The unexpected drop in signed contracts to buy existing homes in April should have come as no surprise. It is all about price point, supply, and where the action is/has been. Depending on which survey you follow, sales of distressed properties (foreclosures and short sales), make up anywhere from a quarter to 40 percent of all home sales nationwide. The bulk of these sales are out west in cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas and much of Southern California. Real estate agents out west will tell you that supplies of these distressed properties are dropping fast, thanks to huge investor demand. That, in turn, led to a huge drop in sales of lower priced properties, as we reported last week, down 26% in the $0-100,000 price range, according to the National Association of Realtors. Now we see contracts to buy existing homes in April dropping 12 percent out west, far lower than sales in the northeast and mid-west, which were essentially flat. The south, which includes troubled foreclosure states like Florida and Georgia, also saw a sizeable drop in pending sales of nearly 7 percent. Florida has plenty of foreclosures in process, but few are making it to the market, as Florida requires a judge in the process, and judicial state timelines are still far longer than non-judicial states. “Aside from the inescapable month-to-month variability, the increasing problem is on the shortage of inventory,” admits Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the NAR. “Areas like Phoenix and Vegas, Orange Country, California are all reporting sharp reductions in inventory, and this is a problem because this is reducing the business transaction potential. So the demand is there, but if someone blinks they’re losing out on the contract signing.” Why is inventory so low? Because banks are trying to modify more loans as part of the recent $25 billion mortgage servicing settlement. States that require a judge in the foreclosure process are also taking far longer to get the properties out to the market. Approximately 1.4 million homes are currently in the foreclosure process, according to a report today from CoreLogic, with far more loans in some stage of delinquency. Many of these properties will inevitably reach the sales market, probably in Q3 and Q4, and that will in turn boost low-end sales again, but that in turn could push slowly recovering home prices lower again. Questions? Comments? document.write("");document.write("RealtyCheck"+"@"+"cnbc.com");document.write('');And follow me on Twitter @Diana_Olick
Showing posts with label Continues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Continues. Show all posts
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Lack of Distressed Supply Continues to Hit Home Sales
The unexpected drop in signed contracts to buy existing homes in April should have come as no surprise. It is all about price point, supply, and where the action is/has been. Depending on which survey you follow, sales of distressed properties (foreclosures and short sales), make up anywhere from a quarter to 40 percent of all home sales nationwide. The bulk of these sales are out west in cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas and much of Southern California. Real estate agents out west will tell you that supplies of these distressed properties are dropping fast, thanks to huge investor demand. That, in turn, led to a huge drop in sales of lower priced properties, as we reported last week, down 26% in the $0-100,000 price range, according to the National Association of Realtors. Now we see contracts to buy existing homes in April dropping 12 percent out west, far lower than sales in the northeast and mid-west, which were essentially flat. The south, which includes troubled foreclosure states like Florida and Georgia, also saw a sizeable drop in pending sales of nearly 7 percent. Florida has plenty of foreclosures in process, but few are making it to the market, as Florida requires a judge in the process, and judicial state timelines are still far longer than non-judicial states. “Aside from the inescapable month-to-month variability, the increasing problem is on the shortage of inventory,” admits Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the NAR. “Areas like Phoenix and Vegas, Orange Country, California are all reporting sharp reductions in inventory, and this is a problem because this is reducing the business transaction potential. So the demand is there, but if someone blinks they’re losing out on the contract signing.” Why is inventory so low? Because banks are trying to modify more loans as part of the recent $25 billion mortgage servicing settlement. States that require a judge in the foreclosure process are also taking far longer to get the properties out to the market. Approximately 1.4 million homes are currently in the foreclosure process, according to a report today from CoreLogic, with far more loans in some stage of delinquency. Many of these properties will inevitably reach the sales market, probably in Q3 and Q4, and that will in turn boost low-end sales again, but that in turn could push slowly recovering home prices lower again. Questions? Comments? document.write("");document.write("RealtyCheck"+"@"+"cnbc.com");document.write('');And follow me on Twitter @Diana_Olick
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Building Big: While the market for McMansions continues...
× 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, February 10, 2012, by Rob Bear
? Previous: A Slick German House; Magnetic Drills; Disco Church; More!
? Next: Bored of Regular Building, China Constructs City from Ice
Sunday, December 18, 2011
CFO and General Counsel Added to Senior Management as Trulia Continues to Experience Rapid Growth
2011 has been a year of tremendous growth for Trulia. We held a steady focus on creating a superior service for consumers and agents, while also aiming to build a strong, experienced management team to ensure that our growth as a company continues into 2012 and beyond. I am excited today to introduce you to two guys that are going to play crucial roles in our next phase of growth.
First, I’d like to introduce you to our new Chief Financial Officer, Sean Aggarwal. Sean was formerly VP of finance at PayPal and CFO, US category of eBay. As our new CFO, Sean will oversee the accounting and finance teams across Trulia’s three offices. Sean brings more than 20 years of investment banking and finance experience, along with a proven track record of scaling finance teams at PayPal, eBay and Amazon.
Next, I’d like to introduce you to Trulia’s new General Counsel, Scott Darling. Scott was formerly VP and General Counsel of Imperva and he has more than 15 years of business and legal experience working within companies such as Microsoft and Danger.
As a company, we have ambitious goals in 2012. I expect Sean and Scott’s impact, experience and insights to immediately help us navigate an exciting path at rapid speed. We have already seen tremendous impact from the additions of Paul Levine as COO earlier this year and Dr. Jed Kolko as Chief Economist and Head of Analytics . I believe the addition of Sean and Scott have us perfectly positioned for a big year ahead.
Throughout 2011, Trulia has seen explosive growth in mobile. Towards the end of Q1, Trulia expanded its mobile offerings by introducing both iPad and Android apps. During Q3, Trulia released a native app for Android tablets and a dedicated Android “For Rent” app for rentals and in Q4 we released our Kindle Fire app. Mobile traffic now accounts for between 20 and 30% of overall traffic. I am extremely proud that Trulia has the top-rated real estate mobile apps in their respective app stores and we are committed to delivering an exceptional user experience in all 50 states and innovative tools for consumers.
We have also taken many steps to become the number one source of transaction-ready clients for real estate professionals. We have doubled leads to agents in Q3 compared to the same quarter in 2010 and in Q3 2011, consumers on Trulia were viewing an average of more than 3.1 million homes per day. Three main drivers of the increase in quality leads to agents are the innovative new services such as Instant Leads, the introduction of Social Search and Recommendations and the expansion of Quick Connect to all mobile apps.
Some of the other highlights of 2011 include opening a new office in Denver, moving into a bigger office space in New York City, and the opening of the roof top penthouse at Trulia’s SF office, where Trulians now hold company meetings, meetups, parties and use the great space as an everyday fun and creative collaboration place for our employees. Our quarterly surveys have shown us time and time again that happy employees do great work, and I am happy that we are able to provide great spaces for our employees to thrive!
Want to join a great team changing the face of real estate? We’re hiring in all areas at Trulia in San Francisco, New York and Denver. To check out the open positions, check out our jobs pages: www.trulia.com/jobs
Popularity: 1% [?]Saturday, October 1, 2011
Controversies: Woman's Confederate Flag Continues to Rile Up Neighbors
× 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, September 28, 2011, by Sarah Firshein
Photo: AP via AOL Real Estate
Today in the great American pastime of NIMBYism, a South Carolina woman named Annie Chambers Caddell is still totally pissing off her neighbors by refusing to remove the confederate flag she's been proudly exhibiting next to her home in a historically black neighborhood in Summerville. According to the Associated Press, at first community members protested before the town council, which upheld Chambers Caddell's right to keep the flags up. Undeterred, neighbors then erected an eight-foot-tall fence to block the view. In return, Chambers Caddell raised the flag so it would fly higher than the fence. Accordingly, her next-door neighbor (who so happens to be black) raised an American flag as a sort of, ah, rebuttal. (Note to both: wouldn't it just be easier to build a giant middle-finger sculpture and be done with it?) Anyway, "I'm here to stay," Chambers Caddell told the AP. "I didn't back down, and because I didn't cower the neighbors say I'm the lady who loves her flag and loves her heritage." Then, smugly: "People driving by here because of the privacy fences, they tend to slow down. If the objective was to block my house from view, they didn't succeed very well." Amen to that, sister!
· Confederate Flag Gets South Carolina Neighbors Up in Arms [AOL Real Estate]
· "Neighbor From Hell" Erects Sculpture to Flick off Neighbors [Curbed National]
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Jenny Craig Continues to Unload Extra Weight: Today The Real Estalker brings news...
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