Language Skills Boost Agents

Language Skills Boost Agents. Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Real estate agents across the country are leveraging their second-language skills to get ahead in their local markets, particularly as the number of international home buyers grows in the U.S.

About 15 percent of real estate professionals report speaking a second language, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. According to a study by Trulia, the most commonly spoken languages by real estate agents, after English, is Spanish at 12.2 percent and French at 2.5 percent. Russian, Mandarin, and German are close behind. The study searched nearly 83,000 agent profiles in the U.S. to compile their findings.

“Chicago is becoming a global market. I’ve literally been using all four languages since I started doing real estate,” Nadia Rahmani, a real estate professional with Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty told The Wall Street Journal. Rahmani, who also speaks French, Arabic and Spanish, estimates that 40 percent of the home buyers she works with in Chicago are international clients. “Even though they’re fluent in English, they’re more comfortable” speaking in their native tongue, Rahmani adds.

Michael B. Soon, an agent with Coldwell Banker in San Francisco who speaks English, Cantonese, and Mandarin, says that understanding the same language as your client can also make a transaction go much smoother. “You have to look at what they have in China,” Soon says about the real estate options there. “Nothing is more than 20 years old,” which is why he says many Chinese buyers tend to be interested in newly built condos.

Source: “Real Estate Agents’ Secret Weapon,” The Wall Street Journal (July 17, 2014)

New Effort to Reduce Impact of Windstorms

New Effort to Reduce Impact of Windstorms. Image courtesy of Vlado / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

On Monday, the U.S. House passed the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Act (H.R. 1786) to reauthorize funding for three years to study windstorms and how to reduce their impact.

“When a family loses their home in a windstorm, they don’t just have to rebuild their house — they have to rebuild their lives,” said Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas). “These are truly natural and national disasters. This bill helps promote research that will help save lives, reduce injuries, and lessen damage from windstorms.”

The legislation aims to create efficiencies and new guidelines, providing more than $21 million in annual funding for federal research and mitigation efforts through 2016. “We have found that $1 in investments in resilience against windstorms can result in up to $4 in savings in disaster response,” Neugebauer said.

Source: “House Passes Bill to Fund Windstorm Impact Reduction Research,” Lubbock Online (July 16, 2014) & realtor.org

Decline in Foreclosures Reaches ‘Important Milestone’

Decline in Foreclosures Reaches ‘Important Milestone’. Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Foreclosure activity in June was down 16 percent from a year prior, marking the lowest level since July 2006 — before the housing bubble burst — according to RealtyTrac’s Midyear 2014 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. The report showed a much-improved picture: Foreclosure filings, which include default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions, were down 19 percent in the first half of 2014 compared to the previous six months and 23 percent from year-ago levels.

Ten states in June reached their lowest level of foreclosures since 2006, including Texas, Georgia, Colorado, Tennessee, Arizona, and Nevada.

“Nationwide foreclosure activity in June reached an important milestone, dropping to levels not seen since before the housing-price bubble burst in August 2006,” says Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Over the next six to nine months, nationwide foreclosure numbers should start to flatline at consistent historically normal levels.”

Not all states are out of the woods yet. For example, nine states saw foreclosure activity rise during the first half of 2014 compared to a year ago, such as New Jersey (up 54%); Maryland (up 18%); Iowa (up 10%); Massachusetts (up 4%); and Connecticut (up 4%). The states with the highest foreclosure rates in the first half of 2014 remained Florida, Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey, and Nevada, according to the report.

“While it’s important that any remaining foreclosure infection is addressed promptly to keep it from festering, foreclosures are no longer a widespread contagion threatening to derail the housing market’s return to full health,” Blomquist says.

The metros with some of the largest decreases in foreclosure activity in the first half of 2014 compared to a year ago included Chicago (down 30%); Miami (down 30%); Houston (down 29%); Dallas (down 28%); and Los Angeles (down 20%).

Source: RealtyTrac

Housing Affordability Continues to Soften as Prices Rise

Housing Affordability Continues to Soften as Prices Rise. Image courtesy of Sujin Jetkasettakorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Rising home prices pushed housing affordability down in May compared with last year, making homes a little less affordable to the average family, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ latest Housing Affordability Index.

The median price for a single-family home rose to $213,600 in May, up 4.9 percent from a year ago. However, the affordability picture may improve in the coming months as price gain slow. Meanwhile, mortgage rates rose 77 basis points from last year (with one percentage point equal to 100 basis points).

“While jobs and income levels are up slightly from last year, they are not growing fast enough to offset price increases,” writes Michael Hyman, an NAR research assistant, on NAR’s Economists’ Outlook blog. “Having money for a down payment can still be a big hurdle for potential home buyers who already pay comparable rent payments.”

Affordability was down in May in all regions of the country, with the South posting the largest drop in affordability in the month, but the West saw the largest slump in affordability year-over-year after seeing the largest price gain of 8.4 percent.

Source: “Latest Housing Affordability Index Release,” National Association of REALTORS® Economists’ Outlook Blog (July 15, 2014)

Baby Boomers Aren’t Downsizing Yet

Baby Boomers Aren’t Downsizing Yet. Image courtesy of artur84 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Baby boomers aren’t showing any signs of leaving the single-family home market that has defined their generation’s real estate habits, despite many predictions that they would by now. As boomers hit age 65 and become empty nesters, many housing analysts forecasted that a huge wave of them would downsize and move into an apartment, condo, or townhouse.

But Fannie Mae researcher Patrick Simmons says that isn’t happening yet.

“There’s a perception, particularly in many media reports, that this massive generation born between 1946 and 1964 is altering its housing consumption,” Simmons, the director of strategic planning for Fannie Mae’s economic group, told the Chicago Tribune. “It’s true that they’re becoming empty nesters in droves. But by one measure, the proportion of boomers who live in single-family homes actually increased between 2006 and 2012.”

Baby boomers’ mobility has gone down. Nine out of 10 boomers surveyed by AARP reported that they wanted to stay in their current home as long as possible. Some may be motivated to stay put because of the housing crisis. For boomers, the value of single-family homes they owned fell by an average of 13 percent. Some boomers could still be underwater and are waiting to recoup more on their house before they sell. Others may be holding on to their home because they snagged a record low mortgage rate in recent years, and they know borrowing won’t be any cheaper if they do decide to sell.

Some baby boomers are downsizing but choosing to stay in smaller single-family homes rather than move to a condo or town home.

But “eventually, boomers will slow down with age and have the same physical frailties that their predecessors had,” Simmons told the Tribune. “My sense is that it’s not going to be a major shift — something we see in the numbers in a year. It will likely unfold over a decade or more.”

Source: “Time to Downsize? Not for Baby Boomers,” Chicago Tribune (July 6, 2014)

LeBron James’ Return: A Win for Cleveland’s Housing Market?

LeBron James’ Return: A Win for Cleveland’s Housing Market?

NBA star LeBron James announced last Friday that he is heading home to Cleveland to rejoin the Cavaliers next year, after playing for the Miami Heat for the past four years. But he says his return to his hometown is about much more than just basketball.

James, a native to Akron, Ohio, says he cares deeply about the area and wrote in Sports Illustrated that “my relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball. I didn’t realize that four years ago. I do now.”

James says he wants to promote the area through his charitable works.

“I want kids in Northeast Ohio, like the hundreds of Akron third-graders I sponsor through my foundation, to realize that there’s no better place to grow up,” James wrote in Sports Illustrated. “Maybe some of them will come home after college and start a family or open a business. That would make me smile. Our community, which has struggled so much, needs all the talent it can get.”

But could James’ return really boost Cleveland’s economy or housing market? Cleveland and Akron are among the 10 lowest metro areas for home price growth. Akron recently ranked the lowest, with prices dropping by 0.2 percent, according to a housing report from Black Knight Financial Services. Cleveland and Akron also are fourth and fifth on the list for metro areas with the highest percentage of homes underwater (in Cleveland, 35 percent of homes are underwater; Akron is at 34 percent).

While property values are unlikely to rise just because James is returning to Cleveland, an article in HousingWire notes “the good vibes may just spur growth in an area that sorely needs it.”

“I feel my calling here goes above basketball,” James writes. “I have a responsibility to lead, in more ways than one, and I take that very seriously. My presence can make a difference in Miami, but I think it can mean more where I’m from.”

Source: “Why LeBron James’ Return to Cleveland Is Huge Real Estate Win,” HousingWire (July 11, 2014) and “LeBron: I’m Coming Back to Cleveland,” Sports Illustrated (July 11, 2014)