Rudy Bachraty’s Real Estate Blog

Real Estate Newsflash:

According to Freddie Mac:

A report from the fourth quarter of 2008 shows that a growing number of homeowners are seeking lower mortgage payments through loan modification programs and mortgage refinancing.

In an effort to stabilize the housing market and help millions of American homeowners reduce their monthly mortgage payments, the federal government has launched “Making Home Affordable.” A new effort with Freddie Mac, this program offers some of the most aggressive refinancing and loan workout opportunities for financially strapped borrowers to date.

Real estate newsflash:

David Lereah, former chief economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBA), and Steve Cook, a public relations professional, journalist and former NAR executive, launch the Real Estate Economy Watch.

Interesting.

According to Business Week:

"Where the deep cuts are

Real estate prices have been dropping for more than a year now, even in formerly strong areas like Manhattan and San Francisco. But where some cities have seen more of their inventory lower their prices, other cities have seen deeper price reductions. For example, Scottsdale, Ariz., leads the nation in terms of having the most discounted homes on the market, but Detroit has the dubious honor of having the deepest price reductions. How bad? The average asking price in the motor city, not including foreclosures, has dropped 23%. For anyone in the market to buy, that's good news. To find out which other cities have experienced the greatest price drops, read on."

See if your city is on the list here

On my way to work today in our New York City office, I was listening to Bloomberg Surveillance on 1130 with Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt as I usually do. I got excited when I heard they would be having my friend, top NYC appraiser and all around great guy Jonathan Miller from Miller Samuel, the Matrix blog, Soapbox blog and the new Housing Helix podcast on the show. It was a great conversation about the nuances of the current state of the New York City housing market.

Listen to the entire Jonathan Miller Bloomberg Surveillance podcast here

Here are some screen shots from Twitter that I LIVE Tweeted [LIVE notes of what was being said]:

I tweeted that Jonathan Miller would be talking with Tom Keene on Bloomberg 1130 at 9am EST and Tom asked Jonathan if it was a good time to buy…..Sadly, I missed the 1st few minutes of the conversation as I just entered the Holland Tunnel

Jonathan said:

• A $1,000,000 property would be approx 25% less today than a year ago
• Inventory is up 25% in NYC

Tom asked:

What’s the lag in assessment?

Jonathan said:

At least 2-3 years

75% of housing is Co-op’s and 2/3rd’s of sales

Foreclosures less likely in Co-op’s - strict board guidelines

Jonathan said:

Market trying to find itself after September tipping point

Read Jonathan’s entire Q1 Manhattan market report here.

Co-op Fees on the Rise in Manhattan

According to the New York Times, “CO-OPS across the city have raised their maintenance charges by as much as 15 percent in recent months, and one of the main causes is rising property taxes.”

One reason is that the 7% homeowner tax cut was eliminated at the beginning of 2009. Another reason is that many multi-family properties have seen the assessed values of their properties go up. The rise in taxes means many Co-op building will pass those costs directly on to their shareholders in the form of assessments.

Traditionally, Co-op buildings have have numerous sources of revenue to help offset rises in operating costs such as direct revenue from commercial tenants in their building and from flip taxes paid by sellers or buyers. A flip tax is like a transfer tax where the seller or buyer [depends on the building] pays a % of the sales price or on the profit to the Co-op board. These funds are added to the buildings reserve fund which helps in building upkeep and operating costs. When either of these sources start to dry up, the reserve fund starts to deplete the Co-op board may implement what is known as an assessment to all of it’s shareholders to cover the costs.

“Retail tenants are all hurting,” said Richard Siegler, a lawyer who represents about 150 co-ops, “and they’re all coming to boards and asking for relief. If the economy improves, then a lot of this will go by the by, but if not, then boards will have to contemplate losing tenants, even though they’d rather not have a vacancy.”

In this economy, as sales slow and inventory rises, even some of Manhattan’s most prime Co-op buildings are starting to feel the pinch…….

Apthrop Condo Price Drop - Largest Since the Fall

The Real Deal reports that the Apthrop Condominium has slashed it’s prices per square foot from $3,000 to approximately $1,950 from last June……

“The price chop is the largest across-the-board reduction for a new condo or conversion project since the Wall Street meltdown this fall, said Jonathan Miller, president of appraisal firm Miller Samuel. The closest contender was a recent price cut at Northside Piers in Williamsburg that averaged 20 percent.”

Click the image to see the Apthorp using Trulia’s ComprareIt!

390 West End Avenue #10A, New York NY 10024

390 West End Avenue #9DN, New York NY 10024

390 West End Avenue #10G, New York NY 10024

390 West End Avenue #9E, New York NY 10024

I would love to hear more about what New York City real estate agents and tenants are seeing and experiencing themselves…….

Consumers are getting more active on Trulia. We'd like to thank to all the real estate agents nationwide who take the time to offer their knowledge and expertise to home buyers and home sellers on Trulia everyday. Consumers have questions about the real estate market and you are doing a fantastic job helping them - well done! The results of our community growing can be seen in the many testimonials and success stories we are getting. Not only are we getting these Trulia testimonials from agents, but consumers are also reaching out to us. Stay tuned as we will share many more agent and consumer testimonials in the future ;) So if you have one yourself, please write a blog post about your experience on Trulia, leave a comment here or email me at rudy at trulia dot com....

Here is our press release we published today:

Chicago, Manhattan and Brooklyn were the Most Searched Cities in January

San Francisco – Feb. 3, 2009 – Trulia.com, the best place to start a real estate search, experienced a record month in terms of consumer engagement across all key metrics for January 2009.  Consumers on Trulia viewed 40% more pages per visit compared to a year ago and participated in the Trulia Voices community more than ever before with a 115% year-over-year growth in real estate questions, answers and blog posts.

“Since Trulia launched, we’ve always seen a seasonal bump in consumer interest at the beginning of the year.  However, given the current state of the economy, we were not so sure if this year would follow the trend of the past,” said Pete Flint, co-founder and CEO of Trulia. “In reality, consumers were engaged more than ever and we believe the dramatic increased engagement in January is a good indication that consumer optimism is on the rise.  People are beginning to realize they can get more for their money and great opportunities exist if they can qualify for a loan.”

After showing strong momentum and growth in 2008, Trulia starts 2009 off with the best month in the company’s history.  With consumer engagement at an all-time high, the below lists provide a look at consumer search behavior and interest in today’s unpredictable real estate market.

January 2009:  Top 10 Most Popular Searched Cities
1.    Chicago, IL
2.    New York, NY
3.    Brooklyn, NY
4.    Los Angeles, CA
5.    San Francisco, CA
6.    San Diego, CA
7.    Philadelphia, PA
8.    Miami, FL
9.    Queens, NY
10.    Las Vegas, NV

January 2009:  Top 5 Most Popular Categories in Trulia Voices
1.    Home buying
2.    Foreclosure
3.    Market conditions
4.    Home selling
5.    Financing

Harlem U.S.A. - On Thursday, I had the privilege of speaking to a wonderful group of Halstead real estate agents at their Harlem office at 175 Lenox Avenue. The topic - How to Proactively use Trulia and Social Media to grow your real estate business and sphere of influence. I talked about how your proactive participation on Trulia Voices Q&A and Trulia Blogs can help you better connect with active home buyers and home sellers and other real estate agents for referrals. The consumers are out there asking for help, you just have to engage them.

Before I spoke, Diane Ramirez, the President of Halstead Property, addressed the office. She is an amazing speaker that knows how connect with her audience. Her agents are lucky to have such a great leader to follow. Anthony DeVivio, the Director of Sales, did a fantastic job as well talking real world strategies for adapting to this current market.

Diane Ramirez of Halstead and Rudy Bachraty of Trulia

I got a first look sneak peek at the new Halstead Property S3 Luxury campaign. They will have special digital signage atop New York City taxi cabs for the next few months highlighting the benefits of using Halstead for your luxury home buying and selling needs. It’s a special campaign targeted for the $5 million and up market. Clients in this tier will have a customized marketing plan for each individual property where they can see the results of the campaign in real time. No more paper checklists - this is real time information that will help them better understand what Halstead and their agents are doing to sell their home. I guess it’s a new level of transparency that Halstead should be commended for. As Diane said in her presentation, “It’s all about accountability.”

All in all, a very good day.

LIVE from New York City

- I took to the streets of Manhattan to try to get a pulse on what people thought about the proposed $700 billion bailout and how it would effect the housing market. I spoke to well over a hundred people yet only about 10% agreed to share their thoughts and opinions on film.

The mood was somber on the streets. Lots of uncertainty. People were confused and concerned about their future. They worried about their home values, retirement acounts and job security. Some didn't even know what was going on - that was pretty scary.

We're living through some historic times. Hopefully, the right decisons will be made by the government and we'll get back on the right track.