Morning Briefing: New sentiment index for housing market

New sentiment index for housing market… Spiderman actor buys Santa Monica hideaway… Developers may have to pay levy for Cambridge transit… Norah Jones buys former movie home…

New sentiment index for housing market
Fannie Mae has revealed its new measure of sentiment in the US housing market. The Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index is a monthly predictor of the direction of the housing market and will ask consumers whether they think it is a good or bad time to buy or to sell a house, the direction they expect home prices and mortgage interest rates to move, how concerned they are about losing their jobs, and whether their incomes are higher than they were a year earlier. The data will be released on the seventh of each month (or closest day if that is a weekend.)

The new HPSI uses data from the corporation’s National Housing Survey. For August 2015 the results show that 63 per cent of those polled say that now is a good time to buy a home; those who think now is a good time to sell reached 47 per cent but those who think it’s a bad time to sell is at 44 per cent; 47 per cent expect higher home prices in the next 12 months compared to just 9 per cent expecting decreases; those expecting higher mortgage rates in the next 12 months was 47 per cent.
 
Spiderman actor buys Santa Monica hideaway
Tobey Maguire and his wife Jennifer Myers are reported to have snapped up a Santa Monica home using a corporate entity to mask the deal. Variety reports that the couple bought the micro-compound for $2.68 million which gives them a 3-bedroom bungalow and separate two-story artist’s studio. Maguire also owns an undeveloped plot in Brentwood.
 
Developers may have to pay levy for Cambridge transit
Developers in Cambridge, Massachusetts may be hit with a property levy in order to pay for the city’s transit system. The Boston Globe reports that new buildings in Kendall Square may be the first to pay the levy with the charge being applied to other properties in order to fund the MBTA’s Green Line extension and other projects. Other cities have made similar moves including Washington DC, San Francisco and Kansas City.
 
Norah Jones buys former movie home
Singer Norah Jones has been revealed as the buyer of a home once featured in the movie Eat, Pray, Love. The Brooklyn home was bought in May for $6.25 million but the buyer was a mystery until now. The New York Daily News says that Jones also owns a townhouse in the borough. Her new home, which was built in the 1840’s, is currently split into two properties but the singer has filed an application to convert them into one large mansion.