Sunday, December 12, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Most Say it's a Good Time to Buy
Most Say it's a Good Time to Buy
by Broderick Perkins
Most Americans believe the housing market has hit the bottom and that it's a good time to buy, in part because many also think rents will rise faster than home prices.
Fannie Mae's latest nation housing survey found that 70 percent of Americans think it's a good time to buy a home, up from 64 percent in January.
By an overwhelming majority, 78 percent, also believe home prices will either hold steady or increase over the next year, compared to 85 percent believing the same thing about rental increases.
While Americans expect rents to rise by 3.6 percent on average, home prices are expected to turn up only by 0.9 percent, Fannie Mae found.
"Given the remaining level of shadow inventory, as well as the high number of adjustable rate resets still looming which could in turn lead to further defaults, it is difficult to see the supply of housing falling in an amount sufficient to move prices upwards in many parts of the country," said Nancy Osborne, chief operating officer of Erate.com, a Santa Clara, CA-based financial information publisher and interest rate tracker.
Also 67 percent believe housing is a safe investment, down three points since January and down 16 percentage points from a similar 2003 survey and the largest drop by far among all investment types tracked since then. Housing ranked second behind putting money into a savings or money market account (76 percent).
"Our survey shows that consumers see a mixed outlook for housing and homeownership," said Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae's vice president and chief economist.
"These findings indicate a return to a more balanced and realistic approach toward housing. While this will likely weigh on the housing recovery in the near-term, it should, over time, help to build a stronger and healthier market focused on sustainable homeownership," he added.
The Fannie Mae National Housing Survey polled homeowners and renters between June 2010 and July 2010 and compared the findings to similar surveys released earlier this year and 2003.
The survey also found:
• Mortgage borrowers (74 percent) and underwater borrowers (69 percent) are more likely to say owning a home is a safe investment than delinquent borrowers (57 percent) and renters (54 percent). However, this measure has fallen among all sub-groups since January, with delinquent borrowers and renters showing the largest declines, down eight and seven points, respectively.
• More than 70 percent of all respondents believe it will be harder for the next generation to buy a home, up three points from the beginning of the year.
• Fifty-four percent think it would be very difficult or somewhat difficult to get a home loan today, down six points since January.
• Thirty-three percent of all Americans said they would be more likely to rent rather than buy if they were going to move, up from 30 percent in January.
• Among renters, 60 percent said they would rent again if they were to move, up from 54 percent in January. However, 69 percent of renters think it makes more sense to buy a home than to rent.
• Mortgage borrowers (83 percent) and underwater borrowers (77 percent) remain bullish on housing and said they are more likely to buy in the future than rent — both groups increased two points from January.
"If you couple this (high inventories and rate resets) with the reality that it is far more difficult to obtain a mortgage as well as a job, when selling a home to someone who presumably needs financing to buy it, housing is still facing a conundrum." Osborne added.
Fannie Mae's latest nation housing survey found that 70 percent of Americans think it's a good time to buy a home, up from 64 percent in January.
By an overwhelming majority, 78 percent, also believe home prices will either hold steady or increase over the next year, compared to 85 percent believing the same thing about rental increases.
While Americans expect rents to rise by 3.6 percent on average, home prices are expected to turn up only by 0.9 percent, Fannie Mae found.
"Given the remaining level of shadow inventory, as well as the high number of adjustable rate resets still looming which could in turn lead to further defaults, it is difficult to see the supply of housing falling in an amount sufficient to move prices upwards in many parts of the country," said Nancy Osborne, chief operating officer of Erate.com, a Santa Clara, CA-based financial information publisher and interest rate tracker.
Also 67 percent believe housing is a safe investment, down three points since January and down 16 percentage points from a similar 2003 survey and the largest drop by far among all investment types tracked since then. Housing ranked second behind putting money into a savings or money market account (76 percent).
"Our survey shows that consumers see a mixed outlook for housing and homeownership," said Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae's vice president and chief economist.
"These findings indicate a return to a more balanced and realistic approach toward housing. While this will likely weigh on the housing recovery in the near-term, it should, over time, help to build a stronger and healthier market focused on sustainable homeownership," he added.
The Fannie Mae National Housing Survey polled homeowners and renters between June 2010 and July 2010 and compared the findings to similar surveys released earlier this year and 2003.
The survey also found:
• Mortgage borrowers (74 percent) and underwater borrowers (69 percent) are more likely to say owning a home is a safe investment than delinquent borrowers (57 percent) and renters (54 percent). However, this measure has fallen among all sub-groups since January, with delinquent borrowers and renters showing the largest declines, down eight and seven points, respectively.
• More than 70 percent of all respondents believe it will be harder for the next generation to buy a home, up three points from the beginning of the year.
• Fifty-four percent think it would be very difficult or somewhat difficult to get a home loan today, down six points since January.
• Thirty-three percent of all Americans said they would be more likely to rent rather than buy if they were going to move, up from 30 percent in January.
• Among renters, 60 percent said they would rent again if they were to move, up from 54 percent in January. However, 69 percent of renters think it makes more sense to buy a home than to rent.
• Mortgage borrowers (83 percent) and underwater borrowers (77 percent) remain bullish on housing and said they are more likely to buy in the future than rent — both groups increased two points from January.
"If you couple this (high inventories and rate resets) with the reality that it is far more difficult to obtain a mortgage as well as a job, when selling a home to someone who presumably needs financing to buy it, housing is still facing a conundrum." Osborne added.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Safari Drive & 44 Monroe Re-Opening November 2010
Phoenix-area condo projects to reopen next month
Stalled projects sold to FDIC-backed investment firm
by J. Craig Anderson - Oct. 22, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Three Phoenix-area condo projects that had been shut down and repossessed by their lender are expected to reopen for new sales in November, thanks in large part to the federal government.
The projects are 44 Monroe in downtown Phoenix, 3rd Avenue Palms in Phoenix and Safari Drive Scottsdale, near Scottsdale Fashion Square mall.
The properties are undergoing renovations and awaiting Arizona Department of Real Estate approval to reopen their sales offices, according to the new owner, Chicago-based ST Residential.
Safari Drive will have 89 units available for sale beginning at $249,500. 44 Monroe will have 196 units available starting at $197,500, while 3rd Avenue Palms will have 74 units available starting at $80,000, a company news release said.
ST Residential is an investment and debt-resolution firm that is 60 percent owned by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Unlike the Resolution Trust Corp., which the federal government formed to dispose of failed lender-owned assets two decades ago following the savings-and-loan crisis, ST Residential also involves a group of private-equity firms, led by Starwood Capital Group.
All three properties had been owned by Corus Bankshares Inc., the holding company whose bank was taken over by regulators in September 2009.
Corus, based in Chicago, sought protection from creditors in June, filing for Chapter 11 reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
At the same time, ST Residential was formed for the sole purpose of buying $4.5 billion worth of residential real-estate assets that Corus had repossessed, ST Residential CEO Wade Hundley said in an interview Thursday.
Hundley said about 30 percent of the assets are owned outright by ST Residential, and the rest are being financed with "favorable lending terms" by the FDIC.
The result is that ST Residential has cash and time, something Hundley said that most condo project owners lack.
"While most companies are trying to cut costs and save money, we're investing in these properties," he said.
Two of the projects, 44 Monroe and Safari Drive, began construction in 2006, Hundley said. Third Avenue Palms was a condo-conversion project initiated in 2005 on an apartment complex that was built in 1999.
In all three cases, the original developers slammed into a wall when the condo market plummeted in 2007. Only 3rd Avenue Palms had sold a significant amount, about half of the project's 155 units.
The other two projects had sold just over a dozen units each when their sales offices were shut down about a year ago, said Mike Messenger of Geoffrey H. Edmunds Realty, the Scottsdale company hired to handle sales and marketing for all three properties.
Edmunds also will set prices for the new units and help manage the homeowners associations.
"These are projects that we're bringing back to life, so to speak," Messenger said.
Reach the reporter at craig.anderson@arizonarepublic .com or 602-444-8681 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 602-444-8681 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2010/10/22/20101022phoenix-area-condo-projects.html#ixzz13PgMBeog
Stalled projects sold to FDIC-backed investment firm
by J. Craig Anderson - Oct. 22, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Three Phoenix-area condo projects that had been shut down and repossessed by their lender are expected to reopen for new sales in November, thanks in large part to the federal government.
The projects are 44 Monroe in downtown Phoenix, 3rd Avenue Palms in Phoenix and Safari Drive Scottsdale, near Scottsdale Fashion Square mall.
The properties are undergoing renovations and awaiting Arizona Department of Real Estate approval to reopen their sales offices, according to the new owner, Chicago-based ST Residential.
Safari Drive will have 89 units available for sale beginning at $249,500. 44 Monroe will have 196 units available starting at $197,500, while 3rd Avenue Palms will have 74 units available starting at $80,000, a company news release said.
ST Residential is an investment and debt-resolution firm that is 60 percent owned by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Unlike the Resolution Trust Corp., which the federal government formed to dispose of failed lender-owned assets two decades ago following the savings-and-loan crisis, ST Residential also involves a group of private-equity firms, led by Starwood Capital Group.
All three properties had been owned by Corus Bankshares Inc., the holding company whose bank was taken over by regulators in September 2009.
Corus, based in Chicago, sought protection from creditors in June, filing for Chapter 11 reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
At the same time, ST Residential was formed for the sole purpose of buying $4.5 billion worth of residential real-estate assets that Corus had repossessed, ST Residential CEO Wade Hundley said in an interview Thursday.
Hundley said about 30 percent of the assets are owned outright by ST Residential, and the rest are being financed with "favorable lending terms" by the FDIC.
The result is that ST Residential has cash and time, something Hundley said that most condo project owners lack.
"While most companies are trying to cut costs and save money, we're investing in these properties," he said.
Two of the projects, 44 Monroe and Safari Drive, began construction in 2006, Hundley said. Third Avenue Palms was a condo-conversion project initiated in 2005 on an apartment complex that was built in 1999.
In all three cases, the original developers slammed into a wall when the condo market plummeted in 2007. Only 3rd Avenue Palms had sold a significant amount, about half of the project's 155 units.
The other two projects had sold just over a dozen units each when their sales offices were shut down about a year ago, said Mike Messenger of Geoffrey H. Edmunds Realty, the Scottsdale company hired to handle sales and marketing for all three properties.
Edmunds also will set prices for the new units and help manage the homeowners associations.
"These are projects that we're bringing back to life, so to speak," Messenger said.
Reach the reporter at craig.anderson@arizonarepublic .com or 602-444-8681 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 602-444-8681 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2010/10/22/20101022phoenix-area-condo-projects.html#ixzz13PgMBeog
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