Em Johnston's posterous
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I want one!
Anyone in the market for a private island???
Cacao Pearl ? Private Island Resort, Palawan, Phillipines - Price by Request
Winner of a CNBC Asia Pacific Award for Best Residential Development, this luxury private island eco-resort offers bespoke eco-villas exclusively designed by a film art director in one of the best diving spots in the world, with pristine nature and a rich cultural history. Rental guarantee and long financing plans are available. Ideal vacation home investment for sophisticated water sports enthusiasts and tropical island lovers. VIP treatment, fringe reef, organic dining, eco-spa, private film screening room, star gazing platforms, modern fitness and yoga center, adult-only infinity pool, community marketplace, pristine rainforest, rare birds, turtles, dugong, dolphins?
John Kurtz 4075817890
john.kurtz@sothebysrealty.com
Stirling Sotheby's International Realty 121 S Orange Ave ste 1600 Orlando, FL, +1 407.581.7890
http://www.globalgalleryusa.com
© MMIX Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates LLC. A Realogy Company. All Rights Reserved. Sotheby's International Realty ® is a registered trademark licensed to Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates LLC. An Equal Opportunity Company. Equal Housing Opportunity. If you property is listed with a real estate broker, please disregard. It is not our intention to solicit offerings of other real estate brokers. We are happy to work with them and cooperate fully. Each office is Independently Owned and Operated.
Weekly Real Estate News 11/19/09
Big stories this week:
Federal aid for local housing programs. The aid will help programs that offer loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers with a less than stellar credit history.
Borrowing more than a cup of flour from the neighbor
Interesting that the launch is in SoCal. Do you borrow stuff from your neighbor?
In tough economic times, it can make sense for consumers to be both transumers?eschewing the burdens of ownership in favour of shorter-term privileges?and sellsumers, making the most of what assets they do own. Aiming to facilitate both is NeighborGoods, a brand-new site that helps consumers borrow, lend, rent, sell and buy stuff in their community.
Focusing for now on Southern California, NeighborGoods is an online community that lets consumers save and earn money by sharing with their neighbours and friends any of the assorted tools, ladders and other things they use only occasionally. Users of the site, which just launched into beta, can decide how they want to share their stuff. They can allow their friends to borrow an item for free while charging others a rental fee, for example, or they can decide to make the item available only to friends. NeighborGoods helps facilitate transactions with a reservation calendar, automated reminders, wish-list alerts and private messaging. It also tracks and shares the transaction history of each member. Neighbours can rate each other and even flag another member's account if something goes wrong. Borrowing and lending items on NeighborGoods is free of charge. Members who want to earn money by renting or selling items must have a Pro account?currently free, but ultimately by paid subscription.
Besides the obvious financial advantages for those involved, of course, sharing tools and equipment?much like cars, bikes and boats?has distinct eco-benefits as well, minimizing the redundant things so many households typically buy. Looks like another sharing-enabled win-win-win?for borrowers, owners and the planet?and one to be emulated in communities around the world! (Related: Neighbourhood approach to renewable energy.)
Website: www.neighborgoods.net
Contact: info@neighborgoods.net
I can get behind Less Paperwork!
Yesterday, the California Association of Realtors announced the Fall 2009 Form Updates.
Union Tribune Article - Home Price Increase
S.D. County home prices inch higher
Overall median posts first increase since June 2006
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 12:05 a.m.
San Diego County marked an economic milestone last month when home prices exceeded year-ago levels for the first time in 40 months, MDA DataQuick reported yesterday.
The increase was small ? less than a percentage point ? and it might be temporary.
But industry observers said the symbolism was important.
?It?s a reflection of a market that has stabilized in many areas,? DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage said.
The overall median of $325,000 was unchanged from August and September, but it was $1,500 higher than the $323,500 reported in October 2008. It was the first annual increase since June 2006.
That follows a near free-fall in price drops, when for 13 straight months ? from May last year to May this year ? year-over-year declines exceeded 20 percent; January?s was the biggest, down 34.7 percent. Economists focus on year-over-year changes to eliminate seasonal differences. The median price over that period plummeted from $380,000 to $280,000 before starting to rise again.
What changed?
?Government has a lot to do with stabilizing a lot of the market,? LePage said.
He cited low mortgage rates, at or below 5 percent, with helping to make affordability the best in years.
When lenders nearly collapsed under the weight of subprime mortgage defaults, the Federal Housing Administration stepped in to insure loans, whose ceilings were raised to cover most loans in most areas. Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury took over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two federally chartered companies that buy loans and sell to them to investors.
Finally, Congress approved and recently extended and expanded homebuyers? tax credits to nudge shoppers off the fence.
?If something rocks the boat here ? a rate spike, tougher qualifying standards for the FHA because it?s had some problems, new waves of foreclosures ? then there goes your price stability,? LePage said. ?So the market is on this precarious perch again. A lot of things that have been driving sales may not be here next year.?
Peter Dennehy, senior vice president at the Sullivan Group Real Estate Advisors market analysis firm, said sales tell more about the market than prices.
There were 3,671 sales in October, up 6.3 percent from September and 2 percent higher than a year ago. It was the most active October since 2006. October sales are often less than in September.
?Overall prices are up a little and volume for the year is higher,? Dennehy said. ?That?s probably a good thing.?
He said a monthly sales pace of 3,500 homes is healthy, but what is not normal is the dominance of first-time buyers and investors, who are often bidding against each other on low-cost foreclosure homes. Of all resales last month, 34.5 percent involved homes foreclosed on in the previous 12 months, DataQuick said.
?We are in a sellers? market for certain types of product and certain locations,? Dennehy said. ?Quite clearly, when you have a market where there are 30 to 40 offers per house like you do in some parts of the county, that?s a sellers? market.?
What needs to happen now to achieve a real housing recovery, he said, is more sales activity in higher-priced neighborhoods. Transactions have remained low because buyers often cannot get financing and sellers have not reduced prices enough.
?It?s still a very fragmented market recovery and a market that needs to have broad-based participation,? Dennehy said.
At the neighborhood level, there is no clear trend. Low-priced areas are not necessarily rising in value in response to overbidding demand, and high-priced ones aren?t necessarily falling because of lackluster demand.
For example, high-priced Mission Hills/Hillcrest and Cardiff saw increases, up 32.2 percent to $750,000 and 20.9 percent to $665,000, respectively.
Similarly, low-priced Golden Hill was down 23 percent to $180,000 on 13 home sales, and City Heights was off 18.8 percent to $195,000 on 25 homes.
Robert Brown, an economist at Cal State San Marcos, focused on the inventory of distressed properties ? foreclosure, bank-owned and short-sales, which involve sellers and their lender selling for less than the mortgage balance.
?The number of distressed properties, while still high, seems to be sustained a bit, leveling off and even falling in some ZIPs,? Brown said.
The figures from the San Diego Association of Realtors suggest a coming shortage with 8,291 active listings yesterday and 6,350 in pending status. The total is down 13 percent from year-ago levels.
But observers said they cannot predict the future if a new wave of foreclosures floods the market because distressed owners cannot get their loans modified. That would send prices lower again.
?There?s still pain in the housing market, as far as people being upside-down in their loans and mortgages,? said Kelly Cunningham, economist at the National University System Institute for Policy Research.
But the overall housing picture appears to be turning around.
?We?ve been looking for that for some time,? he said. ?Certainly, it does show solid evidence that the market has started to turn a corner. It?s not getting worse and it even shows some improvement.?
As he has warned in recent months, Cunningham said concerns should now be turning to the long-term supply of housing, if construction continues to remain as low as it has been this year. Through September, single-family housing permits totaled 1,323, one-third of the comparable figure in 2006.
?At some point, when we?re building so little new construction, that suggests we?ll have in a few years a severe housing shortage because of so little in the pipeline,? Cunningham said.
Originally Posted here
Mildly disturbing
Ads have appeared in some strange places? eggshells, barf bags, toilet mints, bellies, and ?.. But this is a first? a flying banner ad using a real fly.
A German ad agency, saving money on an airplane banner ad, hired some flies to do it. They tested the fly-by at a convention center. Apparently, the flies had a tough time staying aloft with the added weight and kept landing on people. Some might have had to give their lives by swatting so the ads could be read.
It just goes to show, ads can be annoying, even if they?re small.
h/t adfreak.
Real Estate News
This week, the biggest news actually happened last week. The extension of the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit was signed into law on Friday.
The topics highlighted this week are:
The Fannie Mae Deed for Lease Program: giving the home back to Fannie Mae and then renting it at current market value. This could be a good option for someone who's been unable to qualify for a loan modification yet is able to afford current rental rates. This also allows the owner/tenant to save the cost of moving.
I'll drink to that!
What an outstanding idea! J wants one, too.
Private wine cellars are typically associated with the upper echelons of society, limited as they tend to be to large, old and expensive houses. A UK company aims to change all that, however, with a precast storage system that can be installed in virtually any room of any house.
Spiral Cellars are watertight storage spaces that can be sunk into the ground in an existing ground floor room or incorporated into the build of an extension or new property. Capable of storing almost 1,900 bottles of wine, the spiral-shaped systems rely on the surrounding earth for insulation but also employ a unique air-flow system to maintain constant temperature without requiring any power. Three size options are available, ranging from the Mini Cellar?capable of storing at least 650 bottles?up to the White Spiral Cellar, which can accommodate up to 1,870 bottles. Pricing begins at GBP 9,200. A variety of trap door styles and optional extras such as LED lighting are also available.
Spiral Cellars has installed more than 23,000 Spiral Cellars in France and the UK over the last 25 or so years; one to bring to the growing ranks of oenophiles in other parts of the world...? (Related: Urban tasting room plays host to 8 local wineries ? Wine selling & storytelling.)
Website: www.spiralcellars.co.uk
Contact: info@spiralcellars.com
App delivers location-based info from drivers to drivers
This is just hilarious!
Aha Mobile is an iPhone app that offers drivers location-based information and entertainment. A personally tailored audio stream not only provides up-to-the-minute traffic info, but also features "shouts"?15 second snippets recorded through the application by other drivers in the area. The idea is that drivers can help each other out by sharing reports on road conditions, extending the real-time connectivity that people have on Facebook or Twitter. Furthering the social element, drivers can belt out tunes in the Caraoke Room, or vent their road rage in the Bad Driver Shout Room.
Aha Mobile's on-screen information is designed to be easily navigable and digestible at a glance; although for safety reasons, people should of course keep their hands off their iPhones while driving. Roadside services can be located with the help of Yelp and SitOrSquat by answering simple on-screen questions: "Hungry?" "Need coffee?" "Need a bathroom?" Drivers can also get alerts when they're approaching red lights or speed cameras.
Aha Mobile's service is available across the US, with special emphasis on the most heavily trafficked urban areas. One to bring to highways and byways in other parts of the world?Website: www.ahamobile.com
Contact: support@ahamobile.com
Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann
Real Estate Update 11/5/09
This week the big story is the extension of the Home Buyer Tax Credit. This article goes into more detail.
The other main article is a step-by-step breakdown of what happens when you miss a mortgage payment. Take Note! More than your mortgage is affected! Your credit card interest rates may increase when your house payment is delinquent.
Big Win for Home Buyers!
It's nearly official now... just waiting to be signed into law by President Obama.
The First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit has been extended. Yesterday, the Senate passed the new credit and today the House overwhelmingly approved with a vote of 403 to 12.
As of now, the federal tax credit will be extended through April 30th, 2010. First-time home buyers will still be eligible for a credit of up to $8,000. Additionally, existing homeowners will be eligible for a reduced credit of up to $6,500. To qualify for the $6,500 credit, existing homeowners must have lived in their current residences for at least 5 years. Since the average family moves every 5 to 7 years, this could make the decision to move much easier for many Sellers. Hopefully, if the Seller purchased their home in 2004 or before, they will have a small amount of equity in their home and be able to sell without resorting to a Short Sale.
The original Home Buyer Tax Credit has been a huge success, allowing more than 1.4 million first-time home buyers to participate. Here in San Diego, there has been a flurry of increased activity the past several months with buyers rushing to take advantage of the credit before the November 30th expiration.
New Green product: eco drywall
I wonder if this product will be available at the big retailers like Lowes and Home Depot. I will certainly look for this product the next time I need drywall!
While recent interest in sustainable building has spurred the creation of eco-minded materials like Greensulate and Cow Dung Bricks, drywall is one building component that has remained e ssentially the same over the past 100 or so years. That's about to change, however, thanks to EcoRock, a new drywall material that's made of 80 percent recycled materials.
Due to become available from California-based Serious Materials next year, EcoRock is used the same way as traditional gypsum-based drywall, but it's made of recycled industrial materials and uses 80 percent less energy to produce. The termite-resistant material also generates 60 percent less dust than traditional drywall and is 50 percent more resistant to mold. Perhaps best of all, EcoRock is fully recyclable, and can be used as a pH additive for soil or as a raw material in the production of new EcoRock and other building materials. Using EcoRock in a building project can contribute up to 8 LEED credits, Serious Materials says.
EcoRock won a Popular Science Green Tech Grand Award last year and is priced about the same as high-end drywall, Popular Science reported, at USD 14 to USD 20 per 4-by-8-ft. sheet. Distribution of EcoRock will begin on the West Coast of the U.S.; one to partner with on availability in other parts of the world...? (Related: Library of green building materials.)
Website: www.seriousmaterials.com/html/ecorock.html
Contact: info@seriousmaterials.com
~Em
Another great Springwise tool
This seems like a great idea. I wonder if it requires registration (for the consumer), like Angie's list.
Anyone who's ever owned a home has probably either heard or experienced their own horror stories involving less-than-entirely-honest building contractors and the havoc they can wreak. Aiming to put an end to the uncertainty involved in such situations, Florida-based BidABuilder now offers a way for homeowners to solicit bids from only the most carefully prescreened contractors.
Homeowners with work to be done on their property simply post a project for free on BidABuilder's site, giving listed contractors an opportunity to bid for the work. Not just any contractor can participate on the site, however?to be included, they must provide photo ID, license and insurance info, as well as submit to a criminal background check revealing all infractions. Those who pass BidABuilder's stringent requirements are notified of new projects in real time via email, mobile and the web; from there, they can submit bids or request site inspections. After a one-time setup fee of USD 29.95, contractors pay bid prices based on the estimated value of the project, starting at USD 4. Once all the bids are in, the homeowner then chooses the contractor he or she would like to do the work. After the work is done, the homeowner can then rate the contractor to help guide other users of the site. A forthcoming reward-point system, meanwhile, will offer homeowners discounts and prizes for frequent use.
In a world that's positively flooded with directories and bidding boards for construction jobs?but little in the way of formal evaluation?BidABuilder's focus on prescreening is a smart strategy that offers considerable benefits for both contractors and for homeowners. Currently, however, the site serves only US users; one to partner with or emulate in other parts of the world? (Related: Handywomen take on construction.)
Website: www.bidabuilder.com
Contact: sales@bidabuilder.com
San Diego County's November Events Calendar
Columbia reuses shipping boxes, tracks their stories
There's no doubt recycling is good, but in many cases, reusing is even better. Aiming to keep its share of reusable boxes out of the recycling bin, Columbia Sportswear recently launched an effort to let customers request that their orders be shipped in boxes that have been used before.
Consumers can already buy and sell their own used boxes on BoxCycle, which we covered about a year ago, and now Columbia Sportswear is bringing the concept into the corporate domain. When online shoppers reach checkout at Columbia.com, the website gives them the choice of shipping their order in a previously used cardboard box. Since the launch of the effort in August, more than 60 percent of online customers have selected the used box option, Columbia says. Perhaps even more interesting, however, is that Columbia places a sticker on the outside of each used box that includes a unique code and number. Entering that number or scanning the code via mobile phone into Columbia's "A Box Life" community site reveals a wealth of information about where that box has been. Then, before sending their reused box on its next journey, consumers are encouraged to post pictures of their own to the A Box Life Flickr group and to tweet about their box?s journey by adding the hash tag #aboxlife to Twitter posts when they have something ?box worthy? to share.
Not only does Oregon-based Columbia's effort create a new, eco-iconic shipping option, but it also brings the concept of product life stories into the world of packaging materials. In this era of transparency and sustainability, it's not hard to imagine Columbia's example setting a new standard for mail-order retailers worldwide. One to emulate sooner rather than later!
Website: www.columbia.com ? www.aboxlife.com
Contact: www.columbia.com/contact-us/Contact_Us,default,pg.html
Real Estate Update 10/16/09
The main story this week is about a loan program that is about to expire. (Great timing, huh?) The SmartBuy Program from Freddie Mac provides closing cost assistance when purchasing a Freddie Mac foreclosed home. Applications are being accepted until 10/30/09 and the loan must close by 12/31/09.
Mid-week Real Estate Update
C.A.R. (California Association of Realtors) released their 2010 Housing Market Projection.
?After experiencing its sharpest decline in history, we expect the median price to rise modestly next year,? Liptak added. ?2010 will mark the beginning of the ?new normal? for California?s housing market. This ?new normal? likely will feature a steady stream of sales driven by distressed properties in the low end of the market, coupled with moderate home-price appreciation.?
Wing Chair
I scored a mightily abused wing chair on Craigslist today.
Beyond The Headlines - Mid-week Real Estate Update
Make that end of the week!
The new law inserts a short payoff amount request into the existing payoff demand law which generally requires a lender to respond to a request for a payoff demand statement within 21 days from when it is requested, typically by escrow. The new law essentially requires, after a short sale has already been approved, for the lender to respond to a request for a short-pay demand statement within 21 days. The lender’s response to escrow can be a short-pay demand statement or even, depending on the circumstances, a written statement electing not to proceed with the proposed transaction. Another provision of SB 306 may also cause confusion. In practice, a lender may approve a short sale subject to its review of a closing statement prepared by escrow, but the lender does not review that closing statement promptly. Under the new law, if a lender fails to approve the closing statement within four days, the closing statement shall be deemed approved, but only if it is "not clearly contrary to the terms of the short-pay agreement or the short-pay demand statement provided to the escrowholder." The new law does not bind a lender to a short payoff amount in an offer that the lender has not approved." -C.A.R.
Beyond The Headlines
This week's Beyond the Headlines includes information about upcoming changes to FHA loans and the frustration that is called a Short Sale.
Feel free to contact me directly with any questions!
