Survey Suggests Smoking in Home Chips Away at its Value

A survey of Canadian home owners finds that smoking in the home can reduce the home’s value at resale by up to 29 percent. The potential loss on a home could be up to $107,000 on the average home price of $369,000 in Ontario, according to the study sponsored by Pfizer Canada, a pharmaceutical company.

Fifty-six percent of the real estate agents and brokers included in the survey said most buyers are turned off by a home where the home owners have smoked. Twenty-seven percent say that buyers are unwilling to even consider a home in which the home owners smoked. 

“Many prospective buyers are really put off by homes that have been smoked in and they can be very challenging to sell,” says David Visentin, a real estate professional and co-host of the W Network’s “Love it or List it” program.

The percentage of U.S. residents who say owning a home is an essential part of the American dream has hit a three-year high, reaching 79 percent, according to the CNBC-All-America Economic Survey. What’s more, the number of Americans who say it is better to own than rent grew by four points to 69 percent, according to the survey. 

More Americans also believe owning a home is a better long-term investment than stocks. 

“The housing numbers are all heading in the right direction,” reports Diana Olick for CNBC. “Home prices up, foreclosures down and, perhaps the most important, consumer confidence in housing is swelling.” 

Still, first-time home buyers will be the “wild card” in the spring-summer home buying season, says Thomas Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys. “We see strong first-time homebuyer traffic, but it’s still not clear that the traffic will translate into increased purchases because first-time home buyers are dependent on low down-payment financing, such as FHA mortgages.”

90274 Rolling Hills Comes in 9th on Forbes List Of America’s Most Expensive ZIP Codes.

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9. 90274, Rolling Hills, CA

Median Home Price: $3,972,500
Average Days On Market: 124
Number Of Homes On The Market: 61

Luxury Home Sales in Calif. Reach Record

The number of homes that sold for $5 million or more in California reached a record in 2012, according to DataQuick, a real estate information service. 

DataQuick reported that 697 homes sold for more than $5 million in 2012, up from the previous record of 491 in 2011.

California also reached sales records last year in the $4-5 million range and the $3-4 million range, and also had the highest number of home sales of more than $1 million since 2007. And a record number of buyers paid with cash. 

“It should go without saying that buyers and sellers in the prestige market tend to respond to different motivations and incentives than the rest of the market,” says John Walsh, president of DataQuick. “Job security, downpayment sizes, and mortgage interest rates don’t play the same role. Returns on investments in a low-interest-rate financial environment and safe-haven investing do play a role.”

In the San Francisco Bay area — namely Los Altos, Atherton, and Hillsborough — few to no houses sold for anything less than $1 million, DataQuick reported. 

The priciest home purchase in California history came in 2012 too — a Woodside home purchased for $117.5 million. The sale topped a previous record set in 2011 by Russian investor Yuri Milner, who bought for a Los Altos Hills mansion for $100 million.

6 Reasons Why This Winter Is a Great Time to Sell

Forget the myth that winter is a bad time to sell real estate. While sales usually inch lower in the cooler months, some real estate pros are saying this winter in particular may be a great time to sell a home. 

Here’s why: 

1. Mortgage rates are near record-breaking lows. 

2. Home prices are starting to rebound in many markets across the country. The National Association of REALTORS® reported that home prices in December were 11.5 percent higher than a year earlier. 

3. Homes still remain a good deal: Prices are rising but remain mostly below 2007 highs, and in many areas, the cost of buying is cheaper than renting. 

4. Distressed homes that typically sell at big discounts — up to 20 percent off — are still widely available. Short sales and foreclosures accounted for 22 percent of all existing home sales in November. 

5. Household demographic changes: Many buyers used to want to wait until the end of a school year before moving, but households are changing and moving schedules are less tied to school terms. That’s because households with children are making up a smaller part of the mix nowadays. According to William Frey with the Brookings Institution, 80 percent of all households in the U.S. do not include children. has declined. 

6. Household formation is growing. “Many people who ran into tough economic times several years ago are again looking at real estate ownership,” says Wendy Forsythe, executive vice president with Atlantic & Pacific Real Estate. “Enough time has passed so that many of these individuals have re-built credit, built up their savings and now qualify for FHA, VA and conventional financing.”

This article was originally published by Cynthia Marrone

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