Posts Tagged ‘News’

429 N 13th Street, Unit 5C – Loft District, Philadelphia

Gorgeous Loft District condo featuring 1 BR, 1 BA & walk-in vault!

Highlights Include: 

• Private bedroom & full bathroom
• Indoor garage parking
• Custom u-shaped kitchen with stainless steel appliances
• Large bathroom features deep Jacuzzi, hardwood floors & subway tile

Additionally offers:

• Versatile, bi-level vault unit perfect for storage, office space, den or guest room
• Convenient location between Callowhill & Spring Garden, just one block from Broad Street
• Minutes from Reading Terminal Market, Union Transfer & Chinatown!

Open House Details: 

• This Sunday [June 9th], 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm

See all listing details for 429 N 13th Street #5C, along with additional properties we offer.

For further information on this property, contact Adam Atacan.

This is brought to you by Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

To view every Philadelphia Real Estate Listing, including Philadelphia Condos visit www.CenterCityRealEstate.com

Twitter & Instrgram: @TheAtacanGroup

Some highlights from our June 2nd market update. Conditions indicate a seller’s market in the Philadelphia area. For further details, head over to our Market Activity homepage.

Market Update Excerpt [June 2, 2013, via Altos Research]

To view every Philadelphia Real Estate Listing, including Philadelphia Condos visit www.CenterCityRealEstate.com

Happy Friday! We have two can’t miss open house opportunities this Sunday June 2nd. We’ll break down all the details on properties, location, and more below. We look forward to hosting Philadelphia’s future homeowners this weekend.

310 Catharine Street [Unit E] Queen Village, Philadelphia

Location: 310 Catharine Street [Unit E] Philadelphia, PA 19147 

Time: 11:00 am – 1 pm

Listing Agent: Stephanie Slapin

Highlights:

• Beautifully updated, spacious condominium in the heart of South Philadelphia‘s Queen Village neighborhood!
• 2 Bedrooms &  1.0 Bathrooms.
• Gorgeous kitchen opens up to separate dining area.
• Living room includes wood-burning fireplace, exposed brick wall & hardwood floors.
• Includes attic & basement storage units.
• Pet friendly.
• Minutes from South Street, Penn’s Landing & Philadelphia’s historic 9th Street Italian Market!

For additional information, pictures & pricing: http://bit.ly/10EZR6D

E-mail stephanie@atacangroup.com with any questions or concerns.

1625 North Street Fairmount, Philadelphia

Location: 1625 North Street Philadelphia, PA 19130

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm

Listing Agent: Karoline Kelsen

On-Site Representative: Adam Atacan

Highlights:

• Gorgeous townhouse in North Philadelphia’s Art Museum area with garage parking!
• 3 Bedrooms & 3 Full Bathrooms.
• Open concept living room/dining with fireplace, perfect for entertaining!
• Kitchen features wooden cabinets, black granite counter tops & stainless steel appliances.
• Slate patio with landscaping.
• Roof top deck with amazing [south facing] city views!
• Located on a fantastic block just steps from award winning restaurants, coffee shops & parks.
• Recent price improvement!

For additional information, pictures & pricing: http://bit.ly/12ToniO

E-mail karoline@atacangroup.com with any questions or concerns.

Have a great weekend fellow Philadelphians!

This is brought to you by Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

To view every Philadelphia Real Estate Listing, including Philadelphia Condos visit www.CenterCityRealEstate.com

Twitter & Instrgram: @TheAtacanGroup

With Spring in the air, this is the time home-sales season has officially begun. 2012 showed incredibly low mortgage rates, many believed wouldn’t last. According to Freddi Mac, the current average rate on a 30 year mortgage stood fast at 3.54%. This should a slight improvement compared to last week when rates were at 3.57%. With historically low mortgage rates still active, many believe this will transform into a tremendous amount of buying/selling active in the Philadelphia market this coming Spring and Summer. So if you are thinking of buying or selling your home, now is the time!

 This is brought to you by Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

To view every Philadelphia Real Estate Listing, including Philadelphia Condos visit www.CenterCityRealEstate.com

Intersting article today at NY Times.

Five or 10 years from now, when the financial crisis has ended and housing prices are up smartly once more, we will look in the rearview mirror and realize that we missed a golden age for first-time home buyers. Then, everyone who sat on their down payment savings accounts for a few years too long will kick themselves for not taking advantage of what may turn out to be the buying opportunity of a lifetime for those who can qualify for a mortgage…

You can read the full article here.

You might also want to read my post about timing the market.

Keller Williams agents are now able to offer an additional incentive to their seller’s and buyers alike. The Live Free Program allows those who are putting 10% down payment on a home, and using American Home Bank for their financing, to receive three free mortgage payments of principal and interest. In essence, if you settled by the end of November, you would not have a first mortgage payment until March 1!

Dave Jenks and Jay Papasan explain and discuss real estate trends, market statistics, and the impact of the economy on home buying and selling.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIWeDeI9Do4

Here is the latest on the status of the South Street Bridge. This is great news for the City and residents in the area. It’s great to see that leadership has finally stepped up the plate. Read on below.

Dear Neighbors and Friends of the South Street Bridge:

As we mentioned in our last update on the South Street Bridge, we began discussions with the Streets Department and PennDOT based on the study commissioned by the South Street Bridge Coalition, Design Recommendations for the South Street Bridge. We also mentioned that the project was put out to bid based on the current Bridge design.

Several issues of importance to the community were included in the original bid documents:

Read the rest of this entry »

So you have been hearing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on the news a lot lately. What’s this mean really?

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed into conservatorships on Sunday which means that the government has replaced the CEO’s and Boards of each company. The Treasury will purchase Senior Preferred Stock of Fannie and Freddie to provide capital as needed in amounts up to $100 billion for each company. The financial commitment by the United States Government will substantially increase confidence in Fannie and Freddie and the US housing Market and provide stability.

The US Treasury effectively guaranteed that mortgage backed securities will be backed by the US government  which means that rates will likely hold at current levels and/or decline like we have seen past week.

Bottom Line: Rates are incredibly low, and buyers should capitalize on this market.

The following is the address of every home that sold in the first half of 2008 in East Falls

Lowest Price     Highest Price
$127,500         $480,000

Read the rest of this entry »

Below is courtesy of our own Sarah Schneider from KW Center City office:

Of late there’s been much ballyhoo over this new promised land called “Newbold”, down here in the South Philly 19145 zip. Well I’m being told that it’s like this:

Washington Ave. south to Snyder, and Broad St. west to 18th is called “Newbold”, and Snyder Ave. south to Wolf St., and Broad to 18th has been christened “Newbold South”.

They do exist in the area list on the MLS, although, no one seems to be using them much because due to the lack of awareness of the boundaries. Unsexy a name as it is, it (finally!!!) gave some ambiguously defined neighborhoods in the area a much needed identity other than just, South Philly, which real estate philistines STILL insist on calling Center City South….yeah, and Orlando, Florida is Miami north!!!!!

With luminary Stephen Starr having bought the Broad Street Diner, the gang at SPTR (that’s, uh, South Philly Tap Room for those of you just sinking your teeth in) putting a coffee shop at the corner of 15th and Mifflin, and Noah’s Ark bar at 16th and McKean undergoing an overhaul and yupping-up to a microbrew-and-burger taproom in it’s own right, well, you can fill in the blanks. Add that the area is served by major SEPTA routes in either direction and that pretty much seals the deal.

Better bone up on your trivia, kids…I see major Quizzo wars in our future.

I’m up for Happy Hour this Friday 7/18 around 5:30 at the SPTap…come on down!

Hope this shines a new light on a very desirable South Philly neighborhood and buyers out there will finally get what all the fuss is about. Me, I’m personally banking on ‘Bold to be the next big thing down under (Washington Ave., that is).

 Today the U.S. Commerce Department issued a report with the following data:

* ”April’s rebound was led by a huge 41.7 percent surge in sales in the Northeast”

*  “Sales were up 8.3 percent in the West”

* “5.8 percent in the Midwest”

However, the report that made headlines everywhere was the May, 2008  Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index. Their 20 city metro area index showed home prices falling 14.1 percent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier in places like Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego and Tampa where prices SKY ROCKETED to riduculously over-inflated numbers for years. Las Vegas, formerly a flipper’s haven had the worst quarterly performance, falling 25.9%, followed by Miami and Phoenix.  Many anaylsts believe the adjustment is warranted and good.

However, THAT DOES NOT SELL NEWS!

The Philadelphia Inquirer recently posted an article stating that the Philadelphia area foreclosure rate is down 30%!  That’s great!  To read the article see below…

Philadelphia area’s foreclosure rate drops 30%

By Al Heavens

Inquirer Real Estate Columnist

The Philadelphia region’s first-quarter foreclosure rate fell almost 30 percent from the same period a year earlier, bucking a national trend that saw filings rise to one in every 194 U.S. households.The rate puts Philadelphia 82d on a list of 100 metropolitan areas compiled by RealtyTrac Inc., the Irvine, Calif., firm that tracks foreclosures nationwide.

Included in the top 10 metro areas for foreclosure filings were six cities in California, as well as Las Vegas, Detroit, Phoenix and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Stockton, Calif., in the central part of the state, led the list with 7,560 filings, or one household in 30, an increase of almost 292 percent from January-to-March 2007.

The more-populous eight-county Philadelphia region had 3,064 filings, or one household in 527, a decline of 29.64 percent, RealtyTrac’s data show.

Nationally, there were 649,917 filings in the first quarter, an increase of 112 percent over January-to-March 2007, RealtyTrac reported.

James Saccacio, the company’s chief executive officer, said that “unusual, nonmarket factors” might be the reason for the drop in this region, citing the city’s April moratorium on foreclosure sales and a program, approved in March, to delay foreclosure proceedings on owner-occupied properties until the owners have met face-to-face with lenders to attempt a loan-workout plan.

In the city, fewer properties were sold for foreclosure in 2007 than in 2003, said Sheriff John Green, who credited efforts by his department and nonprofit counseling agencies to get homeowners to begin talking with lenders before the process started.

In 2003, 7,833 properties in Philadelphia were scheduled for foreclosure sale, and 2,694 sold, Green said; in 2007, 5,670 were scheduled, and 2,041 sold.

Green said he was cautiously optimistic these efforts would keep the problem under control, even as foreclosure experts anticipated an increase in filings as adjustable-rate subprime loans reset in the coming year.

Moody’s Economy.com chief economist Mark Zandi observed, “Foreclosure moratoriums are delaying, and not forestalling, foreclosures.”

The Philadelphia area’s foreclosure rate will remain well below the national average, Zandi said, because “the region didn’t get caught up as much in the investor and subprime-lending frenzy during the housing boom.”

The city’s foreclosure-sale moratorium does not affect the suburbs. But even as filings rise slowly in the seven counties outside Philadelphia, the number of properties that reach actual foreclosure sale remains fairly low.

For example, Montgomery County listed 267 properties for sheriff’s sale in March. Only 33 were sold. Action on the rest was stayed or postponed.

Thirty-seven properties were scheduled for sale in Gloucester County in March, but in 20 cases, the sale either was canceled or the homeowner filed for bankruptcy to avert it, the records show.

Across Pennsylvania, 633 foreclosure sales were completed in January and February combined, up 16 percent from a year ago, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. In New Jersey, 381 sales in those two months combined represented a 97 percent increase year over year, due largely to higher numbers in the northern part of the state.

Foreclosures in this region continue to fall heaviest on low- and middle-income borrowers. An examination of properties listed for sheriff’s sale in each of the eight counties since January showed that the vast majority involved mortgages ranging from $75,000 to $350,000.

In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, foreclosures must be completed within 300 days of the lender’s filing, which effectively buys homeowners some time. By contrast, in California, the period is 135 days; in Texas, 90; and in Virginia, which has the shortest limit, 60 days.

In addition, Pennsylvania and New Jersey have programs to assist those facing foreclosure.

Pennsylvania’s Housing Finance Agency administers the Homeowners’ Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program, which lends money to help bring delinquent payments current, using the mortgage on the property as security.

Applications for the loan, obtained through state-approved counseling agencies, postpone further foreclosure action for 60 days, pending agency review.

In November, the agency launched REfinance to An Affordable Loan (REAL), which provides 100 percent fixed-rate loans to troubled borrowers. The Homeowners’ Equity Recovery Opportunity Loan (HERO) lets the agency buy a homeowner’s loan from the lender and sets up an affordable repayment agreement.

New Jersey’s Department of Community Affairs has launched a public-private alliance called NJ HOPE.

Spokesman Chris Donnelly said the program was “committed to preserving homeownership by raising consumer awareness of available mortgage products, funding and refinancing, increasing access to credit and loan counseling, and providing temporary assistance to consumers facing foreclosure.”