What the Spring Selling Season May Mean For The Housing Market

By Lauren Baier Kim

Here's a look at what's new in real-estate markets across the U.S. from around the Web. (Some links may require registration or subscriptions.)

Housing slump here to stay
New data released by the Census Bureau shows that the vacancy rate of homes for sale, at 2.7%, or 2.1 million vacant homes, is at its highest level since the bureau began tracking it 40 years ago, according to a Wall Street Journal Online article. These properties, many of which are likely held by investors, could bring housing values down further as prices are slashed to attract buyers, WSJ Online says. Meanwhile, CNNMoney.com reports that figures released by Case Shiller Weiss indicate that nearly every major housing market in the U.S. has seen price declines in November. Showing the largest year-over-year price declines that month were Boston, with a 5% dip, and Detroit, with a 4.5% drop, CNNMoney says. The biggest year-over-year price increases were in Seattle (13%), Portland (11.6%) and Miami (7.4%), according to the article, which includes a chart summarizing market trends for 20 U.S. cities.

Super Bowl could kick off sales
Even Bears fans may have a reason to celebrate this year's Super Bowl, says a Chicago Tribune article. That's because the tournament is traditionally the start of the housing market's spring selling season, when sales typically kick into high gear, the article says. According to the newspaper, Chicago-area real-estate agents have seen the number of relistings rise in January -- a sign that home sellers may be returning to the marketplace -- and an increase in the number of home sales. However, the Tribune notes, a surging number of active listings, or homes for sale -- which climbed from 2,900 to 43,000 for the metro in January alone, could douse possibilities of a real-estate warming trend this spring, the article says. A true housing rebound won't be seen for some time, the paper says. "We won't see prices start to accelerate until 2008," the Tribune quotes one national economist as saying.

Unsold homes tether divorced couples
In Detroit, "roomie" is what some divorced couples are calling their exes, says a Detroit News article posted on the San Diego-Union Tribune's Web site. Thanks to the city's hard-hit housing market, homeowners are finding it difficult to sell their homes, so instead of parting ways after divorce, some are living together as a means to cut expenses, and others are selling their properties at "fire-sale" prices, the article says. Metro-area home prices dropped 10.5% between the third quarters of 2005 and 2006, and home sales fell 17.2% in the third quarter, the article says. "They're constantly wondering when the house is going to sell because they can't stand living with each other any more," the Detroit News quotes a local real-estate broker as saying about these unhappy couples.

Too many teardowns in Dallas
Builders may have overestimated the demand for new homes in Dallas's close-in neighborhoods, according to an article by the Dallas Morning News. Responding to buyer interest, builders have been tearing down older homes in several of Dallas's older communities to produce, bigger, newer homes, the newspaper says. These neighborhoods include areas east of North Central Expressway like Lakewood Heights and University Park with houses built in the 1920s to 1940s, the paper says. According to the newspaper, there are 284 homes, or more than a five-month supply, of completed new homes on the market in the city's teardown neighborhoods. Including homes that are under construction raises the inventory to a 12-month supply, the article says. Builders started 927 houses last year in these neighborhoods, the paper says.

Young investors take on New York
For home buyers under 30 years old in New York City, financing as much as 95% of the cost of a new home or relying on adjustable-rate mortgages with attractive initial rates to secure a property is not uncommon, says a New York Times article. For these home buyers, the purchase of a first home is more akin to an investment decision that an emotional one, the newspaper says. Should home prices fall, such homeowners are at risk of being left with no equity in their homes, the Times notes. "These buyers have never lived through bad times," the paper quotes the president of one local real-estate firm as saying. Condos are more popular among this age group than co-ops, since condominiums typically require a lower down payment, the article says. To entice this demographic, some New York City developers are marketing their apartments as future rentals to position them as solid investments, the Times says.