Number of low-price homes plummets in state - latimes.com:
"Competition for lower-priced homes in California is so hot that the number of cheaper homes available for sale has sunk more than 40% in the last year, pushing out many would-be buyers. Homes that sold for $313,200 or less were the most competitive type of home nationally, but nowhere did inventory in that price range drop more than in the Golden State, according to a report released Thursday by real estate website Zillow."
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So in California, a $312,000 home is "lower-priced," even in a post-housing bubble market. How are middle class Americans supposed to buy these palaces with their stagnant wages, assuming they aren't already reduced to selling oranges at freeway on-ramps and living in a tent in their mother-in-law's back yard? The problem now, in post-bust America, is that investors (colloquially known to some as "vulture capitalists") have taken over the low end of the housing market: "First-time home buyers are being squeezed out of the market by falling inventory and the rapid influx of investors looking to buy basic homes to rent out," Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries said. "Investors are paying in cash and can close sooner, which is more favorable to banks and homeowners looking to sell."
3 comments:
"the rapid influx of investors looking to buy basic homes to rent out,"
Ward Lucas's blog today has a story about a court ruling in favor of an HOA prohibiting renting.
A judge in Mississippi...ruled against a family who purchased an HOA home and leased it to someone else during the ongoing recession...
the Northbay HOA says, “Now that we’ve won, we’re going to go after two other homeowners who are renting out their homes.”
So what happens to the value of a home in an HOA that prohibits renting? ie, where a large percentage of potential buyers will be discouraged from buying?
There things that you can do to encourage housing. One is, don’t try and stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom, allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them...
A few weeks ago, the New York Times reported that
Economic and political uncertainty around the globe are
benefitting real estate in the United States, especially in
Miami and New York, the two “safe haven” American cities
foreign investors usually look to first. South Florida’s real
estate market is certainly no stranger to capital flight from
Latin America. But the velocity at which some Argentines are
investing in Miami real estate has shocked some brokers here.
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