Emily Laura Blog's

Monday, 2 November 2020

Who Will Rescue a Massive Berkshires Mansion Once Owned by the Vanderbilts?

Elm Court Berkshires — Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

A mansion in the Berkshires that remained in the Vanderbilt family until 2012 is now up for sale. It was the last remaining summer cottage in the Berkshires owned by the descendants of what was once the United States’ wealthiest family.

And while the words “summer cottage” may conjure up images of a modest shack near a beach, the 50,000-square-foot estate known as Elm Court is far from tiny and nowhere near the ocean. The huge mansion is available for $12.5 million.

“It was built in 1885 as a summer cottage for Emily Vanderbilt and her husband, and it was expanded over time, when they kept adding rooms and more staff,” says the listing agent, John Barbato.

The significant home has a spot on the National Register of Historic Places and sits on 89 acres near Lenox and Stockbridge, MA. A buyer will also need to bring a contractor or two—the enormous home is livable, but a huge portion of it has not yet been touched and is still waiting to be fixed up.

Emily Thorne Vanderbilt and her husband, William Douglas Sloane, passed Elm Court down to various family members. One opened the home as an inn in 1948, and closed it in 1957.

“The Vanderbilts kind of stopped using it. Then it sat empty for 40 or 50 years, and went into total disrepair,” Barbato explains.

“They basically locked the doors with all the furniture inside and just walked away. They had another home nearby, and they just didn’t use this anymore.”

Over the decades, the mansion sat vacant and fell prey to vandalism, looting, and decay.

Aerial view
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

Historical photo
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

Exterior
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

Expansive living space
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

Marble mantel
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

Fireplace
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

Dining area
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

Living space
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

Bathroom
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

Receiving room
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

In 1999, the great-great-grandson of Emily Vanderbilt, Robert Berle, acquired the property and began restoring it.

“[He] did a massive renovation of the main entertaining rooms and main bedrooms of the house—and the kitchen and the servants’ wing,” Barbato says.

For a few years, Berle used the home as a venue for weddings and parties.

“But the part of the house he did not resurrect is still there sitting in decay. It’s kind of a wild situation,” Barbato says.

Hallway
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

Interior
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

The part of the property that Berle restored measures 20,821 square feet and has more than 65 rooms, including 13 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, and four half-bathrooms. All those facilities are in working order, and the rooms are habitable.

As for the rest of the mansion?

“The other 30,000 square feet is just kind of sitting there,” Barbato explains. “It wasn’t looted, and it hadn’t been vandalized, and even though it is simple woodwork, it’s all original and beautiful by today’s standards.”

The wing has an additional 15 bedrooms and at least a dozen bathrooms, along with game rooms and other open living spaces. It was the last addition tacked on to the original house.

Barbato told us a buyer could tear it down and still have a substantial property, or alternatively, restore it and have a grand property evocative of the home’s Gilded Age origins.

For a sense of scale, the total, if you include all the staff bedrooms on the property, is a whopping 47 bedrooms.

Kitchen
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

Butler’s pantry
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

The kitchen is large, modern, and features high-end appliances. A huge butler’s pantry nearby is larger than the kitchen itself.

The current owners bought the property from the Vanderbilt family in 2012, with the intention of turning it into a resort, spa, and convention center, but those plans fell through.

“It’s surrounded by other Gilded Age estates that have either been turned into institutions—some of them are hotels, some are private residences,” Barbato explains. “This is the largest Shingle Style single-family home in America.”

Grounds
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

Fountain
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

View from the terrace
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

The architectural firm Peabody and Stearns designed the house and the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted designed the gardens and grounds. The outdoor areas will also require some work.

“You can imagine during the Vanderbilts’ time, that was quite a spectacular space,” Barbato says. “There are several fountains throughout the grounds … and what used to be trellises.”

They’re all in disrepair, and the fountains aren’t functioning, but they’re impressive and carved out of solid marble.

Stables
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

Outbuildings
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

Greenhouses
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

There are also several outbuildings, including an eight-bedroom butler’s house, a caretaker’s house, a carriage house, stables, greenhouses, and two barns.

“I think one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture on the property is the stable, It’s just absolutely beautiful brickwork,” Barbato says.

“The horse stalls are beautiful brass-detailed dividers. It’s just incredible the money that was spent on this.”

The current owners were planning to use the stables as a restaurant and café.

Barbato says he believes a single family could buy the property for use as a private residence.

At the asking price of $12.5 million, the price per square foot is extremely low, he notes.

“It’s like zero for the amount of amount of acreage, and there’s a lot that’s salvageable in this house,” he says.

Furthermore, the location is equidistant from both New York City and Boston.

“I don’t know how long it’ll take, but the right buyer will walk through,” Barbato says.

Porch
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

Details
Anthony Acocella/ Acocella Photography

The post Who Will Rescue a Massive Berkshires Mansion Once Owned by the Vanderbilts? appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

source https://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/berkshires-mansion-owned-by-vanderbilts-needs-rescue/

Tudor Lovers, Listen Up, This Restored Mansion in Ohio Is a ‘Masterpiece’

A private Tudor estate in Canton, OH, that harks back to an earlier era is available for $3.7 million. The 14,534-square-foot home on Brentwood Road NW sits on almost 3 acres. It’s the most expensive home for sale in town—and the second-priciest place in Stark County.

“It sits on a hilltop, so it has this sort of grand essence about it when you pull into the driveway,” says the listing agent, Joanna Belden.

The home was built in 1929, and the current owners have fully restored the grand mansion over the past decade, receiving an award from the local preservation society for their efforts.

“They really did an amazing job of maintaining the integrity of the original intent of the home but modernizing everything about it,” Belden says.

The updating, she says, doesn’t detract from the original Tudor feel of the house.

“They’ve brightened it up and modernized it in a way that you feel like you’re stepping back in time,” she says. “At the same time, it has all those wonderful modern amenities that allow you to easily live there.”

One addition was an elevator, to make the trip between the three floors easier. All the mechanical, electrical, HVAC, and plumbing systems are also new.

Exterior of mansion in Canton, OH
A Studio

The house has nine bedrooms, seven full bathrooms, and four half-bathrooms, all of which have a feeling of historic grandeur.

All the bedrooms are on the upper levels and have their own bathrooms.

The main house features two kitchens, one designed with an eye toward big events.

“You’ve got your family everyday kitchen that has the beautiful woodworking and has a little sitting area and a big center island,” Belden explains.

“Then there’s a working kitchen, so when you’re entertaining, especially if you’re outdoors, you can use that kitchen, and it’s a full kitchen as well.”

There are Viking stoves and other high-end appliances throughout the house.

All the finishes are of the highest quality, Belden says.

“They were able to salvage and repurpose a lot of the original woodworking and doors.”

The massive mansion also includes a formal dining room, living room, library, media room, and sunroom.

Through the front door, you walk into a grand front hall, with an intimate-feeling library to the right, Belden says.

Many of the rooms on the main floor have hardwood floors that were repurposed from the second and third floors, lending an authentic, vintage feel.

“You can entertain very large groups of people either in a formal environment, up in that area, or you can take them downstairs into what I call the gallery, and have a more informal gathering down there,” she says.

For long-term guests, there’s an apartment over the garage with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, family room, and laundry facilities.

All the sections of the house are connected, including the large indoor pool and exercise area. There is also a large outdoor patio area with a fireplace.

The estate is in the historic village of Hills and Dales and is surrounded by other large homes on large lots.

A mansion of this magnitude is hard to compare to the city’s housing stock. The current median list price per square foot in Canton is a paltry $85, but this fully restored Tudor is listed at a price of $255 per square foot.

“It’s one of those areas in our local market that just has beautiful mature trees and majestic homes that are situated throughout, and this is one of them,” Belden explains.

She says the perfect buyer might be someone who wants a quiet, private estate that’s nevertheless close to amenities.

“The biggest thing about this property is it’s a masterpiece of architecture and art all intertwined,” Belden says.

The post Tudor Lovers, Listen Up, This Restored Mansion in Ohio Is a ‘Masterpiece’ appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

source https://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/restored-tudor-mansion-masterpiece-ohio/

Charles Manson Murder House Goes Back On the Market—Just a Year After It Was Sold

The Los Angeles home where Charles Manson and his followers brutally slayed a couple during their murderous spree is up for sale again—just a year after it was sold.

Zak Bagans had purchased the two-bedroom, two-bathroom home of victims Leno and Rosemary LaBianca last year for $1.89 million, intending to use it for a film production. Bagans, the star of the Travel Channel’s “Ghost Adventures” show, later decided to quash the project out of respect for the LaBiancas.

The Spanish-style home in the tony Los Feliz neighborhood is now back on the market for $2.2 million.

Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were killed in Leno’s childhood home by the Manson family in 1969.
realtor.com

The LaBiancas had moved into Leno’s childhood home the year before they were slaughtered there on Aug. 10, 1969. Manson’s followers had murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others at Tate’s mansion the night before.

Rosemary was stabbed 41 times, while her husband, the owner of a grocery store chain, sustained a dozen stab wounds. Leno’s body was eviscerated, and blood was found smeared all over the couple’s walls. The misspelled “Healter Skelter,” a nod to the Beatles song “Helter Skelter,” was written in blood on the refrigerator.

The home where Charles Manson and his followers murdered the LaBiancas features a covered patio overlooking the pool.
realtor.com

Buyers may be able to overlook the grisly murders in favor of the 1,655-square-foot abode’s more amenable attributes. The single-story home, constructed in 1922, includes a large living room with a gas fireplace and Italian tile floors. The dining room opens to a covered, outdoor patio overlooking the pool.

The gated, half-acre property features views of downtown Los Angeles, Griffith Park, Glendale, and the San Gabriel Mountains.

“You may never want to leave,” the listing notes, perhaps ominously given the home’s history.

“There was a very, very strong energy in the house,” Bagans told the Guardian last year.

“I love to investigate spirits and places,” he said. “This is a beautiful place with a very dark history.”

However, after spending some time there he told TMZ that the tragic events should rest in the past, and canceled the project.

The home where the LaBiancas were killed offers stunning views.
realtor.com

The post Charles Manson Murder House Goes Back On the Market—Just a Year After It Was Sold appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

source https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/charles-manson-murder-house-goes-back-on-market-again/

Did John Lennon Live Here? NYC Penthouse on the Market for $5.5M

John Lennon Lost Weekend Apartment — Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, Brown Harris Stevens

The legendary John Lennon of the Beatles loved the anonymity of New York City and kept a residence in the iconic Dakota building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side before his untimely death.

Prior to settling down in the Dakota for good, he had a brief stopover at a posh penthouse in Manhattan. Now, a penthouse in the building where Lennon held a rental unit has come on the market for $5.5 million.

The rock star stayed in the East Side building in the mid-1970s, living with May Pang, while he was estranged from his wife, Yoko Ono, who remained at the Dakota.

Here’s the mysterious part. The penthouse where Lennon and Pang lived doesn’t exist in its current form, having been reconfigured and renovated in the decades since.

What’s known is that Lennon lived in the building for a time. Since then, the couple’s one-time lair has been reconfigured into parts of two separate penthouse units, so it’s possible Lennon lived in parts of both. Only one penthouse is for sale.

The time he spent sorting out his life in the mid-1970s was dubbed his “lost weekend.” A photographer documented him at the time in some famous black-and-white portraits.

“John was back in New York, sobering up, cleaning his life up,” Bob Gruen, the photographer who snapped the rooftop shots, recalled for New York Magazine.

“He loved it when people treated him like a normal person rather than a Beatle, and that could happen here.”

You can watch Lennon point out the place where he claims to have spotted a UFO from the roof.

Pang wrote about her memories of the building where she lived some 45 years earlier, after visiting the apartments.

“What I will say is both apartments gave me the river view that I had back then,” Pang posted on her blog this month.

“This is where John would sit for hours watching the boats go by, listening to the traffic below, and hear the helicopters fly by. This is also where John and I saw the UFO.”

A new owner can while the time away on the terrace searching the skies for UFOs, or simply enjoy the view while listening to “Rubber Soul.”

The opulent triplex penthouse spans 4,000 square feet overlooking the East River. Offering New York City and river views, the landscaped, 2,000-square-foot wraparound terrace can be accessed from every room on the main floor.

The spacious layout includes four bedrooms, four bathrooms, and a total of 10 rooms on three floors.

Penthouse with East River views
Courtesy: Brown Harris Stevens

Living room
Courtesy: Brown Harris Stevens

Dating to 1929, the unit combines modern design with period elements and such details as inlaid hardwood flooring, high ceilings, wood-burning fireplaces, and picture windows that frame picturesque cityscapes.

A main floor includes a library and media room, as well as a bedroom or home office.

The generous “French countryside”-style, eat-in kitchen includes high-end appliances and plentiful counter space and storage. The formal dining room has a fireplace and can seat 20.

A staircase leads to the upper level, with a sitting room, master bedroom with 14-foot ceilings and wood-burning fireplace, two en suite baths, and river views. The floor also features a two-level dressing room with a rotating closet system.

The lower level has a self-contained, one-bedroom apartment with a large living room, fireplace, bedroom, full bathroom, and kitchen. It can be accessed by internal stairs or by a separate entrance, perfect for extended family, for a separate work-from-home space, or for guest quarters.

Designed by the renowned architect Emery Roth, the pet-friendly co-op building features full-time door attendants, and landscaped gardens on a quiet cul-de-sac. The location is close to the cultural destinations, dining, and shopping of the Upper East Side.

Recently, another surprise piece of Lennon’s real estate history popped up in sunny Palm Beach, FL. The waterfront property briefly owned by Lennon and Ono had bounced back onto the market for $47.5 million. It’s currently in pending sale status.

Lauren Cangiano, Alisha Lloyd-Hudson, and Daniel Jayson—all with Brown Harris Stevens—hold the listing.

The post Did John Lennon Live Here? NYC Penthouse on the Market for $5.5M appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

source https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/did-john-lennon-live-here-nyc-penthouse-on-the-market/

Legendary Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs on the Market for $25M

Kauffman House Palm Springs — Daniel Solomon for Vista Sotheby’s International Realty

The Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs, CA, designed by Richard Neutra in 1946, is on the market for $25 million. The glass, stone, and steel icon was at the forefront of modern design.

Now, after a painstaking, award-winning restoration, the art piece has become available.

“Not only was it groundbreaking, but the house is magical,” says the listing agent, Gerard Bisignano of Vista Sotheby’s International Realty.

“There are a lot of great modernist homes. The Kaufmann home just stands out, it just does—both aesthetically and historically.”

For this modern marvel, Neutra was commissioned by the department store magnate Edgar J. Kaufmann to design a desert masterpiece. Just a decade or so before, Kaufmann had struck gold with his previous architectural commission.

He tapped Frank Lloyd Wright to design his home in western Pennsylvania, now known as Fallingwater—one of the most celebrated American homes ever built.

Neutra had worked for Wright, and even used the stonemasons Wright had employed in the Fallingwater build for this Palm Springs home.

From ‘Poolside Gossip’ to disrepair

The completed desert vacation retreat, built into the arid landscape, served as the muse for the photographer Julius Shulman, whose black-and-white photos of the home became legendary.

But the most famous image taken at this residence is “Poolside Gossip,” by Slim Aarons, encapsulating a whole era in an intimate and colorful way. It dates to the time when the home was owned by Nelda Linsk and her husband, Joseph Linsk.

The photo depicts Nelda and her friend Helen Dzo Dzo in 1970, lounging poolside, with the sleek residence in the background. Nelda is in yellow.

“It was great fun. We entertained a lot,” Linsk says. “People look at that photo, and that’s the way we live in Palm Springs. Outside in the pool. It was a wonderful day.”

Now, a new owner will have a chance to capture the glorious desert setting.

The current owner, Brent Harris, purchased the place in 1993 with his wife at the time, the architectural historian Beth Harris, for about $1 million. By then, the home’s glory days had faded, and interest in modernism had ebbed.

The home had changed hands several times, with owners including Barry Manilow and a former owner of the San Diego Chargers, according to Bisignano. Along the way, dubious additions and remodeling took place.

The restoration of an iconic residence

The Harrises set out on an “archeological dig,” as Bisignano calls it. They tapped the Los Angeles-based architects Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner for the restoration.

Without original drawings in hand, the architects searched for clues. They found additional Shulman photos of the home and accessed the Neutra archives as part of a five-year project.

The designers refurnished and replaced sections of the house, using original manufacturers and craftsmen.

The firm went to great lengths to bring back the home to its original grandeur, for example, reopening a section of a Utah mine to match the original pinkish buff stone in the house.

They even located a metal crimper machine from Kansas City—out of use for decades—to recreate some of the roof’s exterior details.

The award-winning result sparked interest anew in the property, which is now landmarked under the Mills Act.

Around 2010, Brent Harris took sole ownership of the home, after splitting with his wife. He continued to invest in the place and poured an additional $2.5 million into improvements beyond the original restoration work, Bisignano notes.

Specs of the legendary home

With 3,263 square feet, the five-bedroom, six-bathroom home sits on over 2 acres, with a cruciform layout.

The home is designed around wings, with the living and dining areas at the center of the house, and wings for guest quarters, bedrooms, and the master suite.

Sets of sliding glass doors open to the patio outside, where the famous pool is surrounded by seating areas and the grassy lawn.

The pool pavilion structure has been modernized to conform with present-day standards, and contains a party room, small gym, plasma screens, stereo, and steam shower.

Although the home is single-story, a second-story roofed but otherwise open-air deck sits above the home’s entrance. Linsk remembers spending time on the loggia drinking martinis, and pulling up the home’s dumbwaiter to send down for supplies.

“That home is legendary,” Linsk says. “There’ll never be another home like that. I didn’t realize it when I lived there. Now I realize it.”

So who will buy a legend? The $25 million price tag is the highest in Palm Springs by a wide margin.

“It is obviously a very narrow buyer pool,” Bisignano says.

He adds that the buyer will be a collector of livable art.

“It’s more than likely someone who owns or who has owned other architectural significant properties.”

The post Legendary Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs on the Market for $25M appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

source https://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/kaufmann-desert-house-in-palm-springs-for-sale/

Can Justin Bieber Score a $9M Asking Price on His Beverly Hills Home?

Justin Bieber Beverly Hills home — realtor.com, Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/Getty

After purchasing a posh, $25.8 million pad in the uber-exclusive enclave of Beverly Park, CA, the pop star Justin Bieber and his model wife, Hailey Baldwin, are letting go of their smaller but no less impressive Beverly Hills mansion, Variety reports.

The updated abode is listed for $9 million with Josh Altman at Douglas Elliman. Bieber and Baldwin had picked up the home in March 2019 for $8.5 million.

Bieber appeared to have a change of heart just months later, when he posted a photo of the home on Instagram, putting the word out to his 150 million followers: “I think I wanna sell my home in Beverly Hills who wants it.”

Since then, the home has been staged and appears to have been stripped of the star’s personal effects.

View this post on Instagram

I think I wanna sell my home in Beverly Hills who wants it.

A post shared by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) on Oct 11, 2019 at 2:36am PDT

Why did Bieber buy?

“Both of them are excellent neighborhoods,” says Sally Forster Jones, an agent with Compass. Of the listing now on the market, she says, “This is a great area in Beverly Hills and a great street.”

The completely redone gated traditional from the 1930s is no slouch. With 6,132 square feet of living space, the spread has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms.

The layout offers seamless indoor-outdoor living space with steel-case windows and doors that open up and allow natural light to fill the home, while looking out on the property grounds.

The interior layout includes a living room, great room, office, theater, wine cellar, and bar. The sleek chef’s kitchen includes white oak cabinets, marble island, and Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances.

A master suite features soaring vaulted ceilings, a fireplace, bathroom, and custom closet.

With tall lush greenery, the backyard boasts an infinity pool, a water feature, barbecue, and a cabana with a fireplace.

Forster Jones says the $9 million listing is “relatively more modest,” but it’s far from slumming it.

She notes that Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the world’s richest man, just snapped up the property next door to add to his massive compound. Perhaps he’ll add this place to his cart?

Going big in Beverly Park

If reports are to be believed, the two jumped at the chance to pick up an even more elaborately exclusive spot in Beverly Park, a guard-gated enclave within Beverly Hills.

The seven-bedroom mansion they purchased this summer had been on and off the market since 2018, initially priced at $42 million. Since then, the home had been additionally updated, and discounted by millions, eventually selling to the couple for $25.8 million.

The substantially bigger property is set behind gates on 2.5 acres and features 11,000 square feet of space.

Amenities include a large living room, library, dining room, eat-in kitchen, and adjacent family room. The spread also features a home theater, wine cellar, and gym.

Massive grounds are graced with lawns, a koi pond, infinity pool, sport court, and barbecue with pizza oven.

“People are much more portable today about their living situation—especially when it comes to celebrities and the uber-wealthy,” says Cara Ameer, a licensed real estate agent in California and Florida.

“Regardless of when they bought one property, if something comes on the market that they really want to buy, they do it.”

Ameer added, “It can be very difficult to time the market trying to find what you want when you want it. In this case, the [Beverly Park] property became available at an extremely good deal, and so he jumped.”

As she points out, stars are no different from us.

“Celebrities want deals just as much as everyone else. It’s just on a completely different level,” she says.

The post Can Justin Bieber Score a $9M Asking Price on His Beverly Hills Home? appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

source https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/can-justin-bieber-score-9m-asking-price-on-his-beverly-hills-home/

Why This Winter’s ‘Slow’ Home-Selling Season May Be Hotter Than Ever

winter home selling — BackyardProduction / Getty Images

Winter is traditionally real estate’s slow season. Between the cold weather and the holidays, the housing market typically plunges into a hibernation of sorts, with both buyers and sellers shelving any major real estate moves until spring.

This winter’s real estate market, however, is shaping up to be unlike any other before it—and, contrary to what some may have feared, is slated to be an excellent time to sell a home. In fact, Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, predicts “it will be one of the best winter sales years ever.”

Why? Chalk it up to a perfect storm of low mortgage interest rates, sparse housing inventory, plus a pandemic that’s fundamentally changed how, when, and where buyers are shopping for homes.

So if you’ve assumed you should put your home-selling plans on hold until spring, read on for a surprising reality check on all the reasons this winter could be a great time to put your house on the market.

Pandemic lockdowns have created pent-up buyer demand

While spring is typically real estate’s busy season, the “silent spring” of 2020 saw the housing market grind to a near halt amid pandemic-mandated lockdowns. This, in turn, created pent-up demand to purchase property that is only now being unleashed.

“We currently see buyers sticking around in the housing market much later than we usually do this fall,” says Danielle Hale, chief economist at realtor.com®. “If that trend continues, we will see more buyers in the market this winter, too. So this winter is likely to be a good time to sell.”

“There are plenty of people in the pipeline ready to hit the market this late autumn and winter,” Yun agrees.

Many real estate agents have noticed this glut of eager buyers first-hand.

“Winter is usually a slower season, but this year we’re not seeing any sign of letting up,” says Matt van Winkle, a real estate broker and owner of Re/Max Northwest Realtors in Seattle. “The selling season was delayed because of COVID lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, so several months of usual busy sales periods were delayed.”

This buyer demand likely won’t wane anytime soon.

“We will see an extended purchase season in 2020 and into 2021,” says Shelby McDaniels, channel director of corporate home lending at Chase.

Lockdowns are forcing many buyers to upsize their homes

COVID-19 has not only created pent-up demand, but many buyers are also in the market purely because they’re working/schooling from home and realizing their space is no longer big enough—particularly now that the temperature’s dropping so they can’t easily escape to their back patio to catch up on emails alone.

“With people spending so much time in their homes, including working from home and virtual schooling, there’s a great emphasis on being happy there,” says Matt Curtis, owner of Matt Curtis Real Estate, in Huntsville, AL. Lack of space is a complaint agents hear more often now.

And if people are allowed to continue working from home rather than commuting to an office, they might also realize that they can shop for homes farther outside cities—great news for home sellers who live in more remote areas.

Housing inventory is low

Although buyers are plentiful, the number of homes for sale is way lower than usual. According to realtor.com’s Monthly Housing Market Trends Report, in September, national housing inventory declined 39% over last year.

“Because the number of homes available is currently at a record low, even if we see some improvement, which I expect, there will still be relatively few homes for sale,” Hale says. “That will keep upward pressure on home prices and help ensure that homes continue to sell quickly.”

“Inventory is low, so the overall advantage is with the seller,” agrees Yun.

Tracy Jones, a real estate agent with Re/Max Platinum Realty in Sarasota, FL, says buyers have so few homes to choose from these days that they’re feeling forced to make quick decisions about whether to make an offer, or risk losing out on the chance. Nationally, homes spent an average of 54 days on the market in September, 12 fewer days than last year, according to the realtor.com trends report.

“The buyers I have worked with this year only had a handful of homes to look at,” Jones says. “They had no time to wait and talk about it, and they had to fight other buyers if they wanted to buy them.”

Sellers can get top dollar for their homes

It’s simple supply and demand: Low supply and high demand are bound to drive up home prices, so sellers stand to make a killing.

Across the country, median home listing prices jumped 11.1% in September compared with a year ago, to $350,000, according to realtor.com. Price per square foot increased by 13.9%.

“Sales prices and home values remain strong,” McDaniels says. And since there are so many offers on the table, “sellers can call the shots regarding terms of contract and repairs.”

The only challenge sellers face with such low inventory—if you can even call it a challenge—is dealing with too many offers at once, says Curtis.

“The challenge they face is navigating multiple offers and not accepting an offer too quickly to help ensure they get the most money for their home,” he says.

Mortgage interest rates are low

Although buyers will face stiff competition, it’s not all bad news for them. For one, despite high home prices, record-low interest rates mean they’ll save a ton of money.

Interest rates on a 30-year fixed-rate loan were 2.8% as of Oct. 22, according to Freddie Mac.

This “boosts buyer home purchasing power,” Hale says. “In fact, despite double-digit increases in home prices this year compared to last year, today’s home buyers are likely actually paying slightly less on their mortgage each month, thanks to much lower mortgage rates.”

The Federal Reserve has continued to lower interest rates this year to keep the economy going during the COVID-19 crisis, says McDaniels.

“Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, economists and real estate professionals predicted mortgage interest rates would remain below 4% in 2020,” she says. “This means buyers that might have waited will consider entering the market this year.”

Any economic shift likely won’t be felt until spring

Although unemployment continues to rise due to COVID-19 layoffs, Hale says this could affect the real estate market, but the effects likely won’t be felt for a few months.

“A worsening unemployment rate would lead to a slowdown in the housing market and home sales, but I don’t expect that to happen immediately, more likely in the spring,” Hale says. This could create a slower start to the spring home-buying season.

Plus, if another round of stimulus money appears, this would fuel consumer spending.

“This would be a good thing for the housing market and the economy at large,” Hale says.

The post Why This Winter’s ‘Slow’ Home-Selling Season May Be Hotter Than Ever appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

source https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/why-this-winters-home-selling-season-may-be-hotter-than-ever/