Cities are struggling to adequately meet the housing needs of lower-income working families, those with disabilities, people in transition, and immigrant families. At the same time, three-fourths of local housing officials report that the spiraling cost of housing is significantly limiting the opportunities for homeownership for lower-income people and younger families. These findings are part of the State of America’s Cities Survey on Municipal Housing, released today by the National League of Cities (NLC) at its Congress of Cities conference, in Reno, NV.
The NLC survey found that securing safe and affordable housing is becoming more difficult for many cities, with one-third reporting that the availability of affordable housing has worsened in the past year. Among the most significant challenges facing cities are the increasing number of foreclosures, need for home repairs among elderly and low-income families, deteriorating housing stock, absentee landlords and vacant and abandoned properties. In addition, one-third of local housing officials have seen predatory lending on the increase, with more than half indicating it is a problem in their city.
“Ensuring an adequate housing stock is just one of the major obstacles faced by cities in this decade but all the obstacles are linked together,” said Cynthia McCollum, second vice president of NLC and a council member from Madison, Ala, a suburb of Huntsville. “We are facing increasing numbers of older residents, more fiscal challenges, problems with crumbling infrastructure and a changing economic climate. We must work together to keep our cities strong, because without strong cities – large and small – our quality of life will diminish.”
Funding for city housing programs comes from a critical mix of government and non-governmental sources: 84 percent of cities receive some federal assistance, 72 percent state assistance, and 52 percent fund housing programs directly from city resources. About three out of four housing officials, however, reported that the federal and state governments are not doing enough. Read the rest of this entry »
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Brevard County’s housing market continued to be in the doldrums in November, according to the latest statistics from the Home Builders & Contractors Association of Brevard.
The number of housing construction permits issued countywide in November was 235, down from 613 permits in November 2005 and down from a short-lived increase of 512 permits in October of this year.
Of the 235 permits issued last month, 201 were for single-family homes — the lowest number for single-family construction for any month this year. The 201 single-family permits in November were down significantly from earlier this year, when more than 400 single-family home permits were being issued each month.
“It’s been pretty serious. It’s going to get a little bit more serious before it gets better,” said Franck Kaiser, the association’s chief executive officer. Read the rest of this entry »
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Buyers and sellers are waiting for the other to blink: The housing slowdown isn’t giving buyers the big bargains that they might have hoped; and where there are discounts, buyers aren’t leaping to grab them, says Karl E. Case, an economics professor at Wellesley College, who specializes in real estate. Case says the most recent survey he and a colleague conducted among homebuyers revealed growing pessimism about buying in a down market. “They’re scared they’re going to buy something very expensive that’s going to fall in value,” he says. Sellers, meanwhile, are being “stubborn. They seem to be holding out so far.” The result: “People are staring each other down.” Case described home prices as having “downward stickiness,” meaning they don’t fall nearly as much as they rise during the strong periods. In previous down periods, Case points out, the economy has been in a general slump. This time, in most parts of the country, the economy is growing and adding jobs. Case concludes the housing market is in “that flat period, of four to six quarters, where prices don’t plummet. They hold on.”
Source: The Boston Globe, Andrew Caffrey
© Copyright 2006 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD
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WASHINGTON, D.C. December 22nd, 2006 — A new tax deduction will make homes more affordable next year by allowing many American home buyers to write-off premiums for private and government mortgage insurance.
The deduction, which will help families who can’t afford the traditional 20 percent down payment for a home mortgage, will be effective for the 2007 tax year. Borrowers closing loans to purchase homes in 2007 who have annual household incomes of $100,000 or less will be able to get a low down payment mortgage and deduct the full cost of their mortgage insurance premiums on their federal tax return.
“We are pleased that policymakers have recognized mortgage insurance as a cost of finance just like mortgage interest,” said MICA Executive Vice President Suzanne Hutchinson. “Mortgage insurance plays a crucial role in maintaining the stability and continued health of the mortgage finance system. In today’s climate of steadily rising interest rates and slowing home price appreciation, an insured loan is often the most borrower-friendly alternative.”
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It ends with a whimper: The 2006 hurricane season concludes today with nary a single hurricane making landfall, a feat not repeated since 2001 and only the 11th time on record. Most forecasters offered explanations on why their forecasts fell short since most predicted an above-average hurricane season last spring; at the same time, they’re reminding residents that 2007 could see a reemergence of the destructive storms. “This year was a break, not a shift,” says research meteorologist Stanley Goldenberg with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “We still see all the oceanic and atmospheric signals that we’re in an above-average era. But, even in an active cycle, you have slow years.” Still, even with skyrocketing insurance costs and the possibility that next year could be worse, most Floridians breathe a sigh of relief today.
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Ah, prognostication. It’s a time-honored profession and one that’s hard to beat in terms of job security. In what other profession can you get it wrong half the time and still be considered pretty good at what you do? If “Bob in accounting” had that kind of track record, he’d be out on the street before the second-quarter earnings were revised. But prognosticators can’t possibly be faulted for not knowing what hasn’t happened yet.
All of this is a fitting introduction to our forecast of the changing real estate market in the U.S. over the next few years — 10 markets where housing prices and values will continue to remain strong (below), 10 markets where appreciation will pretty much top out and the 10 markets that are most likely to experience a decline. We talked to experts, studied public and private databases, analyzed market trends and examined the analyses of many others — often contradictory.
The resulting lists are not intended to be numerical rankings, which would result in lists of markets located almost exclusively in California and Florida.
Nor are they intended to be be-all, end-all lists. In a recent quarterly metro-area, single-family home price report from the National Association of Realtors, a record 72 markets had annual increases in the double digits for median prices for existing, single-family homes. Only six areas had price declines out of 145 metropolitan Read the rest of this entry »
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As real estate cooled this year, teardowns plummeted by at least 20 percent nationally, roughly corresponding to the drop in housing starts, says Stephen Melman of the National Association of Home Builders.
That news was greeted with delight by preservationists, but few believe it will last.
The potential profits of teardowns simply are too attractive to dissuade developers to stay away for long, says Daniel McMillen, who heads the Center for Urban Real Estate at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
“I think some people might argue that the teardown market was a bubble and now that bubble has burst,” McMillen says. “But I don’t think that is the case. I think the teardown market will bounce back.”
Source: Associated Press, Michael Tarm (12/12/2006)
© Copyright 2006 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688
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A new study by the Consumer Federation of America found that in 2005 about one third of women took out mortgages with interest rates over 7.66 percent (above the average prime mortgage rate of 5.87 percent) compared with about a quarter of men. The study, which examined 4.4 million mortgage originations throughout the country, also found that women with high incomes were 46.4 percent more likely than men with comparable incomes to have the more expensive mortgages.
Women earning less than an area’s median income were 8 percent more likely to receive subprime loans than similarly earning men, but women earning more than double an area’s median income were 50 percent more likely to receive subprime loans than men with similar earnings. California Mortgage Bankers Association spokesman Dustin Hobbs says that the study shows a difference, but it doesn’t mean the lending industry has a bias against women, noting that it shows “a disparity but not why there is a disparity.”
Source: Consumer Federation of America; Inside Bay Area, Eve
Mitchell (12/08/06)
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Homeowners who pay less than 20 percent down must many times pay for private mortgage insurance (PMI), but a law recently passed by Congress makes that cost fully deductible on income taxes starting in 2007. It applies to new loans for households making less than $100,000 per year.
The change also applies to mortgage insurance issued in combination with a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan.
Private mortgage insurance is often required of borrowers who don’t have down payments of at least 20 percent, and don’t take out a second “piggyback” loan. Government insurance is mostly offered through the to borrowers considered too risky for traditional loans programs, usually first-time home buyers. Military veterans also take it out.
“Making the cost of mortgage insurance tax deductible helps those who need it most: low- and moderate-income Americans, primarily first-time home buyers, who are financially responsible but simply don’t have the means to amass a 20 percent down payment,” says Steve Smith, Chief Executive Officer of The PMI Group Inc.
A broad range of consumer, business, taxpayer, civil rights, civic and labor groups have supported the legislation.
© 2006 FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
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A slowdown in one industry can provide a big boost for another.
There are so many homes for sale nationwide that the Bradenton-based company that makes the front-door lockboxes used to gain access to houses is working around the clock to keep up with demand.
One local real estate group even ran out of its supply after underestimating how many devices it would need.
GE Security is producing 6,600 electronic boxes each day. They hang on the doors of homes for sale and use a popular technology that enables a real estate agent to gain access to a home using a cell phone, an electronic key or a device such as a Palm Pilot.
“There are more homes on the market, and they are taking longer to sell,” said Jeff Antrican, sales manager for GE Security, which manufactures the electronic boxes at its Salem, Ore., plant. “Our demand is higher than ever.”
GE Security produced 1 million electronic lockboxes in 2006, an amount sufficient to cover demand for the previous three years during the torrid real estate market. Read the rest of this entry »
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Once you’ve hit the big time, there are certain perks you become entitled to enjoy: first-class travel, better bottles of wine, a garage full of expensive cars, and a vacation home. But all too often this last luxury takes the shape of a seasonal ski lodge or beach house, usually a good distance from your primary residence.
Before too long, you realize that you are paying to keep up a place 12 months of the year when you spend a fraction of your time there. Do the math. You’re a smart person. Does that make sense?
What if, instead, you had the opportunity to have a place of your own but one that would make you money when you aren’t using it? Better yet, what if, when you were in residence, you not only enjoyed all the comforts of home but all the comforts of a hotel as well?
If that sounds good to you, you may want to consider buying a property in a condo-hotel. A relatively new concept, condo-hotels, as the term implies, allow buyers to own an apartment unit in a hotel.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Counting the Lexuses, BMWs and Mercedes on U.S. 41? This might save you time. One out of eight of the people keeping you company at the stoplights have a household net worth of $1 million or more, not counting their main home. If you think that is a good thing, stick around. By the year 2009, the ratio is going to be one out of six. Millionaires will account for 54,267 households, an increase of 58 percent from the present level, projections made available to the Herald-Tribune by U.S. Trust Co. show.
Financial firms like U.S. Trust — soon to become part of Bank of America — are being drawn to the region’s abundance of fat stock, bond and real estate portfolios, not to mention a spate of high-end retailers hungrily eyeing Southwest Florida as a potential shopping mecca for the affluent. It is the kind of statistic that makes even some of the most skeptical players in the real estate game confident that Southwest Florida is going to have a healthy share of the millions of well-heeled baby boomers retiring during the next 20 years.
U.S. Trust — a firm founded in 1853 with the sole purpose of wealth management — just got around to opening a Sarasota office last year. The move put the company in direct competition with Northern Trust, the Chicago-based company that has cultivated Sarasota snowbirds’ fields of green since 1977. For both, data on wealth per household is like a thermometer, refreshing itself outside the window on a continuing basis, confirming what they already felt in their hearts — that they are in the right place.
“From St. Pete down through Sarasota is the 10th wealthiest corridor in the United States,” said Scott Merritt, U.S. Trust’s Sarasota president as he sat in the firm’s 11th floor conference room, with its picture-window view of the city by the bay. “It just shouted that Sarasota and this whole region should be a place for U.S. Trust to come and be.” The 2005 wealth per household data as well as the 2009 projections Read the rest of this entry »
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NORTH PALM BEACH, Fla. – Nov. 30, 2006 – Want to avoid owning a white elephant when it’s time to sell your home? Know what housing design features have lasting value, then renovate with an eye to the future and you’ll make more when your home hits the market.
The U.S. Census Department’s 30-year report on housing trends, which runs from 1975 through 2005, tracks the changes that shaped today’s neighborhoods. Among the biggest losers in housing design: split-levels such as the one television’s “Brady Bunch” called home.
Housing trends
Housing designs have changed a lot over the last three decades, as chronicled in today’s television reruns.
That very Brady house design
What was trendy when the Bradys enhanced their space with shag carpeting and gold and avocado decor, has given way to the modern preference for size: higher ceilings, multiple garages and more square footage.
Also hot over the past 30 years are ways to keep cool – homes without central air conditioning, especially in the steamy South, aren’t even on the radar these days. There’s also little demand for places with fewer than three bedrooms and only one bath. While the Brady kids may have brushed six sets of teeth in one lonely bathroom, even today’s singles crave an extra toilet and sink in their house design. Read the rest of this entry »
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