Pricing your home realistically will most certainly get potential buyers through the door, but how do you get them to fall in love with the home? A recent article at U.S. News & World Report offers some of the following tips for sellers in enhancing their home’s appeal.

Add curb appeal: “Make sure the house is cleared of winter clutter, that windows are washed, that the front door is painted or clean,” says Brad Knapp, regional vice president for the National Association of REALTORS® for Ohio and Michigan. “You have to give the house good curb appeal.”

Declutter: Remove clutter from the home so that buyers can actually see what all the home has to offer. Any excess belongings of the sellers should be stored in the garage or in a storage unit.

Be careful not to offend: “Hunters and fisherman often have game hanging on the walls,” Knapp notes. “Some people are offended, so get that off the walls and into the garage.”

Consider staging: “It might behoove [sellers] to hire a professional stager to help them,” says Robert Simon, a professor at Cleveland State University. “You have to get it right so it looks lived in, but definitely not cluttered.”

Complete routine maintenance: Make sure your sellers complete any routine maintenance projects before the home is listed. Also, sellers need to realize that “people don’t care if you spent $15,000 fixing the roof. It’s worth nothing,” Simon says. “The market expects the roof to be in tip-top shape. You have to go above and beyond.”

Source: “Steps You can Take to Boost Your Home’s Value,” U.S. News & World Report (March 5, 2012)

Foreclosure starts rose 28 percent while foreclosure sales soared 29 percent in January compared to the previous month, according to the latest Lender Processing Services’ January Mortgage Monitor report.

The rise in foreclosures in January is a sign that foreclosure backlogs are beginning to clear, which is considered a positive, necessary step in the real estate market’s recovery, housing experts say. Lenders slowed processing foreclosures in 2010 when a robo-signing scandal surfaced, resulting in a backlog of foreclosures that prevented home prices from making a full recovery, experts say.

“It is a definite shift in that direction,” an LPS spokeswoman said about the spike in foreclosures sales and starts in January. “We could be seeing the beginning of something, and we should most certainly be keeping our eyes on this over the next few months.”

RealtyTrac, another company that tracks foreclosure data, reported that foreclosure filings in January rose 3 percent.

“We continue to see signs on a local and regional level that the frozen-up foreclosure process is beginning to thaw,” Brandon Moore, CEO of RealtyTrac, had said about his company’s report.

According to LPS, the states with the highest number of seriously delinquent mortgages in January are: Nevada, Florida, Mississippi, Arizona, and Georgia.

Source: “Foreclosure Starts and Sales Spiked in January, Report Says,” AOL Real Estate (March 6, 2012) and “Repeat Foreclosures Hit an All-time High in January,” HousingWire (March 6, 2012)

Americans’ concerns over housing and the economy are subsiding, according to Fannie Mae’s National Housing Survey from February.

An improving job market is a big part of what’s behind Americans feeling more confident about the housing market and the direction of the economy, according to the survey.

“The pickup in the pace of hiring over the past few months has helped soothe consumer concerns, lifting their moods regarding their personal finances, the direction of the economy, and their views on the housing market,” says Doug Duncan, chief economist of Fannie Mae. “As a result, we’ve seen more potential for economic upside, creating a more balanced near-term outlook.”

The survey found that 28 percent of Americans expect home prices to increase over the next 12 months while 53 percent say prices will likely stay the same. Fifteen percent say they expect home prices to decline.

Meanwhile, the majority of those surveyed see rental prices continuing to increase over the next year.

Sixty-five percent of those surveyed say that if they were going to move they’d buy their next home; 29 percent say they would rent.

With low mortgage rates and falling home prices, 70 percent of those surveyed say now is a good time to purchase a home. Also, more Americans surveyed say now is a good time to sell, rising to 13 percent in February, which is the highest level in more than a year but still low by historic standards.

Overall, Americans expressed more confidence about their personal financial situation, with only 12 percent saying they expected their personal financial situation to worsen in the next 12 months — which is the lowest number in more than a year.

Source: Fannie Mae

Traditionally when Americans retired, they would make big cross-country moves or head south to Sunbelt states. But times have changed and now more seniors are opting to stay put or make a short-distance move.

Indeed, only 1.6 percent of retirees between the age of 55 and 65 moved across state lines in 2010, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data.

Florida once was the retiree haven, attracting more than one in four retirees who did move. From 2005 to 2010, that number dropped to one in seven.

“Americans are moving to cities all over the country today when they retire,” says Richard Johnson, director of retirement policy research at The Urban Institute, who conducted the analysis.

The most popular retirement areas today are:

Atlanta
Las Vegas
Dallas
Phoenix

More retirees are opting to stay near where they once worked, moving out of the pricey real estate metro areas to places an hour or two outside of the city, where real estate prices tend to be cheaper. Property taxes are often lower too.

As an article in Reuters illustrates: “A retiree could sell a home in Montclair, New Jersey, near New York City, where the median home price is $560,800 and move 90 miles to Allentown, Pennsylvania (median home price: $135,400) — pocketing about $425,000 in extracted equity, assuming a mortgage-free transaction and excluding closing costs.”

Source: “Americans Retire Closer to Home Than in Past,” Reuters News (March 8, 2012)

For the sixth consecutive quarter, the apartment and condo housing market continued to show signs of improvement.

The Multifamily Production Index, released by the National Association of Home Builders, measures builder and developer sentiment about current market conditions in the sector. The index reached 48.9 in the fourth quarter — out of a scale up to 100 — and reached its highest reading since the fourth quarter of 2005.

“The apartment and condo sector continues to be a bright spot in the housing market, with the overall index at its highest level in six years,” says David Crowe, NAHB’s chief economist. “The rental components have been the driving force behind the increased index level. And although the for-sale component remains weaker, it is still double what it was just six quarters ago.”

Still, the improvements are met with caution. Builders warn about the ongoing difficulty developers have faced in obtaining credit to finance development of new apartments as a major roadblock.

Source: National Association of Home Builders

Housing affordability rose to a record high during the fourth quarter of 2011, which means a home buyer’s purchasing power is greater than it ever has been before, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index.

The index showed that 75.9 percent of all new and existing homes sold in the fourth quarter were affordable to families earning the national median income of $64,200, according to the index. That marks the highest percentage recorded in the index’s 20-year history.

“While today’s report indicates that home ownership is within reach of more households than it has been for more than two decades, overly restrictive lending conditions confronting home buyers and builders remain significant obstacles to many potential homes sales, even with interest rates at historically low levels,” says Barry Rutenberg, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders.

Most Affordable Cities
According to the index, the most affordable major housing market was Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio, in which 95 percent of all homes sold during the fourth quarter were affordable to households earning the median family income of $54,900, according to the index.

Other top affordable housing markets include: Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla.; Modesto, Calif.; Harrisburg-Carlisle, Pa.; and Toledo, Ohio.

Least Affordable Cities
However, some metro areas still remain too pricey for buyers. The least affordable major housing market during the fourth quarter was New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J., in which 29 percent of all homes sold were affordable to those earning the area’s media income of $67,400.

Other high-priced metro areas at the bottom of the affordability index include: Honolulu; San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, Calif.; Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, Calif.; and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif.

Source: National Association of Home Builders

Homes are getting bigger again. Census Bureau data shows that 2011 home starts were bigger with more features and amenities than those built in 2010.

According to the data, the average new-home size grew from 2,381 square feet in 2010 to 2,522 square feet in 2011. Forty-two percent of the new homes had four or more bedrooms, and 28 percent of the new homes had three or more full bathrooms.

However, housing experts are quick to point out that home construction last year saw its worst year on record, so the characteristics of new homes from last year is being pulled from a much smaller pool of homes than previous years.

Also, the average sales price for a new home also increased last year, going from $264,900 in 2010 to $274,400 in 2011.

Source: “Size Matters: Newly Constructed Home Trends in 2011,” RISMedia (Feb. 16, 2012)

The number of home owners behind on their mortgage payments dropped to the lowest level in three years, according to a report of data from the fourth quarter of 2011 released by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

“Mortgage performance is also improving faster than the overall economy,” says Jay Brinkmann, MBA’s chief economist.

According to MBA, 7.6 percent of residential mortgages were at least 30 days past due on their payments in the fourth quarter of 2011. Last year, the percentage was 8.3, and the peak of 10 percent was reached in early 2010. Mortgage delinquencies usually hover around 5 percent in more stable markets.

Still, while the lower delinquencies serve as an important sign needed for a healing housing market, MBA still caution that the number of loans in foreclosure remains high. About 4.4 percent of all loans were in foreclosure in the fourth quarter. The peak reached one year earlier was 4.6 percent.

Source: “Mortgage Delinquencies Hit Three-Year Low,” The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 16, 2012)

Housing starts rose 1.5 percent in January from December, led by a surge in apartment construction, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

Housing starts in January reached a seasonally annual rate of 699,000 units, reaching its highest level since October 2008.

The main reason for the January increase was due to a 14.4 percent rise in groundbreaking on rental properties or buildings with five units or more.

However, while multifamily units saw a rise in January, the construction of single-family homes had a modest drop of 1 percent for the month. The January decrease follows a strong 12 percent gain in single-family construction in December.

While single-family home construction has made strides over the last few months, construction still remains low and is at about half the rate that is considered healthy for the sector.

Still, more builders are feeling encouraged about the signs of a gradual recovery in the new-home market. Building permits in January, a future gauge to construction, ticked up 0.7 percent. Also, a recent index showed that builder sentiment was at its highest level in nearly five years.

Daily Real Estate News | Friday, February 17, 2012

Portland ranked 13th in the U.S. for home price appreciation in the latest take on the U.S. residential market.

Truckee, California-based Clear Capital, a real estate research firm, ranked Portland at No. 13 for an 0.6 point increase in its January home price index compared to the prior quarter.Birmingham, Ala., led the nation, followed by Phoenix; Washington, D.C.; Denver and Orlando. Portland was sandwiched between Rochester, N.Y., and Sacramento, Calif.

The Portland price index for January fell 2.6 percent compared to one year ago, a potential hint of things to come. The Regional Multiple Listing Service will release its report on Portland area home sales for January later this month.

The most recent RMLS figures pegged the average price of a home sold in December at $260,800, down 6.2 percent compared to a year ago.

Clear Capital attributed a national decline of 2.6 percentage points to a loss of momentum in the Midwest, where the home price indices fell 5.2 percent compared to the prior year. In contrast, the Northeast index fell 0.1 percent, the Southern index fell 1.8 percent and the Western index fell 3.5 percent.

Portland Business Journal Monday, February 6, 2012, 9:49am PST