Owner Resource Services, LLC

Archive for February, 2012

By Erica Christoffer, Multimedia Web Producer, REALTOR® Magazine

Developers of multifamily homes should be relishing in the fact that demand is incredibly strong. But in reality, developers are struggling to build new apartments because financing is so hard to come by.

The National Association of Home Builders is forecasting the construction of 208,000 multifamily residences in 2012, which is well below the 350,000 units needed to maintain balance in the market, according to Sharon Dworkin Bell, NAHB senior vice president for multifamily and 50-plus housing.

Bell, who spoke on a panel during the NAHB International Builders’ Show in Orlando last week, said that the demand for new apartments will only continue to grow as the economy improves and job seekers find employment.

What’s more, the young adult population entering the job market today is one of the largest in U.S. history, which is creating even more demand for multifamily real estate, said Ron Witten, president of Witten Advisors, a market research firm that works with multifamily developers.

“As an industry, we can’t keep up with this demand right now. This is likely to put inflationary pressure on rents, resulting in higher rents for consumers,” Witten said.

The multifamily market suffered a serious slowdown in production from 2008 to 2010, and now the lack of credit to finance the development of new apartments is likely to cause a supply and demand imbalance, according to the NAHB panelists.

“Credit restrictions are so tight that even developers with a strong balance sheet and reputation are having difficulty,” said developer W. Dean Henry, president of Legacy Partners Residential in Foster City, Calif., and chair of NAHB’s Multifamily Leadership Board.

Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke also touched on credit issues during his speech at the International Builders’ Show Friday. He called on lenders to “find ways to maintain prudent lending standards while serving creditworthy borrowers.”

In a market report released in late 2011, NAR’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun warned that if new multifamily construction doesn’t ramp up, the rise in rent costs could potentially approach 7 percent over the next two years. This creates another obstacle for renters trying to save for a downpayment to purchase a home.

In fact, between 2001 and 2009 the number of renters paying more than 30 percent of their incomes for rent and tenant-paid utilities jumped from 41.2 percent to 48.7 percent, and those paying more than half their incomes for housing climbed from 20.7 percent to 26.1 percent, according to a  report released last summer by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing studies.

Overall, the implication of multifamily housing demand outpacing production is a continued delay of the housing recovery.

If you are in need of an owner’s representative for building your own dream home in Aspen or Snowmass, Colorado or simply need to know how to go about building or remodeling a house as an absentee owner in the Aspen area or the surrounding communities of Snowmass, Snowmass Village, Woody Creek or Basalt, Colorado, we are happy to assist! Please give us a call today at 970.948.8258 for a FREE consultation

Foreclosures increased again in January as banks continued to work through a large backlogs of defaulting loans in their books, RealtyTrac reports. The number of foreclosure filings — including default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions — increased 3 percent from December to January.

However, the numbers were significantly down compared to one year earlier, RealtyTrac reports.

Last month, one in every 624 households received a foreclosure filing — a drop of 19 percent compared to January 2011.

Banks had slowed their pace of processing foreclosures last year following a robo-signing scandal, in which banks were accused of approving foreclosure documents without proper reviews. Banks have changed some of their methods in processing foreclosures. Also, the $25 billion foreclosure settlement, announced last week, among the nation’s five largest banks and state attorneys general is expected to lead to a pick up in the pace of foreclosures.

The “frozen up foreclosure process is beginning to thaw,” Brandon Moore, CEO of RealtyTrac, said in a statement. For example, Florida had a 14 percent increase in foreclosure filings in January compared to a year earlier.

Many housing experts view an increase in foreclosures as an important step for the housing market to recover in clearing the glut of foreclosed homes on the market. Foreclosures have hampered home prices in many markets.

If you are in need of an owner’s representative for building your own dream home in Aspen or Snowmass, Colorado or simply need to know how to go about building or remodeling a house as an absentee owner in the Aspen area or the surrounding communities of Snowmass, Snowmass Village, Woody Creek or Basalt, Colorado, we are happy to assist! Please give us a call today at 970.948.8258 for a FREE consultation

The spring season usually brings an increase in buying and selling to the real estate market, and housing experts are mostly optimistic that this spring will be even better than recent years.

Some signs are already there: Housing inventories are declining, housing affordability is at record highs, mortgage rates are at all-time lows, and the job market is improving.

Existing-home sales have been edging up in recent months, and for-sale housing inventories were at nearly 2.4 million units in December, reaching its lowest point since 2005, according to National Association of REALTORS® data.

NAR’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun says home prices are beginning to stabilize in many markets.

Also, NAR’s Housing Affordability Index is at its highest level since the 1970s, which indicates that for the average family housing is very affordable.

The National Association of Home Builders is also predicting an improvement this spring among the new-home sector. NAHB is predicting that home sales will increase 18 percent this year, that’s after facing their lowest on record in 2011.

However, threats to a housing recovery still loom this spring. Strict mortgage lending is keeping some buyers on the sidelines, and foreclosures continue to put downward pressure on overall home prices in many markets.

“The signals are a little hard to extrapolate, but ultimately by the end of this year we should see the housing market on more solid footing,” says Celia Chen, senior housing economist with Moody’s Analytics. “So an improvement but off of very, very weak activity.”

Source: “Real Estate: A Buy or Bust This Spring Selling Season?” Investor’s Business Daily

If you are in need of an owner’s representative for building your own dream home in Aspen or Snowmass, Colorado or simply need to know how to go about building or remodeling a house as an absentee owner in the Aspen  area or the surrounding communities of Snowmass, Snowmass Village, Woody Creek or Basalt, Colorado, we are happy to assist! Please give us a call today at 970.948.8258 for a FREE consultation

Although 2011 was among the slowest years ever for single-family construction starts, observers say builders across the country are preparing to commence work on new developments.

The National Association of Home Builders’ Chief Economist David Crowe says 2011 starts came in around 425,000, down from the previous low of 442,000 in 2009, with declines in consumer confidence helping to pinch the number of groundbreakings. According to Census data, single-family homes account for just 2.3 percent of the 9 percent increase in starts in November.

Meritage Homes CEO Steve Hilton does not expect construction activity to return to 2005 and 2006 levels, but he does expect a pick-up this year and for starts to reach 800,000 to 1 million during the next few years.  The company will break ground on homes in Tampa in the first quarter, moving to the Sunshine State to take advantage of what Hilton expects will be one of the strongest housing markets in the coming years.

Meanwhile, Toll Bros. is setting its sights on Dallas, Houston, and the Washington, D.C., to Boston corridor, hoping to capitalize on pent-up demand as consumer confidence rises.  Other builders ramping up production include Lennar, focusing on the Pacific Northwest; and Pulte Group, which plans projects in northern Virginia, Texas, and the Carolinas.

Zelman & Associates CEO Ivy Zelman says builders must compete with a glut of existing homes; and they are pulling back on square footage, options, and upgrades to make their offerings more affordable.  She says an increase in household formation, a low supply of new homes, more tenants seeking to buy as rents rise, stabilizing home prices, and investors looking to buy single-family homes to rent out have combined to give a boost to the new-home market.

Source: “Will Homebuilders Dig Out of Their Holes This Year?” Investor’s Business Daily (01/06/12)

(c) Copyright 2012 Information, Inc.

If you are in need of an owner’s representative for building your own dream home in Aspen or Snowmass, Colorado or simply need to know how to go about building a house as an absentee owner in the Aspen  area or the surrounding communities of Snowmass, Snowmass Village, Woody Creek or Basalt, Colorado, we are happy to assist! Please give us a call today at 970.948.8258 for a FREE consultation