Less than 10% of the $45.6 billion Congress allocated for federal and state housing programs after the crisis has been spent as of June 30, according to the special inspector general of TARP.

One $8.1 billion program would have allowed current underwater borrowers get a principal reduction and then refinanced into a new Federal Housing Administration-backed loan. But only 1.7% of the funds have been spent and fewer than 1,500 borrowers made it through the program since it launched in September, according to a SIGTARP report released Wednesday.

This FHA Short Refi was originally thought to reach as many 1.5 million borrowers.

Roughly $29.9 billion was allocated for the long hindered Home Affordable Modification Program and its many sub projects for short sales and unemployment forbearance. But just 6.4% of that money was spent through June. Roughly 1 million borrowers received a permanent HAMP workout so far. A recent expansion is expected by some analysts to bring in another 500,000, but it will still land far short of the original 3 million to 4 million estimate.

Only 1.7% of the $7.6 billion Hardest Hit Fund money was spent as well. This money, initially released in early 2010, went to state housing finance agencies to use for principal reduction, modification and unemployment programs.

In its report released Wednesday, SIGTARP criticized the Treasury Department for not setting goals for the states taking money from HHF.

“Rather than set meaningful goals for HHF and measure progress against those goals, Treasury chooses instead to rely on its requirement that each state estimate the number of households to be assisted. This number has limited usefulness,” SIGTARP said. “By refusing to set any goals for the programs, Treasury is subject to criticism that it is attempting to avoid accountability.”

Other programs outside of TARP proved more successful, especially the recently expanded Home Affordable Refinance Program for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans. The program doubled this spring, but the boom may slow by September, according to some.

House Republicans voted to end these housing programs last year, but the Senate never acted on the bills. The Obama administration even extended HAMP another year to the end of 2013.

Senate Democrats are still looking to expand refinancing programs in particular. The most recent one from Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., could reach as many as 8 million borrowers paid for by selling government bonds.

The housing market is converting into a tailwind for the broader economy as construction activity gains momentum at a double-digit pace and home prices finally rise, says Joseph LaVorgna, housing analyst at Deutsche Bank ($27.34 0%).

LaVorgna makes this claim despite the recent hiccup in house prices. New home sales declined 8.4% to 350,000 units in June, down from a revised rate of 382,000 the previous month, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

This does not change the Deutsche Bank outlook. “This [overall] resumption in residential activity cannot be understated as the long awaited housing recovery should help buoy consumer confidence and provide a mild lift to second half economic output after what was likely a disappointing first half of the year,” he says.

In the first quarter, inflation-adjusted residential investment grew at a 20% annualized rate — a fourth consecutive increase — after a relatively large 11.6% gain in the previous quarter. The first-quarter construction surge, by itself, LaVorgna says, added 40 basis points to that period’s gross domestic product growth, which expanded by only 1.9% in the quarter.

Over the past year, residential investment advanced 9%, the fastest annual rate since the fourth quarter of 2004 when it grew 13%. Because this increase was off of a very low base, Deutsche Bank expects construction activity to continue to “rise at a healthy pace.”

Supply and Demand

The comments echo those made last week by Bank of America Merrill Lynch ($7.07 0%) housing analyst Michelle Meyer, who said a better alignment of housing supply and demand is adding to the continued recovery in the housing market, despite sluggish growth in the overall economy. 

Several years of extraordinarily slow construction, slow processing of foreclosures and reduced housing turnover is significantly reducing the inventory of homes for sale, Meyer said.

The inventory of new homes totaled just 1.74 million units in May, up only a smidgeon from April’s all-time record low of 1.73 million units. The same pattern exists for existing homes, where inventories have fallen since July 2007 when they stood at a record high of four million units.

The latest housing starts and permits point to another large gain in residential investment in the second quarter. “We expect housing to remain a bright spot in what is otherwise likely to be a disappointing quarter for real GDP growth of +1%,” LaVorgna says.

Second-quarter real GDP figures will be released Friday.

LaVorgna cites the elevation of home prices across the nation as a factor in the housing markets headwind reversal. However, Standard & Poor’s says to expect more price dips by year-end.

“We expect these drops to occur in tandem with new foreclosed properties reaching the market later this year,” S&P credit analyst Erkan Erturk says. “The U.S. economy is currently growing at too slow a pace to have an impact on the housing market, and we believe that certain economic factors, such as weak employment growth and the Euro debt crisis, could somewhat stymie the housing recovery.”

U.S. home prices for the 12-month period ending in May rose 3.7% over last year, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said Monday in its latest monthly House Price Index. Home prices grew a slight 0.8% from April to May, showing some signs of stability in the housing market.

Prices are now 34% below their mid-2006 peak. Standard & Poor’s expects it will take 11 years from now for home prices to climb back to their mid-2006 peak, assuming a home-price appreciation rate that is in line with a 4% household income growth rate.

The weather factor

Some analysts argue the surge in residential construction activity was due to unseasonably warm weather, which allowed builders to begin or continue construction during the traditionally slow winter period.

LaVorgna disagrees.

“If weather was the key factor lifting first-quarter housing construction, then we should have seen housing starts grow at a much faster pace than housing permits; in theory, the latter should not be distorted by the weather,” LaVorgna says. “This was not the case the analyst points out as housing permits grew 30.9% from third-quarter 2011 to the first quarter, a slightly slower pace than housing starts, which accelerated 35.8% in that period.

The housing improvement is also evident in sales as construction activity is paralleling home sales. New home sales rose 7.6% in May to 369,000 units, and arey are up 19.8% from a year earlier. Existing sales were down 5.4% in June to 4.37 million units, but are up 4.7% from their year-ago levels.

Pending home sales, which are homes in contract that have not yet closed and which lead existing home sales by a couple of months, increased 5.9% in May and are up a solid 13.3% over the past year.

“If we combine new and existing home sales, they are basically back to early 2008 levels excluding the brief surge in sales following the homebuyers’ tax credit,” LaVorgna says.

Last fall we surveyed 1,368 agents and asked about compensation, transaction activity, spending on technology and marketing.

In January, we brought you our in-depth analysis of that survey and presented to you, “the Agent of Tomorrow“.

Across the board, all agents expressed a desire for more tech. Agents want digitial communication, technical tools and support. The agents grossing the most income were already doing business that way.

Our friends at Social NetworX created this infographic profiling the top-income earning agents we heard from. These agents aren’t sitting in their broker’s office. They leading the pack in the digital space by participating in social and posting videos of their listings. Check it out:

You won’t want to miss Real Estate Connect, San Francisco where Katie Lance and Chris Smith will bring a whole new round of research and insight from the mind of today’s agent.

The sad state of most video in real estate is long, boring and entirely selfish.  Slide shows of still pictures with voice over.  Long videos showing the Realtor drone on about the features. Overwrought glide cam shots panning from floor to countertop and over to the sink.  Beside the home seller and the Realtor’s mother, does anyone watch more than a few seconds of these videos?

Boring vs. Captivating

What is the key difference between the videos that bore me to death and the ones that captivate my attention?  Said another way, what is the best use of video?

I think video is at it’s very best when it delivers something unattainable in a brochure- either online or printed format.  Still pictures?  Effusive ad copy?  A recitation of the home’s features?  If I can get all of that by scanning a brochure or a webpage in 20 seconds, why should I invest my time watching your video?  Many of these videos are 4 minutes or more- these are minutes that deliver no value to me- and they are minutes I will never get back.

What is Captivating?

In contrast, consider Eric Lavey’s Pacific View Dr. video.

Now, I am neither young, male nor that impossibly cool- but for 2 minutes and 20 seconds I could see myself living an amazing life- if I could just find a way to buy that house.

Similarly, Raj Qsar’s recent video, Bob White Rd. tells the story of a family oriented life style.

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I am sure my life would hold no worries if I lived in that house.  (The perfect kids and the beautiful friends are included in the purchase price, right?)

In both of these videos, the point is not the granite counter tops or the stunning view.  The point is to show you what it feels like to live in this home.

It’s the Benefits, Baby

It is the first lesson taught in Real Estate- talk about benefits, not features.  What benefit does your listing offer to the potential buyer?  I think video can make this point better than any other medium.

Authenticity Matters

Authenticity is something else video delivers effectively.  Consider Dave Chomitz’s delightful thoughts on the importance of location.

We’ve all heard how important location is, but seeing Dave make that point as the 18 wheelers thundered by was priceless.  Just as priceless is Dave, himself.  He is just talking into the camera like he was chatting with a friend.  Honest.  Authentic.  Approachable.

Applied to a home, consider my video for 732 South.

There is something about a homeowner telling you why she loves her home that is emotional and captivating. If a salesperson said exactly the same things, or, if an ad had that same copy it would feel very different.  It would seem suspect.

Respect the Audience

In the end we need to respect the audience- respect their time, their intelligence and their needs.  Make sure your video delivers something that can’t be captured on paper.  A few ideas – show how the rooms flow together by walking through the house.  Ask the homeowner what their favorite feature is- highlight that and tell the viewer why it is special.  Show a little bit about the community- a park, the shopping, the nightlife.

Give the audience something of value and you will be rewarded with more views, more appointments and, ultimately, more listings.

“There are no bad colors, just bad color combinations,” said one of my interior design mentors many years ago. At first I disagreed with him, since there’s a certain shade of brown-mustard yellow that I definitely wouldn’t want slathered all over my walls. But after I chewed on his statement for a bit, I realized that I had seen that color used in ways that were quite beautiful. It’s definitely possible to make any single color work in your home — it’s all in how other colors and materials are incorporated with it. But how do you develop a cohesive color palette?

Spend a few minutes browsing through the thousands of kitchens showcased on Houzz and you will quickly see they come in all shapes, sizes, styles and colors. Colorwise they can run the gamut from eye-catching, bold and bright, to light, tranquil and airy. Featured here are some of the many delightfully colorful kitchens on Houzz, along with examples of color palettes inspired by the kitchens.

Warm Color Palette

Photo credit: Domiteaux + Baggett Architects PLLC

If you love lots of bright and bold colors but don’t want your kitchen to appear as if a rainbow exploded inside of it, consider working with analogous colors: colors next to each other on the color wheel.

A simple way to think of this is warm versus cool colors. This kitchen features very bold splashes of warm oranges and red. The space feels exciting and energetic — great for entertaining.

Photo credit: Jennifer Ott

Example palette: This potential palette features warm, analogous colors, plus a grounding neutral. Clockwise from top left (all from Farrow & Ball): Rectory Red, Charlotte’s Locks, Down Pipe and Pale Hound.

Q: I have a rental home and can’t seem to find any qualified tenants. Recently, a friend of mine who is also a landlord told me that all of his rental properties are full, and he credits the fact that they are furnished as being the key difference. Should I consider buying furniture for my property and offering it as a furnished home?

A: The majority of rental properties are offered unfurnished, because most tenants already have their own furnishings. In urban areas, short-term renters may need furnished units, but this is a specific market that is usually addressed by one or more major apartment owners or hospitality companies. However, in some suburban or rural areas there is a demand for furnished rental units for short- or long-term rentals. This is especially true for larger rental homes.

You need to determine who your target market is and if the specific location of your rental home will be in demand. You may consider offering your home partially or fully furnished. Talk to real estate agents in your area and ask their opinion, as they are likely to be the first ones to hear about prospective tenants who are looking for furnished rental homes. But remember that furnishing your rental property is a major investment.

Another factor in favor of going to a furnished rental strategy would be if your rental home is adjacent to a major employer that regularly relocates employees into the area, as you can often generate significantly higher rents for a furnished rental property.

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But also remember that there will be fewer prospective tenants for a large furnished rental home, and the loss of rent due to vacancies between tenants can also be a concern.

Do your homework and gather as much information as you can to decide whether furnishing your rental home is worth a try.

Q: We moved into our rental more than two years ago and have a dog. The manager at that time assured us a pet was OK, and we even paid a pet deposit. Our dog is well behaved and has caused no problems. We now have new management, which is implementing a “no pets” policy. We have been on a month-to-month rental agreement since our initial one-year lease expired. Management said it is going to serve me with a notice that says the dog must be removed in 30 days. Can management evict our dog?

A: Pets may be kept at rentals as long as there is no restriction against them. When there is a lease, it limits what you can have or do as a tenant as long as that limitation language is legal. Sometimes leases have terms that are not legal and do not count even though the tenant signs it. Also, certain promises made when leasing may have a legal effect even if not in writing.

In this case, you were promised that a pet would be OK, and you probably would not have rented it without that promise. That is helpful but not necessarily binding. The other side of the issue is that a month-to-month tenancy agreement provision can be changed with 30 days’ notice. Here, legal eviction protections do not directly apply since this is not an eviction of you but a change in your ongoing tenancy. The law allows certain rental agreement changes, but the law also protects tenants from landlords breaking promises. Here the challenge is proving the verbal promise with the prior manager and then making that promise binding for such a long time.

Normally, verbal agreements regarding real property must be in writing if they are to cover a period of more than one year. If you refuse to remove the dog after 30 days, management may try to evict you in court where you would then have a judge decide on how strong that promise was. The better way to protect yourself may be to get permission for a pet clearly in writing, including in a month-to-month contract, that says the pet may remain during the tenancy even if other terms of the agreement may change

Q: My wife and I are planning to retire in 2015. We will sell our home and relocate. We’re looking at things we should do now to make our home more marketable. We are already in a high-demand community near major military bases and employers in Virginia. Homes sell fairly well here, even now.

While our concrete driveway is sound, it does have numerous noticeable cracks in it.

A replacement driveway costs around $10,000. My attempts at repair only make it look worse. For a roughly $300,000 home that’s in otherwise pristine condition, is this large expense worth it for sale purposes? –Roger

A: First off, you and your wife are essentially a listing agent’s dream, in that you’re thinking and planning a couple of years in advance on how to best prepare your property to sell. Big kudos!

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There are several things you should factor into your decision regarding your driveway:

1. Get local, expert input on how buyers will view the cracks. If homes move quickly in your market due to high demand and premium location, it’s entirely possible that your driveway’s cosmetic cracks — assuming they truly are cosmetic, and the driveway is sound — might have little or no impact on getting it sold. However, it’s also possible that a buyer might see very major or deep cracks and assume they are more than cosmetic, making someone who would otherwise make an offer hesitate and/or guess at repair or replacement costs and factor that into his offer price.

Also, a local broker or agent can give you their opinion on whether the cracks are so severe that a buyer’s appraiser is likely to call them out as a health and safety hazard (some concrete cracks in areas of high foot traffic can be deemed a “trip” hazard).

Look around at the other homes on the market in your area and the state of their driveways to get a sense for how yours will come off to a prospective buyer. I would urge you to contact several listing agents in your area and ask them for their input; they know what buyers in your area care about, and can also just take a look at your driveway and see how “noticeable” the cracks will be to a prospective buyer.

2. Don’t expect a huge ROI — or any at all. That said, if you do end up deciding to replace the driveway, don’t expect to get some weighty return on your investment (ROI), like that your home will sell for $10,000 more than the neighbor’s. For the most part, these sorts of things are considered more maintenance than home improvement. For your purposes, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, it simply means that if you do it, consider what you spend an investment in getting the place sold — period.

If every other home in the area has a crack-free driveway and yours appears to be crumbling to pieces, whatever you do to repair or replace it will simply bring your home up to the standard of the competition; in fact, if you decide against repairing it, you should not be surprised to see buyers look for a discount based on the condition (again, assuming these cracks really are that noticeable).

3. Rethink your inputs and assumptions. Will it really cost $10,000 to fix your driveway? Consider getting some actual contractor bids. And are you sure that it’s beyond being professionally resurfaced, as opposed to entirely replaced? I understand that there may be epoxies and overlays that may cost less than a total replacement.

Overall, as you take on the project of preparing your home for resale, I would strongly encourage you to get friends and family members to refer you to a local agent you can trust, and meet with a couple of these experts for their recommendations and advice on which things do and do not belong on your to-do list. Also, local brokers and agents can be great sources for contractors they work with on a repeat basis to get homes ready for resale

The explosion of single family rentals-houses bought by real estate investors and rented to a single tenant-is creating a new category of property management companies to serve them.

Last year, 1.2 million U.S. properties were acquired for investment purposes, up from 749,000 in 2010, according to RealtyTrac. This year, the investment boom has continued, with investors accounting for about 20 percent of all home sales. With the vast majority of investors following a “buy and hold” strategy rather than flipping, millions of properties have entered the rental inventory. Two months ago, a study by CoreLogic found that single family rentals have outpaced multifamily, accounting for 54 percent of all rental units in the nation. (See Single Family Rentals Now Exceed Multifamily).

Though many small investors manage their property themselves, a growing number are turning to professional property management companies, who charge about 6 to10 percent of gross rents or a flat fee. For unexpected fees, like evictions and unplanned vacancies, professional managers can help limit costs. For example, a new survey by All Property Management, an online property management network specializing in the single family rental category, found that it takes one to two months to remove a non-paying client and most evictions average between $1,000 and $3,000 in costs.

“Single family rentals will continue to grow,” said All Property Management’s Dennis Green. “Another one and a half million foreclosures and shadow inventory are in the pipeline.. Single family homes appeal to a different tenant than multifamily, many of them families that have lost their homes through foreclosures or short sales.”

A new segment of property management companies is springing up to serve investor-owned rentals. Some 30 to 35 percent of investor-owned homes now are managed professionally, most by small, local companies like those in APM’s network of nearly 2,500 property management companies or Real Property Management’s 200 franchisees.

In Canada a fifth of All Property Management’s clients have been in business less than two years and 70 percent have less than 10 people on staff. According to property management calgary, the median number of properties they manage is 175 units, though 17 percent have more than 500. Some 70 percent of APM’s managers expect to grow significantly this year.