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gregory@kush.comPonte Vedra Beach Real Estate Market Pulse
May 13, 2012Fiserv predicted this week that home prices will stabilize nationally this year and then rise at annualized rate of 3.9 percent over the next five years. We concur with the prediction about price stabilization. But we think a 4% appreciation rate for the next five years is overly optimistic. It is unlikely lending requirements will be loosened sufficiently for this to happen. Rather, we expect prices to be flat through 2013 and then increase at a modest 1% to 2% annually thereafter.
To get a sense of market direction, we track the rolling four week average of newly written contracts. The number of sales contracts being written continues to be impressive. During the past four weeks 48 single-family homes have gone under contract (without contingencies) in Ponte Vedra Beach. One year ago during the same period 39 homes went under contract. The five year average for this interval is 36 contracts.
Mortgage interest rates remain at lows not seen since 1950. Thirty-year fixed rate mortgages in the Jacksonville area averaged 4.00% this week, down from 4.04% a week ago. Jumbo mortgages with a thirty-year fixed rate edged up to 4.56% this week from 4.55% last week.
Posted in Ponte Vedra Real Estate Market | Comments OffSoutheast Jacksonville Real Estate Market Pulse
May 13, 2012Fiserv predicted this week that home prices will stabilize nationally this year and then rise at annualized rate of 3.9 percent over the next five years. We concur with the prediction about price stabilization. But we think a 4% appreciation rate for the next five years is overly optimistic. It is unlikely lending requirements will be loosened sufficiently for this to happen. Rather, we expect prices to be flat through 2013 and then increase at a modest 1% to 2% annually thereafter.
To get a sense of market direction, we track the rolling four week average of newly written contracts. The number of sales contracts being written continues to be impressive. During the past four weeks 64 single-family homes have gone under contract (without contingencies) in Southeast Jacksonville. One year ago during the same period only 37 homes went under contract. The five year average for this interval is 45 contracts.
Mortgage interest rates remain at lows not seen since 1950. Thirty-year fixed rate mortgages in the Jacksonville area averaged 4.00% this week, down from 4.04% a week ago. Jumbo mortgages with a thirty-year fixed rate edged up to 4.56% this week from 4.55% last week.
Posted in Southeast Jacksonville Real Estate Market | Comments OffPending Home Sales Are Up Nationally Too . . .
April 27, 2012Nationally pending home sales rose in March providing another indication that the housing market is recovering. The number of contracts written was 4.1% above February levels and 12.8% more than March a year ago. The national data is consistent with the our experience locally as we reported recently for Ponte Vedra Beach and Southeast Jacksonville.
Pending sales is a forward looking indicator based on contract signings. The numbers bode well for second quarter closings.
Posted in Ponte Vedra Real Estate Market, Real Estate Alerts, Southeast Jacksonville Real Estate Market | Comments OffPutting the National Debt in Perspective
April 19, 2012It is certainly not my intent to make a political statement in any way. In fact, this should be of interest regardless of any political persuasion or party affiliation. However, when I saw this video it helped me understand our current situation. Click on the following link to see a two minute clip that does a nice job of quantifying the debt we are leaving our children. What if the National Debt Were Your Debt?
Posted in Simply Interesting Articles | Comments OffMortgage Statements to Get Consumer-Friendly Makeover
April 19, 2012Isn’t the following long overdue? A monthly statement seems awfully reasonable. Particularly when it can be sent via e-mail at a very small cost to the mortgage servicer.
Daily Real Estate News | Tuesday, April 10, 2012
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it will be offering up new rules for mortgage servicers aimed at making monthly mortgage statements more transparent in disclosing fees or changes in a loan.
“For too long, mortgage servicers have not been held accountable to their customers, and the result has been profoundly punishing to home owners in distress,” says Richard Cordray, director of the consumer bureau. “It’s time to put the ‘service’ back in mortgage servicing.”
Servicers will be required to provide more details in monthly mortgage statements. For example, the agency is considering a requirement that servicers offer a breakdown of mortgage payments by principal, interest, and fees in the statements. Also, servicers may soon be required to itemize fees and charges part of a loan and include warnings to consumers about possible late fees. The agency is also seeking a rule that statements must contain warnings about any future interest rate changes and penalty fees if a mortgage is paid off early.
The new rules are expected to take effect January 2013.
Source: “Consumer Bureau to Crack Down on Mortgage Servicers,” CNNMoney (April 10, 2012)
Posted in Simply Interesting Articles | Comments Off
Southeast Jacksonville Home Prices Stabilize
April 15, 2012Prices appear to have stabilized in Southeast Jacksonville. As seen below the average cost per square foot of single-family homes sold in 2012Q1 remains above $150/SqFt for selling prices between $500,000 and $1M. Additionally, it appears prices for homes selling under $500,000 have stabilized.
Posted in Southeast Jacksonville Real Estate Market | Comments Off
Ponte Vedra Real Estate Market Update 4/15
April 15, 2012An initial review of first quarter 2012 sales data suggests very positive trends. Not only does it appear selling prices have stabilized, we are beginning to see positive price movement in the important market segment between $500K and $1M.
We also see the pace of sales continue to improve and it has now reached healthy levels. For ten consecutive quarters we have seen year-over-year sales numbers improve.
Additionally, the number of distressed sales eased during the first quarter. We experienced only 16 distressed sales of single-family homes during the first quarter this year versus 20 in the previous quarter and 26 in the first quarter of 2011.
Looking forward the data is also positive. Forty-six homes went “Pending” during the past four weeks compared to 41 during the same period a year ago and a five-year average of only 30 during the same interval.
Posted in Ponte Vedra Real Estate Market | Comments OffSoutheast Jacksonville Real Estate Market Update 4/15
April 15, 2012An initial review of first quarter 2012 sales data suggests very positive trends. Not only does it appear selling prices have stabilized, we are beginning to see positive price movement in the important market segment between $250K and $500K.
We also see the pace of sales continue to improve and it has now reached healthy levels. In nine out of ten previous quarters we have seen year-over-year sales numbers improve.
Looking forward the data is also positive. Fifty-four homes went “Pending” during the past four weeks compared to 38 during the same period a year ago and a five-year average of 41 during the same interval.
Posted in Southeast Jacksonville Real Estate Market | Comments OffPonte Vedra Beach Home Prices Stabilize
April 15, 2012Price stabilization continues in Ponte Vedra Beach. As seen below the average cost per square foot of single-family homes sold in 2012Q1 has increased to over $200/SqFt for selling prices between $500,000 and $1,000,000. Additionally, it appears prices for homes selling under $500,000 have stabilized.
Posted in Ponte Vedra Real Estate Market | Comments Off
Buyer Urgency Improves, More See Now Good Time to Buy
April 11, 2012Below is a nice article that supports our comments posted in our Ponte Vedra Real Estate Market Update two weeks ago.
Daily Real Estate News | Wednesday, April 11, 2012
More home buyers may jump off the sidelines this spring as they get more urgent about purchasing a home, fearing that home price and mortgage rate increases are on the horizon.
Housing surveys in recent weeks have shown that more Americans are seeing now a great time to purchase a home. In the most recent survey, 73 percent of Americans say now is a good time to buy, according to the latest Fannie Mae Housing Survey conducted in March. That’s up from 70 percent in February who said it was a great time to buy.
“Conditions are coming together to encourage people to want to buy homes,” says Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s chief economist. “With an increasing share of consumers expecting higher mortgage rates and home prices over the next 12 months, some may feel that renting is becoming more costly and that home ownership is a more compelling housing choice.”
Indeed, more buyer urgency is evident in the market. Thirty-three percent of those surveyed by Fannie say they expect home prices soon to increase, which is the highest percentage in a year. What’s more, nearly 40 percent say they expect mortgage rates to rise in the next year too, which is also up from previous surveys.
Coupled with that, 48 percent of Americans say they expect rents to continue to climb, and 44 percent say they expect their financial situation to improve in the next year.
Posted in Ponte Vedra Real Estate Market, Southeast Jacksonville Real Estate Market | Comments Off ← Older posts