RISMedia, June 10, 2011—Despite the ups and downs of the housing market, home owners and non-owners alike consider owning a home essential to the American Dream.
That’s the key finding of a recent survey of people likely to vote in 2012 that was conducted on behalf of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) by Public Opinion Strategies of Alexandria, Va., and Lake Research Partners of Washington, D.C.
“The survey results show that Americans see beyond the immediate housing market to the enduring value of homeownership,” says NAHB Chairman Bob Nielsen, a home builder from Reno, Nev. “An overwhelming 75 percent of the people who were polled said that owning a home is worth the risk of the fluctuations in the market, and 95 percent of the home owners said they are happy with their decision to own a home,” Nielsen says.
“Homeownership is worth the risk, pure and simple,” says Neil Newhouse, a partner and co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies. “Even though the market is weak, people who don’t own say they want to buy a house. Almost three-quarters of those who do not currently own a home, 73 percent, said owning a home is one of their goals. And among younger voters who are most likely to be in the market for a home in the next few years, the percentages are even higher,” Newhouse says.
One of the more striking aspects of the survey results is the intensity of sentiment among potential voters, according to Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners. “People believe overwhelmingly that owning a home is an anchor to the American Dream,” she says. “It’s an anchor to your retirement, and it’s an anchor to your personal economic well-being.”
Among the other survey results:
• Homeownership and a retirement savings program are considered by voters to be their best investments.
• 80 percent of home owners would advise a close friend or family member just starting out to buy a home.
• Saving for a downpayment and closing costs is the biggest barrier to homeownership.
• Americans believe that owning their own home is as important as being successful at their job or being able to pay for a family member’s education.
“Owning a home isn’t just a policy to people,” says Lake. “It isn’t just a commodity to people. It is a core value.”
This national survey of 2,000 likely 2012 voters was conducted May 3-9, 2011 by Public Opinion Strategies of Alexandria, Va., and Lake Research Partners of Washington, D.C. It has a margin of error of +2.19 percent.
Public Opinion Strategies is a national political and public affairs research firm based in Alexandria, Va. Founded in 1991, it has conducted more than 6 million interviews with voters and consumers in all 50 states and over two dozen foreign countries.
Lake Research Partners is a leading public opinion and political strategy research firm providing expert research-based strategy for campaigns, issue advocacy groups, foundations, unions and non-profit organizations.
To view slides on the poll, please go to http://www.nahb.org/VoterPoll.
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Tuesday, June 7th, 2011, 1:53 pm
Sales of homes foreclosed on in the previous 12 months made up 24% of the market in April, up from 16% one year ago, according to data compiled by Zillow.

It’s the 10th straight month of increases and yet another record high. There are still plenty of properties either in foreclosure or on the verge of it. Recent data puts the number of this shadow inventory at roughly 4.5 million.
And as these properties take more and more of the market share away from new or traditional sales, losses continued.

In April, 37.2% of homes sold for less than the previous purchase price, down only 1 basis point from the previous month and still 30% higher than one year ago.

The value of these homes fell as well, dropping 0.77% from the previous month and 8% from one year ago. However, Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries said values didn’t drop as far as they did between in November and December – a 0.89% dip – signaling some improvement in the trend.

A disparity between which homes are losing value continued in April. The most expensive one-third of homes in each market lost 0.74% in value, while the least expensive one-third of homes lost nearly a full percentage point in value.

A recent study from Altos Research showed signs of a volatile housing market for some time to come. Humphries adds the April data shows depreciation rates are improving in the Spring but not quickly enough to reach a bottom this year. JPMorgan Chase (JPM: 40.335 -1.57%) analysts recently pegged a new bottom for home prices for the summer of 2012.

“Key drivers at this point are the pace of foreclosures and improvement in the employment picture,” Humphries sad. “The latter, in turn, will boost household formation and consumer confidence.”

BY INMAN NEWS, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2011.
Inman News™

LPS: More than 4M loans in foreclosure or at least 90 days late.

Foreclosure starts dipped below the 200,000 mark during April for the first time in years, but the foreclosure pipeline remained bloated by more than 4 million homes whose owners are in foreclosure or delinquent by 90 days or more.

That’s according to the latest numbers from loan data aggregator Lender Processing Services, which show foreclosure starts fell nearly 31 percent from March to April, totaling 187,423—a 14.7 percent decline from a year ago.

LPS estimated that 2.18 million mortgages were in foreclosure, down nearly 2 percent from a record 2.22 million in March but up 9.5 percent from a year ago.

Another 1.96 million mortgages were delinquent by 90 days or more in April, down about 1.5 percent from the previous month and 29 percent from a year ago.

All told, LPS tallied 4.14 million loans in foreclosure or delinquent by 90 days or more at the end of April.

Those numbers are in line with the Mortgage Bankers Association’s most recent National Delinquency Survey, which suggested about 4 million residential mortgages were in foreclosure (2.24 million) or delinquent by more than 90 days (1.78 million) at the end of the first quarter.

LPS data showed a 7.5 percent month-over-month bump in the number of homeowners behind on their mortgages by just one payment, to 1.63 million, to roughly the same level seen a year ago.

While LPS estimates 60-day delinquencies grew by 1.2 percent from March, to 615,608, that’s down 14 percent from a year ago.

The total number of noncurrent loans stood at 6.39 million loans, up less than 1 percent from March and down nearly 11 percent from a year ago.

LPS estimates that the number of noncurrent loans has fallen 21.2 percent from a peak of 8.12 million in January 2010, when the number of homes in foreclosure or delinquent by 90 days or more totaled 5.17 million

Date: Thursday, May 26, 2011
Sales of homes in some stage of foreclosure continue to account for a large percentage of closed sales.
According to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac, distressed home sales accounted for 31.71 percent of all first-quarter home sales in Oregon.
All told, there were 2,133 sales of bank-owned homes in Oregon during the first quarter, up from 2,041 in the previous quarter. The average price on distressed properties in the state was $175,957, 24.37 percent below the average sales price on homes not in some stage of foreclosure.
Nationally, distressed sales accounted for 28 percent of U.S. residential home sales, up from 27 percent the previous quarter and down 1.46 percent from a year ago.
“While foreclosure sales continue to account for an unusually high percentage of all residential home sales, sales volume is well off the peak we saw in the first quarter of 2009, when nearly 350,000 foreclosure properties sold to third parties,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “While this is probably helping to keep home prices relatively stable, it is also delaying the housing recovery. At the first quarter foreclosure sales pace, it would take exactly three years to clear the current inventory of 1.9 million properties already on the banks’ books, or in foreclosure.”
Nevada continued to experience the highest number of distressed home sales with sales of homes in some stage of foreclosure accounting for 53 percent of all first-quarter sales.

Portland Business Journal - by Suzanne Stevens, Web edito

November 29, 2010
By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine
Some recent studies suggest that green homes sell faster and for higher dollar than their non-energy saving counterparts. For example, in Seattle, new homes certified green (such as from the government’s Energy Star or U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED) sold for 22 percent more per square foot and spent 12 percent less time on the market, according to the ECert report by GreenWorks Realty in Seattle, which analyzed data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service of new homes sold from September 2007 to February 2010. (Green homes made up 6 percent of the market.)
Similar results were found in a separate study of “green” certified homes in Portland. New homes in that region sold for 18 percent more while existing-homes with a certification sold for 23 percent more compared to non-green homes, according to Earth Advantage Institute, which pulled data from the Portland area Regional Multiple Listing Service of homes sold from 2009 to 2010.
While more buyers are expressing an interest in “green” energy efficient materials in homes, they’re finding that going “green” can be expensive. For example, solar water heating systems can cost between $1,500 to $3,500 and solar panels upwards to $15,000. (It’s important to note that cheaper “green” alternatives for your home exist that can still offer savings to your utility bills, such as changing out your light bulbs to compact fluorescent light bulbs can reduce electricity costs.)
Some home owners or buyers are turning to Energy Efficient Mortgages or EEMs to curtail the costs of installing green features. Read more
Tags: Earth Advantage Institute, eco-friendly, EEMs, Energy Efficient Mortgages, green homes, green homes sell faster, green mortgages, GreenWorks Realty, sustainable design