The Sanatoga Post

Maybe a new reason to smile.

SANATOGA PA – With home sales nationwide already in the basement and threatening to sink lower still, the real estate broker who leads the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors – and who also operates a branch office at 2500 E. High St. – sees any boost to the housing market as a good thing.

Sales of existing single-family homes across the country fell 4.7 percent from December (2008) to January (2009), the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Wednesday (Feb. 25, 2009). Last month’s sales also were 7.1 percent lower than those of January 2008, it added. Those are two reasons why NAR’s Pennsylvania affiliate welcomes newly enacted plans to help current and future home owners, its president, Greg Herb, said.

• Sales of new homes during January, reported today (Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009), fared even worse. Read the story at MarketWatch.

Herb is owner and managing broker of Herb Real Estate, which operates offices in Sanatoga and Gilbertsville.

The national Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan, discussed Tuesday (Feb. 24, 2009) by President Obama in his highly watched televised address to Congress, intends to provide access to low-cost refinancing and help reduce monthly mortgage payments for as many as 9 million U.S. home owners facing the prospect of foreclosure. A second initiative, the First-Time Homeowner Tax Credit, gives first-time buyers an $8,000 refundable tax credit on the purchase of a home in 2009.

• Who qualifies? First-timers are considered those “who haven’t owned a primary residence in the past three years,” according to Jay Brower, a CPA in the Philadelphia accounting firm of Gold Gocial Gerstein. “In the past, taxpayers had 15 years to pay back this credit,” Brower said, “but 2009 buyers are off the hook as long as they live in the home for at least 36 months.”
• Help for those who bought earlier. A smaller tax credit is available for homes purchased on or after April 9, 2008, and before Jan. 1, 2009, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

Both measures “can help invigorate the economy and the real estate industry overall,” Herb said, “by giving more residents the opportunity to save their homes and others a chance to purchase a home.”

A graph of home sales in the 19464 zip code from 2003 to 2008.

On the foreclosure front, at least, Pennsylvania seems to be faring better than other states. RealtyTrac, a company that monitors foreclosure activity, reported that national foreclosure rates decreased in January and that Pennsylvania ranked 29th in the nation for foreclosures, below the national average.

Graph from City-Data.com. Photo from Clipart.com

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WASHINGTON DC – Sales of existing condominiums and cooperatives surged to another annual record in 2003, the National Association of Realtors® said Feb. 4 (2004). There was a total of 898,000 existing condo and co-op sales last year, up 9.5 percent from the previous record of 820,000 units in 2002.

David Lereah, NAR’s Washington DC-based chief economist, said this marks the eighth consecutive annual record for the condo and co-op market. “The growth of condo sales since 1995 is unprecedented and reflects a new level of demand in the market,” he said.

And for the first time, the cost of a typical condo competed with that of a median-priced house. For all of 2003, the median existing condo price was $163,800, up 15.2 percent from a median of $142,200 in 2002. At the same time, the typical single-family resale home price rose 7.5 percent to $169,900, the NAR reports.

WASHINGTON DC – A program that helps real estate brokers and office managers train agents to deal with restrictions of the national Do-Not-Call Registry is now being marketed by RE FormsNet, a joint venture of the California and National Association of REALTORS.

The company’s Safe-Calling Compliance Kit, which retails for $99, spells out recommended policies to comply with federal do-not call regulations. It also includes hands-on training tools to implement policies and training procedures, according to RE FormsNet Chairman Gary Thomas.

The free Do-Not-Call Registry, begun last year by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is a list of U.S. residents who specifically request that telemarketers refrain from calling them. Consumers nationwide have registered more than 50 million phone numbers on the list to date, and telemarketers were expected to comply with their wishes as of Oct. 1, 2003.

The registry makes it easier and more efficient for consumers to stop getting telemarketing calls they don’t want, the FCC claims. Consumers can register in two ways: online at DONOTCALL.GOV, or by calling toll-free, 1-888-382-1222. Registration is available in both English and Spanish.

Telemarketers are required to access the registry every three months and scrub numbers on it from their call lists. Those who call a number on the list could be fined up to $11,000 per call. Training with the Safe-Calling Compliance Kit could prevent some of those penalties, RE FormsNet claimed Tuesday (Feb. 10, 2004) in a press release.

Increased interest in national and state do-not-call lists have created problems for real estate agents and brokers who previously relied on cold-call marketing to generate new business.

WASHINGTON DC – Real estate sales and cable television have long been a match made in advertising heaven. Real estate marketing expert Greg Herder recommends cable as “a tremendous mass media opportunity” because it couples low price with increased credibility and prestige. But as more properties clutter the airwaves, agents face the problem confronting all marketers: how do they make their messages stand out in a crowd?

In the mid-1980s, when buying time on cable TV was still relatively rare for real estate, giving viewers a video walk through any property was deemed sufficient. But it’s no longer enough to simply show a house; to sell effectively, agents must tell the story of a house.

Among the chief proponents of real estate story-telling is the Washington DC-based National Association of REALTORS. During 2002 alone, Realty Times reports, NAR spent $20 million on six television and three radio spots that told the stories of agents who were hard at work selling clients’ properties while the clients themselves were out enjoying life.

“There’s no question that the (association’s) public awareness campaign is … generating heightened consumer awareness of the benefits of using a REALTOR,” then-NAR President Martin Edwards Jr. told the news service.

WASHINGTON DC – The National Association of Realtors reported last week that Pennsylvania was one of only six states in the nation where re-sales of existing homes fell during the fourth quarter of 1998. Joining our fair state in the list of laggards were South Dakota, Maine, Massachusetts, Idaho and Vermont.

Almost everywhere else, according to the NAR, low interest rates and healthy affordability conditions continued to draw home buyers to the marketplace. Nationwide, the seasonally adjusted annual re-sales rate for existing single-family homes, townhouses, condos and co-ops was up 11.6 percent from the fourth quarter of 1997.

Should home owners here be worried about their property values? Local real estate brokerage owners say no. The economy is strong. Buyers are active. Mortgages remain a bargain compared to rates of the mid-to-late ’80s. All are good signs.

But the face of the real estate industry itself is changing across the country, and that is likely to affect buyers and sellers in the future. Some of those changes are showing up in our market as well.

Fox & Roach Realtors announced Feb. 8 that it was buying Prudential Preferred Properties to become the largest brokerage in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The new firm, Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors, currently has 76 offices with only a handful in our area – mostly on the periphery. Insiders say consolidation of some offices is just around the corner, and new ones can be anticipated soon in our neck of the woods.

Closer to home, Pottstown-based ERA Specht Realty and Coldwell Banker Poquessing Associates of Philadelphia announced a merger too. Their eight branches will unite March 1 to become Diamond Realty Services LLC, a first-in-the-country partnership to offer two different real estate franchise names. It’s a little like a car dealer who sells competing brands, but curiously it hasn’t been tried in real estate before.

The Specht offices will be renamed ERA Diamond Realtors, and the Poquessing offices become Coldwell Banker Diamond Realtors. Donald Specht remains chairman of the combined companies; David Specht remains as chief executive officer; and Poquessing owner Joseph C. Fluehr Jr. becomes chief financial officer.

And Weichert Realtors has expanded again. They opened a new office in Collegeville this month.

Spot a trend here? Larger brokerages, more sales agents, more offices in booming markets, expanded services.

The idea is to make every real estate transaction a one-stop shopping experience. Brokers intend to make it convenient for you to sell your existing home, buy a new home, get a mortgage, buy title and property insurance, even relocate over hundreds or thousands of miles by dealing with only one firm.

Consequently, expect to see even more real estate firm mergers announced before mid-year.

For purposes of full disclosure, it should be noted that past and current clients of this author’s company include banks, insurers, post-secondary schools, and brokers, all of which have either a direct or indirect interest in residential real estate sales.