Showing posts with label New York Times. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York Times. Show all posts

Monday, May 28, 2012

USA property market is turning around?

From my conversations with U.S. brokers (real estate agents), it appears that in some markets in the United States, there are now more buyers than sellers, with multiple offers on properties for sale.  This view is supported by a recent USA Today article:

Seller's market returns as homes for sale drop in some areas
http://usat.ly/JvJMoI

Update:  See also NY Times

Monday, August 15, 2011

At Vacant Homes, Foraging for Fruit

Things in the USA don't look so good. People are harvesting the gardens of vacant homes. See NYTimes.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Once Again, Floor Plans are Making Sales - in NYC

See NY Times article

"In recent months, though, several new developments around the city have once again sold apartments off floor plans. The practice is not widespread, and the examples tend to be in neighborhoods where there is very little new inventory. But at least one high-profile building that is under construction plans to sell off floor plans: the Extell Development Company’s 90-story hotel/condominium tower across from Carnegie Hall — One 57, at 157 West 57th Street."

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

How Low Can the US Market Go?

For real estate, some economists say, an end to the seemingly endless decline in housing values might be in sight.

Not immediately. At the moment, prices are still dropping. In 20 large cities, prices fell 0.8 percent in March from the previous month, according to the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index released Tuesday. That pushed the closely watched index below its level of two years ago to a new post-bubble low, and put it 33.1 percent under its July 2006 peak.

Few analysts expect housing prices to rebound anytime soon. But quite a few are predicting that the market is close to the moment when things will stop getting worse, which will be a major improvement all by itself.

“By far the bulk of the downturn of housing prices is beyond us,” said Paul Dales of Capital Economics. He expects the market to slip 5 percent further, slightly more than he was expecting a few months ago.

“There are some amazingly favorable signs. Housing is the most undervalued it’s been in 35 years,” Mr. Dales said. “At some point, it’s going to do very well.”

See NYT

Two Bedrooms Are Back in NY

As the real estate market in New York City shuffles toward recovery, two-bedroom apartments have been the last to rejoin the party.

Sales of studios and one-bedrooms rebounded first after the market crashed in late 2008, followed by three-bedrooms, but it wasn’t until mid-2010 that the two-bedroom market started its comeback. Now, brokers say that the demand for smaller apartments has ebbed and that two-bedroom apartments are all the rage, especially those priced at the lower end of the market.

Alan Nickman, an executive vice president of Bellmarc Realty, says that more buyers have recently come to him looking for apartments between $750,000 and $1.2 million. “That’s basically your starter two-bedrooms,” Mr. Nickman said, adding that the pool of potential buyers included “first-time buyers who are going straight into a two-bedroom,” bypassing smaller units.

See NYT

Monday, May 23, 2011

US Banks Own Nearly A Million Homes

"Over all, economists project that it would take about three years for lenders to sell their backlog of foreclosed homes. As a result, home values nationally could fall 5 percent by the end of 2011, according to Moody’s, and rise only modestly over the following year. Regions that were hardest hit by the housing collapse and recession could take even longer to recover — dealing yet another blow to a still-struggling economy."

Saturday, April 30, 2011

USA Prices Reverse Again


From the USA:

"PRICES for both homes and commercial real estate are falling again. Meaningful improvement may have to wait until there are many fewer distressed properties for sale.

Indexes of the two markets showed this week that the latest declines had almost wiped out the mild gains the two markets had shown after prices appeared to have hit bottom.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index of home prices ended February 3.3 percent below where it was a year earlier, and just 0.5 percent above the low reached in May 2009. The Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Index was reported to be down 4.9 percent over the last 12 months, but still 0.8 percent above its low, reached last August. ..."

NY Times

Sunday, December 5, 2010

US News

"LOOKING for a deal in a down market? As winter sets in, the fruits of desperation — foreclosure sales, short sales, auction sales and deep discounts — are appearing in bountiful number, if anyone out there is hungry for a bargain."

TWO-BEDROOM apartments have long been the workhorse of the New York City real estate market, accounting year after year for the largest percentage of apartments sold.

When the recession hit, buyers fled the market and prices fell across the board. After things stabilized in late 2009, the market share for two-bedrooms had dropped from a typical 40 percent to as low as 25 percent, because more people had found that they could afford three-bedrooms, which took sales away from two-bedrooms.

Now, after a lull that has lasted for more than a year, two-bedrooms are back.

NYTimes

Real Estate Investors Look to the Future, and See Signs to Buy Apartment Towers


FOR some New Yorkers on the hunt for an apartment, the must-have item in the search is nothing as prosaic as a walk-in closet or a second bathroom. It is a number — a lucky number.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Goodbye, Glitzy Condo Pitches

"...To adjust to a market strikingly different from the high-flying one that reigned when these projects were conceived, developers have not only created new marketing campaigns but also substantially changed the buildings themselves. Focusing less on trendiness and more on value, they have redesigned lobbies, combined apartments to create more family-sized units, and swapped luxuries like private roof cabanas for shared amenities like common roof decks. The changes all seek to appeal to today’s much more skeptical buyer...."

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Buy in the Bust?

"Mr. Sternlicht hopes to foreclose on many of Corus’s errant borrowers, restyle their buildings and sell units for a significant profit once the real estate market recovers. He says he and his investors can afford to wait until then because the F.D.I.C. has provided them with $1.4 billion in zero-coupon financing and an additional $1 billion in low-cost loans that can be used to complete unfinished projects."

See full article in NY Times: "Barry Sternlicht, the Real Estate Bargain Hunter"

Friday, February 12, 2010

Slumburbia in the USA

"After several days in foreclosure alley, this broad swath of the Central Valley that has been rated by some economists as the most stressed region during the Great Recession, I can’t see such apocalyptic forecasts coming true. Yes, huge developments are empty, with rising crime at the edges, and thousands of homes owned by banks that can’t unload them even at fire-sale prices. But through it all, the country churns and expands, unlike most other Western democracies. That great American natural resource — tomorrow — will have to save the suburban slums."

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Jingle Mail in the USA

"It was April 2006, a moment when the perpetual rise of real estate was considered practically a law of physics. Mr. Koellmann was 23, a management consultant new to Miami. Financially cautious by nature, he bought a small, plain one-bedroom apartment for $215,000, much less than his agent told him he could afford. He put down 20 percent and received a fixed-rate loan from Countrywide Financial.

Not quite four years later, apartments in the building are selling in foreclosure for $90,000.

“There is no financial sense in staying,” Mr. Koellmann said. With the $1,500 he is paying each month for his mortgage, taxes and insurance, he could rent a nicer place on the beach, one with a gym, security and valet parking."

Source: NYTimes

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Brisbane Featured in New York Times

Once Just a Stopover, an Australian City Grows Up

By JULIE EARLE-LEVINE

Published: November 4, 2007

ONCE just a stopover for tourists en route to either the Great Barrier Reef or the beaches on the Sunshine and Gold Coasts, the eastern Australian city of Brisbane has emerged as an alluring destination in its own right.

....

WHERE TO STAY

The Emporium Hotel (61-73-253-6999; 1000 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley, www.emporiumhotel.com.au) has doubles from 295 Australian dollars.

The recently opened Saville South Bank hotel (61-73-305-2500, 161 Grey Street, South Bank; www.savillehotelgroup.com) is a short walk to the Queensland Performing Arts Complex, the State Art Gallery and museums. Studio apartments with kitchenettes from 398 Australian dollars.


http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/travel/4next.html
or
http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/australia-and-pacific/australia/brisbane/overview.html