Buyer Think Twice

This article from Trulia suggests 6 reasons buyers should think twice before buying a home:

Buyer’s remorse is no joke. It has killed many a home buying deal. But buying a home is serious, life-changing business, so some level of deliberation, concern and even rethinking the whole thing, before signing on the dotted line, is actually sensible and smart.

So it can be tough to know the difference between (a) the normal, unwarranted buyer’s remorse every home buyer should expect, think through and move past, and (b) the mental alarm bells that should be heeded because there is truly good reason to revisit whether this purchase is the right thing to do.

Home buyers, we’re here to help. If you’re suffering from a case of buyer’s remorse at any stage before your contingencies are removed, list out the things that come to mind when you fantasize about backing out of the deal. If your list contains any of the following items, express your concerns to your spouse or co-buyer and your agent. Then, consult with your mind and your heart about whether you’re ready to move forward - or not.

1. It’s too expensive. If you’re buying a house in 2013, it’s completely understandable to have a moment of panic at the sound of the price you’re paying or the sight of all those zeros. It’s a big purchase you’re making, possibly the biggest one you ever will, and those who enter into it with not even the slightest twinge of being nervous might not be taking it as seriously as they should.

That said, fears that a home are too expensive vis-a-vis the other recently sold homes in the neighborhood or the town’s market and future appreciation prospects in general are worth exploring and evaluating before you decide on your offer price or sign a final counter-offer. Your agent can help you understand the complex interacting factors you should consider, including the likelihood of the home to appraise at a given price point and the historical data on sales and home value trends in your area.

2. It’s too expensive for you. For years, I've heard buyers express concerns about being ‘house poor,’ meaning that they spend so much on their monthly mortgage payments that they are too broke to do much else. Unless you’re fortunate enough to live in one of those parts of the country in which it is less expensive to own than to rent a home, it’s almost inevitable that there will be some sort of lifestyle revision you’ll need to make post-homeownership.

Most people who have been renting for a long time will find themselves having to make some sacrifices after they buy, in terms of eating out less, going out less, splurging on vacations, clothes and other discretionary spending - this is just par for the course, sensible, and not a good reason not to buy.

On the other hand, there are occasions in which buyers are approved for mortgages beyond what they can truly afford and maintain financial integrity, in terms of still having enough money left over post-mortgage payment for saving, investing and other monthly budget line items that the mortgage banks don’t consider (e.g., children’s school tuition, medical expenses, etc.). If you have set yourself a home buying budget lower than your lender has set for you, get and stay clear on what the wiggle room is - if any. If you feel like you’re exceeding it or getting in a red zone with a particular property, heed those internal read flags.

3. The location is not quite right. I’d probably rank location choice right up there in the top 3 home selection regrets I hear after the fact from home owners. Clearly, the location you can live in is limited by your budget - you can’t expect to live in Beverly Hills on $100K. But I’m talking more about the various location choices and judgments every buyer has to make within their price range:

• between a home in the city, near work, or a home in the quiet suburbs where you get much more space - and a much longer commute,
• near shops and conveniences, or off the beaten path
• next door to a school or at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac
• in a row of townhomes with shared walls and an HOA or in an older neighborhood with lots of land between homes - you get the gist.

Location compromises should be made carefully and consciously. If that electrical pole in the front yard really bothers you and you talk yourself out of that concern, ask yourself: are you going to end up hating to drive up to your house every night? The neighbors who seem to take a lot less care with their yards now might become a real thorn in your side over time. That extra 20 minutes of commute time might not be as minor a lifestyle change as you can talk yourself into believing - in fact, researchers have found that the longer commutes lower overall happiness, so don’t lengthen yours without serious consideration.

In particular, don’t dismiss noise and traffic concerns without giving it real thought - a friend of mine quickly moved his young family out of the home they’d bought in a new town when they realized that the street was so busy that it was nearly impossible to even pull in or out of their own driveway - much less to let the kids play outside.

4. You have qualms about the future of your job. I've known people who felt a need to fast forward their home buying plans when they get wind of changes coming down the pike at their companies. This happens a lot for buyers who have been house hunting for a long time and are concerned that a layoff would render them unable to qualify for their mortgage.

This is likely. And that’s unfortunate. But what’s more unfortunate is to proceed with buying a home, taking on a mortgage obligation and depleting your savings for the down payment, then having an interruption of income because you get laid off or - worse - being forced to sell quickly because of a job transfer out of the area. If you’re confident you can get work at another company or you have sufficient cushion to handle a temporary interruption in income, go for it. But if you have serious concerns about the short-term stability of your job, think long and hard before buying a home without a well thought-out financial plan in place.

5. You and your co-buyer are at odds. Whether or not your are legally married to your co-buyer, you will effectively be legally bound by your real estate and mortgage obligations if you buy a home together. If you are having intense, intractable conflicts about the sort of home to purchase, how much to spend, when to buy, where to buy or even whether to buy, think twice, thrice, pause and rethink once more before you sign on the dotted line.

Unless a deep, respectful compromise is reached that everyone feels good about, these conflicts can turn into long-term resentments and disrupt the relationship on a larger scale.

6. You think you’ll be okay - so long as you can sell at a profit or refi in the next 12 months. Are you a professional contractor or investor? A real estate professional who can buy and sell with very low costs? Do you have so much cash to burn that you could sell at a loss and not sweat it?

If your answer to these questions is no, you should not buy a home planning to refi or sell it in a super-short time frame. In fact, this was one of the ways people got into trouble at the top of the market during the last cycle - buying homes so pricey they couldn't afford them after attractive short-term financing terms changed, on the assumption they’d be able to refinance before they ever had to truly pay the piper.

If the house you’re buying doesn't seem likely to be able to work for your life and your family for at least 5 to 7 years, and you are pretty certain you’ll need to sell it sooner than that, consider:

     (a) whether a different type of home might be a better, long-term choice, or 

     (b) whether it makes sense for you to buy a home at this stage of your life.

This time frame gives you a good bit of space to ride out shifts in the direction of the market, if you need to, minimizing the chances of living in a home that no longer meets your needs and being unable to sell it.

If you have fears on this list, and address them, you might decide to move forward anyway. But if you do, it’ll be with the calm, unpanicked assuredness of having faced your fears, articulated them and put an action plan in place for handling theses issues. And that’s a position of power from which you can feel good about moving forward with your home purchase, even if you once had qualms.

Buying in Miami

Sunny Miami Florida is without a doubt one of the hottest real estate markets in the world. Over the years, Miami has noticed a lot of changes in it’s real estate market. Miami Florida has always been known for it’s pristine beaches and activities, making it perfect for a vacation home or a permanent home for anyone wanting to live close to one of the best cities in the world.

In the past, Southern Florida was known to be a realtor’s dream of a real estate market with extremely explosive growth potential. During the beginning of the year 2000, Florida noticed some high rises in real estate. In most areas, including Sunny Isle Beach, the prices of real estate went up as much as 250% in some areas. This was a drastic change in price, making real estate in Florida very hard to afford.

This change in price let the world know that Florida was very sought after for real estate. Although the prices were very high, this also changed the entire economic structure throughout Florida, resulting in more businesses, work opportunities, and a lot more income. Even though it brought more opportunities, the economic growth also helped to make Florida a very expensive city to reside in.

Miami Florida is the second largest city in the state, making it a great choice for real estate. These days, the homes here aren’t very expensive. If you are interested in renting a home or apartment here, you may find it to be moderate to high priced. Miami has long been known for sunshine and fun, which is one of the reasons why so many people decide to purchase real estate there.

Although the past has noticed a lot of interest in real estate for Miami, the future will always be in question. Homes and housing units will always be built here, although real estate agents have found it increasingly difficult to sell homes. Even though some homes will sell a lot faster than others, there are some homes that remain on the market for months and months at a time.

As you may have guessed, Miami Florida has noticed a bit of a drop in real estate price and transactions over the years. Although past years have noticed Miami real estate to skyrocket in both price and appeal, the future makes many wonder. A lot of areas here are harder to sell now days, with many sellers having to lower their prices just to make a sell.

In the future, Miami real estate will continue to be popular, although the trend of high and low will always be there. Miami is still one of the best cities in the world to live in, no matter how much the real estate trend fluctuates.

Source: New Home Programs

5 Surprising Buyer Turn Offs

1.  Pools. Twenty years ago, having a pool was seen as a luxurious amenity - almost a status symbol that you had made it, if your home had one. Fast forward a couple of decades, though, and many home buyers are turning down homes specifically because they have a pool.

There are a couple of core buyer subgroups who love pools: people who live in places where summers are super hot and people who really like to swim. But those buyers are vastly outranked in number by these other subgroups: 

• people who know they won’t swim enough to use a pool, and think that maintaining one would just be a waste of their time, energy and money
• people who would rather have a yard, and are looking for homes in areas where they either have a pool or a backyard - but not both, and
• people who have young children and see a pool as a safety hazard.

If you happen to have a pool, your best bet is to market your home as best you can to those buyers who truly want one, and to mitigate the perceived negatives of pool ownership by being both pragmatic and creative:

• ensuring the pool has a well-functioning fence and cover, 
• staging the rest of the backyard in a way that maximizes the non-swimming activities a buyer will see as possible in the outdoor space, and/or 
• offering to pre-pay for a year of the buyer’s pool maintenance as an incentive of the home sale transaction.

2.  Your stuff.  Yes - your taste is immaculate. But it’s your taste. What buyers are really looking for when they come to view a home is a palate on which they can envision easily applying their tastes. Accordingly, a primary goal of smart home preparation is depersonalization or neutralization, simply removing most or all of the personalized touches that make your home reflect you unless they are also neutral enough that any buyer, from any age group or cultural background can step in and put their mind’s eye to work at filling in what the place would look like if they lived there.

That said, it’s also entirely possible that your things might not be as attractive, nice or tidy in the eyes of a buyer as you perceive them to be. In the same vein, the tchotchkes, knickknacks and memorabilia that you see as cozy and warm are highly likely to be seen by buyers as dumpy clutter. I have personally been in homes with a number of buyers where the fact that the sellers still had so much stuff or such bad stuff throughout the home distracted the buyers from appreciating the property’s true potential, and what it might be like if they simply made some cosmetic edits and redecorated.

We've talked a lot over the years about the idea of simply pre-packing, staging by boxing up everything but the very most basic daily essentials and get them ready to move - some sellers find that to be a much more effective way to think about the project of decluttering.  Also, you can reset your own perspective on what you need to get rid of or move out to put your home on the market by visiting professionally staged Open Houses, hiring a stager just for an hourlong consult or even asking your agent to walk through your home and stick mini-Post It notes on things that need to be moved out before the listing goes live.

3.  Carpet.  Obviously, old, dirty, pet-impacted and bizarrely colored carpets (red?!) are not a draw for buyers. But this generation of home buyers takes the carpet conundrum even further, exhibiting a distaste for carpet - period. Concerns about the relative difficulty and expense of cleaning carpets, to the cost of replacing them when you want a decor change, to the tendency of carpets to hold pet hair, mites and other allergens that may impact family members with respiratory issues are, collectively causing carpet to fall out of favor with today’s home buyers. 

The majority of home buyers express a desire to have hardwood floors in their next home; other hard floor surfaces, from bamboo to tile to concrete to cork, are rapidly outpacing the popularity of carpets (though some buyers do still prefer the softness and warmth of carpets in their bedrooms). 

If you were thinking about replacing your carpets before you put your home on the market, consider replacing at least the living and dining areas with hard wood or a similar finish.  And if your home has carpet over hardwood, talk with your agent about exploring the idea of ripping it up - it might not be as expensive to repair or refinish as you think, and in many areas, buyers prefer even an imperfect hardwood floor over nice carpets.

4.  Gold bathroom fixtures.  Gold bathroom fixtures are part of a larger category of buyer turn-offs perhaps best described as things that are old, but not old enough to be vintage, retro, classic or historic. As a general rule, this includes household appliances, finishes and decor that dates from the ‘70s and ‘80s, give or take a decade, depending on where you’re at. For instance, the popularity of Mad Men has driven a massive amount of interest in all things mid-century modern, bringing the 50’s and 60’s decor and design aesthetics that just seemed plain and old when I was a child back into vogue - but somewhat more in urban than suburban taste zeitgeists.  

This means that those goldenrod refrigerators and wallpapers with marigold, orange and avocado floral patterns are decidedly passe. Similarly, gold bathroom and lighting fixtures, popular in the 80s and 90s are seen as dated by buyers, who much prefer sleeker, matte-er stainless, brushed chrome and even bronze or white finishes where metal finishes are necessary.  Is this just another trend? Yes.  But replacing gold bathroom finishes and recessed lighting can covers is relatively inexpensive to do; touch base with your stager or agent regarding whether they think these micro-home improvements will make much of a difference with buyers in your area and your home’s price range.

5.  Elaborate gardens and/or vast landscaping.  A huge backyard seems like it’d be a big draw.  So do the flower and botanical gardens that the seller obviously spent hour upon hour designing and tending to. But they also seem like a lot of work to today’s time-strapped and cash-conscious buyers. Not long ago, a buyer I know actually de-prioritized a home they otherwise loved, because it was surrounded by an enormous Japanese garden, bonsai's and all, that the buyer admired, but knew they could and would never be able to care for.  Same can go for elaborate, high-maintenance food gardens or even super-large front and backyards: some buyers simply know they don’t or won’t put the time, money and water into their care, so would rather not take them on.

Nothing about this should stop you from creating such an outdoor space if that is part and parcel of the lifestyle you want to live in your home. But it should be a factor you consider if you are concerned about reselling your home in the near future, and it might impact how you market your home if it has any of these sorts of features. If you have a miniature botanical garden at your home, why not find out if the local botanical garden or garden society has a newsletter you can place an ad in? If you have bees and chickens in the middle of Chicago or the heart of L.A., is there an urban farming club or blog that reaches that audience?  

Work with your agent to research where local buyers who would love your home’s unique or high-maintenance features, then market your home to them via publications, websites or organizations in which they already participate.  Once you understand that the average buyer might find these features to be less-than-desirable, it’s time to get creative about finding the buyer who will find them to be just what they've always wanted.

Source: Trulia

3 Ways to Turn Off a Seller

Top 3 Ways to Turn a Seller Off:  Buyers, if you want a home’s seller to play ball, best practice is to avoid these 3 pitfalls:

1. Unjustified, extreme lowball offers: It’s no secret that buyers have the upper hand in many markets right now. (To be clear, I said ‘many’ - not ‘every’ - your agent can help you understand what the dynamics are in your market.) But let’s be realistic, here. No seller can afford to give away their home at a price far below what it’s worth on today’s market. Lowballing a seller at a price far below the recent sales prices of similar homes in the neighborhood on the ‘let’s-take-a-stab’ plan, is highly likely to turn them off.  And that, in turn, will cause the seller to view your offer - and you - as disrespectful and wasteful of their time.

Not only will they turn down your offer, but they may not even bother with a counteroffer, rendering your efforts at securing that particular home dead in the water.

Buyers: Review the recent sale prices of similar homes in the neighborhood (aka “comps”) with your agent before you make your offer. Also, ask them to help you factor in other market data, like the average list price-to-sale price ratio and the average number of days neighborhood homes stay on the market. It’s all right to come in lower than asking, if the market data supports such an offer; just be sure your offer is based on reality - and not your fantastical hallucination about scoring the bargain of the millennium.

2. Buyer-side mortgage fails: Plenty of employed buyers with decent credit and cash in the bank have been turned down for a mortgage these past few years. That means buyers can’t assume (a) that they’ll be approved for the amount of loan they need to buy the house they want, or (b) that they’ll be approved for a loan at all. Your inability to get approved for a home loan can create all sorts of problems not just for you, but also for your home’s seller. The average seller’s  worst case scenario is that  they accept your offer only to find out a few weeks, or months, later that you can’t get the loan you need to close the deal.

Buyers: It’s not overkill to start working with a mortgage professional as far as six months or a year in advance of starting your house hunt to get pre-approved for a loan. Make sure you get a clear understanding of the amount you qualify for, then work with your real estate agent from there to determine the price range you should house hunt in. And whatever you do - don’t buy a new car, open new credit cards or even change your line of work before your escrow closes, unless you consult closely with your mortgage professional before you make that move.

Tip for Sellers: Work with your agent to vet buyers before you sign a contract. Factor in their down payment and earnest money deposit, and feel free to counteroffer these items, not just the offer price. It’s not overkill to have your agent contact the buyer’s mortgage broker to see how reliable the buyer’s pre-approval really is.

3. Bashing the seller’s home: Home bashing happens when buyers start bad-mouthing (aka “trash talking”) the place and/or the neighborhood in hopes of getting a lower asking price. Examples: pointing out all the foreclosures in the area, saying the house down the street just sold for much lower than the asking price on this house, saying you’ll need to rip out the entire kitchen before you even consider moving in - saying any of these things to a seller who happens to be at home during the showing or the inspection is probably one of the fastest ways to turn them all the way off.

Buyers: Bad-mouthing a house or neighborhood won’t work to get you a lower price. Instead, it only serves to irritate the seller and motivate them to come up with all sorts of reasons why they shouldn’t sell their home to you! Remember: homes hold incredible emotional experiences for owners. Make an offer you’re comfortable with and keep the negative comments to yourself.

If there are legitimate, factual reasons underlying your decision to make an offer at a price the seller might see as a lowball, ask your agent to respectfully communicate those facts to the seller’s agent.

Source: Trulia

3 Ways to Turn Off a Buyer

Top 3 Ways to Turn a Buyer Off:  If you’re a seller courting buyers, here are 3 faux-pas to avoid:

1. Hanging out when buyers are viewing your home: Buyers stalk properties online and off, checking obsessively for price reductions and the like.  But buyer-side home stalking is unobtrusive to sellers. On the other hand, buyers can feel personally stalked and stifled in their ability to fully explore or verbally process their impressions of a home when you, seller, hang out inside your home while it’s being shown.

As soon as a buyer sees you in the house, it instantly becomes much more difficult for them to:
(a) envision themselves living there (it’s your house, after all),
(b) be comfortable opening up drawers, closet doors, etc., and
(c) express their thoughts about how this house might be exactly what they’re looking for, if they can knock out that wall and get rid of those cukoo murals you so lovingly painted in your children’s rooms.

Sellers: If you want to sell your home, it’s best to not be around when buyers are looking. Give them some breathing space and a chance to truly walk around and consider what they like and/or dislike about your home without lurking and looming (and, let’s be real - eavesdropping) nearby.

2. Showing a messy house: Life gets hectic, and it’s easy for things like laundry, dishes and other house cleaning tasks to fall by the wayside. It’s also difficult to keep the home in which you and your 4 kids, 3 gerbils and 2 Labrador Retrievers live perfectly spotless for months at a time, while you’re waiting for an offer. But when you decide that you’re going to sell your home, it’s imperative that you make a pact and a plan with yourself and your family that the place will be in tip-top shape when buyers come knocking.

Remember: your home is competing with dozens of others, as well as with buyer’s HGTV-infused visions of what their next home should look like, so first impressions really count.

Sellers: Stuffing the closet is not the answer. (Buyers will be opening that closet door, after all.) Pack up your personals like you were moving (best case: you are), and put all but the essentials in storage, if needed. Get the carpets cleaned, do the dishes, make the beds, mow the lawn, dust, sweep and mop. Ask your agent to give you a gut check on whether your idea of clean is clean enough (better yet - ask them for the number of a house cleaner who you can engage to get the job done to showable standards).

This might all seem obvious, but agents and buyers alike are constantly amazed at the condition of some of the homes they walk into. Take my word for it; I’ll spare you the ‘ewww’-inducing stories.

3. Overpricing your home: Buyers already have lots to do before making the largest purchase of their lives. They have to wrangle their finances into order, jump hoops to qualify for a loan, collect the cash for down payment and closing costs, and invest sometimes hundreds of hours into market research and house hunting. With all of this already on their plates, the prospect of trying to negotiate down a crazily high asking price is just too much work (and too outside their comfort zones) for most buyers to deal with. The average buyer won’t even bother looking at your home if the asking price is clearly high and off base compared with other similar, nearby homes for sale; they’d rather sit tight and wait .

Sellers: Price to sell from the beginning. Work with your agent to determine a price that is supported by the data on how much nearby homes have recently sold for. You’ll save yourself a lot of time and anguish and get a lot more legitimate bites from serious, qualified buyers.

Source: Trulia

Trust the Wall Street Journal

There has been a lot of speculation regarding the housing market. When will it come back around? Is buying a house still a good investment? Is now the time to buy? The Wall Street Journal, certainly one of the most trusted names in media, says that it is time to buy!

Finally it is Time to Buy a House by David Weidner

Warren Buffett famously once said: “Be fearful when others are greedy, be greedy when others are fearful.”

And if you’re not instinctively scared of the housing market, then global warming, saturated fat, running with scissors and the bogeyman probably aren’t keeping you awake at night, either.

The fact that everyone is scared to dabble in—much less commit to—housing makes it a close-to-perfect investment based on Mr. Buffett’s principle. But buying real estate is a good long-term investment for many more reasons, some of which have only become apparent in recent weeks.

The most striking: Housing prices rose sharply from April to May. The S&P/Case-Shiller Index rose 2.2% in 20 of the nation’s big cities. Prices shot up more than 3% in Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco and Minneapolis. Even Detroit’s housing market scored a gain, inching up by 0.4%.

Nationally, the increase was the first in seven months. More importantly, the increase matched other data and empirical evidence this spring that foreclosures slowed and inventories were shrinking. Simple economics suggests that as the supply of distressed property slows, buyers will be forced into higher-price properties.

In addition, interest rates on 30-year fixed mortgages have tumbled below 3.5%. For those who can get credit, these aren’t just historically low rates; they are one-sided deals tilted toward borrowers.

Other good signs: Housing starts rose 6.9% in June. Home-building stocks are on the rise, with the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index up 27% so far this year. And for those who can invest in property, rents continue their ascent. Prices are at a 10-year high, with the median unit renting for $710 a month. Real-estate website Trulia found that it is cheaper to buy than rent in each of the nation’s 100 biggest metropolitan areas.

In other words, if you can buy a home today, you can save the difference it would cost you to rent even if you stay in the home just five years. If you can buy a property and rent it, it is almost certain that the rent will cover the cost of the financing—and the property will appreciate.

Here’s where the fear comes in. From 30% to 50% of existing mortgages in the U.S. market are underwater, depending on the estimate. That means many borrowers are trapped in their homes and loans. They either can keep paying and hope prices will improve or walk away, putting downward pressure on home prices.

Foreclosure rates have leveled off, but market analysts believe an increase is likely.

Here’s why. Since the financial crisis, 3.7 million homes have been foreclosed on, but an additional 1.4 million remain in the national foreclosure inventory, according to CoreLogic, a real-estate research firm.

Finally, a housing recovery won’t happen, or could be snuffed out, by a rotten economy. There’s never been significant growth in housing with high unemployment. And as Dow Jones’s Kathleen Madigan noted, “Potential buyers must feel secure with their job prospects before they commit to long-term mortgages. Higher loan standards mean banks want to see an applicant’s solid income history before lending.”

There is plenty to be afraid of when it comes to home buying. But in the current investing climate, housing presents an attractive long-term investment that should hold steady or even have upside surprise in the short term.

Fixed-income yields have fallen to historic lows, and the stock market has traded in a range, rising and falling skittishly on jobs, growth data and the news from Europe.

Recently, I was forced to choose between renting and buying. I decided to buy because it offered immediate monthly savings compared to renting, not to mention a mortgage-interest deduction.

So this is at least one case where I’m putting my money where my keyboard is.

Mr. Buffett would remind us that investments of any kind are not without risk. Each should be considered with the investor’s time horizon and appetites. But he also has acknowledged that real estate is especially attractive when financing is cheap, there is pent-up demand and prices have been driven down by a spooked market. Put another way, it’s time to be greedy.

Owning is Better than Renting

A recent study of housing markets across the US showed that in a few locations, it is better to rent.

"In theory, plummeting home prices and record-low interest rates should make buying a home cheaper than renting one. But experts say in some parts of the country, it still pays to be a tenant."

South Florida is NOT one of those regions

Selected areas were:

• Northern New Jersey
• Long Island, New York
• California (all)
• Seattle, Washington
• Honolulu, Hawaii

Source: Market Watch

Tips on Buying

Tips for house shoppers from Bank Rate:

1. If you find the right house at the right price, buy it.
2. Put technology and a buyer's agent to good use.
3. Negotiate effectively.
4. Avoid gimmicks.

Prices on the Rise

South Florida’s housing market will continue to improve in 2012 as home prices rise 6 percent through the rest of the year, a California research firm says.

That forecast from Clear Capital would put Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties among the 10 highest-performing large metro markets in the country.

Demand from foreign investors is slowly helping the South Florida market recover, said Alex Villacorta, director of analytics and research at Clear Capital of Truckee, Calif.

Less than a third of all home sales are from a lender. During the housing collapse, about 50 percent of sales involved a bank-owned home, Villacorta said.

Phoenix is projected to have the biggest increase in prices at 12.1 percent. Tampa is next at 11.4 percent and Orlando is third at 9 percent. South Florida is ranked sixth.

Despite the expected gains, prices in many of these hardest-hit markets remain more than 50 percent below peak levels, Clear Capital says. Prices in South Florida are off nearly 60 percent.

“All of these markets still have a long way to go,” Villacorta said.

The firm says its analysis is based on repeat sales of homes and condominiums.

Analysts agree that the South Florida housing market is slowly recovering, but some still expect prices to fall in 2012.

Moody’s Analytics of West Chester, Pa., says it could be 2013 before Palm Beach County hits bottom and 2014 for Broward County.

Many homes are stuck in the foreclosure process now but eventually will come on the market, said Chris Lafakis, an economist covering Florida for Moody’s.

“Banks have this inventory and once that inventory is liquidated, prices will fall,” Lafakis said.

Source: Sun-Sentinel

Prices across markets

You know that buying a home in rural America is cheaper than buying a loft in New York City, but what does the same money really buy you?

In Wisconsin, a plot of land featuring a barn that has been converted into a three-story home and another barn that could serve as a garage.

In New York or Boston, a one-bedroom condo.

In Aventura, Florida, over a dozen residences came up in the search. The average condo had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and all the swanky amenities you expect.

Source: Daily Caller and Zillow