Marco Santarelli, Author at Norada Real Estate Investments

Phoenix Real Estate Market & Investment Overview 2020

September 5, 2020 by Marco Santarelli

Even after suffering from the pandemic, the Phoenix housing market 2020 still comes out on top. As we saw Arizona real estate market thriving & becoming sizzling hot in the past couple of years, even the rise in mortgage rates was believed not to affect it. We've been seeing real estate appreciation rates increasing year-over-year in the entire metro area. The Greater Phoenix area was also predicted to be among the top housing markets in the year 2020. It is now clear that the pandemic could not change that prediction. It could only pause sales, which in turn created a huge pent up demand.

The Phoenix real estate market has not only recovered after a slump due to COVID-19 but the demand has reached new heights. In July & August, the Phoenix was a hot seller’s real estate market, which means there were roughly more buyers than there were active homes for sale. The demand for housing has completely outpaced the supply. It also means that the market is very competitive and difficult for buyers. The annual real estate appreciation rate is in double digits. In July, the median sales price — up 3.3% in a single month, and up 12.5% for the last 12 months. According to ARMLS, the lost sales of late March, April and May began to surface in June and then with greater frequency in July.

Sales in the Metro Phoenix housing market have fully recovered and posted a year-over-year increase of almost 13% in July. The 10,303 home sales were not only the highest number of sales ever in July, but one of the highest monthly totals ever. Although August's housing statistics are yet to be released by ARMLS the total sales in August are expected to surpass July's figures. Despite the rise in new listings, the environment is extremely difficult for homebuyers in metro Phoenix. Typically, a market that favors sellers has less than 6 months of supply, while more than 6 months of supply indicates an excess of homes for sale that favors buyers.

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NYC Real Estate Market 2020 Overview

August 31, 2020 by Marco Santarelli

We'll be discussing the current state of the NYC real estate market, and also for the state of New York. New York is now in phase 4 of reopening, and July saw resale home sales increase by a significant measure as compared to June. However, the NYC housing prices trends have shifted from their normal course. After remaining firmly steady throughout the pandemic, July presented a whole new picture. Data by PropertyShark.com shows that July marked the strongest month of sales since March when the pandemic began.

A total of 2,343 real estate deals were closed across the four boroughs—33% drop as compared to last year's July. Compared to June, sales increased sharply by almost 40%. However, there was the sharpest decrease in the median sales price of the four boroughs. The median sales price in July was $680,000, trending down by 13% year-over-year. It also marked the lowest median sales price since March. The YTD median sale price in NYC stands at $687,419.

Earlier in June, the median sales price in NYC had hit $718,000 for the highest figure year-to-date. June also marked the first noticeable year-over-year price contraction, coming in 2% below June 2019's median of $735,000. The median list price of homes in New York (Realtor.com) was $799K in July 2020, trending down 5.8% year-over-year.

The statewide median sold price in New York climbed to $300,000, a 3.4% increase over the $290,000 level 12 months ago. The YTD gain was 4.4% to $287,000. The price growth can be attributed to an insufficient amount of homes available for sale as the “months supply of homes” shrunk by 15.8 percent year-over-year.

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1031 Exchange Rules For Investors: How To Do A 1031 Exchange In 2020?

August 28, 2020 by Marco Santarelli

Taxes rarely make for exciting reading material, but if you own an investment property, there’s at least one set of IRS regulations you absolutely will want to understand: 1031 exchange rules. Why? Because normally when you sell an investment property for more than what you paid for it, you’d have to pay a hefty capital gains tax. But with a 1031 exchange, you get to defer paying those taxes if you reinvest the proceeds in a new property, making an “exchange” rather than a sale. It’s just that this transaction is subject to some strict regulations, so you’ll need to follow the 1031 exchange rules to the letter. There are many investors who would like to do a 1031 exchange. Some of them who do fix and flip call us for a 1031 exchange to roll the gain over into the next property. But can they? Although confusing, understanding IRS Code Section 1031 is worth it. Here’s what you need to know to pull it off.

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Las Vegas Real Estate Market 2020 Overview

August 27, 2020 by Marco Santarelli

The Las Vegas housing market is literally on fire amid the pandemic. The booming Las Vegas real estate market was impacted by the ongoing pandemic but things are turning back to normal. The economic uncertainty and massive job losses directly affected its housing market as well. However, it has managed to avoid total collapse. There is no downturn happening in the local housing market. In fact, the Las Vegas housing market is among those cites that are showing the most signs of a positive recovery. Houisng prices are at record levels, with historically low-interest rates, strong demand, and tight housing supply.

According to the association of local realtors (LVR), July had the most amount of home sales since 2017 with more than 4,000 existing homes sold. In July, the median sales price of previously owned single-family homes, which comprises of the bulk of the Southern Nevada's housing market, increased to $330,000, a year-over-year increase of 8.9 percent. It was a 1.5 percent rise from the previous record high in June. Closed sales increased by 34.9 percent from June and 5.3 percent from July 2019. For condos and townhomes, the median sale price for a unit in July was $196,000, up by a whopping 12% from July 2019.

July's real estate data by Realtor.com also shows that the Las Vegas housing market is heating up again. The median list price of homes in Las Vegas, NV was $310K in July 2020, trending up 5.1% year-over-year. The median listing price per square foot was $176. With the reopening of its economy, the Las Vegas real estate industry is looking forward to how the business can be conducted in the wake of the new normal. On the positive side, the national housing market 2020 has already bounced back faster than anticipated from the damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Seattle Real Estate Market & Investment Overview 2020

August 26, 2020 by Marco Santarelli

Despite the economic downturn and disruptions stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, the Seattle housing prices are keeping strong and steady. The Seattle real estate market showed a lot of resilience and is poised to recover the decline in sales, especially in the context of the slowdown experienced in April and May. Even before the virus hit the region, it was quite evident that if the inventory crunches further, the affordability will become a bigger issue in the Seattle housing market 2020, especially with homes in the lower tier. That trend continued to follow even during the Covid-19 epidemic. Even with the market virtually shutting down, there isn't a great drop in the open house attendance or sales activity.

Right now the latest news is that Seattle's housing market remains in a shortage with around one month of supply of properties on the market. Despite a significant increase of more than 24% in new listings, the inventory was at a 10-year low for July. The entire King County is a hot seller's real estate market with only 1.13 months of inventory—still well below what is required to meet the volume of buyers right now. In July the median prices of closed sales in King County increased to $670,000 (up 7.2% from a year ago). There are far more buyers than there are available homes for sale.

Homebuyers are trying to take advantage of lower interest rates, and the local real estate agents are struggling to meet the demand. July was a great month for the Seattle housing market. The latest trends point towards stronger sales and a rise in prices for the next three months. According to local realtors, as buyers seek to cash in on record-low interest rates the market is predicted to remain this way until at least April of next year.

The selling season will likely run well into the fall and there will continue to be pent up demand. With the virus and increased flexible work-from-home options, people are able to move to suburbs and outer areas in search of value and lower population density. Therefore, buyers are also starting to find homes toward the suburbs. Seattle-based Zillow Group predicts a ‘suburban boom' in the US real estate market as remote work becomes more common.