From CNN/Money:
Higher prices, higher rates: The 1st-time homebuyer squeeze
What a difference a year makes when you’re in the market for a new home, especially if you’re a first-time buyer.
Thanks to a combined jump in mortgage interest rates and home prices, a starter home in many areas of the country could cost you several hundred dollars more per month today than if you bought it last year.
…
The percentage gains were more muted – but still high – in richly-priced markets like the New York City-Northern New Jersey area, where the median price rose 11.2 percent to $458,500, an increase of about $46,000.So for the first-time home buyer in Gainesville or New York, those price and rate increases can mean an extra $400 to $450 in monthly payments to own a home. That assumes you put down the same amount this year on the home as you would have last year.
If you can’t put down 20 percent — as many first-timers can’t — your monthly bite is likely to be larger because you’ll have to take out a bigger loan and you may have to pay for private mortgage insurance, which can run up to $50 for every $100,000 in mortgage debt.
…
New York-based certified financial planner Stacy Francis of Francis Financial isn’t a fan of 100 percent financing or interest-only loans since the point of buying a home is to build equity sooner rather than later.While these loan structures may pay off in a booming housing market, buyers run the risk of owing the bank should they have to sell when prices are down. At the very least, if prices flatten, they’ll have to pay for the selling costs, such as a realtor fee.
Ideally, Francis likes her clients to spend no more than 30 percent of their gross income on housing in high-cost markets like New York City. And she’d like them to shoot for a 20 percent down payment. If that’s not possible, she recommends 5 percent to 10 percent down and having enough in liquid assets left over to cover three to six months of expenses, plus the costs of closing, moving, new furniture and bigger utility bills.
“Brokers disagree on whether Manhattan apartment prices are still going up. Either way, rising rates are beginning to have an effect.”
http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/06/real_estate/manhattan_prices_iffy/index.htm
School info for any last minute fencesitters out there:
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/special_packages/school_report_card/
http://tinyurl.com/pwyb4
Pat
Thanks Pat
I couldn’t find the stats for North Jersey schools, sorry. Wanted to compare teacher salaries in Bergen to Burlington.
I couldn’t find the stats for North Jersey schools, sorry. Wanted to compare teacher salaries in Bergen to Burlington.
Babababababa BOOOOOOOOYcott Bloated house prices
No Bids No NOTTING
Bob
anon,
In an older thread I asked you if you could put together a list of Hudson waterfront buildings whose condo boards required 20% down..
Any chance of seeing that? I’m very interested..
grim
good morning
i have looked at quite a few coop’s and condo’s the basic rule of thumb in the nyc area is for coop’s most require a 20% down and a low income to debt ratio as well.
most condo’s require a pulse and as little as 5% down
{{{{Co-op & Condo boards all across the area have very strict formulas on how much of ones income can be used for total housing expenses.}}}}}
I have seen that a couple times.
Co-op yes Condo NOOOOOO
In NJ don’t know about NY
KL
In an older thread an anon poster said that condo boards in NJ were enforcing financing limits.
I’ve never heard of this on condos in NJ, or anywhere else for that matter.
Makes perfect sense in a co-op. A co-op is not real property. You don’t own your unit. You own shares in a corporation which give you the right to live in a unit. Financing limitations are paramount, because a co-op owner who can’t meet his co-op maintenance puts the entire building at risk.
This is not so in a condo, which is considered real property. You own your unit outright, as well as partial interest in common areas.
The NJ property laws outline financing limitations on co-op transfers pretty clearly. They say nothing of the sort about condos. However, it’s entirely possible that the bylaws include clauses that limit transfers based on the same rationale.
However, I can’t see how those transfer limitations could be enforced. I’m no student of law here, but it doesn’t seem so clear cut.
grim
Living in a Condo is where you usually see brain dead boards.
Never heard of financial oversight
as far as buying a unit.
Most on a board do not even know
how to read a financial statement.
Grim — you can have any bylaws in a condo association. In theory, it is perfectly possible that they include limitations on sale, and require approval and the like. In theory, but in practice it would be pretty rare to non-existent.
Also, I think co-ops (outside of a few older buildings in urban areas) are pretty rare in NJ. And those that do aren’t Park Avenue Co-Ops either. I used to rent in a co-op that was sold. Good building, but 40 years old.
Oh, by the way, retailers had another blowout month last month. Proves that no matter how ‘strapped’ people…
Consumers kept spending to necessities
“CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Wild weather and a pounding on the weekly budget took a big bite out of retail sales in June as consumers felt pangs of rising interest rates, higher energy prices and other economic factors pinching their pocketbooks.
With more than a third of the nation’s largest chain stores reporting, Thomson Financial said the results were “very mixed,” split evenly between those retailers missing expectations and those beating.”
I wouldn’t call that a blow-out month.
Yeah, spin the retail report the way you want.
Looks pretty good to me. Nordstrom, American Eagle, Abercrombie, Target all did very well.
Except for the above, you hardly need ‘necessities from the above’.
In all of the recent Fed beige book report reports for NYC / NJ – it states how strong consumer spending is and how more expensive merchandise sells better than less expensive merchandise.
{{With more than a third of the nation’s largest chain stores reporting, Thomson Financial said the results were “very mixed,” split evenly between those retailers missing expectations and those beating}}
More of a arithmatic issue than an underlying issue in consumer spending which is robust & still trending higher in this region.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/06/news/economy/retail.sales/index.htm
“NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Retail chain stores delivered sluggish sales numbers last month, as high gas prices and cool weather took a toll on consumer spending”
I can’t understand why a condo board would vote to include a bylaw that restricts transfer based on financing.
A restriction like that, in essense, reduces the liquidity of the property.
Imagine a cash-strapped owner trying to sell, only to find every contract disapproved by the board.
Like I said before, limitations for co-ops make perfect sense when you realize that residents are essentially share holders of a corporation. Since the mortgage for the building is typically held by the corporation, a shareholder who doesn’t have the means to pay his or her “rent” puts the entire corporation at risk of default.
In essense, in a co-op, everyone is at risk. In a condo, the only one at risk is the owner of the condo.
grim
Now is that 30% number for a 30 yr fixed – or for a negam/io?????
Also Grim, about Coops….
When you sell, alot of Coop boards have what is called a Coop tax. Meaning if you sell, the board gets a cut. Usually 5-10%, alot of sellers forget this clause, also I have seen boards pass it or perhaps raise the tax when they know when someone is about to sell. Its a dirty little trick they pull. They do this so the people who stay behind don’t have to get an increase in their maintance price.
I don’t think condos have such thing? Least that I’m not aware of anyways.
Did I just make sense? I need more of my morning coffee.
SAS
Info for ALL New Jersey schools is available here:
http://education.state.nj.us/rc/rc05/menu/01.html
Thanks, unrealtor.
Pat
I have owned 2 Condos on the JC Waterfront. Did not need to have min down payment.. My friends owned an apt in NYC.. Yes indeed the coop board took a comission on thier sale.. They were really miffed ..
It’s not only first-time buyers getting squeezed.
Properties that are paid in full, where the owner decided to take out a home equity mortgage, are also in a bind.
Foreclosure city.
Especially older folks on a fixed income. They take on a few hundred thousand in debt (possibly for an illness) using their home equity, and a property tax increase or two later, they wind up losing the house.
Yeah, spin the retail report the way you want.
What? Do you even know the meaning of the word, spin?
I made an opinion and provided data. (That by the way, isn’t spin.) I would NOT call June retail sales a “blowout”.
Looks pretty good to me. Nordstrom, American Eagle, Abercrombie, Target all did very well.
You’re right about 3 out of 4 stores:
“Nordstrom same-store sales up 4.7% in June”
“American Eagle June same-store sales up 11%, raises Q2 view”
“Abercrombie & Fitch up against robust results a year ago, let down investors with a 4% drop that was worse than the 0.3% slide expected.”
“At Target Corp. (TGTTGT), same-store sales were up 4.8%, just ahead of the 4.3% gain that was forecast.”
But I can do the same…
“Gap same-store sales fall, miss forecast”
“Tweeter shares plunge after sales miss”
“Wal-Mart traffic slows despite price cuts”
Retail is not all about the places that only sell $300 jeans.
{{With more than a third of the nation’s largest chain stores reporting, Thomson Financial said the results were “very mixed,” split evenly between those retailers missing expectations and those beating}}
More proof that June retail sales were not a “blowout”.
More of a arithmatic issue than an underlying issue in consumer spending which is robust & still trending higher in this region.
Can you show any data other than personal observation (or your unlce’s friend) that backs this statement?