Senate Approves Tax Credit Extension, Expansion

The Senate yesterday passed legislation to extend the $8,000 home buyer tax credit to May 1, 2010, for first-time buyers and add a $6,500 tax credit for repeat buyers if they've lived in their home for five of the past eight years. Home prices are capped at $800,000.

The legislation was included in a bill to extend unemployment benefits and is expected to be passed by the House today or tomorrow. President Obama is expected to sign the legislation when it's sent to his desk.

Under the bill, income limits are expanded to $125,000 for individuals and $225,000 for joint filers.Individuals with incomes up to $145,000 and joint filers with incomes up to $245,000 qualify for reduced credits.

Households who have binding contracts in place by April 30 will be allowed an additional 60 days to complete their transaction. The deadline for members of the military serving out the U.S. for at least 90 days between Jan. 1, 2009, and May 1, 2010, has been extended one year.

Taxpayers can claim the credit on their federal income tax returns. If the credit exceeds their tax bill, the government will issue a check. Taxpayers will be able to claim the credit on their 2009 income tax return for purchases made in 2010.

Source: The Associated Press (11/5/2009)

Home Prices Increase in 22 Metro Areas

The 2.1 percent average rise in home prices in 22 out of 25 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) from April to May suggests that recovery could be at hand in many areas, says Radar Logic, a real estate data and analytics company.

"This is in stark contrast to the same period during 2008, when a decrease in the velocity of home price depreciation gave way to the worst loss in housing value in recent history," the report says.

The report calculates that in the key MSAs it studies, prices have fallen 33.5 percent peak-to-trough and 31 percent peak-to-current.

Here are the 10 metropolitan areas where prices increased the most from April to May of this year:

1. Milwaukee, Wis., 4.9 percent
2. Charlotte, 4.7 percent
3. Boston, 4.6 percent
4. Cleveland, 4 percent
5. Washington, DC, 3.7 percent
6. St. Louis, 3.3 percent
7. Columbus, Ohio, 3.2 percent
8. Seattle, 2.8 percent
9. Denver, 2.3 percent
10. Philadelphia, 1.8 percent

Source: Radar Logic (07/23/2009)

California Home Prices Rise in June

California’s median home prices rose 7 percent in June compared to May, according to MDA DataQuick, a real estate research firm. The statewide median price increased to $246,000 from $230,000, triggered by an increase in sales of higher-priced homes.

"We're just now seeing the beginnings of more normal mortgage lending patterns," DataQuick President John Walsh says. "There's still a long way to go, but it looks like the worst of the grind is over."

DataQuick also pointed out that foreclosures accounted for 46 percent of sales, the first month since August 2008 that foreclosure sales were less than 50 percent of the total.

Source: The Associated Press, Jacob Adelman (07/16/2009)

New Home Construction Increasing

Despite high unemployment and general concerns of too much existing inventory, new-home construction appears to be rising.

According to Friday’s report from the U.S. Commerce Department, construction of new homes rose 3.6 percent in June compared to May. Building permits climbed 8.7 percent, and single-family home starts jumped 14.4 percent to 470,000, after rising 5.9 percent in May.

In real numbers, ground was broken for an estimated 58,300 houses nationwide in June, and an estimated 58,400 building permits were issued.

Here’s a look at housing starts in different U.S. regions:

Midwest: up 33.3 percent
Northeast: up 28.6 percent
South: down 1.4 percent
West: down 14.8 percent

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Jeff Bater (06/17/2009)

Money Magazine's Best Places to Live

Money Magazine released its popular best-places-to-live list with the August 2009 issue. This year’s roundup has a few new twists.

On its Web site, the magazine allows users to find the best place to live near their current locations. It also introduces some subcategories, including 25 best places for affordable homes, towns where there are the most jobs, towns with quick commutes, 25 best places for singles, best places for pricey homes, 25 towns where the residents are young, and places with the cleanest air.

Here are its top 10 selections for the best overall places to live—all of them small towns with strong local economies, good schools, affordable homes, and low crime rates:

1. Louisville, Colo.
2. Chanhassen, Minn.
3. Papillion, Neb.
4. Middleton, Wisc.
5. Milton, Mass.
6. Warren, N.J.
7. Keller, Texas
8. Peachtree City, Ga.
9. Lake St. Louis, Mo.
10. Mukilteo, Wash.

Source: Money (August 2009)

Top 10 Cities With The Greatest Price Reductions

Real estate research site Trulia.com says 24.6 percent of current homes on the market in the United States as of July 1, have had at least one price cut, totaling $27.1 billion in reductions.

The average price-reduced home has had a 10.4 percent reduction, down slightly from 10.6 percent as of June 1.

Some areas appear to be stabilizing quickly with the overall number and percentage of price reductions declining, including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.

“All real estate is local and we’re seeing glimmers of hope as price stabilization occurs in major cities across the nation, including some of the earliest hit cities that have experienced huge declines in the past few years,” says Trulia CEO Pete Flint.

The top-10 cities with the most price reductions as of July 1 are:

1. Jacksonville, Fla., 39 percent
2. Boston, 35 percent
3. Minneapolis, 33 percent
4. Milwaukee, 33 percent
5. Honolulu, 33 percent
6. Tucson, Ariz., 31 percent
7. Chicago, 31 percent
8. New York, 31 percent
9. Austin, Texas, 31 percent
10. Raleigh, N.C., 31 percent

Source: Trulia.com (07/10/2009)

Market Activity

After four separate offers for our NE Bellevue listing near Microsoft we have finally gone Pending. The market has definitely picked up in the conforming loan price range and when properties are priced correctly they will still sell fast. We were fortunate to receive our first offer on day one and the positive activity continued from then until now, almost 30 days later.

In this case, pricing the property correctly meant under-cutting an almost identical house located only two blocks away by a mere $15,000... just enough to excite several buyers into making offers. Overall, a fantastic start to our new attorney short sale program!

For more information about properly pricing your property or about our attorney short sale system please contact Shawn Filer today at 206-919-5388 or shawn@shawnfiler.com

Will 'Echo Boomers' Save the Housing Market?

Echo boomers, the children of baby boomers, will be the salvation of the housing market, Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies predicts.

In its annual state of the nation’s housing study, the center says that the 75 million Americans born between 1979 and 1995 will mean plenty of demand for housing units.

"There will be 5 million more echo boomers than there were boomers when they first started swelling housing markets," says Eric Belsky, executive director of the Joint Center.

Belsky predicts that once the job market turns around, the housing market will recovery quickly because inventories are close in balance between supply and demand.

But the study warns that while echo boomers will increase demand significantly, they may not drive up prices much because their real incomes are lower than those earned by people a decade older when they entered the job market.

"While fundamentally we see what could be the foundation for long-term recovery, we still have to get through today's challenges," says Nicolas Retsinas, director of the Harvard center.

Sources: CNNMoney.com, Les Christie, and Reuters, Lynn Adler (06/22/2009)

Coldwell CEO: Market Needs More Move Up Buyers

This year’s peak home-buying season is suffering from the absence of move-up buyers, Jim Gillespie, CEO of Coldwell Banker Real Estate, told Reuters News.

Gillespie called move-up buyers, “a key to a U.S. housing market recovery” and he met recently with Congressional leaders to support a $15,000 tax credit for all buyers of primary residences.

Rising mortgage rates also slowed the spring sale season, Gillespie said. "When the mortgage rate rose above 5 percent, it spooked many buyers who were already hesitant.”

Source: Reuters News, Julie Haviv (06/18/2009)

Are REITs a Key to Real Estate Recovery?

If you want to bet on the real estate recovery without finding financing and taking possession of property, then consider buying real estate investment trusts.

Fortune magazine says that blue-chip REITs offer a reasonably conservative opportunity for individual investors to profit from the coming real estate rebound. Boston Properties (BXP), Regency Centers (REG), Simon Property Group (SPG), and Vornado Realty Trust (VNO) appear to be among the strongest, the magazine says.

Philip Martin, a senior vice president of Golub & Co., a real estate investment and development firm, thinks there isn’t an oversupply of commercial properties.

"So when we do recover, you are likely to see a pretty healthy snap-back in real estate prices," he says. "This is an excellent environment for those REITs with the right combination of knowledge and capital. They are going to have an opportunity to make some great deals, and the risk-adjusted returns at this point in the real estate cycle are going to be pretty darn good."

Source: Fortune, Michael V. Copeland (06/22/2009)

Home-Sale Hassles of the Rich and Famous

Home-Sale Hassles of the Rich and Famous Anybody having trouble selling their home should take comfort in the fact that even celebrities are having the same problem. Here are some celebs who can’t seem to sell their houses:

Jon and Kate Gosselin, co-stars of the popular TLC show "Jon & Kate Plus 8," have been trying for three months to sell their former home in Elizabethtown, Pa.

Rapper 50 Cent has given up selling his mansion in Farmington, Conn., after dropping the price from $18.5 million to $14 million.

Richard Gere and wife Carey Lowell have dropped the price on their home in New York’s Hamptons from $8.8 million to $7.2 million.

Model Elle Macpherson cut the price of her London Victorian from $9.5 million to $8.5 million, and has since dropped it to $7.5 million.

Star of "Real Housewives of Orange County" on BRAVO TV Jeana Keough, also a real estate practitioner, is facing foreclosure.

Source: Chicago Tribune, Mary Umberger (06/21/2009)

www.shawnfiler.com has been redesigned for Spring 2009

www.shawnfiler.com has just finished a redesign for Spring 2009, including new Real Estate Listings and information for the greater Seattle area. For more information on Shawn Filer, Seattle Luxury Real Estate, Coldwell Banker Bain, or Coldwell Banker Seattle, please visit www.shawnfiler.com

$50 Million Price Drop for Hemsley Estate

The heirs of the late Leona Helmsley have cut the price of her Greenwich, Conn., home by 40 percent to $75 million from $125 million.

Helmsley and her late husband, Harry, paid $11 million for the property in the early 1980s. The renovation of the 20,000-square-foot, Jacobean-style mansion led to her conviction for tax evasion in 1989 after she billed her company for millions of dollars in costs related to redoing the home. She served time in federal prison for the crime.

The $50 million reduction is believed to be the largest price reduction ever on a U.S. house.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Christina S.N. Lewis (04/20/2009)

Picking Real Estate Pros Is for the Dogs

When Candy Spelling, the widow of legendary Hollywood producer Aaron Spelling, decided to sell her home, she let her dog pick out the real estate professional for the job.

Spelling asked her security service to bring her beloved Wheaten Terrier Madison in each time she met a candidate and watched how the dog reacted. If Madison did not respond pleasantly, she took the individual off the list.

Sally Forster Jones, an associate with Coldwell Banker Previews International in Beverly Hills, was the winner. She will co-list the 56,500-square-foot mansion, known as "The Manor" in the exclusive Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, for $150 million, making it the most expensive house on the market in the U.S.

Both Spelling and Jones told the Associated Press that they are unsure how many rooms the 56,500 square feet, three-story mansion has.

Source: The Associated Press, Alex Veiga (03/27/2009)

Mariah Carey Makes an Offer on World's Most Expensive Mansion

Pop diva Mariah Carey has reportedly made an offer on Fleur de Lys, the world's most expensive estate, which is listed at $125 million. The the palatial 15-bedroom mansion in Beverly Hills (above) was built by Texan billionaire David Saperstein. The five-acre estate is home to a 41,000-square foot French limestone mansion inspired by France's magnificent Vaux le Vicomte palace outside Paris. It features Italian marble walls, French limestone floors, gold-embossed leather wall coverings, gold-leaf crown moldings, a ballroom with ceiling frescoes, a library complete with rare books, two kitchens and a screening room with seating for 50.

Surrounding the mansion are rolling lawns, ornamental gardens and mature trees, a 3,000-square-foot manager's house, staff quarters for 10 people, a spa and pool with a pavilion, a championship tennis court, and a lavish garden folly. Contactmusic reports that after three months of house hunting Carey and her rapper / actor husband Nick Cannon have made an offer on the estate, for an undisclosed amount. "They like the home because there's so little that needs doing to it," a source close to the couple allegedly remarked. The house is currently owned by Saperstein's ex-wife Suzanne, whom he ditched for the childrens' hot Swedish nanny.

Source: Jared Paul Stern, celebrity Real Estate Blogger for Luxist.com

America's Best and Worst Housing Markets

As the housing downturn wears on, some cities are stabilizing and some
aren't.

In Las Vegas, the weakest market in the country, prices continue to drop.

"I don't know what those guys were drinking when they thought all this building made sense. If it does work out soon, then there's some force out there in the universe that I'm not aware of," Steve Cesinger, chief financial officer at Dewberry Capital, an Atlanta-based real estate investment firm.

Forbes magazine analyzed monthly declines as well as year-over-year declines in home prices. It also looked at how many months of equity homeowners have lost. With these figures in mind, it determined the 10 best and the 10 worst U.S. housing markets. Here they are:

10 Best
New York City
Washington, DC
Charlotte, N.C.
Portland, Ore
San Diego
Denver
Boston
Dallas
Los Angeles
Seattle

10 Worst
Las Vegas
Phoenix
Detroit
Minneapolis
San Francisco
Chicago
Cleveland
Atlanta
Tampa
Miami

Source: Forbes: Matt Woolsey (02/24/2005)

Foreclosures on Hold While Stimulus Crafted

Home foreclosures are slowing as lenders wait for Congress to approve the stimulus package.

Foreclosures.com reported that foreclosures completed in January dropped 26 percent from December to 72,694, the fewest since April.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision told the savings and loans it regulates to suspend foreclosures on owner-occupied homes while the details of a plan to help borrowers reduce payments is worked out. The new plan is expected to hold monthly housing-related payments to 31 percent of income, as opposed to 38 percent, which was the previous standard. Workouts including lower payments will also be available to borrowers who are in danger of falling behind, but haven't so far.

Meanwhile, Moody's Economy.com predicts that 1.5 million homes will be lost to foreclosure in 2009, up from 1.4 million in 2008 and 750,000 in 2007.

"What the foreclosure-mitigation efforts will do is to keep the number of foreclosures from increasing substantially this year and next year," said Celia Chen, senior director of housing economics at the firm.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, James R. Hagerty and Ruth Simon

Where Prices Have Increased and Decreased the Most in 2008

U.S. Home values declined an average of 8.4 percent in the first three periods of 2008, down $2 trillion in total value, according to Zillow.com Real Estate Market Report, released this week.

Thirty of the 163 metropolitan statistical areas covered by Zillow, either showed gains in the median value of homes in the area or values stabilized.

Here are the 10 areas where values increased and declined the most.

Places Where Values Increased the Most

• Ithaca, N.Y., 5.6%
• State College, Pa., 4%
• Jacksonville, N.C., 3.9%
• Winston-Salem, N.C., 3.4%
• Bay City, Mi., 3.2%
• Rochester, N.Y. 3.1%
• Greenville, S. C., 2.8%
• Anderson, S.C. 2.7%
• Burlington, N.C., 2.6%
• Spartanburg, S.C., 2.0%

Places Where Values Decreased the Most

• Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., -24.6%
• Bakersfield, Calif., -24.9%
• Madera, Calif., -26.2%
• Gainesville, Ga., -26.4%
• Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., -30.4%
• Modesto, Calif., -31%
• Salinas, Calif., -32.4%
• Merced, Calif., -32.5%
• Vallejo-Fairfield, Calif., -33.2%
• Stockton, Calif., -35.5%

Source: Zillow.com (12/15/08)

When will Real Estate hit bottom?

After one of the most challenging Real Estate downturns in history, many people have only one major question that they want answered... "when will we see prices hit bottom?"

We can only speculate about when the turnaround will take place, but most professional economists are hinting at a price bottom in the second quarter of 2009. In Seattle, we can expect home prices to dip another 6-10% between now and then - followed by a recover that will drift around the rate of inflation over the next several years. That being said, many properties, both distressed and otherwise, have already taken a huge hit on price. This fact, combined with record low interedt rates and near record high inventories create one of the best BUY NOW markets in history.

If you can qualify for a loan, which is still easier said than done for most people, then you should be out there right now looking for your next great investment. Until recently you needed almost 50% down on investment properties in order to receive enough income to have the building pay for itself. What are the numbers now??? let's just say that things are looking great for anyone with the means to buy!

Modular Housing Qualifies for Green Certification

NAHBGreen verification is now available for modular homes, providing the green-building certification process to the sector that manufactures 20 percent of the country's housing stock.

The Modular Green Approved initiative was introduced on Nov. 25 by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the NAHB Building Systems Councils (BSC), and the NAHB Research Center.

Modular Green is a new program provided by the NAHB Research Center, which also oversees the National Green Building Certification initiative for traditionally constructed houses.

Traditional homes are inspected onsite by NAHB Research Center-trained verifiers who examine the insulation, framing and other components of the building envelope –as well as the materials and products that help produce water efficiency, better indoor environmental quality and other hallmarks of green building.

While a modular or systems-built home is built to the same codes as a traditional, site-built home, the inspector can’t see behind the walls when it arrives at the building site, making the verification process more difficult. By ensuring that the house and its components meet green requirements in the factory through this new program, the rest of the inspection can be conducted onsite.

“Consumers have become wary of vague, unverifiable green claims,” says Bret Berneche, BSC Modular Council President and CEO of Cardinal Homes, a modular manufacturer in Wylliesburg, Va. “With this program, consumers can be comfortable knowing they are getting a product that is verified against a nationally recognized program.”

Because modular homes are factory-constructed, they make use of resource efficiencies that make them less costly to manufacture, meaning they are more affordable and environmentally friendly.

"This is a very important step for the industry as more and more builders rely on systems-built construction methods," NAHB President Sandy Dunn said in a statement. "Modular construction helps builders reduce their overhead and go green with ease by assembling a significant portion of the home in the factory."

Source: NAHB