Copy
Your Guide to the Suburban Philadelphia Real Estate Market
View this email in your browser
Main Line Real Estate News

January 2017
Facebook
Twitter
Link
Website

2016 was another record year!  I had the privilege of closing 38 transaction totaling $21,691,300.  My total sold volume since 2014 now exceeds $60,000,000.  Thank you to the clients I had the pleasure of serving and the countless referrals I received from past clients and friends.  

To learn more about our exclusive reduced commission home selling program and view recently sold properties, please visit www.ListSmartPA.com

MARKET ACTIVITY

Settled units were up in Montgomery, Delaware, and Chester Counties versus 2015, and we saw modest price appreciation ranging from 1.5% to 3.75%.  Inventory is extremely low with all three counties reporting 4 months of inventory or less (6 months is considered a neutral market).  The Main Line saw a higher increase in settled units.  Click Here to view market activity by School District.

                      SETTLED TRANSACTIONS BY COUNTY

                                           2015                  2016        %Change
Chester County               6,350                 6,517           2.63%
Delaware County            5,739                 6,317         10.07%
Montgomery County       9,239                 9,920           7.37%

                       PENDING TRANSACTIONS BY COUNTY 

                                        DEC 15             DEC 16      
Chester County              313                      341         
Delaware County           321                     340  
Montgomery County      499                     482  
    
                      INVENTORY ACCUMULATION BY COUNTY 
                                   
                                        DEC 15             DEC 16      
Chester County               4.5                     3.7     
Delaware County            5.7                     4.0 
Montgomery County       4.5                     3.5   

The Pennsylvania housing market continues to look positive, according to the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors®.  The fourth quarter of 2016 experienced an increase in home sales, compared to the previous year. Existing home sales were up 5.2 percent in the fourth quarter with 33,188 sales, compared to the fourth quarter of 2015 and were up 7.2 percent overall in 2016 with 137,526 sales.  

The median sales price rose in the fourth quarter as well, up 4.6 percent to $170,000, compared to the same quarter in 2015. The year ended with the median sales price up 2.8 percent higher than 2015.  

Homes are selling quicker in many markets. Days on market dropped 6.3 percent from 80 days in 2015 to 75 in 2016.  The number of new listings entering the market continued to fall in the fourth quarter of 2016, down 7.5 percent, compared to the same period in 2015. The months supply was at 4.8 in the fourth quarter, down 25 percent from the same quarter in 2015.

We’ve seen a continuing trend of fewer listings entering the market, with an overall decrease of 4 percent in inventory in 2016, PAR says. This has created a competitive market because there are fewer homes available. Inventory is lower and demand is growing. Homes that are in good condition and priced competitively are seeing multiple offers. This could continue to be a challenge in the new year.

PAR says the percentage of original list price received is up as well. Statewide, we saw properties selling at 93.5 percent of the original list price.  Overall, Realtors® are positive about the market in 2017 and we’re continuing to see low interest rates and low unemployment rates which inspires consumer confidence. Source: Pennsylvania Association of Realtors 1/13/17

Mortgage rates (1/18/17): 
4.125% for 30 year fixed
3.99% for FHA/VA
3.5% for 15 year fixed
3.375% for 5 year arm

REAL ESTATE NEWS

Municipal Code and Ordinance Compliance Act.  The Pennsylvania Municipal Code and Ordinance Compliance Act (MCOCA) sets forth procedures which must be followed by municipalities that require property maintenance and other code inspections upon the sale of a residential property. MCOCA was recently amended through Act 133 of 2016 to address situations in which municipalities were not following the Act, leading to some real estate transactions being postponed or cancelled due to minor property maintenance violations. The amendments in Act 133 clarify the rights and responsibilities of both municipalities and property owners so these issues don't occur in the future. 

State task force working to change PA’s property assessment rules.  Pennsylvania has the least regulated and most antiquated property assessment system in the country due to the fact that some counties in the state go without updating their property values for decades. The longer government waits to reassess, the higher the cost. Property owners may pay more in taxes than they really should and go to court to fix it, racking up legal defense fees. Other government entities - county and local government as well as public schools – are often left with an inaccurately assessed tax base. The state’s Reassessment Reform Task Force has been working on the issue for about eight years and will next meet on Jan. 26. Some proposed changes include: set statewide data collection and training standards; require that county assessors be a certified property evaluator; consistent submission of property sales information to STEB; considering or developing a quantitative trigger for reassessments; and splitting the bill for tax base-wide reassessments among counties, municipalities and school districts.  Source: Newsworks.org; 1/3/2017

Debate over school property taxes expected to head back to Legislature.  The Pennsylvania Legislature is expected to see debate over school property taxes again in 2017. Senate supporters say the Nov. 8 election provided the necessary votes to eliminate school property taxes entirely and replace them with other revenue sources. That would mean shifting about $14 billion in taxes from property owners, including businesses, to Pennsylvania consumers and workers through sales and personal income taxes. The leading proposal would increase the income tax rate by 60 percent and hike the state sales tax rate by 17 percent while applying it to a wider range of goods and services, such as groceries, clothing, basic tv, and funeral services. The bill would allow the collection of school property taxes only to retire current debt, would give districts an inflationary aid increase annually, and would require voter approval for school boards seeking a local income tax increase. An Associated Press analysis of state data found that more than 70 percent of school property taxes were collected by the wealthiest half of school districts in 2014-15. Districts in the bottom half of average household income collected an average of less than $4,500 in property taxes per student, while school districts in the top half collected nearly $9,000 per student. Of the current proposed plan, Gov. Tom Wolf’s office said while Wolf “could support taking steps toward elimination, the details of such a plan are very important, especially how and whether local communities would contribute directly to school funding.”
Source: Daily Local News; 1/4/2017

Click to view my profile on Zillow.com. Review my professional experience, education, past transactions and client reviews.
 
Brendan Reilly
Crescent Real Estate LLC
101 E. Lancaster Avenue
Suite 304
Wayne, PA 19087
P: 215.510.2992
F: 866.836.7013
E: brendan@crescentrealestate.net
W: www.crescentrealestate.net
Please LIKE us on Facebook

LOCAL NEWS

Data compiler Niche.com recently released its 2017 list of the best school districts throughout the nation, and many Pennsylvania districts once again received high ranks. Tredyffrin-Easttown School District was named the nation's best school district, according to Niche.com's data.  Radnor Township was ranked #3.  To get to these results, Niche analyzed academic and student life data from the U.S. Department of Education along with test scores, college data and ratings collected from millions of Niche users.  Click here to read more. Source: Tredyffrin-Easttown Patch 1/17/17

Life Time Fitness is opening in King of Prussia and Ardmore.  The 140,000 sq. ft. club in King of Prussia on Swedesford Road with a “resort-like” outdoor pool and waterslides will open in June.  Other than gym, cardio and training amenities, the club will have yoga, pilates, and cycle studios, a spa, and tennis, squash and basketball facilities.  The Ardmore Life Time Fitness, located in the former Macy’s building, will share the ground floor with West Elm.  This four floor location will include two yoga studios, a reformer-equipped pilates studio, a cycling theater and two multi-use group fitness rooms.  It will also house a turfed outdoor space, a restaurant/café and bar, a medical clinic and a spa. Source: Savvy Main Line 1/17/17

The former Devon Manor nursing home will become a deluxe drug treatment and recovery center.  New owner Brian O’Neill will open one of his RCAs (Recovery Centers of America) in March. An RCA was slated to open near Paoli Hospital, but Brian says he’ll likely make it a sober living/outpatient center instead. The RCA in Devon will be the company’s fifth – others are in Mays Landing, NJ, Maryland and Massachusetts.  O’Neill plans to expand throughout the northeast and eventually, across the country.  Source: Savvy Main Line 12/13/16 

The Promenade at Granite Run will usher in a new town center development with shops, housing, and entertainment.  The town center, a project of BET Investments of Horsham was approved by Middletown in November 2015. The redevelopment of the 58-acre site is the culmination of a project started two years earlier when BET Investments acquired the property.   A substantial amount of site work is underway throughout the parcel, such as retaining walls, footings for the promenade and grading for phase one of the apartments. Construction of the apartments will begin with a 176-unit, four-story luxury building on the former ChiChi’s restaurant pad fronting Route 352.  Source: Daily Times; 1/9/2016

Lower Merion School District officials want to spend at least $11 million on a middle school expansion project that would add classroom and cafeteria space to the Bala Cynwyd Middle School. The proposed plan includes a new 2-story wing that would hold 12 classrooms, as well as a new 30-space parking lot. Located between Manayunk Road and Bryn Mawr Avenue near Levering Mill Road, the middle school has seen its enrollment grow over the past several years. A district official told Main Line Media News she expects each grade level to increase to 400 kids – a number that will add to the already crowded cafeteria and lengthy lunch lines. If approvals go as planned, construction would begin in early 2018 and last through 2019.  Source:  Daily Times; 12/9/2016

Radnor Gets $1 Million for the TAP Trail Construction. The money from the Transportation Awareness Program (TAP) through PennDOT will be used for a trail that will run near Radnor High School, along Lancaster Avenue and King of Prussia Road. The trail, part of the Radnor Greenways Plan, will eventually begin in Wayne, run through Villanova and connect to Haverford. The trail will provide a 5-mile north/south circuit route through almost all of the township, creating a nearly continuous 7.6-mile on-road and off-road bicycle route. The project is just one of 51 others across the state that will receive part of $33 million in federal funding.   Source: Radnor Patch 1/10/17






This email was sent to <<Email Address>>
why did I get this?    unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences
Crescent Real Estate · 101 E. Lancaster Avenue, Suite 304 · Wayne, PA 19087 · USA

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp