What's Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week - April 29, 2013

Mortgage rates fell again last week and are again near record lows.

According to Freddie Mac, the average rate for a 15-year fixed rate mortgage did achieve a record low of 2.61 percent as compared to 3.1 percent one year ago.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage fell to 3.40 percent and near the record low of 3.31 percent.

Low mortgage rates are helping homeowners with refinancing and are boosting housing markets as more buyers can qualify for mortgage loans.

Home Values Continue To Rise

Last week's economic news was mixed; The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, released its Home Price Index for February.

According to this index, home prices increased by 0.7 percent between January and February, and increased by 7.1 percent year-over-year on a seasonally adjusted annual basis.

According to the National Association of REALTORS®, existing home sales for March fell short of the expected 5.03 million and came in at 4.92 million existing homes sold on a seasonally adjusted annual basis.

This reading was also 0.7 percent shy of February's reading of 4.95 million existing homes sold.

Some homeowners may be taking a wait-and-see stance as they wait for home values to continue rising.

Employment Numbers Gaining Steam

Weekly jobless claims fell to 339,000 and were short of the consensus of 351,000 and the prior week's 355,000 jobless claims filed.

As more workers gain employment, those able to buy homes increases.

The economy in general also benefits as households gain income they can use for purchasing goods and services.

Consumer Sentiment rose by 2.1 points to 76.4 over the March reading of 72.3 percent.

April's reading also surpassed expectations of 74.0 percent.

As consumers gain confidence in the economy, they are generally more likely to buy homes and make other major purchases that contribute to the U.S. economy.

Coming Up this Week

This week's economic news calendar includes several reports that impact the housing sector as well as the general economy:

• Monday: Personal Income, Consumer Spending and Pending Home Sales reports are due for release.

• Tuesday: The Case Shiller/Wells Fargo Home Price Index for February and Consumer Confidence for April will provide data concerning national and regional home prices and indicate how consumers view the economy.

• Wednesday: The customary statement by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is set for release at the conclusion of its meeting. The ADP Employment Index for April and Construction Spending for March provide data on jobs and trends in construction spending.

• Thursday: Weekly Jobless Claims report

• Friday: The Non-farm Payrolls Report and Unemployment Rate for April, collectively known as the Jobs Report, will be released.

While we can't predict what will happen with mortgage rates, some industry analysts indicated that they expect rates to remain low in the near-term.

These lower rates should continue to support growth in the Seattle real estate market for home buyers and sellers as well as those looking to refinance their home.

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Taylor Swift Spends Big in Rhode Island

BUYER: Taylor Swift
LOCATION: Watch Hill, RI
PRICE: $17,750,000
SIZE: 11,000+ square feet, 8 bedrooms and at least 10.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Just a couple quick months after she flipped a house on Cape Cod—the one next door to her old teen-aged boyfriend Conor Kennedy's famed family compound—famously real estate fickle country queen Taylor Swift has reportedly dropped $17.75 on an historic, 16-room mansion on 5.23 water front acres in the charming seaside village of Watch Hill, RI. So celebrity gossip juggernaut TMZ breathlessly revealed, the 23 year old singer/songwriter paid for her new and exceptionally expensive real estate toy in cold hard cash. That's right. children. Beotch just wired the dough, so the story goes.

A little birdie we'll call Henry Hasthegoods slipped Your Mama some digital marketing materials via covert communique that shows the quintessentially East Coast seaside spread was designed by "an eminent Philadelphia architect" and built in 1930. The house, dubbed High Watch as per listing information, sits high and proud on a prominent rise where it lords over 700 feet of shoreline with uninterrupted views of Fishers Island Sound, Little Narragansett Bay, The Watch Hill Light House and a seven mile stretch of sandy beach. At 65 feet off the beach/water, listing details boldly states High Watch occupies what is "thought to be the highest point of direct waterfront land on the entire eastern seaboard, from Florida to Southern New England."

Marketing materials show the walled, gated and—no doubt—exuberantly secured ocean front estate was last listed for $24,000,000. A gated drive swoops up to a massive, parking lot-sized motor court in front of the house, a hulking Colonial style pile that measures more than 11,000 square feet spread out over four levels of living space. There are 8 bedrooms, at least 10.5 bathrooms, and a total of 8 fireplaces.

Multiple main floor reception rooms including (but not limited to) a 36-foot long parlor, a 45-foot long paneled sun room and an octagonal dining room with built in china cabinets. The over-sized kitchen has all the modern bells and whistles such as Sub-Zero fridge, warming drawer and wine cooler plus an adjoining sitting/family room with marble fireplace and sweeping views up and down the coastline.

There is, according to listing details, a guest/family bedroom with private bathroom on main floor. Four more guest/family bedrooms on the second floor each have en suite facilities and and expansive master suite is complete with two bathrooms, one for Miss Swift and another for her next boyfriend who may or may not wind up the subject of one of her future Top 40 country-pop songs.

In addition to a spacious sitting room with wet bar, fireplace and access to the widow's walk/roof terrace the top floor offers two more guest bedrooms, each a whopping 32-feet long and each equipped with attached bathroom, walk-in closet and private, water-side balcony.

The two lower levels include a vast recreation room with direct access to outdoor seaside entertainment areas, a service kitchen, a five car heated garage, a heated workshop and a discreet half bathroom for domestic and landscaping staff.

There are numerous balconies with serene water views, vast seaside terraces, and, set well below the house, a bra-shaped swimming pool (with uneven cup-sizes) and adjacent pool house/fitness room.

Little Miss Swift already owns a mini-compound tucked up into a quiet canyon in Beverly Hills, a bizarrely decorated duplex penthouse in downtown Nashville and, also in Nashville, a substantial mini-mansion in a swank gated enclave bought in mid-2011 for $2.5 million and where—we've been told but can't confirm—her parents live.

Property records reveal the Weston, Mass.-based sellers, James and Marlene Benson, are not famous—he's an insurance industry honcho who was the former CEO of John Hancock Life Insurance in the early- and mid-Aughts—but they're clearly quite rich and property records show they picked up the property way back in May 1996 for $3.5 million.

listing photos: Seaboard Properties

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H. Ross Perot, Jr. Double Whammy: Mi Patria

BUYER: Sarah and H. Ross Perot, Jr.
SELLER: Freddy De Mann
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $18,000,000
SIZE: 10,000 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms (as per listing)

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Earlier today Your Mama yammered on about the sprawling downtown Dallas penthouse that Texas-based real estate developer H. Ross Perot, Jr. has on the open market for $10,950,000.

More than a week ago Your Mama received a customarily brief covert communique from the often eerily well-informed Yolanda Yakketyak who whispered to Your Mama that the good word on the high end real estate gossip grapevine was that H. Ross Perot, Jr. had spent $18 million for Mi Patria, a walled, gated and expensively maintained and upgraded Spanish hacienda with a history of high profile ownersin L.A.'s hoity toity Bel Air community.

Property records show Mi Patria was most recently sold by Freddy De Mann, a near mythic film and theater producer, music executive and co-founder of Maverick Records. In his heyday he managed a coupla superstars like Michael Jackson, Madonna, Lionel Richie and Billy Idol during their professional salad days. Mister De Mann is, well, Da Man, you know? Anyways, property records show Mister and Missus De Mann acquired the Bel Air mini-estate in October 2001 for $6,500,000 from the Nancy Daly, an important philanthropist and prominent social fixture in Los Angeles (and beyond) who passed in 2009.

Property records show the mini-estate was most recently acquired for exactly $18 million through an opaquely named corporate entity that links directly back to the Plano, TX offices of Perot Systems, the very company Perot Senior sold to Dell but where Perot Junior still holds the title of Chairman of the Board. It might be ignorant to say it out loud but we don't even really know what a Chairman of the Board does. But that's really not the point, is it? Anyhoo, altogether three well connected canaries have chirped to Your Mama that Mister Perot, Jr. and his wife, Sarah, are the new keepers of the elegant Mi Patria estate. Make of that "evidence" what you will. Okay?

Listing details Your Mama dug up on the internets show the foliage enshrouded, multi-winged Spanish hacienda was originally built in 1929 and stretches out to (approx.) 10,000 square feet with five bedrooms and 8 bathrooms.* The house has been extensively restored in such a way that retained much the original architectural integrity, or at least the architectural spirit of the home. The entire property has been updated and upgraded to "exacting standards," according to listing details, and with all the modern conveniences and luxuries one really ought to be able to expect in an $18 million house in Bel Air.

A glamorously long driveway curls up to the front of the house between two gated and secured automotive entrance points. Interior spaces include a stone-walled double-height foyer, party sized public rooms, a large library that converts to a 35mm screening room, and an open concept eat-in kitchen outfitted with a raised fireplace and a marble-topped center work island/snack bar that's as big as a damn boxcar. Online marketing materials show upper level master bedroom has a fireplace, plenty of room for a separate sitting area, dual bathrooms for maintaining marital and olfactory harmony and at least one walk-in closet "lined in rare woods." Fancy!

Lower level living spaces open to a large loggia and sunny, foliage enshrouded central terrace of magical, plaza-like proportion.** Beyond the central terrace, past a swathe of lawn, an entirely mosaic tiled dark-bottom swimming pool stretches out in front of a gently curved open-air cabana and lounge with outdoor fireplace. Your Mama would be shocked—shocked, we tell you—to discover there is not at least one changing room/bathroom tucked somewhere up or around that poolside pavilion. Anyways, more lawn slopes down to a secluded putting green and somewhere on the property is a gym with Zen meditation garden. A second gated driveway at the rear of the .89 acre spread provides a second secure motor court and access to what may (or may not) be a detached garage with what appears to be (but may not be) additional living space above.

According to property records and various other online resources the neighborhood is littered with rich and sometimes high profile people who surely have the manners to send a housewarming gift to their new neighbors. Perhaps the Bryan Schers will send flowers from their own garden and an invitation for a TDB cocktail party, or whatever. Maybe Mister and Missus Sugar—he's the head honcho at Northrop Grumman—will consider having an embarrassingly large and ludicrously expensive box of chocolates from Fauchon in Paris sent by over-night courier. That would be really nice to receive if you were moving in, wouldn't it? And former Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel would do fine to send his downstairs maid, Whatsername, over with a freshly baked apple pie Chef Tony whipped up by scratch.***

As in all the finest zip codes across the land—or at least in L.A.—as one or more very rich and/or high profile person moves in other big names decamp. We're certain those that chose to leave do so for reasons entirely unrelated to who move in, right? Television actress Deborah Messing recently sold her mini-compound on Bellagio Road for $14,400,000 to an as-yet unidentified buyer and in May 2011 actress wife Lori Loughlin and her Italian clothing mogul husband Mossimo Giannulli sold their nearly 1.5 acre Michael Smith decorated Bellagio Road estate for $16,600,000 to a corporate entity linked to Alexandra Dwek who seems to be some sort of princess or something. We don't know. But we digress...

*The L.A. County Tax Man shows the house has nine bedrooms and eight bathrooms in 8,908 square feet. Make of those discrepancies what you will since they're not entirely relevant to the discussion.

**P.S.: The patchwork upholstered chairs on the loggia are furniture heaven as far as Your Mama is concerned.

***Naturally, children, Your Mama has no idea if any of the named folk will or would even think to send a housewarming gift. Maybe they will maybe they won't. Who cares? But, certainly, if any one of them does opt to send something to be cordial and neighborly, it's highly unlikely they'll send any of the options we came up with. And, finally, Your Mama hasn't an iota if Terry Semel employs any kind of household staff of any kind, let alone a downstairs maid named Whatsername or a chef named Tony.

listing photos: Hilton & Hyland

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H. Ross Perot, Jr. Double Whammy: Dallas

SELLER: H. Ross Perot, Jr.
LOCATION: Dallas, TX
PRICE: $10,950,000
SIZE: 11,807 square feet, five bedrooms, seven full and three half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Some of y'all may not have heard but it's been a couple of months now since Texas-based tech-sector scion H. Ross Perot, Jr. put his suburban mansion-sized downtown Dallas (TX) penthouse on the open market with an asking price of $10,950,000.

Natch, Your Mama's real estate gossip gal pal down in Dallas—that would be the quirkily bespectacled sassy-pants real estate chronicler Candy Evans—already discussed the matter but for all you seven children who don't read Miz Evans's always entertaining online endeavor, Candy's Dirt, we're gonna piggy-back on her report on our way to Los Angeles where multiple sources snitched to Your Mama that Mister Perot, Jr. and his wife Sarah recently dropped a wad on an historic house with a high profile provenance. More on that addition to their real estate portfolio in a moment but first...

Mister Perot, Jr., for those of you were weren't present or engaged with presidential politics in the 1990s, is the only son of hard charging and outspoken Texas-based multi-billionaire H. Ross Perot. After he earned a vast fortune in the mundane but necessary world of data processing the elder Mister Perot boldly declared his candidacy for president of the United States of America. And not just once, youngsters, but twice, first in 1992 as an independent and then again in 1996 under his self-founded—and still in existence if tattered—Reform Party.

After he sold his first data processing concern to General Motors for a whole lotta money, entrepreneurial Poppa Perot founded Perot Systems, an information technology operation that grew to become a Fortune 100 corporate juggernaut that was sold in 2009 to Texas-based computer giant Dell for $3.9 billion. The Perot family's take was estimated to somewhere in the neighborhood of a billion dollars and Forbes recently estimated that Perot Senior's net worth balloons to about $3.5 billion.

It can't be easy to grow up in the shadow of a billionaire force of nature the H. Ross Perot, Sr., but Mister Perot, Jr. seems to have made his own way just fine. He served eight years in the Air Force, was one of the first two people to circumnavigate the globe in a helicopter and he earned his own very substantial fortune as a real estate developer of mixed-use developments and vast housing tracts, many of them in and around Dallas and many of them punished with hyperbolic and/or corny names like Harmony and Liberty. Forbes recently estimated Junior Perot's net worth at around $1.4 billion.

As anyone in Dallas can tell you, Mister Perot, Jr. had a significant hand in the development of the not entirely successful Victory Park, a massive, three billion dollar freeway-embraced mixed-use development in downtown Dallas with a variety of office and retail spaces, dining establishments, residential blocks and vast parking lots. At the heart of the 75-acre development is the American Airlines Center arena, home to the professional basketball team, the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavs—as Your Mama understands the locals call 'em—are currently (majority) owned by swashbuckling billionaire Mark Cuban who bought the bulk of the basketball franchise in 2000 for $285 million from—you got it, folks—H. Ross Perot, Junior.*

Victory Park is also where Mister and Missus Perot's penthouse pied-a-terre sprawls across the entire 30th floor of the W Dallas Victory Hotel & Residences. Mister and Missus Perot, who reportedly also keep a substantial single family residence not so far away, acquired the penthouse in 2004.**  It appears the building was not completed until sometime in 2006 but we're not really sure and it's not really important to the story. The Junior Perots, globally-engaged art collectors and philanthropists with sophisticated (and expensive) taste, engaged the hard to come by services of accomplished and frequently published Dallas-based lady-designer/decorator Emily Summers who transformed the nearly 12,000 square foot space into an suave, modern residence with 19 rooms and only the finest of finishes and furniture.

The results were published in the March, 2008 issue of Architectural Digest. The photos show Miz Summers's no-doubt ludicrously costly efforts successfully showcases the couple's stellar collection of contemporary art, reflects a cool sophistication commensurate with their net worth  and social status and provides a posh perch from which to entertain in an urbane setting high above the truck driving hoi polloi. To her credit Miz Summers managed to imbue the humongous penthouse with a number of spatial moments of relaxed intimacy that surely lend to family gatherings and solitary moments of contemplation. It's really good, people. It may not be your thing, decoratively or geographically speaking, but it's pretty dang flawless, no?

According to current listing details and various other digitized resources, the Perot penthouse encompasses 11,807 square feet and contains five bedrooms and seven full and three half bathrooms.

A central corridor effectively organizes the private and public spaces that include a tremendous living room and a neighboring 25-foot long formal dining room furnished with a simply smashing set of 14 (or more) Robsjohn-Gibbings Klismos chairs that altogether probably cost the Perots more than Your Mama paid for our BMW. Seriously.***

The baronial but contemporary formal living and dining spaces are balanced by spacious informal living areas that include a family room, game room and adjoining his and her studies decadently lined with African teak paneling and custom mill work. The penthouse boasts (at least) three (presumably gas) fireplaces, secured parking in the underground garage for four cars, and several terraces that ring the penthouse and provide unfettered and up-close skyline views of the surrounding skyline and the nasty clover leaf tangle of freeways that frenetically girdle Victory Park on at least two sides.

The finish work is not for the financially feint of heart with limestone floors in the foyer, Venetian plaster walls, whisper soft silk carpeting in the bedrooms, leather tile floors in the twin studies, Balthaup fittings in the sleek eat-in kitchen and regal, ceiling height doorways outfitted with custom-made metal frames and pixilated glass panels that become less opaque at the top. Brava! Miz Summers.

Anyhoo, listing information elaborates that the penthouse is equipped with a small fitness room and the master bedroom features at least one decked out walk-in closet/dressing room plus two bathrooms, hers lavishly suited up with a boomerang-shape make-up vanity, a glassed-in steam shower and a small sofa where Missus Perot Jr. can take a break after a long, hard soak in the super-sized tub.

Home owners dues for the penthouse come to just over $99,000 per year ($8,259.00 per month, as per listing details). A quick (and entirely unscientific) tussle with the well-worn beads on Your Mama's bejeweled abacus shows that's about twice as much money as the average American earns in an entire year, give or take a few thousand.

We don't know the full scope of Mister and Missus Perot, Jr.'s personal property portfolio but according to Second Shelters—also operated by the inestimable and industrious Candy Evans—Junior Perot owns a large-looking ski chalet in Vail, CO nestled into a treed hillside next door to one owned by none other than Poppa Perot. We recall reading they owned a residence somewhere in Great Britain but we don't recall where we read it now. According to the just-mentioned Candy Evans, the other Dallas residence besides the up for sale penthouse that Mister and Missus Perot, Jr. own that was mentioned in the March 2008 A.D. article, is a nearly 10,000 square foot manse in the affluent Highland Park community near the Dallas Country Club. We also know, as mentioned earlier, the Junior Perots recently dropped $18 million on a magnificent mansion in Los Angeles. Stay tuned for that...

*As a side note: Mister Perot, Jr. retained a minority 5% ownership of the Mavs that has become be a real thorn in Mister Cuban's side. Anyhoo...

**As noted in Architectural Digest (March 2008).

***We tease. We have no idea how much Mister and Missus Perot, Jr. paid for the Robsjohn-Gibbings Klismos chairs but way back in 2000 Christie's sold a set of eight not very similar looking Fruitwood Klismos chairs by Robsjohn-Gibbings (for Saridis) for $28,000. Imagine the cost today for 14 or 16 versions of something similar. It's enough to make a person vomit with financial anxiety. Anyhoo.

listing photos: Allie Beth Allman & Associates

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Always do your homework (or, as we tend to call it, your due diligence). Check out this blog post on Block’s blog, going into this with respect to ASCs:

Always do your homework (or, as we tend to call it, your due diligence).  Check out this blog post on Block’s blog, going into this with respect to ASCs: 

“Buying Healthcare Real Estate That Includes an ASC? Do Your Homework....”

http://blog.blockllc.com/2013/04/buying-healthcare-real-estate-that.html

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7 Tips To Get Your Home In Tip Top Selling Condition

A clean, uncluttered home is very likely the single most important thing to get your home sold quickly and for top dollar.

In fact, a recent survey by HomeGain showed a whopping 568% return on investment for money put toward cleaning and organizing a home for sale!

And other experts say that a well-put-together home can shorten the time on market drastically as well.

Before your real estate agent lists your Kent home, it's essential for it to look its best.

7 Tips To Get Your Home In Tip Top Selling Condition

Examine your living space and see it as a buyer would — then double check this list of staging tips to make sure you haven't overlooked these important details.

• Clear out the clutter. Tidy up counter tops, bookcases, garages and closets.

• Pack up your sentimental items. Personal photos and knick-knacks should be boxed up for moving day.

• Get a storage unit. Open up space by moving furniture and boxes into storage -- it will make the rooms appear bigger.

• Remove appliances and fixtures that you want to keep. If you are taking the dining room chandelier or the built-in microwave, remove them before the house goes on the market.

• Make minor repairs. Check that faucets don't leak, doors close properly and holes in the walls are patched.

• Make it pretty! Windows, floors and bathrooms should be sparkling. Dust every surface, hang up fresh towels in the bathroom and make sure there are no lingering odors.

• Don't forget the yard. Curb appeal starts at the curb -- go figure -- so mow the yard, wash down walkways and add some bright flowers near the front door to trigger the emotion to buy.

There are so many different ways to give your home an advantage over the competition in the spring buying market.

Plus, nice looking properties are more appealing for real estate agents to show their clients, so your well-taken-care-of home may get a lot more exposure.

In the end, the better your property looks, the faster it's going to sell...and get you the most for it.

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Your Mama Hears...

...that just a few short months after hunky Hollywood hot shot Ryan Reynolds dropped $2,350,000 on a 1.75-ish acre country spread in the drop dead gorgeous rolling hills and dales of Bedford, NY, he and his stylish missus, in-demand actress Blake Lively, have had a real estate change of heart and surreptitiously shelled out $5,700,000 for a bigger country spread just over four miles away on a meandering rural road in posh and scenically bucolic Pound Ridge, NY.

Property records show the estate in question was actually purchased about five months ago, in November 2012, by a opaquely named trust that happens to link back to the very same swanky Beverly Hills attorney's office to which property records for Mister Reynold's Bedford (NY) and Los Angeles (CA) homes point. While that—ahem—evidence of acquisition by Mister Reynolds and/or Missus Lively-Reynolds may be circumstantial, at best, Your Mama recently received an unexpected covert communique from a local source—let's call him Les B. Aneyewitness—who tattled that he has many times seen the couple's cars entering and exiting the property and that moving trucks recently hauled belongings from their Bedford house to the Pound Ridge house in question. Good ol' Les went on to snitch that the Pound Ridge residence in question has been subject to an extensive renovation the last few months.

Not for lack of trying, Your Mama was unable to unearth even a single, proper digital listing for the property so we surmise the whole deal probably went down off market. The Westchester County Tax Man and other online resources do show, however, that the original section of the 21-room Colonial-style residence was built in 1860 and sits on nearly 12 fenced and gated acres. Tucked privately behind a thick wall of dense foliage and mature trees, the quintessentially pastoral property offers up vast tree-dotted lawns, a swimming pool fenced and set well away and across the curving drive from the house, and an inky private pond.

The 8,892 square foot house, again according to various online resources, encompasses seven bedrooms and six or maybe seven bathrooms. There appears to be additional living space with another few bedrooms and bathrooms in the detached-barn like-structure at the head of the swooping driveway.


Make of Mister Aneyewitness's eye witness account(s) of the Lively-Reynolds real estate matter what you will, children, but until you read about his in one of the more respectable property gossip columns in a major newspaper this is all just a morsel of otherwise unconfirmed celebrity real estate rumor and gossip.


As far as we can tell from our entirely unscientific research, Mister Reynolds continues to own the Hollywood Hills house he bought in October 2007 for $1.715 million and has attempted to sell a couple of times in the last few years including in September 2011 when it was listed (at a loss) for $1,599,000. Neither Your Mama nor Les B. Aneyewitness located an active online listing for the couple's country spread in Bedford and—natch—we don't have any idea what their plans for the place may or may not be.

Aerial Image: Bing

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