Home Sellers Shift Pricing Strategy From High To Middle Range

According to a January survey by Redfin, more home sellers are pricing their homes in a middle range – and fewer sellers are pricing high – than the results showed in a similar survey from October of last year. This article from Redfin’s Jon Whitely highlights the shift in pricing strategy.  Home sellers this season are taking a more grounded approach to pricing than they did in the fall, as buyers grow more selective and less willing to overpay.  Full Article

In a Redfin survey last month, 57 percent of home sellers said their strategy was to price their property in a middle range, an increase of 7 points from our October survey. Thirty-two percent said they would price high, down from 34 percent.

“We’ve seen a shift in the right direction toward pricing in the middle range to better encourage multiple offers,” said Will Fassinger, a Redfin agent in Atlanta. “There’s always the fear of becoming a stale listing that scares buyers off or pricing so low that you don’t attract the right buyers. We advise sellers that we don’t have to negotiate a ton to get the preferred price.”

Sixty-seven percent of sellers think prices will increase a little in 2016.  Seven percent think home prices will increase a lot, only a slight change from our October survey.

A greater share of survey respondents, 48 percent, said now is an OK time to sell in their neighborhood. Ten percent said now is a bad time to sell, down from 13 percent in our prior survey.

Words to Sell Real Estate Faster

Consumers More Positive About The Future Of Housing

On Monday morning, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released the results of its monthly Survey of Consumer Expectations, showing that consumers feel more positive about the housing market in the next 12 months. Here are some of the details from the results, reported by Builder. Full Article

Median expected home price change dropped slightly to 3.00% in January, according to the monthly Survey of Consumer Expectations released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

This is a two basis-point change compared to last December’s 3.02%, and 42 basis-point decrease from January 2015. An upward housing market in 2015 has given consumers more reason to believe in a strong 2016 market. Consumer predictions of home price volatility have gone down in recent years, but have stayed fairly stable since August 2015.

Consumers in the Northeast region have the most faith in the housing market, expecting a moderate 2.59% change in future home prices. People in the South region came in second with a 2.90% expected home price change, followed by the Midwest and West, with a 3.00% and 3.27% median point prediction, respectively.

Younger consumers under 40 years-old are the most optimistic among all age groups, with a median prediction of 2.82%, while consumers over age 60 see the most volatility in the market, with an expected home price change of 3.00%

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#ReasonsToBuyIn2016

Is it really 2016 already?  For those of you who happen to be planning on buying a home in the new year—or even just trying to—there’s a whole lot to celebrate. Why? A variety of financial vectors have dovetailed to make this the perfect storm for home buyers to get out there and make an (winning) offer. Here are six home-buying reasons to be thankful while ringing in the new year: Full Article

Reason No. 1: Interest rates are still at record lows  Even though they may creep up at any moment, it’s nonetheless a fact that interest rates on home loans are at historic lows, with a 30-year fixed-rate home loan still hovering around 4%.

Reason No. 2: Rents have skyrocketed  Another reason home buyers are lucky is that rents are going up, up, up! (This, on the other hand, is a reason not to be thankful if you’re a renter.) In fact, rents outpaced home values in 20 of the 35 biggest housing markets in 2015. What’s more, according to the 2015 Rent.com Rental Market Report, 88% of property managers raised their rent in the past 12 months, and an 8% hike is predicted for 2016.

Reason No. 3: Home prices are stabilizing  For the first time in years, prices that have been climbing steadily upward are stabilizing, restoring a level playing field that helps buyers drive a harder bargain with sellers, even in heated markets.

Reason No. 4: Down payments don’t need to break the bank  Probably the biggest obstacle that prevents renters from becoming homeowners is pulling together a down payment. But today, that chunk of change can be smaller, thanks to a variety of programs to help home buyers. For instance, the new Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Home Possible Advantage Program allows for a 3% down payment for credit scores as low as 620.

Reason No. 5: Mortgage insurance is a deal, too  If you do decide to put less than 20% down on a home, you are then required to have mortgage insurance (basically in case you default). A workaround to handle this, however, is to take out a loan from the Federal Housing Administration—a government mortgage insurer that backs loans with down payments as low as 3.5% and credit scores as low as 580. The fees are way down from 1.35% to 0.85% of the mortgage balance, meaning your monthly mortgage total will be significantly lower if you fund it this way. In fact, the FHA predicts this 37% annual premium cut will bring 250,000 first-time buyers into the market. Why not be one of them?

Reason No. 6: You’ll reap major tax breaks. Tax laws continue to favor homeowners, so you’re not just buying a place to live—you’re getting a tax break! The biggest one is that unless your home loan is more than $1 million, you can deduct all the monthly interest you are paying on that loan. Homeowners may also deduct certain home-related expenses and home property taxes.

U.S. new-home sales soar in December

Americans rushed to buy new homes in December at the strongest pace in 10 months, with 2015 marking the strongest year for this segment of the housing market since 2007.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that new-home sales surged 10.8 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 544,000. It was the third consecutive monthly gain since sales collapsed in September. The increase nearly pulled the sales rate even with the level of 545,000 in February 2015 and points to continued momentum for real estate and construction in the opening months of this year.

"This is a promising sign for the housing market as we move into 2016," said Tian Liu, chief economist at Genworth Mortgage Insurance. "We expect the strong increase in new home sales to continue as the fundamentals in the housing market remain strong and newer vintage homes are in short supply."

Sales of new homes accelerated sharply in 2015, rising 14.5 percent on the entire year to 501,000. Steady job growth that cut the unemployment rate to a healthy 5 percent has given many homebuyers increased confidence, while relatively low mortgage rates improved affordability. Yet sales of new homes continue to run below the 52-year historic average of 655,200, a sign of the severe hit absorbed by the market after the housing bubble burst.

Builders responded to the demand by increasing construction. Over the course of 2015, ground breakings rose 10.8 percent to 1.1 million. Yet supplies main relatively low with only 5.2 months' inventory of new homes available, down from 5.6 months in November. The industry generally considers six months' supply to be healthy.

New-home sales climbed strongly in the Northeast, Midwest and West in December. They were nearly flat in the South — the country's largest housing market.

The median new-home sales price fell 4.3 percent from a year ago to $288,900. But Ralph McLaughlin, chief economist at the real estate firm Trulia, cautioned that this doesn't necessarily mean that affordability has improved for first-time buyers. Full Article

Tips for Real Estate Photography

LIGHTING BASICS

Great architects understand the importance of light and design houses around this. If you are fortunate enough to have a well designed lighting system, you might be able to get away with only using existing light.

The first step is to turn on all the lights in the house. This will add more depth and color variance to your photos. Be sure that the lights do not show up as reflections in pictures, windows, mirrors, or other reflective surfaces.

Often you’ll need to use external lighting such as flashes or strobes to balance the natural and artificial light. A simple tactic is to replace the incandescent bulbs with more powerful tungsten bulbs. These have a higher output and are more consistent in color temperature with outdoor lighting.

When using a portable flash, it is best not to point the light directly at your scene. Instead, aim it at a wall or ceiling. This will diffuse and spread the light throughout the entire room. Use caution with colored walls as the color may transfer to the light.

Bright and large windows often cause various problems in an interior shoot. They distract the viewer and can cause exposure problems. Planning your shoot when the sun isn’t at its strongest or entering directly into the window is an easy solution to this. Full Article 

COMPOSITION

 After you’ve completed all the pre-production phases of interior photography, now comes the actual photo taking! The following are a few tips for taking better residential interior photos.

• Be Spacious  To make rooms appear more spacious, be sure to avoid shooting straight at walls. This will make the photo look flat and can also warp the perspective. Instead, shoot into the corners of rooms. This will create more depth and make the room appear larger. Photographing from a lower angle and with a wider angled lens is also a great way to increase the perceived size of the room.  
• Choose Attention Grabbing Areas  There is no way to photograph a room in one picture (besides photo stitching). When you photograph a room select the interesting parts. Choose objects of importance or parts of the room with more interesting architecture.
• Keep the Lines Straight  Be sure that the vertical and horizontal lines in your photos are straight. Crooked lines are signs of poor technical skills and will detract from the image.  
• Know Your Goal  Are you photographing the house to feature the architectural design or the ambiance? Understand your goals for the photo shoot and compose accordingly.

“Cantabria” captured by Sherwood CChttps://www.flickr.com/photos/sherwood-real-estate/