FRIDAY. ENTER THE WEEKEND.
Higher prices choke housing, rental crisis, first time homeowners becoming first time landlords, questions on the state of mortgage lending, new projects in Morgan Hill and Gilroy, Bay Area luxury homes, entry ways. Enjoy.
Higher prices 'choke' housing - It may seem counterintuitive, but fast-rising home values are the biggest negative in today's housing recovery. After an epic plunge in prices following the financial crisis, the thought was that rising home prices were a sign that all would be well again soon. Now, two new reports point to weakened affordability as the primary barrier to more robust home sales.
HUD’s Donovan: This is the worst rental crisis in this nation, ever - One of the key tenets of Johnson-Crapo is ensuringaffordability and availability for those who are seeking to rent instead of buy. Donovan said that it was critical to provide affordability across all segments immediately. “This is the worst rental affordability crisis this country has ever known,” he said.
More homeowners are becoming first-time landlords - The real estate market has long worked on a simple system: If you want to buy a new house, sell the old one and use the equity for a down payment. But the last few years of low ownership costs and rising rents have some move-up buyers trying a new approach: Buy the new house. Keep the old one. And rent it out.
5 Questions on the state of mortgage lending - Anyone who’s tried to get a mortgage in recent years knows that it hasn’t been easy. But there are growing signs that lenders are becoming less picky amid a rebound in home prices and a drop-off in mortgage refinancing.
Silicon Valley's real estate boom echoes south, unfreezing Gilroy, Morgan Hill residential projects - The largest housing community ever proposed for Gilroy first surfaced in 1994. Only now, 20 years later, are the site's first homes close to going up.
Sales of luxury homes in the Bay Area outpace the rest of the market - Homes priced above $1 million shot up 30 percent in the East Bay during the month of March compared with the previous year, according to the MLS, a residential real estate data service. In Marin County, prices for luxury homes above $1.5 million jumped by 34 percent to a median of $2.654 million.
Single Design Moves That Can Transform an Entry - Take your foyer from merely fine to fabulous with one brilliant touch. My favorites being:
