Average rate on 30-year mortgage rises to 3.8 percent
Source: Associated Press May 10, 2015
Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates are up this week to the highest level since mid-March.
Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Thursday that the national average for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 3.80 percent this week from 3.68 percent a week earlier.
The rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.02 percent, up from 2.94 percent and the first time it’s topped 3 percent since it hit 3.06 percent in mid-March.
A year ago, the average 30-year rate stood at 4.21 percent and the 15-year at 3.32 percent.
The 30-year average rate hit a record low 3.31 percent in November 2012. The 15-year average hit bottom at 2.56 percent in May 2013.
Len Kiefer, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac, said U.S. interest rates were driven higher this week in part by news the U.S. trade deficit hit a seven-year high in March.
To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country at the beginning of each week. The average doesn’t include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.
The average fee for a 30-year mortgage was 0.6 point this week, unchanged from last week. The average fee for a 15-year mortgage also remained at 0.6 point.
The average rate on a five-year adjustable-rate mortgage increased to 2.90 percent from 2.85 percent last week, but the fee fell to 0.4 point from 0.5 point. For a one-year ARM, the average rate slid to 2.46 percent from 2.49 percent last week; the fee was unchanged at 0.4 point.
A New High Rise Coming to Downtown Ft. Myers!
Source: News Press -Miami-based Jaxi CMD LLC has purchased the old Cypress Club high-rise site in downtown Fort Myers for $4,675,000 and plans to begin sales for a luxury condominium there next year.
If Jaxi starts construction in 2017 as planned, it will be the first high-rise to get underway in downtown Fort Myers since Oasis broke ground in 2006.
Jaxi will get a $15 million tax-increment-financing incentive for the construction of the first of two planned 32-story towers, said Don Paight, executive director of the Fort Myers Redevelopment Agency.
“We could offer incentives to the first in the door” for what Paight hopes will be the first of a new wave of high rises – which ended abruptly in 2006 when the bottom fell out of the housing market in Southwest Florida.
“What we’re hoping is when the first project starts, you’ll see others as well,” Paight said, adding that there’s been a resurgence of interest in the high-rise sector lately. “We’ve seen end users buying a lot of these properties.”
Like Oasis, Cypress Club started construction in 2006 but got only as far as putting down a slab. Oasis’ two towers were built by 2008 but by then most prospective buyers had bailed out and developer The Related Group of Miami lost the project in foreclosure.
Paight said Jaxi expects to get about $300 per square foot for the condos it plans – that would be $360,000 for a 1,200-square-foot two-bedroom apartment.
Commercial real estate broker Steve Luta, who represents the Billy’s Creek Condominium project and the adjacent Rock Lake motel on State Road 80 just east of downtown, said there’s been an increased interest in high-rise sites around Southwest Florida.
New Communities Abound in Southwest Florida
There are over 100 varied developments currently under construction in Southwest Florida. Your select style, amenity needs, community type and location preferences will narrow the list of possibilities. There are many other specifics that will play part in your decision making process. Taxes, school, CDD communities/or not, Flood zones, future development in the area, just to name a few. It is of course important to have this information available from on who has done the homework, showings and research. Give me a call to discover which communities will fit best.
Here’s is just a partial list of communities under way:
Azzura, Bayshore Commons, Bella Terra, Bella Vida, Bonita Lakes, Bonita National, Bonita Isles, Bonita Lakes, Pebble Pointe at The Brooks, Calusa Ridge, Camden Square, The Colony Golf & Bay Club, Cordova at Spanish Wells, Corkscrew Shores, Estero Place, Firano, Hampton Park at Gateway, Lantana, Magnolia Landing, Marbella, Marina Bay, Mediterra, Miromar Lakes, Pasea, Pelican Preserve, The Plantation (Somerset, Bridgetown), Porpoise Point, The Preserve, Quail West, Reflection Isles, River Hall, Sandoval, Santa Luz, Summerlin Place, Tarpon Point, Tidewater, Tortuga, Verandah, Villa Medici, Villa Palmeras, Village Walk, Watermark, Water’s Edge, Whispering Palms
High Growth Forecast for Lee and Collier Counties!
News Press – Jan 6, 2015
Two segments of Southwest Florida are expected to be among the leaders in growth in 2015, according to a state economic preview released today.
The Naples-Marco Island area is expected to see 4.7 percent growth, tops in the state, while the Cape Coral-Fort Myers market is projected to see 4.3 percent growth, good for fourth in the state, according to Florida TaxWatch.
The preview also examines regional employment markets in Metropolitican Statistical Areas, or MSAs. What’s classified as the Cape Coral MSA, which encompasses Lee County, is expected to have the best employment market in the first quarter in comparison to 99 other MSAs across the nation. That growth is attributed to construction projects and real estate.
Florida TaxWatch is the state’s nonpartisan, nonprofit public policy research institute. The independent analysis reports that Florida’s economy will grow faster than the nation and Florida employment is expected to outpace the nation again this year.
“Florida had a very successful year in 2014, as shown by our state’s latest revenue increases and jobs numbers, and Florida’s economy and job growth should keep climbing in 2015,” said Dominic M. Calabro, president and CEO of Florida TaxWatch.
“Florida is making the right economic investments and we are consistently beating the rest of the nation in development and growth. Even our latest population numbers show that people want to be a part of what we’re doing here in Florida.”
Florida recently surpassed New York to become third most populous in the nation behind California and Texas.
Market value changes 2012-13 (Hint: Good news for Sellers)
2012 to 2013 Lee County real estate statistics:
The median price of a single-family home rose an astounding 28 percent in Bonita Springs/Estero, up from $248,500 in 2012 to $317,000 in 2013.
50 percent of the 10 real estate submarkets had more sales in 2013; half had less.
1,300 apartment building units were permitted in 2013, up from 402 in 2012.
Though there are always many factors that go into the equation which makes a market; it certainly is showing powerful signs of confidence from Buyers, Builders and Developers.
SOURCE: The News-Press Market Watch
Market Watch 2014: Some inside notes
From Dick Hogan, News Press. Last year was the first good one in awhile for Southwest Florida’s construction and real estate industries — but the devil’s in the details.
That’s why the 15th annual The News-Press Market Watch has assembled a team of experts to untangle the successes and the seeming contradictions of 2013 as the economy emerged from the doldrums.
Home prices and permits were stellar, but Market Watch presenter Denny Grimes said the county was far from uniform.
“Of the 10 major submarkets in Lee County, half of them have positive numbers of sales for the year and half have negative,” said Grimes, who’s a broker associate with Royal Shell Real Estate and president of Denny Grimes & Co.
At the top of the scale was the county’s most expensive submarket, Bonita Springs/Estero, where the median single-family-home sale jumped 28 percent from $248,500 to $317,000.
“It’s the hottest market in the county,” Grimes said. “I think what’s going on is the bulk of the new construction is going to go from the Daniels Corridor down to Immokalee Road in North Naples.”
Presenter Randy Thibaut, president of Fort Myers-based Land Solutions, which handles sales and development of large tracts in Southwest Florida, said construction came back strong in 2013 — with an assist from the Lee County Commission.
The commission’s rollback of impact fees was a major factor in unleashing “hundreds of millions of dollars in construction,” he said.
In apartment buildings alone, Thibaut said, permits for almost 1,300 units were pulled, up from 402 in 2012. “We’ve never seen apartment construction take off like this.”
Market Watch presenter Stan Stouder, a founding partner of CRE Consultants LLC, provides strategic advice and execution for property sales and leasing.
His presentation will compare the present commercial real estate environment with the period 2006-09, when the market tumbled from the height of the boom to the absolute bottom of the recession that followed.
As the market has come back from the depths, the question is, “Is this a boom?” Stouder said.
The answer is complicated, he said. “Rising tides don’t always float all boats. There are micro-markets within sectors that are not performing as well as the sector.”
On the other hand, Stouder said, “It feels like a boom. If someone has been beating you with a bat for five years and then stops, it feels better.”
Jeff Hunt, president of Naples-based EHC Construction Inc., said that for his company 2013 was split in half.
“I will tell you that for us the first half of the year was very weak and the second was very strong,” said Hunt, whose company handles pre-construction, earthwork and infrastructure.
The business climate changed abruptly “in the late spring, early summer,” he said. “We’re seeing a lot of larger commercial projects and industrial projects.”
The momentum was still strong in December, Hunt said. “I think 2014 is going to be expanding — a broader and a healthier market down here. Not just one industry, the whole market.”
Average rate on 30-year loan 4.32 percent
Average U.S. rates for fixed mortgages slipped this week as new data showed a decline in home prices in November and a drop in new homes sales last month.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average for the 30-year loan fell to 4.32 percent from 4.39 percent last week. The average for the 15-year loan eased to 3.40 percent from 3.44 percent.
Mortgage rates have risen about a full percentage point since hitting record lows roughly a year ago. The increase was driven by speculation that the Federal Reserve would reduce its $85 billion a month in bond purchases. Deeming the economy to be gaining in strength, the Fed pushed ahead Wednesday with a plan to reduce the bond purchases, which have kept long-term interest rates low.
Data issued this week suggested a pause in the housing market’s recovery. Home prices fell slightly in November as colder weather slowed buying, ending nine straight months of price gains, the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index released Tuesday showed.
The Commerce Department reported Monday that sales of new homes fell in December for a second straight month. Even with the end-year decline, though, home sales for 2013 climbed to the highest level in five years as they benefited from historically low mortgage rates.
Most economists expect home sales and prices to keep rising this year, but at a slower pace. They forecast sales and prices will likely rise around 5 percent, down from double-digit gains in 2013.
The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that fewer Americans signed contracts to buy previously occupied homes last month. Cold weather stalled home purchases.
To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country between Monday and Wednesday each week. The average doesn’t include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.
The average fee for a 30-year mortgage was unchanged at 0.7 point. The fee for a 15-year loan declined to 0.6 point from 0.7 point.
The average rate on a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage edged up to 2.55 percent from 2.54 percent. The fee slipped to 0.4 point from 0.5 point. The average rate on a five-year adjustable mortgage fell to 3.12 percent from 3.15 percent. The fee was steady at 0.5 point.
House GOP question changes in flood insurance bill
WASHINGTON (AP) – The effort to delay huge increases in insurance premiums for homeowners in flood-prone areas faces a skeptical House chairman who is largely standing behind the changes Congress oversaw in the nation’s flood insurance program less than two years ago.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the Texas Republican who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, wants “free-market alternatives” to the government-run program, says his spokesman, David Popp.
Hensarling and other top House Republicans aren’t inclined to back away from changes meant to deal with a program that is $24 billion in the red after bailing out at-risk homeowners whose flood insurance has been subsidized by taxpayers and other policyholders for decades.
Increasing tensions over the issue is a 67-32 bipartisan vote Thursday in the Senate to delay some, but not all, of the changes approved in 2012.
“These drastic increases will act as a de facto eviction notice for homeowners who have lived in their homes and played by the rules their entire lives,” said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who supported holding off the rate increases. “That’s going to drive down property values as the housing market is struggling to recover.”
In many cases the changes in the flood insurance program produced unexpected, sky-high insurance rates that are unaffordable for many homeowners in flood-prone areas whose insurance has historically been subsidized by the government and other policyholders.
The Senate bill would put off for up to four years huge premium increases that are supposed to phase in next year and beyond under new and updated government flood maps. It also would allow homeowners to pass below-cost policies on to people who buy their homes. People who have recently bought homes and face sharp, immediate jumps in their premiums would see those increases rolled back.
The overhaul passed in 2012 – it too was on a bipartisan vote – was supposed to increase premiums on subsidized policies, but the beleaguered Federal Emergency Management Agency has struggled to implement it. FEMA has failed to complete a study of ways to make flood insurance more affordable and has come under assault for new flood maps that have decreed some never-flooded communities at risk.
The Senate action cheered people who live in homes or own property in coastal communities and towns in flood plains.
“Most of our homeowners require flood insurance as a condition of their mortgage,” said Jonathan Gaska, district manager for the community board that represents the Rockaway peninsula and Broad Channel, areas of New York battered by Superstorm Sandy. “And we were afraid that this would just become a ghost town – that people would just give up their homes because they can’t afford it.”
Gaska said that the 2012 law has already had a chilling effect on home sales throughout the Rockaways, which is mostly populated by blue-collar workers like police officers and firefighters.
In Seaside Park, N.J., Chuck Appleby opted to raise his bayside home by 12 feet, in part because of the threat of exponential increases in flood insurance.
“We decided to go up as high as possible,” Appleby said. “That should ensure that we get the lowest insurance rate possible. Resale value is a big concern; there’s a lot of houses for sale around here. Plus, I have kids and I want to know we’ll be safe in the next storm.”
But his parents, who live two doors down, restored their house to its pre-storm condition, deciding against raising it. Appleby says his parents cannot believe the insurance hikes will be as bad as feared.
“We had a discussion about it the other day,” he said. “My parents said they believe that if it’s going to affect so many people so negatively, there’s no way the government would ever let it happen.”
Southwest Florida home prices increase
By Dick Hogan, News Press: The median existing single-family home in Lee County sold for $177,000 in December – up 24 percent from $142,750 a year earlier, according to statistics released today by the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach.
In a separate report, the Naples Area Board of Realtors said the median in Collier County increased from $248,000 to $340,000.
The number of homes sold in Lee County barely moved year to year: 992 in December compared to 1,000 a year earlier.
Collier sales dipped to 385 from 417 in December 2012.
For all of 2013, Lee County had 12,144 homes sold, up from 11,765 in 2012. Collier had 4,598 in 2013, up from 4,554 in 2012.
In Lee, the percentage of short sales and foreclosures fell: In 2013, 8 percent were short sales and 19.8 percent were foreclosures, down from 18.4 and 20.2 percent respectively. Prices and sales throughout Southwest Florida imploded at the end of 2005 and fell for about four years before beginning a recovery.
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