homesmillbrae.com » Budgets

New Home Sales Disappoint

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:44:26 +0000

After a slew of positive readings on the nation’s housing recovery, sales of newly built homes in October were a big disappointment.

Despite the big public builders reporting big jumps in new orders and builder confidence positively leaping to the highest level since 2006, sales just didn’t compute, and even September’s numbers were revised down.

“The recovery in new home sales is looking a little weaker than we were previously led to believe,” writes Paul Diggle of Capital Economics.

But Diggle points out the positives, specifically that the time between a completion and a new home sale has been falling dramatically, from over 14 months in late 2009 to just over 6 months today. The average historically is five months.

“That drop strikes us as another sign that buyer confidence is improving,” adds Diggle.

But is it improving as much as builder confidence?

“This was a disappointing update,” writes Patrick Newport of HIS Global Insight.

“It indicates that demand for single-family homes is only slowly picking up, not accelerating, as the data previously showed. It also indicated that builders may have jumped the gun a little by accelerating the pace of construction of single-family homes.

(Read More: Cities With the Most Affordable Homes)

A big concern for home builders now is the looming fiscal cliff. The housing recovery depends on the economic recovery and continued improvement in the jobs picture. There is also great concern that the mortgage interest deduction could fall victim to the cliff. That’s why housing lobbyists have upped their budgets this year to $30 million from $27 million in 2011, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The National Association of Realtors leads by far with a record $25,982,290 spent on lobbying so far.

(Read More: Why the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Is Kryptonite to Entrepreneurs)

Fears of the fiscal cliff could be impacting potential buyers already. The new home sales monthly number from the U.S. Department of Commerce is based on signed contracts, not closings, so it is a clear gauge of what potential buyers are feeling right now.

(Read More: How ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Could Affect Mortgage Interest Deduction)

“It is making me nervous for sure to have such uncertainty over such a traditional expectation, the mortgage deduction,” says Stephen Paul, of Mid-Atlantic Builders, a Maryland-based company. Paul says he hasn’t seen any cancellations over it yet, but it has come up in conversation plenty.

It is just one more uncertainty that this recovery doesn’t need. All signs are pointing to big gains in the housing market for 2013. Those expectations, however, must be tempered with a dash of perspective yet again. Peter Boockvar of Miller Tabak maps it out well:

“While the housing industry is recovering, new home sales have trended between 360k and 370k for the last 6 months, still 73 percent below the bubblicious peak in July ’05 and not too far above the trough seen in 1982 and still below the bottom seen in the 1991 recession. On one hand, there is plenty of room for continued improvement but on the other, the healing process will take a lot of time and will likely be in fits and starts as recoveries from the aftermath of bubbles typically are.”

SECTOR WATCH: US Home Builders

—Toll Brothers
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—DR Horton
[DHI
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—Hovnanian Enterprises
[HOV
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—PulteGroup
[PHM
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—Ryland Group
[RYL
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—Lennar Corp
[LEN
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—Beazer Homes USA
[BZH
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—Meritage Homes
[MTH
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—KB Home
[KBH
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Questions? Comments?

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Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/49995935?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

Marin Modern Real Estate Opens New Agent & Client-centric Office, Expands …

Fri, 04 May 2012 07:56:29 +0000

Marin County real estate brokerage establishes new office, which combines technology, efficiency, and green design principles. Company announces expansion of their sales team in Marin County, California.

Marin County, CA (PRWEB) May 03, 2012

Marin Modern Real Estate, a full service residential real estate brokerage firm and “top 10″ real estate brokerage in Marin County, announced the opening of a new, modern real estate office to better serve the needs of their clients and agents throughout Marin County.

Established more than 5 years ago as a boutique Bay Area real estate firm specializing in modern, architectural homes, Marin Modern Real Estate has become one of the fastest-growing residential real estate firms in Marin County. The firm’s approach, which involves selectively recruiting and hiring highly knowledgeable, tech-savvy and full-time, client-focused real estate agents and providing them as well as their clients with meaningful tools and technology to help make them successful in today’s market, has helped the company achieve significant double-digit growth in both sales and transaction volume every year since the firm’s inception. While still recognized as a leading authority for modern and mid-century modern homes, the firm has successfully expanded outside of its niche and assists clients with diverse architectural preferences and budgets.

“I’m extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished over the last 5 years,” commented Renee Adelmann, Owner Realtor of Marin Modern Real Estate. “Despite the challenges faced by others in our industry, our growth has been purely organic and has not come as a result of an acquisition, dramatic headcount expansion, or even by opportunistically riding the foreclosure and short sale wave. Instead we’ve hired great agents, provided them with technology and tools that actually matter and help them succeed, and worked as a cohesive team to succeed and grow in a market that has been so difficult for many others.”

To accommodate the needs of their expanding agent client base, the company has opened a new office at 2144 Fourth Street in San Rafael. Commenting on the new office, Renee Adelmann stated, “Our new office space is a strong reflection of our high-tech, high-touch brand. We designed the space to have a comfortable, brick timber loft feel to it; however, we also respected the need of our agents and clients to have relaxed, private meeting space. I believe we succeeded in achieving both objectives while also infusing the office with a lot of technology and eco-friendly design principles.”

In addition to opening a new office, the company announced the addition of REALTORS Fredrick “Fred” Anlyan and Helen Luttemo to their team. REALTOR and Broker Associate Fred Anlyan joins Marin Modern Real Estate from Coldwell Banker, where he spent more than 10 years assisting buyer and seller clients with their real estate needs in Marin County. REALTOR Helen Luttemo, a licensed agent since 2003, joins Marin Modern Real Estate from Frank Howard Allen.

About Marin Modern Real Estate

Marin Modern Real Estate is an innovative, technology-enabled, and high-touch residential real estate brokerage firm serving the needs of homebuyers and sellers throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

Founded by one of the Bay Area’s top-producing real estate agents, the company provides unmatched professional representation to real estate clients throughout Marin County (Marin Modern Real Estate), San Francisco (San Francisco Modern Real Estate), as well as Alameda Contra Costa Counties (East Bay Modern Real Estate).

To learn more visit us online at Marin Modern Real Estate, San Francisco Modern Real Estate, and East Bay Modern Real Estate.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/5/prweb9466516.htm

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/05/03/prweb9466516.DTL