Philadelphia Real Estate & Philadelphia Homes for sale at Philly Living

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. housing market will begin to recover in the first half of 2009, according to an article he wrote for Emerging Markets magazine published on Friday.

Greenspan wrote that the recent slowing in the rate of decline in U.S. home prices is the first positive note in the year-long trauma and that eventually, frozen credit markets will thaw “as frightened investors take tentative steps toward reengagement with risk.”

“More conclusive signs of pending home price stability are likely to become visible in the first half of 2009,” he wrote.

Once the housing market finds it footing, markets will be able to tackle the core issues of the credit crisis.

The American Planning Association has awarded the city of Philadelphia two honorary designations in its 2008 “Great Places in America” program.

In the “Great Neighborhoods” category, Society Hill was a winner, and South Broad Street’s Avenue of the Arts took a “Great Streets” award. Both were among 10 national recipients in each category, but Philadelphia was the only city to garner more than one prize, Jastrzab said.

The 325-year-old Society Hill neighborhood, named in honor of the Free Society of Traders, chartered in 1682 by William Penn, “provides a stimulating confluence of varying architectural styles, mixed uses, and social diversity in a downtown urban setting.”

The eight blocks of South Broad Street from City Hall to South Street, transformed during the past decade into the Avenue of the Arts, made the APA’s “Great Streets” honor roll for “its historical character, focus on the arts, social vibrancy, and public and private redevelopment efforts.” First developed in 1681, South Broad is one of the oldest planned streets in the country.

The nine other APA 2008 Great Neighborhoods are: Echo Park (Los Angeles); Greater Park Hill (Denver) ; North End (Boise, Idaho) ; Old Town Wichita (Wichita, Kan.); Downtown Salem (Salem, Mass.); Charles Village (Baltimore); Greater University Hill (Syracuse, N.Y.); Village of Mariemont (Mariemont, Ohio); and  Downtown Sheridan (Sheridan, Wyo.).

The nine other APA 2008 Great Streets are: Mill Avenue in Tempe, Ariz.; Seventh Avenue in Tampa, Fla.; West Main Street in Louisville, Ky.; Commercial Street in Portland, Maine; Washington Street in Boston; Main Street in Annapolis, Md.; Summit Avenue in St. Paul, Minn.; South El Paso in El Paso, Texas; and Clarendon & Wilson Boulevards in Arlington, Va.

Given all of the media’s coverage of the negatives of the market, we’re seeing that many buyers are on the fence about whether to move forward now or wait a year and purchase then.  The main argument for waiting tends to be something akin to: Prices will fall and I’ll get more for my money.  Though there are good arguments on both sides, Kevin Gillen’s data seems to suggest that, at least here in Philadelphia, we shouldn’t expect much of an adjustment downward in price.

At the same time, we all know that interest rates have risen (about 1% in the last quarter) and most economic forecasts assume that they will continue to rise.  So what is a buyer to do?

We’ve put together some simple numbers looking at what we believe could be reality - a 5% drop in home prices coupled with a 1% increase in interest rates.  Most indicators show that 5% is probably a bit extreme, but erring on the side of caution seems prudent.  So what does this all mean?

It turns out, from a financial standpoint, most buyer will save themselves money by hedging their bets against increasing interest rates rather than hoping that the market will dip. After all, most people who were hoping for a dip were not so happy to find out that Center City prices are up 1% year over year….

We’ve been arguing for months that the Philadelphia market is stronger than the press makes you believe.  We were able to prove it in our market report where prices held (and even went up in certain neighborhoods)…

So we were glad to see some good news come from people other than ourselves.  TIME Magazine wrote a good article about how buyers can save money by buying now and Philadelphia Magazine reiterated all of the arguments we’ve been saying here and to our clients in their most recent issue.

Earlier this month we learned of some additional good news when USA Today published numbers on the economy.  it showed that while many states are in recession, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia in particular are in full Expansion.  Additionally, they reveal that state wide real estate is up 2.8%.

These are all good signs for real estate.  A strong economy means more buyers, fewer foreclosures, and strong market pressure to drive real estate prices higher.  Houses are staying on the market for less time.  If you are looking to buy, take advantage of the low interest rates and buy now!

Today we launched a new version of our website.  It was designed to make it easier to search real estate and find your new home.  We hope you like it!  Please take a look and send us any thoughts or feedback you have about the new design.  We can always be reached at dave (at) phillyliving (dot) com.

www.PhillyLiving.com

When the October report on New Construction came out the news reported that October was the worst month in 16 years for new construction.  However buried in the report is some good news for Center City real estate — condo and apartment construction is up 44%!

Why is this important?

New construction rates is a good predictor of the health of the market.  If developers feel the market will go up, they will put their money in the market and build.  If they think the market is overvalued and will go down, new construction will decrease.

In Center City Philadelphia virtually all new construction in Center City is multi-family, so its the multi-family construction numbers that matter.  And with an upward trend of 44% the long term trend looks good!

Money magazine selected Philadelphia, specifically the neighborhood of Washington Square West, as the 14th best place to retire.

The magazine highlighted the historic feel, the proximity to healthcare, and the walk-ability of the neighborhood.  We agree!

Currently there over 145 properties available in the Washington Square West area on our website.  Check them out online or give us a call and we will help you with your search to find your perfect home.

(Thanks phillyblog.com).

We get a lot of phone calls  from people who want to invest in real estate.  It’s important, when you are considering this, to understand a few basic principles:

1) Investing is based on cash flow and real money returns.  That is, you are investing if you are basing the decision on rental income and carrying costs
2) Speculation is the act of projecting a future gain based on appreciation. That is, your purpose is to own a property worth $x at some point in the future.

Obviously prices in real estate tend to go up.  However, given the market that we’ve been in over the past few years, it has become habitual to assume that prices will continue to increase at rapid rates.  So often, I hear a “investor” talking about how it’s ok to have low rents because the property value will double in the next 2 years (or some variation on that).

Do I think speculation is wrong?  Of course not.  However, if you are venturing into “real estate investing”, make sure that you are looking at today’s real numbers, and not just hoping that the property is going to skyrocket in value (by the way, you have to actually sell it to get that money and that costs quite a bit to do!)