722 Roble

Fall is usually the 2nd best active market in real estate in our area. I say usually. There have been changes to that trend in the past. Buyers that have been forced out of the market due to bank inability to borrow, or stringent lending rules find any window of opportunity to exercise their pent up demand.

The volatility of the stock markets, either nationally or internationally , questionable security of international currencies and banks; along with a sell off in silver and gold has driven buyers to the luxury home market.

Bloomberg News, sent from my iPhone.
London Luxury-Home Prices Gain as Buyers Seek Secure Assets
Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Luxury home prices in central London climbed the most in 11 months in September, Knight Frank LLP said, as the European sovereign debt crisis encouraged investors to buy less-risky assets.
Values of houses and apartments costing an average of 3.7 million pounds ($5.7 million) rose 11.4 percent from a year earlier, the London-based real-estate broker said in a report today. On a monthly basis, prices rose at the slowest rate since October 2010 as buyers delayed purchases after the worst riots in Britain since the 1980s.
“The Eurozone crisis is probably the biggest concern, primarily because people are very uncertain about what would happen if the euro broke up,” Liam Bailey, head of residential research, said by telephone. That makes assets in the U.K. attractive because they’re denominated in pounds, he said.
On Sept. 20, Italy became the sixth euro-region country this year to have its credit rating downgraded. Two days later, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index slid to the lowest level since July 2009, extending a decline from this year’s high on Feb. 17. The world economy faces high “downside risks,” International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in an interview with Tom Keene on Bloomberg Television last week.
Gross domestic product in the euro area will expand 1.7 percent in 2011, according to the median economist estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Last year there was growth of 1.8 percent.
Russian Buyers
The number of prospective buyers viewing prime central London properties increased 25 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to the report. Prices are at a record, 4.5 percent higher than the market’s last peak in March 2008.
The U.K.’s record-low interest rates and the pound’s weakness are making central London’s real estate more attractive to overseas buyers, Bailey said. International purchasers now account for 55 percent of luxury-home deals in the city compared with 49 percent a year ago.
“Russians are rising in number at the moment,” Bailey said. “There’s a bit of uncertainty because there’s an election next year and people are looking to invest money overseas.”
Buyers from Russia accounted for 6.3 percent of all purchases in the 12 months through September, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 4.7 percent and the U.S. with 3.9 percent. About 3.2 percent of sales were to French buyers, the highest of any mainland European country.
Homes bought by billionaires in London cost 3,090 pounds a square foot at the end of June, a 3 percent increase from six months earlier, Savills Plc said last week. Prices in Britain’s most expensive city climbed 38 percent in the five years through December 2010, the London-based property broker said.
London Riots
Values rose 0.6 percent in September from a month earlier, the market’s worst performance since prices fell 0.2 percent in October 2010. At the beginning of August, arson and looting in the city’s Tottenham district sparked riots in which more than 3,000 crimes were committed in the capital alone.
“In the final weeks of August and first week of September there was a slowdown in deals being made,” Bailey said. “There was a slight knock-on from the riots, which delayed a few purchases.”
Knight Frank said luxury-home prices will increase by as much as 12 percent this year, maintaining a forecast the broker made last month. Values climbed about 10 percent in 2010.

In the U.S. the carry over of Spring Buying has boosted Home Prices for the fourth straight month in most major U.S. Cities. READ

I have stated that real estate and especially residential homes will find themselves to be the safe haven for investors, either domestic or foreign; as well as, just everyday folks who look at their home as their castle and security from outside chaos.

Start looking at the news that generates the concern to pull in ones horns and place assets in the safety of real estate. Not only the Blomberg article of above should convince you, let’s look at the news of the week.

European Banks Downgraded as EU fights over bailout.
U.S. Facing Dangerous Threat From Euro Debt: Greenspan

Here in the Camelot; also known as, Silicon Valley, we had a Russian billionaire purchase a home for $100 million!

The article I find most interesting is in the California Association of Realtors for September, “REO Properties in Short Supply”.

In a move counter to the nation and the news reports of the nation’s real estate woes, California homes sales improved on a month to month basis and on a year to year basis. Median price homes increased slightly from December 2010 due to the steady increase in “EQUITY SALES”. This should be a new term to you. It refers to the sale of NON-DISTRESSED home sales. That means REO, bank owned properties, and Short Sales.

In our area, sale price to list price and days to sell rose slightly. This chart offer some insight to the change in the normal cycle.

What I find interesting in this chart is the low days on market for the months February to August. This to me indicates that buyers were now out of the normal cycle of buying in spring, off on vacation in the summer, back in fall and off for the year after Halloween until spring the next year.

What could be happening in rise in September may be found in this article from the California Association of Realtors, Pending Home Sales Index Post the Largest Year Over Year Sales in More That Two Years. Our normal closing has increased. Gone are the days of 7-15 day close. Today the closes are 45-60 days to close. Short sales and REO’s are even longer. With the trend of longer closing the register of a sale creates blips such as the one we see in September. Only October will tell us if this is the case.

I spoke with my brother in law this morning and he is the voice of many. “I can’t stand this up 500 down 500 in the Dow”. Investors are leaving equity funds in droves. Foreign investors are looking elsewhere to place their money. On top of it all you can’t trust the money market fund which may have short term European Bank debt as an asset that could become worthless over night. Even if the money market fund ducked the bullet, the rate of return is so low and will be for at least 2 years, per Bernanke, that one wonders WHY risk my assets.

The long process of stability in our banking and credit markets will take time, a long time. We are now seeing the public disenchantment with the solutions of Congress and Governments with the growing size of protesters in Wall Street growing to other parts of the nation. I saw a sign that sums it all up, “Save the banks, bailout Wall Street and I loose my house!’ That says it all. The next response as the wave continues as the Arab Spring unseats entrenched dictatorships, will be for Congress to return back to the legislation of the 30’s that separated banks and brokers. To Big to Fail will be a curse rather than a blessing. The SEC is now looking at the program trading. The volatility must stop, but that will not happen over night. It is your chance to look now. Short Sales will not continue to be the best place to buy homes, simply because they will become less available as the sales take out the weak hands and home prices increase and negative equity vanishes. The opportunity is there take advantage of it now.