Here’s another way to dissect the current market conditions:
Price
Active Listings
%
Pendings
%
Solds last 60 days
%
Under $1M
155
13%
140
34%
213
36%
$1M – $2M
437
38%
207
50%
273
46%
Over $2M
569
49%
65
16%
103
17%
Totals
1,161
100%
412
100%
589
100%
The lower end is starved for inventory, and the high-end is bloated with offerings! The majority of the high-enders must be hoping to downsize, but it’s not killing them to hold out. It’s easier to stay put in comfortable surroundings and pay higher utility bills until that young family with 2.2 kids comes along.
For those high-enders who really want/need to move, just lower your price – the 103 closed sales in the last 60 days shows you how affluent this area is!
A good article that examines how baby boomers and millennials are competing for their housing needs – read the last two paragraphs below:
In South Carolina, baby boomers elbowed out entry-level buyers to snap up single-story floor plans at Riverwalk, a bike-friendly, outdoor-oriented community with recreation and office space on the Catawba River in Rock Hill. Builder Evans Coghill had not foreseen that 55-plus buyers would provide such a boost to Riverwalk’s customer base, says chief marketing officer Alan Banks. “We thought it would all be families,” he says, but older buyers flocked to Riverwalk after seeing a newspaper ad for the downstairs-master ranch houses.
As a result, the Charlotte, N.C.–based firm will include more single-story homes and homes with master bedrooms downstairs in the community’s next phase, with subtle yet simple changes that appeal to boomers such as covered outdoor living spaces, walk-in showers, built-in shelving and storage (to hold a lifetime of treasures), and remote-access security.
A similar scenario occurred at Rancho Mission Viejo, a 23,000-acre community in California that eventually will include 14,000 homes and 17,000 acres of open space. When sales opened for the community’s first phase, developers were surprised to find their target audience (boomers) didn’t flock to its 55-plus communities. Following tradition for multigenerational developments, developers initially included three gated neighborhoods with age-restricted houses and amenities in the project.
But it turns out that the baby boomers and empty-nesters were just as—if not more—interested in the market-rate neighborhoods intended for young families. In Rancho Mission Viejo’s second village, Esencia, the 55-plus housing is integrated into all-ages neighborhoods, and gates are a thing of the past.
The public builders are taking note of this trend as well. Companies like D.R. Horton and LGI Homes have launched product lines (or, in LGI’s case, entire business models) around building no-frills homes for the first-time buyer. But when these developments open, the builders are finding out that it’s not just millennials who are scooping up the entry-level homes.
“When we launched Express in Florida, 40%, 45% were actually the people buying their last home, not their first home,” said Horton CEO David Auld on the builder’s second quarter 2016 earnings call. “And that’s something we’re taking note of, and making sure that we’re in a position to accommodate those buyers.”
Riverwalk and Rancho Mission Viejo are evidence of a trend that will change the way communities are built and marketed for years, and likely decades, to come. It happened at NorthWest Crossing, a family-friendly traditional neighborhood development in Bend, Ore., where older buyers account for 60% percent of sales, and at Skylar at Playa Vista, contemporary single-story flats designed for young professionals in Los Angeles where more than half the residents in the first phase were 55 and older. Taking note, PulteGroup is building 1,900-square-foot townhouses with flexible three- to five-bedroom floor plans designed to appeal to both millennials and boomers in Minnesota
Boomers have been swiping the best of their kids’ culture in everything from fashion to technology since the millennials began coming of age. The Christian Science Monitor first noted this trend in a 2002 article (“parents and kids today dress alike, listen to the same music, and are good friends,”), and it’s become more intense as millennials have become adults.
For perhaps the first time ever, similarities between a parental generation and the generation it raised far outweigh differences. They mingle at concerts, over craft beers and cocktails, on bike paths and hiking trails. They’re all foodies. A 2015 Eventbrite survey found that boomers and millennials have surprisingly similar spending habits and attend the same live music events, according to an Elite Daily article, “The Fun Is Over: Music Festivals Are Being Invaded By Baby Boomers.” Festival promoters have taken note, and last year Billy Joel played Bonnaroo.
“Boomers are in the process of downsizing and getting rid of junk, and millennials don’t have junk,” he says. “Neither wants a big yard, but they both want a place for a dog.”
Millennials and boomers are more alike than different in everything from technology to ethics, according to a Synchrony Financial report, “Balancing Multi-Generational Retail Strategies.” Millennials are only moderately more likely to own digital devices, according to the report. They’re no more likely than boomers to shop at socially conscious or environmentally friendly retailers (67% of all generations say they would). Both generations are very comfortable with browsing, researching, and shopping online, but they respond differently to marketing messages. The ideal strategy for reaching both, the report states, “is one where the boomer population feels valued and delighted, while the millennial feels excited and interested.”
“Millennials like iPhones, Macs, riding their bikes,” says Manny Gonzalez, principal of KTGY, which designed Skylar at Playa Vista. “I’m 62. We’re finding that people my age like the same sorts of things. We’ve worked with computers, and we’re tech savvy. We may not go to the exact same restaurants as millennials, but we still go to the same downtown area. We still like being part of that whole buzz.”
Home builders have paid more attention to boomers because they’re better off financially, thanks largely to history. Boomers launched during a prosperous time for the middle class and compounded assets, while millennials launched (or didn’t) into the Great Recession with crippling student loan debt. Many boomers are fortunate to have home equity (if they didn’t lose it in the housing crisis), but they’re retiring into murky financial waters. Three-quarters of them plan to fund their retirements solely with Social Security, says John Mulville, vice president of the consulting group for Real Estate Economics. Pension plans are in trouble, and 401(k) retirement accounts are just as vulnerable to market corrections now as they were in 2008. Home equity could become many retirees’ only asset.
Mulville says this has already fueled a boomer migration in Southern California as empty nesters sell the coastal homes they raised kids in for $1 million or more and pick up new, lower-maintenance homes in Riverside or San Bernardino for a couple hundred thousand dollars.
“People haven’t sacked away the balances they need, and they’re being forced to extract the accumulated equity in their homes and put it in the bank for retirement,” he says. “It’s all very new, and it will really intensify in the next few years.”
On a steamy summer night near Manhattan’s Washington Square Park, real estate agent Jay Glazer hoped a redesigned roof deck might help draw potential buyers to the open house at his $1.5 million listing but, just in case, he added this to the ad:
“I’m fairly certain there is a PIKACHU at this open house, don’t miss it.”
Of the dozen or so people who showed up, only one knew exactly what “Pokemon Go” was, but Glazer said it was still worth adding the app as something of an appetizer to the ad.
“I think at the end of the day the goal is to get as many people through the door and interested in the apartment, and ultimately, if there’s a ‘Pokemon’ obsessed person out there who also likes this home, then we want them here, and this is the best way to attract them,” said Glazer, 32, a “Pokemon Go” player himself.
The ads are popping up on real estate listings as fast as Pikachu’s are on teenagers’ screens. OK, that’s a complete overstatement, but real estate agents are starting to play the game of using the game.
Are there many sellers who will consciously “list it a little bit low”? The hottest bidding wars are over the well-located houses that have many current upgrades – even those listed for retail. P.S. This should be one of the last TV stories on bidding wars.
LARCHMONT, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — It is getting tougher and tougher to find a home in the suburbs these days, with buyers going after all the same homes.
CBS2’s Lou Young had some tips Wednesday to proceed if you find yourself in a home buying bidding war.
Real estate agents said anyone shopping in the superheated New York suburban home market this season had best be prepared.
“Around here, you can get a listing on Friday, and by Sunday go to multiple bids,” said real estate agent Nancy Elsas.
Westchester County in particular is bidding war territory, with real estate agents setting the bait for multiple would-be buyers.
“I find that if you list it a little bit low, you’ll get multiple offers” and spark the war, said real estate agent David Turner.
One house in Bedford that Turner just sold went to sealed bids from three would-be buyers. Turner cautions people not to hold back when it gets to that point.
“I’ve had buyers call me after the conclusion of the bidding war and saying: ‘Can I go a little higher now? I’ve decided I really want it and I didn’t go high enough,’” Turner said. “Generally, there’s not that opportunity.”
The next time you’re surfing popular real estate listings site Zillow for a new home and stumble across a “Zestimate” — the company’s estimate for a property’s value — you might want to take it with a grain of salt.
In April, Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff nabbed a 12,732-square-foot manse in LA’s affluent Brentwood neighborhood for nearly $20 million.
Not only was it one of the priciest homes to sell in the City of Angels at that time, but it was also over $1 million above its Zestimate, according to The Real Deal.
Renovated by architect Ken Ungar, this gated six-bedroom property packs quite a punch, with features including a motor court with a fountain, a study with coffered ceilings, a master suite with a marble fireplace and a theater with stadium seating.
It’s not the only Zestimate snafu linked to a Rascoff deal. In Seattle, where Zillow is based, Rascoff sold his home in February for $1.1 million. That sale price is more than the $331,500 he paid for the property — but roughly 40 percent less than his company’s $1.75 million Zestimate.
A Zillow spokesperson declined comment.
Even before Rascoff’s own numerical disparities, others have challenged the accuracy of Zillow’s Zestimates, which folks can use as bargaining points for striking deals. Rascoff has said they’re a “good starting point,” but that, nationwide, Zestimates can have a 6 percent error rate.
Petco Park can handle the big stage, and San Diego is a gracious host. Now if Padres ownership would just put a winner on the field, maybe we could see a World Series at Petco someday!
(Management changes are rumored to be in the works).
The rest of the year is shaping up quite nicely – if all that matters are stats.
After a slow start in 1Q16, we closed 909 sales in the second quarter! After a strong 2015, there was some expectation for a pullback this year, but not yet – we exceeded the 2Q15 total of 901 sales!
Can we predict the rest of 2016?
We had similar second-quarter counts in both 2012 and 2015 as we did this year, and in both years the 3Q counts dropped off about the same (845 and 832). With the attractive mortgage rates we should at least equal, and hopefully do a little better? Let’s predict 850 NSDCC sales for the third quarter of 2016.
The last 3 fourth quarters have been almost identical – sales counts in the 660s.
We had 556 + 909 = 1,465 sales in first half of 2016.
Today we have 416 pendings.
Predicting 850 + 660 = 1,510 sales in second half of 2016.
Here are the NSDCC quarterly sales numbers:
Quarter
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
1Q
577
672
581
629
556
2Q
900
998
849
901
909
3Q
845
884
753
832
850?
4Q
832
664
666
662
660?
Total
3,154
3,218
2,849
3,024
2,975?
What needs to happen to ensure a vibrant second half of 2016?
Buyers need to make offers.
Sellers aren’t going to go first.
Even if they did lower the price, it won’t be by much. Mid-summer is here, and buyers have more permission. It’s not April any more!
Amy Fahey tends to a backyard garden at her suburban Chicago home, growing tomatoes, cucumbers, kale, peppers, Brussels sprouts, beans and herbs. But never squash.
“Three years in a row I’ve been struggling to grow squash,” she said. The reason it won’t take, she thinks: There aren’t enough bees to pollinate the plants. “We’ve killed off parts of the environment that could naturally make this happen,” said the retired J.P. Morgan executive who lives in Elmhurst, Ill., with her husband and teenage daughter.
But the neighborhood in which the Faheys are building a home offers new hope.
Set in Hampshire, Ill., about 50 miles from downtown Chicago, Serosun Farms is a new home-conservation development, restoring wetlands, woodlands and prairie, and preserving farmland throughout. Already, the frog population has grown exponentially from the conservation work done onsite, and monarch butterflies are also on the rebound, said Jane Stickland, who is working on the project with her brother, developer John DeWald. Their efforts also are boosting the bee population.
It’s very early in its development, but Serosun plans to incorporate about 160 acres of working farmland, making farm-to-table a way of life for residents through regular farmer’s markets. The community also offers eight miles of trails, an equestrian center and fishing ponds: 75% of the development will be reserved for farming and open space.
The 114 single-family homes range from $700,000 to $2 million; the median listing price for homes in Hampshire, Ill., is about $238,000, according to Realtor.com.
Anyone who was planning to sell during the season has probably listed their home for sale by now, and in the next few days we should be reaching peak inventory for the year. Don’t think that you have missed out though – the low rates should keep buyers engaged.
Today’s median list price in NSDCC? $2,175,000!
Eighty-eight percent of the houses for sale are priced over $1,000,000!
Click on the ‘Read More’ link below for the NSDCC active-inventory data:
