Category Archives: Friday Five

By: Brad Horner

Because a thriving business climate is vital to attracting and retaining residents (who will need housing!), we pay close attention to rankings such as Forbes Best States for Business and Careers.  The below list includes just five of the reasons that the Peach State ranked eighth on Forbes’ annual list.

1. Regularly environment: 1
2. Growth prospects: 7
3. Labor supply: 7
4. Economic climate: 30
5. Business costs: 31

For the list, Forbes measured costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, current economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life.  Click here to see the full list.

By: Brad Horner

Recently, Brett Arends of the Wall Street Journal published an article about “why owning a home is a good thing.” And, well, that is smart advice that I can’t argue with!

Below are Brett’s top five reasons, in his words:

1. You can get a good deal. Especially if you play hardball. This is a buyer’s market. Most of the other buyers have now vanished, as the tax credits on purchases have just expired. We’re four to five years into the biggest housing bust in modern history. … Will prices fall further? Sure, they could. You’ll never catch the bottom. It doesn’t really matter so much in the long haul.

2. Mortgages are cheap. You can get a 30-year loan for around 4.3%. What’s not to like? These are the lowest rates on record. As recently as two years ago they were about 6.3%. That drop slashes your monthly repayment by a fifth. If inflation picks up, you won’t see these mortgage rates again in your lifetime. And if we get deflation, and rates fall further, you can refi.

3. You’ll save on taxes. You can deduct the mortgage interest from your income taxes. You can deduct your real estate taxes. And you’ll get a tax break on capital gains–if any–when you sell. Sure, you’ll need to do your math. You’ll only get the income tax break if you itemize your deductions, and many people may be better off taking the standard deduction instead. The breaks are more valuable the more you earn, and the bigger your mortgage. But many people will find that these tax breaks mean owning costs them less, often a lot less, than renting.

4. It’ll be yours. You can have the kitchen and bathrooms you want. You can move the walls, build an extension–zoning permitted–or paint everything bright orange. Few landlords are so indulgent; for renters, these types of changes are often impossible. You’ll feel better about your own place if you own it than if you rent.

5. You’ll get a better home. In many parts of the country it can be really hard to find a good rental. All the best places are sold as condos. Money talks. … Generally speaking, if you want the best home in the best neighborhood, you’re better off buying.

Want to read Brett’s other five reasons why it’s smart to buy a home?  Click here.

What other reasons would you add to the list?  Leave your thoughts in the below comments section.

By: Brad Horner

This week, Coldwell Banker Real Estate, LLC released its Home Listing Report, a snapshot survey of U.S. four-bedroom, two-bathroom home listings.  The HLR provides the average home listing price of more than 18,000 four-bedroom, two-bathroom properties on ColdwellBanker.com that were listed between February and August 2010 from nearly 300 select U.S. markets where Coldwell Banker Real Estate has a presence.

The report found a $1.7 million difference between America’s most expensive and most affordable housing markets.  I’ve listed the top five most expensive and top five most affordable U.S. housing markets below.  Click here to view the full HLR data.

The most expensive real estate markets:

1. Newport Beach, Calif. $1,826,348.00
2. Palo Alto, Calif. $1,479,227.00
3. Rye, N.Y. $1,325,500.00
4. San Francisco, Calif. $1,325,103.00
5. La Jolla, Calif. $1,210,300.00

The most affordable real estate markets:

1. Detroit, Mich. $68,007.00
2. Grayling, Mich. $84,625.00
3. Sioux City, Iowa $85,967.00
4. Cleveland, Ohio $87,240.00
5. Muncie, Ind. $100,314.00

By: Brad Horner

Wednesday’s launch of Google Instant had marketers buzzing all week about how the tool may change businesses’ SEO efforts, as Google Instant vowed to deliver results “instantly in a way that has never been done before.”  Google continues to change the way we use the Internet – including how consumers find information, how marketers reach consumers online and how people do business, in general.

Are you using Google to your advantage?  Below are five of my favorite (free) Google tools that help with business:

1.     Google Alerts – Managing your and your company’s online reputation is important to be able to know what your potential customers can read about you online.  Google Alerts can alert you within seconds of an identified name or term being posted online.  This is a good way to monitor for online mentions about your company, as well as what is being written about your competitors, industry terms of interest and more.  Use Boolean Logic to receive exactly what posts are helpful to you.

2.     Google Reader – Real estate analysts write blogs.  As do real estate reporters.  And local influential leaders.  And your competition.  And, you need to follow them all.  But instead of spending time each day to proactively seek out each blog, have the latest posts come to you – in real time.  Read them all in one place with Google Reader, a Web-based aggregator that makes keeping up with your favorite blogs and Websites as easy as checking your e-mail. You can even organize each blog into categories.

3.     Google Profile – What do people see when they find you online?  You can control some of this information by creating a personal profile in Google and including links to your blogs, online photos, links to other online social profiles (including LinkedIn and Facebook), contact information and more.  Your profile won’t display any private information unless you’ve explicitly added it.

4.     Google Maps – When searching an address in Google Maps, you’re able to get a first person look at the neighborhood – including the street layout (access to highways, relationship to nearby homes, etc.), terrain and nearby retail – without ever leaving your desk.  You can even embed these views on your Website.  This is such an important tool for all who are involved in real estate transactions.

5.     Google Keyword – I can’t think of any better place to turn for information about what consumers search for online than turning to Google!  Google offers detailed information about how people search online in Google Keyword, giving you limitless knowledge about consumer online behavior that will help when searching for a domain name, creating an SEO strategy, thinking about blog topics and more.  Just type in a phrase and see how many people have searched for that phrase.

What other Google tools have you found helpful?

By: Brad Horner

We have shared with you the success of Orlando’s Mosaic at Millenia (where NRT Development Advisors manages marketing and sales), which is due primarily to the large number of international cash buyers.  This trend became a big story in local, as well as international, press, including Orlando Sentinel’s May 2 front page story, “Foreign buyers kick-start Orlando-area condo sales“, Orlando Business Journal’s June 18 front page story, “Condo sales making a comeback” and Voice of America’s article (and video) “Condo sales up in US despite volatility in housing market.”

But why are the international buyers flocking to properties such as Mosaic at Millenia?  And why are they buying with cash instead of mortgaging the homes?  The 2010 NAR Profile of International Home Buying Activity provides good insight about the needs, wants and challenges of international buyers.  Below are five findings from the study:

1. According to NAR’s Home Buyer Seller Survey 2009, 92 percent of U.S. buyers financed their homes with a mortgage. In contrast, foreign buyers are reported as paying cash 55 percent of the time. This appears to be reflective of difficulties in establishing international credit: credit profiles based on financial ratios differ widely based on local customers, local expenditure patterns, and specific financial issues. In addition, it is difficult to move money around the world on a timely and secure basis—even though the money, transaction participants, and end use purpose are legitimate. In fact, there is at least one major company specializing in assisting buyers in simply transferring funds internationally.
2. The median price paid by international buyers was in the neighborhood of $219,400 during 2009/2010. In contrast, the overall median price for Existing Home Sales was $173,000 during April 2009 to April 2010. Foreign purchasers ―on average‖ participated closer to the upper end of the market—which is not surprising given the circumstances surrounding the purchasing decision: desire for a second home, diversification of assets in the United States, perception of U.S. real estate as offering higher value, pooling of investments by families seeking to participate in a desirable market, and attraction to urban, higher priced markets.
3. Detached homes were in the majority by type of property. However, compared to domestic buyers, international buyers purchased more condos. According to the most recent NAR Home Buyer Seller Survey, 78% of the buyers purchased detached single –family homes, 8% chose townhouse/row house, and only 7% chose condo/apartment.
4. Forty-five percent of foreign purchases are concentrated in South, the states such as Florida and Texas. It is followed by the West (32%), the states such as California and Arizona.
5. Seventy-nine percent of respondents indicated that changes in the value of the dollar can impact international sales. To examine the potential impact we have developed a graph of the price of a U.S. existing home in U.S. dollars and in terms of Euros over the past five years. When the dollar decreases in value relative to other currencies, U.S. property becomes less expensive.  International comparisons of property values are difficult, for property characteristics vary widely from country to country. However, a comparison of average or median prices, based on available data, between U.S. and foreign property indicates that U.S. property appears in general to be less expensive than is the case for foreign property.

By: Brad Horner

Today’s Friday Five is short and sweet…and resourceful!

I assume that you visit Virtual Views for its industry information, case studies, company updates and other informative posts.  If so, you might also find the following social sites (with which we’re affiliated) helpful:

1. Facebook –We regularly link to articles of interest, inform fans of upcoming industry events and post about the Southeast real estate market.  We hope that you will become a fan.
2. YouTube –NRT Development Advisors’ YouTube channel offers a sneak peak inside the walls of the beautiful multi-family and single-family homes that we represent.
3. YouTube – More than 1.5 million people have visited Coldwell Banker’s YouTube channel, On Location, which includes videos of listings, home buying and selling tips, expert interviews and more.
4. Twitter – We have a rapidly growing number of Twitter followers from around the nation because of the up-to-the-minute industry information that we post.
5. Insight Real Estate blog – If you like what you read on the Virtual Views blog, you’ll also enjoy the information shared on Coldwell Banker Residential’s blog, Insights, which includes Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Florida real estate information, as well as corporate announcements.

Where are you online?  Leave us a comment below so we can be sure to follow you, as well.