Category Archives: Real Estate

New Home Prices Hit Record High

Posted on January 15, 2014 | Leave a comment

The median price for newly built single-family homes and condos in San Diego County shot up to a record high in December, while the number of new homes sold hit a record low for a December.

Last month, 284 new residences sold at a median $699,000, a 48 percent hike over the $473,250 median new home price in December 2012, when 419 new homes sold. The previous record for a median new home price was $553,000 in February 2008, when 330 units closed escrow, real estate tracker DataQuick reported Tuesday.

The new home sales may have skewed the data up due to a number of high-end closings scheduled to be on the books by the end of 2013.

“If builders are trying to get their business plan done by the end of the year, they may have phased in construction to close in December,” said Paul Barnes, president of Shea Homes San Diego, developer of various properties such as Civita in Mission Valley. “If a project is extremely high end and there’s not a lot of other competing activity you’ll get those aberrations.”

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Unsettling Times for Property Owners

Posted on January 10, 2014 | Leave a comment

For one of the least productive congressional sessions in modern history, the final word about tax reform last week was entirely in character: Nothing’s happening.

But is that good news or bad news for homeowners, buyers and small-scale real estate investors? A bit of both.

When House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., announced that not only will he not reveal the details of his long-awaited comprehensive tax reform bill this year but he also will not seek passage of a so-called “extenders” bill for expiring tax-code benefits, it was a sweet and sour mix for real estate interests.

Camp’s big reform bill, which would attempt to lower individual and corporate income tax rates to a maximum of 25 percent, is expected to call for significant cutbacks — possibly elimination — of prized deductions for home mortgage interest, local property taxes and other write-offs in order to pay for lower marginal rates. With major changes like these now pushed back well into 2014 for even preliminary debate — in the middle of a re-election year for Congress — homeownership advocates are at least moderately relieved.

But there’s a key negative here as well: The failure of tax writers to put together an extenders bill means that important expiring Internal Revenue Code provisions affecting large numbers of homeowners — especially relief from taxation on mortgage debt forgiveness by lenders in most states, plus current deductions for mortgage insurance premiums and energy-saving home improvements — will lapse Dec. 31.

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Record Setting Rebound in Home Equity

Posted on January 8, 2014 | Leave a comment

The biggest story in American real estate in 2013 hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves, so let’s shout this out: Homeowners’ net equity holdings soared $2.2 trillion from the third quarter of 2012 to the third quarter of this year, according to new data collected by the Federal Reserve.

This is a record rebound for a 12-month period. And it’s crucially important in personal financial terms for hundreds of thousands of owners who for years have been underwater on their mortgages, meaning their homes wouldn’t sell for enough to pay off the loan.

Has your home’s equity increased? Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your equity questions.

They now have options they didn’t have before: They can sell their homes and not have to bring money to the closing. They may be able to borrow against their equity to help pay for college tuition, home improvements and other purposes. They may be able to refinance their mortgages without having to use a government-aided program.

Home equity is the difference between the mortgage debt outstanding on a residence and the current market value of the home. If your house is worth $300,000 and you owe the bank $150,000 — whether from a single mortgage or multiple loans — you have $150,000 in equity. If your mortgage debt totals $350,000 on a $300,000 house, you have $50,000 in negative equity.

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

Category Archives: Real Estate

New Home Prices Hit Record High

Unsettling Times for Property Owners

Record Setting Rebound in Home Equity

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