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Beyond the Numbers, Confidence Returns to Housing

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 06:59:07 +0000

While first-timers are getting more interested, current homeowners are getting less interested, according to the Campbell survey. Meanwhile investor interest in housing rose to a four-month high, accompanied by a rise in sales of distressed properties. Investors, who largely buy all in cash, have been the main competition for regular home buyers, and as big hedge funds and private equity purchase lower end, distressed homes in bulk, that pushes prices drastically higher. Witness a 23 percent jump in Phoenix home prices in January, according to the latest reading from SP/Case-Shiller.

While the number of distressed homes is falling, the remnants of the housing crash are still weighing on the recovery. There are still 5.1 million properties where the owner is either delinquent on the mortgage or the home is already in the foreclosure process, according to a new report from Lender Processing Services. As banks ramp up the foreclosure process, following delays due to processing fraud over the past few years, more distressed properties will come to the market. That may ease some of the price gains, although investors, still reaping rental rewards, seem ready for all of it.

(Read More: No Money? No Worries. Home Lenders Ease Rules)

What remains to be seen is for how long those rents will stay strong? With more Americans looking to buy and souring on renting, rent rates could start to come down. In addition, new supply of rental apartment buildings will be hitting the market in force over the next two years, as developers have been increasing multi-family housing construction.

(Read More: Defying Gravity: Miami Condos Soar Again)

—By CNBC’s Diana Olick; Follow her on Twitter @Diana_Olick or on Facebook at facebook.com/DianaOlickCNBC

Questions? Comments? RealtyCheck@cnbc.com

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100592690

Private Equity Readying a Run on Foreclosures

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:07:08 +0000

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/45945390?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

Credit Crunch Has Home Builders Sleepless in Seattle

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 02:38:13 +0000

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The only thing more cold and gloomy than my pre-dawn live shot here in Seattle this morning was the February housing report from the Department of Commerce.

Housing starts plunged 22.5 percent in February from the previous month, and building permits, which are an indicator of future activity, dropped 8.2 percent.

You can’t blame it all on the weather either, as starts were even down 28 percent out West.

Some of the housing pundits this morning are saying this is all a good thing, as there is still far too much supply on the market, and builders need to sell all that before they start building more, but tell that to a home builder. The real issue now is credit. The big public builders can get some cash from the banks, but they represent barely a quarter of the market. The private builders are in real need now.

“Our view is that the housing market will start to get back on its feet this year,” notes HIS Global Insight’s Patrick Newport. “The forecast, however, hinges on builders being able to access credit. If builders cannot get financing to build new homes, housing will remain in the dumps.”

Here in Seattle, California-based Shea Homes is going in a new direction for financing, tapping private equity, which appears to be far more willing to back private builders than the banks.

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Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/42110876?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS