Curbed Awards 2012: Mapping Some of the Most Expensive Homes that were Listed and Sold in 2012

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, December 26, 2012, by Sally Kuchar

It's time to make up a bunch of awards and hand them out to the most deserving people, places and things in the real estate, architecture and neighborhood universes of San Francisco! Yep, it's time for the Annual Curbed Awards. [Listed in May for $16.5M, this Pacific Heights abode was purchased by the Pincus clan in July for $16M]

This has been a pretty crazy year for very expensive real estate in San Francisco. Some of the city's most expensive abodes have finally sold after lingering on the market for bazillions of years. That said, some pretty pricey homes were put on the market and then sold quickly. After the jump, a map of some of the most expensive homes that were listed and sold in 2012.

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The Empire State Manufacturing Survey: December 2012

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When We Say “Gut Rehab” We Mean It

Posted by Jonathan Miller - Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 9:11 PM

Here is a front and back view of a gut renovation on the Upper East Side of Manhattan observed by one of our appraisers. Offhand I don’t know what the building was or will be but other than the street facade, nothing else remains. It’s like new construction only completely different (the facade keeps it authentic as perceived by the local market).

Street View

Rear View

Not much left inside.

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Green Buildings: Fewer Sick Days, Higher Rents

Environmentally-friendly construction practices have gotten a lot of hype over the past few years but do they really pay off as an investment? A new study found that tenants in green buildings experience increased productivity and fewer sick days. The research also found that that green buildings have lower vacancy rates and higher rents than non-green counterparts.

The study, conducted by the University of San Diego and commercial real estate broker CB Richard Ellis Group, found that tenants in green buildings such as the Behnisch Architekten-designed Unilever offices in Hamburg above are more productive based on two measures: the average number of tenant sick days and a productivity change. Respondents reported an average of 2.88 fewer sick days in their current green office versus their previous non-green office. About 55% of respondents indicated that employee productivity had improved.

Based on the average tenant salary, an office space of 250 square feet per worker and 250 workdays a year, the decrease in sick days translated into a net impact of nearly $5.00 per square foot per year. The increase in productivity translated into a net impact of about $20 per square foot. The study also showed that green buildings have 3.5% lower vacancy rates and 13% higher rental rates than the market.

The work was based on surveys of 154 buildings under CBRE’s management, totaling more than 51.6 million square feet and housing 3,000 tenants in ten markets across the U.S. The study defined a green building as those with LEED certification at any level or those that bear the EPA ENERGY STAR ® label.

Another report out in the past week concluded that constructing new green buildings or retrofitting existing structures with energy efficient air conditioning, solar panels and the like will support 7.9 million U.S. jobs and pump $554 billion into the American economy over the next four years. The study, by the U.S. Green Building Council and Booz Allen Hamilton, determined that green construction spending currently supports more than 2 million American jobs and generates more than $100 billion in gross domestic product and wages.

The economic impact of the total green construction market from 2000 to 2008, the study found, was $178 billion. It created or saved 2.4 million jobs and generated $123 billion in wages.

The U.S. Green Building Council certifies LEED buildings and obviously has an interest in the movement, but Rick Fedrizzi, chief exec of the group said something remarkably down to earth in releasing the report: “Our goal is for the phrase ‘green building’ to become obsolete, by making all building and retrofits green – and transforming every job in our industry into a green job.”

Can’t argue with that.

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House of the Day: Colorful Key West Cottage Relisted on New Year's Day

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, January 2, 2013, by Rob Bear

Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We'd love to see what you've got.

Location: Key West, Fla.
Price: $2,998,000
The Skinny: This tropically colorful historic Key West home was listed this past spring for $3.19M, but after failing to find a buyer at that price point, it was delisted in September. Then, to ring in the New Year, it was relisted yesterday for just under $3M. The recently renovated 1903 cottage combines classic charm with a surprising amount of space—4,400 square feet with five bedrooms and four bathrooms—but a typically petite Key West lot, at just 0.25 acres. The outdoor living space is well outfitted, however, with a covered exterior kitchen, inviting swimming pool, and lush tropical plantings. The recent renovations brought a brand new kitchen, complete with dual dishwashers and a pair of ovens, but also a sharp uptick in price: the house last sold in April of 2006 for just $1.45M.
· 1214 Olivia Street [Zillow]

1214 Olivia St, Key West, FL 33040

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On the Market: Ouch: the guy who just won...

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, January 2, 2013, by Sarah Firshein

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Lower Manhattan’s Early November Rental Activity Down 70% Y-O-Y

Posted by Jonathan Miller - Thursday, November 29, 2012, 12:40 PM

I took a look at closed rental activity for the first part of November, two days after Sandy left us to observe it’s impact of rental activity in Lower Manhattan. For these purposes, I defined this area as the 4 zip codes of 10280, 10004, 10005, 10006 when trying to show a before and after metric. I could have gone later in the month (ie today) but I wanted to have a good week of data to fall in after the expiration of the period analyzed so the year-over-year was more comparable.

There were 199 closed rentals in this period in 2011 compared to 60 closed rentals in 2012, a 69.8% drop in rental activity. However, the decline is due to buildings being off line and there being initial access issues, not lack of demand. With 40 something commercial and rental buildings off line in a more broadly defined Lower Manhattan, inventory remains tight and it is hard to see much in the way of a reprieve in rental price levels as a result of the storm.

The mapping software I have isn’t able to reflect multiple apartment rentals in a building. Still, you can see fewer locations represented in 2012.

November 1-21, 2012

[click to expand]

November 1-21, 2011

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[Three Cents Worth NY #187] Manhattan Mortgage Rates Are Listing

Posted by Jonathan J. Miller -Tuesday, April 24, 2012, 11:11 PM
Comments Off

It’s time to share my Three Cents Worth on Curbed NY, at the intersection of neighborhood and real estate in the capitol of the world. And I’m simply here to take measurements.

Read today’s 3CW post on Curbed New York:

By far the three most popular observations about the Manhattan housing market to date in 2012 are: “mortgage rates are at historic lows” and “listing inventory is tight” and…ok, there are just two that are worthy.

I thought I’d mash them together and see what happened since I’ve never made the direct association. Admittedly I was surprised with the visual that resulted….

[click to expand]

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The Bunny

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Extended Unemployment: Initial, Continued and Extended Unemployment Claims December 06 2012

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Rumormongering: The Palm Beach Daily News reports...

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Bits Bucket for December 30, 2012

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Constuction Spending: October 2012

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Reading Rates: MBA Application Survey – December 05 2012

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Extended Unemployment: Initial, Continued and Extended Unemployment Claims January 03 2013

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Bits Bucket for December 27, 2012

Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here. And check out Chomp, Chomp, Chomp by a regular poster!

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10 Years Ago Today

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Monopoly Game Has A New Look

I suspect many a real estate mogul got their start playing the board game classic Monopoly. It has a new look this year. This time rather than just houses and hotels, players can also build industrial buildings, railroads and sports stadiums, many in 3D versions in the center of the board.

This being a game, players can also put up bonus buildings that protect their properties or “hazard buildings” that lower the value of opponent’s properties. Not sure what the real world equivalent of those would be, maybe a night club.

Parker Brothers launched Monopoly during the Great Depression and it was a huge hit in those tough times. This year though, going bankrupt and losing property seems a little too close to home.

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[Case Shiller] Recovery Is Back In Season

Posted by Jonathan Miller - Thursday, December 27, 2012, 7:00 AM

[click to expand chart]

Well the frequently maligned but most influential housing metric was published yesterday, the S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Indices and the 20 City index rose 4.3% year-over-year. The only two “regions” to see declines were Chicago and New York.

Baseball Correlation? Chicago and New York are the only 2 cities who also have 2 Major League Baseball teams. No, Los Angeles doesn’t have two MLB teams…the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are clearly trying to have it both ways.

But I digress…

With all the talk about “recovery” (aka happy housing news) these days it just dawned on me that since 2000, the Case Shiller HPI only began to show significant seasonality since mid-2009. No one has really talked about this and I’m not sure what it means, but it just jumped out at me today.

Pre-peak housing prices fueled by falling lending standards and the seasons were largely crushed by the locomotive known as the housing boom. Therefore the seasonally adjusted and non-seasonally adjusted price trends were virtually the same during the market’s ascent. I distinctly remember real estate agents commenting during this period that the seasons were going away and housing market patterns were changing permanently.

Post-peak housing prices After the plunge subsided in mid-2009, the market began to ebb and flow with peaks in the spring/summer and troughs in the fall/winter.

Note to self
The next time CSI prices begins to smooth into nothingness, perhaps it’s a housing boom, baby.

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Best US Housing Markets for Buyers and Sellers

"Much of that strength is driven by investor interest, as many distressed and non-distressed homes are purchased and transformed into rentals," says Stan Humphries, Zillow's chief economist, in the report. "This investor activity is contributing to very low inventory levels, which increases demand and helps drive up prices, particularly for less expensive homes in these markets."

(Read More: Housing's Recovery Means Fewer Can Afford Home)

The best buyers' markets are equally surprising, with Chicago, Cleveland and Philadelphia topping the list.

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ADP National Employment Report: December 2012

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"Macho Man:"Randy Savage

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The Best Homes for the Holidays

Whether it is baking holiday cookies, decorating the Christmas tree or, watching a special movie together, this time of year calls for family and friends to come together under one roof and take part in special holiday traditions. In the spirit of togetherness, we’d like to explore the most luxurious  homes for the holidays – those that can seat large families for dinner, feature exquisite entertainment options, or just provide that special holiday cheer with their unique amenities. Let’s take a look!

#1 Home’s Holiday Highlight: Large chef’s kitchen for cooking the holiday meals together.

Location: Farmington, CT

Price: $9,999,999

Bedrooms: 52

Bathrooms: 25

Size: 48, 515 square feet

See more photos of this home.

See more homes for sale in Farmington, CT.

#2  Home’s Holiday Highlight: Massive grand dining room to seat the entire family for dinner.

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Price: $8,900,000

Bedrooms: 10

Bathrooms: 18

Size: 16,000 square feet

See more photos of this home.

See more homes for sale in Los Angeles, CA.

#3 Home’s Holiday Highlight: Gift wrapping room to secretly wrap and store all the presents.

Location: Beverly Hills, CA

Price: $13,500,000

Bedrooms: 6

Size: 10,000 square feet

See more photos of this home.

See more homes for sale in Beverly Hills, CA.

#4 Home’s Holiday Highlight: Large home theater to enjoy a family movie.

Location: Scottsdale, AZ

Price: $9,788,000

Bedrooms: 6

Bathrooms: 8

Size: 11,600 square feet

See more photos of this home.

See more homes for sale in Scottsdale, AZ.

#5 Home’s Holiday Highlight: Wine-tasting room for adult entertaining.

Location: Montecito, CA

Price: $14,900,000

Bedrooms: 5

Bathrooms: 8

Size: 12,000 square feet

See more photos of this home.

See more homes for sale in Montecito, CA.

#6 Home’s Holiday Highlight: Large stage for family talent shows.

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Price: $7,495,000

Bedrooms: 5

Size: 10,000 square feet

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See more homes for sale in Los Angeles, CA.

#7 Home’s Holiday Highlight: Cozy cabin located near ski lodges for winter sporting activities.

Location: Aspen, CO

Price: $37,500,000

Bedrooms: 6

Bathrooms: 6 full / 3 half

Size: 11,722 square feet

See more photos of this home.

See more homes for sale in Aspen, Co.

#8 Home’s Holiday Highlight: Gaming room with bowling lanes.

Location: Washington, UT

Price: $6,995,000

Bedrooms: 7

Bathrooms: 10

Size: 24,500 square feet

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See more homes for sale in Washington, UT.

Author information not available.

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[More Activity, Later] 3Q 2012 Long Island Report

Posted by Jonathan Miller - Thursday, October 25, 2012, 2:37 PM

We published our report on the Long Island sales market for 3Q 2012.   This is part of an evolving market report series I’ve been writing for Douglas Elliman since 1994.

Key Points

Long Island

-Housing prices generally stable
-Listing inventory continues to fall sharply
-Pending sales outpaced closed sales reflecting a late season rise in activity
-Despite tight credit, record low mortgage rates are pulling more people into the market.

Here’s an excerpt from the report:

…The pace of the Long Island housing market has been accelerating. The rise in sales and sharp decline in available inventory resulted in the fastest absorption rate in nearly six years. Contract signings rose faster than the pace of closings on both a quarterly and year-to-date basis. Median sales price was $365,000, unchanged from the prior year quarter. Average sales price saw a nominal 0.8% slip from $457,496 to $454,037 over the same period. The second, third, and fourth quintiles saw no or nominal changes in median sales price compared to the prior year quarter, while the first and fifth quintiles declined 2.2% and 2.9% respectively over the same period. There were 5,638 sales in the third quarter, 9.7% above 5,141 sales in the same period last year. Pending sales saw a larger gain over the same period, rising 12.9% to 5,436 from 4,813. Year-to-date, these metrics showed a similar pattern, reflecting the expanding activity levels later in the year…

You can build your own custom data tables on the market – now updated with 3Q 12 data. I’ll post the updated 3Q12 charts soon. In the meantime you can browse our chart library.

The Elliman Report: 3Q 2012 Long Island Sales [Miller Samuel]
The Elliman Report: 3Q 2012 Long Island Sales [Prudential Douglas Elliman]
Market Chart Library [Miller Samuel]
Aggregated Custom Market Data Tables [Miller Samuel]

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Yes, Mortgage Rates Impact Housing Prices

Posted by Jonathan Miller - Wednesday, December 26, 2012, 4:50 PM

I few weeks ago I was dressed down by an analytics friend of mine who is in the business. Based on his employment and housing sales analysis in Alabama (I’ve never been) he suggested my comments about mortgage rates influencing housing prices as anecdotal and hypocritical (who says analysts have to have tact) – that only employment can be correlated. And further…since mortgage rates can not be proved to influence housing sales through multiple regression, any such claims are hearsay and anecdotal. While I agree that housing’s largest influence comes from employment, I was a bit surprised by the out-of-left-field agita I inspired.

He was focused on the predictive element of a trend versus a knee jerk reaction to a sudden change in a metric. My comment about a spike in mortgage rates at this moment (not predicting it) as ending the party – is apparently what caused him to lose faith in my analysis. Appreciative of the constructive feedback, I whipped up a couple of US macro price charts.

Yes, US employment trends correlate with US housing prices and mortgage rates correlate by showing an inverse trend against housing prices.

Predictive? Only if considered with other metrics.
Anecdotal? Hardly.

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[Stable and Sandy] 1Q 2012 Hamptons/North Fork Sales Report

Posted by Jonathan J. Miller -Thursday, April 26, 2012, 2:36 PM
3 Comments

We published our report on Hamptons/North Fork sales for 1Q 2012 this morning.   I’ve been authoring this report series for Douglas Elliman since 1994.

Here are some takeaways:

Overall housing prices (median sales price up 1.2% ) continued to show stability.The luxury market showed larger year over year increases in the price indicators than the overall market.Number of sales were up nominally from same period last year (0.5%).Listing inventory is down sharply year over year (down 17.5%) – home sellers are more cautious about entering the market (ie sales flat but inventory falling).Properties taking somewhat longer to sell and there is a little more negotiability on price between buyer and seller (days on market and listing discount expanded)Despite strength in prices at high end, we saw an uptick in market share of sub-million sales – the decline in mortgage rates and warm weather brought buyers out sooner.

Here’s an excerpt from the report:

Median sales price edged up 1.2% to $630,000 from $622,500 in the prior year quarter. Average sales price increased 17% to $1,437,597 from $1,228,857 over the same period, largely due to continued strength at the upper end of the market. In the median sales price by quintile analysis, the fifth quintile increased 24.8% yearover- year, while the remainder of the market segments showed modest change and mixed results over the same period…

I’ve got a tool to build custom data tables and view charts on the market.

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On The Margin: Total Unemployment November 2012

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Sold Stuff: In late December word got out...

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, January 2, 2013, by Sally Kuchar

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Trump Cuts A Casino Deal

He’s back. After seeing his New Jersey casino empire slide into bankruptcy for a third time, real estate baron Donald J. Trump has returned to the table.

As part of a deal cut with bondholders and announced today, Trump will receive a 10% stake in a newly recapitalized company, which owns three casinos in Atlantic City that carry the Trump name.

In exchange Trump and his daughter Ivanka, both former board members, agreed to drop a lawsuit they had against the company. Trump will be free to use his name on other gambling ventures, just not in five neighboring states.

Trump left the board of Trump Entertainment Resorts in February. It is struggling under $1.7 billion in debt. “I have always felt a tremendous responsibility to New Jersey, and especially to Atlantic City,” he said after cutting this new deal.

Others parts of Trump’s empire—wobbly though it may be—continue to grow. The Trump Waikiki hotel opened this week in Hawaii and the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat just recognized his Trump International Hotel and Towers in Chicago as the sixth largest building in the world thanks to a new way of measuring skyscrapers. Previously they were measured starting with the front entrance, but since many buildings have multi-level entrances, the new standard is the lowest pedestrian entrance.

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PriceChopper: $100,000 Off for Forest Hill Contemporary Abode

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, December 27, 2012, by Sally Kuchar Was: $1,795,000
Now: $1,695,000
You Save: $100,000!

179 Mendosa landed on the market in mid-October asking $1,795,000. The 3-bed, 4.5-bath, 3,200-square-foot single-family home sits on a "very private" cul-de-sac in the Forest Hill neighborhood. While built in 1980, the home was recently "beautifully renovated." Property highlights include amazing city views from all four levels, and a living room with "massive" windows that frame said views.
· 179 Mendosa [Redfin]

179 Mendosa Avenue, San Francisco, CA

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PriceChopper: Jackson Square One Bedroom Gets Sent to the Chopping Block

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, January 2, 2013, by Sally Kuchar Was: $699,000
Now: $649,000
You Save: $50,000

We featured this property on our weekly Open House Report, but unfortunately that wasn't enough to entice a buyer. The 1-bed, 1-bath, 909-square-foot condo at 733 Front Street in Jackson Square has been on the market since early December, and took a price chop of $50,000 on December 26. By way of Redfin agent David Pemstein we learn that It's a "Very large 1 bedroom and nice bathroom. Very sleek and modern design. Fitness room and roof deck with amazing view of East Bay." Readers, what's the problem? It's a boutique luxury building with 69 condos, and there's a door person during business hours. Monthly HOA dues are $651 and only leased parking is available for an additional $350 per month.
· 733 Front Street, #201 [Redfin]
· Weekend Open House Report: One Bedroom Edition [Curbed SF]

733 Front Street, San Francisco, CA

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Party Time: With less than a week left...

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, December 26, 2012, by Sally Kuchar

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Merry Christmas

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The Food and Real Estate Connection

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Homeowners Hit by Sandy May Save Thousands of Dollars

How is a hurricane deductible different from your basic homeowner policy deductible? It is based on a percentage of your property's insured value, and it can be up to 5 percent. So let's say your home is insured for $300,000. That's a $15,000 deductible, which is likely far higher than your regular deductible. The average homeowner deductible is between $500 and $1000.

"We have informed the insurance industry that hurricane deductibles are not triggered because Sandy did not have sustained hurricane-force winds when it made land in New York," noted NY's Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky in the release. "We will be working with insurers to help them respond as quickly as possible to homeowners who need to file claims. And we will be sending our mobile command center to hard hit areas to help consumers with insurance questions and problems."

(Read More: Trains Roll, but Northeast Struggles Back From Sandy.)

There is very specific language in homeowner insurance policies in terms of hurricane deductibles. Usually the storm has to reach specific wind speeds to trigger the deductible. A state governor couldn't necessarily override that private contract.

"The way the insurers look at it is that this is a private contract between the insurer and the policy holder, and the policy as written is going to be enforced," noted Michael Barry of the Insurance Information Institute. "In this case Sandy does not appear to have reached the threshold to activate the hurricane deductible."

The insurance companies probably didn't need Governor Cuomo's directive as such, since they were already doing their own assessments immediately following the storm. (Read More: Sandy's Economic Cost: Up to $50 Billion and Counting.)

"We have done a review of the best available National Weather Service data and compared that to our language, and we have determined that the hurricane deductible will not apply in those states," said State Farm spokesman Phil Supple.

As for how much the difference in the deductibles will cost the nation's insurance companies, that is impossible to calculate at this point, as the companies are still waiting to get in to the hardest hit areas and tally the damage. It is also, as Supple added, "moot" to do any figuring, as they higher deductible clearly doesn't apply.

—By CNBC's Diana Olick; Follow Her on Twitter @Diana_Olick and Facebook.Questions? Comments? RealtyCheck@cnbc.com

Click on ticker to follow real estate news:

Construction & General Building Materials

—The Home Depot
—Lowe's Companies
—The Sherwin-WIlliams Company
—E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
—Apogee Enterprises

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Extended Unemployment: Initial, Continued and Extended Unemployment Claims November 29 2012

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Year in Curbed 2012: The 10 Priciest Properties to Hit the Market in 2012

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, December 28, 2012, by Rob Bear

The courtyard swimming pool at the $100M Casa Casuarina, the former home of late fashion designer Gianni Versace, which was initially listed for $125M in June.

For the world of ultra high-priced listings, 2012 was a stellar year, with three $95M New York apartments listed within a month of one another, three pocket-listed L.A.-area mansions whispering $150M price tags, and the return of Gianni Versace's epic Miami Beach pad. Find all of the year's most expensive listings on the map below.

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Sorry Readers: Homebuyer Credit Not Retroactive

Update: Just heard from White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki. The start date for the new $6,500 credit for existing homeowners will take effect as soon as Obama signs the bill into law tomorrow (Nov. 6). Sorry for the confusion. And thanks to “Dean” whose comment alerted me to my error. (In case you’re curious, this is the actual text of the bill. The credit extension was attached to a larger bill to extend unemployment benefits).

My last post was flooded with comments from readers asking whether the expanded credit will apply to them even though they closed on a home purchase earlier this year (or last year or the year before…). The answer: “No.”

It might seem unfair. But the new credit will take effect only after President Obama signs the measure into law tomorrow. Buyers will have until April 30 to sign purchase contracts and must close on the house by the end of June.

Under the new $10.8 billion plan, first-time buyers would continue to get $8,000 for buying a home. But existing homeowners will now be able to claim $6,500 credit for selling their current home and buying a new one, as long as they resided in the home they’re selling for at least five of the past eight years.

Income limits will also expand to $125,000 a year for individuals, and $225,000 a year for married couples. Sounds like a good deal right? Not judging from the flood of comments we’ve gotten from existing buyers who bought during the past several months. They feel gypped.

A commenter identifying himself as “Jim” said he bought a home during the Great Recession and was miffed that he didn’t get a tax credit because he wasn’t a first-time buyer. Now he’s angry.

“If they are handing out free money, give it to those who actually risked their capital,” he wrote a couple hours ago. “I am against this credit altogether … The government deciding who gets money and who doesn’t is TYRANNICAL.”

I sympathize with the comments. My parents only sold their Westchester County, N.Y. home of 30 years only a week ago and bought a much-less-expensive house one 15 miles away. They certainly would have qualified for the $6,500 credit and I’m afraid to break the news to them.

But the point of the credit is to stimulate home sales, not to hand out spending money (Though it will indeed stimulate some consumer spending). As I mentioned in my last post, it could be even less effective and efficient than the previous credit. If that’s the case, it’s best to put some limits on cost. Congressional analysts estimate that the six-month extension and expansion of the credit will cost taxpayers $10.8 billion. Can you imagine the price tag if it was made retroactive to the beginning of 2008?

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Reading Rates: MBA Application Survey – November 28 2012

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[Buyers Sellers Closer] 3Q 2012 Palm Beach Report

Posted by Jonathan Miller - Saturday, October 20, 2012, 2:00 PM

We published our inaugural report on the Palm Beach, Florida sales market for 3Q 2012.   This is part of an evolving market report series I’ve been writing for Douglas Elliman since 1994.

Key Points

-Condo sales reached their second highest level in more than six years.
-Buyers and sellers moved closer together on price and the market appears to be absorbing more of the older listing inventory.
-Single family homes selling 2 months faster than a year ago.

Here’s an excerpt from the report:

CONDO/TOWNHOUSE The number of sales jumped 45.5% to 64 units in the third quarter, from the prior year quarter. The year-to-date number of sales is at its second highest level in more than six years. Median sales price increased 3.3% to $390,000 from the prior year quarter, while average sales price and average price per square foot increased 6.5% and 27.7% respectively…

SINGLE FAMILY Median sales price increased 5.7% to $2,600,000 from the prior year quarter. Average sales price and average price per square foot dropped 16.4% and 15.1% over the same period. Arguably a small submarket that could be characterized as stable, the number of sales fell to 23 from 25 in the prior year quarter…

You can build your own custom data tables on the market – will be updated with 3Q 12 data shortly NOW UPDATED FOR 3Q12. We’ll be adding a chart library for this market area soon!

The Elliman Report: 3Q 2012 Palm Beach [Miller Samuel]
The Elliman Report: 3Q 2012 Palm Beach [Douglas Elliman]
Aggregated Custom Market Data Tables [Miller Samuel]

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Second Wave

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The Good Life Magazine – The French View of NYC

Posted by Jonathan Miller - Sunday, November 25, 2012, 7:53 PM

I provided some insight to a recent edition of a new French Magazine called The Good Life – the issue was dubbed 100% New York.

Since we make so much of the influence of international buyers in the New York City market, I found the issue to be refreshing as I flipped through it in its entirety, as if providing some sort of validation that the way we see the market as locals is how others outside of the US see it.

Of course this is a stretch because the issue is entirely in french, but hey, I took five years of french in school and on a good day can remember how to ask for permission to sharpen a pencil.

For the real estate portion, you can open it here, for the entire magazine – you can buy it here.

With the recent ratings downgrade to French banks, I wonder if the flow to US assets will accelerate.

Jonathan Miller
fondateur et président de Miller Samuel Inc.

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Pending Home Sales Surge to Five Year High

Signed contracts also declined in the West, 1.1 percent in October month-to-month and are up just 0.9 percent from a year ago. The West is suffering from a lack of supply, as investors have been scouring the landscape for a decreasing inventory of distressed properties. (Read More: Yes, Housing Starts Surge, but Rentals Are the Drivers)

Pending home sales surged in the Midwest, up 15.6 percent month-to-month and up 20 percent from a year ago. They were also higher in the south by 5.5 percent sequentially and by 17.4 percent from a year ago.

Realtors continue to warn that while this housing recovery seems to be gaining steam, changes to the mortgage interest deduction, as well as other potential hits to the economy from the so-called "fiscal cliff," could derail the momentum. (Read More: Housing Still Precarious in Obama's Second Term)

SECTOR WATCH: Construction & General Building Materials

Questions? Comments? RealtyCheck@cnbc.com

Follow me on Twitter @Diana_Olick or on Facebook at facebook.com/DianaOlickCNBC

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The Year of Mobile

Giving Consumers and Agents the Inside Scoop On the Go

As we near the end of 2012, it’s time to reflect on what happened this year: our accomplishments and the things we hope to achieve in the year ahead. It’s been a big year for mobile at Trulia–with new app launches, upgrades, and amazing growth–both on the user and agent side. We’ve created strong relationships with our partners and have been featured by Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon for major product announcements this year.

We kicked off 2012 with 7 mobile apps complimenting our mobile website. In the last 12 months, we’ve doubled that, ending the year with 14 apps across several platforms including iOS, Android, Kindle Fire, and Windows 8 for desktop and tablets. To keep up with mobile growth, we expanded our mobile team by 50%. We saw a 129% YoY increase in mobile visitors in Q3, and on weekends, more than a third of our usage is via mobile. As a result of our dedication to mobile products, our users spent 307,154,216 minutes on Trulia mobile in Q3 of this year—the equivalent of 584 years*!

Here’s the inside scoop on what happened this year for Trulia mobile:

Launched First Dedicated National Rentals App on iPhone

-        Organizes listings by recency

-        Sends push notifications when new listings hit the market

Launched Trulia Mobile Ads

-        Helps real estate agents connect with transaction-ready mobile consumers via first dedicated mobile advertising platform for real estate professionals

-        Allows agents to purchase display advertising and generate phone leads from consumers

Launched Trulia for Agents Android App

-        Includes immediate lead notifications and listing check-ins

-        Helps agents manage client lists and respond to leads from anywhere

Crime Maps and Trulia Estimates Integrated into Trulia’s iPad App

-        Allows consumers to incorporate crime heatmap layers into their search

-        Displays Trulia Estimates on more than 50 million off-market homes, townhomes, and condos in nearly 500 counties across the country

Launched Trulia Mortgage Center and Free Dedicated Mortgage iPhone and iPad Apps

-        Empowers consumers by providing personalized mortgage quotes directly from real lenders, in real time

-        Comes complete with online educational guides

Enhanced Portfolio of Kindle Fire HD Apps

-        Takes advantage of the Kindle Fire HD’s mapping and location-based features

-        Includes the Trulia Real Estate App and the Trulia Rentals App

Launched Windows 8 Tablet and Desktop Application

–       Allows consumers to scroll through beautiful HD photo galleries of places to live

–       Notifies consumers when new listings hit the market or when property prices drop

Published Data on Trulia Agent Mobile Check-Ins

-        Sunday is the busiest day for check-ins, as agents are touring open homes. Tuesday is the second busiest day, as agents are visiting brokers’ tours to see the new properties on the market

-        The highest volume of mobile check-ins happens in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago

Upgraded Our Google Maps Experience on Android

–       Integrated more interactive maps into Trulia’s free Android app for mobile and tablets

–       Leveraged the new Google Maps Android API which allows Trulia users to easily navigate 2D or 3D views of crime, school attendance zones, and nearby amenities like restaurants, gas stations, and grocery stores

As we continue to innovate and work closely with our partners, we’re able to stay on the mobile forefront, giving our consumers the best possible experience across all of our mobile products. Many of our mobile users found their dream home on the go, and needed to contact their real estate agent right away. Thanks to Trulia Mobile Ads, agents are able to connect with buyers as they search on their mobile devices.

Cheers to a successful 2012, and here’s to an even better 2013!

* According to Trulia internal Omniture data

Author information not available.

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Bits Bucket for January 2, 2013

Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here. And check out Chomp, Chomp, Chomp by a regular poster!

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How The Bear Popped The Bubble!

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Mortgage Recovery Still Rocky

BofA CEO on Future of Home Ownership "We changed our position to be direct to consumers," said Brian Moynihan, Bank of America president & CEO, discussing changes in his company's mortgage business, with CNBC's Diana Olick.

The trouble is, the banks are close to finishing their obligations under the settlement, and the largest, Bank of America, will not continue to offer principal reduction afterward.

"The programs then going forward will provide for similar relief, but I think we have offered principal reduction to all our borrowers — all the people we own, the asset that we can actually offer to that's been done," said Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan in an interview last week.

Another report Friday from Lender Processing Services showed a monthly increase in the U.S. loan delinquency rate in November. As it stands now, 7.12 percent of loans are 30-plus days past due, but not yet in foreclosure, and 3.51 percent are in the foreclosure process. Add it up and 5.35 million loans are still in some kind of trouble, according to LPS, as big banks finish their obligations under the settlement.

—By CNBC's Diana Olick; Follow her on Twitter @Diana_Olick or on Facebook at facebook.com/DianaOlickCNBC

Questions? Comments? RealtyCheck@cnbc.com

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New Home Sales: October 2012

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Weekend Topic Suggestions

That’s California. Let’s check our old standby:

Phoenix Real Estate Market 2012 Review:

[sorry, this is from a realtor, but it's MLS data]

“Overall Home Supply – For the entire Phoenix MLS at the first of November, the total number of active real estate listings was 22,826 while the number of sold listings for October was 7,724. One year ago, total active listings were 25,879 properties. So, the active inventory is lower at the end of this year than last.

…Chandler: 1.5 months inventory
…Mesa: 1.8 months inventory
…Gilbert: 1.6 months inventory”

http://www.thompsongroupaz.com/phoenix-real-estate-market-2012-review/

————–

Even adjusting for realtor propaganda, that sounds like pretty tight inventory.

Now, foreclosure activity:

Shrinking inventory for big investors

By Catherine Reagor
The Republic
Fri Dec 7, 2012 3:02 PM

As foreclosures continue to fall in metro Phoenix, the dominant buyers and sellers in the region are changing. Fewer sales of lender-owned inexpensive foreclosure homes means a rapidly shrinking pool of houses for investors to purchase.

As a result, more homeowners will be able to sell to buyers for higher prices because they aren’t competing with lenders.

In November, lenders foreclosed on 1,549 houses in Maricopa County. That’s the lowest level since December 2007, right before the foreclosure crisis hit metro Phoenix, according to the Information Market. During 2011, a typical number of foreclosures was 4,000 to 5,000 a month.

Foreclosure starts, the early indicator of foreclosures, fell to 2,094 last month. By comparison, in March 2009, lenders started the process to foreclose on more than 10,000 metro Phoenix houses, a monthly record for the area. These declines in foreclosure activity are key to telling what will happen to the housing market in coming months.

But there’s another piece of foreclosure data that is even more important now: The total number of foreclosures in lenders’ pipelines across metro Phoenix was 10,606 at the end of November. A year ago, there were double that many foreclosures under way in the region. Two years ago, there were more than 40,000.

Homes on which lenders are in the process of foreclosing are the ones investors hope to buy for low prices and turn into rental houses that bring them high returns on their cash.

Big investors including Blackstone, American Residential and Colony Capital have dominated metro Phoenix foreclosure auctions and its lender-owned home sales market this year. Those firms and other want to package their thousands of rental homes and resell them to investors through real-estate investment trusts, or REITs.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/realestate/free/20121205shrinking-inventory-big-investors.html

——————

So this is the pattern in both Arizona and California:

+ Foreclosure activity at a low (forclosures happened in 2007-2012?)
+ inventory at a low (for both public and investors)
+ big investors snapping up for cash or in bulk (for rental or later sale)
————-
= Bidding wars for screwed-over regular Joe.

Is it just me, or are the big investors trading the shadow inventory among themselves, in the shadows? The general public can’t buy this inventory. Either they can’t see it, or they can’t work and save wages as fast as banks can borrow from the discount window (at 1% interest rates). Meanwhile, LL’s see the low inventory and high prices and raise rents accordingly.

And if all the foreclosures already happened in ~2007-2010, then where did all the original mortgages go? Is this what the Fed is ultimately buying from Fannie+Freddie at $40 billion/month?

HBB (especially alpha) predicted this years ago: rake in juicy fees on origination, when it goes kablooey shovel the toxic mortgages off on the taxpayer, snap up the actual “distressed” assets for pennies, and then then sell in bulk for rentals.

The rich are fighting over what little blood we have left.

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Housing Recovery Is Leaving Behind First-Time Buyers

Unfortunately, first-time home buyers are seeing just the opposite, largely left out of this surge in sales and prices. Their share of the market, usually up in the 40 percent range historically, fell to 34.7 percent in October, the lowest in the Campbell/IMF survey's three-year history.

The National Association of Realtors put their share even lower, at 31 percent.

Either way, they are the only group of buyers that have not seen their share of non-distressed home purchases rise over the past five months. The mortgage of choice for these buyers, FHA-insured loans, are increasingly tough to obtain. (Read More: Yes, Housing Starts Surge, but Rentals Are the Drivers)

"Financing of first-time homebuyers with low down payments threatens to become a significant problem in the U.S. housing market," wrote Thomas Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys. "Fifty percent of first-time homebuyers use FHA financing, but FHA insurance premiums are increasing and underwriting is becoming more strict. Private mortgage insurance has started to fill the gap, but the long-term status of private mortgage insurance is in question pending the publication of the Qualified Residential Mortgage regulation resulting from Dodd-Frank." (Read More: Builders Bump Up Thanks to Drop in Existing Home Supply)

Real estate agents answering this latest survey also noted that the recent hike in FHA mortgage insurance premiums is hitting first-time buyers harder because some sellers are refusing to accept offers that include FHA financing. Adding insult to injury, the FHA, after reporting a major shortfall in its insurance reserve funds, announced it would raise premiums yet again, another 10 basis points early next year. (Read More: To Stem Losses, FHA Mortgages Get More Expensive)

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