Real Estate Blog

“Sit back and wait” has been the mantra for homeowners who don’t need to sell throughout the past two years. But in some markets, holding on to a home for five years or more hasn’t necessarily meant home value appreciation.

According to the Zillow third quarter Real Estate Market Reports, about a quarter of the 163 markets we cover had either flat or negative five-year annualized change in home values (the average of the change recorded in each of the five years). In many markets, this downturn has lasted long enough that it’s affecting even long-term appreciation.

Some of these markets that showed negative change over five years weren’t much of a surprise; they’re markets like Stockton and Merced in the Central Valley of California that have seen the biggest year-over-year declines in value, and are markets with the most foreclosures and highest percentage of homes with negative equity. In Stockton, the five-year annualized change is -3.8%, and in Merced, it’s -3.6%.

Detroit is also top of the list, with a five-year annualized change of -3.1% and, in yet another hit to this already-stricken market, 10-year annualized appreciation was the smallest in the country, at 0.9%.

But some of the other markets that saw five-year annualized depreciation were more surprising: The Boston area had -1% annualized change, Denver had -0.3% change and Providence had -0.2% change. In Boston and Providence, it’s easy to surmise why this is the case. Both peaked in 2005, a full year before the national market peak in the second quarter of 2006. So they’ve been falling longer than most other markets. But, on a bright note, these markets may reach a bottom sooner.

Denver is a different story. Unlike Boston or Providence, there was no bubble to speak of in Denver. You can see the market differences in these graphs showing the Boston and Denver Zillow Home Value Indexes since 2000.

That said, this trend of longer-term depreciation is in the minority of markets.  125 markets experienced 5-year annualized appreciation of 1% or more — with the top three performers on a five-year annualized basis being: Glenn Falls, NY (10.7% ); Panama City, FL (10.6%), and Virginia Beach, Virginia (10.5%).

Read more here:
In Some Markets, Depreciation Becomes Long-Term

As part of the coverage of Zillow’s Q3 Real Estate Market Reports, I was on Fox Business yesterday afternoon discussing declining home values. Sometimes I feel like a professional eulogizer. Hopefully in 2009 I’ll have happier tales to tell.

Here are some heartbreaking headlines across the country, all with same grim theme:

• St. Petersburg, FL — “Third of Tampa Bay area homes sold at a loss last year” (St. Petersburg Times)
• San Francisco, CA — “Bay Area homeowners owe more than home’s worth” (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN — “One-third of metro homes sold at loss” (The Pioneer Press)
• Chicago, IL — “ ‘06 buyers owe more than home is worth“(Chicago Sun-Times)
• Boston, MA — “Many in Hub area owe more than house is worth” (Boston Herald)

Curious about your area? Click on the Zillow Real Estate Market Report and find the MSA closest to you to see how your region is faring.

See more here:
Declining Home Values

This week Redfin shuttered its hyperlocal Sweet Digs blogs in San Francisco, Boston, San Diego and Orange County.

Sweet Digs Seattle is still alive but it looks like it has turned into a more traditional brokerage blog; now just advertising Redfin’s new listings and open houses.

Sweet Digs was initially founded to replicate the formula pioneered by successful local blogs like Brownstoner and Curbed. Hire independent bloggers, blog about real estate in each market, create light yet compelling content, build a community and grow an affinity amongst consumers for the Redfin brand.

Presumably the expense of running the blogs was just too big for them to bear in this market. So they’re now retooling the blogs to focus on simply providing hard data for each of the markets they serve.

As a creative experiment in social media, it’s a shame to see them go.

[h/t 360Digest]

redfin, sweet digs, real estate 2.0

Ad: Reach over 4500 readers in FOREM’s feed. Place your ad here.

Read the rest here:
Sweet Digs is No More

While we all believe in and tend to the laws of the red, white and blue, America’s 50 biggest cities are thinking green, according to the definitive ranking of city sustainability released by sustainlane.com, the largest online community dedicated to healthy, sustainable living. The 2008 SustainLane U.S. City Rankings, topped by Portland, Oregon, reveal which cities are increasingly self-sufficient, prepared for the unexpected and taking steps toward preserving and enhancing their quality of life.

See the original post here:
Where to Build? Cities Taking Steps Toward Preserving and Enhancing Their Quality of Life

So you’re looking for a new home, but you’re afraid that your shiny new house will depreciate in value in the current market?  Well, as long as you aren’t paying the tuition, college towns may be one of the safest places to buy.  The relatively constant housing and rental market, plus steady employment numbers, seems to insulate the local real estate market from short-term trends in the rest of the economy.  The consistency of housing demand is also likely due to the increasing importance of a college degree for getting a great job. (For instance, that dream job analyzing real estate markets for an exciting start-up … )

So how much better exactly are these homes?  In our sample of 35 college towns, only 6 performed worse than their home state.  That’s almost an 83% chance of higher-than-average performance.  In fact, homes in college towns performed 5.5% better than their home state. Let’s try to make that number a bit more tangible.

If you bought a $400,000 house in a college town last year, your completely average house would be worth $394,400 today.  Now let’s suppose you bought an “average” house anywhere in the U.S. for the same price one year ago.  Today’s value?  $367,600.  That amounts to a staggering difference of almost $27,000 in value in just one year.  That’s more than half the median household income in the U.S.!  So which cities did best and worst and why?  Let’s focus on some typical cities.  States are in blue, cities in red.

Most of the cities in this sub sample are fairly small. Many of these smaller, more isolated cities seemed to show more prominent gains than larger ones, which is likely because that city is a more homogeneously college-centric environment. Take Boston, where I went to school: It’s known for its dozens of colleges and universities, but it also has hundreds of thousands of citizens not at all associated with these institutions, including an extensive suburban network with which there is a lot of economic co-dependence. As a result, Boston is nearly identical to the state of Massachusetts. Note that State College, PA, the de facto definition of an isolated college town, has the largest difference (14%) between state and city of this sub sample.

Another important observation from the sample is that cities outperform their state regardless of how well the state has done. Most predominant, College Station, TX is still 3.5% higher than the state average in Texas. The data shows a strong trend for college real estate markets being able to weather the housing bubble bust better than most other markets. It will be interesting to see if the economy starts to have an effect on the ability for students to continue enrolling at the current volume. Obviously, a drop in the constant supply of students, professors, and staff would certainly be detrimental to these same markets that are currently outperforming the rest of the nation.

See original here:
College Towns: An Investment Worth Holding?

Hines has sold its minority interest in two prized Boston properties to its partner, Equity Office Properties, for an undisclosed price.

Hines sells minority interest in two Boston landmarks

Many people who are struggling to get mortgages are finding comfort in a growing trend: lease-options. This is a contract that allows renters to lease the property and, at the end of their lease, they have the option to buy the home.

Read the rest here:
Lease-To-Buy May Be Good Option

Equity Office Properties’ buildings include One Post Office Square and One Memorial Drive.

Source:
Boston’s biggest property owner going all green

When you’re in a long, slow recovery period in real estate, even the slightest hint of good news can be significant.

Here is the original post:
Real Estate Outlook: Prices Up In Certain Markets

This is the second of a two-part post from an interview I conducted with Lynne Eliopolous, a Connect2Agent member and real estate agent in Boston (Metrowest). In Part I, Eliopolous shared with me her views on real estate and its constant, cyclical nature.

She also shared some not-to-be-missed tips for real estate buyers who are looking to interview a real estate agent.

In Part II, Eliopolous shared with me some tips to help homeowners and real estate sellers succeed in the (Metrowest) Boston real estate market.

Rebecca Levinson: Lynne, can you please define the area that is considered the (Metrowest) Boston real estate market?

Lynne Eliopolous: The area from Boston Massachussets to Worcester Massachussets.

RL: What would you say to homeowners who are considering selling their house in the (Metrowest) Boston real estate market?

LE: You need to price your house well to get it sold. Homeowners who purchased their house between 2002 to 2005 and need to sell it now may get less money than what they paid for their house. If your house hasn’t sold 90 to 120 days after you have made an offer, something is wrong. The price is directly related to the number of days your house sits on the real estate market.

This is the second of a two-part post from an interview I conducted with Lynne Eliopolous, a Connect2Agent member and real estate agent in Boston (Metrowest). In Part I, Eliopolous shared with me her views on real estate and its constant, cyclical nature.

She also shared some not-to-be-missed tips for real estate buyers who are looking to interview a real estate agent.

In Part II, Eliopolous shared with me some tips to help homeowners and real estate sellers succeed in the (Metrowest) Boston real estate market.

Rebecca Levinson: Lynne, can you please define the area that is considered the (Metrowest) Boston real estate market?

Lynne Eliopolous: The area from Boston Massachussets to Worcester Massachussets.

RL: What would you say to homeowners who are considering selling their house in the (Metrowest) Boston real estate market?

LE: You need to price your house well to get it sold. Homeowners who purchased their house between 2002 to 2005 and need to sell it now may get less money than what they paid for their house. If your house hasn’t sold 90 to 120 days after you have made an offer, something is wrong. The price is directly related to the number of days your house sits on the real estate market.

In speaking with Lynne Eliopoulos, Connect2Agent member and real estate agent for Prudential Town & Country Real Estate, it’s clear she feels firm on her local real estate soil. While (Metrowest) Boston is a buyer’s market now, Eliopoulos feels in another year or two, it will even out again.

Having sold real estate in (Metrowest) Boston since 1991, Eliopoulos says she has “seen this before” and is not overwhelmingly concerned about the increase in inventory and time on market for her real estate sellers. Read on to get Eliopoulos’ take on the current (Metrowest) Boston real estate market.

Rebecca Levinson: Why did you get started in real estate?

Lynne Eliopoulos: I needed to do a job that was flexible in terms of scheduling because I had young children at the time. I have always worked with people–before I got married I was involved in psychiatric social work. In 1991, it was imperative for me to set my own hours, and being that real estate is a people business, it seemed like a good fit.

RL: Most real estate agents exit the business after their first year in the industry. What has made you continue to work in real estate?

LE: The first few years were difficult. In the early 1990s, the market wasn’t doing well. It was similar to now. I went into the market with a good mindset and didn’t have any unrealistic expectations on what I could earn working as a new real estate agent.

In speaking with Lynne Eliopoulos, Connect2Agent member and real estate agent for Prudential Town & Country Real Estate, it’s clear she feels firm on her local real estate soil. While (Metrowest) Boston is a buyer’s market now, Eliopoulos feels in another year or two, it will even out again.

Having sold real estate in (Metrowest) Boston since 1991, Eliopoulos says she has “seen this before” and is not overwhelmingly concerned about the increase in inventory and time on market for her real estate sellers. Read on to get Eliopoulos’ take on the current (Metrowest) Boston real estate market.

Rebecca Levinson: Why did you get started in real estate?

Lynne Eliopoulos: I needed to do a job that was flexible in terms of scheduling because I had young children at the time. I have always worked with people–before I got married I was involved in psychiatric social work. In 1991, it was imperative for me to set my own hours, and being that real estate is a people business, it seemed like a good fit.

RL: Most real estate agents exit the business after their first year in the industry. What has made you continue to work in real estate?

LE: The first few years were difficult. In the early 1990s, the market wasn’t doing well. It was similar to now. I went into the market with a good mindset and didn’t have any unrealistic expectations on what I could earn working as a new real estate agent.

With all the stock market jitters about Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the U.S. mortgage system, you might have the impression that the real estate market is on the edge of some sort of cliff.

Read more from the original source:
Real Estate Outlook: New Home Loan Applications Up

If you have a client or you are a buyer getting a mortgage loan today, count your lucky stars. Mortgage loan lenders are continuing to choke the housing market to the point that even those with good credit are having a tough time getting funds.

See the original post here:
Realty Viewpoint: Banks Choke Sales, Blame Delinquencies