U r b a n T r e k k e r

High Tech Trends for Homes

Thinking about remodeling your home? Here is something that you may want to consider. Electronic wiring in homes becoming a trend according to BizJournal and it adds value to your home.

According to the CEA survey, 61 percent of new homes are now being built with structured wiring, which Jacksonville technology consulting firm Atlantic Home Technologies defines as a network of high-speed data, voice and HDTV-capable wiring that's routed invisibly through walls and ceilings to a central connection center panel. It serves as a home's "digital plumbing."

Deck Adds Sales Value

From WT Home Guide. Excerpts:

The December 2004 Cost vs. Value Report, jointly sponsored by Remodeling and Realtor magazines, reports that the national average for return on investment of a deck is 88.1 percent.
    In the Washington metropolitan area, for a 16-by-20-foot deck built using composite material, that number rises to 108 percent, the study reports.
    Adding a deck is money well spent, real estate agents say, because it can make a dramatic difference by adding to living space and enjoyment of the natural scenery in a region where open spaces are at a premium.

Read full article, click here.

It's a Crazy Market Out There

Real estate market has been trending up for a couple of years now. Owning properties for investments have gone main stream. Try to attend a pre-construction preview, you would see how many people out there waiting patiently in line to set appointments before gone public. The other day, I had planned to go to a pre-construction preview for new condos that will be built very close to an orange line Metro, but decided not to go because traffic around the area got jammed up. Not only the streets got jammed up but also people lined up under the rain hours before they open the door. It's crazy!

WSJ has a great article about how the housing boom has transformed cities. Baltimore, is a good example. DC folks have driven up Baltimore market.

The city is also drawing hundreds of small property investors and speculators. In one blighted but promising neighborhood, Barclay, between the city's main rail station and Johns Hopkins, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently scheduled an auction of 56 rental properties it had acquired through foreclosures. The Baltimore housing department feared that the homes would attract a new generation of slumlords, people without the resources to transform the neighborhood, says Christopher Shea, a city planning official.

(Chart is from WSJ)

Urban Living Trends

A short analysis about urban living trends from CoolTown Studios.

Downtowns continue to grow. Young professionals and small families are rediscovering the richness of activities and culture in downtowns, such as in Tampa where are 1000 downtown residential units underway. The City of Anaheim is looking to transform 807 acres of warehouses and parking lots around Angel Stadium into an urban village of 9000 homes (see image).

Interiors become a priority for self-expression. Older working professionals and retirees with discretionary income want beautiful buildings on the outside, but want simple interiors to customize to their needs and lifestyles. The younger set without the savings just want the latter, helping fuel the immense popularity of Target and Ikea.

Base Realignment: Arlington, Fairfax

We heard about BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) plan that will affect the real estate market in Northern Virginia. It looks like Arlington will be the hardest hit while Fairfax will gain from Arlington's loss. Right now, it is trending towards exploding housing demands for Fairfax and Prince William Counties. What we don't know is what percentage of employees who now works out of  Arlington and Alexandria offices actually lives in the Arlington - Alexandria corridor. And what about when the shift is finally completed six years from now (2011) - what percentage of workers maintain residency around Ft. Belvoir either by way of renting or owning. It's hard to tell.

Here's the take on what's going to happen to Arlington market and how the transfer of employment and offices would likely change Fairfax housing market from WaPo.

Real Estate Day Traders

We know that investing in real estate is hot, when everyone is talking about buying properties and flip it to make a quick profit. Another indicator would be, the number of people taking real estate classes to join the realtors bandwagon. According to NAR, they have more than a million members.. interestingly though, only six percent works full time. The rest are dual careers.

A reader from NY has sent me this link from Fortune about the life of new breed of real estate speculators who act like day traders from dotcom years chasing investments, flip their properties and start all over again.

"You're seeing people now for whom investing in real estate is their life," says Jay Butler, director of the Real Estate Center at Arizona State University. "They are quasi-pro and amateur investors driven by the idea of self-sufficiency: This is their way to become financially independent. It's a move taken straight from the old day traders of the stock market."

Making Money in Real Estate

Here's a book to help you become a savvy real estate investor, part of NAR Real Estate Investment Series, titled "The Insider's Guide to Making Money in Real Estate Investments." It's written by Dolff De Roos, PhD and Dianne Kennedy, CPA. Talks about the basic on investing and choked full of insider tips.

Read more about the book, click here.

More on Real Estate Investments

This article from WSJ  has links to information to help you become a successful real estate investor.

Here's an excerpt:

Investors are helping to drive the hot housing market, according to a recent report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Though 9% of U.S. mortgages last year were taken out by investors, in some booming markets investors accounted for 19% of new mortgage applications. The federal bank-insurance agency defines boom as an area where home prices increased at least 30% from three years earlier.

Read the full article, click here.

Kitchens Go Hi Tech

From RealEstate Journal.

Kitchens are popular because, besides their obvious utility in providing sustenance, they allow adults to play with the forbidden items of childhood: knives, water, fire and food. It's only natural that the other great modern plaything, computer technology, would be enlisted in this effort.

The extent to which that is occurring can be judged from the aisles at the kitchen industry's annual trade show, which took place last week in Las Vegas. And the answer is: not as much as one might fear.

Real Estate Investments Risk vs. Reward

Don't know what is the relationship between a Playboy magazine playmate of the month and real estate investing. My guess is that WaPo trying to show that even a playmate wants to be a real estate investor. Hmm, that's interesting.

Here's why investing in real estate is the "in" thing these days.

A recent study by the National Association of Realtors showed that almost 25 percent of homes bought in 2004 in the United States were bought as investments. That's up a whopping 14.4 percent, compared with 2003. David Lereah, chief economist for the association, said the organization was surprised by how big the investors' share of the market had become.

Okay, let's analyze it. When the stock market tanked in early 2000 a lot of investors lost confidence on stock market, especially small investors. So, they were looking for alternatives to invest their money. With home sales hit record high in most part of the country, real estate suddenly became replacement for dotcom stocks.