NAPLES —The Naples real estate market is seeing several signs of further improvement as the inventory of homes continues to decrease and median prices increased for the fifth consecutive month, the Naples Area Board of Realtors announced Friday. Brenda Fioretti, The NABOR media relations committee chairwoman, said Realtors are excited about the five consecutive months of median price increases. “That is definitely showing a steady trend upward,” Fioretti said.
The median price increased 22 percent overall from $185,000 in April 2011 to $226,000 in April 2012, according to a prepared statement from NABOR. Statewide, median prices for homes rose in April. The statewide median sales price for single-family existing homes in April was $144,350, up 10.2 percent from the year-ago figure. The statewide median for townhome-condo properties was $108,000, up 16.1 percent over April 2011. Nationally, median prices increased by 1.9 percent.
The median is the price at which half the homes sell for more and half for less.
In the Naples area, the total number of sales of single-family homes and condos was down slightly from the same month last year — 960, compared to 967 in April 2011, according to the NABOR report. Jack McCabe, a Deerfield Beach-based real estate analyst and CEO of McCabe Research & Consulting LLC, said the real estate market is seeing some positive indicators in pricing and sales during the past 12 months. “However, we have to look at the housing market and how it relates to other economic indicators,” McCabe said. “My concerns are that the eurozone debt crisis that may head Europe into a recession will have a negative effect in our housing market because so many sales in the last 12 months have been to foreign nationals.”
Fioretti said the short sales — sales for less than market value — and distressed property sales are below 25 percent of the transactions, which is a healthy sign. At one point short sales and foreclosures made up more than 60 percent of the market, she said.“It means distressed properties are checking out,” Fioretti said. Overall inventory dropped by 13 percent to 7,130, down from 8,214 in April 2011, according to the report. As existing home inventory continues to decline, Fioretti said, construction of new homes will start to increase the local inventory. However, McCabe said, the market is far from back to normal. “While Naples’ total inventory is down to 7,130 units, the number of open foreclosure cases and mortgage loans that are 90 days or more past due dwarfs the Realtors’ listed inventory,” McCabe said. “It’s my opinion that over the next year we are gong to see fewer foreign buyers and an increasing number of distressed properties for sale that will have a negative impact in housing prices.”
According to the NABOR report, overall pending sales increased 20 percent in the $500,000 to $1 million price category from 895 pending sales to 1,070 pending sales for the 12-month period ending April 2012. Pending and closed single-family homes sales in the $1 million to $2 million price range also showed a slight increase from the same month last year. The monthly and quarterly reports track Realtor sales made through the Sunshine Multiple Listing Service (MLS) in Collier County, excluding Marco Island.
Earlier
The Naples real estate market is seeing several signs of further improvement as the inventory of homes continues to decrease and overall median prices have increased for the fifth consecutive month, the Naples Area Board of Realtors announced Friday. Brenda Fioretti, the NABOR media relations chairwoman said Realtors are excited about the five consecutive months of median price increases. "That is definitely showing a steady trend upward," Fioretti said. The median price increased 22 percent overall from $185,000 in April 2011 to $226,000 in April 2012, according to a prepared statement that NABOR released Friday.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac to make short sales faster
The guidelines, required by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and effective June 15, would require servicers of mortgages backed by Freddie and Fannie to review and respond to requests for short sales within 30 calendar days of receipt of a buyer’s offer.
A short sale is a transaction in which a lender agrees to accept less than the amount owed on the mortgage. It is a “strategic default,” designed to get a borrower out of financial trouble without having to go through the drawn-out legal tangle of the foreclosure process.
A short sale does affect the seller’s credit score, reducing it as much as a foreclosure would, according to Fair Isaac Corp., which developed the system.
On average, according to recent data from foreclosure search engine RealtyTrac, short sales are taking 306 days from start to finish, compared with 113 days in 2006 as the housing market started to unravel.
Area real estate agents who handle such transactions have acknowledged that they do take a long time to complete, and that delays often result in loss of the sale.
But lenders are becoming more accommodating, though they have issues with short sales because unscrupulous investors and others have abused them, perhaps to the tune of $375 million in annual losses nationwide.
In January, there were more than 35,000 short sales nationwide, on pace for more than 105,000 pre-foreclosure sales for the first quarter. That would be the highest quarterly total since the first three months of 2009.
This is not the first time the government has acted to accelerate the short-sale process. In late 2009, the Treasury Department proposed financial incentives and simplified the procedures for completing them. That included a $1,000 payment to servicers and a maximum of $1,000 to go to investors who signed off on payments to subordinate lienholders, the Treasury said. Borrowers were to receive $1,500 in relocation expenses.
The rules, which took effect in April 2010, were supposed to reduce the short-sale process to 10 days, but didn’t.
The pending Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac guidelines will mandate weekly status updates to the borrower if the short sale remains under review after 30 calendar days.
Servicers also will be required to make and then inform borrowers of final decisions within 60 calendar days of receipt of an offer.
By the end of the year, Fannie and Freddie will announce other “enhancements” to the short-sale process, including borrower-eligibility evaluation, simplified documents, and payments to subordinate lienholders. Let's hope this becomes a reality!
Friday, May 11, 2012
The 15 Happiest Seaside Towns in the USA...Naples, FL is #2
The 15 'Happiest Seaside Towns' in the USA
By Kitty Bean Yancey, USA TODAY
By Squire Fox for Coastal Living
2012
Well, it's Kiawah Island, S.C., according to Coastal Living Magazine's new rankings.
The list was compiled using a complicated formula involving editors' picks, the Gallup Healthways Well-Being Index, sunny days, beach quality, low crime, commute time, education of residents and other factors. The other waterfront places where life is supposedly a smiley face:
2. Naples, Fla.
3. Sausalito, Calif.
4. Lake Bluff, Ill.
5. Tiburon, Calif.
6. Laguna Beach, Calif.
7. Half Moon Bay, Calif.
8. Chatham, Mass.
9. Jupiter, Fla.
10. Lahaina, Hawaii
11. Marblehead, Mass.
12. Stinson Beach, Calif.
13. Cohasset, Mass.
14. Duxbury, Mass.
15. Solomons Island, Md.
You can read about why each town is so blissful in
Coastal Living's June issue or on its website.
Fannie Mae: Confidence in Economy and Home Values Increasing
05/07/2012 By: Esther Cho 
Americans continue to expect home prices to go up, with the projection averaging 1.3 percent over the next 12 months, the highest value recorded.
At 71 percent, a high percentage of Americans still say it is a good time to buy while the percentage who said it is a good time to sell was 15 percent, a 1 point increase from March.
“Overall, consumer views of housing market conditions have become more supportive of home purchases, and sustained healthy hiring is required to help realize these improved expectations,” said Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae chief economist.
Americans continue to expect home prices to go up, with the projection averaging 1.3 percent over the next 12 months, the highest value recorded.
At 71 percent, a high percentage of Americans still say it is a good time to buy while the percentage who said it is a good time to sell was 15 percent, a 1 point increase from March.
“Overall, consumer views of housing market conditions have become more supportive of home purchases, and sustained healthy hiring is required to help realize these improved expectations,” said Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae chief economist.
Duncan also mentioned the recent figures on employment in April, which showed a decline in job growth.
“Friday’s report of a second consecutive setback in job creation supports the view that the housing recovery will remain uneven this year,” said Duncan.
The expectation for average rental prices decreased slightly to 3.6 percent; in March, respondents expected rent to go up by 4.1 percent over the next 12 months.
If respondents were to move, 32 percent said say they would rent while 64 percent said they would buy. The percentage of those who said they would rent increased 2 points and reached the highest level since November 2011.
The percentage of Americans who believe the economy is on the right track rose to 37 percent, a 2 point increase from the previous month and the highest level in the survey’s two-year history. Still, an even greater 56 percent believe the economy is moving in the wrong direction.
Also, 23 percent of Americans reported their household income is significantly higher than it was a year ago, while 36 percent said their household expenses are significantly higher since the same time period. Both categories rose 2 percentage points compared to March.
The percentage of those who think their financial situation will decline was unchanged from the previous two months at 12 percent, the lowest value recorded in over a year.
The Fannie Mae survey polled a nationally representative sample of 1,000 respondents aged 18 and older between April 4, 2011 and April 27, 2012.
“Friday’s report of a second consecutive setback in job creation supports the view that the housing recovery will remain uneven this year,” said Duncan.
The expectation for average rental prices decreased slightly to 3.6 percent; in March, respondents expected rent to go up by 4.1 percent over the next 12 months.
If respondents were to move, 32 percent said say they would rent while 64 percent said they would buy. The percentage of those who said they would rent increased 2 points and reached the highest level since November 2011.
The percentage of Americans who believe the economy is on the right track rose to 37 percent, a 2 point increase from the previous month and the highest level in the survey’s two-year history. Still, an even greater 56 percent believe the economy is moving in the wrong direction.
Also, 23 percent of Americans reported their household income is significantly higher than it was a year ago, while 36 percent said their household expenses are significantly higher since the same time period. Both categories rose 2 percentage points compared to March.
The percentage of those who think their financial situation will decline was unchanged from the previous two months at 12 percent, the lowest value recorded in over a year.
The Fannie Mae survey polled a nationally representative sample of 1,000 respondents aged 18 and older between April 4, 2011 and April 27, 2012.
CNN Money feels this is the time to buy...
By Les Christie
Buying a home may never get any cheaper than this. Several housing experts are predicting that this year will be the last chance for bargain hunters to cash in on the best deals of the weak housing market.
With home prices down 34% nationally since 2006 and mortgage rates at historic lows, homes have never been more affordable -- but it won't stay this way for much longer.
Stuart Hoffman, chief economist for PNC Financial Services, said he expects home prices to flatten out by the third quarter and start climbing by next year.
A number of factors will help bolster the housing market, he said, including a decline in the number of foreclosures and continued job growth. In addition, homebuyers will have better access to mortgages as they get their finances in order and improve their credit scores.
"This is a strong indicator that we will start seeing home price indexes, like the S&P/Case-Shiller, start to report home price increases this summer," he said.
Prospective homebuyers who've been sitting on the fence shouldn't worry if they aren't quite ready to make the leap. Analysts are predicting that the initial price gains will be modest, at least, in most markets.
Read more at CNNMoney.
Market's Stabilizing
Prices for single-family homes climbed in half of U.S. cities in the first quarter as real estate markets stabilized.
The median sales price increased from a year earlier in 74 of 146 metropolitan areas measured, the National Association of Realtors said in a report today. In the fourth quarter, only 29 areas had gains.
The U.S. housing market is showing signs of bottoming as improving employment and record-low mortgage rates boost demand while inventories of available properties tighten. At the end of March, 2.37 million previously owned homes were available for sale, 22 percent fewer than a year earlier, the Realtors said.
“The housing market is still depressed but it had a good quarter,” Patrick Newport, an economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts, said in a telephone interview today. “We’re on the mend but it’s still something that will take two or three years before we’re back to normal.”
The national median existing single-family home price was $158,100 in the first quarter, down 0.4 percent from the first three months of 2011, according to the Realtors group.
The best-performing metro area was Cape Coral, Florida, where prices increased 28.1 percent from a year earlier. Prices rose 19 percent in Grand Rapids, Michigan; 16.9 percent in Palm Bay, Florida; and 16.6 percent in Erie, Pennsylvania.
The median selling price is influenced by the mix of homes on the market and probably was boosted by a smaller share of transactions involving distressed properties. Those homes, which sell at discounts, accounted for 32 percent of first-quarter sales, down from 38 percent a year earlier.
Prices are more volatile than normal because they are affected by the prevalence of distressed sales and “sudden upswings” in buyer interest in some areas, said Lawrence Yun, the group’s chief economist.
Sales of previously owned homes rose 5.3 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to the report. Purchases climbed 11.7 percent in the Midwest, 6.6 percent in the Northeast, 4.1 percent in the South, and 1.4 percent in the West.
Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest mortgage-finance company, today reported a $2.7 billion first-quarter profit after a $6.5 billion loss a year earlier, citing smaller declines in home prices as one of the reasons for improvement. The Washington-based company said that it won’t need Treasury Department aid to balance its books for the first time since it was seized by federal regulators in 2008.
The median sales price increased from a year earlier in 74 of 146 metropolitan areas measured, the National Association of Realtors said in a report today. In the fourth quarter, only 29 areas had gains.
May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Michelle Meyer, a senior economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, talks about the U.S. economy and real estate market.
“The housing market is still depressed but it had a good quarter,” Patrick Newport, an economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts, said in a telephone interview today. “We’re on the mend but it’s still something that will take two or three years before we’re back to normal.”
The national median existing single-family home price was $158,100 in the first quarter, down 0.4 percent from the first three months of 2011, according to the Realtors group.
The best-performing metro area was Cape Coral, Florida, where prices increased 28.1 percent from a year earlier. Prices rose 19 percent in Grand Rapids, Michigan; 16.9 percent in Palm Bay, Florida; and 16.6 percent in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Biggest Declines
Kingston, New York, had the biggest decline, with the median selling price tumbling 22 percent in the quarter. It was followed by Stamford, Connecticut, with an 18 percent decline; Mobile, Alabama, at 14.7 percent; and Atlanta at 12 percent.The median selling price is influenced by the mix of homes on the market and probably was boosted by a smaller share of transactions involving distressed properties. Those homes, which sell at discounts, accounted for 32 percent of first-quarter sales, down from 38 percent a year earlier.
Prices are more volatile than normal because they are affected by the prevalence of distressed sales and “sudden upswings” in buyer interest in some areas, said Lawrence Yun, the group’s chief economist.
‘Broad Shortages’
“We have broad shortages of lower-priced homes in much of the country, with very tight supply in Western states for homes through the middle price ranges,” Yun said in the report.“This is good news for many sellers who wish to list now, or for those waiting for prices to improve.”Sales of previously owned homes rose 5.3 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to the report. Purchases climbed 11.7 percent in the Midwest, 6.6 percent in the Northeast, 4.1 percent in the South, and 1.4 percent in the West.
Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest mortgage-finance company, today reported a $2.7 billion first-quarter profit after a $6.5 billion loss a year earlier, citing smaller declines in home prices as one of the reasons for improvement. The Washington-based company said that it won’t need Treasury Department aid to balance its books for the first time since it was seized by federal regulators in 2008.
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