CAR has bullish housing outlook | Inside Real Estate News

Highlights:

• The Colorado Association of Realtors releases 2Q statewide report.
• All corners of the state looking good.
• Bullish trend expected to continue.

All corners of Colorado?s housing market enjoyed a robust second quarter, from the Denver area to the mountains, to agricultural rural pockets, according to a report released today by the Colorado Association of Realtors.

?Overall the picture for housing in Colorado is quite good with increased numbers of sales, higher median sales prices, and less time on the market ? regardless of which part of the market you consider,? according to the report.

?Lender-mediated sales as a percentage of overall sales declined in every area indicating further strengthening and stabilizing of the housing market,? the report continued.

Good Times

The CAR expects the good times to continue

?With higher prices comes some decline in affordability and with small inventories in most regions, competition for the best properties will likely continue,? according to the report.

Sales of single-family homes, condominiums and townhouses increased 16 percent in Colorado in the second quarter compared with the second quarter of 2012, according to the Quarterly Market Statistical Report released today by the CAR.

Here are some of its findings:

• In total, there were 28,068 closings in the second quarter, 16 percent more than in the second quarter of 2012.
• Year-to-date, sales rose almost 17 percent, compared with the first six months of 2012.
• New listings also increased about 16 percent to 42,348 with growth in new townhouse-condo listings outpacing single-family homes.
• The median sales prices statewide rose just over 8 percent to $260,000 for single-family homes and $170,000 for townhouses and condominiums compared to the first quarter 2012.
• Days on the market continued a downward trend, down 25 percent for single-family homes and down 29 percent for townhomes and condos.
• There were 33,256 active listings statewide, at the end of the second quarter, representing a 4.6-month inventory for single-family and a 4.1-month inventory for townhouses-condos.

?These figures are very encouraging, continuing trends we reported last quarter and in some instances showing even stronger improvement in our regional markets,? said CAR spokesperson, Karen Levine.

?Beginning this quarter we are able to report results separately for single-family and townhouses-condos. Drilling down even further on the statistics and market intricacies will help consumers better understand market trends and assist our Realtor members in serving both sellers and buyers successfully,? Levine continued. ?In both categories we are seeing more sales, increased median pricing and fewer days on the market.?

Meanwhile, sales of lender-mediated properties (properties owned by banks and other mortgage lenders) declined strongly as a percent of all sales, adding to the sense of recovery.?All regions of the state saw declines with the metro and mountain regions experiencing the largest drops, quarter to quarter.

Affordability

The CAR Housing Affordability Index, a newer statistical measure for Colorado?s housing market, showed declines in all areas of the state for both single-family and townhouse-condo listings.

This pattern should be expected as housing prices move up unless personal income increases at a comparable rate.

An index of 120 means the median household income in that area was 120 percent of what is necessary to qualify for the median-priced home under prevailing interest rates.

A higher number is usually interpreted as greater housing affordability. Higher values generally benefit buyers whereas lower values help sellers.

The greatest affordability during the second quarter of 2013 was in the townhouse-condo market in the Northwest Region, with an index number of 220. In comparison, the rates in the Mountain Region were 91 for single-family homes and 107 for townhouses-condos, the lowest readings for the quarter.

In addition to cumulative statewide statistics, CAR has released six regional reports:? Metro Denver Region

Sales of single-family homes in this region rose 13.8 percent, while townhouse-condo sales increased by more than 20 percent. The median sales price jumped 9 percent for single-family to $284,000 and nearly 13 percent to almost $164,000 for townhouses-condos.

One of the consequences of improved prices is that the Affordability Index for Metro Denver has dropped steadily during 2012 and into the second quarter 2013. By this measure alone, condos are significantly more affordable in the Metro area than single-family homes. This area of the state sees the fewest days on the market (45 for each kind of property) and experienced the largest drop in this measure quarter to quarter. The quarter closed with 12,450 active listings representing slightly less than a three-month supply.

Mountain Region (Garfield, Grand, Gunnison, Jackson, Pitkin, Routt, San Miguel and Summit counties.)

The number of new single-family listings increased 6 percent, while townhouse-condo new listings declined by 1 percent.

Sales increased for townhouses-condos by 7 percent and fell 1 percent for single-family homes.

The median sales price rose 14 percent to $397,000 for single-family and 12 percent to $334,250 for townhouses-condos in this region, which includes Colorado?s ski resort communities.

With just under 3,800 active listings, this region has approximately 13 months? supply of inventory which, in these areas of the state, is not unusual.

Lender-mediated property sales as a proportion of all sales declined significantly to 16 percent. Days on the market dropped more than 10 percent for single-family properties to 154, but rose 4 percent to 175 for townhouses-condos.

Northeast Region (Boulder, Larimer, Logan, Morgan, Weld counties)

This region of Colorado continues to see double-digit growth in new listings , up 15 percent, while sales were up 16 percent.

The median sales price rose 6 percent.

Both the quarterly and year to date new listings of single-family homes matched the rate of growth for townhouses-condos.

The number of townhouse-condo sales increased slightly more than single-family though the median price increase was significantly greater for single-family (9 percent versus 4 percent). Days on the market are identical at 81, an average 25 percent drop over the same quarter last year. The region had nearly ,6000 homes available at the end of the quarter, representing a 4-5 month supply.

Northwest Region (Delta, Hinsdale, Mesa, Moffat, Montrose, Pitkin, Rio Blanca counties.)

This region had a sixth consecutive quarter of increased new listings, up 14 percent compared to the second quarter of 2012 attributable entirely to an increase in single-family listings as townhouse-condo listings remained flat.

Single-family sales rose by 6 percent and the median price on those homes increased 3 percent to $175,000. The townhouse-condo market did not fare as well on sales, as they were down 11 percent. The median price, on the 66 properties sold, however, rose 12 percent to $141,225 compared to the same quarter last year.

This area of the state experienced another large drop in lender-mediated sales, down 27 percent and enjoyed the highest Affordability Index at 222 for townhouses-condos.

Southeast Region (Baca, Chaffee, Crowley, Custer, El Paso, Freemont, Huerfano, Las Animas, Otero, Pueblo and Teller counties)

Southeast Colorado home sales increased 19 percent to 4,346 during the second quarter of 2013 compared to 2012. New listings increased by 17 percent and the median price rose 7 percent.

New listings of townhouses and condos outpaced single-family homes, 30 percent versus 16 percent, as did sales, which rose by 33 percent, compared with 18 percent.

The median price for single-family homes rose to $200,000 and for townhouses-condos, to $136,000.

Days on the market are among the best in the state with drops of 16 percent to 84 days for single-family homes and 23 percent to 72 days for townhouses-condos. There were about 8,400 properties available in this region at the end of the quarter representing a seven-month supply.

Southwest Region (Alamosa, Archuleta, Conejos, Costilla, Dolores, Hinsdale, La Plata, Mineral, Montezuma, Saguache and San Juan counties.)

The Southwest Region experienced the largest increase in the state for sales , rising 22 percent rise, while the median price of a home rose 22 percent. There were 562 properties sold during the second quarter.

Though the number of townhouse-condo sales increased more significantly than single-family homes quarter to quarter, the median price for those properties actually declined 13 percent to $178,300.

The single-family home sales, which represented 85 percent of the quarterly sales, increased in median value by 30 percent to $249,500.

Days on the market dropped for single-family homes by 10 percent and rose 2 percent for townhomes and condos.

With more than 2,500 properties available at the end of the quarter, there are sufficient single-family listings to last 16 months and townhouse-condo listings to last 12 months.

CAR?s ?Quarterly Market Statistical Reports are prepared by 10K Research and Marketing, a Minneapolis-based real estate technology company, and are based on data provided by Multiple Listing Services in Colorado.

The current second quarter ?2013 reports represent approximately 91 percent of all MLS-listed residential real estate transactions in the state. The metrics do not include ?For Sale by Owner? transactions or all new construction.

Have a story idea or real estate tip? Contact John Rebchook at? JRCHOOK@gmail.com. InsideRealEstateNews.com is sponsored by Universal Lending, Land Title Guarantee and 8z Real Estate. To read more articles by John Rebchook, subscribe to the Colorado Real Estate Journal.

Source: http://insiderealestatenews.com/car-reports-17-jump-in-home-sales/

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Senate ends blockade against consumer chief pick

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate has voted to end a two-year Republican blockade that was preventing Richard Cordray from winning confirmation as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Tuesday's 71-29 vote came minutes after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that he and GOP leaders were working toward a deal aimed at freeing up seven stalled appointments President Barack Obama has made to the consumer agency, the National Labor Relations Board and other agencies.

Obama had used a recess appointment to put Cordray in charge of the agency, an appointment that expires in January. Republicans had solidly opposed Cordray's nomination, demanding that Obama first agree to change the agency's financing and structure.

The consumer bureau was created by the 2010 law that overhauled federal financial regulatory powers following the Great Recession.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-ends-blockade-against-consumer-chief-pick-154017146.html

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GOP seeks funds for Ft Wayne convention

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) -- Republican Party officials in Fort Wayne are working to raise $250,000 toward their efforts to secure next year's Indiana GOP convention for the city.

Allen County Republican chairman Steve Shine says that money would be spent to help cover hotel expenses for delegates and perhaps provide bus transportation to Fort Wayne for those living in distant parts of the state. Shine tells The News-Sentinel he's also looking to line up a nationally known entertainer for a possible event at the city's downtown baseball stadium.

Incoming state GOP chairman Tim Berry says he'll soon be looking at details about holding the convention in his hometown.

The Republican state convention has always been held in Indianapolis. Indiana Democrats held their state convention in Fort Wayne for the first time last year.
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Information from: The News-Sentinel, http://www.news-sentinel.com/ns

Source: http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/local/gop-lining-up-money-for-fort-wayne-convention

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basedandbiased: Here?s The Story of the Twitter Hero Who Single-Handedly Killed Zimmerman Juror...

A lot has been made about the controversial Zimmerman Trial Juror B37. First she appeared on Anderson Cooper and made comments?expressing sympathy and support for Zimmerman. But she really sparked an outrage by announcing ? fewer than 48 hours after George Zimmerman was declared Not Guilty ? that she?d signed a book deal.

Well, one passionate person on Twitter who goes by @MoreandAgain took things into her own hands.

Source: http://flannery-culp.tumblr.com/post/55643489045

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Petrol bombs, bricks thrown in third night of Northern Irish violence

By Ian Graham

BELFAST (Reuters) - Rioters threw petrol bombs, bricks, bottles and fireworks at police in a third night of violence in Northern Ireland around traditional Protestant marches, wounding one officer early on Monday.

Protesters built a burning barricade across one road and burned out one car during the clashes that first flared on Friday following a dispute over a marching route.

Thousands of pro-British Protestants march every summer, a regular flashpoint for sectarian violence as Catholics, many of whom favour unification with Ireland, see the parades as a provocation.

A 1998 peace deal mostly ended decades of sectarian strife in the British province but trouble still breaks out, particularly around the Orange parades which mark a 1690 Protestant victory over a Catholic king.

Police said they had brought hundreds of reinforcements from Britain to cope with any more violence.

Both the Protestant Orange Order, which organises the marches, and the devolved government, called for calm.

"It's very important that cool heads prevail in these circumstances and I hope people will obey the announcement and statement by the Orange Institution that people should desist from violence," said Peter Robinson, who heads the government.

Protestant marchers, unhappy because authorities ruled they could not walk along a stretch of road that divides the two communities, started throwing bricks and bottles at police on Friday.

The force responded with water cannon and rubber bullets.

Forty-four police officers have been wounded over the weekend and 49 people arrested, including one aged 10.

Special court sittings were held on Sunday to deal with 10 of those charged and most were remanded in custody.

(Editing by Sam Cage and Andrew Heavens)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/petrol-bombs-bricks-thrown-third-night-northern-irish-081416786.html

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For Obama's climate plan, devil is in the details

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Frustrated by a recalcitrant Congress, President Barack Obama has vowed to take climate change into his own hands. Now he has to deliver.

Three weeks after giving an ambitious speech to outline his proposal, the president begins the arduous task of executing it. Obama's plan is a complicated mix of rule-making and federal permitting that's tough to encapsulate in a neat sales pitch ? and may be even tougher to put into action.

By pledging to use his authority under existing laws, Obama freed himself from the need to sell the plan to skeptical lawmakers whose support he would need if he had to push a major climate change bill through Congress. Even so, he still needs public support to help shield vulnerable Democrats already facing criticism over the plan; their fate in the 2014 elections will determine whether Obama can accomplish much of anything during his final two years.

"While he can do some stuff on his own, he can't do others," said Jim Messina, Obama's 2012 campaign manager. "Congress needs to act on some of these things." Messina is now chairman of Organizing for Action, the group formed from Obama's campaign to advocate for the president's agenda.

The centerpiece of Obama's plan is imposing the first-ever limits on carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants. This will require each state to draft its own compliance proposal, placing a major component of Obama's legacy largely in the hands of governors and state policymakers, many of whom are deeply skeptical about the plan and what it could mean for local economies.

Obama knows the clock is ticking. Most of what he has proposed will take years to carry out, and he only calls the shots through 2016. So his aides, Cabinet secretaries and allies are fanning out, trying to start putting the plan in place as soon as possible.

The president took some steps almost immediately after unveiling his proposal. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz overhauled an $8 billion loan-guarantee program, one that had largely sat dormant for 5 years, to spur new technologies. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell approved a wind project in Arizona that the administration says will power up to 175,000 homes.

And the Environmental Protection Agency quickly sent a reworked proposal for emissions limits on new power plants to the White House.

When the Obama administration first proposed the limits last year, the energy industry balked, arguing the EPA was being heavy-handed because it used the same standard for natural gas as for coal. The industry argued this would mean a moratorium on new coal plants because the technology needed to retrofit plants to meet the standard isn't commercially available or cost-effective.

The new version of the rule hasn't been publicly released. But a senior White House official said the limits will now use different standards for natural gas and coal, essentially bowing to claims that the original rule was ill-conceived. The official was not authorized to divulge details about the rule ahead of its release and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Other steps have yet to be taken. The White House and the EPA are focusing on finishing the rules for new plants before they turn to the far trickier proposition of regulating existing plants.

Coordination and outreach to the 50 states won't ramp up until the fall, the official said. Obama's team insists it is confident it can convince states to go along with Obama's plan.

Heather Zichal, Obama's top energy and climate adviser, said important steps are being taken even in Republican-led states such as Texas and Utah, where local leaders have been confronted firsthand with drought and other environmental challenges blamed on climate change.

"The conversation outside the (Washington) Beltway is much different than the conversation inside the Beltway," Zichal said. "You will see us trying to connect those dots."

But don't expect Obama to try to sell the plan in the same ways he did with immigration and health care. With climate change, Obama can't fly around the country rallying Americans to demand their House members and senators vote yes on a bill. That's because there isn't one.

Even so, Obama has signaled he wants Americans engaged on the issue. He's deployed his "Energy Cabinet" ? Moniz, Jewell, his agriculture and EPA chiefs and others ? around the country to explain what the administration is doing and why. The White House said Obama, too, will be part of that effort, although it hasn't said whether he'll travel or make big speeches to tout the plan.

Obama's aides see parallels with gay marriage, arguing there's been a dramatic shift in public opinion on climate change that benefits their side.

On some levels, they're right. When AP-GfK asked Americans in November whether global warming, left unabated, would become a serious U.S. problem, 80 percent said it would ? about the same as in 2009. In those three years, though, those who doubt climate change has been occurring have become less certain about it. In 2009, 52 percent of those who questioned climate change said they were sure it was false. In 2012, that figure dropped to 31 percent.

For Obama's supporters, criticizing those who doubt climate change has become something of a sport ? a rallying cry for the Democratic base the same way Obama's so-called "war on coal" has become a conservative mantra. Organizing for Action, Messina's group, is calling out every member of Congress who doubts the planet is getting warmer.

The challenges ahead are easy to spot. The authority Obama is invoking comes from the Clean Air Act, a labyrinthine 1960s-era law that's never been used to regulate heat-trapping gases from existing power plants. The law says EPA must publish guidelines and give states time to create their own plans to meet those goals. Then the EPA gets to approve or reject those plans, setting up likely confrontations with Republican governors and some coal-state Democrats who want nothing to do with making life harder for local industry.

But if states simply refuse to propose their own plan, EPA gets to write the plan for them. It's a heavy lift with echoes of Obama's health care law, under which Washington will operate new insurance exchanges in more than half the states, after states refused to do so themselves.

"There's absolutely no precedent here," said Jeffrey Holmstead, who ran the EPA's air and radiation division under President George W. Bush. "The EPA has been given the task of fitting a very large square peg into a very small round hole."

___

AP Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

___

Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter: http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obamas-climate-plan-devil-details-081448860.html

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Youth Baseball: Ken Hubbs Little League rolls to victory

RIALTO - Starter Eddie Aldama was dominant early, then the Ken Hubbs Little League bats came alive.

Ken Hubbs broke open a close game with six runs in the fifth inning and went on to down Barstow 13-4 in the second game of the Section 8 Little League Tournament at Frisbie Park on Saturday night.

Ken Hubbs advances to play Highland in the winner's bracket game at 8 p.m.

Sunday, while Barstow faces Vineyard in an elimination game at 5:30.

Aldama struck out five of the seven batters he faced in two innings. Ken Hubbs took a 4-0 lead the lead in the top of the second with four runs, with the final two runs scoring on a dropped fly ball with two outs.

It was 5-1 in the fifth when Ken Hubbs erupted for six runs, capped by Juan Navarette's three-run homer to put them on the verge of a mercy-rule win.

They were one out away from the victory in the bottom of the fifth when Kevin Locke's three-run double kept Barstow alive and made it 11-4.

But that was the biggest offensive highlight for Barstow, which had just two hits against Aldama, Billy Alvarado and Noah Para. Ken Hubbs had 13 hits, with Aldama hitting a home run in the sixth inning and Abel Madueno going 4 for 4 with a double.

Source: http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_23658016/youth-baseball-ken-hubbs-little-league-rolls-victory?source=rss

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