According to 24/7 Wall St., most of the towns are in the Rust Belt where economic instability has persisted, which has kept home prices low. Factors considered in coming up with the list include cost of moving, rent appreciation, inflation and mortgage costs of 20% down payment on a 30-year fixed mortgage at a rate equal to the national average of 3.5%. 24/7 also looked at unemployment figures and home price changes in the areas.
In March, 75% of agents with broker Redfin said their clients’ offers were countered by rival bids, up from 56% who said so in late 2011, CNNMoney reported.
The competition has been most intense in California, where nine out of 10 homes sold in San Francisco, Sacramento and cities in Southern California drew competing bids during the month.
The housing market is on an upswing, but not everyone is reeping the benefits, the Denver Post said.
The Obama administration is pushing to make home loans more accessible to people with weaker credit, the article stated.
However, the new push for lending to people with weaker credit has created skepticism in the marketplace.
Obama pledged in his State of the Union address to do more to make sure more Americans can enjoy the benefits of the housing recovery, but critics say encouraging banks to lend as broadly as the administration hopes will sow the seeds of another housing disaster and endanger taxpayer dollars.
“It is likely homebuilders will start over 20,000 homes in 2013,” said David Brown, MetroStudy’s Dallas-Fort Worth regional director. “Starts in 2013, however, will still be 60% below the peak activity level in 2006. Homebuilders entered 2013 with the largest backlog of sales in years.”
Nearly 4 million more single-family homes have been added to the rental market since 2005. This new supply has fully caught up with the increased rental demand during the housing crisis – causing single-family home rents to flatten nationwide.
Nationally, rents rose 2.4 percent year over year. For apartments only rents rose 2.9 percent Y-o-Y, while rents for single-family homes were flat, rising just 0.1 percent Y-o-Y. In Las Vegas, Orange County, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Phoenix, where investors have actively bought and rented out single-family homes, rents are either falling or flat. Even in single-family rental markets where rents are up, such as in Tampa and Dallas, asking prices to purchase homes rose much faster than rents.
Rent and Price Changes on Single Family Homes
# U.S. Metro Y-o-Y% change in single-family home rents
Y-o-Y % change in single-family home prices
1 Las Vegas, NV -1.9%
24.6%
2 Fort Lauderdale, FL -1.2%
10.7%
3 Chicago, IL -1.2%
3.6%
4 Orange County, CA -0.7%
13.7%
5 Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV -0.7%
6.2%
6 Los Angeles, CA -0.4%
11.0