Manhattan is Manhattan. It is an upscale town in New York and home to the hundreds of thousands of wealthy Yankees.
No wonder the cost of living in the said state is increasing by the minute. Even condominiums and co-ops’ prices are continuously sky-rocketing with a recorded increase of about 6.4% in 12 months, around $799,000 – $850,000, close to a million that might get you a little house (and an additional barn too if you wish!) if you settle for a much lower-cost state such as Arkansas. Based on the pattern, prices of condos and co-ops are expected to rise even more until the end of the fourth quarter.
Photo taken from http://www.poster.net
co-op, condo, manhattan
Green building is one of the buzzwords in the construction industry today. With the rising costs of fuel and gas prices, and the incredible advances made in building materials derived from renewable materials, green building is not only an environmental initiative, but a smart economic move as well. In fact, as early as 2003, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has required that all new federal buildings under its authority be constructed using green building practices.
Green building means a lot of things: building with materials that incorporate sustainable resources or utilize recycled materials, low energy consumption, minimal site disturbance, water conservation, solar orientation, water and energy efficiency, and healthful indoor-air quality.
Although green building practices tend to increase up-front construction costs, they often provide long-term benefits that may offset these increases. In fact, energy efficiency improvements can provide approximately 30 percent less energy than standard homes and can save homeowners approximately $200 to $400 per year.
image source: www.ebookslife.com
You see a lot of articles and books about how to make money “real estate flipping.” Perhaps you’re heard radio or television news reports about the illegalities of flipping real estate. Maybe you’ve seen the late-night infomercials promising you easy overnight fortunes.
What’s the truth about making money flipping real estate?
First, real estate flipping isn’t illegal. Because some dishonest real estate investors conspired with deceitful mortgage brokers and property appraisers, their stories made “good news” for newscasters who love to grab attention with “Investors Scam Banks and Bilk Buyers out of Millions!” sound bites. True, some investors defraud mortgage lenders and/or desperate home buyers. Cheating investors hyped up property values, helped home buyers tell untruths on mortgage applications, and conned banks and buyers.
On the other hand, ethical real estate investors make a lot of money real estate flipping. There are many ways to make money flipping real estate:
1. You can help home sellers in foreclosure save their credit by arranging a sale of the property and never even take title. In other words, buy the property and double-escrow the property to a home buyer who wants to live in the home.
2. Find a seller under stress with a bargain property, secure a sales contract, and sell your contract for roughly $500 to $5,000 to a seasoned real estate investor without financing or taking title.
NATIONAL HOUSING – More ugliness as affordability on the buy side is still a problem. Mortgage resets will continue to make struggling homeowners payments even more unaffordable. I do not think the gov’t sponsored rate freeze plan will be as effective as some think. Inventory will continue to be a drag on national housing and buyer demand will continue to be pressured. Prices will continue to drop in most of the struggling markets like Miami, Las Vegas, & Phoenix with some markets seeing 10-15% drops. I am fairly negative on national housing for 2008, however, if I were in the market for the longer term I would start to get VERY interested in bidding for distressed properties that have realized a 20-30% correction in price since 2006. All in all, I think its going to get uglier before it gets better and I expect foreclosures & delinquencies to rise in 2008 causing more pain for wall street financials. I also expect commercial to follow residential and get hit in 2008.Towards the end of 2008 I expect the rate of declines for major datasets to slow, showing a glimmer of hope for 2009.
Source: urbandigs.com
San Francisco ranks fifth in the nation as a location for real estate development and investment, according to a national study released Thursday in San Francisco.
The City lost out to top-rated New York City, which was deemed the most desirable metropolitan area to invest in development and real estate in the nation, according to the 2008 Emerging Trends study, an annual survey of real estate industry professionals put out by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the nonprofit Urban Land Institute. Seattle was the only West Coast city to rank higher than San Francisco on the annual list.
Factors in San Francisco’s attractiveness to developers include its access to airports and ports, its emphasis on transit oriented development and its status as a “24-hour, global-pathway city,” experts said at the Emerging Trends in Real Estate Conference on Thursday.
“San Francisco is a multifaceted city with many diverse attractions,” said PricewaterhouseCoopers, Jonathan Miller, keynote speaker at the conference, hosted by the Hotel Nikko. “It’s still the dominant 24-hour city of the West Coast, and it attracts a global market that few cities in America can attain.”
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Source: Examiner.com
MANHATTAN HOUSING – I expect a slower than normal wall street bonus season in the months of JAN – APRIL, in terms of buyer demand. As for bonuses, yes I think they will be given out (with some departments seeing drastic cuts in bonuses) but its HOW THEY ARE SPENT that I’m a bit concerned about. I expect inventory to build as we near summertime, as a result of a slower than normal bonus season, and wall street to deteriorate as we get more clues about whether we are in a recession or not. As wall street falls, so will confidence and demand on the buy side for Manhattan real estate products. At the same time, we will see more types of sellers contribute to inventory builds toward the end of 2008; speculators, foreign buyers flipping, second home’s selling, and struggling buyers who bought a bit more than they can chew or whose job security has changed to the negative. I expect job losses to grow during the first two quarters of the year as a result of the credit crisis and hit to the financial sector, leading to what I described above.
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