A potential stall in home price gains and a large drop in the number of distressed properties have some big investors pulling out of the single-family rental market.
Pending-home sales in March hit their highest level since April 2010, spurring the return of real-estate bidding wars. Nick Timiraos reports on The News Hub.
By Nick Timiraos, The Wall Street Journal
A new development is catching home buyers off guard as the spring sales season gets under way: Bidding wars are back.
From California to Florida, many buyers are increasingly competing for the same house. Unlike the bidding wars that typified the go-go years and largely reflected surging sales, today's are a result of supply shortages.
By David Barley, World Property Channel
(ORLANDO, FL) -- According to the Florida Association of Realtors, Florida's housing market reported gains in median sales prices and a reduced inventory of homes for sale in January.
"We're seeing positive signs of a strengthening recovery in Florida's housing market," said 2012 Florida Realtors President Summer Greene, regional manager of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Florida 1st in Fort Lauderdale. "In both the statewide single-family and condo-townhome markets, pending sales are higher and the statewide median sales price rose -- up 5.3 percent to $129,000 for single-family homes and up 18.8 percent to $95,000 for condo-townhomes. Improving the availability of affordable financing to qualified buyers and investors would continue to stabilize Florida's housing market and economy."
The median is the midpoint; half the homes sold for more, half for less. Sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties continue to downwardly distort the median price because they generally sell at a discount relative to traditional homes, according to housing industry analysts.
CNNMoney
U.S. home sales are still struggling to rebound, but the rental market has been much more resilient. And it's this narrow bright spot that may suggest one prescription for the hundreds of thousands of government-owned homes for sale at deep discounts.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is considering proposals for selling its inventory (most of which was acquired through foreclosures) to investors. The hope is that they would in turn sell or rent them out and potentially help stabilize the housing market.
Needless to say, most of these homes are concentrated in regions hit hardest by the housing crisis -- Nevada, Arizona and California. And they're in markets where the rate of vacancies for rentals is largely higher than the national average of 9.2%.
By Don Debat, Sun-Times Media
Rental apartments are in heavy demand among young living in the suburbs of Chicago, experts say.
A new survey by Appraisal Research Counselors Ltd. noted that young people—age 25 to 34 years—prefer the flexibility of renting, instead of buying, because renting is easier if they have to relocate in today’s tough job market.
That fact is very apparent in the Appraisal Research survey of more than 75,000 units in the seven county Chicago-area suburban market covering Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, McHenry, Lake and Will counties.
That fact is very apparent in the Appraisal Research survey of more than 75,000 units in the seven county Chicago-area suburban market covering Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, McHenry, Lake and Will counties.
