Category Archives: Real Estate

San Diego home prices outpaced nation, state in March

Posted on May 31, 2017 | Leave a comment

San Diego County’s home market showed signs of increased growth in March, outpacing price gains in other California cities and the nation, said the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices released Tuesday.

The indices, adjusted for seasonal swings, showed San Diego County home prices rose 6.5 percent in a year. It was 5.8 percent nationwide, a 33-month high.

Other California cities did not have the same pace of growth as San Diego. The indices showed Los Angeles home prices up 5.3 percent in a year and San Francisco by 5.1 percent.

Of the 20 major regions followed by the indices, San Diego ranked No. 9 in March, above Las Vegas, Chicago, New York, Miami and other markets.

David Blitzer, managing chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, wrote in the report that if mortgage rates rise from current levels — around 4 percent — it could deter more people from selling and trading up to new homes.

“While prices cannot rise indefinitely, there is no way to tell when rising prices and mortgage rates will force a slowdown in housing,” he wrote.

Seattle had the biggest yearly increase at 12.3 percent, followed by Portland at 9.2 percent and Dallas at 8.6 percent.

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Housing bubble outside USA

Posted on May 25, 2017 | Leave a comment

Home prices in the U.S. are rising to new levels, even surpassing pre-crisis levels in some metros, but home prices in the U.S. are relatively low compared to other developed nations.

Over the past few years in the U.S., home prices peaked in July 2006, troughed in February 2012 and have since returned to pre-crisis levels once again. However, this wasn’t the case for other developed nations. Other G10 economies never saw a downturn, and have continued increasing.

The Group of Ten is made up of eleven industrial countries (Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States) which consult and co-operate on economic, monetary and financial matters.

Now, some are concerned about broader consequences if the real estate markets go south, according to a report from Goldman Sachs. The report explains there are no imminent problems in G10 markets, but current imbalances could worsen cyclical weakness later.

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Why understanding home energy performance will become a key to real estate success

Posted on April 27, 2017 | Leave a comment

agent

Real estate professionals play a pivotal role in the U.S. residential real estate market. Overseeing from start to finish the multiple steps and piles of paperwork involved with property transactions, they support both sellers moving forward with the next stage of their lives and buyers looking for a new place to call home. They provide trusted and influential guidance that affects the largest investment that most of us will ever make: our homes.

Home energy performance is too often overlooked by buyers and sellers during property transactions, and buyers seldom have easy access to energy performance information. Even though U.S. homeowners spend on average about $2,200 per year on energy bills and increasingly indicate demand for energy-efficient homes, real estate professionals generally undersell (or are unaware of) the benefits of homes with strong energy performance. These benefits include improved comfort, health, privacy, programmability, and interconnectivity, as well as increased monthly affordability and—where relevant information is made available—resale value. Moreover, U.S. real estate listings generally lack details about a property’s energy performance, energy-efficient features, and estimated utility costs. This omission contributes to the unnecessary perpetuation of the invisibility of home energy upgrade investments, housing dissatisfaction, underinvestment in home energy upgrades, plateauing residential energy savings, and risks to U.S. real estate market stability.

Opportunity is calling for all real estate professionals to tap into the promising U.S home energy upgrades market by helping clients understand, prioritize, and invest in home energy performance during the property transaction process—when buyers and sellers already tend to make general home improvements. Real estate professionals who enhance their home energy performance capabilities can lead their competitors on market trends and improve the long-term prospects of their business.