As with every day and week in real estate news, last week had its fair share of good news and bad news. This weeks posts range from saying goodbye to home theaters to reasons to rent instead of buy your home. Here are a few of the more interesting real estate stories from around the country for the week of 2-13-2012.
Kiss These 10 Once-Popular Home Features Goodbye
I think to say kiss them goodbye is a little strong as I don’t ever see my desire for things like home theater and big whirlpool tubs in the master bath. That said, there are definitely a few things in this article that I could careless about. How about you?
Original story from: MarketWatch
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Suburbs May be Losing Their Luster to Home Buyers
While I think urban living would be awesome, especially in a city like Minneapolis, at this stage in my life with two kids and a dog, the suburbs suite me just fine. I’ve also never been one to worry about how far I have to drive for a job.
However, this post makes some good points for looking moving closer to the city center. For more info on what factors play into home buyers location decision, read; 8 Location Factors That Influence Home Buyers.
Original story from:US News
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‘Mixed Signals’ in Obama’s January Housing Scorecard
You can say that again! On the down side, weak home prices and an uptick in foreclosure completions weighed down the housing market in January. On the upside, there were better sales and construction numbers last month.
As always, if you drill down into the data, you see the housing news shows regional differences such as Florida real estate market versus San Francisco.
Original story from: US News
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New American Dream is renting to get rich
An interesting discussion about the merits of home ownership as it relates to personal financial wealth. Once considered a no-brainer, some are now seriously question the long help notion that home ownership is a sound financial investment.
There are some interesting facts here that I think every homeowner or home buyer should be aware of.
Original story from: Reuters
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Bernanke: Tight Credit Impeding Housing, Economic Recovery
Bernanke, speaking at a recent meeting of the National Association of Home Builders, did not offer much hope for any real estate recovery in the near future. According to Bernanke, recovery in housing has been so slow because the harsh realities of too-tight credit conditions have squeezed both prospective home buyers and builders.
The jury is still out, way out, on what effect the programs like HAMP, HARP and the recent foreclosure settlement will have on housing. Stay tuned.
Original story from: US News
Also Read 5 Free Home Value Tools Compared
Home buying: Most affordable in decades
This post from last week shines a spotlight on some very good news, especially for first time home buyers. According to the Housing Opportunity Index, 75% of homes sold in the 4th quarter of 2011 could have been comfortably afforded by families earning the national median income of $64,200.
That was the highest percentage recorded in the 20-year history of the index. This post goes on to highlight some of the metro areas where home affordability is the highest like; Youngstown, Ohio, Lakeland, Fla., Modesto, Calif., Harrisburg, Pa., and Toledo, Ohio.
Original story from: CNN Money
Also read Future of Real Estate in Hands of First Time Home buyers
