Market Report December 2013

 

Sotheby’s International Realty Shines On Broadway!

Sotheby’s International Realty Shines On Broadway!

Recently we shared the news about the bonus exposure the Sotheby’s International Realty^® brand is receiving for the entire month of December, on famous Times Square in New York City. We thought you’d enjoy seeing a live snapshot!

Currently this engaging brand unit is running 15x per day on the ABC Super Sign on 44th and Broadway in collaboration with the New York Stock Exchange. The creative strategy for this 15 second (no sound) video positions our lifestyle categories front and center, driving viewers to sir.com to view the extraordinary properties our network members represent.  This unit is expected to be seen by over 1.6 million pedestrians daily throughout December.

Next week we will be sending actual video footage of this exciting advertising unit bringing exposure during a very well-visited holiday season in one of the most famous cities in the world. 

Market Newsletter July 2013

Banker & Tradesman - New Luxury Multifamily in Waltham

Banker & Tradesman

Sotheby's Global Networking Event June 2013

Luxury Sales Bounce Back - WSJ

HouseTour: Rustic Spanish Villa in California

Designed by famed architect, Edward Giddings, sits on more than an acre overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Palos Verdes Estates. This unique property sits high on a bluff with spectacular views of Santa Monica Bay and the City of Los Angeles. Giddings incorporated both rustic and natural elements with all the modern conveniences.
Click on link to view:

http://sirluxuryrealestate.com/2013/06/05/house-tour-rustic-spanish-villa-in-california/

Tech Tools-Advances made by Sotheby's with Adobe

Adobe Digital Publishing /

Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC: Transforming Sales Tools

by Adobe Digital Publishing Suite Team

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April 18, 2013

To date, the Sotheby’s International Realty network has seen great success with its privately published iPad app, Anthology: The Collection of an Extraordinary Brand, created with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, Enterprise Edition. In the first month the iPad app was available, the company saw more than 670 app downloads and nearly 5,500 individual folio downloads, which increased to more than 1,300 app downloads and 11,000 folio downloads just one month later.

Previously, the company designed, printed, and distributed brochures to its 660 offices in 47 countries and territories. However, the printed materials were typically out-of-date not long after they were received. The Anthology app, which includes a collection of 16 individual chapters (folios) that appear as individual publications or issues in the app library, can be updated regularly as information changes.

Chris Sisco, director of marketing for Sotheby’s International Realty, says, “If we had decided to make updates to the printed brochures we previously distributed, which would have required design edits as well as shipping to hundreds of offices worldwide, we would have needed to add $1 million to our budget to be able to do the types of things we’re doing with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite.”

Read the full story: http://adobe.ly/XQ6Ius

House Prices Rise & Foreclosures Drop

Copley Square - Crime Scene & Remain Closed for Days

New Developments Have Boston Redevelopment Authority Approval

Boston Sales - Over Asking Offers

Over the Top! Offers Above Asking Abound in the Hub

Wednesday, March 20, 2013, by Tom Acitelli

Steve Carell enters a pawn shop and sees a World War II diver's knife he likes. Told the price is $2,500, the comedian responds, "You know what, it seems a little low." He pauses and says, "I will give you $4,000." [Laughter ensues].

A similar scene repeats itself several times a week in the Greater Boston condominium market, but it's not nearly as funny. Sellers and their agents communicate the price of a condo to buyers, and the market's response is, "You know what, it seems a little low." A short time later, multiple offers show up, and, before you know it, the condo sells for more than the asking price.

It wasn't always that way. My analysis of MLS reports show that, in the first few months of 2011, Boston condos sold on average at 96 percent of the asking price. In fact, some condos even started a little high and had to adjust their prices down. So, although the accepted offer was 96 percent of the listing price, it represented only 92 percent of the original listing price.

The beginning of 2012 was a stronger market than 2011, and Boston condo sellers took offers that on average were 97 percent of the asking price, and 94 percent of the original asking price.

In today's condo market, however, negotiating room seems about as necessary as the coal room. According to a recent breakdown I did on MLS, Boston condo buyers on average are paying 99 percent of the asking price and 98 percent of the original ask. As well, condo sellers are, at an unprecedented rate, accepting over-ask offers.

Over a two-month stretch in Brookline in 2013, the Greater Boston condo market where over-ask offers are most common, more than 50 percent of the sold condos had sales prices that were greater than their listing price. In fact, nearly 40 percent of the sales prices were at least $10K over the asking price and nearly 30 percent were at least $15K over the ask. A few went even higher. Three Upland Road, #3, was $30K over ask, and the buyers of 652 Washington Street, #5, paid $36K more than the listing price.

Brookline may be the most prolific market for over-ask offers, but it was by no means the only place where sales prices were on occasion significantly above asking prices. In Somerville, 400 Washington Street, PH1, took an offer nearly $40K over the list price. And, in Cambridge, 37 Linnaean Street, #2, took an offer that was more than $100,000 over the asking. Incredible! The South End closed the condo with the highest above-ask in Boston so far this year: 61 Chandler Street, #2. It went for $126,000 more than the asking price. Asked why the home sold so much over the asking price, Richard Egan, the buyer's agent on the deal, said that at $760 a square foot the property was "underpriced."

If you don't want to be in a bidding war this spring, you might have to raise the white flag for buying many of Boston's most sought-after condo. If, however, you don't mind the competition, just act like Steve Carell, and whatever the asking price is—even if it seems absolutely ridiculous—casually respond, "It seems a little low, I will give you …" and suggest a higher price. LOL.

[Curbed Boston]

Bidding Wars Heating Up The Real Estate Market

Buyers and sellers devise new tactics as bidding wars heat up

By Jenifer B. McKim

  |  GLOBE STAFF  

  APRIL 07, 2013

When her clients find themselves caught up in a heated bidding war, Jamaica Plain real estate broker Ellen Grubert suggests they put pen to paper — not necessarily to up the offer, but to ingratiate themselves to the seller of the property.

Write a letter that flatters the seller’s taste and appeals to their emotional attachment to the house. If the grounds are nicely landscaped, mention how much you like to garden; if the house holds family memories, talk about raising your children there, too.

“You want to appeal to the seller, that you will take care of the house,’’ said Grubert, vice president of residential sales at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Jamaica Plain. “Especially if the seller loves their home, it pulls on their heart strings.”

With bidding wars for choice homes in the Boston market as common as crocuses in spring, buyers and their agents are resorting to unusual tactics to stand out in the crowd. Fueled by a perfect storm of market forces — very low interest rates, an improving economy, and limited supply of homes — eager buyers are bidding up home values in metro Boston and leaving an increasingly larger pool of frustrated shoppers on the losing end.

In February the median price for a single-family home in the region jumped nearly 9 percent, to $429,900, from the same period last year, according to the Greater Boston Association of Realtors. Homes are selling more quickly, too. The average listing period fell to 109 days in February, down from 134 in February 2012, according to the association.

And in coveted areas of downtown Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville, the better properties can sell over a weekend, real estate agents say.

To help buyers survive this anxiety-drenched process, real estate agents are prepping clients to be ready to act quickly when they find a property they like, and to be prepared to offer incentives unseen since the housing heyday of 2004 and 2005.

Those include: waiving the home inspection, or being willing to pay a penalty if the deal falls through. Buyers are also being more flexible with sellers in terms of when a closing occurs or if a seller can rent back a home for some time, agents say.

“As home buyers compete they are going to try to put themselves in a position of strengthening the offer, price, and terms,’’ said Mike DelRose of RE/MAX Leading Edge in Watertown.

But agents also warn buyers not to offer more than they can afford or give up legal rights that they will later regret. Some potential home buyers have already lost their deposits or are finding the home they just bought unexpectedly needs expensive repairs, said Gary Dwyer, owner of Buyer Agents of Boston.

“Sometimes no property is better than a bad property or losing all your deposit,” he said. “There is a lot of buyers’ remorse that is starting to percolate out there.”

To avoid mistakes, Grubert cautions buyers not to provide information that could hurt — rather than help — their chances.

For example, Grubert said one of her sellers recently received a letter from a buyer saying they would use the house only part time. A competing buyer wrote about wanting to bring up a family in the home — and won.

“They discussed too much,’’ she said about the losing bid.

DelRose said sellers will sift through offers to consider strengths and weaknesses of potential buyers — the size of the down payment, their overall financial well-being. Sellers may even vet the lender a bidder has for preapproval, with stable local and national banks viewed more favorably, he said.

Despite the competition, DelRose said buyers should not get desperate — he believes more sellers will appear as the spring heats up. “They don’t have to be so pressured to make a move,” he said.

The current bidding wars are reminiscent of the last housing heyday in 2004 and 2005, said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. The excitement — irrational exuberance to some — was aided by easy lending terms and led to an overheated market that burst in the second half of the last decade.

Yun says this new energy — visible in many areas around the country — is different because buyers are purchasing homes with cash or financing mortgages with lenders with much more rigid eligibility requirements. “Today’s market is fundamentally different,’’ he said. “Access to mortgage credit is exceptionally tight.”

As the market improves, sellers too are finding different ways of fielding offers. Chris Tuite, managing partner of Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty in Boston, said his office has started to set a deadline — usually a week — for offers on popular condominiums. That should be enough time buyers to adequately vet a property but also adds pressure to the process, he said. He said agents try to help sellers set the highest realistic price for a home, but emotional buyers can drive prices higher.

“Every seller wants to have a bidding war,” he said. “It is a good opportunity for the market to set itself.”

Jenifer B. McKim can be reached at jmckim@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @jbmckim.

Sotheby's Extraordinary Video

Sotheby's - Extraordinary Luxury

April 2013 Newsletter

Sellers Who Delay May Miss Out

Sellers Who Delay May Miss Out

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2013

Some would-be move-up home sellers are eyeing home prices carefully. They’re waiting to see how much home prices appreciate more before they consider selling their home. But they may be missing their perfect opportunity, some housing experts say. 

The best time to move may depend on when the home owner purchased their current residence, says Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac. Blomquist says that home owners who purchased their home during the sluggish market the last two to three years may find moving up in 2013 may be their prime opportunity. 

"Because they bought near the bottom, these home owners should have built up some good equity that can go toward the purchase of a new home, and waiting longer to build more equity likely won’t provide much advantage given that other homes that they might want to move up to will also be appreciating at roughly the same pace," Blomquist told HousingWire.

Home owners who wait much longer to sell their home may miss out. 

"If you're selling one house just to move up to another, it does you no good to wait for prices to rise — the price of the move-up home will increase faster than the price of the place you're leaving behind," says Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. 

Plus, mortgage rates are expected to come off the 3.5 percent range and reach 4.4 percent in the next year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That will increase the costs of financing your next home. 

Source: “The Time to Sell Is a Waiting Game for Some,” HousingWire (March 21, 2013)

2013 Home Buying Season Kicks Off Early

2013 Home Buying Season Kicks Off Early 
DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2013 
Home prices are rising, the number of homes for-sale is showing a slight increase, and homes are selling faster—all signs that spring is in the air in real estate, according to the latest MLS data released by realtor.com®. Nationwide, median list prices continue to tick up, reaching $189,900 in February. Inventories last month increased 1.15 percent month-over-month, after recently hitting record lows. Also, homes are selling faster with the median age of inventory at 98 days, a 9.26 percent drop from the previous month. “As we enter the busiest time of the year for home buyers and sellers, our latest housing trend data shows just how competitive the market is with a significant housing recovery well underway,” says Steve Berkowitz, chief executive officer of Move Inc. “Looking ahead, we can expect the amount of inventory to increase this spring along with higher list prices as sellers become more comfortable with the market conditions.” Median list prices were up 5 percent or more in 51 markets on a year-over-year basis, according to realtor.com®. California markets are seeing some of the highest increases in list prices as well as some of the largest declines in for-sale inventory. Other top performing markets include Phoenix, Seattle, and Denver, according to realtor.com®. “However, many smaller industrialized markets in the Midwest and the Northeast registered year-over-year price declines, as did Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York City,” Lexie Puckett reports in a recent realtor.com® blog post. “While the number of markets experiencing year-over-year list price declines had been increasing, this pattern appears to be turning around as home list prices increased in 78 markets last month on a year-over-year basis and declined in 39.” Source: “Spring Home Buying Season Starts Early According to Realtor.com’s February Trend Data,” RISMedia (March 18, 2013)