Most Expensive U.S. Small Town: Sagaponack, N.Y. -FAIRBANKS RANCH IN RANCHO SANTA FE ranks Number 5!
January 28, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
This Long Island village and other privileged enclaves have weathered the real estate crisis better than most small communities
As recently as the 1970s, the little village of Sagaponack in New York’s Long Island was little more than a stretch of dusty potato farms connecting the relatively plutocratic communities of East Hampton and Southampton. In addition to indigenous farmers, it was home to such writers as George Plimpton and Kurt Vonnegut, who were happy to take advantage of its low real estate prices, laid-back charm, and easy access to the Atlantic Ocean.
More from BusinessWeek.com » The 50 Most Expensive Small Towns in America 2010
» Foreclosures in 2009: The Hardest-Hit StatesThe ocean is still there, even if it’s harder to access. But the days of low real estate prices and laid-back charm are long past. Thanks to wealthy home buyers such as Renco Group Chairman Ira Rennert, who built a controversial 29-bedroom mansion on 63 acres there in 2004, Sagaponack has morphed from a quiet backwater into the most expensive small town in America. The New York Times in 2004 estimated Rennert’s mansion, Fair Field, to be worth more than $170 million.
In 2009 the median home sale price in Sagaponack was $4,421,458, according to real estate site Zillow.com. The median home price in the U.S. last year fell to $174,100, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Sagaponack is not the only rarefied real estate market, no matter how poorly the country’s housing market is doing. Long Island’s two counties, Nassau and Suffolk (where Sagaponack is located) account for more than half of the 50 most expensive small towns in America. Nearby Water Mill (No.6) and Bridgehampton (No.
command median sale prices of $2,238,676 and $2,081,717, respectively.
Prices in a Few Top-50 Towns Rose
While Long Island may win honors for hosting the most concentrated cluster of high-priced homes in the U.S., it is not alone in attracting super-rich buyers. Jupiter Island, Fla., home to Fields, Fords, and other old-money families, as well as newer wealth such as golfer Tiger Woods, is the U.S.’s second-most expensive small town, with a median sale price of $3,620,310.
Jupiter Island is also one of a few communities that saw prices rise last year. Zillow.com estimates that prices there climbed 19.4% in 2009, while average sale prices elsewhere were falling by as much as 80%, according to NAR. Some additional top small towns (those with a population of 10,000 or less) saw an increase, with further gainers including Los Altos Hills (No.4) and Woodside (No.7), both in California, and Wainscott, N.Y. (No. 13).
The median decrease in home value across the country’s 50 most expensive towns in November 2009 was -5.4%, compared to -5% nationally. “Home sales volume reached a low point in early 2009 and I think [it] will continue to increase or stay flat,” says Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist.
Wealthy homeowners may be in for good news in 2010: NAR’s monthly data shows that home sales in all price ranges nationwide showed year-on-year increases in November. Sales of homes costing more than $1 million increased in every region but the Midwest. They represented 1.1% of total sales.
2009: “Nerve-Racking for Everyone”
If Wall Street’s bonus season is as generous as many expect, the Hamptons should be primed for a buying surge. Marilyn Clark, an agent for Sotheby’s International Realty, says that in the past four to five months, activity in Sagaponack has rebounded for both homes and land sales, ranging from oceanfront homes and historic homes to new construction and parcels of vacant land. “During the early part of 2009 when everyone was more uncertain about the economy, there were price adjustments, but since the Sagaponack market has proved strong, prices are currently holding,” Clark writes in an e-mail.
In Hunts Point, Wash., the country’s third-most expensive small town, a property’s average time in the market jumped to 149 days, from 83 days before the recession, estimates Randi Brazen, co-owner of Brazen Sotheby’s International Realty in Bellevue, Wash. While home prices in the area have fallen more than 20% in some cases, Brazen says they typically hold their value in the long term because few are available in a region that remains attractive to the rich.
Saying that 2009 was “nerve-racking for everyone,” Brazen expects the real estate market in Hunts Point to rebound as employment opportunities in nearby Seattle improve. “That doesn’t mean prices will snap back up, but it will stop the downward spiral we’ve seen in the past year and a half,” she says.
In Sagaponack, Jupiter Island, and America’s other most expensive small towns, it seems that wealthy homeowners can look forward to even higher prices down the road.
Top 5 Most Expensive Small Towns
1. Sagaponack, N.Y.
2. Jupiter Island, Fla.
Click here to see the full list of the 50 Most Expensive Small Towns in America.
Housing Prices Buck Trend
January 28, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
A home in the Allied Gardens neighborhood of San Diego on Jan. 27, 2010 indicates it has a buyer despite the slowdown in the economy. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index shows housing prices continue to climb across the nation.
San Diego County, where housing prices rose and fell ahead of most of the country, was one of only four areas nationally to see an upturn beginning late last year, according to a widely watched housing index released yesterday.
Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index for November showed San Diego-area prices up nearly 0.4 percent from both October 2009 and November 2008. On a seasonally adjusted basis, it was up 1 percent from October and up 0.4 percent year over year.
The only other markets to be up year over year were Dallas , Denver and San Francisco .
However, the 20 metro areas in the index collectively were down over the same period — off 0.2 percent for the month and 5.3 percent year over year — an indication that any housing recovery is uneven around the country. At the extremes, prices in Dallas were up 1.4 percent and those in Las Vegas were down 24.5 percent from November 2008.
The index was set at 100 for all areas as of January 2000, based on a three-month, rolling average of single-family resale homes involving the same property over time.
San Diego’s index for November was 156.06, meaning that prices here were up roughly 56.1 percent from 10 years ago. The index rose as high as 250.34 in November 2005, before falling to a low of 144.43 in April. Since then the index has risen steadily and, when seasonally adjusted, is up 6.9 percent from the trough.
The Case-Shiller index, limited to certain transactions and averaged in three-month chunks, has risen a bit slower than the MDA DataQuick monthly median price report that include all sales. Its November median for single-family resale homes was $365,000, up 1.4 percent from October and 9 percent from November 2008.
David M. Blitzer, S&P index chairman, said in a statement that despite four metro areas being up, there were four others that set index lows since the housing boom peaked.
“On balance, while these data do show that home prices are far more stable than they were a year ago, there is no clear sign of a sustained, broad-based recovery,” Blitzer said.
David Goldberg, an analyst for UBS, predicted that prices could fall between 3 percent and 5 percent before unemployment levels out.
“We’re probably in the latter stages of seeing home price declines,” Goldberg said.
S&P reported indexes in all metro areas except Detroit were higher than where they stood in January 2000, not factoring in inflation. Detroit’s index stood at 72.59, meaning its prices are roughly 27 percent below their 2000 starting point. Washington, D.C., with an index of 179.2, had the highest index value among the 20 areas; it fell from a peak 251.07 to 165.93 before rising again.
As further signs of a seesawing housing market, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said yesterday that its price index, based on mortgages, was up 0.7 percent from October to November, after having revised the October figure down. First American CoreLogic, a data firm, reported a decline of 0.2 percent in its November report issued last week.
Analysts said the apparent slowdown in housing recovery may be connected to a burst of activity last fall, when buyers rushed to close escrow to take advantage of an $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time home buyers. The credit was extended and expanded in November, reducing the urgency to buy until the next deadline, April 30.
Norm Miller, a housing expert at the University of San Diego and vice president for analytics at the CoStar Group , a commercial real estate company, said the future is uncertain because of an expected rise in foreclosures, which could depress prices, and interest rates, which could hurt affordability.
But San Diego may not feel much of a backslide because of the relative shortage of homes for sale.
“We’re one of the least-affordable markets in the country on a long-term basis,” Miller said. “When things become more affordable (as they have since 2005), there’s more a sense of urgency than in Cincinnati . OK, prices are down (there) a little bit, but here they’re three times down as much as in the Midwest. So, gosh, now’s a good time to buy.”
Miller said San Diego is likely to continue seeing a sluggish upper-end market as owners refrain from listing their homes for sale because they hope prices will return to their previous highs and buyers hope for additional bargains.
But for buyers, Miller said now may be an opportune time to get a property, even if prices might dip a bit over the next few months, because any rise in interest rates would wipe out any marginal drop in prices.
“If you can get interest rates at 10 percent less than a year from now, that means more than missing the bottom of the housing cycle,” he said.
Home Prices: Now May Be The Time To Buy Luxury Real Estate
A million dollars doesn’t buy you what it once did. In most U.S. neighborhoods, it now gets you a lot more.
During the housing boom, prices rose so high and so fast that even cookie-cutter homes in the paved suburbs of South Florida and California could cost a cool million. In Santa Clara, Calif., a high-tech hot spot, the median price hit $836,780 in 2007.
That was a long way from the days when a million-dollar home evoked images of marble columns and swimming pools with vanishing edges. Subprime loans allowed more people than ever to buy houses that were once above their means. Higher demand fueled ever-higher prices until the spigot of cheap money was turned off and the housing bubble burst. The recession forced many well-heeled buyers into unemployment lines. And sales of homes over $1 million cratered by more than 50 percent from the peak four years ago.
“Everyone has less money than they once had,” said Amy Wright, an agent with The Real Estate Office in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. “That has certainly affected the nouveau riche, and that’s definitely in that $1 million price point.”
For people who do have the money, however, it’s the best time in years to buy luxury real estate.
Rancho Santa Fe is a luxury enclave in San Diego County that has over the years lured the likes of Howard Hughes and Bill Gates. Equestrian trails border golf courses, and the most expensive home on the market is listed for $29.9 million.
A couple of years ago, the idea of getting a house in Rancho Santa Fe for a paltry $1 million was laughable. Now, foreclosures and financially distressed homeowners account for about 15 percent of sales, and home prices are down 30 percent.
In one golf-course community in the town, a 2,200-square-foot home is listed for $800,000. Residents live in a gated community where Spanish style homes surround a 250-acre Rees Jones-designed golf course and an accompanying 35,000-square foot clubhouse.
In the 20 largest U.S. metro areas, about 2,800 homes sold for more than $1 million in July – down by more than half from July 2005, according to MDA DataQuick. Nationwide, overall home sales were down about 27 percent, according to the National Association of Realtors.
In the month of August, sellers with homes priced above $2 million were cutting prices by an average of 14 percent, compared with the national average of 10 percent, according to Trulia.com.
The good news for luxury homebuyers is that they’re getting about 20 percent “more house” than they did two years ago, and the prestige of owning a $1 million home is returning, said John Brian Losh, CEO of luxuryrealestate.com.
That is, if they can afford the payments.
On Friday, the average interest rate for a 30-year “jumbo loan” (defined as a mortgage over $729,750) was 6.18 percent – about a point higher than a conventional fixed-rate mortgage, according to Bankrate.com. That means the mortgage payment for a $1 million home (with a down payment of 20 percent) would run about $4,900 a month, not including property taxes.
A buyer would have to earn at least $200,000 a year to make the payment plus taxes – and only about 4 percent of Americans fall into that tax bracket, 2007 Census data shows.
In Fort Myers, Fla., Pat and Dennis Tyeryar are trying to sell their four-bedroom, 3,795-square-foot house on three acres for $999,700. The property is a rare slice of lush Old Florida, with moss cascading off shade trees and views of a river and lagoon.
The property, valued at $1.4 million four years ago, is unique for the area because it sits on a peninsula: Every room in the house has a water view.
So far, no offers.
In a recession-battered place like Saginaw, Mich., however, a person can scoop up almost 18 houses for $1 million. Or, a buyer can get a 6,360-square-foot, two-story brick palace that sits on a five-acre estate.
The house is priced at $995,000. It has an indoor swimming pool and six bedrooms, but the property has been a hard sell in a market where a 2,300-square-foot home can go for $160,000, real estate agent Bruce Shaw said.
Shaw said the home would have been listed for about $1.3 million during the boom.
“It’s not like I get a lot of calls on it, not unless someone is moving from Southern California,” he said.
In Toledo, Ohio, agent Nancy Kabat has two listings that add up to $1 million – a six-bedroom, $635,000 house in suburban Ottawa Hills, and a three-story, two-bedroom condo on the Maumee River for $360,000.
The house has detailed crown molding and a renovated kitchen with granite countertops. It’s also near good schools. The condo has a view of Toledo’s landmark Anthony Wayne Bridge and is a short ride to an area with upscale restaurants and a vibrant nightlife.
“You could have a house in the suburbs for the winter and have a condo on the river in the summer and use your boat,” Kabat said.
If that approach doesn’t work, a buyer can pursue a three-bedroom, Mediterranean-style home in Toledo for $969,177, according to realtor.com. The 4,800-square-foot property was built in 2007 and has a three-car garage and upscale kitchen appliances like a stainless steel refrigerator and a dual-temperature wine cooler.
“We don’t have that many million dollar houses here, so it seems that they’re holding their value,” said Betty Lazzaro, an agent with Sulfur Springs Realty Inc.
Southern California housing market strengthens in December
Southern California housing market strengthens in December
In a typically sluggish month, the median sale price rises 4% over the same period a year earlier, and sales jump 12.1%. The pace of sales is the best since 2006, aided by tax credits that end soon.
A house in Long Beach has a buyer. One driver of sales is the April 30 expiration of tax credits for home buyers. Low mortgage rates are also a factor. (Nick Ut / Associated Press / December 17, 2009)
Rock-bottom interest rates and stronger sales in higher-priced neighborhoods helped Southern California’s housing market post robust gains in the typically sleepy month of December, new data show, and experts say the momentum is continuing — ushering in an early start to the spring home-buying season. The median price paid for a Southland home rose 4% to $289,000 last month from December 2008, the first time the closely watched figure has posted a year-over-year gain since the region’s real estate market took a nose dive 2 1/2 years ago, according to data released Tuesday by MDA DataQuick, a San Diego real estate research firm.
Rebounding home prices could help the Southern California economy recover from its slump, as a stronger housing market could lead to hiring on construction sites and in real estate sales, title and escrow offices, said Esmael Adibi, director of Chapman University’s A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research.
“The worst is behind us for sure,” he said. “For the economy, the implication is, at least on the residential side, we don’t expect more layoffs, and you might actually see some pickup in employment.”
But Adibi noted that those gains could be tempered by continued weakness in the commercial real estate market, which includes office buildings, retail centers and hotels.
The increase in December home prices follows a dismal 2008. Even with the rise, the median price was still 42.8% lower than its $505,000 peak during several months in 2007, underscoring the steep decline in the latter part of the last decade. The median is the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less.
Still, December’s sales pace was the best since 2006, capping a year in which strong government support of the housing market helped stabilize prices for most of the last year and brought more buyers back into the market.
“It’s time for me to move,” said Soosan Saedi, 43, who is looking to sell her three-bedroom, 1,300-square-foot Woodland Hills house and trade up to something bigger. “I need the space, the mortgage rates are low, and fortunately I am not having trouble with loans, so it is time for me to buy.”
The housing market’s recovery began last year as first-time buyers and investors competed for steeply discounted foreclosed homes. Now foreclosure properties are making up a smaller part of the mix. The gains in December also reflect a more diverse market, experts said, as prices were bolstered by increased sales in many mid- to high-priced communities.
Part of that trend shows the increased affordability of high-end properties as more are taken back by banks or are sold “short,” for less than what is owed on their mortgages, real estate professionals said.
“They have come down a lot,” said Syd Leibovitch, president of Rodeo Realty in Bel-Air. “I think the sellers dug in for a while, and now they are accepting the reality that prices have dropped, and they are being a lot more flexible.”
Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Newport Beach were among the affluent areas notching healthy sales gains, according to DataQuick. Conversely, areas hard hit by foreclosures — including Moreno Valley, Lake Elsinore and Palmdale — saw a drop-off.
Christopher Cortazzo, a Coldwell Banker agent in Malibu, said he sold a home for $12 million in December, roughly $3 million below its listing price, and closed out the month with $26.5 million in sales, one of his best months of the year. Cash-rich buyers looking to capitalize on lower prices have rushed into the market in recent weeks, he said, and the sales pace has continued through January.
“Spring season is going to start early,” Cortazzo said. “We are having a lot of cash deals, so there is a lot of money out there, and there is amazing opportunity and great deals to be had.”
One thing driving sales is the April 30 expiration of tax credits for home buyers. First-time home buyers can get up to $8,000 in credit on their federal income taxes, and current homeowners can qualify for up to $6,500.
Low mortgage rates are also a factor. Thirty-year fixed-rate loans were below 5% through most of December and haven’t risen much.
The role of the federal government in the housing market remains key. Some experts worry that once certain policies and programs wind down — among them low interest rates, tax incentives for buyers and an increased accessibility of mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration — the housing market could falter.
Christopher Thornberg, principal of Beacon Economics, predicts home prices will drop once those policies and programs expire.
“The bounce in the housing market is due to government policy, not due to fundamentals,” he said. “None of these programs fix the underlying problem. They only delay the solution — they only delay the healing process.”
The percentage of Southern California homes that sold for more than $500,000 rose to 20.2% of all sales in December from 16.5% a year earlier, DataQuick said. That is well off the 52% level reached before the credit crunch hit in 2007, which made large mortgages difficult to obtain.
Richard Green, director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, said buyers have sensed more security in Southern California’s real estate market in recent months and have begun to get off the fence.
“We are getting a little bit of what we had six or seven years ago, where people are worried if they don’t get in now they are going to miss out on an opportunity,” Green said. “In a decent neighborhood, in the half-a-million-dollar range, we are back to lots of offers.”
A total of 22,328 new and resale homes sold last month in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties, up 16.4% from November and 12.1% from December 2008, DataQuick said.
Still, uncertainty lingers. Unemployment and a potential wave of homes headed for sale because of foreclosure or delinquency loom over the U.S. housing market. Both could slow Southern California’s progress toward recovery should the Obama administration fail in its efforts to aid struggling borrowers. California’s budget woes could also bode poorly for the state.
“The fiscal picture is still really bleak, and that makes me worry,” Green said.
The home-buyer tax credit motivated Jennifer Scholte, 31, to close on a Lakewood home in December. The teacher said she and husband Eric, 34, saved up for a 20% deposit on the $361,000 property.
“We are first-time home buyers, and with that credit, that was a big push,” she said.
To take advantage of similarly minded buyers, Leibovitch of Rodeo Realty said he has hired 40 to 50 people in the last three months, including secretarial, marketing and administrative staff, to prepare for what he predicts will be one of the strongest sales years on record. Escrow of the West, a Beverly Hills company, said it would open a Sherman Oaks branch Thursday, creating 25 jobs.
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times
Rancho Santa Fe, CA Real Estate Market Conditions January 15th, 2010
January 19, 2010 by Tamara Stephenson · Leave a Comment
Up to Date Market Conditions in Rancho Santa Fe.
| 7-day stats for Single Family properties in RANCHO SANTA FE, CA as of January 15, 2010 |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Median List Price | $3,295,000 | Average List Price | $4,276,428 |
| Total Inventory | 258 | Price per Square Foot | $542 |
| Average Home Size | 6,074 | Median Lot Size | 86,249 |
| Average # Beds | 5.07 | Average # Baths | 5.46 |
| Homes Absorbed | 14 | Newly Listed | 10 |
| Days on Market | 294 | Average Age | 18 |
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Median Price for homes in RANCHO SANTA FE, CA All ZIP Codes as of January 15, 2010 is $3,295,000 |
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Inventory for homes in RANCHO SANTA FE, CA All ZIP Codes as of January 15, 2010 is 258 |
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Average Days on Market for homes in RANCHO SANTA FE, CA All ZIP Codes as of January 15, 2010 is 294 |
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Median Price Per Sqft for homes in RANCHO SANTA FE, CA All ZIP Codes as of January 15, 2010 is $542 |
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Top 10 Golf Real Estate Communities In San Diego, California
January 15, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
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If you are looking for the best golf community living in San Diego County, check out these top ten golf communities that are the best in sunny Southern California, according to Golf Community Realty. These exclusive gated golfing communities offer the most suitable lifestyle for golf lovers and have been chosen based on the homes available and the amenities they offer. All ten communities enjoy the exquisite Californian weather year round and are the ultimate golf areas in San Diego County.
1. Pauma Valley C.C., Pauma Valley
This golf community offers a magnificent golf course, 24-hr gate-guarded entrance, clubhouse, tennis courts, a swimming pool and a long private airstrip. Resale condos begin from the low $400s while single family homes start from $575,000.2. Aviara Golf Club, No. San Diego County
The golf community boasts of a very picturesque resort, the Arnold Palmer Signature golf course and proximity to the Pacific Ocean beaches. The resort’s master planned housing area consists of executive homes and custom homes. Also available are numerous villas that skirt the golf course.3. The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe, Rancho Santa Fe
This golf community is known for its award-winning villas that are available on the resale market from time to time. Custom-appointed homes begin from the mid $2 millions. Custom estate homesites and estate-sized homes are also available.4. The Crosby Estates, Rancho Santa Fe
The Crosby Estate is home to the Crosby National Golf Club and beautiful homes with breathtaking views that include semi-custom homes, golf villas, and custom homesites. Also available are a clubhouse, a swim and athletic club, tennis garden, etc.5. Encinitas Ranch, Encinitas
The Encinitas Ranch Golf Course offers 18 championship holes amidst a stunning natural scenario. Elegant executive homes line the golf course and are available from $895,000.6. Golf Club of California, Fallbrook
This private golf club offers an 18-hole championship golf course, a charming clubhouse, a business center and more. Homes start from $895,000 and most of them offer wonderful views.7. Maderas C.C., Poway
This Poway golf community offers a magnificent location, a top ranking 18-hole golf course and several custom homes that are available from 1,175,000.8. Pala Mesa Resort, Fallbrook
The resort community offers a beautiful 4-star rating golf course, tennis club, swimming pool and a host of other amenities. Condos around the golf course start at $279,000 and other homes in the area begin at $650,000.9. Santaluz, No. San Diego County
This is a private club with a championship golf course. Homes include single story homes of the Santa Barbara styled casitas and large custom homes. There are plenty of custom homesites too.10. The Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club
“The Village” of Rancho Santa Fe offers several championship golf courses and other amenities such as tennis courts, a riding club, etc. Homes in this area consist of custom homes, luxurious ranches and large estate homes.
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