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Homes for Sale in New Jersey and on Long Island

July 27, 2022 by Staff Reporter

Click on the slide show to see this week’s featured properties:

In Maywood, N.J.: a four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath, 3,300-square-foot updated Victorian-era house, with a covered front porch, an eat-in kitchen, a family room with a high ceiling and wood-burning fireplace, a large primary bedroom suite with two walk-in closets and a new bathroom, a partially finished third floor, and a detached one-car garage, on a 0.17-acre corner lot.
In Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.: a four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath house from 1801, with a front porch, a wood-burning fireplace in the living room, built-in cabinetry in the dining room, an eat-in kitchen with an island and high-end appliances opening to a family room with a gas fireplace, a laundry room and mud room on the main floor, and a one-car attached garage, on 0.18 acres.

Given the fast pace of the current market, some properties may no longer be available at the time of publication.

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These Homeowners Decided to Rent Again

July 27, 2022 by Staff Reporter

After living in his father’s antiquated brick, midcentury home in Maplewood, N.J., since 2014, Michael Ghee is relishing the newness of new construction. “Everything is just so clean and neat and shiny,” said Mr. Ghee, an IT project manager at Rutgers University. By contrast, the house where his parents had lived since 1965, and where he had spent the past eight years caring for his aging father, had not been touched in decades. “It was out of date. It was worn,” he said, “I just got tired of looking at it.”

And so, in January, he looked at the Maplewood housing market and decided if he wanted to sell the house without renovating it, he should do so quickly. If there was ever a time to cash in on a fixer upper, early 2022 felt like the moment. Within three days, he had 19 bids, selling the three-bedroom, two-bath house for $710,000. He had listed it for $525,000.

But Mr. Ghee wasn’t ready to own again yet. He’d spent most of his adult life worried about his responsibilities, first for his sister who had schizophrenia — he had assumed he would eventually become her caretaker, but she died in 2012 — and later for his father. For the first time in his life, his path was uncharted. “I’m free, I’m free as a bird now,” he said. “I definitely miss my family like crazy, but at the same time it is kind of exhilarating. I’m starting my second stage of life here.”

In search of a rental where he could live for a few years, he first looked in Maplewood, but with rising rents, the area was out of his budget. In May, Mr. Ghee, 60, moved to Citizen Linden, a new development in Linden, N.J., paying $2,150 a month for a one-bedroom. “It looks like a freaking hotel. It’s unbelievable,” he said. He’s looking forward to next winter when he won’t have to shovel snow off his car now that it is parked in the building’s garage.

He might one day like to buy a townhouse, he said, as he bristles at the building rules, like guest parking restrictions and a requirement to subscribe to cable television even though he prefers streaming services. “It’s different going from living in a free environment to a corporate-owned one,” he said. But for now, he’s enjoying the lack of commitment. “It’s a new fresh start for me living here,” he said.

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House Hunting in Panama: A Tuscan-Style Villa in the Hills of Boquete

July 27, 2022 by Staff Reporter

A one-bedroom apartment with a kitchen and bath is at the southern end of the first floor. Outside, a covered terrace has a seating area and an outdoor kitchen with a barbecue, a cobalt blue tile counter, starfish-shaped cabinet knobs, a refrigerator and a sink. The pool area includes a cabana with a free-standing gym, a dry sauna and a full bath.

Papaya, lemon, banana, and avocado trees stand near a pond and near a river edging one side of the property.

The home is a two-minute golf-cart ride from Valle Escondido’s restaurant, bar, resort hotel, chapel, amphitheater and pro shop. Other facilities include an executive golf course, tennis and spa. The gated community has about 200 residences, including condominiums, duplex villas, single-family homes and estate homes.

Downtown Boquete, about a mile away, has Panamanian and expat-owned restaurants, a brewery, and a new plaza and public park. Nearby are coffee farms and hiking trails at Baru Volcano National Park, the highest point in Panama. Enrique Malek International Airport, in the Chiriquí capital city of David, is about an hour away. The flight from Boquete to Panama-Tocumen International Airport in Panama City takes just over an hour.

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Homeownership Remains the American Dream, Despite Challenges

July 12, 2022 by Staff Reporter

Nearly three-quarters of Americans say owning a home is a higher measure of achievement than having a successful career, raising a family or earning a college degree, according to a new survey. But affordability remains a challenge for many of them.

The survey, released in March for Bankrate.com, a financial services company, found that 74 percent of respondents ranked homeownership as the highest gauge of prosperity, above having a career (60 percent), children (40 percent) and a college education (35 percent).

The survey, conducted by the market research firm YouGov, comprised 2,529 adults, 1,397 of whom were homeowners. Of those respondents who did not own homes, about two-thirds pointed to one or more affordability factors for holding them back, including income level, soaring housing prices and their ability to make a down payment.

Other factors included poor credit, not being ready for homeownership and high mortgage rates. Fourteen percent said they were not inclined to be homeowners, regardless of the circumstances.

To find more affordable housing, 58 percent of all respondents said they would be willing to make compromises, including moving to another state, buying a fixer-upper or moving to a less desirable area.

Those results skewed toward younger Americans, said Jeff Ostrowski, a senior reporter at Bankrate.com who covers the housing market and mortgages. “Boomers and Gen X have built up equity, so there was a smaller percentage of older people willing to make concessions,” he said.

But he added that there were still affordable homes to be found, particularly in cities in the Midwest and Northeast like Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and St. Louis. “In all of those places, the median home prices are $300,000 or less,” he said.

Despite the rise of remote work, which has accelerated the migration from expensive coastal cities to more affordable inland housing markets, a majority of homeowners in the survey were satisfied with their choice: Seventy-two percent said they would buy their current home again.

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Missouri real estate agent working to help 1,000 Black families become homeowners

July 6, 2022 by Editor

Kansas City real estate agent Tenesia Brown turned a negative into a positive after a cancer diagnosis five years ago left her considering her legacy. Facing her own mortality, Brown wondered how she’d be remembered by the Black community she loved so much, then decided the most impactful mark she could leave would be to convert 1,000 of its renters into homeowners.

In 2017, Brown, already a real estate veteran in Missouri, formed Key’s Realty Group and moved her suburban-based real estate agency to the east side Kansas City community in which she grew up, according to KCUR. Brown was even more motivated to advocate for homeownership based on her own experience as a child moving constantly with her mother.

Kansas City real estate agent Tenesia Brown is determined to convert 1,000 Black renters in her community into homeowners. (Photo: AdobeStock.com)

“We probably moved about every three to six months and I’ve probably gone to almost every elementary school here in Kansas City,” Brown told KCUR. “It is pretty rough on a kid being the new kid everywhere you go and in every neighborhood.”

Key’s Realty has a predominantly Black, all-female staff. Earlier this year, Brown opened a second office in St. Louis. She said her agency is nearly halfway to its goal.

“Once you’re stable, because you now own a property, it makes life a little easier. It takes stress off of you,” Brown told KCUR. “It does a lot for not just you, but your entire family once you’ve been stabilized. I believe that with the pride in homeownership and being invested in the community or in the block or in the neighborhood, then that kind of helps with stabilizing neighborhoods, which stabilizes cities and brings businesses to those areas. And it’s just like a trickle-down effect.”

Gentrification has impacted Black communities all over the country, and Kansas City is no exception. Brown saw developers encroaching on her old neighborhood, and that also factored into her mission. KCUR cited a recent study showing the Black homeownership gap increased in 2020 despite historically low mortgage rates and a seller’s market that led buyers to pay thousands over asking prices to secure homes. The gap between Black and white homeownership is now almost 30%, more than it was in the 1960s, according to the study.

Greenline Initiative founder Ajia Morris is also working to create more Black homeowners. The Kansas City-based company focuses on renovating rundown properties and helping owners finance using community funds rather than banks. She says that in concert with agents like Brown, changing what qualifies buyers to purchase a home can help more renters become owners.

“We want to take those things out of determining credit worthiness, take those things out of determining what your interest rate will be,” Morris told KCUR. “Because that way, you get a fair opportunity to access homeownership, especially coming from a low-income community. It is slightly offensive to add an additional burden and cost on them for things they can’t control.”

New homeowner Tae Yaeger is just one example of Brown’s impact on the community. The mother of three not only purchased a home through Brown, but she also got her real estate license and now works with her.

“To be able to have that example who leads us, she’s been through it,” Yeager said, “she’s been through the same community and helping to bridge that gap to where, you know, ‘No, you can own that home. You don’t have to rent for the rest of your life. You can leave that land for the next generation.’ I think that representation is very important for all of us, because like I said, what was homeownership to us growing up? Nobody ever taught it to us.”

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Sellers Drop Prices Amid Rising Affordability Issues

July 6, 2022 by Editor

Affordability issues are officially taking a toll on the market as the average asking price of a newly listed home is off 1.5% from its peak in spring in light of the rapid rate increase by the Federal Reserve in June.

This is amid new data from Redfin that showed a record amount of existing sellers had to drop their asking price in order to stay competitive during the four-week period ending June 26.

Pending sales also continue to fall, posting their largest declines since May 2020, at the height of the pandemic, yet there are signs that early-stage homebuyer demand is starting to level off.

“Data on home-tours, offers and mortgage purchase applications suggest that homebuyers have noticed the shift in power and are no longer leaving the market in droves,” said Daryl Fairweather, Redfin’s Chief Economist. “Buyers coming back will provide support to the housing market, but between now and the end of year I think the power will continue to shift towards buyers, resulting in mild price declines from month to month.”

“Homebuyers are worried about interest rates, having to go back to the office, getting laid off, and wondering if they can get a better deal by waiting out the market,” said Caroline Loudenback, a Redfin Seattle-area real estate agent. “On the other side, sellers are adjusting to this new reality and learning that sometimes there’s not much they can do to increase buyer interest. Sometimes price isn’t even the reason a home is sitting on the market without selling—some more remote areas that were super popular during the pandemic are now being overlooked as buyers reconsider long commutes with high gas prices. It’s a tricky market and you have to pay close attention to your local sales and listings to understand what’s happening.”

Leading indicators of homebuying activity:

For the week ending June 30, 30-year mortgage rates fell slightly to 5.7%.
Fewer people searched for “homes for sale” on Google—searches during the week ending June 25 were down 7% from a year earlier.
The seasonally-adjusted Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index—a measure of requests for home tours and other home-buying services from Redfin agents—was down 15% year over year during the week ending June 26, but up 7 points from the previous week.
Touring activity as of June 26 fell 3% from the start of the year, compared to a 24% increase at this time last year, according to home tour technology company ShowingTime.
Mortgage purchase applications were down 24% from a year earlier, while the seasonally-adjusted index was up 0.1% week over week during the week ending June 17.

Key housing market takeaways for the top 400+ metropolitan areas:

Unless otherwise noted, this data covers the four-week period ending June 26. Redfin’s weekly housing market data goes back through 2015.

The median home sale price was up 14% year over year to a record $399,249.
The median asking price of newly listed homes increased 15% year over year to $405,547, but was down 1.5% from the all-time high set during the four-week period ending May 22.
The monthly mortgage payment on the median asking price home increased to $2,459 at the current 5.7% mortgage rate, but is down slightly from the peak of $2,494 during the four-week period ending June 12. This was up 45% from $1,694 a year earlier, when mortgage rates were 2.98%.
Pending home sales were down 13% year over year, the largest decline since May 2020.
New listings of homes for sale were down 7% from a year earlier.
Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period) fell 8% year over year—the smallest decline since March 2020.
46% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market, down from 49% a year earlier.
32% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within one week of hitting the market, down from 36% a year earlier.
Homes that sold were on the market for a median of 17 days, down from 18 days a year earlier and up slightly from the record low of 15 days set in May and early June.
54% of homes sold above list price, up from 53% a year earlier. This measure peaked in mid-May and has declined 2.5 points since then. Last year it peaked in mid-July.
On average, 6.5% of homes for sale each week had a price drop, a record high as far back as the data goes, through the beginning of 2015.
The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices, declined to 102.2%. In other words, the average home sold for 2.2% above its asking price. This was up from 102.1% a year earlier.

To view the full report, including charts and methodology, click here.

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In the Pandemic, Online Home-Buying Picks Up Speed

July 6, 2022 by Editor

Their budget is in the $1 million range, with an added cushion built in for construction costs. They plan to complete the entire buying process from California, and they aren’t even sure if they would fly out for a final inspection. “I am personally really worried about the variants and what it means for air travel right now,” Ms. Anderson said. “We are prepared to do everything remotely, including closing from here and any construction work.”

Brokers, who saw most of their open houses shut down during the pandemic, have been quick to adapt to technology as well, with many offering virtual tours and embracing tools like TikTok and Instagram to help market their homes.

But other brokers recommend a large dose of caution before jumping into the online market.

“The first time, it’s all so overwhelming, and tough to grasp how the process even works. And now you’re being asked to compete at a very high level,” said Michelle Kolker, a San Diego broker with Kolker Real Estate Group. She added that first-time buyers, especially those who are shopping online, might not have been made aware, for instance, of the need for inspection contingencies or the benefit of establishing a timeline in which the seller will make agreed-upon repairs.

Zillow, which reports that traffic to its for-sale listings jumped 41 percent in 2020, found in a July 2020 survey that 36 percent of Americans would be more likely to buy a home entirely online. Jeremy Wacksman, Zillow’s president, says the company plans to update that survey next month. In the meantime, traffic to Zillow’s suite of online tools, which include the ability to create 3-D home tours on a smartphone as well as technology that allows remote signing and remote notarization, points to those numbers holding steady.

“We’ve seen an explosion,” he said, adding that in the early months of the pandemic, creation of 3-D home tours on zillow.com increased 750 percent. DotLoop, a remote signing and notary service that Zillow acquired in 2015, has been one of the biggest pandemic sleepers.

“That was technology that was available but was barely used because the existing process was working, but now all of a sudden if you could avoid getting together, you figured out a way to remote sign,” he said.

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Rep. Waters Pushes Further Prevention of Appraisal Discrimination

July 6, 2022 by Editor

Rep. Maxine Waters, Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, has sent a letter to the Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) Task Force asking that the Task Force move quickly to implement its planned actions and provide the Committee with a clear timeline for implementation of each action.

PAVE is a federal interagency task force dedicated to ending bias in home valuation. PAVE includes 13 federal agencies and offices, co-chaired by U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia L. Fudge and Domestic Policy Advisor Ambassador Susan E. Rice.

A Freddie Mac report from September 2021 citing U.S. Census Bureau data found that 12.5% of appraisals for home purchases in majority-Black neighborhoods, and 15.4% in majority-Latino neighbor-hoods result in a value below the contract price (the amount a buyer is willing to pay for the property), compared to only 7.4% of appraisals in predominantly white neighborhoods.

“For generations, millions of Black and brown Americans have had their homes valued for less than their white counterparts simply because of the color of their skin or the racial makeup of the neighborhood,” said Secretary Fudge. “Black and brown homeowners in communities just like mine have not felt that they have had a voice or that the Federal government was doing enough to redress the issue of racial bias in the appraisal process. With the PAVE Task Force, the Biden-Harris Administration is taking a whole-of-government approach to fixing this problem. We are proud of the work of this Task Force, and we are looking forward to continuing to work within the Administration and with partners to do all we can to root out discrimination in the appraisal and homebuying process.”

The PAVE Task Force engaged more than 150 stakeholder groups—including appraisers, appraisal management companies, lenders, civil rights and advocacy groups, academic institutions, philanthropy organizations, and individuals—who have experienced instances of appraisal bias, to listen and learn diverse perspectives on what is working and how the government can work to embed equity in the home valuation process.

“The Task Force’s Action Plan is a critical step forward in our nation’s duty to root out bias and discrimination in the appraisal industry, which has gone under the radar for too long,” said Rep. Waters in the letter. “During the pandemic alone, we have seen countless reports of appraisal bias and alleged discrimination, which are exacerbated by gaps in federal home valuation policies and regulations. The systemic undervaluation of homes owned by people of color and located in communities of color has blocked many homeowners of color, especially Black homeowners, from fully benefiting from the equity in their homes, from refinancing their mortgages into historically low interest rates, and devaluing the communities they live in.”

Originally Appeared Here

How “generation rent” is approaching home buying in 2022

July 6, 2022 by Editor

Millennials and Gen Zs make up the largest cohort of potential homebuyers today, the majority of which are first-time buyers bullish to get a foot on the property ladder. As market volume dips and pent-up demand builds, 61% of millennials and Gen Zs who intend to buy a home plan to apply for a mortgage this year.

For years, the dominant market narrative defining these generations has been digital-first experiences and poor financial habits. New data released in Maxwell’s 1H 2022 Millennial & Gen Z Borrower Sentiment Report, however, goes beyond simplistic stereotypes by digging into the needs, habits and preferences of 1,000 respondents planning to apply for a mortgage over the next few years.

As mortgage rates rise, inventory remains low and digital trends accelerate, navigating the changing borrower landscape requires tailored strategies. Loan officers must understand what modern millennial and Gen Z homebuyers want from their lenders. For mortgage professionals looking to buoy their loan volume through the rest of the year and beyond, understanding the motivations, behaviors and the barriers to entry for these borrowers will only become more vital for success.

Creative paths to homeownership in a challenging market

As inflation begins to bite, the rising cost of rent is driving more millennials and Gen Zs to apply for mortgages. While over a quarter of those surveyed still live with their parents, 45% are currently renting and over half (51%) want to buy a home because the cost of rent is too high. This is particularly true for city dwellers who have experienced significant rental price increases over the past decade.

Despite concerns that their down payment savings may not be up to traditional standards, millennial and Gen Z borrowers are poised for homeownership. With house prices and competition amongst homebuyers expected to increase even further this year, 41% plan to apply for a mortgage on their own and almost 10% with friends. While traditionally borrowers tend to wait until they have a 20% down payment, this generation thinks differently. Today, 78% would apply for a loan with less than the traditional 20% down payment, while more than half (55%) do plan to put down at least 10%.

Barriers to Home Buying

Many millennial and Gen Z future homebuyers are concerned about the effects of personal finance issues like having insufficient savings, increasing debt and low credit when applying for a loan. Almost half (45%) think the mortgage process is overly expensive, and a quarter don’t feel confident about securing a mortgage due to their financial hurdles. In some cases, these prospective borrowers have the personal experience to back up that concern.

Federal Reserve data indicates that as a whole, millennials carry over a trillion dollars in debt, with credit card debt making up the greatest portion. The report found that while the majority (75%) feel confident about eventually securing a mortgage, a large percentage of millennial and Gen Z future homebuyers see an insufficient down payment or closing funds (46%), their high debt-to-income ratio (45%) and bad or no credit (38%) as barriers to approval. Only 13% of respondents have scores that would be considered exceptional (>799), while 30% have fair or poor credit scores (<670).

What borrowers seek in a lender

A lack of mortgage process knowledge may impact confidence levels, adding to financial concerns. More than a quarter (27%) feel that they have “very little” or “no” knowledge about the mortgage process. As such, personal support is important to this demographic. In fact, over 78% of respondents indicate that personalized service is important to them.

Loan officers must take time to build that confidence through value-add resources, education and support. By walking them through the process step by step, lenders can build trust with their customers, grow a powerful reputation, earn repeat and referral business and increase access to homeownership in their communities.

While large and online lenders continue to hold significant market share, when it comes to choosing a lender, the majority of millennial and Gen Z borrowers intend to shop around for the right fit. This generation does not seem overly impressed by big names, preferring instead to research the lending option best suited to their personal needs. More than half of all respondents plan to do their own initial research online, with almost three out of five planning to compare posted rates, 50% intending to read customer reviews, and 46% aiming to research their options on a lender’s website.

When asked about their plans to secure a future mortgage, 28% believe they’ll use a local community lender, significantly more than the 15% intending to use an online lender. Lenders who can provide both an in-person and an online mortgage experience will gain a significant competitive advantage. By creating an enhanced online presence, local lenders can offer expertise via digital content, marketing and outreach, which will be crucial to positioning them as a helpful thought leader in the space.

Conclusion

In the current market, where total loan production expense is at an all-time high and volumes continue to fall, renormalizing to historical levels, it can be easy to lose sight of the strong home-buying potential of millennials and Gen Zs. Lenders need to capture borrower business wherever possible, and local lenders are well-positioned to guide this demographic to homeownership by launching new, more diverse loan products and channels that lower the barrier to entry for first-time home buyers. By leaning into hyper-personalized, supportive service enhanced by digital capabilities, these lenders can earn the business of the largest home-buying cohorts of today (and tomorrow).
Read the full report and learn how Maxwell’s comprehensive mortgage solutions can help lenders turn renters into homeowners at himaxwell.com.

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PropTech Aims to Bring Efficiency to the Market

July 6, 2022 by Editor

PropTech, or the amalgamation of FinTech and real estate, has been a growing trend recently with the word popping up in conversation more and more often. The ultimate goal of PropTech is to make real estate transactions more efficient, leading to savings for originators, and faster processing and closing times.

Knowing this, Citi Global Perspectives & Solutions (Citi GPS), a part of Citi Bank, released a first-of-its-kind report on the emerging PropTech industry as part of its “Home of the Future” series exploring where the trend currently stands and where it may go from here.

The report ultimately found that this segment is ripe for growth. Much like when home prices went online in the 2000s and offered more information to buyers, there are still areas of the homebuying process, such as securing a mortgage and insurance, that are largely walled-off from the general public and are the likely candidates for future PropTech growth.

“The process of buying a house is pretty painful with the large amount of paperwork. And while some frictions in the buying process are healthy, there is a big opportunity to streamline things,” noted Roger Ashworth, Head of U.S. Non-Agency MBS Strategy. “That’s where PropTech comes in – to look for those efficiencies in the market.”

Other important notes the report covers on the move towards a frictionless housing market are:

Innovation is happening in terms of business models as well, with the rise of home equity investment contracts, iBuyers (a company that uses technology to make an offer on your home instantly) and institutional single-family rentals (SFRs)
Home equity investment contracts could deliver double-digit returns for co-investors of a property, while at the same time helping consumers tap some of the record-high equity in the housing market
iBuyers purchase homes for resale and offer a variety of services to home sellers from offer pricing to renovating.
Institutional single-family rentals (SFRs) make up three percent of the SFR market and are poised for growth.

Click here to view the 52-page report in its entirety.

Originally Appeared Here