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Why Rising Rates Are Rattling the Mortgage Market

Thu, 16 May 2013 22:08:27 +0000

“Underlying interest rates are moving higher, dragging mortgage rates along with them,” said Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH.com, a data and analytics site. “This has come as the result of somewhat better conditions in the labor market, helping investors feel more confident that the recovery will overcome its recent soft patch.”

(Read More: REITs Return Big as Investors Pour In)

The higher rates cause a drop in mortgage applications. Refinance volume fell 8 percent, while mortgage applications to purchase a home fell 4 percent, according to the MBA report.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100738799

Why Rising Rates are Rattling the Mortgage Market

Thu, 16 May 2013 03:48:03 +0000

(Read More: REITs Return Big as Investors Pour In)

The higher rates cause a drop in mortgage applications. Refinance volume fell 8 percent, while mortgage applications to purchase a home fell 4 percent, according to the MBA report.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100738799

Foreclosure Deals: 2013′s Best and Worst

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 21:23:08 +0000

Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Detroit and San Diego all saw a drop in foreclosure activity. But the numbers went the opposite direction in Tampa, Miami, Baltimore, Chicago and New York.

“Markets with increasing foreclosure activity in 2012 took the first step in finally purging delayed distress left over from the bursting housing bubble,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Meanwhile, the underlying fundamentals in many of those markets are slowly improving, making it an opportune time to absorb additional foreclosure inventory this year — and that is particularly good news for buyers and investors hungry for more inventory to purchase in those markets.”

(Read More: Link Between Credit and Mortgages: Not What You Think)

RealtyTrac ranked the top markets for investors to set their sights in 2013, based on months’ supply of foreclosure inventory, percentage of foreclosure sales, the foreclosure discount and the percentage increase in foreclosure activity in 2012. Five of the top ten are in Florida, including Palm Bay, Tampa, Jacksonville and Orlando. Florida requires a judge in the foreclosure process and therefore has an extremely large backlog.

(Read More: Feds’ ‘Fixer-Upper’ Loan Helps Tidy Up Foreclosures)

New York, another judicial state, fills 4 of the top ten spots, with Rochester, Albany and the New York City area leading. Chicago rounds out the roster.

The worst markets to look for foreclosures are largely out West, where the foreclosure crisis hit first and where investors have already bought so many properties that they are now fighting for what is left. Low supplies have led to bidding wars in cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Jose, CA and even Portland, OR.

(Read More: Best US Housing Markets for Buyers and Sellers)

It is truly a tale of east versus west, just as it was at the start of the foreclosure crisis with the west faring far worse than the rest of the nation. Now it is just the opposite, as demand for distressed properties continues to increase and supply determines the best bargain destinations.

(Read More: Facing Foreclosure? Don’t Just Sit There—Act Now)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100423428

Blu Homes targets Bay Area buyers with sustainable houses (photos)

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 03:16:08 +0000

This model is known as the Breezehouse.

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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Blu Homes is quickly becoming a household name in the Bay Area. The maker of prefabricated homes is targeting Bay Area buyers for their sustainably designed and energy-efficient houses.

Click on the image for a slideshow of Blu Homes units.

“You have a lot of people in the Bay Area who care deeply about technology, who want convenience, who are willing to go online and design something on their own, and who also want a process that is not going to take two years,” said Maura McCarthy, co-founder and vice president of strategy for Blu Homes.

The company makes homes with green building materials and steel framing that use about half the energy of a conventional home.

Now four years after it was founded, Blu Homes is ramping up production at its Vallejo factory and watching its sales climb.

You can read more in the Nov. 23rd edition of the San Francisco Business Times.

Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

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Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2012/11/blu-homes-targets-bay-area-buyers.html

Foreclosures Plunge, but New States Now Suffer

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 18:52:18 +0000

In another sign that the still shaky housing recovery might be finding its footing, foreclosure filings in some of the hardest hit states of the housing crash have plummeted dramatically, and overall the nation is seeing the lowest level of foreclosure activity since 2007.

Foreclosure filings, which include notices of default, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, were reported on 531,576 U.S. properties during the third quarter of this year, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure sales and data website.

That is a decrease of 5 percent from the second quarter and a decrease of 13 percent from the third quarter of 2011. One in every 248 U.S. housing units with a foreclosure filing during the quarter.

“We’ve been waiting for the other foreclosure shoe to drop since late 2010, when questionable foreclosure practices slowed activity to a crawl in many areas, but that other shoe is instead being carefully lowered to the floor and therefore making little noise in the housing market — at least at a national level,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Make no mistake, however, the other shoe is dropping quite loudly in certain states, primarily those where foreclosure activity was held back the most last year.

There is fast becoming a large divide in foreclosure activity between states that require a judge in the foreclosure process and those that don’t. The latter, which include formerly hard-hit states like California, Michigan and Arizona, are non-judicial, and foreclosures there have cleared the process faster. In states like New York, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, and Illinois, where a judge is required, the picture is still bleak. (Read More: Top States for Business 2012.)

Foreclosure activity jumped on a year-over-year basis in 14 out of the 26 judicial foreclosure states. New Jersey saw a 130 percent increase, New York a 53 percent jump and Pennsylvania a 35 percent increase. This will make it harder for overall home prices to improve in those states, as distressed home sales bring values down. (Read More: Why Him Refinancing Boom Is Different This Time.)

It is a far different story in California, where overall foreclosure numbers are still high, but are down 45 percent from a year ago, according to RealtyTrac. Eager investors, as in Arizona, are standing ready to buy distressed properties, but they are finding little supply, and that is putting upward pressure on prices at the low end.

The inventory of lower-priced homes, in fact, is down more than 40 percent in California from a year ago, according to a new report from Zillow
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]. That is making it harder for first-time home buyers, who are in competition with often all-cash investors.

“First-time homebuyers are being squeezed out of the market by falling inventory and the rapid influx of investors looking to buy basic homes to rent out to the growing population of people who have recently been foreclosed upon,” said Stan Humphries, Zillow chief economist. “Investors are paying in cash and can close sooner, which is more favorable to banks and homeowners looking to sell.” (Read More: Apartment Demand Ebbs as ‘Avalanche’ of New Units Open.)

Supplies of lower priced homes are also down nationwide, 15 percent, according to Zillow, but the numbers differ dramatically state-to-state. While investors have focused on the markets out West and Florida, where the housing crash hit hardest, they may now have to turn to new locations, where they will find better deals. As home prices rise in Arizona, Nevada and California, the margins for profit shrink.

Make no mistake, despite nine consecutive quarters of annual drops in foreclosure activity, there are still 3.4 million homes that have either delinquent loans or are already in the foreclosure process, according to LPS Applied Analytics. Volumes of distressed properties will jump dramatically in judicial states throughout 2013, according to several surveys, so while the overall housing market is improving, recovery, like everything else in real estate, will be highly local.

—By CNBC’s Diana Olick; Follow Her on Twitter @Diana_Olick and Facebook.

Questions? Comments?

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/49371943?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

Pacific Union signs up with Hearsay Social

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 06:45:52 +0000

Social media image via Shutterstock.

Facebook- and Twitter-using agents at Pacific Union International, a luxury San Francisco Bay Area residential real estate firm, will have access to a content library and real-time analytics powered by social media company Hearsay Social, the companies announced today.

Hearsay Social, a San Francisco-based startup with approximately 80 employees, offers companies tools that help them manage their social media presence by organizing and monitoring content, streamlining branding and providing real-time information.

Pacific Union International, which has 22 offices and about 450 agents in the Bay Area, will focus on Facebook and Twitter. Hearsay Social also offers dashboard tools and user-specific, real-time analytics for LinkedIn, Foursquare and Google Plus.

Screen shot of Hearsay Social client-facing dashboard.

Pacific Union International is the first residential real estate brokerage to work with Hearsay Social, said Kate Keene, product marketing manager at Hearsay Social.

“We wanted to help our agents use digital media more effectively,” said C.C. Holland, vice president of digital media and content for Pacific Union International, of the company’s decision to engage Hearsay Social’s services. “It will enable our agents to be their own best sources of promotion and marketing,” she said.

Doing social media well is a challenge. Holland says Pacific Union International agents have told her social media takes too much time and that they don’t know what or when to post messages.

That’s where Hearsay Social comes in, Holland said. It offers Pacific Union International the ability to present an organized bunch of Facebook- and Twitter-ready content to its employees, content that’s ready for agents to take, modify slightly (or not) and share with their followers.

“We wanted to seamlessly provide our agents with great, relevant content and help them get the most out of social media,” Holland said.

Pacific Union International recently signed up with 14 other brokerages to participate in Zillow’s pilot “zPro for Brokers” program, which provides greater branding and lead generation options to participating brokerages in exchange for direct listing feeds.

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Article source: http://www.inman.com/news/2012/08/9/pacific-union-signs-with-hearsay-social

Digital Realty Buys Data Center for $85M

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:45:20 +0000

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New data center for Digital
Realty: 360 Spear, San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO-Digital Realty Trust Inc. has paid $85 million for a 155,000-square-foot data center in downtown San Francisco. The announcement of the Bay Area deal coincides with the purchase of a similar building in Atlanta, near the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, for $63 million.

Digital Realty’s new San Francisco building has at least one obvious appeal to the publicly-traded real estate company: The data center, which is a fully leased, multi-tenant building, sits back-to-backwith the company’s existing “server farm” at 365 Main St.

The purchase gives the company a greater “critical mass” in telecommunications and colocator space in San Francisco, according to Digital Realty vice president Pamela Garibaldi. With the purchase of 360 Spear, the company currently has three telecom properties in the city, including 200 Paul. “There’s very limited data center space in San Francico,” she adds.

Although the Spear Street facility is fully leased, “there is the potential for us to convert some of the space for our growing colocation business,” Garibaldi says.

Digital Realty invests primarily in data centers, which provide space for Internet and telecommunications equipment. Typical tenants include information technology companies, Internet-related businesses, manufacturing firms and financial service firms, according to the company.

With the exception of three properties owned in joint ventures, Digital Realty currently owns 100 properties comprised of 17.9 million square feet. This also includes 2.1 million square feet for redevelopment. The company’s property holdings are located in Australia, Europe, North America and Singapore.

Categories:

West,
Industrial,
Acquisitions/Dispositions,
San Francisco

Article source: http://www.globest.com/news/12_257/sanfrancisco/industrial/Digital-Realty-Buys-Data-Center-for-85M-317085.html

Home prices fall in US, SF region

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 07:05:13 +0000

Home prices nationally and in the Bay Area fell more than expected in September and in the third quarter, according to a closely watched index. The continued declines show a still-struggling housing market that is unable to give a boost to the economy.

Nationally, residential real estate prices fell 3.9 percent in the three months ended in September compared with the same period last year, according to the SP/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. Compared with a year ago, prices fell in 18 of the 20 metropolitan areas tracked by the index, including the San Francisco area, which was down 5.9 percent in the quarter compared with 2010.

“There is no significant momentum, no signs of the housing market contributing to the economy anytime soon,” said Maureen Maitland, vice president of SP Indices, which produces Case-Shiller. “The fact that so many markets were negative does cause us to pay attention. We are on very shaky ground.”

While some seasonal weakness is to be expected after the prime spring selling season, “weakness and negativity do not have to be synonymous,” she said.

In other words, while flat prices might not stir concern, the continued price declines do.

The San Francisco metropolitan area – which Case-Shiller defines as the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo – is actually among the better-performing regions, despite falling more than the national average.

“San Francisco (metro) has recovered 13 percent from its low in 2009,” Maitland said. “Since then, its prices have been largely increasing, although they have recently fallen down a bit on a year-over-year basis. But two years ago, when there was some recovery, San Francisco was one of the markets that was doing better than others.”

While the nation has undergone a “double dip” in which prices fell, recovered and then fell further, San Francisco has not, she said.

Case-Shiller tracks sales of the same single-family houses over time. It compares changes with a base value of 100, which represents values as of January 2000.

The San Francisco index is now 133.22, meaning that prices here are 33.22 percent above their year 2000 level. The region’s index peaked at 218.37 in May 2006 and hit a low of 117.74 in March 2009.

“Housing is struggling to get up off the mat everywhere,” said Jim Diffley, chief regional economist for IHS Global Insight. “The Bay Area in some ways has been more fortunate than its Sun Belt neighbors. Its economy is doing relatively better.”

IHS predicts that the California market is near bottom and that prices nationally may drop another 7 percent before turning around in mid-2012. “We may have a little further to fall in other parts of the country before we finally get some growth in 2012,” Diffley said.

Patrick Newport, U.S. economist for IHS, said the continued weakness in sales of existing homes bodes poorly for recovery in construction of new homes, typically a major source of job creation. The country is on track to build 600,000 new homes this year, compared with a normal market of 1.4 million new homes.

“This year is probably going to be the worst we’ve ever had for new-home sales and new-home starts,” he said. “Normally, in a recovery, housing is a key sector that gets the economy back on track. Building more homes creates more jobs and has a positive feedback loop.”

The only two regions where prices increased year-over-year were Detroit, where they had tumbled so drastically that they may have hit bottom, and Washington, D.C., where federal jobs buoy the local economy, Maitland said.

Prices nationally rose 0.1 percent in the third quarter compared with the second quarter, which means they were essentially flat.

E-mail Carolyn Said at csaid@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/30/BUOG1M5MCG.DTL&type=business

For Values and Views, San Franciscans Looking East

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 17:37:07 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. — The first quarter of 2011 has brought an increased interest in the luxury condominium homes at The Ellington and sales in 2011 have been setting the pace for prices and sales in the East Bay. The Ellington opened in May of 2009 and has become one of the hottest moving properties in the Bay Area with more than 15 sales concluded since the beginning of 2011 alone. This accelerated level of sales is largely being driven by San Franciscans taking a new look at the East Bay where both remarkable value and the best of urban living can still be found.

Sales associates report greater numbers of San Francisco-based realtors and clients touring The Ellington and making offers on the East Bay’s premiere high-rise condominium building. For example, 35% of walk-in traffic during the first quarter of 2011 lives or works in San Francisco, compared to only 20% in 2010. In a tough real estate market with cautious consumers, The Ellington continues to draw buyers to the property because of its unparalleled value, amazing views, and extraordinary amenities. Few comparable homes in San Francisco are available for under $500,000 while prices at The Ellington start below $300,000.

“The interest in The Ellington being expressed by San Francisco buyers this year is unprecedented,” said Pacific Marketing Associates Vice President Kim Cole. “Home prices at The Ellington reflect the high end product our buyer is looking for; interestingly we’ve noticed that these same buyers are opting for a prime East Bay waterfront location over a more pricey San Francisco address. For example, a home at The Ellington featuring two bedrooms, two baths and a city view recently sold for $405,000. The same home in San Francisco would have sold for $700,000.”

Article source: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/04/21/3045248/for-values-and-views-san-franciscans.html