31% Landlords Plan to Buy More Rentals By Year End

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 31, 2010 – Almost one-third (31%) of independent landlords plan to buy additional rental property by the end of 2012, according to a survey released today by The National Association of Independent Landlords.

The top reason, cited by 68% of those planning a purchase, is that current prices make rental real estate a good investment.  Other reasons include pricing low enough to allow them buy a retirement home (8%) or a vacation home (8%) that can be rented out to earn additional income until needed.

“With property prices still beaten up in many great areas – Las Vegas, Florida, Arizona and California – our members see this as a good buying opportunity and a smart way to beef up their property portfolios,” said Tracey Benson, president of The National Association of Independent Landlords.  “Low interest rates are just icing.”

Most respondents (73%) say real estate is a good way to fund their retirement.

Nationally, housing prices and sales are mixed, with some areas having bottomed out and others in for further depreciation.

“It’s not like all uncertainty has been erased from the market – far from it.  But buyers who do their research can find deals that really make economic sense for them,” Benson said.

The National Association of Independent Landlords polled 507 members from Aug. 24 to Aug. 26, 2010.

About The National Association of Independent Landlords The National Association of Independent Landlords is the country’s largest provider of services for small landlords.  Services include credit reports, electronic rent collection and tenant screening as well as information about property management, rental laws in all 50 states and other issues critical to property owners.

For further information, please visit www.landlordassociation.com or call 1-800-352-3395.

Neighborhood Shopping Center Sells for $16,000,000 in La Cañada, Calif.

The 42,093-square-foot shopping center, known as Foothill Promenade, sold for as much as 16 million dollars recently. Tenant’s include Trader Joe’s, Union Bank, Petco, Aaron Brothers, Starbucks and Han’s Beauty. The purchase is part of the buyers’ plan to acquire high quality shopping centers in Southern California. “This combined with an increased demand from investors has created a very competitive environment so far this year. In the past couple of months, the market has started to see an increase in neighborhood shopping centers sold and marketed for sale in southern California. Watch for this trend to continue and pick up momentum moving into the fourth quarter,” reported William B. Asher of Hanley Investment Group.

California Leads the Way

Berkeley, California homes lead the country in homes sold above the asking price, about 108% above the asking price. Seven of the top ten zip codes with homes sold above the asking price where in California.

Impressive June Numbers

Tampa Bay area homes sales have increased significantly in June 2010. 3,226 homes were closed, four hundred more than this time last year. Condo sales have grown, as well. In the Tampa Bay area, condos ha sales have gone up 38% compared to a year ago.

California Up in June

An estimated 43,964 new and resale houses and condos were sold statewide last month. That was up 7.3% from 40,965 in May, and down 0.5% from 44,167 for June 2009, according to MDA DataQuick.

California sales for the month of June have varied from a low of 35,202 in 2008 to a peak of 76,669 in 2004, while the average is 50,405. MDA DataQuick’s statistics go back to 1988.

The median price paid for a home last month was $270,000, down 2.9% from $278,000 in May, and up 9.8% from $246,000 for June a year ago. The year-over-year increase was the eighth in a row, following 27 months of year-over-year decline. The bottom of the current cycle was $221,000 in April 2009, the peak was at $484,000 in early 2007.

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40 percent fewer default notices to California homeowners

Lenders issued 40 percent fewer default notices to California homeowners during the first three months of 2010 than in the same period last year, another sign that the state’s foreclosure crisis is easing, new data shows.

California also saw a sharp drop in the number of trustees deeds — recorded when a house or condo actually is forfeited to foreclosure — in January, February and March, according to the latest figures from San Diego-based MDA DataQuick.

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• Firm: California sees decline in mortgage defaults (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
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Top States With Rising Prices

Homegain.com ran a survey of real estate pros and asked them the Top 10 states where they think real estate  think home prices will go up in the next 6months:
1. Texas (41%)
2. Massachusetts (38%)
3. California (37%)
4. Nevada (36%)
5. Idaho (31%)
6. Colorado (31%)
7. Alabama 25%
8. Tennessee (25%)
9. Arizona (23%)
10. Indiana (22%)

West Leading the Way Out of Recession

Pending home sales rose 3.2 percent from June to July, with a surge in sales in the western U.S. outweighing declines in the Northeast and Midwest, the National Association of Realtors said today. Pending home sales were up 12.1 percent from June to July in the West and 3.1 percent in the South, but fell 3 percent in the Northeast and 2 percent in the Midwest regions. All four regions saw a year-over-year increase in pending home sales, led by the West (20 percent) and followed by the South (12 percent), Midwest (8.1 percent) and Northeast (4.7 percent).

California home sales have been up year-over-year for 13 months, and it seems to be leading the US out of the housing slump.

Shiller Chills and Get Positive

Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index shows that prices are actually starting to rise again in some parts of the country. Cities like Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Minneapolis and San Francisco all have home prices on the rise.

“This is the first time in almost three years that we’ve seen price increases,” says Yale University professor Robert Shiller, who helped design the home price index. “So when we see a break in the downward trend that’s definitely encouraging news.”
“Well, I think the worst is probably behind us — the worst pace of decline,” he says. “We were going down at 2 percent a month for a number of months in a row nationally. That was really something. Now home prices relative to rents or construction costs are back at normal levels.”

Many Realtors are seeing multiple offers making some speculate that we have reached a housing bottom.

“Well, I think it very much depends on what city you’re in,” says William Wheaton, a housing economist at MIT. “There are really two types of markets right now.”

Wheaton notes that in states with 50% drops like Arizona, California and Florida that indeed we may be at a bottom.

“If you’re in a market like California, where prices have fallen 50 percent and transactions have picked up and you ask your friendly professor ‘Is this the bottom?’ I would say pretty much so,” Wheaton says.” If you could buy a house [for] 50 percent of what you could a few years ago, I’d say go ahead and buy it.”

Source: NPR

Why California has Hit Bottom

California’s median price for an existing single-family house rose for the third straight month, a sign that the state’s battered real-estate market may be bottoming out.

California’s real-estate market, the nation’s largest, is seen as a barometer of the U.S. economy. Housing prices soared during the boom, and their plummet during the market’s collapse resulted in massive foreclosures and fueled the recession. Economists say the state’s housing market will lag behind the nation’s in recovering, so any indication of improvement in California bodes well for the rest of the U.S.

MP: Unit sales increasing in CA + Median home prices increasing in CA + Median number of days to sell a home decreasing in CA + Unsold inventory index (4.2 months) falling to less than 50% compared to a year ago (8.7 months) in CA + Fewer foreclosed properties among those being sold in CA = REAL ESTATE MARKET IN RECOVERY

Source: economist blog

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