According to a new survey from the California outfit that operates the official website of the National Association of Realtors®, real estate investors will outnumber traditional home buyers three to one over the next two years, helping clear millions of repossessed properties from banks’ books and paving the way for a recovery. While there will be some flipping of properties, the survey by Move Inc. found that most investors will buy and hold homes for at least five years, long enough for many neighborhoods to stabilize. Moreover, nearly half say they plan to invest their own time and energy to repair, maintain and improve their properties. And 30% say they will hire a contractor to do the work. Nearly half of the investors surveyed expect to make a profit of 20% or more when they sell after their five-year hold. In the meantime, most will put their investments to work as rentals. Some may even live in their properties until they jettison them sometime down the road. (www.chicagotribune.com)
Chicago Tribune (7/10/11); Lew Sichelman

Foreign buyers are helping to stoke home sales in U.S. vacation hot spots decimated by the real estate crash, especially in southern Florida. For the 12 months ending in March, 31% of Florida’s home sales were to foreign buyers, up from 10% in 2007, according to a survey by the National Association of Realtors®. In Arizona, 6% of sales in the same period were to foreigners. That was down from 11% last year but still up from 5% in 2007, the data show. Foreign buyers are enticed by low U.S. home prices, down 30% nationwide since peaking in 2006, and the weakened dollar. Since the start of 2006, the Canadian dollar has soared 18% against the U.S. dollar, while the euro has gained 22%, according to data tracker Oanda. U.S. home prices, meanwhile, have fallen far more than the national average in some places — down 55% from their peaks in Miami-Ft. Lauderdale and Phoenix and 36% in Los Angeles, says Zillow.com. Those are three of the most popular areas for foreigners searching for real estate on Trulia’s website that company says. (www.usatoday.com)
USA Today (7/5/11); Julie Schmit

In recent conversations with financial analysts, some of the nation’s largest publicly held builders talked up the strength of the move-up and trade-down segments of the market and their interest in capturing that customer. PulteGroup Inc. CEO Richard Dugas noted the shift of sign-ups from its entry-level Centex communities to its Pulte and Del Webb products and said the company was “holding serve on our move-up buyer.” D.R. Horton Inc. President and CEO Donald Tomnitz was even more to the point. “We’ve made a conscious effort in a number of our markets to move up into the move-up buyer market simply because we see more demand in that market,” he told analysts. “And we see a lot of fragmented builders in that market, primarily small, medium-sized builders across the country, some public, some private.” Repeat buyers, particularly those who’ve been in a home a number of years, find themselves in an enviable position in the market. They have equity in their homes, which means they’ll make a profit, albeit a smaller one than they hoped for, on the sale of their home. Builders are aggressively courting their business with incentives and low interest rates. Also, they tend to have healthy credit histories, which makes getting a loan easier. The National Association of Realtors® found that in May, first-time home buyers accounted for 35% of home sales, compared with 46% in the comparable period a year earlier. (www.chicagotribune.com)
Chicago Tribune (7/1/11); Mary Ellen Podmolik

The housing market appears to be marching toward recovery in a handful of mostly rural states, economic forecasters say. The states — including North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Alaska — have economies more dependent on the energy, industrial or agricultural sectors, the stronger parts of the U.S. economy. Their home prices, in general, didn’t rise as much as in other states in the boom years, so they’ve fared better in the wake of the crash. For the 12 months ending in March compared to 2006, the peak of the national housing bubble, North Dakota, Iowa and Wyoming have seen the strongest rebound in numbers of non-distressed home sales, data from Housing IntelligencePro show. Iowa and Wyoming reached about 70% of their 2006 levels. In 34 of 47 states for which data were available, volumes were at less than half their 2006 levels. Oklahoma and Nebraska saw the biggest jumps in prices per square foot for non-distressed homes: 17% and 12%, respectively. (www.usatoday.com)
USA Today (6/30/11); Julie Schmit

In Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood, a cartoon-color painting of a woman licking a man’s face — “Masked Marty Is Mighty Tasty,” by Leah Tinari — screams from a wall. On 11th Avenue in Midtown, a mix of sleek and brightly colored furniture is clustered into six distinct seating areas on a terrace that is larger than the two-bedroom apartment itself. No one lives in these homes yet, but each has been furnished with a certain individual in mind, and laid out for that person’s imagined life. Despite the real estate maxim that interiors should be as neutral as possible so that customers can envision their possessions in them, many model apartments are using distinctive designs to suggest a particular way of life. The Fulton Street Lofts building in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, has reclaimed wood paneling in the entry, Edison bulbs in the hallways and farmhouse sinks in the kitchen. Intended to appeal to young, first-time buyers with a creative streak, the staging of two model apartments was pulled from the design team’s collection of flea market finds, including a vintage red bicycle, an old-fashioned bingo cage and an array of industrial-looking metal objects of indeterminate origin and use. (www.nytimes.com)
New York Times (7/4/11); Diane Cardwell

Although the recession has hurt sales of outdoor amenities, said Stephen Melman, NAHB’s director of economic services, outdoor entertaining has moved beyond the concrete patio and charcoal grill. Backyard kitchen features, in particular, said Melman, are hot among home owners who can afford them and want to feel comfortable when entertaining outside. Home owners can use plants to create virtual walls, ceilings and floors, said landscape designer Tony Lo Bello, of Mariani Landscape in Lake Bluff, Ill. “For walls, boxwood is formal while lilacs are my favorite informal plants,” he said. “For the ceiling, stay away from dense trees like sugar maples and go with honey locusts for a dabbled light.” Lo Bello recommends gravel floors for home owners who are willing to deviate away from a brick or stone floor. “It’s half the cost and gives you a nice crunch sound, like you’re in an English garden.” The focus on outdoor entertaining also has created a flock of furnishings that can withstand the weather. Even rugs are weatherproof. Electronics have moved outside, with outdoor LCD televisions starting at $1,795. The outdoor grill is “bigger and better,” according to Abt sales manager Steve Shapiro. “One that sells for $19,000 does everything but go to the store to get the food,” he said. Other outdoor components include storage cabinets to hold ingredients and utensils, pizza ovens, wine coolers and ice-makers. Most are downsized to fit under outdoor countertops. (www.chicagotribune.com)
Chicago Tribune (7/1/11); Leslie Mann