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Fallen home prices and record-low mortgage rates have pushed housing affordability to a 40-year high. Meanwhile, rental prices are continuing to rise at a fast pace, according to a new report released by Hotpads.com, a rental listing service. 

Rental prices in many areas like ours in the Placerville, CA. increased about 3.5 percent in 2011, and prices are expected to continue to rise in 2012. Meanwhile, home prices fell by about 1.5 percent in 2011 but are expected to level out in 2012. 

“In a lot of cases it’s getting to a point where it makes more sense for people to buy because rent has been going up significantly faster, while home prices have been falling,” Paul Gleger, author of the report, told AOL Real Estate. 

Source: “U.S. Rental Market Stays Hot in 2011,” Hotpads.com (January 2012) and “Rental Prices Climb, Buying Remains More Affordable,” AOL Real Estate News (Jan. 18, 2012)

More news from the “Sierra Foothills” of El Dorado, Placer, Amador and Sacramento Counties of California at: www.sierraproperties.com or email: zeller@realtor.com

New programs and “housing policy interventions” are needed to help the real estate market rebound and boost growth in the overall economy, three Federal Reserve policymakers said Friday. 

The latest statements join a range of calls by the Federal Reserve in the last week urging for more government intervention to help the housing market. Last week, the Fed released a 26-page white paper  providing an outline on how the government needs to take more aggressive action to prevent home values from falling further, seek solutions to the foreclosure crisis, and loosen stringent underwriting standards that are keeping borrowers from securing mortgages or refinancing. 

New York Fed President William Dudley said on Friday that the housing market is “only one factor behind the frustratingly slow” economic recovery, but it’s an “important one that deserves our attention.”

“Forceful and effective housing policies have the potential to significantly influence the speed and strength of our recovery,” Fed Governor Elizabeth Duke said in separate comments made last week at an event in Virginia. 

Source: “Fed Officials Focus on Housing ; Emphasis put on Importance of Sector to Overall Economy,” Bloomberg News (Jan. 9, 2012) and “Fed Officials Push More Stimulus for Housing,” Reuters News (Jan. 9. 2012)

A new report by Real Capital Analytics shows the number of distressed commercial properties is plateauing and expected to continue to do so in the new year. Distressed properties — which include commercial properties that are in default, foreclosure, or repossessed by lenders — had totaled $171.6 billion in October 2011, a decrease from topping off at $191.5 billion in March 2010, according to Real Capital Analytics.

The real test of commercial propertiesis likely to be seen in 2012 and 2013, when about $300 billion in loans comes due each year,” according to a recent article in the Washington Post. 

At $41.9 billion, the office sector continues to have the largest number of distressed commercial properties. But that number has been steadily declining — about 11.8 percent less than its peak reached in October 2010. 

 More information at source: “Amount of Distressed Real Estate Could be on Way Down,” Washington Post (Dec. 26, 2011)

More news about “Commercial and Income Properties” from the El Dorado, Placer, Amador or Sacramento Counties of California regions at: www.sierraproperties.com or www.dougandbudzeller.com

The multifamily market continues to post gains. 

“Rents are rising, vacancies are falling, household formations are growing and rental supply is limited,” according to a recent report, “2012: The Year of the Landlord,” issued by Morgan Stanley. “We believe the demand for rental properties will continue to grow.”

Vacancies of rental properties dropped to 9.8 percent in the third quarter of this year compared to 10.3 percent earlier this year. 

Led by strong gains in multifamily housing, groundbreaking for new-housing market soared 9.3 percent in November. Construction of multifamily homes of at least two units increased 25.3 percent in November, the Commerce Department reported last week. Starts for structures with five or more units has increased more than 30 percent from October and is nearly double year-over-year levels, Reuters reports.

Rental costs are also on their way up, increasing 2.4 percent over last year compared with an increase of 0.6 percent in 2010, Reuters reports.

Source: “America Becoming a Nation of Renters,” Reuters (Dec. 27, 2011)

More news from the “Sierra Foothills” of El Dorado, Placer, Amador,  Sacramento Counties  of  California  at: www.sierraproperties.com or www.dougandbudzeller.com

Economic growth, an improving job picture, greater consumer spending, and slight improvements in the housing market are all recent indicators that 2011 is ending on a much brighter note, Fannie Mae reports in its fourth-quarter report. 

“It’s important to recognize that we’re ending 2011 on a stronger note than we’ve seen throughout the year,” Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan said in a statement. “Unfortunately, however, our 2012 outlook is not as rosy as our forecast for the fourth quarter of 2011.”

Fannie Mae’s Economics & Mortgage Market Analysis Group predicts that despite recent improvements, the housing market will remain “subdued next year — a reflection of the winter season, an expected slowdown in economic activity, and a potential increase in distressed sales.” The nation’s fiscal problems as well as the European debt crisis are also expected to threaten the nation’s economic recovery in 2012.

Source: Fannie Mae

We hope your activity has picked up like ours has here in the Sierra Foothills regions of Placerville, El Dorado County, California.

The recession officially ended in June 2009, but the big dent to most households’ pocketbook didn’t happen until the years following it, according to a new study. 

Household income has posted some of its biggest drops in the last two years, moreso than during the recession itself, according to the study by two former Census Bureau officials. 

From June 2009 to June 2011, median household income dropped 6.7 percent to $49,909. Yet, during the recession (December 2007 to June 2009), household income fell only 3.2 percent. 

In total, household income has dropped 9.8 percent since the start of recession to June of 2011 — the largest drop in decades.  

There has been “a significant reduction in the American standard of living,” wrote Gordon W. Green Jr., who wrote the report. 

Since the recession and beyond, the number of unemployed persons has risen and the hourly pay of employed people has not kept up with the pace of inflation, the authors note. 

Source: “Recession Officially Over, U.S. Incomes Kept Falling,” The New York Times (Oct. 9, 2011)

Other Placerville, El Dorado County, California information at: www.dougandbudzeller.com

The National Association of Home Builders is stressing the need for policymakers to remove anti-housing barriers that they say are preventing a housing market recovery. After all, NAHB says, housing can be the answer policymakers have been searching for in boosting jobs and economic recovery. 

The housing industry can be the “key engine of job growth” the country needs, says Bob Nielsen, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders.Nielsen says that constructing just 100 single-family homes can generate more than 300 jobs and $8.9 million in taxes and revenue for state, local, and federal governments.

Yet, Nielsen says the government keeps placing stringent policies that are preventing the housing market from recovering and that are dampening demand and reducing Americans ability to purchase a home, from the tightening of credit and possible stricter down payment qualifications to reducing the conforming loan limit on Oct. 1. 

One of the main hurdles home builders are facing is obtaining credit from banks so they can begin working on new homes. The tightening of credit has brought new-home construction practically to a standstill in many parts of the country. 

By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine Daily News

Other Placerville, El Dorado County, California information at: www.dougandbudzeller.com

In June, the Department of Housing and Urban Development launched a new grant program to help home owners who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments due to unemployment or unexpected medical bills.

The program offers eligible home owners $50,000 in interest-free loans for up to two years.

HUD has until the end of the government’s fiscal year, Sept. 30, to spend all of its $1 billion for the Emergency Homeowners’ Loan Program (or EHLP), which will provide 27 states with aid for the program. Home owners in eligible states have until July 22 to complete their applications.

HUD hopes that 30,000 home owners can be helped through the program.

However, while some are seeing the program as a last chance to help unemployed home owners stay in their homes, others aren’t as convinced the program will do much good in ultimately lessening foreclosures in the country.  The Senate has yet to take up the bill.

For a full list of states and eligibility requirements for EHLP, visit the HUD Web site.

Source: “HUD to Give Away $1 Billion to Struggling Home Owners,” The Washington Post 7/4/11 

Other articles relating to the Sacramento and Placerville, California regions at: www.sierraproperties.com

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will take the rare step of ending next week’s policy meeting with a Q&A session about the central bank’s decisions. Despite opposition from within his own ranks, he is expected to affect no changes to the -rate strFed’s ultralow interestategy.

In facing the media on April 27, Bernanke hopes to assert his voice over the central bank’s internal debates before any of his colleagues do and also reassure the American public that he is on top of keeping inflation in check.

Source: “Bernanke to Open Up as Fed Embarks on Era of Glasnost,” The Wall Street Journal, Jon Hilsenrath (04/21/11)

Other articles relating to the Sacramento and Placerville, California regions at: www.sierraproperties.com

A sluggish real estate market hasn’t shaken the confidence of the public in how it views home ownership, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center. Eight in 10 adults (or 81 percent) say owning a home is the best long-term investment a person can make, according to the Pew study of about 2,000 adults conducted in March.

“Home owners are not blind to what has happened to home prices, nor are they expecting a speedy recovery,” according to the Pew study. In fact, of the home owners surveyed, about half said their home is worth less now than before the recession, while 31 percent said their home’s value has stayed the same.

Nevertheless, 82 percent of home owners who say their home is worth less now than before the recession either strongly or somewhat agree that home ownership is the best long-term investment a person can make, according to the survey.

The value of home ownership even continues to emerge on top when home owners were surveyed and asked to rate the importance of four long-term financial goals. Home ownership and “being able to live comfortably in retirement” rated the highest–viewed as either extremely or very important by 80 percent of respondents.

More details at source: “Home Sweet Home. Still.” Pew Research Center (4/12/11) 

Other articles relating to the Sacramento and Placerville, California regions at: www.sierraproperties.com