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Thursday, May 18, 2006
Don’t Rain on my Parade: There’s No Place Like Home
Is it time to buy or sell? Is your home really disaster-proof? And that all-important question: What is your favorite TV home? Hint: Think “iconic rural farmhouse.”
The answer to all these real estate questions - and many more - will be featured in Parade magazine’s special issue, Where America Lives, in Sunday’s Palm Beach Post.
The magazine offers a highly readable look at the results of an online survey taken in March by 1,000 people who represent a cross-section of U.S. home owners, Parade spokeswoman Alexis Collado says. One surprising result: More than 60 percent would trade their mega-mansions or super-square-footers for a shorter commute.
It seems the days of keeping up with the Joneses have given way to getting off the interstate the fastest.
Experts also weigh in with their opinions on where the market is headed. Some of their predictions are scary (comfort food for breakfast, anyone?) because they could apply here.
A good example of the fright factor: In areas that have seen substantial appreciation, home owners could lose a dollar in value for every four they have gained, says Kenneth Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California at Berkeley.
Palm Beach County’s existing homes rose 161 percent in value during the five-year boom that ended in December - to a median price of $390,100 in 2005 from $149,600 in 2001.
Parade’s real estate issue also contains a good deal of must-read advice about such things as mortgages (what to look for, what to avoid, and why).
All real estate is local, as the saying goes, but no national story is complete without mentioning the once torrid Palm Beach County real estate market. And Parade does.
Talking about hot markets that have suddenly cooled down, real estate agent Nick Calvert, who sells homes in Virginia Beach, Va., says, “I have people who are waiting for homes to sell in West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, New Jersey, Connecticut and Fredericksburg, Va.
“All of them thought their homes were going to fly (off the market).”
Oh yeah. About those favorite TV homes. The posh oceanfront mansion on The OC and the home-sweet-home farmhouse of The Waltons are tops on the list.
But when it comes to the survey takers’ own dream homes, a “spacious, modern kitchen” will be the most important factor in their home-buying decisions.
And, I would add, someone to do the cooking.
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Affordability squeeze eases — but only a little
A new study says the housing affordability squeeze eased ever so slightly in the first three months of the year.
The National Association of Home Builders’ Housing Opportunity Index says the typical Palm Beach County family could afford 30.5 percent of the homes that traded hands in the first quarter. That’s up from 30.4 percent in the fourth quarter.
NAHB says the Palm Beach County median home price rose to $295,000 in the first quarter from $289,000 in the fourth (it includes condos and single-family homes, which aren’t combined in Realtor reports). And it says median family income rose to $64,400 this year from $61,850 last year.
In the Treasure Coast, NAHB says the typical family could afford 22.7 percent of the homes that sold in the first quarter, up from 22.1 percent in the fourth quarter. That’s based on a median home price of $255,000 (up from $245,000 last quarter) and median family income of $54,600 (up from $52,450 last year).
I crunched the numbers a different way for a story in Tuesday’s paper and, like NAHB, found homes grew a tad more affordable in Q1.
Indianapolis remained the nation’s capital of affordability: 90 percent of homes sold there were affordable to a typical family. Los Angeles, where fewer than 2 percent of homes were affordable, was the toughest housing market to crack. Check out the full NAHB report here.
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