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Private Sector Adds Jobs
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Private Sector Adds Jobs |
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 Just in time to celebrate Labor Day, the Feds released the employment stats for August this morning. An estimated 67,000 net new jobs were created in the private sector last month. While the overall unemployment rate in the US seems stuck, hovering about 9.6%, some positive momentum was made in the hardest hit sectors..
Temporary Census Workers Go Fishing.
In August, the Feds cut-loose an additional 114,000 temporary workers who completed their work on the decennial Census. That was the bad news. However, on the upside, well over 100,000 new jobs were created in four industry segments suffering from high unemployment rates. End-of-summer Labor Day barbeques will be a bit cheerier for workers who landed new jobs in these industries: Education and Health Care, Non-Residential Construction, Administrative and Temporary Help, and Hospitality and Leisure.
One Size Does Not Fit All.
A 9.6% unemployment rate is an average across the nation and across all industries. In fact, it includes workers as young as age 16. Because an average is just as close to the bottom as it is to the top, unless your target is the middle it makes little sense to focus to closely on the average.
Three states: North and South Dakota, and Nebraska have a healthy economic base and a resulting low, below 5%, unemployment rate. Not surprising, two states that were most impacted by the housing bubble and one state crushed by the auto industry have the highest unemployment rates: Nevada (14%), Michigan (13%), and California (12%).
Cut To The Chase:
A picture is worth a thousand words and an interactive picture is simply more fun! To see the year-over-year changes in unemployment rates on a local level and to find metropolitan areas in the US that are experiencing employment growth, click the link below to the “Geography of a Recession” hot-spots map.
Is your local area gaining economic traction and creating new jobs? To see how your county stacks up against others in the US, click the link to the interactive map: Click Here!
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What the Home Buyer Wants
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| What the Home Buyer Wants |
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 Countless changes in the real estate industry have
come about since the beginning of the economic downturn, but the most
important, and often overlooked, change is the home buyer. As CNN
proclaims, the age of the “McMansion” is over. Value and longevity are
now the driving factors in a consumer’s decision to purchase.
A Change in Lifestyle
Many development projects have re-tooled the marketing
strategy to target a broader range of home buyers. Communities, once
focused on unparalleled luxury and trendiness, have re-vamped not only
marketing tactics, but also re-designed buildings and models as well.
Developers and builders have included more shared amenities, functional living
space and classic design in order to adjust to the evolved tastes of the new home
buyer.
Out with Night Club
Styled Lobbies
For example, 1 Rector Park in New York City, a trendy
development project, fell back into the hands of the lender after not being
able to make sales goals. In 2009 the lender hired Corcoran Sunshine to
assist in repositioning the building. “James Lansill, a senior managing
director of Corcoran Sunshine, said many of the original design elements ‘didn’t seem as relevant to the economy today.’ The lobby design, for example, started out with the
feel of a night club, with a lot of dark wood, and was replaced with lighter
tones and softer furniture.”
Buyers have also evolved in the kind of information
they find useful while shopping for a home. Shortly after 1 Rector Park
streamlined their website to show only the most relevant information about the
building, they received almost double the contracts than the first time the
units were on the market.
Cut To The Chase: What the home buyer wants has evolved and consequently the
developer’s product is changing as well. Smart builders are re-tooling
and reinventing their product and marketing strategy to meet the desires of
today’s home buyer.
Read more examples of developments that have been
successful after making a marketing re-vamp: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/realestate/22cov.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2
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The Tex-A-Plex Spurs the Growth
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| The Tex-A-Plex Spurs the Growth |
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 Housing stats came out on Tuesday. The experts
in the Construction Division of the US Census Bureau announced that home builders
are on track to build an estimated 416,000 new single family homes across the
US during 2010. Frankly, the news was
overshadowed by the commentary on what to do with the troublesome children of
the Feds, namely: Fannie and Freddie. Apparently,
bad news sells.
One in Ten!
The
good news is that David Winans wasn’t buying the bad news. As one pundit after another describes the
bleakness in the housing industry, David sees a shining star. The Tex-A-Plex in the Lone-Star state to be
exact. With 18 million people calling
the Tex-A-Plex home, it’s certainly large enough to be its own state. And, the fastest growing one at that. Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and San
Antonio create the Tex-A-Plex.
Oil
is not the only energy fueling the growth of the Tex-A-Plex. The cities combined are home to more Fortune
500 companies and have created more jobs recently than any other place in the
US. That’s what spurred the housing
growth. This year, one in 10 of all new
single family homes built in the US will be located in the Tex-A-Plex. The chart below displays housing permits for the first half of 2010 (January-June).
Cut To The Chase:
Whether
you build in a small town or big megalopolis, real estate is all about
location, location, location! David
Winans, a forward thinking Dallas real estate broker and the producer of the
Tex-A-Plex video, knows how to capture the attention of today’s home buyers.
Know
someone in your community that can create a compelling PR video like the one
David Winans produced about Dallas and Houston?
http://www.texaplex.com/watch-the-texaplex-video/texaplex-videos/
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The Fastest Growing Community in the World
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The Fastest Growing Community in the World |
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 …isn’t even on earth! It’s not a city either. It’s a town formed a little more than a year ago named FarmVille. A whopping 61.6 million people hang out in FarmVille each month. Where do all these people come from? Facebook, of course. In fact, more than 10% of Facebook’s 500 million active users are FarmVille enthusiasts!
Like it or hate it, Facebook became the dominant force in social media in just a few short years. With half of all Facebookers logging in nearly every day, is it any wonder that businesses are clamoring to get in front of such a huge group of people?
Old-fashioned Skills
Mitch Joel, author of “Six Pixels of Separation” and known as Canada’s “Rock Star of Digital Marketing” warns business owners that they should approach their Facebook marketing like a long-term relationship rather than a one-night stand. According to him, “social media might be relatively new, but old-fashioned skills such as good storytelling, avoiding jargon and being patient, can help advance the online presence and success of a business.”
Delta’s a Good Example
Today, Delta Airlines launched a virtual Ticket Window on Facebook. Good news for the airline’s 35,000 Facebook fans. However, before Delta jumped right in and started selling tickets online, the company spent months cultivating relationships with their fans. The pay-off for Delta is a highly interactive audience of thousands of fans with millions of friends!
Cut To The Chase:
Like in Vegas, you can’t win if you don’t play. Attracting millions of fans doesn’t come easy. If you’re unsure where to start with your social media marketing campaign, seek the advice of an expert like Mitch Joel.
Are businesses really just Six Pixels away from their customers? http://www.twistimage.com/blog/ |
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A bird in the hand
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A Bird in the Hand |
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 A decade ago, a small green talking gecko with a British accent became a pop-culture icon and transformed a boring insurance company into one of the most recognizable brands in the US. The GEICO Gecko ushered in a string of ad campaign hits!
The latest craze is the “Rhetorical Question” campaign in which actor Mike McClone asks: “Could switching to GEICO really save you 15 percent or more on car insurance?” Mike gives the viewer a reflective pause. “Is a bird in the hand worth two in the bush?”
People Buy Emotionally
Buck Rogers, VP of Marketing for IBM in the late 1970s and early 1980s, is often quoted by sales and marketing experts. As a master at understanding customer behavior, he observed that “people buy emotionally and justify with logic.” The emotional pain for drivers is the pinch of the recession and paying a lot for car insurance. GEICO’s message in the “Rhetorical Question” ad campaign addresses that pain by saving money! The cleverness is the delivery of the message which creates a memorable impression of GEICO.
Engagement Happens Online
In the highly competitive auto insurance industry, enormous ad budgets are expended by insurance companies to keep front and center of the consumer and claw away market share from the competition. Because GEICO’s business model is a direct consumer relationship, the company focuses its advertising efforts on a collection of methods and messages that engage the consumer.
Well before YouTube and Facebook came on the internet scene, GEICO was a huge online player. The pay-off: consumers have taken the company’s ad campaigns to the next level. Millions have watched the Gecko, Caveman, and Kash on YouTube.
Cut To The Chase:Steal a page out of GEICO’s playbook and follow Buck Rogers. Could switching your ad campaign to address the emotional drivers of home buyers really be more effective? “Does a former drill sergeant make a terrible therapist?”
Just for fun: Is a bird in the hand really worth two in the bush? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdfeW2h8Qo4.
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Get Out of Town
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Get Out of Town
 AAA Travel estimated that
34.9 million Americans vacationed during the Independence Day holiday this
July. Up 17% compared to last year. Many headed off to one of the 553,000 vacation
homes purchased in 2009, according to the National Association of REALTORS® 2010
NAR Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey. What’s really an
eye-opener: 26% of the vacation homes were new construction!
Where They Found the Home They Bought
In the age of comparison shopping for everything on
the internet, it’s no surprise that consumers are doing the same when looking
for a home to buy to use as a primary residence or a place to get away for a
vacation. The NAR report further illustrates the extent to which the
internet has influenced home buyers—47% of homebuyers’ first step
was to look online for the selection of properties available for sale and
information on the home buying process.
What may come as a surprise – more than half
of the vacation home buyers found the very home they purchased either on the
internet or through the help of a Realtor (almost evenly split). Both the
South (at 50%) and the West (at 21%) were the favorite spots to find that
perfect get-away home.
Vacation Home Sales and
Prices Increased
2009 proved to recover some lost ground in the
vacation home market. Both sales volume and prices improved over the
prior year. In fact, while the median price of homes used as a primary
residence declined in 2009 compared to 2008, the median price of vacation homes
increased 12.7% to $169,000.
Cut to the Chase:
The median age of a vacation home buyer is 46 years –
those at the tail-end of the huge baby boomer demographic. One in ten of all homes sold in
2009 were purchased with the intent of using the home as a vacation get-away
place. Are you positioned to take advantage of this growing market?
To get exposure to thousands of online home buyers, sign up here!
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Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
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Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
 Bloomberg. The Wall Street Journal. CNN Money.
All are well-respected
publications which are followed closely by industry analysts. This week,
one report after another declared that the housing market has “stalled” and
construction levels are the “lowest in 8 months.” Someone didn’t pay
attention in statistics class.
New Residential Construction stats for June were released on
Tuesday by the US Census Bureau. Building Permits were up, Housing Starts were down and Housing Completions were way up. Maybe…
Exaggerating Differences
According to Erica Filipek of the US Census Bureau’s
Construction Division, reporters often “exaggerate differences that
statistically don’t exist.” Case in point: the Census Bureau estimated
that “housing starts in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of
549,000. This is 5.0% (+/- 13.2%) below the revised May estimate of
578,000.”
In plain English, what this means is that 549,000 is
an estimate – based on preliminary data and a relatively small
sample size of builders. Additionally,
because the sample size is small (which results in a larger “sampling error”
and widens the confidence intervals), the best guess is that the actual
percentage change in housing starts from May to June falls within a broad range
of 26.4% – it could be as low as 18.2% below May’s revised number or it could be as high as an 8.2%
positive gain.
Cut to the Chase:
Want a better indication of where the housing market
is headed? Follow the money! Erica Filipek suggests tracking
Building Permits -
primarily because the data is statistically more reliable. By the time a
building permit is issued, a builder could have thousands of dollars tied to
the deal – a real incentive to get the house built and sold!
Check out page 2 of the linked Press Release from the Census
Bureau – Building Permits have increased nearly 14% year-to-date in 2010
compared to the same period in 2009. Read the full Press Release citing the New Residential Construction stats for June 2010.
To get exposure to thousands of online home buyers, sign up here!
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Get a Killer Tool Box
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Get a Killer Tool Box!
 That Was Then, This is Now In the not so distant past, new home shoppers got in
their cars, unfolded a map that covered the dash and headed off to see the
model homes at the newest community. Today, they find you using Google
maps on their smart phone. Before the internet age came along,
distribution of a builder’s listings amounted to classified ads in the local
paper. Now the savvy marketers of new
home communities use listing syndication as a tool to get in front of a broad
audience of online home shoppers.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
And then there’s the topic of pictures. Whoever coined
the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words,” must have been a real estate
broker. Just ask Michele Kleier. She’s a NY real estate broker who’s been selling units in the same Park Avenue
building for more than 30 years. Her
advertising used to be limited to short
classifieds with no pictures, but now buyers want
to see everything, including the community.
Grab All Your Tools According to an article in this week’s NY Times,
titled “A Marketing Revolution in Real Estate,” Michele just sold another unit
in the Park Avenue building. This time
she used all her marketing tools: in addition to professional photos, staging and four-color glossy brochures,
Michele invited scores of real estate brokers to tour the unit while treating
them to a catered lunch, featured the unit on HGTV and paid for the listing to
be prominently positioned on several influential real estate websites.
Cut to the Chase:
The fact is –
now we live in the super-tech age. Home shoppers today can “virtually”
walk through their new home online before stepping foot in the front
door. Make sure you're using all the tools in your tool box to attract new home buyers.
Read the article about "A Marketing Revolution in Real Estate"
To get exposure to thousands of online home buyers, sign up here! |
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THE HMI INDEX SHOWS CONTINUED BUILDER CONFIDENCE
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 | | The Inside Scoop WEEKLY NEWSLETTER - 05/21/2010 |
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THE HMI INDEX SHOWS CONTINUED BUILDER CONFIDENCE
MAY 2010 IS LOOKING GOOD
• The National Association of Home Builders/ Wells Fargo Housing index (HMI) gained 22 points in May, its highest point since August of 2007. Builders are encouraged by heightened consumer interest that has kept momentum despite the expiration of home buyer tax credits.
6-MONTH FORECAST
• The HMI sales forecasts for the next 6 months show continued growth. “This means that builders are more comfortable that the market is truly beginning to recover, and the positive factors for buying a new home – low interest rates, great selection, stabilizing prices, and a recovering job market – are taking the place of tax incentives to generate buyer demand.” Says NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe.
EVERY REGION SHOWS GAINS
• All the regions of the country showed positive gains in May. The Northeast rose from 14 points to 35, its highest point since June of 2007. The Midwest showed a gain of two points to 17, the south rose one point to 22, and the West recorded a seven-point gain to 20.
WHAT’S THE POINT
• The home building industry is showing good signs of recovery. Now is a good time to invest in your businesses future. Think about ways you can increase your marketing efforts and take advantage of the increase in home buyer demand.
If your listings are not already uploaded in the NationalNewHomes.com® website, sign up here to get exposure to thousands of home buyers! |
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Hang on to your hard hat!
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Hang on to your hard hat!
On any given day industry pundits report the roller coaster ride of the housing market. One month the headlines read: “Homes Sales Soar” and the next month, “Falling Off a Cliff!” Hang on to your hard hat – it’s going to be a ride.
National Reports Fluctuate
One of the doom and gloom stats released yesterday and commented on widely was the National Association of REALTORS® report that pending home sales fell 30% in May. On a local level in Denver, real estate agents were crying in their beer in May with pending sales even worse than the national average and raising their glasses in June to toast a come-back. While the Denver MLS numbers are not yet finalized, our internal research indicates a huge jump in pending sales reported in June – the best month in more than two years!
Think Local
Twain said there are “Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics!” Following the minute-by-minute reporting of the housing industry too closely may prove disastrous in the long run. At HomTur, we look at trends on a national and local level.
What’s the point:
Home buyers are searching online for their next new home. In fact, we have seen the online home buyer traffic across our NationalNewHomes.com Network increase 8% month-over-month from April through June.
Read the article about pending home sales falling 30% in May
For a detailed analysis of your local market, please feel free to contact HomTur.
If your listings are not already listed in BRIMS™, sign up here to get exposure to thousands of online home buyers! |
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