Real Estate Data

Property sales on the rise, whilst listing still in decline

Hugo McCaffrey — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:53:50 +0000

Through the last 2 quarters of 2011 the rate of property sales in NZ continued to grow; reaching a 22% year-on-year increase in the final quarter, whilst at the same time total new listings were down 1%.

This is the summary of the Quarterly Property Pulse complied from Realestate.co.nz listings data and REINZ sales data. The chart below details the year-on-year growth or decline for each 3 month period through the whole of 2010 and 2011.

Around the country the 19 regions show some degree of variations as summarised in the specific chart for each region.

Mobsters – James Hines – The Ultimate Politics Fixer

Elijah Appleroth — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 09:42:04 +0000

They’ve been around continuously because 1921; longer than everyone but Harley Davidson. Guzzi has constantly liked constructing “”big”” bikes, but we have to adjust scale. Guzzi was in the top with the heap early on, with production 500cc bikes that had been trustworthy and sporting. This is no late-comer, me-too, bandwagon cruiser, built to exploit a marketplace niche that came about from Harley-Davidson’s renaissance. The thing is, they never gave up, they never stopped developing the platform, and they stayed accurate to their mission. Soon after more than 40 years, it really is a very refined program. This actually isn’t a stretch. It also ten

Offset mortgages recommended to first time buyers

Zachary Gilroy — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:22:12 +0000

Jan Harris | February 13, 2012 |

Paula John, the editor-in-chief of Your Mortgage magazine, has advised first-time-buyers to consider paying for their home through an offset mortgage.

Mortgage Rates at a Tipping Point After Rising Today

Zachary Gilroy — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:55:54 +0000

Mortgages Rates moved higher today at the quickest pace of the week. For the second time this year, the 3.875% Best-Execution rate on 30yr Fixed Conventional loans is in question. If rates move much higher from here, the average Best-Execution rate across multiple lenders will have risen back to 4.0% and for quite a few lenders, is already there. (We explain more about Best-Execution calculations in THIS POST).

Today got started off on a sour note for rates with the late night news that Greece was very close to finalizing the terms of their most recent bailout. This isn’t some surprising game-changer, but has done enough damage to bond markets, which tend to offer lower interest rates in times of economic uncertainty. As a

Featured Condo: 99 Gerard St in Winnipeg’s Osborne Village

Elijah Appleroth — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:47:10 +0000

After reading this, be sure to check out Winnipeg Home Finder Print This Post

If you like this post, please click the +1 button just below this line

99 Gerard St. Condominiums are located in the heart of Osborne Village, one block off Osborne St.

The Condominiums of 99 Gerard St feature 42 units in a single, 4 story building. Since the main floor is for indoor parking, condos are located on floor 2, 3 and 4. Sizes range from 905 feet for the 1 bedroom, 1 bath, to 1035 sq feet for a 2 bedroom, 2 bath unit. O

Case-Shiller: Spring Arrives in Seattle as Home Prices Rise Again

Hugo McCaffrey — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 09:04:49 +0000

It’s time for our monthly check-in of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices (HPI). The Case-Shiller data is generally considered to be the most reliable measure of overall home price changes for a region, since they only consider repeat sales of homes when calculating their index, instead of looking at all the homes that sold in a given month.

Here are the basic Case-Shiller stats for the Seattle area* as of April:

April 2011 Month to Month: Up 1.6% Year to Year: Down 6.9% Prices at this level in: August 2004 Peak month: July 2007 Change from Peak: Down 29.7% in 45 months Low Tier: Under $245,631 Mid Tier: $245,631 to $387,144 Hi Tier: Over $387,144

Only seven of the twenty metro areas tracked by Case-Shiller saw a decrease in their HPI between March and April (down from eighteen the previous month). T

New downtown apartment tower approved

Elijah Appleroth — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:01:40 +0000

Seattle planners have approved a long-planned 35-story apartment tower for Second Avenue and Pike Street.

City officials actually started reviewing the plan in 2004. Developer Urban Visions revised the proposal in 2006, in response to major changes to downtown zoning rules, in 2007, when it added a Candela Hotel to the plan, and in 2009, when it removed the hotel.

The 2nd Pike Tower will provide the missing link in the pedestrian intensive Pike/Pine corridor, the developer wrote in the design proposal. The project will restore this once significant corner to its place as an iconic landmark and extension of the region’s ambition. I

Forgetting The Gate Code

Hugo McCaffrey — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:55:24 +0000

Many times when someone rents a storage unit they may not visit their unit very often as with the caller I spoke with a few days ago. I’ll never forget how frustrated they where to begin with and how the call ended. They arrive to the storage facility and could get their gate code to work. They thought the store made a mistake. When a customer comes in and uses their gate code, as a property manager, we do not change it at all. We leave the codes alone so the custoemer can use it again. If we do need to change it, we will make sure we contact the customer. Unfortunately, many customers do for them. Mo

Surge in home refinance applications

Zachary Gilroy — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:44:42 +0000

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported that applications for a mortgage refinance rose by 26.4 percent during the week ending January 13, 2012 compared to the previous week.

The MBA’s Refinance Index reached the highest level since August 8, 2011 and the refinance share of mortgage applications rose to 82.2 percent.

“Interest rates dropped last week due to continuing anxieties regarding the fragile economic situation in Europe,” said Michael Fratantoni, MBA’s vice president of research and economics. “With mortgage rates reaching new lows, refinance volume jumped and MBA’s refinance index reached its highest level in the last six months.”

According to HSH.com, the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate home loan was 4.19 percent. Mortgage rates

California investment firm Matteson buys Vancouver apartment complex for $21M

Zachary Gilroy — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:08:16 +0000

A California real estate investment firm has acquired a 244-unit apartment complex in east Vancouver for $21 million. The Matteson Companies bought the property, Prairie Park Apartments at 11510 N.E. 112th Drive, in October from a local developer. The seller was represented by Norris & Stevens. HFF L.P., a mortgage banker, originated a $15.3 million Freddie Mac loan toward the deal. E&S Ring, a partner in the acquisition, will manage the property.Matteson has $1.5 billion in assets in the western United States. It has five other investments in the Portland area, four of which are apartment buildings. The 31-building Vancouver complex — which will be renamed Reflections at the Park — was built in 2008. Read more…

Renters need to guard against online scams

Elijah Appleroth — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:25:09 +0000

Looking to lease a home in today’s hot rental market? Shop with care and don’t let an online scam rob you of hundreds or thousands of dollars.

These insidious scams play out a number of ways, but the aim is to lure consumers with the promise of extra-low rent or

Dealing with Asbestos

Hugo McCaffrey — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:14:11 +0000

Asbestos is a mineral fiber that was added to a variety of products to provide heat insulation and fire protection and was commonly used up until the 1970s.

Home & auto loans to get costlier as RBI hikes interest rate by 25 bps

Zachary Gilroy — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 01:26:25 +0000

MUMBAI: All loans are set to become costlier as the Reserve Bank on Tuesday increased the key interest rate by 25 basis points to check rising prices, at the risk of sacrificing some growth. This is the 13th time the central bank has increased the interest rate since March, 2010. In a major policy decision, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Duvvuri Subbarao also deregulated savings bank deposit rates with immediate effect, a step that could fetch better returns for deposits as banks would have to compete to attract depositors. With today’s increase, the repo rate (at which RBI lends money to banks) has gone up to 8.5 per cent, while the reverse repo (a rate at which banks park their funds with RBI) would remain at 7.5 per cent. Read more…

Nordic Fest 2012 – Cross Country Skiing in Concord NH

Elijah Appleroth — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:51:51 +0000

On Sunday January 22, 2012 the City of Concord Parks and Recreation Department will be holding their annual Nordic Fest 2012 at Beaver Meadow Golf Course. This attraction is one of many during Concords annual Winter Carnival event.

The festivities are from 9am to 4pm and include: Kids Events, Free Clinics, Food/Drinks, Paint Ball Biathlon, Scavenger Hunts, Relay Racing and Vendor Booths

This is a great opportunity to spend quality time with family or just to partake in the fun as a cross country ski enthusiast.

NZ Property Report – December 2011

Hugo McCaffrey — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:03:16 +0000

The December 2011 NZ Property Report published by Realestate.co.nz provides an insight into the state of the New Zealand property market as measured by the supply side of the property market over the month of December. The key measures of the market analysed in the report are the number of new listings, the asking price expectation for those new listings and the level of inventory of unsold houses on the market at this time.