As Alex reported 1/14/2012 on Property Source Radio.
Realtor.org  – Daily Real Estate News | Tuesday, Jan 10, 2012
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The National Association of Home Builders’ list of improving housing markets nearly doubled this month, as more cities showed signs of a rebound with their real estate markets.

The list now contains 76 improving markets, up from 41 in December, according to NAHB’s and First American’s Improving Markets Index, a monthly gauge that measures a city’s improvements in housing permits, employment, and housing prices for at least six months.

“The fact that the list of improving housing markets nearly doubled this month shows that a significant, positive trend is developing, and is even more relevant when you consider the expanding geographic distribution of the list — which now includes 31 states and the District of Columbia,” NAHB Chairman Bob Nielsen said in a statement.

These cities were added to the list in January:

• Florence, Ala.
• Tuscaloosa, Ala.
• Fayetteville, Ark.
• Denver, Col.
• Greeley, Col.
• Bridgeport, Conn.
• New Haven, Conn.
• Cape Coral, Fla.
• Jacksonville, Fla.
• Punta Gorda, Fla.
• Honolulu, Hawaii
• Ames, Iowa
• Des Moines, Iowa
• Dubuque, Iowa
• Elkhart, Ind.
• Indianapolis, Ind.
• Lafayette, Ind.
• Lake Charles, La.
• Worcester, Mass.
• Grand Rapids, Mich.
• Lansing, Mich.
• Monroe, Mich.
• Minneapolis, Minn.
• Columbia, Mo.
• Joplin, Mo.
• Fargo, N.D.
• Manchester, N.H.
• Cincinnati, Ohio
• Oklahoma City, Okla.
• Tulsa, Okla.
• Corvallis, Ore.
• Erie, Pa.
• Philadelphia, Pa.
• Chattanooga, Tenn.
• Clarksville, Tenn.
• Nashville, Tenn.
• College Station, Texas
• Dallas, Texas
• Victoria, Texas
• Madison, Wisc.

View a complete list of all 76 metro areas on the Improving Markets Index list at www.nahb.org/imi.

Source: National Association of Home Builders

As Alex reported 12/17/2011 on Property Source Radio.
Realtor.org  – Daily Real Estate News | Tuesday, Dec 13, 2011
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House flippers — made up of investors who bought up homes during the housing boom, possibly made a few upgrades to the home, and quickly resold the homes for high-dollar profit — played a larger role in causing the housing bubble than previously thought, according to a new federal report out by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The impact that speculative real estate investors played in driving the housing downturn has mostly been overlooked until now, the researchers note.

The speculative investors used low downpayments and subprime credit in buying up multiple homes at once, the report says. Their actions attributed to home prices in some areas being inflated, researchers say.

“This may have allowed the bubble to inflate further, which caused millions of owner-occupants to pay more if they wanted to buy a home for their family,” researchers note in the report.

House flippers made up a big piece of the real estate market during the housing boom.  According to the report, more than one-third of all home mortgages from 2006 were to people who already owned at least one home. What’s more, “in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada, where average home prices more than doubled from 2000 to 2006, investors made up nearly half of all mortgage-backed purchases during the housing bubble,” the Associated Press reports. “Buyers owning three or more properties represented the fastest-growing segment of home owners during that time.”

When home values began to fall in 2006, investors defaulted on their loans in large numbers, accounting for more than 25 percent of seriously delinquent mortgage balances, according to the report. In investor hot-spots like Arizona, California, Florida, and Nevada, investors accounted for more than a third of seriously delinquent mortgage balances from 2007 to 2009.

The report urges lenders and regulators to take action to limit speculative borrowing in order to avoid a future housing downturn.

Source: “Flippers’ Housing Bust Role Larger than Thought,” The Associated Press (Dec. 12, 2011)

As Alex reported 12/10/2011 on Property Source Radio.
Realtor.org  – Daily Real Estate News | Monday, Dec 05, 2011
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Sixty percent of real estate professionals advise their sellers to list a home during the holidays because it’s a good time to sell, according to a new survey conducted by Realtor.com.

Why are the holidays such a good time to sell? Seventy-nine percent of the agents surveyed said that more serious buyers come out during the holidays, and 61 percent say less competition from other properties make it a great time to sell. Plus, 17 percent of agents say the cold weather is actually a benefit, making homes feel more cozy.

But online listing photos become even more crucial during the holiday season, according to the survey. Slightly more than half of agents say that the photos are more important because sellers tend to offer less open houses around the holidays, and so the online photos help buyers decide the properties to see and which ones to possibly bypass.

The biggest hurdles sellers face during the holidays, however, are keeping a home ready to show (clean and staged) as well as winter weather conditions and buyers’ vacation schedules, the Realtor.com survey found.

Source: “Survey Data Reveals Majority of Real Estate Professionals Recommend Clients List Their Homes During the Holidays,” Realtor.com (Dec. 2, 2011)

As Alex reported 12/3/2011 on Property Source Radio.
Realtor.org  – Daily Real Estate News | Monday, November 28, 2011
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Save your clients money on their utility bills by giving an energy-saving gift this holiday season. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel recently highlighted several Earth-friendly holiday gift ideas, including:

• Faucet aerators and low-flow shower heads: Help your clients reduce how much water they use and the amount of energy required to heat it. You can find these for under $10 and $25.
• Pressure cookers: Pressure cookers can use up to 70 percent less energy than a conventional pot and you can cook your food faster, according to Energy Smart.
• Artistic energy-efficient light bulbs: Give those CFLs an upgraded look. Hugler, a London-based company, makes a CFL called Plumen that can be used without a lamp shade. CFLs can last up to 25 times longer than incandescent bulbs.
• Ecobuttons: You can attach these to your computer so you can instantly put your computer on energy-saving mode with one press of a button. The ecobutton also displays how much energy and money was saved.
• Solar lawn gadgets and art: Help your home owners decorate their lawns by using energy-efficient products, such as solar-powered water fountains, bird feeders, mosquito zappers, and lanterns.
• Energy tester: Give your clients an energy tester, like the hand-held Kill A Watt energy meter for about $20, which will reveal what home and office appliances are the biggest energy wasters.

Source: “10 Energy-Efficient Gifts That Give Back in Savings,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Nov. 28, 2011)

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