A Page Turns on The Housing Market

Hi All,
   Well, it finally happened. Finally. The hype and the media coverage about it's imminent return have all been fulfilled. The U.S. Housing Market has finally began crawling back up from the bottom.

   It's been a long time, about 7 years, and a lot of ugly things have happened during that time, but most of the home price indices are starting to head back up in the right direction. In a recent WSJ article by David Wessel titled, "Housing Passes a Milestone". David Blitzer of S&P stated that "We finally saw some rising home prices", and reported the first monthly increase in prices after seven months of declines.

   Aside from prices, we all know the impact of housing inventory. It's simple Supply and Demand Economics. In what was called a surprise, the inventory of existing homes for sale has fallen "close to the normal level of six months' worth despite all the foreclosed homes that lenders own", per this article, and adds two additional key points, which are that a fraction of homes that are vacant is "at its lowest level since 2006", and that the amount of existing homes that were sold in May 2012 was 10% higher that those sold in May 2011. Wessel notes that many of these homes were purchased by investors "who plan to rent them for now and sell them later", which he infers to as "an important sign of an inflection point". We can surmise from our angle that the amount of homes being sold via Rent to Own is trending upwards from what we are seeing from our Rent to Own Homes website.

But can this just be a statistical aberration?

   Wessel provides an additional reason why this seems to be the real deal. Aside from the reduced inventory of homes that will support the higher prices, he also points to the increase in construction of single-family homes. Comparing May 2012 to May 2011, "Builders began work on 26% more single-family homes in May 2012" than the previous time last year.

   There is still a long way to go. Wessel mentioned some things that we should not forget: Single-family housing starts are still 60% below the 2002 "pre-bubble pace", Americans' equity in homes 25%, less than it was in 2002, and more than one in every four mortgage borrowers "still has a loan bigger than the value of the house". But "the housing bust is over", which for many of us, is music to our ears.

   Have you seen any signs of the Housing Market turning around by you? We'd love to hear.

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Have a Great Week, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !

Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
HomeRun Homes Blog: http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Websites: http://www.lease2buy.com and http://www.homerunhomes.com

TAGS: #HousingMarket #homeprices #housinginventory #foreclosedhomes #existinghomes #builders #singlefamilyhomes #renttoown #mortgage #investors

The Crystal Ball of Future Homes

Hi Everyone,
   Hope you had a nice Fall Weekend, wherever your travels took you.

   Have you ever wondered to yourself what homes will look like in the future? If you were in the 1970's wondering what homes would look like in 40-50 years, you would have probably thought about homes in outer space with all robotic features, or as Erika Riggs of Zillow puts it, "something akin to The Jetsons’ home complete with Rosie the Robot and other space-age appliances that dressed and fed the family", as she discusses in her story, "A Look Ahead at New Homes of 2015", featured on Yahoo! Real Estate.

   Home Size...This might surprise you!

   Rather than space-age technology, says Riggs, "the biggest thing that is expected to change in future single-family homes is the size", and “Homes will get smaller,” adds Stephen Melman, Director of Economic Services at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) in Washington D.C..

   The NAHB asked builders, says Melman, "what do you anticipate the new home size would be by 2015?", and the average reply was 2,150 square feet, which is a decrease from the current single family home average of 2,400 square feet. Is this recession-related? Yes, but as Riggs adds, "many believe that the real estate changes will stick around even after the economy and home values get back on solid ground". “Although affordability is driving these decisions, smaller homes are a positive for builders,” says Melman, and adds that it is an opportunity to deliver a better home", allowing for "more creative design, more amenities, better flow".

   What else will change? The living room is expected to merge with other spaces such as the family room and become a "Great Room". Riggs says that 30 percent believe that it will vanish completely to save on square footage. Riggs says to expect spacious laundry rooms, master suite walk-in closets, porches, eat-in kitchens, two-car garages, and ceiling fans. She says to expect to see less of mudrooms, formal dining rooms, four bedrooms or more, media or hobby rooms, and skylights.

   "Going Green" is driving a lot of these changes, says Riggs, which lead to energy efficient windows, etc. Additionally, with the aging Baby Boomer population, says Melman, "they’re empty nesters, so they don’t need five bedrooms".

   What do you think about homes of the future?
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Have a Great Week, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !
Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
HomeRun Homes Blog: http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Websites: http://www.lease2buy.com and http://www.homerunhomes.com

TAGS: #singlefamilyhomes #HomeBuilder #NAHB #squarefeet #recession #greatroom #babyboomer #zillow