Daily Briefing: Thursday, April 4, 2013
TODAY'S TOP STORIES
Real estate agent: 2013's happiest job
IRVINE, Calif. – April 4, 2013 – CareerBliss, an employment website, released new data ranking the Happiest and Unhappiest Jobs in the U.S. The data from more than sixty-five thousand independent company reviews determined which jobs rank highest in happiness.
This year, Realtors rank at the top for job happiness, followed by quality assurance engineers, sales representatives and controllers who work in a company’s finance department. By contrast, teachers, nurses and attorneys rank as some of the unhappiest jobs in the U.S., with attorneys at the top of the unhappiness list.
“Real estate agents have definitely weathered quite a financial storm over the past few years,” says Heidi Golledge, CEO and co-founder of CareerBliss. “But right now, rates are between 2 to 3 percent and inventory is low, making it a real estate agent’s dream as new homes hit the market and (they get) multiple offers in the first week. Realtors say that the way they work, and the rewards they are seeing with a growing market, has helped boost overall happiness for those in this career.”
The presence of real estate and construction jobs in the CareerBliss happiest jobs list is a new trend this year.
Happiest jobs rank based on 1-5 point score
1. Real Estate Agent – 4.26
2. Senior Quality Assurance Engineer – 4.23
3. Senior Sales Representative – 4.19
4. Construction Superintendent – 4.10
5. Senior Application Developer – 4.08
6. Logistics Manager – 4.07
7. Construction Manager – 4.06
8. Executive Administrative Assistant – 4.04
9. Network Engineer – 4.02
10. Assistant Controller – 4.02
Unhappiest jobs based on 1-5 point score
1. Associate Attorney – 2.89
2. Customer Service Associate – 3.16
3. Clerk – 3.18
4. Registered Nurse – 3.22
5. Teacher – 3.22
6. Marketing Coordinator – 3.31
7. Legal Assistant – 3.38
8. Pharmacy Technician – 3.39
9. Technical Support Specialist – 3.41
10. Case Manager – 3.44
Data was derived from more than 65,000 independent employee reviews from 2011-2012.
Real estate apps can help, or overwhelm, homebuyers
DANVILLE, Calif. – April 4, 2013 – Raj Aurora has been searching to buy his first home for the past three months but hasn’t wasted time looking at condos he knows he won’t like and hasn’t even needed to meet his agent, all thanks to real estate applications that Aurora downloaded on his iPhone 5.
“We’ve already eliminated 20 to 30 houses without driving around,” said Aurora, a 42-year-old chiropractor and part-time Web developer from Danville, Calif. “I don’t want to sit with (my agent) for eight hours driving from house to house. I’d rather hang out with my dog and my friends.”
Aurora instead checks out properties virtually by glancing at his Zillow and Trulia apps throughout the day, then reviews any possibilities via text or email with his Danville real estate agent, Kevin R. Kieffer, whom Aurora has yet to see.
“I do it at Starbucks; I do it in between meetings,” Aurora said. “If I said I did it while driving, that would be wrong.”
The field of downloadable apps offering up-to-date property listings has grown even more crowded in the past several months as the housing market remains hot for sellers and frustrating for buyers. The free apps are available on smartphones and tablets, as well as laptops and PCs, and typically offer photos, property information and prices. They also can be set up to send them alerts of homes that meet a shopper’s criteria, such as price and neighborhood.
With little inventory available, homebuyers often become addicted to glancing at their smartphones and tablets throughout the day – and even in the middle of the night – for up-to-date alerts that might lead to their dream homes.
“I’d go to bed at night but would find myself pulling up Zillow and searching around,” said Mike Finnegan, 39, who lives outside Seattle.
Finnegan wasn’t even interested in looking for a new home when his wife, Amanda, first mentioned the idea in January to take advantage of lingering low interest rates.
After downloading various real estate apps on his iPhone 5 and iPad, Finnegan figured out what kind of new home and neighborhood could entice him out of his condo – all without having to drive around looking at properties in person.
This month, the Finnegans are scheduled to close the deal on their new three-bedroom, single-family home in the Seattle area, which they eventually discovered through Zillow.
A generation of homebuyers ago, clients couldn’t even see real estate multiple-listing services.
Today, with millions of property listings carried over an ever-expanding field of real estate apps, it can be overwhelming for homebuyers to have so many photos and property descriptions streaming into their smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs day and night.
Several apps advertise that they refresh their listings every 15 minutes. Realtor.com claims to provide “the most accurate data on the market.”
“We pride ourselves on the accuracy of the data set,” said Scott Boecker, chief product officer for Move Inc., operator of Realtor.com. “When inventory has dropped over 50 percent while prices have increased 30 percent year over year, people are saying they check our app every single night. You want your mobile app up to date.”
Seattle-based Zillow had more than 200 million homes viewed on mobile devices in January, representing an astounding 75 homes per second.
Like other apps, Zillow allows users to customize their searches and sends them alerts whenever a property meets their criteria. But Zillow goes a step further and color-codes its listings to further help homebuyers sort through all of the data. It also allows potential sellers to test the market without actually listing with an agent by offering a price that would “Make Me Move,” which is how Finnegan eventually found his new home in Seattle.
“Mobile (technology) took us from a 9-to-5 service to a 24-hour service,” said Jeremy Wacksman, Zillow’s vice president of mobile and marketing. “It really did extend the shopping life cycle throughout the day and made it on demand, which clearly benefits the consumer.”
But John V. Pinto, the chairman of the business technology forum for the California Association of Realtors, said homebuyers often waste hours looking at listings for homes that already have been sold because some apps pad their listings with out-of-date properties.
So Pinto advises homebuyers to only use apps based on multiple listing services – then customize their searches to alert them to properties that are actually for sale.
“The good news, from the Realtors’ perspective, is the consumer winds up doing a lot of the work because of all of these apps,” Pinto said. “But real estate consumers are often babes in the woods who get drawn to all kinds of inaccurate information that’s been packaged in a pretty way. Clients who find a listing they like can be like a cat who brings you a bird’s head looking for approval. Their Realtor has to constantly tell them, ‘Thanks for being so diligent. That property was sold 30 days ago.’ “
After testing out a couple of different apps, Aurora and his agent, Kieffer, are now efficiently texting and emailing one another about listings that Aurora sees daily as he looks for his first condo, which will be the new home for him, his rat terrier Stinky, and his parents, who live in Canada but will spend their winters staying with Aurora.
The real estate apps are so easy to use, Aurora said, that he even emails links of promising listings to his mother, Shanta, who is in her late 70s.
“If my mom can figure it all out,” Aurora said, “anyone can.”
Real estate apps
Most major real estate applications are available on Apple or Android mobile devices and allow users to set up alerts that will let them know when a new property becomes available that meets their pre-set search criteria, such as price, neighborhood or number of bedrooms and bathrooms.
Zillow: Offers information on rentals and homes for sale, including rental estimates and mortgage estimates. Sellers can get help pricing their homes, or can toss out a price on Zillow’s “Make Me Move” section without actually listing the property and hiring a real estate agent.
Trulia: Says it’s visited by more than 23 million consumers each month and is “the best place” for agents, brokers, multiple listing services to market online.
Redfin: Says that it “shows more homes, faster” and claims it offers 20 percent more homes for sale. Redfin advertises that all of its listings represent homes that are actually for sale.
Realtor.com: Says listings on its mobile apps represent more than 800 multiple listing services and provide “the most accurate and reliable information possible” on properties, communities and up-to-date real estate statistics.
Homes.com: Says its mobile apps have more than 4 million properties listed for sale or rent via interactive maps and allow users to compare property values in the same area.
Copyright © 2013 San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) Distributed by MCT Information Services.
Is economy hitting another spring stall?
WASHINGTON – April 4, 2013 – Ah, spring! The blooming flowers. The canoodling couples. The disappointing economic reports.
A batch of reports that fell short of economists’ estimates drove down stocks Wednesday and fueled fears that the U.S. economy is entering a spring swoon for the fourth year in a row. This year, however, any slump is expected be shorter and shallower.
Private payroll processor ADP said Wednesday that businesses added 158,000 jobs in March, well short of the 200,000 projected by economists. The report stirred concerns that the government’s closely watched employment survey due Friday will be similarly disappointing.
A measure of service-sector activity indicated continued expansion last month but at a slower pace than in February, according to the Institute for Supply Management. Of greatest concern: Indexes of new orders, which reflect future sales, and of employment fell sharply. Earlier this week, ISM’s barometer of March manufacturing activity also dipped.
The news worried investors, sending the Dow Jones industrial average down 111.66 points to 14,550.35.
The reports prompted Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, to revise his forecast of March job gains in this Friday’s Labor Department survey to 160,000 from 215,000. He expects 165,000 private-sector job gains in that survey, which also canvasses federal, state and local governments.
Monthly job growth has averaged 205,000 November through February. But in the past three years, events such as the European financial crisis, the Japanese quake and Congress’ debt-ceiling showdown dampened strong early-year gains.
This year, a payroll-tax increase Jan. 1 and federal spending cuts that took effect March 1 are expected to slow the economy midyear. O’Sullivan says this week’s data may reflect some of those effects. But he says much of the slowing may be related to a colder-than-expected March that dampened retail and construction activity after a warm early winter pulled forward sales – a pattern that was even more pronounced last year.
“Markets are saying, ‘Uh-oh, here we go again,’” O’Sullivan says.
But Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist of IHS Global Insight, says it’s unlikely that the spending cuts are already affecting the economy, because they largely have not been implemented. He and Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics say the economy simply may have taken a breather after the first two months of the year boosted first-quarter growth to more than 3 percent annualized. Gault still expects a spring swoon, possibly as early as this month.
The good news is, it’s expected to be temporary. Gault says a recovering housing market will power a strengthening private sector.
O’Sullivan says monthly job growth could slow to 150,000 for a few months before climbing back to about 200,000 by year’s end. |
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HUD ad series will fight housing discrimination
WASHINGTON – April 4, 2013 – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the National Fair Housing Alliance launched a national media campaign today. The ad series has two goals: educate the public about their rights under the Fair Housing Act, and remind housing providers about their responsibilities.
The campaign is called “Fair Housing Is Your Right. Use It.” It will appear in English, Spanish, and Chinese radio and print public service advertisements (PSAs), and feature examples of Fair Housing Act violations. In addition to radio and print, the campaign will use social media to amplify the outreach.
The campaign coincides with Fair Housing Month when the nation marks the passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to discriminate in the sale or rental of housing based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, familial status or disability.
One of the print ads features a woman in a wheelchair and her service animal, drawing attention to persons with disabilities who often face housing discrimination. Another print ad featuring a woman wearing traditional Muslim headdress highlights the persistence of discrimination based on religion.
HUD and the National Fair Housing Alliance are also unveiling videos in which people talk about housing discrimination they’ve faced. One woman is hard of hearing, while another shares her story of how a landlord denied her an apartment because she has children. The videos can be viewed on HUD’s YouTube channel.
Each PSA encourages anyone who experiences discrimination to call HUD’s housing discrimination hotline – (800) 669-9777 – contact a local fair housing agency or visit HUD’s fair housing website atwww.HUD.gov/fairhousing.
Boomerang buyers to make strong comeback this year
NEW YORK – April 4, 2013 – Homeowners who once lost their homes to foreclosure and short sales – known as “boomerang buyers” – are a growing percentage of homebuyers.
“Their time out of the market may be shorter than many Americans might expect,” USA Today reports. “People who go through foreclosure can rebuild credit records and qualify for home loans again in three to seven years if they manage their finances well.”
An estimated 4.7 million-plus homeowners lost a home to foreclosures or through a short sale since 2007. But 70 percent of them (3.3 million) will likely return to homeownership within eight years of their short sale or foreclosure, according to estimates by John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Since the housing downturn started about six years ago, 2013 could be the first big year for a wave of boomerang buyers.
Burns predicts boomerang buyers could account for up to 10 percent of home sales this year. His firm projects that boomerang buyers who lost homes in 2007 through 2012 will number 500,000 a year in 2013 through 2016.
And while boomerang buyers may also have a lower credit score, mortgage rates are lower than when they originally bought their now-foreclosed home. Coupled with lower home values, boomerang buyers could still end up with more home and/or a less expensive monthly mortgage payment than they did the first time around.
For example, one former homeowner in Las Vegas, Dave Peterson, says he lost his home in foreclosure and then declared bankruptcy when he hit financial hardship a few years ago. But last year, he was able to buy a $280,000 home with his wife – bigger than the home they originally owned and lost to foreclosure. Peterson was able to get a 3.74 percent, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with no money down through the Department of Veterans Affairs, so his monthly mortgage payments are $1,600 – compared to $3,000 for the smaller home he lost to foreclosure.
Source: “Boomerang buyers bring muscle to rebounding housing market,” USA Today (April 1, 2013)
AROUND FLORIDA
South Florida: New hotel projects on tap
Tampa: Downtown tower sidelined
Gainesville: UF may build on-campus residence hall |
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