Gary Singer
From the South Florida site: More and more real estate agents nationwide are choosing to charge a flat fee for home sales instead of a percentage commission, the Sun Sentinel reported. According to attorney Gary Singer, there is a growing trend in this area, particularly for homes with prices less than $50,000. [more]
Sales of Staten Island one- and two-family homes shot up significantly between July and September, according to new statistics from the Staten Island Board of Realtors, with the rolling average for the three months showing a 16.3 percent increase in sales over the same period in 2010.
Listings going into contract increased in September, compared to August, by 21 percent, with listing prices down an average of 1.7 percent.
However, the median home price in the borough declined 3.8 percent in the month of September compared with the same period in 2010. The median closing price for a one-family home was $298,000 in 2011, compared with $323,500 in 2010. – Katherine Clarke [more]
New U.S. home sales fell to the lowest level in five months, according to July Department of Commerce data released today. Newly constructed, single-family homes sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 298,000 last month, a 0.7 drop from the 300,000 rate in June, which has been revised downwards. While sales got a boost from tax credits for buyers last year, those credits expired last summer, and new homes have faced competition from foreclosure properties, while buyers have struggled with tight credit and a poor economy.
— Miranda Neubauer [more]
National home sales slipped 3.8 percent month-over-month to an annual rate of 4.81 million units, the lowest number since November, according to figures released today by the National Association of Realtors. That is also 15 percent below a 5.68 million pace set in May 2010.
The association’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun, said the market was constrained by temporary factors as well as reluctance on behalf of the restrictive lending community. “Current housing market activity indicates a very slow pace of broader economic activity,” he said, “but recent reversals in oil prices are likely to mitigate the impact going forward. The pace of sales activity in the second half of the year is expected to be stronger than the first half.” –Katherine Clarke [more]
Connecticut single-family home sales fell for the sixth straight year in 2010, reaching their lowest annual level in nearly two decades, according to a new report by the Warren Group, released today. A mostly-mediocre sales year in the state was dragged down by a dismal fourth quarter — the slowest fourth quarter for single-family home sales there since the 1990s — and the sluggish sales numbers came even as median home prices ticked up to $250,000, an increase of 4 percent over the median home price in 2009. It was a similar story for condominium sales. TRD [more]
U.S. home prices saw a 1.6 percent quarter-over-quarter decline in 2010, according to Clear Capital’s monthly Home Data Index Market Report, released today. But despite the negative quarterly price change, the national index shows that U.S. home prices stopped declining in early January and have posted their first uptick since mid-August 2010, with the New York-Long Island-Northern New Jersey metro market posting a 1.6 percent month-over-month gain in January, and a 3.2 percent year-over-year gain. “This recent national change in price direction is encouraging for the overall housing sector, yet it is still too early to determine whether this current uptick in home prices is a temporary reprieve or the start of a sustained recovery,” said Dr. Alex Villacorta, a senior statistician at Clear Capital. TRD [more]
Defying the seasonal trend, sales rose by 13.2 percent in December, compared to November, in a survey of 54 metropolitan areas, according to the RE/MAX National Housing report released today. Home sales dropped 5 percent from December 2009, but that was the lowest year-over-year drop the survey has seen in five months. While some industry analysts predict a serious decline in home prices this year, the report showed that home prices dropped by only 2.2 percent from December 2009. The inventory of homes for sale continued a downward trend, falling 8.8 percent from November and 2.9 percent from December 2009. TRD [more]
Home sales in metropolitan New York will bounce back in 2011 and rise 8 percent compared to last year, the National Association of Realtors predicted. The NAR’s 1.2 million members saw a rise in December — for the fifth straight month — in the number of contracts signed, the New York Post reported. Home sales hit a low last June but have climbed back steadily, particularly in the New York area, where economists had expected a bleaker forecast. “Forward-looking contracts are expected to show a broad uptick,” said Walter Molony, a spokesperson for NAR, adding that official numbers for December and estimates for the coming year won’t be released until Jan. 20. [more]
The U.S. housing market will rebound in 2012, according to Douglas Yearley, CEO of Toll Brothers, the largest builder of luxury homes in the country. “The recovery is here to stay,” Yearley told Bloomberg News. “I think 2011 will be an improving year, but I think 2012 will be a big year for us.” The housing market will avoid a double-dip after reaching a bottom last year, Yearley added. According to the National Association of Realtors, pending sales of U.S. homes unexpectedly rose 10 percent in October from a month earlier. [more]
Co-op and condominium transactions in Manhattan lagged in November, according to data from the New York City Department of Finance. The figures, compiled from deeds and co-op sales documents, show that sales in the first two months of the fourth quarter were more than 25 percent below the first two months of the prior quarter. So far this quarter, the average apartment price was nearly flat while the median price fell 3.9 percent. The median co-op prices fell while the median condo price rose. But according to the Journal, brokers say the local housing market is still faring better than the market across the country, where prices have been sliding and mortgage delinquency and foreclosure rates remain high. Comments
