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Week of February 25, 2008
Area housing prices continue their downward trend
By: Brian McCullough, Special to The Phoenix
Trend, the multiple listing service for more than 32,000 real estate agents in the Philadelphia region, on Tuesday released its fourth-quarter report that found house prices and sales volume continue to fall in the region, albeit not as dramatically as in other areas of the country.
In Chester County, the average price for a house sold in the fourth quarter of 2007 was $361,300, down 6.3 percent from the $385,700 average sales price in the third quarter.
The number of houses sold also was down 31.6 percent, from 1,715 in the third quarter to 1,172 in the fourth quarter.
Even with the declines, “the Philadelphia market is faring well as compared to what is going on in the rest of the country,” said Vernon Jones of Trend.
The findings indicate homeowners in the region aren’t losing the equity in their houses that homeowners in other regions are. The softening market, meanwhile, is good news for buyers, Jones noted.
On the House: Recession is tricky to pin down
By Al Heavens , Inquirer Columnist
Recession fears getting you down? Don't worry. We've been in one since December, PMI Group chief economist and senior vice president David W. Berson told a news conference at the recent International Builders Show in Orlando.
The good news is that Berson, who considers himself an eternal pessimist, believes the recession will be "short and mild."
The Federal Reserve's "expansionary monetary policy will make it so," Berson said, because there can be a lag of six to 18 months before a change in monetary policy affects the economy.
"If the Fed didn't start easing [monetary policy] until August, there won't be positive benefits until the third quarter of 2008, although we'll see the economy accelerate some in the second half in response," he said.
Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft wasn't willing to commit to a nationwide recession yet, but he acknowledged that there was a strong risk of one, and that regions such as the Great Lakes, with a "lousy economy and no employment growth" were already deep in recession.
The trouble with announcing a recession is that "you never know until it's over, or even a year or two later, that we've had one," said David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders.
Seiders, too, was unwilling to commit, but he acknowledged that the "economy is weak, whether we are in a recession or at the brink. The housing market has been in a dramatic contraction that has been developing for at least the last two years, and that has put a heavy hit on total economic activity."
Borough considers community planning effort
By: Theresa Katalinas, Bucks County Courier Times
The welcome mat is out.
Talks, at least informally, have begun.
Elected officials in Newtown Township, Upper Makefield and Wrightstown hope that Newtown will once again be part of the Newtown Area Joint Planning/Zoning Commission.
“We are going to draft a letter to invite the borough to sit in on some of our jointure meetings,” Joint Zoning Commission Chairman Chester Pogonowski said. “I'd be very happy to sit down with members of the borough to talk about common interests in zoning and planning and see where it leads.”
Since 1983, the three townships have shared a common zoning ordinance and planned smart growth collectively. Each municipality contributes specific development types, which can be counted throughout the jointure. Upper Makefield is afforded larger lots, fewer homes and open space. Wrightstown brings several rock quarries. Newtown Township has taken on denser housing developments and shopping centers.
Taxing fairness
By: Jenna Portnoy, The Intelligencer
Coming Monday: What might fix assessments in Pennsylvania.
Bucks County's system for setting property taxes is creaking with age.
Even so, county officials — elected and appointed, Democrat and Republican — have no plans to change it.
That means homeowners who paid the same price for their houses can have drastically different tax bills, sometimes thousands of dollars different.
The disparity is widespread, according to a review of nearly 13,000 home sales between May 1, 2006, and Sept. 30, 2007. The documents were reviewed by The Intelligencer, a sister paper of the Courier Times.
In New Hope, the owner of a West Bridge Street home that sold for $700,000 last year paid $3,891 in taxes. That's just under half the $8,087 bill paid by the owner of a New Street home that sold for less — $684,000.
Lower Makefield considers 'green' building standards
By: Chris English, Bucks County Courier Times
Developing “green” building standards is the next environmental initiative being pushed in Lower Makefield.
The supervisors heard a presentation from two representatives of the Bucks and Montgomery County Homebuilders Association on building a house using environmentally responsible methods.
The talk by George Muliken and Dave Hartke covered everything from heating a home with means other than oil and natural gas to making better use of scrap wood and other building materials to save space at the landfill.
Assessments lack oversight
By: Jenna Portnoy,The Intelligencer
How did property assessments get so out of whack? For starters, Pennsylvania is one of only two states where counties are on their own and have no statewide oversight.
In most states, the legislature has created an agency in charge of setting assessment rules, according to Allegheny County Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr.
The judge described other states¡¦ assessment practices in his 94-page opinion last summer that ruled the assessment system common in Pennsylvania counties is unconstitutional. The base year system relies on property values frozen at the time of the last full reassessment, which was last done in 1972 in Bucks County.
In Pennsylvania, there exists no agency mandated to offer training, education or standards.
Supervisors OK $10M bond to pay for repaving
By: Chris English, Bucks County Courier Times
The Middletown supervisors approved a $10 million bond issue Tuesday night that will pay for repaving more roads in the Levittown sections and other projects.
Floating the bond that will be repaid over 20 years was approved 5-0 by Supervisors Lisa Pflaumer, Jasper Caro, Robert McMonagle, George Leonhauser and Chuck Thompson.
In addition to providing the estimated $4.35 million needed to repave the remaining 23.3 miles of road in the township's Levittown sections, the new bond will help pay for a new township community center. improvements at two township parks and at the township-owned Middletown Country Club. That part of the bond used for country club improvements will be repaid by the club's new operator Rick Begley.
As Inflation Rises, Home Values Slump, Data Show
By VIKAS BAJAJ
Two worrisome trends for the economy — falling house prices and the rising cost of everything else — picked up speed in data reported on Tuesday, putting policy makers in an increasingly tough position.
If they move too aggressively to cut interest rates and stimulate the economy, they might stoke inflation at a time when consumers are already squeezed by higher prices for food, energy, clothing and other goods. But if they chose more austere measures, the economy may weaken substantially faster.
“The Fed is now having to walk a very fine line,” said Jane Caron, chief economic strategist at Dwight Asset Management, an investment firm that specializes in bonds. “We have clearly seen an acceleration in inflation pressure in the last couple of months and the risk is that the markets are going to react negatively to aggressive easing going forward.”Not surprisingly, a measure of consumer confidence fell to its lowest level in nearly five years. But the stock market rose nonetheless, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing up 114.70 points, or nearly 1 percent. Energy and technology stocks led the market higher after oil prices surged above $100 again and I.B.M. announced that it would buy back an additional $15 billion of its stock and improved its profit forecast. Treasuries moved slightly higher, indicating that bond investors were not overly fearful of inflation.
Tuesday’s data provided fresh evidence of the housing market’s prolonged slump. A leading index of home prices in 20 cities fell by 9.1 percent in December from the same month a year ago. Using a three-month moving average, the index, the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller, is falling at an annual pace of more than 20 percent. The index tracks repeat sales of single-family homes; it does not include condominiums.
Some houses still find eager buyers
By: Alan J. Heavens, Inquirer Real Estate Writer
Home sales continue to skid nationwide, and the current real estate climate surely has created a buyer's market.
Yet for certain houses, the days of multiple bids and bidders are in no way a thing of the past.
Buyers are banging down the doors, Long & Foster Real Estate agent Phyllis Weinstock said, "when the house and the property warrant the money."
And location helps, too. Take Media, for example.
Dale Lippart's first flip house, a three-bedroom, one-bath twin in the borough, went under agreement of sale just seven days after going on the market. Four prospective buyers battled for the right to pay the $296,500 the property was listed for, or more.
"I wanted to break even, or make a little money," said Lippart. She had used the proceeds from the sale of her last house, in Cranbury, N.J., to buy the Media house, which she described as "neglected," for a below-market price in November.
While declining to say what she paid for the Media house, Lippart acknowledged that what she will make when it goes to settlement "pleases" her.
(Under Pennsylvania and New Jersey law, real estate agents and brokers are required to protect a seller's private information until the sale price becomes part of the public tax record after settlement.)
Pa. lawmaker calls for sewage plant upgrade grants
The Associated Press
A central Pennsylvania lawmaker says local governments need state help to upgrade sewage treatment plants that are adding to the pollution of Chesapeake Bay.
But state Sen. Pat Vance says she fears Gov. Ed Rendell may not support a grant program she and other lawmakers envision.
The Cumberland County Republican notes that the governor is willing to commit $47 million for a proposed professional soccer stadium in Chester. But Vance says when she tried to talk to Rendell about helping municipalities with an estimated $1 billion in sewage treatment upgrades, "he totally blew me off."
Maryland has committed $1.25 billion for sewage treatment improvements to reduce pollutants flowing into the bay. Virginia has committed $700 million.
Open space on ballot in Buckingham
By: Riley Yates, The Intelligencer
Buckingham voters will decide in April whether to borrow $20 million for land preservation, allowing the township to replenish an open space kitty that is running dry.
The new borrowing would finance the purchase of agricultural conservation easements, open space, recreational land and transferable development rights. The question will be placed on the April 22 ballot, where it will compete for attention with Pennsylvania’s presidential primary.
“It’s going to be a big election, and it’s going to be a little thing at the top (of the ballot) that could easily get lost,” warned Supervisor Chairwoman Maggie Rash, who like the township’s two other supervisors, will be lobbying in support.
On Wednesday, supervisors approved language for the referendum, which would replenish $9.5 million in open space borrowing township voters approved in 1999. The new bonds will be sold incrementally as needed, but will eventually cost the average homeowner $186 a year in increased taxes.
Already, that property owner pays $126 a year toward open space in Buckingham, a recognized leader in land preservation.
