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Monday, May 12th, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 03:01:50 pm
When I was reporting my story about new construction that ran last week, I had a long and interesting conversation with Gayl Van Natter at Bennett Homes about the urban village concept in Gig Harbor the builder started selling in September. And why sales, which she called disappointing, aren’t coming together as she had expected they would. The homes at Harbor Crossing built by Bennett Homes are priced starting in the mid-$400s and range in size from 1,800 to 2,600 square feet. (The Dwelling Co. also is building homes at Harbor Crossing.) Because they are meant to mimic an urban setting, the homes are close together – 10 feet between them – and some have shared access to driveways and minimal yard spaces. They are a few blocks from a new Costco and YMCA and other retailers, so the expectation was that buyers would seize the opportunity to live and play in one place. But Van Natter said locals aren’t taking to the urban village idea. “The people who come from Gig Harbor go through our models, love them, but just can’t wrap their brain around them being so close,” said Van Natter, who added that perhaps proximity to the water would make the urban-ness an easier sell. Also, she said, buyers tend to associate Gig Harbor with larger properties. Van Natter said that completion of the hospital, as an additional amenity and a supply of workers who might become home buyers, should help. But, so far, all buyers have come from out of state. “I think the product is way ahead of it’s time in Gig Harbor,” said Van Natter, who emphasized that the company continues to expect great things from its harbor-area projects. What do you think? Is this kind of close-knit neighborhood out of place in Gig Harbor? If so, aren’t there homes in highly desirable North Tacoma on similarly small lots and quite close together? Do people want to walk to Costco and the Y? Do people want urban-type settings as much as builders think they do?
Categories: New projects
• 5 comments
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 06:07:28 am
Every month, I provide a breakdown of Pierce County home price and sales activity stats when the newest numbers are released from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. And every month I get queries and requests from those who want info for areas not on the list. Here’s how the breakdown works: There are 103 cities or neighborhoods in Pierce County grouped into 17 larger geographic areas – the 17 for which I’m given MLS statistics. Which means that Spanaway and Anderson Island each get one of the 17 entries in the list but the Key Peninsula and Fox Island are part of the Gig Harbor numbers. These are how the numbers are provided by the MLS. I am unable to get a more detailed report when the new monthly release is sent. The boundaries for each MLS area have been decided and are occasionally revised by real estate brokers for marketing purposes, according to MLS spokeswoman Cheri Brennan. They tend to not follow city limits and are a blending of the boundaries established long ago when the Northwest MLS combined with the MLS operated by the Tacoma-Pierce County Association of Realtors until 1997. So that everyone knows where their area falls within the Pierce County MLS areas, here’s a look at the 17 I profile every month and the additional parts of the county that are grouped with each, plus the approximate boundaries for the four Tacoma categories. Anderson Island
Categories: Misc.
• 5 comments
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 11:21:54 am
Two national pieces this week provide a point-counterpoint to the ongoing debate on where the bottom of the real estate market exists and where we might find it. First, a Wall Street Journal column by a hedge fund manager who thinks the worst is over. Thanks to Dick Beeson, Windermere broker and MLS director, who forwarded me the piece. An excerpt: The dire headlines coming fast and furious in the financial and popular press suggest that the housing crisis is intensifying. Yet it is very likely that April 2008 will mark the bottom of the U.S. housing market. Yes, the housing market is bottoming right now. But then there’s the formerly-upbeat-but-now-skeptical David Lereah, the former forecaster for the National Association of Realtors. He’s profiled in a Newsweek column I came across at the LA Times. An excerpt: "We're not at the bottom," he says. "[People] want it to be near the bottom, but we're not there yet. The leading indicators are still very bad. Pending home sales are still in bad shape. Mortgage applications are low … There's still supply out there in abundance … This thing is going to get worse before it gets better."
Posted by Devona Wells @ 06:08:13 am
Year-over-year sales activity was all over the place in Pierce County in April, from an increase of 72.4 percent in Lakewood to a decrease of 62.7 percent in Central Tacoma, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Overall, county sales declined 18.9 percent in April compared to the same month in 2007. Keep in mind that this is a one-month snapshot with some areas selling as few as a couple dozen homes during the month. It’s instructive, however, to look at where these areas were a year ago and are now as the spring selling season kicks off. Here are the number of homes, including houses and condos, sold in each area with the corresponding rise or decline compared to April 2007, according to the MLS.
Categories: Sales activity
• 2 comments
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 11:15:59 am
Despite a countywide drop in the median home price last month, several areas within Pierce County managed slim to moderate gains. Below you’ll find last month’s price for 16 of the areas tracked by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service and how it compares to median prices in April 2007. The median means half sold for more and half sold for less. Because I don’t provide numbers for areas that had less than 10 sales, you won’t find price changes for Anderson Island, where just two homes sold in April. The biggest price increase came in Browns Point. The largest decline in year-over-year prices? Parkland. Tomorrow I’ll provide closed sales numbers for some additional perspective. As a preview, three areas saw sales drop year-over-year by close to 50 percent. Overall, the county had an 18.9 percent decline in sales. And later in the week I’ll give a detailed list of which areas are included in each of the 17 for which the MLS gives me stats each month. For example, the Roy area also includes McKenna and Harts Lake. And Gig Harbor also has stats for the Key Pensinsula, Fox Island and other parts of Pierce County.
Categories: Housing prices
• 1 comment
Monday, May 5th, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 11:13:24 am
The latest home sale numbers from the Northwest MLS show yet another year-over-year price decrease in Pierce County. April prices fell 4.3 percent compared to the same month in 2007 to $263,051. Look for more details on the April numbers in tomorrow’s News Tribune and for the area breakdowns on Open House later this week. For now, here’s a look at the year-over-year price increases and decreases during the last year. 2008 2007
Categories: Housing prices
• 11 comments
Thursday, May 1st, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 09:32:26 am
These home sales numbers for the first 114 days of the year offer additional perspective on how readily the lowest-priced homes are selling and where. These numbers tally year-to-date closed sales on homes priced under $250,000 and reveal that in most areas sales of such homes are off compared to the same period last year. The numbers, from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, come courtesy of Dick Beeson, a Windermere broker and MLS director. As I mentioned earlier this week, digging into these numbers was part of determining whether or not more sales of the cheapest homes was contributing to months of declines in the county's median home price. Year-to-date sales of homes in all price ranges are off 17 percent, so unless you're in Puyallup, the Eatonville area or Lakewood these numbers show that far fewer of the lowest-priced homes are selling.
Categories: Housing prices
• 14 comments
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 10:18:37 am
The price of a typical home in the Seattle-Tacoma area, according to the national S&P/Case-Shiller index, continued in the same downward direction in February it's been heading since the summer. The index, which ties today's prices to a standard established in Jan. 2000, showed a 2.7 percent decline over the same month a year ago. Most of the other 19 U.S. markets, however, saw far worse drops. Phoenix, Miami and Las Vegas all saw price declines of more than 20 percent. Only Charlotte, N.C., saw appreciation, at 1.5 percent. Here's a look at how the Seattle-Tacoma area has been trending in the last several months, according to the index: February: -2.7 percent For those looking for a longer-range perspective, the index also shows that a typical house in the Seattle-Tacoma market has gained 79.9 percent since 2000.
Categories: Housing prices
• 9 comments
Posted by Devona Wells @ 06:34:38 am
A new list from Forbes ranks the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area as having among the worst homeowner debt, leaning heavily on the percentage of mortgages with a second mortgage or home equity loan. Now that the market, banks and real estate industry are dealing with the many ripple effects of over-lending risky products to borrowers who mostly shouldn't have been borrowing -- aka the subprime debacle -- attention is turning to another recent phenomenon: saddling a first mortgage with another, smaller one. The magazine says 26 percent of mortgages in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area have a second mortgage or home equity loan, putting it No. 13 in the country. You can find the whole Forbes story here. Problem arise when a home saddled with two loans begins to lose value and can't be sold or refinanced, because the house is worth less than the combined loans. Anyone concerned about such scenarios in Pierce County?
Categories: Mortgages, good and bad
• 5 comments
Monday, April 28th, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 06:09:18 am
I’ve been hearing a real estate agent theory on price dips the last few months that blames months of year-over-year declines on more home sales in the lowest prices. The median means half sell for more and half for less, so the idea statistically is that using the median price of closed sales minimizes the swaying of prices by one specific price category. Pierce County median price declines have come in two forms in recent months – prices compared to the same month the year before have dropped six of the last seven months. Month-to-month prices have been down since peaking in August. (The median price was $258,405 in March.) So I asked Dick Beeson, an MLS director and Windermere broker, to pull closed sales from Jan. 1 through March 23 for 2006, 2007 and 2008 in five different price categories. I examined sales in 16 Pierce County areas and several are seeing a higher proportion of sales in the under-$250,000 category than last year. But a few have also seen declines and a couple are essentially flat. But if you look at the number of sales in the lowest-price category, Lakewood and the Puyallup area both saw an increase in closed transactions despite drops in sales overall. Plus, several areas show that the sales of homes priced below $250,000 fell less than sales drops in other price ranges. This is in contrast to numbers in November that showed most areas saw bigger declines in the lowest-priced homes. All very interesting -- and the best evidence that buyers in some areas are purchasing more of the cheapest homes than they did last year. I’ve provided the proportion of the total sales that the under-$250,000 category accounts for in the first 114 days of each year. Tomorrow, I'll show the same areas with the increase or decrease of closed sales in the same price category.
Categories: Housing prices
• 3 comments
Friday, April 25th, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 06:18:46 am
All kinds of organizations do all kinds of good things to help people fix up their homes and become homeowners when they couldn’t otherwise afford it. I wanted to recognize some groups coming together today for a three-day project that has a slightly unusual take on the donated home makeover: Redoing a house to get it eligible for a reverse mortgage. The home is in Parkland and is owned by an 82-year-old widow, who lives with her disabled adult son. Rebuilding Together, along with the Washington Association of Mortgage Brokers South Sound chapter and Walsh Construction, will be giving the home top-to-bottom treatment, from new flooring, doors and windows to new electrical wiring, plumbing and landscaping. “I can tell you at this point, without this work, the place was facing condemnation,” said Ed Hoffmann, a member of the mortgage association who is putting together the reverse mortgage for the homeowner. Much like an FHA loan, homes must meet certain standards to qualify for a reverse mortgage, which is insured by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. A reverse mortgage allows seniors at least 62 years old to continue living in their homes while being paid from the equity they’ve accrued. Popularity of the loans is expected to jump as baby boomers continue retiring. Already, HUD is seeing more interest, having insured 1,727 such mortgages in the state in 2006, up from 253 in 2000. To learn more about how Rebuilding Together helps provide disadvantaged homeowners a better place to live and how families can apply for the help, go here. Thursday, April 24th, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 06:16:34 am
The numbers available so far for 2008 give a read on the first quarter and since so many on the national scene are making predictions about the bottom of this market and where it might be, I thought you might want to make some predictions, too. As a starting point, Yale University economist Robert Shiller, admittedly bearish and known for the S&P Case-Shiller home price index, said this week that U.S. housing prices could fall farther than they did during the Great Depression. At that time, prices decreased by 30 percent. Here’s where price changes stand, year-over-year, in Pierce County for the first three months of 2008, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. March: -6.02 percent For additional context, prices in Pierce County have decreased compared to the same month the previous year in the last six of seven months. So where do you think prices are headed? Did we find the bottom of this market correction in March? Or will we be waiting through the rest of 2008, and perhaps 2009, or even farther down the road? It seems the biggest factor in the near-future could be financing -- how readily it's attained, how strict lenders continue to be and how expensive loans are to get, considering the fees being tacked on in today's lending climate. Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 01:51:14 pm
With gas prices remaining at extra-high levels – and predicted to go higher through the summer – I was wondering how such price increases are impacting real estate agents and all the other professionals tied to the industry. The average in Tacoma for a regular gallon of gas today is $3.63, up considerably from the year-ago price of $3.17, according to AAA. (The national average for the same gallon of gas is $3.51.) I know there's a lot you can do electronically, but real estate jobs seem to be more mileage-dependent than a lot of others. Have any agents considered adding a surcharge to make up for the extra gas they’re spending driving clients around? Anyone else? And what about buyers? Are you looking less from your car to save a few bucks? Or even rethinking where you might live to avoid driving and pricey gas bills?
Categories: Misc.
• 15 comments
Monday, April 21st, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 03:00:46 pm
This story highlights incidents in real estate markets around the country. But I thought that an increase in arson-for-mortgages odd and fascinating enough to pass on. One piece particularly caught my attention, having covered the recovery of a family who lost their home to the fall wildfires of 2003. This L.A Times piece says that investigators are looking into the possibility that some of the 2,000 homes destroyed in last fall’s fires were instead burned by owners trying to get out of paying their mortgage. Here’s the full LAT story: Some folks celebrate their last home mortgage payment by setting fire to their loan agreement. Lately, people behind on their mortgages are simply setting fire to their homes. In what appears to the latest symptom of the U.S. mortgage meltdown and credit crisis, insurers, law enforcement and state agencies nationwide have reported a jump in home and automobile fires in the past year set by owners unable to pay their debts. The numbers are small, but they’re leading the insurance industry to scrutinize more closely what seem to be routine blazes. “We’ve seen a dramatic increase in this kind of fraud,” said Dan Bales, director of fraud investigations at Mercury Insurance. “People upside down on their house with variable interest-rate loans, or upside down on their cars, are pretty quick to burn their property right now.” Last week, a Sacramento, Calif.-area couple was arrested on charges that they burned their Jeep and drove their Nissan pickup into a river, then filed fraudulent insurance claims. According to investigators, the wife admitted she was trying to escape her $600 monthly car payment. Three weeks ago, police arrested a woman in Easley, S.C., and accused her of deliberately setting fire to her home just three days after the bank hung a foreclosure notice on her door. In January, an Omaha, Neb., man was charged with arranging to have his three-bedroom house burned down to avoid losing it to the bank. The fires are keeping fraud investigators such as Anne Luce occupied. “I’m busier now than a one-armed paper hanger,” said Luce, who works on auto cases for Bristol West Insurance’s special-investigations unit. “What is happening is terrifically economically driven.” These financially motivated fires are surprising some officials, because they come after a decadelong decline in overall arson rates nationwide. Few state or federal agencies categorize arson in terms of the financial status of liens on the property, making nationwide figures elusive. Still, areas of the country are showing a significant increase.
Categories: Mortgages, good and bad
Friday, April 18th, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 06:13:17 am
Short sales continue to be a hot topic in a difficult housing market. I wrote about the option, which allows a homeowner to sell a home for less than what’s owed on the mortgage, in February. A recent Wall Street Journal story details the many difficulties related to what can be a lengthy and frustrating process. On an anecdotal note, I have friends who are now on their second attempt to buy a short-sale home. The first one fell through after months of unresponsiveness from the seller’s bank. Anyone else finding success or frustration with a short sale? Here's the WSJ story: As more people fall behind on their mortgages, lenders have been slow to take advantage of a longstanding alternative to foreclosure — a so-called short sale. At first glance, a short sale might seem like a win-win for everyone involved. In such an arrangement, the borrower sells the home for less than the amount owed, with the lender forgiving the difference. The sale releases borrowers from their obligations. For mortgage holders, it can be less costly than foreclosing — and could provide protection against future price drops. For buyers, it can be a chance to buy a home at an attractive price. Short sales — which were rare when the housing market was booming — can also be a good way for lenders and investors to minimize losses. They typically result in losses of 19 percent of the loan amount, compared with an average loss of 40 percent for homes that are sold after foreclosure, according to a recent analysis by Clayton Holdings Inc., which tracks more than $500 billion in mortgage loans monthly for investors. The costs of foreclosure can include not only legal fees, but also taxes, insurance and the expense of maintaining the home until the property is sold and repairing any property damage. As the housing market continues to weaken, the number of short sales is edging upward. Short sales currently account for about 18 percent of home sales, according to the National Association of Realtors. But it can be extremely difficult to get these deals completed. Unlike a traditional real-estate sale, a short sale requires the approval of not only the buyer and the seller, but also the mortgage-servicing company. In many cases, loans have been packaged into securities — which means that the mortgage servicer must consider the interests of the investors who own the loans.
Categories: Affordability
• 4 comments
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 06:03:05 am
So why is it that while so many other professionals charge an hourly rate, real estate agents take a commission? Think about the other types of professionals you might hire to do something for you or your home: accountant, attorney, mechanic. They charge by the hour, which translates to paying for the work done rather than paying a percentage of a sale that can happen in days or months. All have to maintain their own businesses and do some share of advertising, networking and marketing their services. Real estate agents, however, do take on the additional burden of marketing each property they try to sell. I’m not looking to make this into another discussion on whether or not real estate agents deserve the money they make. But I am interested in your thoughts on how they get paid and whether as consumers you like the idea of hourly rates vs. commission. And, agents, have you considered switching to an hourly rate. If you haven’t, why not? And one more question: Knowing that agents are required to be licensed and keep current on classes and many bring various levels of expertise, what would be a fair hourly rate for a good agent?
Categories: Agents
• 65 comments
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 06:05:12 am
Remember the San Diego real estate agent sued several months ago by a couple who blamed him for bad advice tied to the value of the home they purchased. Well, a jury took his side in the trial that ended last week. The buyers had accused Re/Max agent Mike Little of withholding information about similar homes in their neighborhood selling for less, causing them to pay more for her $1.2 million house in 2005 than they should have. But, according to the North County Times, it took a jury less than two hours to decide in favor of the agent. From the story: The Ummels said Little had failed them and thus owed them the amount they felt they overspent. But the jury found that Little had not breeched his responsibility to the couple as their agent, nor had he been negligent. "Mr. Little did what he was supposed to do," jury forewoman Wendi Brick said. "The bottom line is that you (as a buyer) are responsible when you sign a contract and purchase something."
Categories: Housing prices
• 3 comments
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 02:45:18 pm
New foreclosure stats for the month show Washington state’s March rate posting a huge increase – 120.6 percent over the same month a year ago – but that jump is likely not as high as it looks. RealtyTrac, the California company that supplies the numbers, said in its release that in several states, including Wyoming, Vermont, Maryland and Washington, “actual increases may not be as high due to data collection changes or improvements.” (Washington, D.C., with the same caveat applied, saw a year-over-year increase in foreclosure filings of 6,040 percent.) Nationwide, foreclosure filings increased by 57.4 percent, according to RealtyTrac, which follows auction and default notices and bank repossessions. I called this morning to get more info on the change in data collection and why that altered Washington state’s numbers to the degree that all of a sudden the state was No. 16 in the national foreclosure tally after months of being middle of the pack. I’ll update if I get a call back. But I did post about a RealtyTrac miscalculation in October in Atlanta that resulted from the company counting foreclosure filings twice. UPDATE A company that supplies RealtyTrac with foreclosure filings sent substitution of trustee notices, which were instead tabulated as notices of default, Blomquist said. On top of the document misfire, Blomquist said the company does not typically look at notices of default in Washington state because such notices are not a required part of the foreclosure process. The numbers will be adjusted accordingly, he said, and should lower the state's foreclosure rate. I'll update when I get the new numbers.
Categories: Foreclosure/bankruptcy
Monday, April 14th, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 09:56:58 am
I'm seeing a new Associated Press housing poll everywhere this morning, so I thought I would use it as a jumping off point for a kind of home buyer I've been thinking about lately: the move-up buyer. Here are some of the results of the Associated Press-AOL Money & Finance poll. Yes, it's a national poll, but it hits on what real estate agents often tell me: buyers continue to be hesitant. The buyer who seems to be in the toughest spot is the move-up one afraid of losing money on a sale while trying to buy. Which would be OK, because what's lost on one end could be made up on the other, except it seems folks are worried homes are depreciating rather than increasing in value, perhaps contributing to today's hesitancy. Any move-up buyers feeling extra hesitant? Any out there who've taken the plunge recently? Any agents working with move-up buyers?
Categories: Housing prices
• 3 comments
Friday, April 11th, 2008
Posted by Devona Wells @ 12:41:48 pm
Here's a look at March home sales activity in 17 areas around Pierce County, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. All but Anderson Island, with one home sold, had fewer sales last month than the same month in 2007. Countywide, sales for houses and condos declined 32.9 percent. The smallest drop by percentage? Eatonville. The biggest? Browns Point.
Categories: Sales activity
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About Devona Wells: I've been a reporter for more than 10 years, starting in Silverdale (where I grew up) then east to the Yakima Valley, down to Bakersfield, Calif., and even farther south to Riverside. I arrived in Tacoma and started covering real estate last year.
The blog will focus on the South Sound, state and national housing and rental markets, as well as cool Web sites, weird real estate trends and warnings about scams.