(Ken H. Johnson)
Housing sales in the Philly region 
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An investment company wants to unload its retail holdings in Vancouver’s most popular shopping district.
If purchased as a bundle, the eight properties total $23 million.
Winmore Investments Ltd. owns all of the eight retail units on the ground floor of Robson Gardens, a condominium complex at Robson and Jervis streets.
Based on initial online searches, Winmore Investments Ltd. appears to be a company either headquartered or incorporated abroad.
There are web references to companies of the same name in Hong Kong, Samoa, and New Zealand.
The retail spaces with addresses from 1274 Robson Street to 1296 Robson Street were listed on the market by Pacific Evergreen Realty Ltd.
The properties vary in sizes.
Prices range from$1,450,000 to $5,100,000.
The listings started on December 3, 2020, and expire on December 31.
Vancouver realtor and market observer David Hutchinson pays attention to listings like these.
Hutchinson, a residential and commercial realtor with property management and commercial leasing qualifications, shared the listings with the Straight.
“If these commercial properties have tenants currently paying rent, it may be a good time to sell,” Hutchinson said.
According to the realtor, this is due to the COVID-19 situation.
“I'm not seeing commercial retail properties increasing in value any time soon due to the current pandemic environment,” Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson noted that the retail properties from 1274 Robson Street to 1296 Robson Street are good locations because these are on the street.
Other retail spaces elsewhere are found inside malls.
Regarding Robson Gardens, the BC Condos and Homes site indicates that the mixed-use residential and commercial complex was built in 1980.
The development features an eight-storey building, with72 homes.
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Another Big Six bank has notified investors they’re prepared for falling home prices in the near future. National Bank of Canada (NBC) notified investors last week the bank has revised its outlook based on data up to Oct 31. While some indicators had surprising improvements from the previous forecast, some have revised lower. In all scenarios, including a surprisingly good one, the bank expects real estate prices to fall.
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Amazon e-commerce warehouse in Madrid, Spain / Wikipedia
Since the beginning of the spread of COVID-19 in March, some real estate sectors are growing while others are contracting. At the Urban Land Institute (ULI)’s fall meeting, Owen Thomas, CEO of Boston Properties, explained that the biggest gains are being seen in data centers, industrial, science, self-storage, and healthcare properties, while residential, lodging, shopping centers, and malls have seen the greatest declines.
Thomas asked a panel of real estate investors with more than $300 billion in assets to provide their take on the current real estate market.
He noted that in July 2020, e-commerce sales were up 60-70 percent over the same time the previous year.
According to Hilary Spann, managing director and head of the Americas for real estate investments at CPPIB America, Inc., this e-commerce growth is occurring among all demographic segments, even those who previously preferred shopping in person. Even after the pandemic, she thinks e-commerce will succeed in keeping these new buyers.
With the digitization of the U.S. economy and the growth of online shopping and entertainment, there has also been massive growth in data centers and last-mile warehouses and distribution facilities. AJ Agarwal, senior managing director at Blackstone added that “we are seeing less infill warehouses in cities, and more 20 miles or so outside urban centers.”
For Francois Trausch, CEO of Allianz Real Estate, the trick has been how to figure out what people are doing in the real world via online proxies. For example, Allianz is now tracking Open Table reservations in major cities around the globe, as lunch reservations can be viewed as a proxy for nearby office building occupancy. “In Germany and other parts of Europe, we can see from Open Table that things are essentially back to normal. But in New York City, reservations are down 40 percent.”
He also noted that from his analysis, Asia seems to have largely overcome the coronavirus. “China is back at work. They have unbelievable capabilities and can administer COVID-19 tests to 9 million people in the city of Qingdao in five days; that’s something Paris could never do.”
Thomas noted that with any recession, demand for office space goes down, but over the long-term, office building development is tied to the location of jobs. “Where will jobs go? We are seeing an out-migration from cities into suburbs.”
He added that “working from home is here to stay.” There’s only 20 percent occupancy in office buildings in the U.S. right now, and those numbers may not come back to where they were post-pandemic.
All panelists seemed bullish on the long-term value of the world’s leading cities. “Our creative cities can’t experience disruption forever,” Spann argued.
While she sees Millennial families leaving the city for nearby suburbs, many people want to stay in the city. “With a viable vaccine, cities will continue to thrive over the long term.”
Across all real estate sectors, “the biggest change has been the impact of the fiscal stimulus,” said Agarwal. The stimulus, combined with recent actions by the Federal Reserve, means that “financing costs for real estate are now 30 percent less than they were pre-COVID.” But this has not translated into increased investment in certain sectors.
All were also negative about the prospects for shopping centers and malls. Frausch wondered whether malls can fill their vacant spaces, whether there are enough large retailers who will take on the risk. He sees a positive trend in the re-purposing of malls as hospitals, offices, and community spaces. “In Japan, there are now educational classes in malls.”
The investors then discussed the future outlook for hotels. When a vaccine is developed, Agarwal thinks there will be an explosion of leisure travel to resorts. But what is considered essential business travel will be redefined, and many trips will be deemed unnecessary. As a result, business hotels in cities will face continued challenges.
When asked what they foresee as the #1 topic in six months, answers were all over the board: the efficacy of vaccines, the distribution of vaccines, tax burdens for real estate development, and what shape the recovery will be. Frausch explained: “We could have a V-shaped recovery, or a K-shaped one, which bifurcates the economy into one that does well for some people and not well for others.”
Perhaps one positive note: the COVID-19 recession could also yield some innovation in the building sector. “We’ll soon see new companies that enable the online visualization of construction sites” — software that better facilitates the collaborative, virtual planning and design of projects, Spann said.]]>
But perhaps more important are the pitfalls to avoid so you don’t become a statistic of the property game.
While many investors start out with the intention of making it big in real estate, only a handful will ever get past their first investment and even less will create real wealth by climbing to the top of the property ladder.
To help you out, I’m going to share with you a basic guide to property investment for beginners.
In this article, I’ll explain 10 of the most common mistakes investors make and some tips on how you can overcome these to win big with real estate.
When it comes to investing, however, letting your heart rule your buying decision is a common trap to be avoided at all costs.
Allowing your emotions to cloud your judgement means you are more likely to over-capitalise on your purchase, rather than negotiating the best possible price and outcome for your investment goals.
Beginning property investors should always buy the property based on analytical research.
Will it provide the gains and returns you require? It is in the best location to attract quality tenants?
Will it appeal to the owner-occupier market that sustains property prices in the long term?
By answering these questions, rather than buying a house because you loved the curtains or thought it would make a good holiday retreat, you’re thinking based on financial gain rather than personal feelings.
And at the end of the day, investing is all about economics, not the emotions.
They think they have to have it all yesterday.
They attend one seminar and buy into the first crazy scheme they’re sold without thinking it through and when it doesn’t make them rich overnight, they lose heart and throw in the towel, saying property just isn’t for them.
The second are procrastinators and their own worst enemy.
They attend every seminar, read all the books, listen to all the property podcasts and watch all the videos, only to end up overloaded with information and unable to act.
We call this paralysis by analysis.
While the former can sometimes learn from their mistakes and make a success of their investment endeavours, the latter will never overcome their fears.
The best you can do is find a happy medium – sure, learn as much as possible to make you comfortable with your investment decisions but don’t think you can ever know it all before you begin.
You will always have something else to learn and the best way to gain knowledge is to immerse yourself in the game itself.
At the moment with all the property pessimists out and about and negative property media, many investors are second-guessing themselves and wondering if it’s a good time to buy or whether they should wait for the market to bottom.
Don’t try and time the markets…even the experts get it wrong!
Of course, I understand why investors would think it’s the right thing to do.
I know many financial planners recommend ‘when-to’ investments, which means you have to know when to buy and when to sell.
Timing is crucial with these investments: if you buy low and sell high, you do well.
If you get your timing wrong though, your money can be wiped out.
Shares, commodities, and futures tend to be ‘when-to’ investments.
I would rather put my money into a ‘how-to’ investment such as real estate, which increases steadily in value and doesn’t have the wild variations in price (if, and only if, you buy the right type of property.)
Yet is still powerful enough to generate wealth producing rates of return through the benefits of leverage.
While timing is still important in ‘how-to’ investments, it’s nowhere near as important as how you buy them and how you add value.
‘How-to’ investments are rarely liquid but produce real wealth.
Most ‘when-to’ investment vehicles (like the stock market) produce only a handful of large winners but there tends to be millions of losers. On the other hand, the real estate produces millions of wealthy people and only a handful of losers.
Having said that if you also get the timing right with property investment, if you buy at the right time in the property cycle, it can massively accelerate your investment returns.
Where some might see this as a shortcoming, I see it as a strength; because the property is a proven commodity that we all need, it has the tried and tested ability to provide steady, long term gains through the power of compounding.
In other words, you use the gains you make from one property to leverage into another property and then with the combined gains you make from those two properties, you buy more to add to your portfolio.
Better still, you can use other people’s money (borrowed from the banks) to do so.
No other commodity gives you the ability to do this so successfully.
By approaching property investment with patience and persistence, you will gain far more success (and wealth) than if you seek out the “next big thing”.
Securing proven, high performing property that grows consistently over the long term is the only way to ensure you make it to the top of the property ladder.
Just look what’s happened to property values over the last 25 years…
The median house value nationally has risen by 412%, or $459,900.
Twenty-five years ago, the median house value across Australia was just $111,524 and units showed a slightly higher median value, at $123,840.
Since 1993, median house and unit values have increased by 412% and 316% respectively, providing homeowners with a significant wealth boost.
The capital gain over the past 25 years equates to an annual growth rate of 6.8% for houses and 5.9% for units and in dollar value terms.
The median value of the typical Australian house has risen by $459,900 since 1993 and unit values are $392,000 higher.
But, as always…
Long term annual capital gains have been reasonably diverse across the capital cities, with growth in house values ranging from 5.9% per annum in Adelaide and Brisbane to 8.1% in the Melbourne property market.
Across the capital city unit markets, annual growth rates have ranged from 4.1% in Darwin to 6.6% in Melbourne.
In dollar terms, the Sydney property market stands out, with the average annual increase in house and unit values equating to $34,426 and $23,594 per annum respectively over the past twenty-five years.
The diversity in growth rates over a long period of time highlights the cyclical nature of the housing market, with dwelling values rising at different speeds from region to region and period to period.
What’s ahead for property values?
If property prices were to rise at the same rate as the past twenty-five years, Australia’s median house value would reach $2.9 million by 2043.
While the past isn’t always the best predictor of the future, it’s a worthwhile benchmark to consider where housing values maybe twenty five years from now.
Based on national house values rising at the annual rate of 6.8% per annum over the past quarter of a century, in 2043, the national median house value would be approaching the $3 million mark ($2.93) and the median unit value would be just over $2.1 million ($2.15).
Source: CoreLogic Median values have been extrapolated based on applying the annual compounding growth in median values over the past twenty-five years to current median house and unit values.
In other words, how much income will your investment(s) generate and will it be enough to cover your outgoings?
If not, can you manage any shortfall?
Don’t forget to account for any contingencies, such as extended vacancy periods or unexpected maintenance costs.
A good rule of thumb is to allow about 10% of the property’s value for costs such as rates, land taxes, insurance, maintenance, and management fees.
It’s great to dream about the riches you can make from real estate, but it’s critical to enter into property investment with your eyes wide open when it comes to all the out of pocket expenses you’ll incur along the way.
Examine each potential investment analytically and ensure you make adequate allowances.
By underestimating your income and overestimating your expenses you’re more likely to avoid any nasty surprises.
Knowing the vendor’s motivation can make a big difference when it comes to negotiating a good price.
During the initial inspection look for clues as to the vendor’s personal situation; are they going through a divorce for instance?
While it might sound a little callous, this gives you an opportunity to buy a bargain, as well as giving the seller a chance to move on with their lives.
Have you had the relevant inspections done to uncover any structural defects or signs of pest infestations, like termites?
The fees for these are tax-deductible and paying say $800 for this type of peace of mind can save you thousands in the long term.
Finally, is the property liveable from a tenant’s perspective?
Remember, while you won’t be living here, someone else will, and they’ll be paying you to do so.
Ask yourself, is the floor plan appealing and will the property provide a comfortable, practical home?
Always do a second and third inspection at different times of the day.
Is it noisy during peak hour? How does light work at different times? Are the neighbours party animals or quiet?
Ticking all of the right boxes when you inspect a property will ensure you buy the best possible investment every time.
In the short term, this might seem plausible enough, but what happens when you have a portfolio of say twenty properties?
The ongoing management of such a portfolio essentially amounts to a full-time job!
You have to find and qualify suitable tenants, know the laws pertaining to renting, have a firm grip on the value of your rental, conduct regular inspections to ensure your tenants are looking after your asset, collect the rent, represent yourself at tribunal should things go awry, deal with all the maintenance issues that crop up and be on call 24/7 for your tenants.
Sound appealing? 
If you’re wondering what will happen to property in 2020–2021 you are not alone.
You can trust the team at Metropole to provide you with direction, guidance and results.
In challenging times like we are currently experiencing you need an advisor who takes a holistic approach to your wealth creation and that’s what you exactly what you get from the multi award-winning team at Metropole.
If you’re looking at buying your next home or investment property here’s 4 ways we can help you:
That said, our world has experienced a lot of change and uncertainty in 2020. No city or state in the U.S. has gone unscathed by the coronavirus pandemic. But there are still strong 
Many of you may be wondering if you should renovate your house if you are planning to sell it when it reaches the minimum occupation period (MOP) of 5 years. While renovated houses tend to fetch a higher selling price, some features in the house may also hinder a buyer’s decision whether to purchase it or not. These tips explain which home features do well when selling your home and which you can probably skip and save on.
Researchers, Realtors and industry action groups argue that the rippling economic effects from changes made to Section 1031 would be a blow to the real estate industry and investors.
President Biden’s tax plan stands to make a significant impact on everyday citizens and investors alike.
If passed, the plan would increase taxes on the top 1 percent of earners by 13 percent to 18 percent of after-tax income, and indirectly increase taxes for most other groups by 0.2 percent to 0.6 percent, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an independent, non-profit, bipartisan public-policy organization based in Washington, D.C.
But one proposal that could potentially rock the real estate industry, if passed, is the end to Section 1031 “like-kind” exchanges for investors with annual incomes of greater than $400,000.
1031 exchanges allow real estate investors to defer capital-gains taxes when they sell properties by directing the sale’s proceeds into new investments. Many investors conduct these exchanges on a continual basis, and while that means the tax continues to be deferred, it’s not as though it goes away altogether — that amount still comes due to investors eventually. In fact, a 2015 study conducted by Professors David C. Ling (University of Florida) and Milena Petrova (Syracuse University) determined that nearly 88 percent of exchanges end in a taxable sale, “resulting in substantially more tax being paid than would have been due had the exchange not occurred.”
This 100-year-old tax law has been considered for repeal in the past (prior to the 2017 tax reform bill, for instance), but lawmakers have usually come around to recognize the value it has in stimulating the economy. This time, that stimulus may be especially valuable as the U.S. economy battles the impacts of the pandemic.
“Like-kind exchanges allow investments to be shifted to the most productive and efficient uses possible, providing flexibility that is desperately needed now with the commercial real estate industry facing significant challenges in the months ahead,” National Association of Realtors (NAR) President Charlie Oppler said in a statement emailed to Inman. “As one of our top policy priorities of 2021, NAR is strongly opposed to the repeal or limitation of the like-kind exchange provision, and we will continue our work to educate lawmakers on the provision’s importance to the recovery of the U.S. economy.”
One potential impact the repeal of these exchanges could have is causing investors hold on to properties for a longer amount of time, which could ultimately have a ripple effect on Realtors, appraisers, title companies, inspectors and others involved in different levels of the transaction.
“The elimination of this program for high-income investors could cause them to hold on to properties for longer than in the past and may have the effect of decreasing supply and demand,” Lowndes Law attorneys Samantha Duran and Joaquin Martinez recently said in a post for legal news resource JD Supra.
If changes made to Section 1031 does result in dissuading investors from completing more transactions, the result could actually be a decline in total tax revenue. Beyond that, an Ernst & Young study conducted in 2015 determined that a repeal of Section 1031 would slow economic growth, reduce the U.S. GDP and negatively impact small businesses.
“If Section 1031 is repealed, state and local jurisdictions which impose real estate transfer taxes on transactions will see a decline in tax revenues to accompany the decline in transactions,” Marc Landis, managing partner of Phillips Nizer LLP, said in a statement emailed to Inman. “Some of the states that could face a severe impact include New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Florida and Washington; municipalities such as New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh would also take a hit.”
Data from a survey conducted in 2015 by NAR also suggests changes made to Section 1031 would have a palpable impact on individual Realtors’ transaction volume. Forty percent of Realtors said that the total bulk of their transactions would not have occurred between 2011-14 if like-kind exchanges did not exist. Another 24 percent of Realtors said between 75 percent and 99 percent of their transactions would not have occurred under the same circumstances during the same period. A whopping 96 percent of Realtors surveyed also reported that a repeal of like-kind exchanges would likely result in a decrease in real estate values.
“Every time a 1031 is done, that money that would be going to Uncle Sam, actually it’s plowed back into the deal where you have, I guess it’s like 30 jobs are created, something like that,” Daniel Wagner, senior vice president of government relations at The Inland Real Estate Group, told Inman. “Where you recognize the fact that the Realtor makes money, the appraiser makes money, the person that does the survey, and it goes all the way down, and then you get to the contractors — the union people make money, they’re going to renovate that apartment complex, they’re going to put new LED lights in, it’s going to be all that kind of stuff. So that’s a big deal.”
Wagner also told Inman that in his experience as a member of the Realtors Political Action Committee (RPAC), one of the main reasons that Section 1031 is so often put on the chopping block by legislators is the rate of turnover in Washington. He said that new or younger staffers who come in with a new administration often have no idea what it is — or the ins and outs of the waterfall benefits it can have on different layers of the economy — which puts pressure on organizations like RPAC and NAR to constantly educate lawmakers about the tax law.
But with this administration, Wagner is hopeful that if Realtors do their job of adequately educating lawmakers about Section 1031, the law will stay intact.
“So I don’t believe, if we do our job as an industry, I don’t believe the 1031 will go away,” Wagner said. “If we sit back and just assume that people know what the 1031 is about, then I think it goes away. So we have to be proactive and educate, and it’s all about education. ”
Email Lillian Dickerson
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NAR President Charlie Oppler
Marc Landis
Dan Wagner
For most people the main purpose of buying real estate as an investment is to make profit. However, there can be instances where you might buy a property without considering all factors involved and without calculating the full cost. And when you do this, you may not get the returns you wanted, or worse, make a loss.
To make sure you don't make a loss while selling the property or even end up being saddled with an illiquid investment, here are five mistakes to avoid while investing in real estate.
1. Not knowing your credit score
If you apply for a loan for your property purchase, your lender is going to investigate your credit history. Adhil Shetty, CEO, BankBazaar.com said, "Any problems in your credit history may lead to a loan application being rejected or being approved but with a high rate of interest. The best loan offers are typically reserved for borrowers who have a credit score of 750 or more. They get the benefit of the lowest rates." Therefore, before you apply for a loan, take a few minutes to check your credit score online.
2. Not weighing full cost of real estate investment
When you invest in real estate, you must weigh the full cost of investment. For instance, on a base price of Rs 100, your additional charges of homeownership such as GST, registration, stamp duty, brokerage, furnishing, costs of borrowing etc. can easily pull the whole bill to Rs 120 or Rs 130.
Shetty said, "In an under-construction property, you will need to pay GST at 5 per cent, and 5-7 per cent on registration and stamp duty depending on your state norms. Furnishing the house maybe another 5 per cent. You may be looking at 15 per cent of your base price easily. If the cost is Rs 1 crore, you will need to spend Rs 15 lakh on these additional costs."
Shetty further explained: Assuming a base price of Rs 100 for a resale property in Delhi, the additional charges may be Rs 7 for stamp duty and registration. Apart from this, you may pay a charge for costs of borrowing (processing fees and MOD charges), which may be upwards of Rs 0.10, or brokerage of up to Rs 1. Assuming the house to be unfurnished, one can also add Rs 3-5 in most cases for furnishing costs, but this is a matter of taste and budget, so costs could vary wildly from one case to another.
Besides, a bank will typically fund 75 per cent in a high-value loan or up to 90 per cent in a low-value loan. The rest needs to be provided by you. Therefore, in most cases, you are going to need at least 20-25 per cent of the budget ready as cash in hand, says Shetty.
3. Impulse buying
Santhosh Kumar, Vice Chairman, ANAROCK Property Consultants said, "A buyer should have checked out at least 10 properties before the search can even begin to be comprehensive. Impulse buying can happen if one has insufficient resistance to sales pitches, or if one is wooed by freebies which have nothing to do with the value of a property. Often, an unethical broker guided purely by commission will be instrumental in one buying an inappropriate property."
4. Not doing one's homework and due diligence
A good property purchase is always the result of adequate personal research on several different variables. Apart from the obvious ones of price and location, the buyer should also factor in how much space he or she will need further down the line, whether the infrastructure of the area will improve, whether the property is under litigation or otherwise legally problematic, and who the seller is. "When it comes to developers, sticking with reputed names is a major way of de-risking the proposition. Likewise, a buyer should check out the neighbourhood infrastructure and decide if it is adequate for the family's needs, what the price trends have been over the last 5 years, and if all necessary facilities are available nearby," Kumar said.
5. Not comparing with other forms of investment
Purely as an investment, it's much easier and far cheaper to invest in financial instruments such as mutual funds, small savings, or equity. The costs of and barriers to financial investing are negligible. Unlike real estate where you'll need to pay maintenance costs and property tax, there are no costs of maintaining your investments barring minor charges such as demat annual fees, brokerage, expense ratio in case of mutual funds etc. It's also much easier to get out of financial investments. Financial investments can be part-liquidated when you need liquidity. But you cannot part-liquidate a property.]]>
In August 2020, Congress established a new opportunity zone for real estate investors and business owners with the designation of Hemp Opportunity Zones. As with other opportunity zones, these come with significant, long-term tax advantages to the investor.
This new type of opportunity zone could be an additional way for investors to benefit from tax advantages while gaining access to a budding industry. Learn what an Hemp Opportunity Zone is and the opportunity for investors in this market.
Opportunity zones, explained
An opportunity zone is intended to attract capital to low-income or undercapitalized areas of the United States as identified in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Act. Metrics such as the poverty rate and median income are used to classify census tracts as areas in need of economic stimulus.
– Read the entire article at Motley Fool.]]>
Another no-no is creating passageways to communal areas that must snake through more private space. If you want your back porch to be an inviting place to host guests, you need its entryway to extend through the living room instead of a master bedroom. This is something architects deal with regularly, so avoiding this one should be as simple as a routine planning inspection.
Speaking of storage, closet space, the laundry room, garage, and attic are all essential components of a good floor plan. If you don’t prepare for the necessary storage space in your house plan, you will have to keep items out in the open that would better be stashed away during off-season months or even year-round. Whether you have an extensive collection of Christmas and Halloween decorations or a large array of suitcases for travel, having precise and out-of-the-way solutions for keeping them safe and conveniently stored is a must in any home.
Planning your remodel or upgrade in advance takes some work, but getting it right will give you your dream home without any additional fumbling or changes. Take the time to plan it all ahead of your big reveal in order to start making the most out of your space right away.]]>
Home sales in the Hamptons, the ritzy New York getaway for Wall Street titans and Hollywood celebrities, showed beginning signs of cooling off in September after a pandemic-induced boom during the summer months.
Signed contracts to purchase single-family homes rose 76% in September from a year ago as wealthy New Yorkers sought refuge from COVID-19. That’s slower than the 109% annual increase in August and 121% gain in July, according to a report on Friday by Douglas Elliman Real Estate and Miller Samuel, a New York appraiser.
There were declines in signed contracts in the extreme edges of the market last month: homes priced under $500,000 dropped 55% compared with a year earlier and the number of contracts on homes priced over $20 million fell 60%.
Contracts on homes priced $500,000 to $999,000 fell 1.7% from a year ago, compared with an 11% gain from a year earlier in August.
September’s sweet spot was in the $4 million to $4.99 million range, which saw a gain of 240% from a year ago, according to the report. In August, the gain in that price category was 340% from a year earlier.
Homes priced $2 million to $3.99 million in September saw a 213% gain in signed contracts from a year earlier, slower than the 270% gain in August, and contracts for homes priced $10 million to $19.99 million increased 200%, compared with a gain of 150% in August.
New Yorkers began fleeing to less-dense areas when the nation’s most populous city became the center of the COVID-19 pandemic in April, with many opting for vacation homes in getaway spots like the Hamptons, on the eastern tip of Long Island.
New York City has registered 249,000 COVID-19 infections, about 3.5% of the 7.3 million cases in the U.S., and has lost 23,829 people to the disease, 12% of the nation’s 207,791 fatalities, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.]]>
The TRID Rule has been in effect for exactly 5 years (October 3, 2015) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has published an assessment of its effects and effectiveness. The TRID Rule and its associated disclosures and forms was part of a mandate to CFPB included in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to combine previously separate mortgage disclosures given to consumers under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and the 1974 Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). Dodd-Frank also mandates an assessment of the rule within five years of the effective date.
Before the TRID Rule, Federal law generally required that consumers applying for mortgages receive two different forms, one with disclosures regarding the cost of credit (TILA) and another concerning real estate settlement costs, the Good Faith Estimate (GFE). Shortly before settlement consumers received two additional forms: the final TILA disclosure and the RESPA settlement statement (HUD-1).
The TRID Rule mandates an early loan estimate including that integrates the GFE and the early TILA disclosure as well as certain Title XIV Disclosures. The TRID Rule's Closing Disclosure form integrates the HUD-1 and final TILA disclosure as well as certain Title XIV Disclosures. The Rule also specifies the time frame under which the forms and disclosures are provided to the consumer.
The goals of the rule include:
Every week, the detail-oriented folks at Green Scene Home Inspections will give CandysDirt.com readers an education in inspection. Want to see what they see? Tune in for “Upon Closer Inspection.”
As home inspectors, we are generalists, which means our job is to go into a house and observe and test the various systems to see what’s working, what’s not working, and where potential problems might be.
So here are some cases where we may not be the expert, but we’re just saying…
If the blades of the fan are hitting the ceiling, you might want to hang it a little lower.
Sales of existing homes rose to a 14-year high of 6 million in August, the National Association of Realtors said in a report on Tuesday.
Combined sales of single-family houses, townhomes, condominiums and cooperatively owned apartments rose 2.4% from July, according to the report. Compared to a year ago, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, last month’s sales were 11% higher, NAR said.
“Home sales continue to amaze, and there are plenty of buyers in the pipeline ready to enter the market,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “Further gains in sales are likely for the remainder of the year, with mortgage rates hovering around 3% and with continued job recovery.”
The median existing-home price last month was $310,600, up 11.4%, and prices rose in every region, NAR said.
The number of properties on the market at the end of August totaled 1.49 million, down 18.6% from the year-ago month, the report said. Unsold inventory measured as a “months supply” number that gauges how long it would take to sell all the homes if nothing else came on the market, was 3 months, NAR said. That’s down from 3.1 months in July and compared with 4 months a year ago.
The cheapest home financing costs on record are driving demand for homes, Yun said. Mortgage rates have reached new lows nine times since the Federal Reserve began buying mortgage bonds in March to expand access to credit, according to a weekly survey by Freddie Mac.
The average U.S. rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage increased one basis point to 2.87% last week, the second-lowest on record, rising from the prior week’s all-time low, Freddie Mac said on Thursday. The less-popular 15-year rate fell to a record low of 2.35% last week, the mortgage giant said.]]>
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