woods. “Whether it’s improved insulation or sustainable building materials, today’s new homes can reach higher energy performance and greater durability than was possible even 20 years ago. And programs like the National Green Building Standard help consumers achieve their efficiency needs.”
NAHB also surveyed home builders about the features they are most likely to include in new homes they build this year. Four of the top 10 features focused on energy efficiency: low-E windows, Energy Star-rated appliances and windows and programmable thermostats.
A new article from The Wall Street Journal highlights a handful of positive trends that could lead to a healthy spring and summer for the U.S. housing market.
The pace of home-price appreciation has slowed, with the year-over-year change in the S&P/Case-Shiller 20 City Composite index falling sharply to 4.5% last December from 13.8% in November 2013.
Not only should Tuesday’s report on prices for January show a slight quickening, but the ingredients appear right for a strong spring and summer. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal see the S&P/Case-Shiller index’s year-over-year pace having risen to 4.8%.
The mortgage market remains friendly, with the average 30-year mortgage rate recently falling to around 3.7% from 4.4% a year ago. Credit conditions have loosened, too. Meanwhile, supply and demand appear conducive to price increases.
Author and interiors stylist Hilary Robertson shares some valuable home decorating advice – and her thoughts on the appeal of a monochrome interior scheme – in this new article from The Wall Street Journal.
When it comes to décor, restricted palettes of black, white and gray don’t have to be dull, says Robertson. The potential for textural and tonal variation is unlimited. It’s timeless and practical, a calm beach in a sea of color choices. And no matter what decorating style you prefer – midcentury, Art Deco, minimal – the boundaries of black, white and gray allow for vibrant flourishes, despite the restrictive-sounding palette.
Best of all? Décor decisions become remarkably simple. The hours studying and combining swatches are over. No more trying to figure out how the chartreuse-upholstered chair is going to match the turquoise walls. Within a limited palette, you can mix pieces from different decades, add patterns and layer textures – it all works.
A new article from USA Today highlights the cities that made the top spots on the “2015 U.S. Markets to Watch” list, part of the “Emerging Trends in Real Estate” report from the Urban Land Institute and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Industry experts say emerging housing markets are positioned to compete with major markets such as New York, Boston and Washington in 2015. With lower costs of living and better-than-average employment opportunities, these up-and-coming cities may be just the place to call home.
Houston, the fourth-most populous city in the country, earned the No. 1 spot on the list – based on an employment concentration in technology and energy that is greater than the national average.
Other cities on the “2015 U.S. Markets to Watch” list include Austin, San Francisco, Denver and Dallas/Fort Worth.
