News
12-07-2006, 05:18 PM
The Most Affordable Suburbs, Plus
Where to Find New-Home Discounts
By Lauren Baier Kim
Here's a look at what's new in real-estate markets across the U.S. from around the Web. (Some links may require registration or subscriptions.)
Most affordable U.S. suburbs
For home buyers in search of an "affordable" suburb, Business Week has come out with its list of "The 25 Best Affordable Suburbs in the U.S." These places might not be absolutely the most affordable places in the country, but offer a "winning combination of affordability, academics, safety and culture," all with median home prices that don't top $619,000 or cost-of-living indexes that don't surpass 172.1 (the national average is 100), the magazine says. The most affordable suburb on Business Week's list is Coralville, Iowa, an Iowa City suburb where the median home price is $171,600 and the cost-of-living index is 96.9, Business Week says. Which locations made the top 25? On the East Coast, there's West Nyack, N.Y., a 30-minute commute to Manhattan. In the West and Southwest, there's Kaysville, Utah, just outside Salt Lake City, and Albuquerque suburb Sandia Heights, N.M., and in the Midwest, there's Lake Zurich, Ill, within commuting distance of Chicago.
Mortgage delinquencies reach 10-year high
More homeowners with subprime mortgages -- home loans issued to borrowers considered to be higher credit risks -- are falling behind on their mortgage payments, according to a Wall Street Journal Online article. This year may be the worst year ever for these types of mortgages, with delinquency rates rising in the past year to the highest level in 10 years, the article says. The increase in such delinquencies is likely to negatively affect the already slowing housing market, as lenders become more cautious in their lending practices, WSJ.com says. A rise in mortgage delinquencies is common during housing slowdowns, since financially strapped borrowers have difficulty selling their homes and because falling housing prices make it more difficult to refinance (due to a lack of equity in borrowers' properties), the article says.
Related Links
More Open House columns
Bay Area builders offer discounts
Now may be the time to buy a brand-new home in the San Francisco Bay Area, where builders are cutting prices and offering buyer incentives, according to an article by the San Francisco Chronicle. In September, there were 41% more newly built homes on the market than in September 2005, the newspaper says. The paper notes that while the median price for an existing single-family home rose 1.1% to $653,000 in September from the same month last year, the median price for a new home fell 12.3% during that same period to $584,000 and new-home sales dropped 22%. It will likely be a year before the local market recovers, the Chronicle says.
Market weakness in Colorado Springs
In Colorado Springs, permits for single-family homes are down and foreclosures are up, both signs that the local housing market is slowing, according to an article by the Gazette. In November, the city, approximately 68 miles south of Denver, has seen single-family permits drop to their lowest monthly total in 12 years, while the number of foreclosures hit its highest monthly total in 17 years, the newspaper says. Yet, single-family permits aren't anywhere near the level they were in 1990, when the market was in a "tailspin" the Gazette reports. In 1990, 741 single-family home permits were issued, while permits should number about 3,500 by the end of this year, the paper reports. Last month's foreclosure rate is relatively low when compared to that seen locally in the late 1980s, the article says. In about a year from now buyers will start "filling up the pipeline," the article quotes a Colorado Springs economist as saying.
Home prices dive in Palm Beach
In the third quarter, housing prices in Palm Beach County, Fla., fell 0.5% from the second quarter of this year, marking the first quarterly dip in nearly 10 years, a Palm Beach Post article says. Area prices may continue to fall through 2008, a local analyst quoted by the newspaper reports. During the past few years, home prices in the county -- which appreciated nearly 130% in the past five years-- were driven by "cheap, easy money and rampant speculation," the paper reports. With these factors now absent, some home buyers cannot -- or will not -- purchase at such high price tags, the Post says, noting that there is currently three years' worth of inventory in the county's housing market.
Prices will rise in Utica
Although homes are taking longer to sell and demand for new homes has declined in New York's Utica-Rome area this year, the forecast looks good for the local real-estate market, an article by the Observer-Dispatch reports. Area median home prices should rise 5% annually in the next two years, the paper says. In the second quarter of this year, Utica-Rome's median sale price was $104,000, up 7% from the median price in the second quarter of 2005, the article says.
Where to Find New-Home Discounts
By Lauren Baier Kim
Here's a look at what's new in real-estate markets across the U.S. from around the Web. (Some links may require registration or subscriptions.)
Most affordable U.S. suburbs
For home buyers in search of an "affordable" suburb, Business Week has come out with its list of "The 25 Best Affordable Suburbs in the U.S." These places might not be absolutely the most affordable places in the country, but offer a "winning combination of affordability, academics, safety and culture," all with median home prices that don't top $619,000 or cost-of-living indexes that don't surpass 172.1 (the national average is 100), the magazine says. The most affordable suburb on Business Week's list is Coralville, Iowa, an Iowa City suburb where the median home price is $171,600 and the cost-of-living index is 96.9, Business Week says. Which locations made the top 25? On the East Coast, there's West Nyack, N.Y., a 30-minute commute to Manhattan. In the West and Southwest, there's Kaysville, Utah, just outside Salt Lake City, and Albuquerque suburb Sandia Heights, N.M., and in the Midwest, there's Lake Zurich, Ill, within commuting distance of Chicago.
Mortgage delinquencies reach 10-year high
More homeowners with subprime mortgages -- home loans issued to borrowers considered to be higher credit risks -- are falling behind on their mortgage payments, according to a Wall Street Journal Online article. This year may be the worst year ever for these types of mortgages, with delinquency rates rising in the past year to the highest level in 10 years, the article says. The increase in such delinquencies is likely to negatively affect the already slowing housing market, as lenders become more cautious in their lending practices, WSJ.com says. A rise in mortgage delinquencies is common during housing slowdowns, since financially strapped borrowers have difficulty selling their homes and because falling housing prices make it more difficult to refinance (due to a lack of equity in borrowers' properties), the article says.
Related Links
More Open House columns
Bay Area builders offer discounts
Now may be the time to buy a brand-new home in the San Francisco Bay Area, where builders are cutting prices and offering buyer incentives, according to an article by the San Francisco Chronicle. In September, there were 41% more newly built homes on the market than in September 2005, the newspaper says. The paper notes that while the median price for an existing single-family home rose 1.1% to $653,000 in September from the same month last year, the median price for a new home fell 12.3% during that same period to $584,000 and new-home sales dropped 22%. It will likely be a year before the local market recovers, the Chronicle says.
Market weakness in Colorado Springs
In Colorado Springs, permits for single-family homes are down and foreclosures are up, both signs that the local housing market is slowing, according to an article by the Gazette. In November, the city, approximately 68 miles south of Denver, has seen single-family permits drop to their lowest monthly total in 12 years, while the number of foreclosures hit its highest monthly total in 17 years, the newspaper says. Yet, single-family permits aren't anywhere near the level they were in 1990, when the market was in a "tailspin" the Gazette reports. In 1990, 741 single-family home permits were issued, while permits should number about 3,500 by the end of this year, the paper reports. Last month's foreclosure rate is relatively low when compared to that seen locally in the late 1980s, the article says. In about a year from now buyers will start "filling up the pipeline," the article quotes a Colorado Springs economist as saying.
Home prices dive in Palm Beach
In the third quarter, housing prices in Palm Beach County, Fla., fell 0.5% from the second quarter of this year, marking the first quarterly dip in nearly 10 years, a Palm Beach Post article says. Area prices may continue to fall through 2008, a local analyst quoted by the newspaper reports. During the past few years, home prices in the county -- which appreciated nearly 130% in the past five years-- were driven by "cheap, easy money and rampant speculation," the paper reports. With these factors now absent, some home buyers cannot -- or will not -- purchase at such high price tags, the Post says, noting that there is currently three years' worth of inventory in the county's housing market.
Prices will rise in Utica
Although homes are taking longer to sell and demand for new homes has declined in New York's Utica-Rome area this year, the forecast looks good for the local real-estate market, an article by the Observer-Dispatch reports. Area median home prices should rise 5% annually in the next two years, the paper says. In the second quarter of this year, Utica-Rome's median sale price was $104,000, up 7% from the median price in the second quarter of 2005, the article says.