Did You Know?
* Though just 17% of the U.S. population is 65 or older, United Van Lines reports that seniors in that age group completed 29% of all its moves in 2020. Sumter County, Florida has one of the highest levels of inbound migration of seniors in the U.S. thanks in large part to the Villages, a sprawling retirement community more than 50 miles northwest of Orlando. But large cities are seeing an influx of older people seeking the excitement and variety/volume of entertainment/restaurant options. (WSJ)
* In the 4th quarter of 2021, investors bought 18.4% of the US homes that were purchased, a record high. And possibly one of the biggest drivers of housing inflation? Higher purchase prices + higher rents = essential demand for higher wages. (FT)
* The median monthly payment on a new mortgage is now taking up a much larger share of a typical consumer’s income. It jumped 8.3% in February compared with January. The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage shot significantly higher yesterday, rising 24 basis points to 4.95%. The quicker-than-expected rise in rates has weighed on demand for mortgages and refinancing loans. With both rates and prices considerably higher, the median mortgage payment is now more than 20% higher than it was a year ago. And so is pricing in some parts….Now comes the question: are incomes that much higher to sustain this? (CNBC)
* The average bonus paid to securities industry employees in New York climbed 20% to a record $257,500 for 2021, the largest increase in bonuses since 2009. Securities industry jobs make up just 5% of private sector roles, but accounted for 18%, or $14.9 billion, of state tax collections in the 2021 fiscal year. (CNBC)
And read these recent articles: (more…)
Sunday Snippets – Did You Know?
* In 2020 we had a run on toilet paper and paper towels in the USA….. empty shelves and rationing followed as demand far outstripped supply. Now in northern Italy, the supermarkets have been cleared of pasta and pharmacies in Norway are sold out of iodine tablets! In 2020, toilet paper, paper towels, tissues, hand soaps, etc had price increases around 20% or more in one year! (FT)
* The world added 153 billionaires last year, or 3 billionaires each week, to a total of 3,381, according to the Hurun Global Rich List released Thursday. China led with 1,133 billionaires, followed by the U.S.’s 716, and India’s 215. The TOP 10 are all worth more than $100 billion…5 years ago none were. The average age of the billionaires was 64; 120 of them are under 40, and 269 are self-made women billionaires, nearly 66% from China. (PENTA)
* A home in Laguna Beach, CA features a rather interesting “amenity”…. on the property is a fire suppression system with six cannons connected to city water lines. The system senses the temperature of the land and if there is a fire, water will automatically spray from the cannons and alert the fire department. (WSJ)
* Just 10 seconds of idling uses as much gas as restarting your car, in case you wish to cut your gas costs…. Edmunds.com did a comparison of various gas-saving measures. To test the cost of idling, testers drove two cars for 10 miles—they stopped 10 times and idled for two minutes each time. Then testers drove the same route but turned off the engine and restarted at each of the 10 stops. They estimated nearly 20% fuel savings on the restarted cars.
U.S. Takes Step to Regulate Cryptocurrency Market
Cryptocurrency home sales barely have a toehold, and a new exec order from Pres. Biden may change the rules. The order suggests regulation and a U.S.-owned version.
Over 100 countries are exploring or piloting Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) – a digital form of a country’s sovereign currency.
“The rise in digital assets creates an opportunity to reinforce American leadership in the global financial system and at the technological frontier, but also has substantial implications for consumer protection, financial stability, national security and climate risk,” according to the Executive Order.
The Order lays out a national policy for digital assets across six key priorities: consumer and investor protection; financial stability; illicit finance; U.S. leadership in the global financial system and economic competitiveness; financial inclusion; and responsible innovation.
Executive Order key points
Sunday Snippets – Did You Know?
* Tech meets TREES? 🤔 Trees help with stormwater attenuation, store carbon, improve air quality, provide shade for humans and offer habitats for wildlife…..but as the climate changes, some trees are not surviving/thriving in their current habitat and arborists are identifying the trees that will survive and thrive going forward. i-Tree is a state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed software suite from the USDA Forest Service that provides urban and rural forestry analysis and benefits assessment tools. (FT)
* The median age of a US homebuyer has risen from 31 in 1981 to around 45! If we average leaving home around the age of 20 and rent for 25 years before buying, that equates to $300k lost to rent if your rent is $1,000/month….. $600k if it’s $2,000/month…..and $ 1million if you average $3,333/month! (FT)
* Gen Z — those born between 1997 and 2012 — has become the most active faction in the housing market, flocking to major cities that some claimed were doomed in the pandemic. Manhattan’s social scene and job climate led to a 63% jump in Gen Z rental applications year-over-year. Zoomers made up 27% of Manhattan renters last year, up from 17% the year before as they contend with an increasingly tight market. Other major cities to see a spike in its share of Gen Z renters include San Jose (52%), Los Angeles (45%) and Irving, Texas (37%). Gen Z is the only generation to have its activity surge in the past year. There were 220,000 more rental applications from Zoomers in 2021 than the year before, making up 27% of the rental application market, trailing only millennials (45%). So yes, I was not hallucinating when I noticed everyone around me getting younger and prettier in Manhattan! (RENT CAFE)
* The number of unincorporated self-employed people in the U.S. reached 10 million in February, or 400,000 more than when the pandemic began. It soared as high as 10.3 million last summer. Being a self-employed, independent contractor has pro’s and con’s! (WSJ) (more…)
Survey: Sellers Waiting Out Pandemic Are Ready to List
Homeowners have had all the usual reasons to sell over the past two years – marriages, deaths, children, etc. – but many hunkered down during the pandemic, and some feared the housing market because selling might be easy but finding a new home? Not so much.
A survey conducted by HarrisX for realtor.com, however, suggests that many of those people might be planning to list their home in 2022, with 65% of them planning to do so this winter and spring. The survey of 2,583 consumers was conducted online in September-October 2021.
Many sellers, however, want to set an asking price higher than they think their home is worth, and they expect buyer bidding wars.
When will sellers list? (more…)
Would you like free money for the holidays?
I usually listen to WGB 1030 in Boston on my morning walk and this week I have heard Billy Costa’s ads for Unclaimed Property in Massachusetts. This rang a bell for me as I have found unclaimed property at least twice and received checks.
Click on FindMassMoney and you will find this statement:
“The Unclaimed Property Division is holding over $3 billion in unclaimed funds for the citizens and businesses of the Commonwealth. The Division holds these lost funds until they are claimed by either the original owner or their heirs. Claiming property is fast, easy and free.”
It sure is.
And encouraged by my successes in Massachusetts I have received unclaimed property from Connecticut, where I lived in the 1980s, and today have filed a claim in California for my wife, also from the 1980s. And you can search in other States where you have connections – just type in XState Unclaimed Property and Mr.Google will do the rest. This is the link in Florida: FLTreasureHunt.
So, if it is actually my property, is it really free? I leave you to contemplate this existential question as you bank your check. (more…)
What Makes a Home a Smart Home?
If a property has a reliable internet connection and “smart” items in at least three categories, it is considered a smart home. “Just having a few devices in specific categories – such as certain lighting, security cameras, or appliances – qualifies a home to be a smart home.”
“These homes were once only for the ultrarich, but we’ve gone from only super-wealthy people like Bill Gates having these products to every home now having at least one or two smart items.” (more…)
Florida Dodges Bullet as Storm Season Set to End
While for the second consecutive year the hurricane season has exhausted a list of storm names, Florida has had brushes with only three named systems – Elsa, Fred and Mindy – that were mostly rainmakers with tropical-storm force winds.
All things considered, the state has been relatively unscathed in the highly active storm season, allowing emergency staff in Florida – who also needed to react to wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic – to continue addressing lingering impacts of past storms.
“We’re still working Hurricane Michael. We’re still working Hurricane Irma, Matthew, Hermine, Dorian and so on,” said Kevin Guthrie, director of the state Division of Emergency Management. “So, yeah, it was good for us to be able to work on some of those past disasters and get them working towards closing out.”
For a third year, Florida can chalk up the outcome of the six-month season to luck or the fate of wobbles. The 2021 hurricane season officially ends on Dec. 1. (more…)
What I like about Living in a Gated Community
When people are thinking of buying a property in Florida one of the questions is whether to buy in a community with a Homeowners’ Association or a stand alone property. Here’s what I like about living in a gated community.
The gate
While it can at busy times cause a delay for service vehicles entering the property it also provides a sense of security for residents knowing that every car entering the property has to be cleared with an owner
Landscaping
Wednesday is my favourite day of the week – it is the day the landscaping crew of 3 comes. In addition to cutting the grass, they prune and trim trees and plants and will do other work on request.
Just this last week the palm trees were pruned and – best of all – mulch was laid throughout. No more trips to Home Depot for me! (more…)
Naples Market Report by Location and Property Type
The market statistics produced by Realtor Boards provide a lot of useful information, but group together what to me are wholly different categories – e.g. Single Family and Manufactured.
Here then is what I hope will be a more useful and informative analysis, which shows the breakdown using the categories that make sense to me. I also include definitions of the different property types after the charts.
Single Family and Villas
Villas have HOAs, Single Family homes do not. And the price point tends to be different. Ergo, they should be analysed separately:
15-Acre Naples, Florida, Retreat With a Menagerie With Monkeys Lists for $9.5 Million
A 15-acre Florida compound that comes complete with multiple residences, a tennis court and an animal menagerie has come to the market for $9.5 million.
The solar-powered estate, which claims to be “hurricane-proof,” is designed for living off the grid and it “offers a rare opportunity to own a tranquil, sustainable oasis in Naples,” listing agent Priscilla Kellerhouse said in a statement.
A 10,000-square-foot salmon-hued home is the compound’s main residence. The five-bedroom spread has an open floor plan, high ceilings, columns and marble floors.
Is Your Home (and Home Insurance) Ready for Extreme Weather?
Hurricanes. Heat waves. Earthquakes. Tornadoes. Today’s headlines are awash in extreme weather, and whether you blame climate change or just plain bad luck, the simple truth is that the damage from these disasters is impossible to ignore.
Realtor.com® teamed up with HarrisX to conduct a poll of 3,026 adults on their extreme weather concerns and homeowners insurance know-how—and the results suggest that many Americans may be more vulnerable than we think.
Here are some of the key highlights: (more…)
Prediction: Lots of International Buyers Over the Next Year
NEW YORK – In June, when real estate agent Nitin Gupta took two clients to see a new housing development in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, a sales representative for the builder told him all the units were gone.
The builder had planned to sell 100 homes to investors out of roughly 1,500 he was planning to build. Investors had come to the site the day before, the rep told Gupta, and another agent had pitched the homes to a group of buyers in China over Zoom.
“He said, ‘The people were saying, I want one, I want two, I want three. Boom, boom, boom,” Gupta recalls. “The agent sold about 50 to 60 homes and the builder had sold 130 homes the first day.”
While the global COVID-19 pandemic has squashed sales of U.S. homes to foreign buyers over the last year, local buyers should be prepared for a rebound in competition from other countries in the next 12 months, economists say.
Texas, Gupta’s state, ranked as the third-most-popular destination for foreign real estate buyers between April 2020 and March 2021, according to a recent report by the National Association of Realtors. Florida and California claim the top two spots, while Arizona, New Jersey and New York follow Texas. (more…)
Plans to turn Bonita Springs Greyhound Race Track into amusement park
According to NBC2, a plan is in the works to turn the Bonita Springs Greyhound Race Track into an amusement park.
The amusement park would be called “Adrenaline World,” and would be for the soon to be demolished grandstand building of the former Naples Fort Myers Greyhound Race Track off Bonita Beach Road. (more…)
Tourism making major comeback in Naples and Collier County
April’s tourist numbers naturally show a huge increase from a year ago, when the national lockdown was underway, but more relevantly they are also show strong gains compared with 2019:
– A 9% increase in visitors
– A 24% increase in room nights
– A 20% increase in economic impact
– A 2% increase in occupancy
In Collier County, April might have been a bit unusual, drawing visitors here who may have wanted to come sooner, but waited to get vaccinated — or just to feel more comfortable with traveling, according to Anne Wittine, the director of data analysis for Research Data Services, the county’s tourism consultant. (more…)