Real Estate Zen

Wall Street Journal report: Uptick in existing home sales in February 2009. The Northeast leads the pack.

Alex Zima — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:52:53 +0000

Early signs:

Existing-home sales rise on ‘deep’ discounting (From Wall Street Journal)

Real Estate Market 411 for Buyers and Sellers on the East Side of Providence: Location location location

Alex Zima — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:47:19 +0000

One of the factors noted in my previous post is location, the Holy Grail of real estate. Why the importance of location? Simply put, you can change the look of a houses interior or exterior. You can even tear it down and build again. However, you can’t move a bay view closer or that loud cement factory further away. A well researched location is the first step in making a smart real estate choice. Location determines enjoyment, convenience, health and a myriad of other factors that in sum make up “value”. The stronger all these points are, the higher the demand for the particular location and the best assurance of an increase in value over time.

The factor I’d like to focus on in this post is location in terms of transportation. Whether in the suburbs or urban center, easy access to driving routes to shopping, schools and other amenities are an attractive feature. Several major travel routes, including Rt. 95 (north/south route from main through southern Florida-streaming directly through Boston, Providence, and New York City), Rt. 195 (the main route out to Cape Cod and Islands) and Rt. 10 (local freeway connecting smaller towns with larger commuting routes). Access to transportation whether public, private, driving, walking, and biking, is one factor that are making city centers increasingly popular after several decades of middle class exodus to the suburbs. Unlike the suburbs, which may be close to convenient driving routes, walk- and bikeability are increasingly important criteria for today’s buyers. Walking and biking not only supports a healthy lifestyle, but help save on gas and parking fees. A website that has gotten a lot of buzz recently is http://www.walkscore.com. Designated urban green space, walking and biking paths are a major selling point for most of my clients, as it was for me and my partner when we moved to Oak Hill, several blocks from Blackstone Boulevard.

In recent years, there has been a move back to city centers by young professionals who want the easy access and walkability of traditional city environments that still had significant architecture features. Downtown Providence, a stone’s throw from the East Side and providing gleaming views, is one such area. Suburban expansion after WWII in the U.S. was directly related to ideas of modernity bolstered by the wild popularity of all things automotive in the post-WWII era. Walkability was thought to be a thing of the past as residents buzzed into and out of their bedroom communities and shopping malls-the centralized temples of consumption and parking lots-were signs of progress. While the more recent enthusiasm for (livable) cities was fueled by changing lifestyle choices, the opportunities afforded by previously depressed prices, flexible financing, and the emergence of historic tax credits and other incentives for redevelopment, this move has been further nudged by the recent rapid increases in gasoline prices. City living can actually leave a smaller carbon footprint than the national per capita average and rising gas prices, an attractive, if surprisingly counter-intuitive fact that will appeal to environmentally conscious buyers. Such considerations are clearly a factor in the popularity of the East Side of Providence and the communities that surround it. This demand translates into high value.

Real Estate Market 411 for Buyers and Sellers on the East Side of Providence

Alex Zima — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:19:18 +0000

It doesn’t take long at a cocktail party before I’m asked “So how’s the market doing?” or these days, “How are YOU doing?”. The answer is complex of course. The East Side of Providence and the adjunct neighborhood of Oak Hill is analogous to other real estate “micro-climates” like Manhattan, Back Bay Boston, downtown LA, and the “Gold Coast” of Chicago. Like these areas, the East Side, for a variety of lifestyle, architectural, transportation, and cultural factors, is considered the strongest area for living and investing in Providence. Property values are by far the highest in the city. The analogous areas above share these factors with the East Side of Providence, albeit on a smaller scale. These are also the markets where we see signs of moderate declines and recent increases in median price or units sold. In these areas historically the dips have been less severe and the recovery faster and are not subject to the wild swings of more volatile markets for a variety of reasons. I will follow up with more detailed explanations of these factors, but the short answer is that the East Side/Oak Hill is holding it’s own despite severe conditions in many markets nationally. The major caveat is of course what develops with our national economy, international market forces, global instability, etc. Nevertheless, all things being equal, these microclimates will continue to fair better in terms of relative stability in price, units sold, and days on market within varying national market conditions.

Useful related article: “Big-City Home Prices Are Faring Well” by Jeff D. Opdyke, The Wall Street Journal. May 20, 2008