RISMEDIA, Friday, February 08, 2013
“We are heading into 2013 with home prices on the rebound,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “The upward trend in home prices in 2012 was broad based with 46 of 50 states registering gains for the year. All signals point to a continued improvement in the fundamentals underpinning the U.S. housing market recovery.”
Although existing homes sales were down in December from the month before, the 2012 total was the highest in five years, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.
“Record-low mortgage interest rates clearly are helping many home buyers, but tight inventory and restrictive mortgage underwriting standards are limiting sales,” says Lawrence Yun, the NAR’s chief economist.
From RISMEDIA, Thursday, January 24, 2013— (MCT) | Read the article by Ruth Mantell
One of the most pernicious effects of the housing bust was the huge number of borrowers stuck in homes worth far less than those properties could be sold for.
Negative equity has been a major drag on mobility and hence the American economy. Being stuck “underwater” means you can’t sell your house or often even move out if you get a job someplace else.
Now that problem is easing, ever so slightly, with the recent rebound in home prices. About 100,000 borrowers popped into a positive equity position during the third quarter of 2012, mortgage tracker CoreLogic reported Thursday.
“Through the third quarter, the number of underwater borrowers declined significantly,” CoreLogic chief economist Mark Fleming said in a news release. “The substantive gain in house prices made in 2012, partly due to tight inventory caused by negative equity’s lock-out effect, has paradoxically alleviated some of the pain.”
As many as 1.8 million borrowers could have equity in their home in the next year if prices continue to rise, the firm reported.
CoreLogic said that about 10.7 million homes — or about 22 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage — were in negative equity at the end of the third quarter. Negative-equity mortgages and those in a near-negative-equity position accounted for 26.8 percent of all homes with a mortgage.
Negative equity fell to $658 billion at the end of the third quarter, a decrease of $31 billion from the prior quarter. Nevada had the highest percentage of underwater homes at 56.9 percent. After the Silver State came Florida at 42.1 percent and then Arizona at 38.6 percent.
RISMEDIA, Tuesday, January 22, 2013— (MCT) | by Alejando Lazo
©2013 Los Angeles Times | Distributed by MCT Information Services
RISMEDIA, Thursday, January 17, 2013— Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes was unchanged in January, remaining at a level of 47 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, released today. This means that following eight consecutive monthly gains, the index continues to hold at its highest level since April of 2006.
Naples, Fla. (Jan. 18, 2013) – The Naples area overall median closed price increased a remarkable 17 percent from $175,000 in 2011 to $204,000 in 2012, according to a report released by the Naples Area Board of REALTORS® (NABOR®), which tracks home listings and sales within Collier County (excluding Marco Island).
“At our annual Economic Summit held in April, Dr. Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist of the National Association of REALTORS®, predicted a 10 percent increase in the overall median price by the end of 2012,” stated Brenda Fioretti, Managing Broker at Prudential Florida Realty. “At the time, many people were incredulous with his assessment, but now today we are delighted to see the real estate market’s prices rebounding and surpassing estimates.”
The NABOR® 2012 Annual Report provides comparisons of single-family home and condominium sales (via the SunshineMLS), price ranges, and geographic segmentation and includes an overall market summary. The NABOR® annual sales statistics are presented in chart format, including these overall (single-family and condominium units) findings:
– Overall closed sales increased 9 percent, from 8,345 units in 2011, compared to 9,121 units in 2012. Overall closed sales increased 20 percent in the $300,000-$500,000 category, from 1,129 units to 1,357 units, and increased 29 percent in the $500,000-$1 million category, from 794 units to 1,022 units, from 2011 to 2012, respectively.
– Overall pending sales increased 6 percent, from 10,070 pending sales in 2011 to 10,683 pending sales in 2012.
– Overall inventory decreased by 13 percent, from 7,581 listed properties in 2011 to 6,557 listed properties in 2012. Pending sales with contingent contracts are included in the overall inventory number.
– Overall pending sales in the Naples coastal area increased 15 percent, from 1,791 units to 2,057 units, in 2012. Closed sales increased 14 percent, from 1,641 units in 2011 to 1,869 units in 2012.
The NABOR® 2012 Fourth Quarter Report provides annual comparisons of single-family home and condominium sales (via the SunshineMLS), price ranges, and geographic segmentation and includes an overall market summary. The NABOR® fourth quarter statistics are presented in chart format, including these overall (single-family and condominium units) findings:
– Overall closed sales increased 22 percent, from 1,689 units in fourth quarter 2011 to 2,061 units in fourth quarter 2012. Overall closed sales increased 58 percent in the $300,000-$500,000 category, from 207 units to 328 units, and increased 51 percent in the $500,000-$1 million category, from 146 units to 221 units, from fourth quarter 2011 to fourth quarter 2012, respectively.
– The median closed price increased 24 percent overall, from $165,000 in fourth quarter 2011 to $205,000 in fourth quarter 2012.
– Overall pending sales increased 8 percent, from 2,250 pending sales in fourth quarter 2011 to 2,422 pending sales in fourth quarter 2012.
– Overall inventory decreased 13 percent, from 7,580 units for fourth quarter 2011, compared to 6,557 units in fourth quarter 2012.
NABOR Market Report – A service from the Naples Area Board of REALTORS®
By LAURA LAYDEN | Monday, January 14, 2013
NAPLES — Lee and Collier counties saw a flurry of building permit activity last year, driven by a growing demand for new single-family homes.
“It’s the best year we’ve seen in a long time, in a very long time for our company throughout Florida. We have seen a rebound in all of our communities, whether that was in Tampa, Palm Beach, Collier or Lee counties,” said Patty Campbell, president of G.L. Homes’ Southwest Florida division.
In Southwest Florida, the builder’s communities include Botanica Lakes in Fort Myers and Marbella Lakes, which is nearly sold out off Livingston Road in Collier County. At Riverstone, G.L.’s newest community off Immokalee Road in North Naples, 200 homes have sold in the past year.
“We are not the only bright spot,” Campbell said, pointing to other national builders such as Lennar, Pulte and Naples-based Stock Development that all saw a jump in activity in their communities across Southwest Florida in 2012.
Seeing her competitors do well gives her more confidence in the recovery of the local real estate market from the Great Recession, she said.
More affordable prices, lower interest rates, shrinking home inventories and improved consumer confidence are among the factors boosting new home construction in Southwest Florida, area builders say.
“It’s very encouraging to see that people are coming out and looking at homes and buying homes, despite the fact that the economy is still looking shaky,” said Brad Hunt, a chief economist for Metrostudy, a housing market research firm. “Part of what is going on is that people had delayed a home purchase for a year or more, waiting for the economy to turn around or more importantly waiting for home prices to turn around and now that home prices are starting to go back up again, buyers are feeling much more confident about buying a home.”
While home-building has picked up in both counties, Collier has come back stronger in the single-family home market.
In unincorporated Collier, which doesn’t include the cities of Naples and Marco Island, contractors pulled 1,243 single-family permits in 2012, up more than 35 percent from 913 in 2011. Permits for multifamily homes, which includes condos and townhouses, rose only slightly over the year with 51 pulled in 2012, up from 41 in 2011.
In Collier, some of the more active communities include Treviso Bay off U.S. 41 East, Fiddler’s Creek along Collier Boulevard near Marco Island, and TwinEagles off Immokalee Road in North Naples. Interest from home buyers has also picked up in the town of Ave Maria, 17 miles east of Naples, county permit records show.
In Naples, the city tracks permit activity by applications, not issued permits. There were 141 applications filed for single-family permits last year. That compares to 80 in 2011 and 66 in 2010.
“Single-family was up last year, but the other permits (multifamily and commercial) were down slightly, not that they were that much before,” said Sue Monroe, the city’s land management coordinator.
In Lee County, contractors pulled 556 single-family permits in 2012 worth $126.6 million in the unincorporated area, which excludes cities. That was up nearly 50 percent from 2011 and up 68 percent from 2009, when home building hit a historic low, according to a report by the county’s Department of Community Development.
As a comparison, the county issued 373 single-family permits in 2011, valued at $86 million.
Last year, permitting for multifamily homes also picked up in Lee. Contractors pulled 189 of those permits in 2012, up 35 percent from 2011 and up 141 percent from 2009.
Lennar is building homes in 15 communities in Lee and Collier counties, including Hawthorne in Bonita Springs, Emerson Park at Ave Maria, and a revamped Treviso Bay, which it acquired in 2011 after the development fell into foreclosure.
“We had a definite increase in sales in 2012. We also had a lot of new communities that we brought on. So that is obviously going to increase your sales pace as well,” said Matt Devereaux, vice president for sales and marketing for Lennar in Southwest Florida.
The company continues to look for more opportunities to grow its footprint in Southwest Florida.
“We want to make sure we position our company right and that we make sure we have the right offering for people in the market looking for a home,” Devereaux said.
Jennie Gasperson owns Nolen’s Permitting Service in Naples, a company that pulls commercial and residential permits for its customers, which include contractors and homeowners. She said her business last year was definitely stronger than in 2011, though “not as good as it was back in the glory days” of the building boom that abruptly ended in 2006. She’s also noticed more owners pulling permits for renovations and additions.
“There is just more money now,” she said.
The competition among builders continues to grow, as more new ones enter the market and others come back as it recovers.
Neal Communities is one of the new homebuilders in Lee and Collier counties. The company has built more than 8,000 homes in Sarasota and Manatee counties. It started acquiring land here in 2012 and now is building in several communities including Verandah in Fort Myers and Villa Palmeras in Estero, where sales will begin in February. The builder will launch another new community off Collier Boulevard this summer.
“We are very bullish about the market down here. We entered the market in a significant uptrend,” said Michael Greenberg, vice president of Neal Communities.
The building trend is expected to continue. Much of the demand is coming from second-home buyers, but builders say they’ve also seen more young families wanting to move up and new year-round residents wanting to buy.
“People are finally moving on with life,” said Hunter with Metrostudy. “They were delaying home purchases because they were afraid of falling home prices and afraid of losing their jobs. Now those things are turning around.”
© 2013 Scripps Newspaper Group — Online
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