|
The Real Estate Web Blog
Filed under: Real Estate News
— admin @ 9:08 am
LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–June 23, 2005–The median price of an existing home in California in May increased 12.8 percent and sales decreased 2.1 percent compared with the same period a year ago, the California Association of REALTORS(R) (C.A.R.) reported today.
“The California housing market passed an important threshold in April, when the median price rose above $500,000 for the first time,” said C.A.R. President Jim Hamilton. “This trend continued in May, with the median price approaching $525,000. At these prices, eroding affordability and concerns about rising interest rates are constraining sales.”
Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled 618,920 in May at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, according to information collected by C.A.R. from more than 90 local REALTOR(R) associations statewide. Statewide home resale activity decreased 2.1 percent from the 632,380 sales pace recorded in May 2004.
The statewide sales figure represents what the total number of homes sold during 2005 would be if sales maintained the May pace throughout the year. It is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that typically influence home sales.
The median price of an existing, single-family detached home in California during May 2005 was $522,590, a 12.8 percent increase over the revised $463,320 median for May 2004, C.A.R. reported. The May 2005 median price increased 2.5 percent compared with April’s revised $509,630 median price.
“Inventory levels, which have been at or above three months since July 2004, fell below three months beginning in March and have ranged between 2.6 and 2.8 months since that time,” said C.A.R. Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. “While not at the record low levels we experienced earlier last year, the tight inventory of homes for sale has impacted sales over the past couple of months.”
Highlights of C.A.R.’s resale housing figures for May 2005:
– C.A.R.’s Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family detached homes in May 2005 was 2.8 months, compared with 1.6 months (revised) for the same period a year ago. The index indicates the number of months needed to deplete the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate.
– Thirty-year fixed mortgage interest rates averaged 5.72 percent during May 2005, compared with 6.27 percent in May 2004, according to Freddie Mac. Adjustable mortgage interest rates averaged 4.23 percent in May 2005 compared with 3.88 percent in May 2004.
– The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home was 27 days in May 2005, compared with 22 days (revised) for the same period a year ago.
Regional MLS sales and price information is contained in the tables that accompany this press release. Regional sales data are not adjusted to account for seasonal factors that can influence home sales. The MLS median price and sales data for detached homes are generated from a survey of more than 90 associations of REALTORS(R) throughout the state. MLS median price and sales data for condominiums are based on a survey of more than 60 associations. The median price for both detached homes and condominiums represents closed escrow sales.
In a separate report covering more localized statistics generated by C.A.R. and DataQuick Information Systems, 97.5 percent or 396 of 406 cities and communities showed an increase in their respective median home prices from a year ago. DataQuick statistics are based on county records data rather than MLS information. DataQuick Information Systems is a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. (The top 10 lists are generated for incorporated cities with a minimum of 30 recorded sales in the month.)
Note: Large changes in local median home prices typically indicate both local home price appreciation, and often, large shifts in the composition of housing market activity. Some of the variations in median home prices may be exaggerated due to compositional changes in housing demand. The DataQuick tables listing median home prices in California cities and counties are accessible through C.A.R. Online at http://www.car.org/index.php?id=MzUxNTA.
– Statewide, the 10 cities and communities with the highest median home prices in California during May 2005 were: Los Altos, $1,620,000; Beverly Hills, $1,450,000; Saratoga, $1,428,500; Manhattan Beach, $1,375,000; Laguna Beach, $1,302,500; Newport Beach, $1,300,000; Burlingame, $1,237,500; Coronado, $1,225,000; Santa Barbara, $1,188,000; Palos Verdes, $1,147,500.
– Statewide, the 10 cities and communities with the greatest median home price increases in May 2005 compared with the same period a year ago were: Desert Hot Springs, 67.4 percent; Colton, 64.2 percent; Laguna Hills, 58.9 percent; California City, 57 percent; Taft, 55.4 percent; Visalia, 49.4 percent; Twentynine Palms, 47.2 percent; Barstow, 45.9 percent; Victorville, 45.8 percent; Montebello, 45.5 percent.
Leading the Way…(R) in California real estate for 100 years, the California Association of REALTORS(R) (www.car.org) is one of the largest state trade organizations in the United States, with more than 165,000 members dedicated to the advancement of professionalism in real estate. C.A.R. is headquartered in Los Angeles.
May 2005 Regional Sales and Price Activity(a)
Regional and Condo Sales Data Not Seasonally Adjusted
Percent Percent Percent Percent
Change Change Change Change
in in in in
Price Price Sales Sales
from from from from
Median Prior Prior Prior Prior
Price Month Year Month Year
May-05 Apr-05 May-04 Apr-05 May-04
-------------------------- ----------- ------- ------- ------- -------
Statewide
Calif. (sf) $522,590 2.5% 12.8% -5.9% -2.1%
Calif. (condo) $420,740 3.1% 14.9% -3.3% 1.9%
C.A.R. REGION
Central Valley $343,610 3.0% 27.5% 0.1% 17.2%
High Desert $282,510 3.6% 31.7% 9.9% 34.4%
Los Angeles $503,450 3.9% 15.8% -3.5% 8.3%
Monterey Region $689,050 1.6% 11.7% -8.2% -11.5%
Monterey County $639,000 2.1% 12.3% -12.7% -4.5%
Santa Cruz County $757,200 5.9% 18.5% -0.5% -20.2%
Northern California $410,500 -1.7% 17.5% -0.9% -9.0%
Northern Wine Country $622,660 2.4% 27.5% 5.8% 3.8%
Orange County $704,150 3.2% 6.3% -8.7% 6.3%
Palm Springs/Lower Desert $388,280 3.9% 6.5% -0.5% -0.2%
Riverside/San Bernardino $364,700 0.5% 24.9% -0.1% -8.4%
Sacramento $379,790 2.7% 24.0% 2.1% -0.6%
San Diego $608,300 2.5% 7.7% -4.8% -2.3%
San Francisco Bay $721,730 -0.2% 11.2% 3.1% -8.3%
San Luis Obispo $534,440 -0.4% 26.4% 12.4% 30.0%
Santa Barbara County $746,950 27.3% 9.1% 19.5% 15.9%
Santa Barbara S. Coast $1,247,500 -4.0% 11.9% 45.1% 10.2%
N. Santa Barbara County $468,520 4.5% 23.7% -2.6% 17.5%
Santa Clara $749,000 -0.1% 18.0% -0.2% -15.0%
Ventura $667,130 2.8% 8.5% -2.8% 10.0%
na - not available
(a) Based on closed escrow sales of single-family, detached homes only
(no condos). Reported month-to-month changes in sales activity may
overstate actual changes because of the small size of individual
regional samples. Movements in sales prices should not be
interpreted as measuring changes in the cost of a standard home.
Prices are influenced by changes in cost and changes in the
characteristics and size of homes actually sold.
sf = single-family, detached home
Source: California Association of REALTORS(R)
Median Prices By Region -- Current Month vs. Year Ago
May-05 Apr-05 May-04
----------------------------- ----------- ------------- -------------
Statewide
Calif. (sf) $522,590 $509,630 r $463,320 r
Calif. (condo) $420,740 $408,110 r $366,320 r
C.A.R. REGION
Central Valley $343,610 $333,650 $269,540 r
High Desert $282,510 $272,650 $214,470
Los Angeles $503,450 $484,590 r $434,790
Monterey Region $689,050 $678,000 $616,670
Monterey County $639,000 $626,000 $569,000
Santa Cruz County $757,200 $715,000 $639,000
Northern California $410,500 $417,670 $349,510
Northern Wine Country $622,660 $607,920 $488,210
Orange County $704,150 $682,200 $662,290
Palm Springs/Lower Desert $388,280 $373,830 $364,610
Riverside/San Bernardino $364,700 $362,780 $292,060
Sacramento $379,790 $369,760 $306,230 r
San Diego $608,300 $593,600 $565,030
San Francisco Bay $721,730 $723,070 $649,240
San Luis Obispo $534,440 $536,340 $422,660
Santa Barbara County $746,950 $586,540 $684,780
Santa Barbara S. Coast $1,247,500 $1,300,000 r $1,115,000 r
N. Santa Barbara County $468,520 $448,280 $378,890
Santa Clara $749,000 $750,000 $635,000
Ventura $667,130 $649,210 r $614,850
na - not available
r - revised
Source: California Association of REALTORS(R)
Sphere: Related Content
          
Comments (0)
Filed under: Real Estate News
— admin @ 9:06 am
ORLANDO, Fla., June 23 /PRNewswire/ — A strong labor market, continued low mortgage rates and a growing economy set the stage for a 7 percent increase in existing single-family home sales in Florida in May, with a total of 24,069 homes sold statewide compared to last year’s level of 22,496 homes sold, according to the Florida Association of Realtors® (FAR).
“Sales of existing single-family homes across Florida are maintaining a healthy pace,” says David Scott, executive director of the Dr. Phillips Institute for the Study of American Business Activity and professor of finance at the University of Central Florida (UCF). “Such sales rates are sustainable in an expanding national economy and Florida posts some of the strongest business conditions indicators in the U.S. Florida’s labor market, for example, is one of the firmest in the country.”
The statewide median sales price climbed 27 percent to $230,800; a year ago, it was $181,900. In May 2000, the statewide median sales price was $115,100 — a dramatic increase of about 100 percent over the five-year period, according to FAR records. In comparison, in California, the statewide median resales price in April was $509,230; in Maryland, it was $275,846; in New York, it was $242,000.
Keeping in mind the history of interest rates and mortgage rates, Scott took a look at their impact on median sales prices in the state. “The acceleration in median sales prices (both for the May comparison and for the 2005 year) of approximately 27 percent is not sustainable,” he says. “Such price increases are being driven by a once-in-a-lifetime low interest rate environment and opportunity. Thus, this is more of an ‘interest rate bubble’ than a ‘housing bubble.’ Most investors and consumers do not have a long-term perspective on the behavior of interest rates.
“But for comparison purposes, back in October 1981, conventional mortgage rates hit 18.45 percent compared to the rates of today, which are in the vicinity of 5.63 percent. In addition, at that same time in 1981, inflation at the consumer level was in the vicinity of 10.3 percent compared to the most- recent observation of 2.8 percent. The key point is that observed inflation and expected inflation rates drive long-term interest rates. It is, therefore, interest rate changes in the final analysis that will help determine the robustness of the Florida and national housing markets,” he says.
According to Freddie Mac, the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 5.72 percent last month, up from 6.27 percent in May 2004. FAR’s sales figures reflect closings, which typically occur 30 to 90 days after sales contracts are written.
Among the state’s larger markets, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan statistical area (MSA) had the largest number of resales last month with 5,482 homes changing hands, a 27 percent increase over the 4,330 homes sold in May 2004. The market’s median sales price rose 25 percent to $196,100; a year ago, it was $156,800.
“It’s a strong market, and the reason for it is that the Tampa area is a great place to live with a good job base, a convenient location and a world- class airport,” says George Bodmer, president of the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors and co-owner of Brandon-based Bayside Realty Group Inc.
Other larger Florida MSAs reporting higher home sales in May include: Jacksonville, where 1,671 homes sold for a 9 percent increase; and Orlando, where 3,657 homes changed hands for a 5 percent gain. The median sales price in those markets also rose last month: in Orlando, 35 percent to $218,600; and in Jacksonville, 12 percent to $181,700.
Among the smaller markets across the state, Tallahassee had a strong double-digit increase in the percentage of resales last month with 513 homes changing hands for a 34 percent jump over the 384 homes sold a year ago. The market’s median sales price increased 6 percent to $164,700; a year ago it was $155,800.
“Sales have been going strong — the still very low mortgage rates are encouraging people to buy now rather than wait,” says Kenny Ayers, president elect of the Tallahassee Board of Realtors and a new-home specialist with Heritage Homes Realty of Tallahassee. “The universities and community college are bringing new residents in for jobs and school, along with the hospitals. People are discovering that the Tallahassee area has a lot to offer in terms of lifestyle, cultural events and educational activities.”
Other smaller MSAs reporting strong sales in May include: Gainesville, where 461 homes sold for a 39 percent increase; and Naples, where 476 homes changed hands for a 14 percent rise. The median sales price also rose in those markets during the same period: in Naples, 34 percent to $488,900; and in Gainesville, 6 percent to $169,600.
A chart showing statistics for Florida and its 20 MSAs follows. The chart compares the volume of existing, single-family home sales and median sales prices in May 2005 to May 2004, based on Realtor transactions.
The Florida Association of Realtors, the voice for real estate in Florida, provides programs, services, continuing education, research and legislative representation to its more than 125,000 members in 70 boards/associations.
Florida Sales Report - May 2005
Single-Family, Existing Homes
Realtor Sales Median Sales Price
Statewide &
Metropolitan May May % May May %
Statistical Areas 2005 2004 Chge 2005 2004 Chge
(MSAs)
STATEWIDE 24,069 22,496 7% $230,800 $181,900 27%
STATEWIDE-YEAR-TO-DATE 105,835 100,006 6 $215,900 $170,400 27
Daytona Beach 1,445 1,261 15 $197,900 $157,800 25
Fort Lauderdale 1,067 1,347 -21 $367,000 $273,800 34
Fort Myers-Cape Coral 1,309 1,011 29 $273,500 $195,300 40
Fort Pierce-
Port St. Lucie 662 647 2 $253,200 $187,800 35
Fort Walton Beach 466 474 -2 $261,600 $189,600 38
Gainesville 461 331 39 $169,600 $160,300 6
Jacksonville 1,671 1,527 9 $181,700 $161,800 12
Lakeland-Winter Haven 545 554 -2 $137,400 $113,200 21
Melbourne-Titusville-
Palm Bay (1) 401 410 -2 $222,100 $160,400 38
Miami 1,189 1,147 4 $354,900 $264,900 34
Naples 476 416 14 $488,900 $356,600 34
Ocala 526 530 -1 $137,100 $108,800 26
Orlando 3,657 3,495 5 $218,600 $162,000 35
Panama City (2) N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Pensacola 582 542 7 $158,600 $130,300 22
Punta Gorda 398 444 -10 $216,200 $177,200 22
Sarasota-Bradenton 1,234 1,352 -9 $316,600 $240,800 31
Tallahassee 513 384 34 $164,700 $155,800 6
Tampa-St. Petersburg-
Clearwater 5,482 4,33 27 $196,100 $156,800 25
West Palm Beach-
Boca Raton 1,335 1,551 -14 $390,900 $290,200 35
(1) Data was not available from the Space Coast Association of Realtors.
(2) Data was not available.
This information is based on a survey of MLS sales levels from Florida’s Realtor boards/associations. MSAs are defined by the 2000 Census. Source: Florida Association of Realtors® and the University of Florida Real Estate Research Center.
Source: Florida Association of Realtors(R)
Sphere: Related Content
Comments (0)
Filed under: Real Estate News
— admin @ 12:07 pm
Technology and competition have transformed the businesses of trading stocks and booking trips. Now they are opening the door to change in the business of helping to buy and sell homes.
Discount real estate brokers have emerged to offer a menu of options for less money. They are threatening to chip away at the real estate industry’s traditional business model: full-service help — from pricing to marketing — for a 6 percent commission on sales.
In the other service industries, changes brought more choices for consumers. Traders and travelers who want more help and advice are able to find it. Other businesses have carved out a niche catering to the do-it-yourselfers.
The Internet has made the discount model possible, said Randall Guttery, associate professor of finance and real estate at the University of North Texas.
“For the first time ever, there was a technology that could compete with the Multiple Listing Service,” Guttery said. “Whereas before buyers and sellers couldn’t really find each other quickly and efficiently, and now they could.”
Only licensed brokers can list properties on the Multiple Listing Service, a listing of homes on the market maintained by Realtor members. The MLS is the nation’s largest database of properties for sale.
Entrepreneurs, including several in North Texas, are taking advantage of the Web to offer a variety of services that cut costs for sellers. Among them:
• Putting houses on the Multiple Listing Service for as little as $99.
• Staging reverse auctions, in which agents bid for business by offering lower commissions.
• Giving rebates to home sellers who use their services.
Full-service brokers say the traditional fee structure works because there are costs associated with superior marketing and strong negotiating. They say that most customers value the help in what is usually the biggest financial transaction of their lives.
Discount brokers say that there’s room for everyone, and that the marketplace will sort it out.
It’s not easy to find a number that accurately quantifies how much of the market is occupied by discount brokers. But discount brokers say that they are seeing their customers grow and their companies move up Metroplex rankings of top-producing real estate companies.
The question now is whether the marketplace will get the chance to do that. The Texas Legislature just passed a bill that would require real estate agents to negotiate for their clients; Gov. Rick Perry has yet to sign it. The Texas Real Estate Commission is also planning to take up the issue this month. If they pass a similar rule, it would threaten the license of real estate agents who don’t follow it.
Some no-service brokers who are simply putting houses on the MLS say it will either push up their costs or force them out of business in Texas.
Lee Thurburn, president of flat-fee broker NetOffer.com in Richardson, said e-mail and fax machines have made presenting offers very simple. Most sellers can have their offers presented and questions answered within the 30 minutes of consultation that come with his service. Even if a client needs him to negotiate for $150 an hour, he said it’s still cheaper than what a full-service agent charges.
“They don’t care; they know they’re getting a bargain,” Thurburn said.
The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are also watching, stepping in when they believe that proposed rules threaten to hobble competition.
The front line in this battle is the traditional 6 percent commission, typically split between agents for the buyer and seller.
For instance, on the sale of a $200,000 house, the agent for the seller collects $6,000, as does the agent for the buyer.
For that money, the seller’s agent generally agrees to negotiate offers from potential buyers. The agents also list the house on the Multiple Listing Service, the largest collection of information about homes for sale in a market.
The buyer’s agent, in turn, generally agrees to show houses, negotiate prices and help the client through the many forms that go with the transaction.
Some discount brokers are letting their clients choose how much — or how little — of these services they want.
Ready Real Estate, started by Aledo resident Von Sutten last year, is offering a standard 4.5 percent commission structure. The buyer’s agent gets 3 percent and the seller’s agent gets 1.5 percent. The home buyer gets a check for 1 percent of the selling price of the home out of their agent’s commission if they use a Ready Real Estate agent or no agent. The Fort Worth-based company recently opened franchise offices in Chicago, Albuquerque, N.M., and Austin.
NetOffer.com offers a la carte pricing for services, starting at $99. Realty Baron, which is based in Dallas, puts agents’ commissions up for auction. It just passed its first anniversary.
Jack McLemore said his Euless office of Broker Direct MLS, a flat-rate discount brokerage, has seen significant growth in the Texas market. The three-person office had 600 listings in 2004, double the number from the year before and half what the office expects to do this year.
“We don’t go out and work buyers and do all that; we just stay here and list houses,” he said.
National agencies are joining the battle, too. ZipRealty, which is based in California, offers buyers 20 percent of its agents’ take, whether that is a 2.5 percent commission or a 3 percent commission. Nevada-based Assist-2-Sell offers to sell a home for a flat rate through its office in Denton. And New Jersey-based Help-U-Sell also offers full service for a flat rate through its local offices in Flower Mound and Mansfield.
The discounters say that the Internet saves money that would otherwise go to maintaining large offices on high-traffic corners and advertising individual properties. Instead, they can take out general ads promoting their Web sites.
“It has a lot to do with overhead,” Sutten said. “We drive the customers to the Web site instead. The offices are there if they need contracts. We have conference rooms. But we don’t spend a lot of time in the offices.”
NetOffer.com’s Thurburn predicted that in the next few years, those savings on marketing will push commissions lower.
“Certainly, a dramatic reduction in fees is going to happen in some way, shape or form,” said Thurburn, a Fort Worth entrepreneur who founded and sold the Internet service provider Flashnet Communications in the late 1990s. “Traditional real estate operations will no longer be able to sustain the large operations that they have centered around the 5 percent or 6 percent commission.”
Guttery noted that discount stock brokerages helped force down commissions for stock trading. But he said full-service brokerages have adapted.
“If they’re going to offer the same level of service for a lower fee, basic economics tells you that others are going to have to follow suit,” said Guttery, who wrote a series of groundbreaking papers on this topic with fellow UNT professor John Baen in 1997.
Full-service brokers, for their part, say that real estate transactions are more complex than basic stock trading. Brokers offer their clients expertise and knowledge that can simplify paperwork and ensure that the sale doesn’t violate any laws.
“There is a cost that the Realtor incurs to provide full service,” said Inga Brown, a broker-owner of Keller Williams offices in the Hulen area of Fort Worth and Eagle Mountain Lake. “So when a discount brokerage firm is cutting the brokerage fee, they are cutting the money that they could spend for marketing costs. Something always has to go.”
She said discount brokerages might not provide a full range of marketing needed to sell a home. In turn, she said, the homes might take longer to sell, or the homes might be priced at the wrong level.
She also said that full-service brokers provide more attention to customers, and that she has gotten clients who first tried a discount broker.
Martha Williams, an owner of Williams Trew offices in the Hulen and Camp Bowie areas of Fort Worth, said she believes that all of the services that her agents offer are important. She said she won’t be cutting back on service to offer a lower commission.
At the same time, she doesn’t see discount brokers as a major threat.
“We know it’s out there, just like for-sale-by-owners are out there,” Williams said. “That’s just part of the market.”
Discount brokers say their customers often don’t want or need full service. Thurburn said many sellers want only one thing — a posting on the Multiple Listing Service — but they need a licensed broker to get it.
“The MLS is nothing but a database,” he said. “By the time you prepare all of the documents and do the data entry, you may have an hour invested. And to charge a person 3 percent for essentially doing an hour’s worth of work is ludicrous.”
Realty Baron customers can check off any of 25 services they expect their agent to provide when they sign up to have agents bid for their business.
Most people select 12 to 15 requirements, indicating that they don’t want every service an agent offers, said Marc Dugger, founder of RealtyBaron.com.
Ready Real Estate lists homes on the Multiple Listing Service at a 4.5 percent commission. It also offers buyers a 1 percent cash rebate when it’s the agent for both sides in the transaction.
“On a $200,000 home, we bring a check for $2,000 to give them for using us,” Sutten said. That check comes out of the Ready Real Estate agent’s cut, so it’s only available if they use this agent or no agent.
Kristi and Rick King, teachers in the Northwest school district, used their check from buying a three-bedroom home in Rhome to buy kitchen furniture and a refrigerator.
“It was just super, super easy,” Kristi King said.
With Realty Baron’s bid-for-the-lowest-commission model, agents use the service to augment their search for new deals, Dugger said.
Home sellers like getting the lowest commission they can find in a system in which clients rank the quality of the agent. A constantly updated ticker shows what the going commission is at that moment. Last week, the going rate was a commission of about 4.5 percent.
Both discount and full-service agents anonymously compete for the same business, and Realty Baron pockets a finder’s fee of 5 percent to 10 percent of the sales commission when the deal closes, Dugger said. For a $100,000 house with a 4.5 percent sales commission, that’s at least $225 from the agent’s cut.
“I feel like, given an open marketplace, those commissions will drop,” Dugger said. “And they’ll drop to a point where people will not choose for sale by owner.”
Sutten of Ready Real Esate concedes that his agency is not for everybody.
“But I think as time progresses,” Sutten said, “and the Internet grows and technology becomes even more useful, I think we’ll see continued growth of a business model such as ours.”
Source: Star-Telegram/Andrea Jares
Sphere: Related Content
Comments (0)
Tags:
idx, vow, real estate websites, real estate website design, real estate web design, real estate marketing, google maps, yahoo maps, web design guide, web design, web colors, virtual office websites, tutorial, realtors, real estate web 20, real estate web, real estate mapping, real estate blogsites, real estate, property search, personal branding, palm, nar, mls, mashups, mapplets, mapping, map search, iphone, internet data exchange, inspiration, digital photos, colors, color scheme, casual friday
|
