According to Multifamily Executive, participants at the recent National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) Annual Conference were looking forward to a window of opportunity this year and possibly beyond.

Property management companies will likely be busy in the near future if they are right, given predictions of further construction and rent growth in the face of national demand. According to the source, one market researcher noted that economic fundamentals indicate access to credit and consumer confidence are improving.

This may allow more Americans to pursue housing at a time when industry executives and experts have noted more people are choosing to rent than in past years.

Holland Partner Group CEO Clyde Holland reported projections that construction and land costs will increase and reach historical norms by 2014, which would slow the pace of construction. Experts expect it to begin slowing sooner, however, because the number of projects in the works is already beginning to meet demand.

Overall, executives were looking forward to a good year in 2012, anticipating some rent increases and strong business throughout the year.

Moody’s Investors Service indicates that multifamily sector real estate investment trusts are looking forward to a strong performance in 2012, according to Multi-Housing News.

According to the source, analysts see positive fundamentals and expect a stable rating outlook for the year. This reflects the consistent demand for rental properties that consumers are projected to demonstrate.

Moody’s Investors Service stated multifamily REITs are well-placed to weather an economic downturn, compared to how they were in 2008. The report states that apartment landlords are expected to find the economic environment favorable, as household creation and employment growth contribute to demand.

Mixed feelings and low sentiment with regards to homeownership means that those new households are choosing to rent homes in increasing numbers. The analysts noted that, while the employment picture remains weak, it is stronger than it was a year ago. On top of that, the source notes, analysts expect that new construction will be limited enough to allow further rent growth, making existing rentals more profitable.

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The housing market has remained tired and sluggish since the all too familiar pop of the bubble. In recent years, it appears obvious that families have begun to consider purchasing smaller homes including homes that were once considered unconventional for families like apartments, condominiums or duplexes. As a result, the hardest hit by the continuing decline of the housing market is with large scale or opulent homes. These homes, once considered the optimal for prestige and wealth, have become a slow moving product, as their appeal is no longer an excuse for inflated pricing.

Prices Versus Need

The large home market is, at this point, not on the recovery radar. Buyers simply do not want to deal with the added cost of taxes, utilities and maintenance. This means that they are sitting on the foreclosure market, and will continue to sit because their prices aren’t enticing enough. When being offered a three bedroom, two bath for $60,000.00 versus a four bedroom, three bath for $500,000.00 buyers will choose what they need over what they want.

The Large Home Crisis

This phenomenon can be seen in areas like Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York and many other metropolitan areas that pride themselves on extravagant living. The smaller home market has also attracted investors that are interested in renting and holding onto investment properties. This is especially enticing, as the cost of homes has continued to drop. The overall debt that is incurred through the purchase of a smaller home is considered minimal these days.?Larger homes have now become rock bottom in price, but the cost to build, and remaining balances on mortgages have made these giants tough for even short sell opportunities. It appears that predictions of 1970′s pricing on homes have come to fruition, and that also includes the 1970′s sized home preference as well.

A Skeleton in the Closet

Photo source: snookerbacker.com

When you buy a new house, especially as foreclosure, you may find a few things the previous owner left behind like old furniture, paint cans, etc. But you certainly don’t expect to actually find the previous owner, dead and rotting away in your garage.
Yet that’s exactly what happened to a Florida man while inspecting his newly purchased home. According to ABC Action News, authorities believed it to be the dead body of the previous owner who had been missing since foreclosing on her home earlier that year.

Home Invasion

Photo source: nbc17.com

Everyone should feel safe in their own home. Unfortunately, this sense of safety can be gone in an instant as a man in Durham, N.C. experienced first-hand when he woke up to noises in his home last December.
Unable to reach his phone, he grabbed his firearm and set out to defend his property, as he later told NBC17.com. The ensuing standoff with the three intruders resulted in an exchange of fire that landed the criminals in the hospital and behind bars, while the brave homeowner lived on to defend his home another day.

Next-door Meth Lab

Photo source: stopmethinflorida.org

Most people buy a house in what they consider to be a safe neighborhood. But what happens when your apparently perfect neighbor turns out to be running a meth lab?

A quiet neighborhood in South Providence, Rhode Island became the epicenter of a drug investigation when a former Brown University student started to run a meth lab in his house. His neighbors noticed a foul stench and notified the authorities, who then shut down the illegal operation, according to WPRI.com.

While the investigation is ongoing, any potential home buyers will certainly stay clear of this area now, as it poses a serious health and safety risk.

Unwanted Baby Delivery

Photo source: sjecho.com.my

The postman may always ring twice, but the unwanted baby delivery service won?t even knock on your door once, as homeowner Juan Renevato in Dickinson, Texas found out last December, according to ABC13 News.

He found a shivering newborn on his doorstep at an outside temperature of below 40 and immediately called 911. Fortunately, the baby survived and is currently up for adoption. But the experience was traumatic for everyone involved.

Fecal Matters

Photo source: steel-pipes.highpointdesigns.com

While no one would take a dump in his own living room, it seems impossible to prevent the city from dumping all kinds of waste anywhere in your house, as evident in the recent sewage backup incidents reported in New Jersey.

One homeowner in Roselle Park, New Jersey had two feet of raw sewage spill into his basement, resulting in over $30,000 in damages and cleanup costs. The city of Roselle Park however, denied the insurance claim the man filed, citing the incident as an “Act of God.”

House of Snakes

Photo source: howstuffworks.com

While the most infamous story about snake infestation in a home has since been retracted by The Consumerist, snake infestations can and do happen in certain parts of the country. Nevertheless, stories about thousands of snakes invading a house at a time tend to be mere urban legends.

Conclusion

While bad stuff can happen to people anywhere, owning a home does not necessarily pose an inherent risk. Practicing due diligence is always the best way to avoid any worst-case scenarios.

photo credit: seier+seier

While there are some good signs in the housing market right now, there are also some serious concerns that have to be dealt with. One of the main concerns is that there’s talk of another sharp decline in housing prices before things start to go back up again. That means that a lot of people who were about to buy houses may hold off on making their purchases because they think the prices will go even lower. If the prices don’t drop, but rise instead, these people may not be able to buy houses at all – effectively shutting them completely out of the market.

No matter whether you’re a buyer or a seller right now, it’s pretty clear that there are still big problems with the housing market. It hasn’t recovered from the problems that it faced recently, and that means that there are serious issues that need to be cleared up. The double dip possibility is just one of those issues. There are also the foreclosure problems that have to be addressed, because housing prices really can’t come back up until many of the foreclosures are gone and the only homes that are left are those that cost more and that are for sale ‘normally,’ instead of being foreclosures or short sales.

If you’re a seller, you may find that buyers are waiting to see what happens with the housing prices. If they drop again, you may be able to sell your house but not for the price that you’re asking for it right now. If the prices don’t drop, you could have an even more difficult time trying to sell your home because buyers won’t be able to afford what you’re asking – they were counting on the drop in prices to help them.

photo credit: JimBain

When times get tough financially, a lot of people start doing away with services that they had previously used, in an effort to save money. While that can sometimes be a good idea, depending on the service and the cost of it, it can also cause problems for people who want to save money but end up spending more in the long run. The foreclosure crisis has recently caused some of the smaller condominiums and HOAs in Florida to drop their property management companies, for example. Self-management is what they’re turning to, because they believe that it will save them a lot of money overall. The larger condominiums and HOAs are keeping their companies, but they’re trying to negotiate with them so that they use fewer services and pay less money.

While that’s good in theory, it won’t necessarily save these HOAs and condos any money overall. Property management companies are important, because they handle the ins and outs of renting the homes, condominiums, apartments, or commercial spaces. They also take care of maintenance and other problems, and they collect the rent and other fees. They then remove their fee and send the rest to the person or company that owns the building that they are managing. It’s easy for the property owner, but the fee that the management company takes is something that a lot of the condominiums and HOAs today are trying to avoid.

There’s a reason why that’s bad. These HOAs and condominiums are all on their own when it comes to tackling problems that come up. They may have trouble collecting rent, and when things break, they have to get someone out there to fix them. They also need maintenance for their condo or complex, or the homes in the subdivision. All of those things add up, and then there’s the hassle. It may be more work than many property owners realize.

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While it’s not true everywhere, there are some local real estate markets that are slowly starting to turn around. One such market is in Asheville, North Carolina, where interest rates are still low and property prices have stabilized. Homes are beginning to sell again, and that’s great news for the people who have had them on the market for a long time. It’s also great news for buyers, because homes being sold means that banks are starting to become more relaxed with their lending. For a long time, sellers couldn’t get their homes sold because they owed more than the homes were worth, but also because buyers that wanted the homes couldn’t get financed.

The Asheville market isn’t the only one that’s improving, either. There are small and medium-sized markets all over the country that are getting better. It’s not in the news much because the largest markets – places like Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Miami – are still struggling to regain some footing, but for the people in the improving markets, there is a renewed sense of hope. Eventually, these smaller and mid-sized markets will continue to grow and that growth will spread into the larger cities. It’s all part of an economic recovery that many hoped for long ago and that’s taking it’s time to arrive. It’s getting there, though, regardless of how slow it has been.

If you’re in a larger market that hasn’t seen improvement yet, your time is coming. There are better days ahead in the real estate market, but patience is required. That can be very difficult for people who aren’t sure whether they can continue to make their house payments and frustrated buyers who really want to get into a house but have credit scores just a few points below the cutoff.

photo credit: Alex E. Proimos

Most banks aren’t very happy with the Obama Administration right now, and that’s mostly because of suggested changes that would require the banks to modify mortgage loans for troubled borrowers. There have already been a lot of loan modifications, but other changes would mean that the principal amount would be reduced for a lot of these borrowers. That’s great news for them, but it’s troubling for the banks. They were expecting a certain amount of money for the loans that they made, and they will take huge losses if they have to forgive a lot of the principal for a large number of borrowers.

The banks generally don’t think that doing that will really help the housing market and the economy, but there are always differences of opinion with that. It’s uncertain what type of settlement will eventually be reached, but it’s clear that something has to be done. There are still many borrowers who are upside down in their houses, and some of them want to sell. Others want to stay in their homes, but they’re having trouble making the payments and they’re annoyed about paying so much on a house that’s currently worth considerably less than they owe. If they had their principal reduced to the value of the house, they would have a much lower payment and could afford to stay there.

If these borrowers see their payments and principal reduced, though, it’s likely that people who aren’t having trouble making their house payments will ask why they don’t also get a reduction. It could cause a huge snowball effect when it comes to problems between banks and their borrowers, which could cause further problems in the housing market and in the economy overall. That needs to be avoided, but the big question is what would be the best way in which to accomplish that.

photo credit: kevindooley

Home builders are really having a difficult time of things right now. They don’t have too many clients, because there have been so many people who have lost their jobs, been reduced to lower-paying work, or are simply just hanging on to their money. The majority of people who find homes today are purchasing homes that have already been built and are being sold by their previous owners. They may not get exactly what they want by doing things this way, but they’re still able to get into a home that they like and that they can be comfortable in for many years. They may still build a home, but it will be after the economy recovers and the housing market is better.

If you’re building a home right now you’re not alone, but you’re definitely in the minority of people who are getting into new homes. The interest rates are great, but having the money for a down payment and being able to obtain financing are a couple of areas where a lot of people are lacking at the moment. The economy is causing financial problems, and people who struggle with their finances often find that their credit scores go down. Because they have damaged credit, they can’t get the loan they want to build their home. They can often get a smaller, less expensive loan, though, and that’s what they use to buy their home.

People who really want to build a home may be better off waiting a while, while they repair their credit and save up more money for a good down payment. Having a lower mortgage payment can also help them make sure that they aren’t getting themselves into a financial bind that could cause them more problems in the future. That’s easily avoidable if you proceed with caution.

photo credit: Nick Bastian Tempe, AZ

However, as we join the 1990′s and 2000 era, the most expensive places to buy a home were no longer near Phoenix, Arizona, but as far away as you can get. Currently the dollar sign goes up on homes in Cave Creek which is just a few miles outside the Scottsdale city limits. Also, the Chandler and Gilbert areas have shown strong growth and cost when you consider the opportunites for large amounts of acreage plus horse privileges that are involved. Speaking of Scottsdale, even though the population growth is pushing 248,000 there will always be those homebuyers who will genuflect to having the prestigious North Scottsdale zip code.

There are certain pockets of expensive places to buy homes near the city limits of Phoenix, Arizona. A buyer looking to find the right place to drop his suitcase and call it home need not look any farther than Fountain Hills north of Scottsdale on the highway leading to Payson, Arizona, North Scottsdale heading to Cave Creek and, of course, the lovely Paradise Valley area which always seem to be the first stop for the rich and famous. This, in particular, is one area where acreage counts and a five acre estate parcel near Bell road with a 35,000 square foot home plus other grandiose amenities including a 20 car garage will cost you a tad bit over $10 million bucks.
So, if you want to be neighbors of famous NBA and baseball sports figures, including retired pitcher Randy Johnson, Paradise Valley and north Scottsdale is your destination