Sales of Existing Homes Rise 4.3%

by admin on February 22, 2012

Sales of previously owned U.S. houses rose in January to the highest level since May 2010, adding to signs the housing market is regaining its footing.
Purchases climbed 4.3 percent to a 4.57 million annual rate, less than forecast, from a revised 4.38 million pace in December that was slower than previously estimated, a report from National Association of Realtors showed today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey called for a rise to 4.66 million. Prices and inventory fell.
A strengthening job market, combined with record affordability driven by low home prices and mortgage rates, is helping underpin demand. Nonetheless, the Federal Reserve and Obama administration are striving to find ways to lend the industry additional assistance amid concern mounting foreclosures will continue to hinder the recovery.
“I don’t think we’re seeing a full-fledged recovery in housing,” said Michelle Meyer, a senior economist at Bank of America Corp. in New York. “Outside of investors and people wanting to buy distressed properties, the primary housing demand is recovering much more gradually.”
Estimates of the 74 economists surveyed by Bloomberg ranged from 4.4 million to 4.91 million after a previously reported 4.61 million pace in December.
Stocks held losses after the report and as separate data spurred concern about growth in the European and Chinese economies. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.3 percent to 1,358.81 at 10:38 a.m. in New York.
Last Year
Existing-home sales, tabulated when a contract closes, climbed to 4.26 million last year, from 4.19 million in 2010. Demand peaked at 7.1 million in 2005 during the housing boom. In 2008, sales totaled 4.1 million, the least since 1995.
The number of previously owned homes on the market dropped to 2.31 million, the fewest since March 2005. At the current sales pace, it would take 6.1 months to sell those houses, the lowest since April 2006, down from 6.4 months in December.
The median price of a previously-owned home fell 2 percent to $154,700 from $157,900 in January 2011, today’s report showed. The median price dropped to $166,100 last year, the lowest since 2002, from $172,900 in 2010.
Sales of existing single-family homes increased 3.8 percent to an annual rate of 4.05 million. Purchases of multifamily properties, including condominiums and townhouses, rose 8.3 percent to a 520,000 pace.
By Region
Purchases rose in all four U.S. regions, led by an 8.8 percent gain in the West and a 3.5 percent increase in the South.
The fourth-warmest January on record may have helped bring out homebuyers. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported the average temperature was 36.3 degrees Fahrenheit (2.39 Celsius), 5.5 degrees above the 1901-2000 long- term average.
The favorable conditions helped spark Home Depot Inc. (HD)’s biggest sales gain since the first quarter of 2004. The world’s largest home-improvement retailer said yesterday that receipts at stores open at least a year climbed 5.7 percent in the three months ended Jan. 29. Net income increased 32 percent, the Atlanta-based company said.
Today’s housing report showed contract cancellations were reported by 33 percent of the group’s members in January, the same as a month earlier.
Distressed Sales
Of all purchases, cash transactions accounted for about 31 percent, about the same as a year ago. Distressed sales, comprised of foreclosures and short sales in which the lender agrees to a transaction for less than the balance of the mortgage, accounted for 35 percent of the total, up from 32 percent a month earlier.
Investors accounted for 23 percent of purchases last month, while first-time buyers were 33 percent of the market.
One asset has been the improvement in employment. The jobless rate fell in January to a three-year low of 8.3 percent, and payrolls rose by 243,000 workers. Employment growth has accelerated in each of the past three months.
Greater affordability is also supporting home demand. The Realtors group’s measure of whether households earning the median income can afford a median-priced house at current interest rates reached record levels in the last three months of 2011.
On Mend
Reports last week indicated housing is on the mend. Builders broke ground on more homes than forecast in January, helped by warmer weather, and permits also advanced. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of builder confidence climbed in February to the highest level since May 2007.
Beazer Homes USA Inc. (BZH) reported that orders jumped 36 percent in the final three months of 2011 from a year earlier, and closings on new houses surged more than 60 percent. The Atlanta-based builder said it expects to sell more properties this year than last.
“While our visibility into the economic conditions for the remainder of the year is limited, I believe that we will benefit from a gradually improving housing market,” Allan Merrill, chief executive officer, said on an earnings call on Feb. 2.
Policy makers are working to help distressed homeowners. The top five mortgage lenders this month reached a $25 billion settlement with 49 states and the U.S. government over the use of faulty paperwork in foreclosures.
Fed’s Bernanke
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank’s efforts to spur growth are being blunted by impediments to mortgage lending, and called for more steps to heal the housing industry.
“The economic recovery has been disappointing in part because U.S. housing markets remain out of balance,” Bernanke told homebuilders on Feb. 10 in Orlando, Florida. “We need to continue to develop and implement policies that will help the housing sector get back on its feet.”
The foreclosure crisis is unlikely to subside any time soon. Owners of more than 14 million homes are in foreclosure, behind on their mortgages or owe more than their properties are worth, said RealtyTrac Inc., a property-data company in Irvine, California.
To contact the reporter on this story: Shobhana Chandra in Washington at schandra1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net

Share

{ 0 comments }

Jersey City Is Working to Boost Its Cool

by admin on February 19, 2012

By HEATHER HADDON

Jersey City could finally earn its place as the so-called sixth borough.

Just across the Hudson River, the Garden State’s second-largest city has gentrified in recent years but had always lacked the night life and street traffic to build a viable entertainment district.

Now, a host of changes are under way or are being considered in hopes of creating a vibrant downtown with an expanded restaurant row and more entertainment and music venues.

“We will be able to create more spaces where music, art, and culture can be enjoyed,” said Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who is expected to address the developments during his State of the City address Thursday evening.

In a city of 250,000 where some residents recall having to walk blocks just to find a lunch counter, the changes are dramatic.

In December, Jersey City—which has few music venues and dance clubs with DJs—introduced a new class of entertainment license to allow restaurants to host live music.

And the City Council extended an already established restaurant row last summer, and is set later this month to vote to expand it again, this time into the Little India neighborhood.

The zoning measures come as Jersey City’s food and culture scene is drawing hipper establishments.

“Without a doubt, it’s become more of a destination,” said Jelynne Jardiniano, owner of LITM, a restaurant and lounge. “People want to have a reason to stay in their neighborhood.”

A former chef for the Momofuku Noodle Bar in Manhattan is opening an eatery in restaurant row this winter that looks to showcase “all that New Jersey has to offer,” according to his Kickstarter announcement.

The New York pizza chain, Two Boots, also hopes to open a location in midspring.

And residents say their cool cachet ratcheted up when Barcade—a bar in the hipster epicenter of Williamsburg in Brooklyn—opened an offshoot in the downtown area last year.

“We’re 10 minutes from the World Trade Center,” said Mas Kuwana, a 31-year-old Jersey City accountant, “there’s no reason why we can’t compete.”

Most of the new developments are taking place near Grove Street, the center of the city’s downtown and the location of a PATH station. And the changes the city is seeking come after a long history of decline and rebirth.

Grove Street was once the city’s downtown shopping district, but by the late 1950s and ’60s, it was nearly vacant. There were few sit-down restaurants, though hardscrabble bars catering to warehouse workers were common.

“Every place you drank was a shot-and-a-beer joint,” said Nick Acocella, a Hudson County resident and editor of Politifax, a weekly publication that covers New Jersey politics. “It was a very bad neighborhood.”

Artists and others seeking low rent started to move to Jersey City in the 1980s, and the pace increased in the early 1990s. By 2000, Jersey City was joining Hoboken as a place for urbane professionals to settle—though it still had more 99 cents stores than bars and restaurants.

The city established a three-block restaurant row in 1999 near the Grove Street PATH station, and a few eateries followed.

But an old city ordinance restricted the number of eating establishments that could serve alcohol on a block. Restaurant row establishments had to close by 11 p.m. And nightclubs were mostly restricted to commercial areas near highways.

In 2005, the city began allowing restaurants and bars serving food to remain open until 1 a.m. on weekdays and 2 a.m. on weekends. Five restaurants have opened on Newark Avenue since, Ms. Jardiniano said.

Restaurant business plummeted after the recession in 2008 but has since rebounded and has started to attract revelers across New Jersey on weekends, she said.

City officials said they want to capitalize on the momentum.

“We want people to spend money in Jersey City, not Manhattan,” said Councilman Steven Fulop, an early champion of restaurant row. “You do that by creating an environment that’s business-friendly and arts-friendly.”

In January, the city loosened complicated entertainment license requirements that were expensive for club owners and that resulted in illegal rock clubs sprouting up.

An entertainment license downtown required a variance, an expensive process that typically involves a lawyer. Bars could apply for temporary permits, and the system ended up being abused by venues that morphed into illegal rock clubs, Mr. Fulop said.

A new class of entertainment license now allows restaurants to host live music. The permit would be subject to annual review and costs $600 for restaurants.

Community groups were resistant, but the city tweaked the policy to limit the hours and track problem locations with noise meters. The city spent $5,000 on the readers and training for enforcement officials, said Carl Czaplicki, director of the Jersey City Department of Housing, Economic Development & Commerce.

“It’s fair. It’s based on evidence, not innuendo and hearsay,” he said. “Politics can’t be involved.”

The city began issuing the permits this month. “Numerous” people have since expressed interested in opening a small music venue, and one current city restaurant proprietor is considering a new space, Mr. Fulop said.

—Jessica Firger
contributed to this article.

 


Share

{ 0 comments }

Party With Purpose to celebrate nine year of service with benefit at the W Hotel in Hoboken

February 18, 2012

Party With Purpose, a non-profit group that organizes and products fundraisers for charities in the local community, is celebrating nine years of service to the community, with a benefit at the W Hotel in Hoboken on Thursday. Recipients of donations from the group will be honored at the benefit, as they are the ones who [...]

Share
Read the full article →

Jersey City kids nonprofit seeks votes to win $100,000 technology grant in nationwide contest

February 17, 2012

A Jersey City kids nonprofit group is reaching out for help. New City Kids, an organization that provides after-school learning and performing arts programs for at-risk kids from low-income families, is one of five finalists in a nationwide competition for $100,000 in technology. The nonprofit entered a video describing their technology needs in the Toshiba [...]

Share
Read the full article →

Hoboken announces ‘Hoboken Irish Cultural Festival’ to replace now-canceled St. Patrick’s Day parade

February 16, 2012

Hoboken announced the details of the inaugural “Hoboken Irish Cultural Festival,” the event that will take the place of the now-canceled St. Patrick’s Day parade as the city’s celebration of Irish culture. The festival will be held on Wednesday, March 14 — three days before St. Patrick’s Day — from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. [...]

Share
Read the full article →

Hoboken couple wins $10,000 diamond ring in romantic scavenger hunt

February 14, 2012

This Valentine’s Day is extra special for one Hoboken couple. Ariel Kemelman, 29, and Kiley Rode, 26, are the proud winners of the second annual “Jewel of the Mile” scavenger hunt and the $10,000 diamond ring prize. The contest, held by Hoboken Gold & Diamond exchange, sent couples searching on foot and on light-rail across [...]

Share
Read the full article →

← Previous Entries