Properly Ponte Vedra Real Estate News From Jacquelyn Bates Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty
Spring 2017
Inventory Low, Confidence High, Demand Strong Our Ponte Vedra and Beaches market mirrors these national trends. Jonathan Smoak, Realtor.com’s chief economist, notes the early bird is getting the worm, with the supply of homes at an all-time low and demand strong and getting stronger. Consumer confidence in Florida rose in March to a 15-year high. This may have been lifted by good economic news: the Florida labor market has continued expansion, the unemployment rate remained stable, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis ranked Florida third of all states in the country in personal income growth. Nationally, consumer confidence in the housing market hit an all-time high, according to Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index. “The latest post-election surge in optimism puts the HPSI at its highest level since its starting point in 2011, “ says Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s chief economist. “Millennials showed especially strong increases in job confidence and income gains, a necessary precursor for increased housing demand from first-time home buyers.”
If You Build It, They Will Stay So who is hiring all the contractors and spending all that money at home improvement stores? The baby boomers. Or at least that’s what a new Harvard University study has found. Boomers are electing to remodel and stay in their homes. A report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies found that boomers are one of the most significant drivers of the record spending on home improvement last year, and their influence on this market likely will continue to grow. The report predicts that homeowners 65 and older will make up one-third of all improvement expenditures by 2025, doubling their share from 1995-2005. When you include all older households, namely Generation X, their home improvement projects will make up an even larger share of the remodeling market, with their share of spending rising from less than 52 percent in 2015 to more than 56 percent in 2025. “Over the coming decade, the aging baby boomers and gen-Xers will play an even larger role in the remodeling market,” analysts Ralph Waldo Emerson penned the notable phrase, “ A house is made with walls and beams; wrote.“ Average per owner improvement spending is projected a home is built with love and dreams.” to increase by more than 10 percent among homeowners age 55 Coldwell Banker Real Estate captures the essence of and over, while the numbers of homeowners in this age group Emerson in an award-winning ad about the joys pets bring to our homes. Visit www.coldwellbanker.com/dogs. soars at twice that rate.” Courtesy The Miami Herald
The Next Big Thing in Smart Home Technology Your kids may not always listen to you but soon your smart home will. A new survey from Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC and Vivint Smart Home found Americans are ready to embrace using voice control, with an increasing number already using the feature. According to the survey, 72 percent of Americans who have smart home products-controlled remotely by a smartphone, tablet or computer or by a separate automatic system within the home itself-want voice control. And of that group 81 percent of parents who have smart home products desire to control smart home products with voice activation. The survey also found that 48 percent of Americans with smart home products currently have voice control capability. So what do consumers want to control using their voice? Entertainment is the clear winner. More than half (57 percent) of Americans who own smart home products with voice control use the feature to control smart entertainment, such as playing music, or controlling smart TV’s and speaker systems. In addition to entertainment, the next three most popular functions being controlled by voice activation for smart home product owners are lighting, security products and shopping.
On A Personal Note A busy spring with real estate activity, the completion of my term as president of the Sawgrass Women’s Club and lovely visits with both children. March took me for a long weekend to Wilmington, NC, with daughter Jackie who is thoroughly energized and enjoying her return to graduate school in the DC area. And over Easter a long weekend in London with the Paris contingent, son Edward, Anne Laure and the twins, Léopold and Annabel. Two plays, the Tate Britain, The Victoria and Albert Museum with dress-up opportunities to join a Bruegel painting, Easter service at Westminister Abbey...a thoroughly spoiling visit. Four-year old Théodore hunted eggs and goats with his French grandparents in Montsapey. Please let me know if I can help you or your friends with any real estate needs.