Real Estate & Mortgage

EMpty Nestors Realty

Broker Coldwell Banker has conducted an online survey of 150 of its agents across the nation in an attempt to discover shopping habits of a certain home owner class.
• 66% saw an increase in home purchases from empty nesters over the last three years.
• 52% say “desire to downsize” is empty nesters’ key reason for a move.
• 50% say empty nesters look for single-family homes; 49% seek condos or townhouses.
• 18% say empty nesters move to be near children or grandchildren.
• 54% say empty nesters view their home as a home; 3% view it primarily as an investment.

Wartertown Real Estate

Check out Watertown Real Estate. This little City is rich in ethnic diversity, economic and educational backgrounds along with differing cultures and many amenities such as shopping malls, swimming pools, golf and tennis clubs, skating rinks, athletic clubs, eleven fine parks and public transportation providing easy access to Boston and surrounding communities.

Affordable Homes

This from BankRate.com. Housing is still affordable in the right spots

The article says that Coastal metropolises like Los Angeles, New York, Boston and San Francisco all might be ranked among the most desirable places to live, but they are expensive! Thus home prices make it tuff to find affordable housing.

The article refeences Lawrence Yun an Econmist from NAR. He says high home prices in popular coastal cities appear to be driving a wave of migration to less costly locales, according to , economist at the National Association of Realtors, or NAR. "Californians are buying up properties in cheaper neighboring states. On the East Coast,  prospective homeowners are seeking out property in Virginia and the Carolinas."

It appears  United Van Lines reported that California had a higher number of outbound moves relative to inbound ones for the first time since 1995. For every 44 moves into the state last year, the company handled 56 outbound moves.States with a much higher number of people moving in rather than out included Oregon, Idaho, Arizona and North Carolina.

Overall, housing affordability nationwide is at its lowest point in 15 years, according to the NAR. In December, the percentage of households in California able to afford a median-priced home stood at 14 percent, according to the California Association of Realtors. New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and increasingly, South Florida homes, , according to Yun, are also progressively unaffordable. The most affordable markets, by contrast, tend to be in the Midwest.

Fastest Growing US Counties

Florida's population of Flagler County increased 10.7 percent to 76,410 residents in the year that ended July 1, 2005. Up 53 percent increase in population since the 2000 census making it the fastest-growing U.S. county for the second year in a row, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday.

Most of the top 10 fastest growing counties were on the suburban fringes of major metropolitan areas, and all but one were located in the South or West regions of the U.S.

The other fast growing counties between 2004 and 2005 include:

2. Lyon County, Nev., near Carson City
3. Kendall County, Ill., outside of Chicago
4. Rockwell County, Texas, near Dallas
5. Washington County, Utah, 120 miles north of Las Vegas
6. Nye County, Nev. 100 miles north of Las Vegas
7. Pinal County, Ariz., near Phoenix
8. Loudon County, Va., suburban Washington, D.C.
9. King George County, Va., suburban Washington, D.C.
10. Caroline County, Va., near Richmond

Real Estate Broker

The top Real Estate Brokers all over the country was archived by Rismedia recently.

The Realtor group was written about and discussed with sales and commissions. The Power Realtor survey is here.

We are also linking to some of the top online Realtors and Realtor websites here.

Second Homes

A new study shows sales of second homes surged in 2004, and that investment property and vacation homes make up a significant portion of the overall housing market, accounting for more than one-third of residential transactions, according to the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS(R).

GMAC Realty

GMAC Real Estate Names Barbara Chambers Vice President of Marketing for Company-Owned Offices 

A marketing executive with more than 20 years of experience, Barbara Chambers, has been named vice president of marketing for GMAC Real Estate Company-Owned Real Estate (CORE) offices.

"Barbara's extensive, results-driven marketing experience will play an invaluable role as we continue to transform GMAC Company-Owned Real Estate into true full-service offices for home services," said Terry Morris, president of GMAC Real Estate's Company-Owned offices. "Not only does Barbara have a proven track record for accomplishing results, she understands what it takes to meets customers' complete home-buying and selling needs, from brokerage and mortgages, to title and closing services, insurance and home warranties."

Realtors

Realtor Listings
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The FCC, in a February ruling, denied the Realtor Association's by the realtors to have expired and for-sale-by-owner listings clarified that calls could be made by real estate professionals to people advertising homes for sale as long as the purpose of the call was to discuss a potential sale to a represented buyer.

Real Estate listings

A directory of real estate agent web sites.

California home prices up

California Home Prices up 18.1%

The CAR released December home prices. Median real estate sales price for California homes was $474,480, up 18.1 percent in 12 months. The median is the point at which half the sales are higher and half are lower, in this case covering only single-family homes sold by a Realtor. In other words homes sold by owner were not reflected in these numbers.

CAR attributed the upswing in home prices to buyers' concerns about mortgage rates, which have stayed relatively low at about 5.75 percent for a 30-year fixed-rate.

Old fashioned supply and demand won out.

"After peaking in the middle of 2004, the number of homes for sale dropped again last month to a 2.8 month supply compared with 3.5 months in November," CAR Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young said in a release. "Despite having fewer homes to choose from, buyers are becoming more selective and are taking more time before making an offer on a home. The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home reached 43 days in December, compared to 27 days a year ago."

Just North of Sacramento is Shasta and Rocklin California. This area is booming in real estate. Redding is near Shasta Lakes which offers skiing and up the hill snow skiing. The site offers neighborhood and area information.

For more California real estate listings visit here.