Archive for the ‘Radio News’ Category

Builders Off to Early Spring Selling Season

Saturday, March 17th, 2012

As Alex reported 3/17/2012 on Property Source Radio.
Realtor.org  – Daily Real Estate News | Tues, Mar 13, 2012
News Sponsored by WNYopenhouse.com
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The spring selling season is already heating up for home builders, with sales activity increasing and some builders slightly increasing home prices, reports Barclays Capital.

“We believe the spring selling season has arrived strongly enough to kick-start a positive feedback loop in housing for the first time since 2005,” Barclays Capital analysts reported.

Analysts with Barclays Capital project 1 million housing starts by 2013. The analysts project that housing starts will return to 1.7 million — a more normal amount by historical standards for the sector — by 2015. Last year marked one of the worst selling years for home builders on record.

Some home builders have already started rising prices slightly by about $1,000 to $3,000 due to the increase in demand.

Analysts attribute some of the pick up in demand to the rise in the nation’s employment rate recently.

“Job creation has been considerably better this fall than it was last year, which we believe will lead to a stronger, more sustained spring selling season,” analysts say.

Source: “Homebuilder Spring Selling Season off to Solid Start,” HousingWire (March 12, 2012)

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Home Builder Stocks Surge

Join us for our St. Paddy’s Day Show

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

This week’s show is jam packed with guests and information.

First up are folks from Gardenscape 2012 talking about special events. For details, visit http://www.rochesterflowershow.com/

Our second segment features Tom Pelusio from family-owned Rochester Linoleum and Carpet One, now with its newest location in Canandaigua. Visit their website at http://www.rochesterlinoleumncarpetone.com/ and check out what’s on sale this week.

Then of course our weekly segment, “Carlos In Your Corner”, followed by Ted Wood who’s in talking about City Living Sundays.

Join us this Saturday at 9:00 a.m. in 950 ESPN radio.

Homes with jaw-dropping backyards

Saturday, March 10th, 2012

As Alex reported 3/10/2012 on Property Source Radio.
By Marcelle Sussman Fischler, Forbes.com  – February 28, 2012
published on Yahoo Real Estate
News Sponsored by WNYopenhouse.com
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Once upon a time, a backyard with a giant swimming pool and fancy patio furniture were more than enough to while away a steamy afternoon in first-class comfort. Not anymore. These days the backyards of the rich and famous serve as personal oasis with outdoor kitchens, water parks, sculpture gardens, putting greens and even ice rinks.

“What’s outside the house is as important as what’s inside the house,” says Gary DePersia, an associate broker with the Corcoran Group and real estate liaison to business moguls and Hollywood celebrities. Among DePersia’s ritziest listings is Sandcastle, the $43.5 million home of Joe Farrell, owner of a Hamptons building company. His 12-acre spread is outfitted with an outdoor kitchen and covered lounge areas plus a fire pit, 60-foot swimming pool with underwater stereo, spa, sunken tennis court with viewing pergola and a recreation pavilion. Then there’s the guest house, pool house and to score a home run—a manicured baseball field for weekly softball games.

In Pictures: Homes with jaw-dropping backyards

In Pictures: Homes with jaw-dropping backyards

To some, a dream backyard has a sandy beach, sweeping mountain vistas, or a rooftop garden with jaw-dropping city skylines. In Napa Valley, vineyards do the trick. The standout 57-acre grounds at Villa Mille Rose are a spectacular garden showcase with 500 rose bushes, nearly 40 acres of grape-growing vines, an organic fruit orchard and two acres of 100-year-old olive trees. Wisteria-covered pergola, majestic cypresses and 360-degree mountain views add extra flourish to the grand landscape.

“You feel like you are stepping back into Florence,” says Ginger Martin, the Sotheby’s agent representing the stylish $37.8 million Tuscan-style property. No surprise considering the estate is owned by entrepreneur and philanthropist Maria Manetti Farrow, known for bringing Gucci franchises from Italy to the United States.

“Backyards are personal spaces,” requiring both “flair and functionality,” says Stephen Eich, landscape architect with Edmund Hollander Landscape Architect Designs.

A Frank Lloyd Wright-style abode that recently sold for $4.6 million in North Scottsdale, Arizona, is certainly utilitarian—if you’re a kid. The desert crash pad’s backyard sports a 300-foot zip line and a chugging train custom built to resemble the Santa Fe railway. Guests can also swing Tarzan-style into the five-star resort-style infinity edge pool, complete with waterfalls, grotto, slide and a spa for 10, according to Patrick Kirby, senior marketing consultant at Grand Estates Auction Company. And for the adults? The Sonoran Desert sunset and its accompanying mountain view backdrop should more than hit the spot.

Here are five inspired backyards:

Sonoran Desert Home
Location:
Scottsdale, Arizona

Among the backyard’s diversions is a mock Santa Fe railway train.
Photo: Grand Estates Auction Company

The Sonoran desert and its accompanying mountain views are merely the backdrop for entertaining at a Frank Lloyd Wright-style home on more than 16 walled acres in North Scottsdale, Arizona. The backyard perks include a 300-foot zip line and a chugging train custom built to resemble the Santa Fe railway for kids. Guests can also swing Tarzan-style from a rope tied to a tree into the million-dollar resort-style infinity pool, with waterfalls, grotto, slide and a spa for 10. Patrick Kirby, a senior marketing consultant at Grand Estates Auction Company, recently sold the home at auction for $4.6 million.

Tiger Woods’ Home
Location:
Jupiter Island, Florida

Tiger Woods can sharpen his golf game from the comforts of home.
Photo: Jeff Lichtenstein Realty

Golf phenom Tiger Woods owns a swanky piece of real estate on Jupiter Island, Florida. The property stretches from the Intracoastal Waterway to the Atlantic Ocean, but don’t expect the top golfer to hang out on the beach. Woods is more likely to be practicing his two-iron stinger on his personal four-green golf course. Woods’ backyard also sports a putting green, 100-foot lap pool, a 60-foot diving pool, a spa and a tennis/basketball sports court.

Tudor Home
Location:
Westbury, New York

A bridge spans a pond on the Tudor home’s nine-hole golf course.
Photo: Hollander Designs

Hollander Designs recently used a classic and elegant approach in designing the 115 acres surrounding a new 22,000-square-foot brick Tudor in Old Westbury, New York. With smaller “outdoor rooms,” some covered under Tudor or round arches, the home features gardens closer to the castle. A bridge spans a pond on the backyard’s nine-hole golf course and “tens of thousands” of trees, shrubs and flowers flesh out the backyard expanse.

Villa Mille Rose
Location:
Sonoma, California
Price: $37.75 million

The Napa Valley home includes 37 acres of grape-growing vines.
Photo: Sotheby’s International Realty

To some, a dream backyard has a sandy beach, sweeping mountain vistas, or a rooftop garden with jaw-dropping city views. In Napa Valley, vineyards do the trick. The standout 57-acre grounds at Villa Mille Rose are a spectacular garden showcase with 500 rose bushes, 37 acres of grape-growing vines, an organic fruit orchard and two acres of 100-year-old olive trees. Add to that wisteria-covered pergola, majestic cypresses and 360-degree mountain views. “You feel like you are stepping back into Florence,” said Ginger Martin, the Sotheby’s agent representing the stylish $37.8 million Tuscan-style property. It is owned by entrepreneur and philanthropist Maria Manetti Farrow, known for bringing Gucci franchises from Italy to the United States.

Normandy-Style Home
Location:
Sands Point, New York

The Sands Point home’s backyard is full of eclectic touches.
Photo: The Laurel Group

A sense of whimsy fills the eclectic backyard at this Normandy-style estate in Sands Point, New York, which ranges — in distinct pockets –from bits of Italy to the jungle and a beach garden. The owner, an avid gardener, added a magical touch to the outside decor with stone archways, whimsical iron gates and cherubs. In one nook, sea shells are embedded into the stucco walls around the infinity edge pool, overlooking the Long Island Sound. Closer to the mansion, an English knot garden showcases boxwoods growing out of giant cast-bronze fish. A stone path leads to an Alpine garden featuring a gazebo with a curlicue wrought-iron dome. Hummingbirds are drawn to the bird sanctuary’s trellis with trumpet vines and multiple birdbaths.

Click here to see more photos of homes with jaw-dropping backyards

Study: Home Owners Spend More on Housing Costs

Saturday, March 3rd, 2012

As Alex reported 3/3/2012 on Property Source Radio.
Realtor.org  – Daily Real Estate News | Tues, Feb 28, 2012
News Sponsored by WNYopenhouse.com
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Nearly one in four working families spend more than half their income on housing costs, which includes utility costs, according to a new study by the Center for Housing Policy.

The organization found that about 23.6 percent of working households devoted more than half of their income to housing costs in 2010, which was an increase of 1.8 percentage points compared to 2008 data. Researchers define “working households” as those that earn less than 120 percent of a region’s median income.

Housing experts generally advise home owners to not devote any more than 30 percent of their pretax income toward housing costs.

“The data show that home owners have been hit hard by the housing crisis in more ways than just lost equity,” Jeffrey Lubell, executive director at the Center for Housing Policy, said in a statement. “Many working home owners have been laid off or had their hours cut.”

The states with the highest number of households spending more than half their incomes on housing were:

  • California: 34 percent
  • Florida: 33 percent
  • New Jersey: 32 percent
  • Hawaii: 30 percent
  • Nevada: 29 percent

Source: “1 in 4 Spend More Than Half of Income on Housing, Study Says,” AOL Real Estate (Feb. 27, 2012)

Fewer Home Owners Behind on Payments

Saturday, February 25th, 2012

As Alex reported 2/25/2012 on Property Source Radio.
Realtor.org  – Daily Real Estate News | Wed, Feb 21, 2012
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The number of home owners behind on their mortgage payments dropped to the lowest level in three years, according to a report of data from the fourth quarter of 2011 released by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

“Mortgage performance is also improving faster than the overall economy,” says Jay Brinkmann, MBA’s chief economist.

According to MBA, 7.6 percent of residential mortgages were at least 30 days past due on their payments in the fourth quarter of 2011. Last year, the percentage was 8.3, and the peak of 10 percent was reached in early 2010. Mortgage delinquencies usually hover around 5 percent in more stable markets.

Still, while the lower delinquencies serve as an important sign needed for a healing housing market, MBA still caution that the number of loans in foreclosure remains high. About 4.4 percent of all loans were in foreclosure in the fourth quarter. The peak reached one year earlier was 4.6 percent.

Source: “Mortgage Delinquencies Hit Three-Year Low,” The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 16, 2012)

Mortgage problems? Turn your house into a billboard

Saturday, February 18th, 2012

As Alex reported 2/18/2012 on Property Source Radio.
Yahoo Finance  – By Tim Reid | Reuters – Mon, Feb 13, 2012
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BUENA PARK, California (Reuters) – When they saw the house on El Dorado Drive in this Los Angeles suburb being painted a startling orange and green and giant billboards hung on the outside, Scott and Beth Hostetler’s neighbors were initially angry and confused. Some even considered calling the police.

But what they witnessed on Friday was not an offensive redecoration decision by the Hostetlers, but rather the debut of one of the more unusual schemes to arise from the housing crisis. In return for allowing the front of their four-bedroom house to become a garish advertisement, the Hostetlers are getting their nearly $2,000 monthly mortgage paid by the marketing company behind the project, Brainiacs From Mars.

In a residential neighborhood without heavy traffic, cars passing by the house slowed and drivers gawked at the vivid colors and a giant Brainiacs From Mars billboard.

Romeo Mendoza, the company’s founder and CEO, told Reuters that his ultimate goal is to turn 1,000 homes across the United States into giant advertisements for his marketing firm.

And in each case struggling homeowners will get their mortgage paid, for up to a year.

“If we roll it out to scale and impact the foreclosure crisis, that would be amazing,” Mendoza, 42, said.

Mendoza said he chose the Hostetlers because they are nice people and he wants to choose the most deserving cases rather than homes on the busiest streets.

Since he advertised the scheme on his website in April 2011, Mendoza says he has had 38,000 applications, from as far afield as Russia and Japan.

The Hostetlers, who are both deaf, were one of those applications and were informed three months ago that their home had been chosen to launch the scheme.

There are a number of issues that could prevent the idea from gaining traction, namely zoning laws and other city codes that limit where advertising can be placed and sometimes regulate other aspects of a home’s appearance.

But Mendoza says the idea could help struggling homeowners who face being evicted from their homes through foreclosure, although the Hostetlers say they are going to use the money to pay down credit card debt.

Most of the 38,000 applicants have come from California, Nevada and Florida – the three U.S. states hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis triggered by the collapse in housing prices after the 2008 financial crash.

GRAFFITI OR GODSEND?

In southern California 44 per cent of homeowners are “underwater,” owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. In Buena Park, about one in every 270 homes has been foreclosed upon.

“The response has been overwhelming,” Mendoza says. “People are hurting, and struggling to stay in their homes. If we can help some of them, that would be great.”

Mendoza’s plan is to advertise his company’s name and its social media marketing tools on the front of people’s homes. In return, he hopes the quirkiness of the scheme will convince companies to hire Brainiacs From Mars to run their advertising campaigns.

He says he is already negotiating deals with some big firms. The payments to homeowners for the initial experiments are being funded by profits from some of his company’s other projects.

The reaction of the Buena Park city council, and some of the Hostetlers’ neighbors, suggests that Mendoza could face a bumpy ride.

The Hostetlers’ neighbors have been told that the house will only be a giant advertisement for a month. In fact Mr. Hostetler says he would like it to stay that way for six months.

Neighbor Vivian Largent said: “If it’s for a month, I’m ok with it. But no longer.”

Echoing that sentiment, another neighbor, 80-year-old Bob Pancoast, said: “All the neighbors were a little upset at first. We thought they had gone off their rocker. But I guess it’s a good idea for them.”

Mendoza said he had checked and that there are no restrictions in Buena Park on the colors homeowners can paint their houses. “They can paint them multi-colors if they like,” Mendoza said.

Fred Smith, who sits on the Buena Park city council, was surprised when told about the scheme – and not at all happy.

The color scheme was fine, he said. But the advertisements were another matter.

“This does not follow with the city codes,” he said. “They are going to be in trouble. They need to go someplace else.”

Charles Mclaughlin, a finance expert in the housing industry, said: “I don’t think the program will be a success. It will be akin to graffiti – that’s how people are going to look at it. They are going to run into zoning problems everywhere.”

Mendoza said: “There are definitely zoning issues in some cities, and we realize that.

“But we have really hit a nerve, and we can’t let that stop us. Once people start seeing how it works, once they get it, the moment they realize it is paying people’s mortgages, they are always on our side, because of this economy.”

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

See Photos

Fannie Starts Accepting Online Offers for Properties

Saturday, February 11th, 2012

As Alex reported 2/11/2012 on Property Source Radio.
Realtor.org  – Daily Real Estate News | Wed, Feb 8, 2012
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Fannie Mae has announced that it is rolling out a pilot program nationwide that will allow real estate agents to now submit and track their offers online for Fannie Mae-owned properties. Once an offer is submitted, you’ll receive confirmation and be able to track its status through Fannie’s HomePath web site.

Fannie first began piloting the program for online offers in 2010 in San Diego, Orlando, Fla., and Detroit. It now be accepting online offers for properties nationwide.

“Collecting offers online through HomePath.com will provide greater transparency for home buyers and their agents,” Jay Ryan,  vice president for REO at Fannie Mae, said in a statement. “Our online platform will make it easier to sell properties to owner-occupants, which is a major factor in helping to stabilize communities across the nation.”

For more information on how the new program works, visit HomePath.com.

Source: Fannie Mae

5 Housing Markets Expected to Outshine All the Rest

Saturday, February 4th, 2012

As Alex reported 2/4/2012 on Property Source Radio.
Realtor.org  – Daily Real Estate News | Tuesday, Jan 31, 2012
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Inman News released a report highlighting metro areas that are expected to “outshine many other markets in real estate performance this year.”

In its report, Inman News scanned metro areas with populations over 150,000 to find where real estate sales volume is rising, job markets are growing, foreclosure activity is low, sales prices are appreciating, and home affordability is at high levels.

Here are the metro areas topping the list, including the third quarter 2011 median sales price and the percentage change in sales price year-over-year.

1. Raleigh-Cary, N.C.

Median sales price: $224,300

Median sales price change year-over-year: 7.3 percent

2. Wichita, Kan.

Median sales price: $120,900

Median sales price change year-over-year: 5.5 percent

3. Rochester, N.Y.

Median sales price: $123,400

Median sales price change year-over-year: 1.4 percent

4. Des Moines-West Des Moines, Iowa

Median sales price: $157,900

Median sales price change year-over-year: 0.8 percent

5. Chattanooga, Tenn.-Ga.

Median sales price: $128,700

Median sales price change year-over-year: 7.3 percent

Find out the other cities that made the top 10 list as well as more about each metro area’s real estate market and why it’s one to watch in the new year.

Source: “10 Real Estate Markets to Watch in 2012,” Inman News (January 2012)

What Buyers, Sellers Want From Real Estate Agents

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

As Alex reported 1/28/2012 on Property Source Radio.
Realtor.org  – Daily Real Estate News | Monday, Jan 23, 2012
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A recent panel at a Real Estate Conference last week gave buyers and sellers the chance to share their first-hand insights into what they really think about working with real estate agents. Here were some of the tips the consumers had for agents, according to a recent article at Inman News:

Educate but watch your delivery: Home buyer Dora M. Abreau said at the conference that when something unexpected comes up in the buying process, she doesn’t like it when agents say: “’Oh, you didn’t know about that?’ … That’s why I’m coming to you — for professional expertise and advice on the process,” Abreau said.

Build trust: Home buyer Matthew Cavnar said that trust is the most important trait when choosing a real estate agent. He said one way agents can build trust is if they take time to carefully listen to the customer’s priorities. Cavnar says that he sometimes felt like agents had a set checklist of properties they wanted to take him too, regardless of his priorities.

Be accessible: Cavnar said that the agent he chose  “made himself very accessible and his communication by e-mail” was frequent.

Paperless transactions: Electronic signatures and e-documents would simplify the process and make it easier, Cavnar also noted.

Source: “Real Estate Consumers Tell it Like it Is,” Inman News (Jan. 20, 2012)

Qualifying for the Best Mortgage Rate

Saturday, January 21st, 2012

As Alex reported 1/21/2012 on Property Source Radio.
Realtor.org  – Daily Real Estate News | Tuesday, Jan 17, 2012
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Many borrowers are finding that the record-low mortgage rates advertised recently are out of reach. So how can borrowers snag these best rates — which for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage alone has been under 4 percent recently? Basically, they need to prove to lenders they are less risk: Lenders offer the best rates to those who they perceive as low-risk borrowers.

Here are ways for consumers to show lenders that they are low-risk borrowers, according to a recent article at The New York Times:

Credit score: According to one mortgage broker, ideal borrowers nowadays have a FICO score of 740 or higher to qualify for the best pricing.

Property types: Buyers of a duplex, four-unit building, or condo may have a rate premium added. Also, lenders will charge borrowers more if they plan to rent out the property rather than live there.

Down payment: Borrowers who put down at least 25 percent will most likely attract the best pricing, lenders say. “Lenders offer different breaks on rates if equity is higher, so you should ask what is available,” The New York Times article notes.

Also, borrowers who are able to get a low rate now may want to lock it in if they are heading to closing soon. “Lenders typically agree not to change an offered interest rate for 60 days, but borrowers confident of a quick closing may be willing to accept a 45-day rate guarantee, or even a 30-day lock, in exchange for a small discount, because the transaction’s speed helps the lender reduce its risk,” The New York Times article notes.

Source: “Mortgages: Shopping for the Best Rates,” The New York Times (Jan. 12, 2012)