Real Estate Information Archive

Reporting by Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sales of previously owned U.S. homes notched their fastest pace in nearly two years in July, an industry survey showed on Friday, the strongest sign yet that housing was pulling out of a three-year slump.

The National Association of Realtors said that sales jumped 7.2 percent to an annual rate of 5.24 million units, the highest since August 2007, beating market expectations for a 5 million unit pace. Sales were at a 4.89 million pace in June.

July's percentage increase was the largest monthly gain since the series started in 1999 and marked the fourth straight monthly advance. The last time sales rose for four consecutive months was in June 2004, the NAR said.

U.S. stock indexes rallied on the data, while Treasury debt prices extended losses as investors viewed the report as another indication that the recession that started in 2007 was close to or ending.

"Existing home sales data show that we are moving in the right direction," said Kevin Flanagan, fixed income strategist for Global Wealth Management at Morgan Stanley in Purchase, New York.

Compared to July last year, sales rose 5.0 percent. The improvement in sales in July was broad based with single-family home sales rising 6.5 percent to annual rate of 4.61 million units and multifamily dwellings surging 12.5 percent to a 630,000 unit rate.

"The housing market has decisively turned for the better. We are bouncing back," NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun told reporters.

Housing data continue to indicate the sector is starting to turn after a three-year slump, but high unemployment threatens the budding recovery as many homeowners continue to lose their properties.

A report from the Mortgage Bankers Association on Thursday showed late homeloan payments jumped to a record high in the second quarter, with almost one in eight homeowners delinquent or in the process of foreclosure.

The inventory of existing homes for sale in July rose 7.3 percent to 4.09 million units from the previous month, and represented a 9.4 months' supply at the current sales pace, unchanged from June, the NAR said.

The national median home price was $178,400 in July, down 15.1 percent from the same period last year, weighed down by distressed sales as they typically sell for 15 to 20 percent less than traditional homes.

This article is from CarolinaNewsWire.com

Raleigh, N.C. – Ken Atkins, executive director for Wake County Economic Development (WCED) (www.raleigh-wake.org), has announced that Raleigh was named one of the healthiest housing markets of 2009 by Builder Magazine. The publication analyzed 75 housing markets across the country and ranked them based on their population trends, job growth – nearly five percent annually – home values and rate building permits. Raleigh was ranked sixth by the magazine with a total of 11,386 total building permits in 2008. The city also has one of the highest rates of population growth of any top metro market in the country over the last five years.

“We are excited that Raleigh has been named one of the healthiest housing markets for 2009,” Atkins said. “Several companies are looking at Wake County as a possible location for corporate expansion and relocation, and this recognition will provide site selectors with another incentive for moving here.”

About Wake County Economic Development:
Wake County Economic Development (WCED), a program of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, is the primary economic development organization for Wake County and its 12 municipalities. WCED hosts clients evaluating Wake County for possible facility locations each year and facilitates dozens of corporate expansions, resulting in new jobs and capital investment for Raleigh and Wake County. Services available to companies that are considering relocating or expanding in Wake County include economic and demographic research, site and building inventory searches, visitation itineraries, community tours, corporate executive and employee briefings, employee relocation assistance, and post-relocation services. In both 2002 and 2003, Site Selection magazine recognized WCED as one of the top ten economic development organizations in the United States. For more information about WCED, please visit www.raleigh-wake.org.

This article is courtesy of David Bracken of the News and Observer.

Twenty years from now, the era of unchecked urban sprawl in Raleigh could be a distant memory.

New homes would be smaller and built close together in urban centers and along major roads. Getting around on foot, bike or mass transit would be not only possible, but preferable to going by car.

That is the bold new vision for Raleigh that city planners will introduce this week. The vision is part of an updated version of the city's comprehensive plan, a document whose bland title belies how dramatically it could affect Raleigh residents and businesses.

If approved by the City Council, the plan would be the vision against which future development in the city would be judged.

"It's just sending a strong message that we want sprawl to end," said Mitchell Silver, the city's planning director.

The draft being released Monday calls for Raleigh to funnel 60 percent of its growth over the next two decades -- about 72,000 residential units -- to downtown, seven urban centers and a number of major road corridors.

The 380-page plan will debut Wednesday evening at the convention center. Residents will be able to talk to the plan's authors and study maps showing how different areas of the city would be affected.

The plan's goal of encouraging urban living and creating more transit options is not revolutionary. Most American cities are moving in that direction. But moving so aggressively would be a major shift for Raleigh, a place where urban sprawl is rampant and reliance on the automobile is nearly total.

Rampant growth

Over the last 25 years, thousands of new residents have flocked to the city to live in master-planned subdivisions on the edge of the city, such as Wakefield Plantation and Falls River. That's a pattern Raleigh now wants to move away from.

Although most residents expect downtown to become a center for urban living, promoting intense development in other areas of the city could be controversial with some residents who live in surrounding neighborhoods.

Silver said the plan is an acknowledgement that continuing the current development patterns is not sustainable.

"If we do nothing ... [the growth] will continue just to spread across the region like peanut butter," he said. "We can either intervene and shape the growth or not intervene and continue to sprawl."

The current comprehensive plan, last updated in 1989, is widely considered to be overly complex, difficult to interpret and a relic of a time when concerns over growth were minimal.

The city's population has increased more than 70 percent to about 368,000 since the last update, and more than 200,000 new residents are expected to arrive by 2030. Raleigh has annexed 56 square miles since 1989, and it now encompass more than 140 square miles.

The new blueprint for growth reflects Raleigh residents' own growing realization that retaining the city's high quality of life may require a major change of course.

Over the last year, the city held a series of workshops where it asked residents what they wanted Raleigh to look like in 2030.

The workshops, held when a drought was straining the city's water supply and high gas prices were punishing drivers, elicited hundreds of comments. Many raised concerns about whether Raleigh's current growth patterns are sustainable.

The new plan tries to coordinate the city's approval of new development with the stress those developments will have on the city's natural environment, road infrastructure and water and sewer capacity.

It includes a future land-use map that designates the type of development the city expects to see on every piece of property in Raleigh.

Land along major road corridors and in the urban growth centers is specified for high-density projects. Development of the city's eastern edge, where much of Raleigh's remaining 20,000 acres of undeveloped land is located, is expected to occur at lower densities.

The plan won't change the current zoning for any piece of property, but it will be used to determine whether that zoning should change in the future.

Current plan conflicts

The current plan has been amended so many times over the last 20 years that it now includes conflicting ideas about how particular areas of the city should grow. This has frustrated both developers and residents who want to know how the area around their home or building will change in the future.

"There's a lack of clarity in the current plan," said Mack Paul, a lawyer who frequently represents developers with business before the city.

Paul said tools such as the future land-use map can help both developers and surrounding neighbors determine whether a project would overburden the surrounding streets.

Once adopted, the plan's success or failure will largely depend on current and future elected officials following its advice.

The plan offers a map to Raleigh becoming a transit-friendly city, but it doesn't guarantee that money will be spent to build the commuter rails, streetcars and bus routes necessary to make that happen.

Silver said residents shouldn't overlook the plan's importance. It offers Raleigh a way forward, and if elected officials want to deviate from the plan, they'll have to give a rationale for doing so.

This full article can be found at http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1314723.html

This article is by G. Scott Thomas

This sentence — or one like it — can be found in almost any prospectus: "Past performance is no guarantee of future results."

• Las Vegas sits in first place because of its broad-based record of economic expansion. It was among the three fastest-growing markets in population, employment and income during the past five years, the only metro to do that well in all of those categories.
• Raleigh, which is second in the overall standings, picked up considerable steam between 2005 and 2007. Its population soared 9.6 percent over that span, outgaining all other metros. It also led the nation in private-sector employment growth during the same two years.
• No. 3 Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., has been a powerful population magnet. It set the pace for all of America in the past half-decade, growing by 24.4 percent. No other market increased its population by more than 21.2 percent between 2002 and 2007.

• Population: Cape Coral-Fort Myers was the long-range winner, enjoying the strongest population growth over the three lengthiest time spans. Raleigh was powerful over the short haul, posting the fastest growth rates for intervals of two years (2005-07) and one year (2006-07).
• Private sector employment: The unlikely leader for job growth over periods of five and four years was McAllen-Edinburg, Texas, an area of extensive poverty along the Mexican border. Raleigh was the best for three and two years, New Orleans for one year.
• Per capita income: New Orleans scored a clean sweep, registering the fastest rates of income growth for all five time spans. The devastation wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 actually increased the per capita income in New Orleans, as tens of thousands of poor people fled the area and never moved back.
• Gross metropolitan product: Baton Rouge, La., was the leader for three different intervals (five, three and two years) in this category, which measured growth in the output of goods and services. The other top markets were Las Vegas for a four-year period and Wichita, Kans., for one year.

Grand Rapids, sixth-worst in the overall standings, is the other Michigan entry at the tail end of bizjournals' list. The five Ohio markets in the bottom seven are Toledo, Youngstown, Dayton, Cleveland and Akron.

The full article may be read at

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27647122

North Carolina’s capital seems to have gotten a free pass where the housing slump is concerned. Prices have been buoyed by job growth in the Research Triangle, home to dozens of tech firms. Total sales in the first quarter of this year were the fifth highest on record. In some cities, suburbanites stung by gas prices are moving downtown in favor of walkable neighborhoods. But not in Raleigh. “People move here to get away from that type of living,” says local market analyst Stacey Anfindsen, only partly in jest. Although downtown Raleigh has added hundreds of condos and lofts, the real growth has come in suburbs like Cary, Morrisville and Apex, all on the western side of Raleigh, where home prices have risen steadily.

The subdivision of Preston, where prices are up 3.5 percent over last year, reigns as the area’s übersuburb. The northwest Cary neighborhood was bankrolled in the 1990s by Jim Goodnight, founder of software giant SAS, and supersizes the standard suburban amenities: Most lots are at least a quarter-acre, double the size of newer developments, and prices approach $500,000. Parents can choose from a roster of lauded private and public schools. John Minicucci, a technology analyst, moved his family to Preston in May after stints in New York and Vancouver, B.C., and chose the neighborhood in part because it is already built out; it doesn’t run the risk of being flooded with discounted properties because of overbuilding. “Since this area didn’t really experience the boom, it won’t be as susceptible to tanking,” he says. And he’s loving perks like abundant tee times. Like more than 60 percent of Preston residents, Minicucci belongs to the local country club, which hosts 54 holes of championship golf, two tennis facilities and three swimming pools.

This is an exert taken from an article writen by By Brad Reagan and Elizabeth O'Brien. To view the full article click the link below.

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/home-prices-now-for-the-good-news.html;_ylc=X3oDMTF0NTRjZTFlBF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEX3MDOTc2MjA0NjUEc2VjA2ZwLXRvZGF5BHNsawNob21lLXByb2Nlcy1nb29kLW5ld3M-

Blog by John Lynch of PRG Funding

If I had a dollar for every person that said to me, “the Federal Reserve cut mortgage rates why are they higher than last month.”  Contrary to popular myth, the Federal Reserve doesn't control mortgage rates.  In fact, their most well-known strategic tool -- the Federal Funds rate -- is the overnight interest rate which banks charge each other when a bank needs to borrow money to meet end- of-day reserve requirements.  Those are the rules that say that a bank must have so much cash on hand when the books close at the end of the day, and those funds can be borrowed from another bank at this interest rate.  You should know that the Fed merely "suggests" what that rate should be, which is why it's called a "target" rate; the actual rate is negotiated between the borrower bank and the lender bank.

A good way to keep a handle on the Fed is to remember that the Fed Funds rate is the shortest of short-term rates – almost like an overnight loan -- and a fixed-rate mortgage is all the way at the other end of the scale, a loan that lasts as long as 30 years.

The end result is that the Fed raises or lowers interest rates to help address increases or decreases in economic activity. Lower rates can help banks to make certain kinds of loans more cheaply, especially for business and certain kinds of consumer lending, and that can help to generate greater economic growth. Higher rates can cool demand, helping to keep inflationary pressures from forming.  Expectations of what the Fed may do can be more important than what they actually do, as their actions or inactions can help to confirm or deny what investors believe.  This is why the market reacts sometimes strong to the Fed chiefs comments.

You also may have realized that sometimes the Fed cuts interest rates -- and fixed mortgage rates actually rise as a result. Why?  If the Fed is taking steps to address economic weakness by lowering rates, that likely means that a return to faster growth and the possibility of higher inflation.  Currently we are seeing the weaken dollar and the prices of commodities increasing.  What is the Feds next move?  I think you may have an idea.

Information Courtesy of Sigma Research

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke pledged to cut a key interest rate to help the economy, which many fear is on the verge of a recession — or possibly has already toppled into one. Click the link below for the full story.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080227/ap_on_bi_ge/bernanke_congress