Greg Shelko, Director of Downtown Development, says that the public has been hearing about downtown revitalization for decades. Greg states “They’re tired of hearing about it and they want to see it, so we’re tired of talking about to we’re happy that some of our projects are finally coming out of the ground.”
Issues with “affordable housing” in Sussex county will be addressed at the annual Sussex County Today and Tomorrow Conference, Wednesday October 31st at the Delaware Technical & Community College.
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The decline in home sales for Anchorage Alaska wasn’t particularly evident until spring of this year. This seems a little late since much of the country began to see sales slipping as early as the second half of 2005.
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Huntsville Alabama was just ranked Alabama’s most affordable residential real estate market by Coldwell Banker’s 2007 Home Price Comparison Index. Coldwell Banker compares 2,200 sq ft four bedroom homes in 317 different cities.
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William Pool, St. Louis Federal Reserve President, said today that the recent US housing boom was fueled by subprime developments in the securities markets. “This cycle was really quite different and the boom was driven by the growth of the subprime market and the securitization of those markets,” Pool said during a policy conference hosted by the St. Louis Fed.
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Citigroup announced today that it’s combining it’s investment banking and alternative investment divisions into one lead by Vikram Pandit, a former Morgan Stanley executive.
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The following is part of a series by the Newport News-Times on the state of affordable housing in Oregon. As Oregon home loan costs continue to rise to heights beyond what residents can afford, how to address the situation best has become a topic of great debate.
Home buyers looking for a hard and fast definition of affordable housing in the Denver housing market - or anywhere else - won’t find one. Read the rest of this entry »
Senate critics of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac seek to tie the mortgage finance companies’ profit-making investments to lower-cost housing, according to a bill introduced on Thursday.
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In the Idaho housing market …
If you are in the market for a high-end house, you’re in luck.
If you’re in the market for a low-priced house, take a number and stand in line.
If you are a builder or developer, you might want to re-read the above sentences before deciding what kind of house to build. After all, affordable dwellings are difficult to come by for Idaho mortgage seekers these days.
That’s the message from local and national real estate experts in response to the recent downshift in the Treasure Valley housing market.
Following more than a decade of boom, the Treasure Valley housing market this year will continue to undergo a market correction that started last year.
“We’ve been through a heckuva transition period,” from decades of stagnant growth to an unprecedented valleywide boom to a minor bust in the form of a housing market slowdown, John Starr told an audience of more than 200 people Tuesday at an Urban Land Institute conference in Boise.
Local and national experts had some advice for the sold out crowd — build more affordable housing, monitor the glut of high-end homes and pace development with city services to support it.
Idaho is ranked third nationally for growth. Experts predict the Gem State will hold that spot through 2030, provided key players — developers, mortgage loan lenders, business and political leaders — pay careful attention to the market.
LACK OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING
The Ada County median household income has stayed flat for the past few years at about $56,000, while home prices soared 50 to 60 percent during the same period, said Starr, with Colliers International Boise office.
“You cannot have a work force live in Ada County if all they can afford is a Canyon County home,” he said.
The solution is multi-faceted: Income must go up, housing prices must come down and developers must build more affordable homes and fewer high-end homes.
Ada County has a 2.3 percent unemployment rate; Canyon County’s is 3.1 percent. While this is a good incentive for people to move the Valley, it may not be an incentive for large businesses to move here.
That’s the downside to a low unemployment rate, Starr said, a lack of employable work force. Starr said a community college is critical to bringing higher-paying jobs to the area and keeping Idahoans applying for home mortgage loans in Idaho.
“Idaho has never sustained job growth for its children,” panelist Jim Adair said. “You have exported your children for decades.”
To continue reading this Idaho Statesman article, click here.