2012 Coldwell Banker Bracket of Affordability

Via Coldwell Banker Blue Matter  

March Madness is back and so is the 2012 version of the Coldwell Banker Bracket of Affordability. For the last few year we’ve filled out our bracket based on which schools have the most affordable housing market based on median sales price. Some years we do better than others, but this year our champion has a fighting shot.

Michigan State, which resides in East Lansing, Michigan, is our champion and represents the most affordable market in the field of 68. Actually Michigan is well represented as Detroit is the runner up. Notre Dame and Syracuse make up the other two members of our Final Four.

As we filled out our brackets, we decided to take a look at how many Coldwell Banker listings are also in the college basketball spirit. Here’s what we found:

• 1,874 of the current listings on coldwellbanker.com have basketball in the description
• 13 homes for sale reside on Duke Street, but not a single listing has the phrase “Tar Heel” in it
• 46 detail pages reference the term “hoops”
• Sadly, there are no Coldwell Banker listings in Brackettville, TX
• Eagle & Tiger are the two most popular mascots in NCAA basketball and 1,035 properties on coldwellbanker.com make reference to “eagle” while only 158 refer to “tiger.”
• And finally, 730 homes for sale promote the fact that they contain a “man cave,” the perfect room for any hoops fan.

You can download a PDF version of the 2012 Coldwell Banker Bracket of Affordability here. Best of luck to your favorite college team and enjoy the madness that is March!

Westwood Residents Consider Historic Preservation

The Holmby Westwood Property Owners Association hosted an evening with the LA Conservancy, and actress and preservationist Diane Keaton.

Courtesy of Westwood/Century City Patch

Image Courtesy of Eonline

Westwood residents got a lesson in historic preservation from the Los Angeles Conservancy and a local property owners association in a meeting Thursday night.

With actress and historic preservationist Diane Keaton in attendance, the Westwood Holmby Property Owners Association (HWPOA) hosted a presentation by the Los Angeles Conservancy and a Q&A session for attendees. Residents of the neighborhood bounded by Wilshire, Sunset, Hilgard and the Los Angeles Country Club were encouraged to vote for or against designating their neighborhood a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone.

"We have the original stuff in Westwood and if we're going to revive Westwood, that historic character has to remain in Westwood," Reuben said in an interview with Westwood-Century City Patch. "We don't just have buildings here and there. We really have a high concentration of historic buildings. We have a wonderful little jewel here that needs to be preserved."

Currently, about 30 percent of the neighborhood's 1100 households have cast a vote and 80 percent of them are in favor of an HPOZ, said Susan Reuben, vice president of HWPOA and chair of the history and architecture committee. Once they hear from more residents, the HWPOA will take their ballots and accompanying petition to Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz. A public meeting on the HPOZ would be the next step.

If the neighborhood becomes an HPOZ, the Holmby Westwood neighborhood will have a considerable amount of control maintaining its historic character. A five-member board of qualified residents would review requests for any changes that would alter the exterior of the homes, and make recommendations based on a preservation plan to the Los Angeles Planning Department.

"Preservation is not against change, and that's an important stereotype we have to fight," said Linda Dishman, executive director of the Los Angeles Conservancy. "It's how you manage it."
Currently, the neighborhood has some old protections against what some residents say is inappropriate development. A small number of individual properties have covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&R's) that can restrict some changes. The HWPOA is advocating for the HPOZ because it would cover the whole neighborhood.

Residents who attended the meeting expressed the desire for historic preservation measures in other residential neighborhoods, including south of Wilshire Boulevard. Many expressed frustration at the number of vacancies in the village.

"Residential neighborhoods in Westwood are part and parcel with the village," Reuben said. "We need to get our village back and so if all of you starting talking about this with people you know, raising awareness so that the community can come together, that would be absolutely wonderful."
HWPOA held community and block meetings over the summer and fall last year. According to the group's website, information on HPOZs was mailed and emailed to residents prior to the meetings. For more information from HWPOA about the process, click here.

A guide to Real Estate Websites

Via The Washington Post

Many real estate Web sites — and there are many more than those listed below — provide property listings and market reports, and photos. Most also offer mobile apps that use GPS tracking to display details about houses for sale near wherever you are, let you make customized searches and set up alerts about new listings. But each company offers a few standout features, so here’s a guide to the best features of each.
Zillow

Best for: Wide range of listings and market details. Zillow’s massive site and mobile apps include traditional listings as well as homes for sale by owner, foreclosure, auction, rental and new construction listings. Includes “Zestimates,” or home values, for about 100 million homes, historical Zestimates and local market reports, price changes, and sales data going back decades. A source of information about all homes in most parts of the country, whether or not they’re on the market.

Trulia
Best for: Neighborhood feel. This site offers more detailed information about neighborhoods, including details about local schools (with parent reviews, standardized test scores, and other information from GreatSchools.org), crime statistics, and nearby restaurants and shops that can be mapped for each home. It also includes active community forums and user ratings for neighborhoods. A particularly good resource to get the sense of a neighborhood — not just a single property.

Realtor.com
Best for: Size and tools. The official site of the National Association of Realtors lists 3.9 million homes for sale and more than 265,000 rentals. It says it updates 80 percent of its listings every 15 minutes and the other 20 percent at least every 24 hours. The “area highlighter” feature lets you draw a map and create the boundaries of your search and also includes clear information about recently sold homes. Listings are sent straight from the multiple-listing service with up to four photos; agents can pay for enhanced listings to add more photos and information.

Redfin
Best for: Mobile app. This large Web-based brokerage has some of the most frequently updated listing information and coolest tools. You can read comments about each house that Redfin’s agents visit and schedule home tours online. You can use the site just for its research tools, or you can work with Redfin’s salaried agents who are paid bonuses based on customer surveys.

HomesDatabase.com
Best for: Fastest updates for Washington-area homes. The consumer site from Washington’s multiple listings service gives you access to a shortened version of the same database that real estate agents use. The site does not offer a lot of all the fancy features that other sites do, but the listings are updated as soon as agents make changes to the multiple-listing service.

Florence Mattar

Coldwell Banker Beverly Hills North

301 North Canon Drive, Suite E

Beverly Hills, California 90210

310.927.2777

Top 10 Most Searched Housing Markets Online

Chicago continues to be the most searched for housing market at REALTOR.com, according to February search data. There was little change in the top 10 searched housing markets in February compared to the prior month, except Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla., moved up in the rankings from No. 7 to No. 5.
The following are the top 10 most searched for housing markets at Realtor.com in February:
1. Chicago
Median list price: $189,800
2. Detroit
Median list price: $84,900
3. Los Angeles-Long Beach, Calif.
Median list price: $325,000
4. Philadelphia, Pa.-N.J.
Median list price: $225,000
5. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla.
Median list price: $144,900
6. Phoenix-Mesa, Ariz.
Median list price: $174,900
7. Atlanta
Median list price: $154,900
8. Dallas
Median list price: $194,500
9. Orlando, Fla.
Median list price: $154,500
10. Las Vegas, Nev.-Ariz.
Median list price: $122,900

Florence Mattar

Coldwell Banker Beverly Hills North

301 North Canon Drive, Suite E

Beverly Hills, California 90210

310.927.2777

Pending sales of existing homes up to nearly two-year high

courtesy of The Los Angeles Times

More Americans are signing contracts to buy existing homes than at any time in nearly two years, boosting the housing industry’s slow recovery, according to the National Assn. of Realtors’ index of pending home sales.

The measure is up 2% to 97 in January after slipping 1.9% in December. The index of deals for previously owned homes is up 8% compared with the 89.8 level from January 2011.

Last month saw the highest point on the index since April 2010, when consumers drawn by a home-buyer tax credit pushed the figure to 111.3. That was the last time the measure exceeded 100 -– the benchmark for industry health.

The index showed year-over-year increases in every region – a 9.8% hike in the Northeast, a 10.8% rise in the Midwest, a 10.5% boost in the South and a smaller 0.7% uptick in the West.

Contracts are usually signed a month or two before a deal closes and the home purchase is finalized, making the pending-sales index a leading indicator for where the market is headed. The Realtors group said last week that existing home sales in January were up more than 4% to an annual rate of 4.57 million.

Housing experts such as Lawrence Yun, the Realtor group’s chief economist, credit the sliding unemployment rate -- which fell to its lowest point in three years in January -- as well as a downward trend in home prices and a supply of homes that is at a nearly seven-year low.

"Movements in the index have been uneven, reflecting the headwinds of tight credit, but job gains, high affordability and rising rents are hopefully pushing the market into what appears to be a sustained housing recovery," Yun said in a statement.

Two Surveys Show Home Prices Lowest in 10 Years, Down 31% Since Peak in 2006

Via MortgageNewsDaily

Two companies released home price data on Wednesday. CoreLogic released its Home Price Index (HPI) for the month of January while Lender Processing Services (LPS) released numbers for December.

The LPS national HPI in December was the lowest since September 2002 with an average house price in December of $197,000, down $2,000 from the November number. December was the sixth consecutive month in which home prices declined and the actual decline of 1.0 percent was higher than the 0.8 percent that had been predicted. LPS is projecting a further decline in January to $195,000 or a -1.2 percent change.

While prices are still dropping, at least the rate of decline is less steep. During the period of most rapid decline - June 2007 to December 2008 - prices fell an average of 13.8 percent a year. Since then the annual rate has been 4.4 percent.


Aggregate home values are down 31 percent since the peak in June 2006, declining from $10.8 trillion to $7.5 trillion.
LPS said that December figures appear to have continued a seasonal pattern that has modulated prices since 2009. Seasonal variations seem to occur in the market for non-distressed home sales but short sales do not vary over the year nearly as much. Therefore the apparently significant seasonal effects that LPS and others have reported have been influenced by the large proportion of short sales after the bubble. These sales have been treated as if they experienced typical seasonal variations and thus have exaggerated seasonal price variations. LPS said that beginning next month it will institute updated HPI non-distressed sales which will even out the seasonal variations.

In 44 states all of the MSAs therein had price declines in December, a total of 373 of the 411 MSAs covered by LPS. Prices also fell in 28 MSAs in other states. Only Phoenix and Miami had average prices increases during December while San Francisco, San Diego, Detroit, Chicago, and Atlanta all had declines that exceeded 1.5 percent.

Raj Dosai, vice president of LPS said that despite the broad price declines since the bubble, not all MSAs have seen consistent price drops. "About one-fifth (89) of all the MSAs that LPS covers have seen average home prices increase since December 2008. For 90 percent of these MSAs, prices rose only as the lowest-priced homes in their markets rose. This correlation did not necessarily hold for higher-priced homes in those areas. Unfortunately, the MSAs that have seen price increases since December 2008 are generally small. Boston and Pittsburgh are exceptions."

CoreLogic tracks home sales including distressed sales (short sales and sales of lender owned real estate or REO.) Its HPI for January declined on a year-over-year basis by 3.1 percent and on a month-over-month basis by 1.0 percent, the sixth consecutive monthly decline. When distressed home sales are excluded the HPI narrows to a 0.9 percent decline year-over-year and there was a 0.7 percent increase in prices since December.

"Although home price declines are slowly improving and not far from the bottom, home prices are down to nearly the same levels as 10 years ago," said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic.

States with the largest increase in HPI were South Dakota (+5.7 percent), North Dakota (+4.0 percent) and West Virginia (+4.0). When distressed sales are excluded the greatest increases were South Dakota (+6.4 percent), Montana (+5.9 percent) and North Dakota (+3.8 percent).
The largest depreciation in home prices was noted in Illinois (-8.7 percent), Nevada (-8.0 percent, and Delaware (-7.9 percent.) When distressed sales are not included the greatest depreciation was in Nevada (-6.7 percent), Delaware (5.5 percent), and Minnesota (-4.1 percent.)
Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to January 2012) was -34.0 percent. Excluding distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the HPI for the same period was -24.2 percent.

Home as investment? That's so 2005

New Coldwell Banker commercials emphasize the intangible value of homes. The ads are voiced by actor Tom Selleck, whose father and siblings were in real estate





The housing crisis has taught all of us a hard lesson: A home is not an investment. A home is a place to live.

Coldwell Banker Real Estate just launched a new advertising campaign with that hook, using the voice of actor Tom Selleck, whose father worked 38 years for the real-estate company.

 http://www.youtube.com/embed/k-wlGGsp2Zo?rel=0"

"People’s homes are so important because they are the setting for life’s most meaningful moments," Michael Fischer, chief marketing officer for Coldwell Banker, said in a news release. "While the economics of homebuying are critical, we must remember there is much more to it: lifestyle, memories, family and pride of ownership."

It's certainly a lot more cheerful to add up the good times you've had in your house than it is to subtract how much monetary value it has lost. Expecting one's home to rise substantially in value has not always been part of the American dream of homeownership, and the current housing crisis has been a painful reminder of that.

A total of 22.8% of U.S. mortgages are underwater, according to the latest CoreLogic data. Home values are back to 2002 levels nationally and lower than that in some cities, and prices are likely to fall further in some areas.

That doesn't mean that homeowners aren't finding intangible values in their homes, which is the sentiment that Coldwell Banker is trying to tap.

Whether you consider your home an investment depends as much on you as it does on the home and its value, writes Trent Hamm at The Simple Dollar. If you're planning to move soon, the price matters a lot more to you than it does if you’re planning to stay forever.

This is how one of the Coldwell Banker commercials (in Tom Selleck's voice) calculates home value:

"You start by taking the smell of pancakes made on a Sunday morning and times that by the sound of kids laughing from the bottom of their bellies. Then you add the taste of a good cabernet with family at Thanksgiving and multiply that by the warmth of a winter fire. Then you subtract the stress of work and minus the struggles of the outside world, add the power of a bedtime story and times that by the square root of a grandmother kissing her grandchild. Multiply all this by about 50,000 memories and 100,000 smiles. And then you have a value of a home."

Other short commercials start out, "Here's to kids – and all the things that make a house a home," with pets and backyards also being toasted. Inman News has videos of the commercials.

Selleck's father retired as an executive vice president at Coldwell Banker, and his sister and two brothers also worked in real estate. As he struggled to make it as an actor, his father more than once suggested he get a real-estate license. From quotes by Selleck provided by Coldwell Banker: "It was indeed a proud moment when I was able to tell my mom that I was, at last, in the family business."


What do you think? Has Americans' view of homeownership shifted enough from investment to lifestyle to respond to these commercials?

Top Real Estate Markets for Million-Dollar Homes

Via AOL Real Estate/Inman News

Real estate markets in Sun Belt states were the most popular among visitors searching recently for homes listed for at least $1 million on Realtor.com.



The Los Angeles-Long Beach, Calif., metro area dominated those online visits, with 16.1 percent of total searches at Realtor.com in January targeting $1 million-plus homes. Neighboring Orange County, Calif., was a distant second, with 6.3 percent of total searches dedicated to $1 million-plus homes, followed by Miami with a 4.8 percent share. The share of total searches devoted to $1 million-plus properties was 2.7 percent in 10th-ranked Naples, Fla.

Outside of Chicago, at No. 4, the top 10 was dominated by metros in the Sun Belt states -- Atlanta, at No. 8, was the farthest north among those nine markets.

The top three metros are in coastal markets: Los Angeles-Long Beach, Orange County and Miami.

No. 2 Orange County had the highest median list price in January on the list, at $425,000. The next most expensive home markets, respectively, on the list were: No. 10 Naples, with a $365,000 median home list price, and No. 5 San Diego, Calif., with a $349,000 median home list price.

Methodology: This list is based on Realtor.com search data for January 2012. The markets are ranked by the largest share of online searches for properties priced at or above $1 million at Realtor.com during that month.

Gallery: Top real estate markets for $1M-plus home searches

Read the full report at Inman News: Top 10 real estate markets for $1M-plus home searches.

Beverly Hills Hotel's centennial fever leads to some sweet deals

Via  Mary Forgione Los Angeles Times Daily Travel & Deal blogger

Images courtesy of The Beverly Hills Hotel

March 8, 2012 

The Beverly Hills Hotel turns 100 years old on May 12, cause enough for the hotel to serve a $100 cocktail in a take-home glass coupe engraved with its centennial design. Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and John Lennon slept here, as did many other luminaries.

Now the hotel is chronicling its fabdom in words and pictures with the arrival of the book "The Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows -- The First 100 Years" by Robert S. Anderson, as well as special centennial-themed offers. My favorite pick: a facial, mani-pedi or massage at the day spa, on sale for $100 each.

The deal: You don't have to be a guest to take advantage of the deals at the hotel's Spa by La Prairie. Selected treatments -- the Pink Palace Manicure and Pedicure, Diamond Anniversary Facial and/or the Caviar Express Massage -- are discounted to $100 each. Make reservations in advance at La Prairie, which is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

When: The offer is good though the end of the year.

Coldwell Banker Real Estate survey: Sellers more flexible

Agents say kitchens, open floor plans among priorities for buyers
Via Inman News

A Coldwell Banker Real Estate survey of more than 600 of the company's real estate agents across the U.S. shows that, according to a slight majority of the agents polled (51 percent), home sellers are more willing to lower their asking prices to increase the chance of a sale than they were last year.
Home sellers are also more willing to reconfigure their homes to facilitate a sale this year than they were last year, according to 45 percent of the survey respondents. The survey was conducted from Jan. 24 to Feb. 7.

A vast majority of home sellers (94 percent) are streamlining their homes' contents and doing cosmetic repairs and minor updates like painting, according to the agents surveyed. Fifty-nine percent say sellers are staging their homes with outside decorations and furniture to make them more appealing.

Coming as no surprise, finished basements and rec rooms are not on top of homebuyers' minds when searching for a home -- only 1 percent of the agents surveyed thought those features were the highest priorities for buyers.

Nice kitchens and open floor plans, however, are priorities for some buyers -- 33 percent of surveyed agents reported that nice kitchens were the most important home-selling feature, while 14 percent of respondents felt open floor plans were a priority.

Babies, jobs and marriages represent 70 percent, 69 percent and 59 percent of the respondents' opinions, respectively, of the life events driving homebuyers' decisions to purchase homes.

Average rate on 30-year mortgage dips to 3.88%

via The Associated Press

WASHINGTON–Fixed mortgage remain a bargain at the start of the spring-buying season: The average rate on the 30-year mortgage dipped this week, while the 15-year loan fell to a new record low.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan ticked down to 3.88%, from 3.90% the previous week. That's slightly above the 3.87% average rate hit three weeks ago, which was the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.

The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage fell to 3.13%, from 3.17% a week ago.

Rates on the 30-year loan have been below 4% for three months. That has made home-buying and refinancing more attractive for those who can qualify.

The super-low rates are helping the housing market recover, albeit slowly. Home sales have been rising and the four-week average of home purchase applications was up in January and February, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

In recent months, other signs have emerged that suggest the troubled housing market could start to turn around this year.

Builders are more optimistic after seeing more people express interest in buying a home. Construction has picked up and builders are requesting more permits to build single-family homes. And the supply of homes on the market is falling, which could send home prices higher.

A key reason for the optimism is the improving jobs market. Employers have added an average 200,000 net jobs per month from November through January. That has helped lower the unemployment rate for five straight months to 8.3%, the lowest level in nearly three years.

Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's chief economist, said a typical U.S. family now has more than double the income needed to purchase a median-priced home. That's the first time that's happened since records on home affordability were first recorded in the 1970s.

Still, home prices continue to fall. Millions of foreclosures and short sales — when a lender accepts less than what is owed on a mortgage — remain on the market. And the housing crisis and recession have also persuaded many Americans to rent instead of buy, which has led to a drop in homeownership.

Economists say housing is years away from returning to full health.

To calculate the average rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country Monday through Wednesday of each week.

The average rates don't include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1% of the loan amount.

The average fees for the 30-year and 15-year fixed loans were unchanged at 0.8.

For the five-year adjustable loan, the average rate fell to 2.81% from 2.83%, and the average fee was unchanged at 0.7.

The average on the one-year adjustable loan ticked up to 2.73% from 2.72%, and the average fee was unchanged at 0.6.