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By Susanne Dwyer

Appreciating home values and rising interest rates inflated the typical monthly mortgage payment $68 in 2016, up to $758, according to a recent analysis by Zillow, with approximately 16 percent of the median household income now needed for housing each month—the biggest share since 2010.

“As mortgage rates rise, buyers will face higher financing costs and already expensive homes will come with even higher monthly mortgage payments,” says Dr. Svenja Gudell, Zillow chief economist. “Nationally, mortgage rates still have room to grow before the share of income needed to pay the median monthly mortgage reaches the historical average, but many more expensive coastal markets are either close to or have exceeded what has been considered historically affordable.”

Housing costs in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, San Jose and San Francisco, Calif., markets gobble up the biggest pieces of the pie: 43.0 percent, 42.6 percent, and 42.2 percent of the median household income, in order. Historically, housing in Los Angeles called for 35.2 percent of the median income.

Housing costs in the Indianapolis, Ind., and Pittsburgh, Pa., markets take the smallest share: 11.2 percent of the median household income.

Approximately 29 percent of the median household income is now needed for rent each month, according to the analysis.

“On the rental side, rent appreciation has slowed lately, giving renters’ incomes a chance to catch up, as many are already committing a larger share of their income to a monthly rental payment,” Gudell says.

The markets with rental costs comprising the biggest share of the median household income are Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim and San Francisco, Calif., and New York, N.Y., at 48.5 percent, 43.8 percent and 40.5 percent, in order.

Housing and rental costs in the top metropolitan areas:

For more information, please visit www.zillow.com.

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From:: Real Estate News

By Susanne Dwyer

In the following interview, Walter F. Perschbacher IV, vice president of Branch Development for Greenridge Realty, a member of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® in Grand Rapids, Mich., discusses the Western Michigan market, social media marketing, and more.

Region Served: Western Michigan
Years in Real Estate: 13
Number of Offices: 19
Number of Agents: 400
Favorite Way to Unwind: Golf when it’s warm enough, or cooking for friends

How does your company stay flexible and current?
We’re family-owned and -operated—and have been all the way through—which allows us to make decisions more quickly than we could if we were dealing with a national brand. We also have a leadership team that’s made up of our owners and a 15-person management team, both of which allow us to easily come together to discuss what’s happening in our local market. Being a part of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® (LeadingRE®) and The Realty Alliance is also instrumental when it comes to staying flexible and current.

How does your company make its agents’ jobs easier?
Our management team’s hands-on approach to managing our agents through coaching and accountability is critical. The management team is responsible for putting individual accountability programs together for the agents who want them, in addition to providing goal-setting and coaching meetings. We also provide a full-service marketing department so our agents can spend their time out in the field where they’re most important, rather than being stuck in the office creating marketing materials, prospecting plans and working their CRM. As we make our way through 2017, we’re planning to expand our offerings in this area, giving our agents more access to it so they can truly focus on building and establishing relationships. We also created and instituted a new mission statement: We Care. Not only is it simple and easy to remember, but also, our agents can use it in their listing presentations and talk to it in public.

What is one of the challenges your market faces, and what are you doing to overcome it?
We’re still very much in a seller’s market, with a market supply that currently stands at 1.9 months (at press time). To combat the tight listing supply, we’re constantly looking at areas where clients are trying to find homes—or areas where we aren’t capturing as much of the listing inventory as we have in the past. We also hold listing contests among our offices to rally our agents and keep them going.

In what ways are you using social media?
While our agents are actively involved with various social media platforms, we have an agent marketing/branding specialist to help them with their social media campaigns. This individual is in charge of our social media plan at the company level, as well, offering a centralized approach to our social media channels, blog, etc. In addition, my partner and I take advantage of video to stay in touch with our agents on a weekly basis. A company-wide initiative that came about as a direct recommendation from our agents, these videos offer an easy …read more

From:: Real Estate News

By Susanne Dwyer

Editor’s Note: This was originally published on RISMedia’s blog, Housecall. See what else is cookin’ now at blog.rismedia.com:

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Now that Cobie Smulders isn’t busy playing not-the-mother in “How I Met Your Mother,” she’s moved on to better things—like investing in a $991,000 triplex that she just sold for $1.425 million to comedian Demetri Martin.

The property is divided into two townhouses. Each of them comes with two bedrooms, one bathroom and hardwood floors, and a top-notch interior to match the 1922 Southern Colonial-style facade. Other amenities include office space, a two-car garage with a separate carriage house above, office space and a studio.

Altogether, the “Daily Show” comedian now owns 2,300 square feet amounting to six bedrooms, five bathrooms and a low-maintenance, yet fully functional patio. It’s set up with a trellis and built-in benches.

Listed for: $1.499 million
Listed by: Andrew Rhoda

Credit: Los Angeles Times

Gabrielle van Welie is RISMedia’s editorial intern. Email her your real estate news ideas at gvanwelie@rismedia.com.

For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com.

The post Cobie Smulders Sells $1.425 Million Los Feliz Property to Demetri Martin appeared first on RISMedia.

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From:: Real Estate News