Richard Quest: A Net Zero Energy Home.

Please feel free to like my Facebook Page to get local Real Estate related news and other fun Real Estate related blog posts.

A Green Energy Home -- 

Thoughts: Green Energy homes have a lot of momentum, its nice to see the virtual family Mr. Quest is referencing using the property as a stereotypical family might use a home. With Green Energy homes, I feel functionality and amenities are compromised for energy savings. Its nice to see a substantial investment being made for a pragmatic use of a traditional home.

Pended Sales in the LV are up 41%, to 1111 for the Year, Make a Wish!

I hope this update finds you well. If you know anybody who needs  home Buying or Selling consulting, let me know! Referrals are my lifeblood in Real Estate! Check out my Facebook business page here.

I can make my commission work with 501c3 charities, which I'll get into more detail about upon

1. Lehigh Valley Market Update from the Association of Realtors:

Reaction: I believe these numbers are awesome. February was a difficult month in respect to snow showers and bitter cold. Yet, the market still had growth. Below is the amount of new listings in Feb 2015 vs previous years.

In 2013, the idea of a shadow inventory of homes was prevalent. Meaning, bank owned proprieties and home sellers that just could not move before would create a backlog of listings once home prices went up. I am not sure how true, or untrue this is; however, seeing a decline in available listings from then is a positive indicator that this shadow inventory is not a prevalent theme in my opinion.

Looking at Feb 2015, there was a year over year increase in listings but also an increase in competition for listings because of strong buyer demand.

5.6 months of supply means if buyers keep buying at the same pace they did last month (Feb), there would be no homes to buy in 5.6 months. That is considered a normal market, while 6.5 is not a bad number from Feb 2014, its still considered a sellers market.

When pended sales are up over 41% year over year in Feb, that is probably a very good thing.


 2. Zillow Market Report Jan 2015:

This is the same as last month's Zillow Update. They lag behind, which is fine. I just thought I'd provide a link to you.

Feb 2015 Lehigh Valley Housing Update

I hope this post finds you well. I hope you'll like my Facebook page and keep me in mind if you need any Real Estate help.      Stephen.Weinstein@foxroach.com

This year, 2015, I am still offering to make my commission split with my brokerage work with a 501c3 charity of your choice. Please contact me for details, there is legal jumbo and its not an option anybody has to undertake.

Alright, with all of that out of the way.

Market Update From the Association of Realtors:

Key Points for the Month: Click here for the full report.

1.

 Reaction: While the Median Sale price is down, the rest of the metric numbers are pretty good for January. Increased closed sales and a lower inventory of sales are great indicators. The Median Sale price declining is interesting, my guess is that in January lower priced home sold faster than homes at the top end of the range.

So what does the future of have in store. The glaring metric of the month is the amount of pended sales that occurred in January. Sales are up 51%. That is staggering.

Of interest, Southern Lehigh School District saw an increased pended home sales from last year of 283% and Whitehall at 200% -- Those are some pretty gaudy numbers.

Zillow Report: Click Here for the Report

I really like the Zillow report for its analysis on the Negative Equity Market. This is of course about how many home owners are still under water on their mortgage in Lehigh and Northampton Counties.

If you look at the last column you can see the break down for each county. While the Lehigh Valley still lags the national of average  at 16.9 to a local average of 18.3-22.3. This number has been trending down and is making for a de-leveraging housing market.

Come Decide the Fate of Wehr's Dam. March 18th.

On March 18th the fate of Wehr's Dam will be decided. I believe the Morning Call has had some interesting converage on this topic.

My View: The Dam is certainly a gathering place for the community but I am not sure the cost to the ecosystem is worth it. The commissioners choice is not exactly about that, the choice is whether it is worth renovating the Dam so that it can continue to work in the capacity it does now. Its a mixture of aesthetics, feelings, environmental impact and economics.

I do believe if you have an opinion you should go to the meeting, which I am promoting on my blog here and for paid for advertising on Facebook.

#Democracy