It’s been a rough five and a half years for the American homeowner. At many points, pundits have erroneously called the “bottom” of the housing market. The American public can therefore be forgiven for eyeing the latest round of predictions that the market has turned a corner with skepticism. Of course, the housing market will heal at some point, so perhaps the boy is crying about an actual wolf this time. The best reason to shed your hard-won dubiousness is a report issued by the The Demand Institute. The study is definitively labeling 2012 the year of the housing bottom. It says: “The double-digit increases in U.S. housing prices over the first half of the past decade proved unsustainable. But the freefall is over. The point has been reached where housing prices will start to climb, albeit at single-digit rates in most markets over the next five years.” The Demand Institute believes the dynamics buoying the multifamily market – rising rents, low interest rates, and cheap real estate – are starting to boost the single-family housing sector as well. Perhaps most crucial to The Demand Institute’s vision for a recovering housing market is evidence that Americans are still strongly attracted to the idea of homeownership. [Read this article]

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Builders began work on more homes last month, evidence that the battered housing market is slowly healing. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that builders broke ground at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 717,000 homes in April from March. That’s 2.6% more than March, which was revised higher. Construction rose for both single-family homes and apartments. Building permits, a gauge of future construction, fell last month from a 3½ year high to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 715,000. But that was because of a 23% drop in the volatile apartment category. Permits for single-family homes rose almost 2%. The increase, along with rising builder confidence and stronger job growth, is a hopeful sign that the home market may finally be starting to recover nearly five years after the housing bubble burst. Builders have grown more confident since last fall, in part because more people have expressed interest in buying a home. In May, builder optimism rose to the highest level in five years, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index. [Read this article]

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With rising rents, more renters are being swayed into home ownership, even in pricey housing markets like New York. For example, one New York renter said he started looking into owning a home when his landlord tried to increase his rent by 13 percent when his lease was up for renewal. He found that he could buy a home and get the same amount of space for cheaper than continuing to rent, plus he’d be building equity. Other renters are starting to see that buying may be a better option for them, too. Rents are increasing at about the same pace that home values are dropping, says Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist, who says, according to their surveys, home prices have dropped 3.1 percent year-over-year whereas rents have increased 2.5 percent. ”Herein lie the seeds to eventually more interest in buying on the part of consumers, which will help put a floor under home prices,” Humphries told Investors Business Daily. Recent housing surveys, including Zillow’s, are showing home prices are starting to rise in recent months. ”That increased affordability in the face of rising rental prices will begin to get buyers off the fence this year,” Humphries says. [Read this article]

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The latest round of real estate data shows home-builder confidence soaring as U.S. homes become more affordable. In California, sales and prices appear to be on the mend. In a note on Tuesday, Ian Sheperdson, chief U.S. economist for High Frequency Economics, wrote that the improvements in U.S. housing could be a result of credit loosening. The lack of ready availability of home loans has been one of the stumbling blocks to a rising market, he wrote. “The key story here, we think, is improving access to mortgage finance, rather than the level of rates, which have been very low for a long time,” Sheperdson wrote, reacting to the rise in builder confidence. “After a credit event, availability of credit is the key to real recovery; housing is on the cusp.” The National Assn. of Home Builders reported on Tuesday that its index of confidence in the market for newly constructed single-family homes climbed to a level of 29, the gauge’s highest reading since May 2007. A separate index produced by the National Assn. of Realtors showed that U.S. homes reached a record level of affordability in the first quarter. [Read this article]

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Real estate agents, who spent the six-year U.S. housing collapse coaxing buyers off the fence, are now hunting for sellers as home inventories hover near lows last seen in 2005. A scarcity of properties signals the housing market’s uneven recovery as purchasers trying to take advantage of record affordability run up against homeowners choosing to stay put in properties that aren’t worth as much as they owe. “It’s a sign of transition from a slow slide down to what hopefully will be a solidly improving market,” said Susan Wachter, a professor of real estate and finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “We’re not going to have a healthy market until we can have move-up buyers purchase homes and not simply stay in place.” The number of homes listed for sale in the U.S. fell 22 percent to 2.37 million in March from a year earlier. That’s a 6.3-month supply at the current sales pace. In April, inventories fell to less than a three-month supply in markets including San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Denver, Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, northern Virginia and Seattle. [Read this article]

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Though the economy is showing signs of life, the job market for new college graduates is still extremely tough. A daunting figure – three million new grads competing for one million jobs – has been widely reported, as has the fact that more than half of recent grads are unemployed or under-employed. Before all you grads get too down, remember that the economic prospects look considerably better over the long run. A good way to improve your economic prospects is to pick the right place to live. Choosing the right location is one of the most important, if not the single most important, decisions you will ever make. It will influence your job and career opportunities, not to mention your ability to make friends, develop personal and professional networks, and find a potential life partner. Here are the top 25 metro regions for college grads in 2012, ranked on a variety of key criteria including the unemployment rate, salary levels, the fraction of high-paying/high-quality job markets, and the amount of money people have left over after paying for housing. [Read this article]

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New numbers suggest the real estate market is improving in the Triangle. Home sales from January to April were up 11.9 percent from the same time last year, with 6,355 closed sales, according to data from Triangle MLS. During the same time period last year, that number was 5,679. The MLS data reflects information on properties in the 16 counties of the greater Triangle region. Three core counties in the Triangle saw home sales increase. Sales were up 18.7 percent in Durham County, 17.8 percent in Wake County and 3.8 percent in Johnston County. After years of slow sales and falling prices, Pamela Andrejev, a broker with Re/Max Hometown said the market has begun to turn. “There’s been a big change from, I would say, February to now,” Andrejev said. “My business has increased 50 percent.” For those in the market to sell a home, the news is also good. The average price of a home in Wake County is up about two percent, or $6,000, from this time last year. [Read this article]

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Houston saw its 11th-consecutive month of home sales growth in April, while prices hit record levels for the month. Sales of all property types in Houston totaled 6,156 in April, and single-family home sales totaled 5,136 – increases of 9.9 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively, from April 2011, the Houston Association of Realtors reported. The average price and the median price for single-family homes reached the highest level ever for an April in Houston. The average price increased 11.2 percent from April 2011 to $223,328 this year, and the median price was up 8.2 percent to $160,120. Earlier this year, the average price also saw its highest level recorded for a March. [Read this article]

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Walk Score – the Seattle-based developer that helps homebuyers and renters find “walkable” and transit-friendly communities – is celebrating Bike to Work Week by expanding its scope to include “bikeability” ratings. The new Bike Score – which is based on the factors like bike lanes, hills, road connectivity, and the percentage of people in an area who bike to work – is initially available for what Walk Score has identified as the nation’s ”top 10 most bikeable cities.” Bike Score generates a rating of 0-100, with cities with scores of 70 or higher considered “very bikeable,” those with scores between 50 and 69 “bikeable,” and those with scores below 50 “somewhat bikeable.” The Top 10 Most Bikeable Cities are Minneapolis (79), Portland (70), San Francisco (70), Boston (68), Madison (67), Washington, D.C. (65), Seattle (64), Tucson (64), New York (62) and Chicago (62). [Read this article]

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Americans know more about credit than they did last year, but they’ve still got a lot to learn. The results of a survey released by the Consumer Federation of America revealed a jump in consumer knowledge about which companies collect credit information and how to check it, but a continued lack of knowledge about how costly low scores can be. A large majority of respondents knew who uses credit scores and that missed payments, personal bankruptcy and high credit card balances influence scores. They were also aware that they have more than one generic score and that making payments on time or not on time can raise or lower your score. But very few people who took the survey knew when a person’s credit score can be harmed by multiple inquiries when getting a loan. Few also understood what does and does not affect the score. [Read this article]

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