Items of Interest BIG PRICE DROP IS TRACKED IN 95% OF METRO AREAS A monthly home-price index that tracks 20 major U.S. metro areas dropped 12.7 percent in February compared with the same month last year, says Inman News. Nineteen of 20 metro areas in the monthly S&P/Case-Shiller index experienced annual declines in February, with double-digit percentage declines in 10 metro areas. The index gauges the value of homes over time, based on price pairs for repeat sales of the same homes. Las Vegas had the steepest annual decline among the 20 areas in February, down 22.8 percent from its index level in February 2007. Miami was next with a 21.7 percent annual decline in February. Charlotte, N.C., experienced a 1.5 percent annual gain in the price index in February. "There is no sign of a bottom in the numbers," said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Standard & Poor's Index Committee. SALES ARE STILL SLIDING FOR PREVIOUSLY OWNED HOMES And the median has dipped 7.7 percent to $200,700 since March of 2007, says the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Existing-home sales, which include single-family, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops, were down 2.0 percent from February and remain 19.3 percent below one year earlier. A rise in condo sales in March was offset by a drop in single-family sales. Commented Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist: "Though mortgage rates are at historically low levels, some borrowers are facing restrictive lending practices in declining markets. At the same time, many buyers continue to bide their time with a large number of homes to choose from, while other potential buyers remain on the sidelines." Because the slowdown in sales from a year ago is greater in high-cost areas, the NAR said, there is a downward pull to the national median. PRESSURE ON HOME PRICES CONTINUES, THE JOURNAL SAYS
The Wall Street Journal's quarterly survey of housing-market
conditions in 28 major metro areas points to continued downward
pressure on prices in much of the country. In most of the country,
inventories of unsold homes are no longer growing quickly, as
they did in 2006 and 2007, but remain THE FEDS FIND PRICES TICKING UP FROM JANUARY TO FEBRUARY U.S. home prices rose approximately 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis between January and February, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO). For the 12 months ending in February, U.S. prices fell 2.4 percent. Since its peak in April 2007, the index is down 3.1 percent. Prices fell in 36 states during the three months ending in February, while 28 states saw year-over-year price declines, according to a house-price index compiled by First American CoreLogic, Inman News reports. The LoanPerformance House Price Index showed that three-month declines in the New York-White Plains, Philadelphia, Seattle, Detroit and Portland markets were steeper than their 12-month declines. California and Florida registered an opposite pattern. WHAT'S WITH THOSE NEW JUMBO LOANS The effort to make it easier to get jumbo mortgages - loans bigger than $417,000 - has yielded frustration and disillusionment, observes the New York Times. Under the new rules, a sizable number of jumbo loans would be treated by the mortgage industry in the same way as smaller conventional loans. Raising the ceiling for loans backed by government-sponsored housing finance agencies to nearly $730,000 in the nation's costliest locations was intended to bring rates down for more borrowers and stimulate the lending that is needed to get the economy moving again. Since the rules took effect April 1, however, many prospective borrowers and their mortgage brokers say the new loans are either not available or the rates are far higher than they expected. The goal of making most of these jumbo loans accessible was aimed not at helping subprime borrowers, those people with spotty credit histories. Rather, it was meant for borrowers with good credit and ample down payments who wanted to buy a house or refinance a home loan in the costliest housing markets such as New York, San Francisco, Anchorage, Baltimore, Edwards, Colo., and Jackson, Wyo. The program "is so much of a failure that it's really unbelievable," suggested Daniel M. Shlufman, president of the FCMC Mortgage Corp. in Clifton, N.J. He likened Congress's effort to "coming up with a vaccine to a terrible disease and then not giving it to people, or making it too expensive." GETTING A CONDO LOAN MAY NOT BE SO EASY As a result of underwriting changes by the giant mortgage investors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, plus severe new restrictions by private mortgage insurers, getting a loan on a condo unit - or even refinancing one you already own - could be tougher than you imagine, says Kenneth R. Harney in the Washington Post. For example, starting May 1, AIG United Guaranty, a major private mortgage insurer, no longer will write coverage on condominiums in hundreds of Zip codes across the country that it designates as having "declining" market conditions. The ban is irrespective of applicants' credit scores, assets and equity stakes. Even in the healthiest real estate markets, United Guaranty will require buyers to make at least a 10 percent down payment and will reject applications on units in condo projects where more than 30 percent of the owners are investors. Buyers with 20 percent or larger down payments will not be affected by the cutbacks in private mortgage insurance. Some mortgage insurers continue to accept applications on condos in declining markets but require down payments of at least 10 percent. Under Fannie Mae's changes, most of the due-diligence research on the key characteristics of condo projects must now be performed upfront by loan officers. FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY DOUBLES IN THE FIRST QUARTER The volume of U.S. foreclosure filings rose 111.9 percent in the first quarter over the same quarter last year and was up 23.2 percent compared to fourth-quarter 2007, according to RealtyTrac, reports Inman News. The rise represented the seventh consecutive quarter of a gain in foreclosure activity. Nevada led the nation with a rate of one foreclosure filing for every 54 households; for the nation as a whole, the rate was one for every 194 households. A total of 649,917 properties had foreclosure filings in the first quarter, and 156,463 of these properties, or 24.1 percent, were real estate-owned properties, which have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank. (RealtyTrac also counts notices related to mortgage default and public auction.) California had the highest volume of properties with foreclosure filings in the first quarter, while Vermont had the lowest. INITIATIVES AGAINST FORECLOSURES FALL SHORT (SEE ABOVE) Efforts by mortgage-service companies and government officials to address the nation's mortgage crisis have done little to stanch rising foreclosures, according to state officials, says the Wall Street Journal. The study by the State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group found that seven out of 10 borrowers who are seriously delinquent on their mortgages aren't on track to receive any kind of help with their payment problems. The number of delinquent borrowers working with their lenders has increased, but overall increases in the number of delinquent loans have outstripped those gains. The proportion of borrowers who weren't engaged in any sort of loan workout was unchanged from the group's previous report in February. The report was based on data from 13 of the largest mortgage servicers accounting for 57 percent of the subprime market and covers October 2007 through January 2008. State officials cited one sign of progress: Two-thirds of borrowers who began working with their lenders in January were in the process of getting their loan terms modified, up from 45 percent in October. FEW OF THE MOST AT RISK BEING HELPED, FED STATS SHOW Fewer than 2,000 homeowners at risk of foreclosure have been helped by a Federal Housing Administration (F.H.A.) program that President Bush promised would help homeowners who had fallen behind on their mortgage payments, federal housing statistics show, according to the New York Times. F.H.A. officials have asserted in recent weeks that more than 150,000 people have benefited from the program, which was intended to help troubled homeowners refinance into stable, government-issued loans. But the vast majority of participants have been homeowners who have made their mortgage payments on time, not the borrowers in crisis who were the targets of the president's plan, the statistics show. "They came to us before they got into trouble," said Stephen C. O'Halloran, a spokesman for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees the F.H.A. "We'd rather have them come to us before they fell behind on their loans." But some lawmakers and industry analysts say that the statistics prove that the program has failed to help the most vulnerable homeowners. YET LOAN DELINQUENCES MAY BE TAPERING OFF Data provided recently to holders of securities backed by subprime mortgages showed that the number of borrowers who were delinquent on their home loans rose at a slower pace in April than in March, according to the Wall Street Journal. It was the third month in a row in which mortgages went bad at a slower rate. The data come from so-called "remittance reports" that are distributed monthly by trustees of mortgage-backed securities tracked by the widely followed ABX indexes. Among pools of subprime mortgages made in the second half of 2005, the proportion of loans that were more than two months delinquent rose by 1.23 percentage points in April to 35.9 percent. That compared with a 1.61-percentage-point increase in March, a 2.36-point increase in February and a 2.64-point rise in January, according to a report from Wachovia Capital Markets. The report said similar trends were observed in April for loans made in 2006 and the first half of 2007. On average, 25-40 percent of the subprime loans in these groups are more than 60 days delinquent. "The trajectory is beginning to flatten out, and this could be a turning point for prices" of mortgage securities, said Glenn Schultz, a senior analyst at Wachovia. As many poorly underwritten subprime loans made between mid-2005 and mid-2007 go bad early in their lives, he expects the remaining loans to perform more normally. MORE EVIDENCE OF BUYERS' RECOVERY The Mortgage Insurance Co. of America (MICA) says there are signs more homeowners are recovering from their financial issues and paying their mortgages on time, reports Realtor magazine. "In the past month, cures - or borrowers once headed for foreclosure but now back on track - have risen slightly," says Suzanne Hutchinson, an executive vice president at the trade group. In March, there were 50,585 cures reported, a 5.5 percent increase from February and 42.6 percent more than in January, when defaults rose to a record high. Defaults on privately insured U.S. mortgages still remain high with, 58,131 insured borrowers at least 60 days late on payments. That's up from 42,362 - 37.2 percent - from a year ago, but down from February figures. The March figures marked the first time in four straight months that there had been fewer than 60,000 defaults, according to MICA. Got that? NOW OPTION ARMS ARE A PROBLEM TOO As the growth in subprime mortgage delinquencies appears to be slowing, lenders are seeing a rapid rise in defaults on a type of mortgage that gives consumers with good credit several different monthly-payment options, says the Wall Street Journal. These mortgages, which are sometimes known as "pick-a-pay" or payment-option mortgages but are generically called option adjustable-rate mortgages, are turning out, in some cases, to be even more caustic than subprime loans, in part because the loan balance and the monthly payments on some loans is growing even as home prices are falling. These loans have become the focus of investigations and a spate of lawsuits by borrowers who believe they were misinformed about the mortgages' complicated structure. Losses on option ARMs could be "in some cases close to subprime" mortgage levels, according to a recent report by Citigroup. TRADE GROUP OBJECTS TO APPRAISAL CODE OF CONDUCT The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is calling on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to back out of agreements with New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo that would create a code of conduct for home appraisals, notes Inman News. Also signed by federal regulators that oversee the government-sponsored enterprises, the agreements are intended to insulate appraisers from pressure to inflate home valuations. By barring lenders from relying on in-house appraisals or those performed by affiliated businesses, the MBA contends that the code of conduct would actually reduce oversight and accountability for much of the appraisal industry. With a compliance date of Jan. 1, the MBA called on federal regulators to reopen the process of drafting an agreement or institute changes recommended by the industry. Under the agreement, lenders that want to sell loans to Fannie and Freddie would be prohibited from relying on in-house appraisal reports or appraisals performed by affiliated appraisal management companies. Although lenders could authorize appraisal management companies and correspondent lenders to select appraisers, they would not be allowed to rely on reports from appraisers selected by other third parties such as mortgage brokers and real estate agents. LOAN APPLICATIONS ARE HEADING DOWN The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports that volume for the week ending April 25 fell 11.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier; unadjusted, the decrease was 10.2 percent below the previous week and 14.2 percent behind one year earlier. Refinancings dropped 16.7 percent from the prior week and purchases went down 4.8 percent. The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 45.7 percent of total applications from 49.2 percent the previous week, and the adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share declined to 5.9 percent from 6.6 percent. RATES ARE LITTLE CHANGED The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.06 percent for the week, up from last week's 6.03 percent and 6.16 percent last year at this time, according to Freddie Mac. The 15-year FRM was 5.59 percent this week, down from 5.62 percent the previous week and 5.87 percent a year ago. Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) were 5.73 percent this week versus 5.68 percent last week and 5.87 percent one year earlier. One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs were unchanged at 5.29 percent this; at this time last year, they averaged 5.42 percent. WITH REAL ESTATE, SHE'S NO VIRGIN Madonna needed a judge to clear the way for her to purchase an apartment adjacent to her spacious duplex co-op in Harperly Hall at 1 W. 64th St., reports the New York Post. Public records show the pop icon paid $7 million for the unit directly above her current 6,000-sf digs, which already includes a gym and salon. Last December, she filed suit against the building's co-op board, charging that it wrongfully blocked her from buying the apartment owned by Julie Clark Thayer. In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, the singer says the board prevented her from closing on a deal to buy the home. She was seeking a court order allowing the sale to go through and for the reimbursement of legal fees and expenses. A FORMER FIRST LADY'S HOME CAN BE YOURS Eleanor Roosevelt's former home in Manhattan is now up for rent at $60,000 a month. The renovated 18-foot-wide Upper East Side townhouse has five bedrooms, a garden and a roof terrace. Owners Vikram Gandhi, a managing director at Credit Suisse, and his wife Meera listed the limestone structure in December for $20 million. The couple paid $4.3 million for it in 2000, so they must have really, really, really renovated it. Mrs. Roosevelt lived at the house in the years before she died in 1962 at age 78. NO QUEENS FOR THIS MET Johan Santana, whose six-year pay will amount to $137.5 million, has gone to contract for just over $3 million on a three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath apartment at 170 East End Ave., a new condo building nearing completion at 87th Street, according to the New York Post. Baseball's highest-paid pitcher will call as his own a 2,000-sf apartment with 10-foot-high floor-to-ceiling windows plus oak rift-cut and quarter-sawn flooring that overlooks Carl Schurz Park and offers some skyline views. The lower-floor apartment includes a gourmet kitchen with a breakfast room and a formal dining room. DESIGNING MAN'S APARTMENT IS ON THE MARKET The Manhattan apartment of Fernando Sanchez, who achieved fame in the 1970s for designing lingerie worn as outerwear, has gone on sale for $6.5 million, says the Wall Street Journal. The 4,000-square-foot co-operative unit is in the ornate Osborne, built in 1885 and diagonally across from Carnegie Hall. The 10-room apartment, on three floors, has a 27-foot entry gallery, a formal dining room, a library and four baths. There are original moldings and parquet flooring. Sanchez, whose designs were worn by Tina Turner and Madonna (the wedding dress in her "Like a Virgin" video), bought the apartment in 1979 for less than $1 million. He died in June 2006 at age 70 after being bitten by a sand fly and contracting a parasite while traveling, says Jano Herbosch, Sanchez's business partner and cousin by marriage. Proceeds are to go to an arts foundation to be named after Sanchez, who left no heirs. STILL BEING TREATED AS IF HE DOESN'T EXIST Kevin Spacey, who delivered a line like that in American Beauty, has become a motivated seller in the last few months, according to the New York Post. The Academy Award-winning actor has recently sliced the price of his TriBeCa duplex apartment to $4.67 million. It was listed for approximately $5 million when it quietly went on the market last October. Atop a small storefront, five-apartment condo building on Harrison Street, the three bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath penthouse of nearly 2,300 square feet features a 900-sf terrace off the master bedroom with a built-in grill, planters with a timed irrigation system and retractable awnings. Also included is a Crestron system that controls the window shades, lighting and entertainment equipment. GOOD SHOW FOR CAROL BURNETT She sold her apartment at Trump International on Central Park West for $5.58 million, city records show. The Observer reports that it's a two-bedroom, 1,945-sf sprawl, according to the listing, with crown moldings, custom closets, "contemporary furnishings" and a sweet sound system, too. As it turns out, Burnett, whose glorious old CBS sketch show won 22 Emmys, isn't a stranger to high-end real estate. Forbes reported in 2001 that she was trying to sell her one-story, seven-bedroom house in Montecito, Calif., for $36 million, although years later a New York Times profile said she still lived there, keeping a Manhattan apartment as well. SHE'LL LIKELY FACE MORE THAN ONE DAY OF GROUNDHOGS Actress Andie MacDowell has bought land in an environmentally focused mountain community in western North Carolina and plans to build an eco-friendly house there, says the Wall Street Journal. MacDowell, 50, starred in "Groundhog Day" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral." A year ago, she paid about $1 million for a vacant lot of just under two acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Balsam Mountain Preserve, a 4,400-acre development of 3,000 acres of protected land and 354 home sites. The houses, at elevations from 3,000-4,700 feet, can't be larger than 4,500 square feet and must use materials that blend the building into the environment, according to a design-review board. Three months ago, the actress swapped her property for one of the community's largest lots, which at 3.5 acres can accommodate a pasture and small barn. A STITCH IN TIME IS A CONCEPT HE CLEARLY UNDERSTANDS Fashion designer Richard Tyler has sold his townhouse in New York's West Village to investment manager Anthony Davis for $14.4 million, according to the Wall Street Journal, which says the house had been on the market for nearly a year at $15.9 million. The four-story Washington Street house has an early-19th-century Romanesque brick façade but modern interiors, including three bedrooms, three and a half baths, a "great room" with 20-foot ceilings and an atrium with a retractable roof, ivy-covered brick walls and a glass-bottomed reflecting pool lined with miniature frog-shaped fountains. The pool acts as a skylight, illuminating a first-floor gallery below. The Australian-born Tyler paid $6.1 million for the 8,019-square-foot townhouse in 2000 and lived there part-time with his wife and business partner, Lisa Trafficante. FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF INCONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION It has no celebrity architect, no Poggenpohl cabinets, no Viking stoves and no awesome skyline views. In fact, it has only one small cellar window. But property records filed this month show that an $801,000 co-op sold at the Dakota, at 1 West 72nd Street facing Central Park, appears to have set a record as the highest-priced basement storage room in the annals of New York real estate, reports the New York Times. The storage room is situated on a basement corridor and has a locked door, four bare walls, electricity and a half-bath. But it is uninhabitable and costs more than the average price of a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan last year. There were bids from at least eight co-op owners, including a representative of Yoko Ono, who maintains a home in the building, according to a person briefed on the sale. The winning bidder was John M. Angelo, a hedge fund manager and the chief executive of Angelo, Gordon & Co. and a member of the board of Sotheby's. He has assembled several co-op units into a sprawling apartment on the second floor of the Dakota. The seller of the storage room is Juliana Curran Terian, the president and chief executive of the Rallye Group, an automobile dealership. THE LEFT COAST CONTINUES TO DRAW NYC RESIDENTS The annual numbers of L.A. émigrés from the two mainline boroughs are relatively small - but steady and consistent, according to an analysis of I.R.S. data by the Observer. From 2001 through 2006, the last year data was available, a net of more than 3,000 Manhattanites relocated to Los Angeles County; in the same period, 1,664 Brooklynites did. Between 2002 and 2003, as many as 752 Manhattanites relocated, the peak for that borough's L.A. emigration; for Brooklyn, the peak came from 2003 to 2004, with a net of 391 residents leaving. In no year has either Manhattan or Brooklyn, together or separately, experienced a net gain of Los Angeles County residents. BUILDING PERMITS PLUNGE IN THE FIRST QUARTER The number of residential permits issued in the city in the first quarter dropped by 46 percent compared with the year-ago period, according to Crain's. The steepest drops were in Manhattan, which fell 69 percent, to 485 units, and Queens, which fell 62 percent, to 705 units. Staten Island had a 25 percent gain, to 238 units. Developers point to three main reasons for the steep decline: the credit crunch, a deadline that has encouraged building before expiration of the city's subsidy program for housing, and a diminishing quantity of available land. The prospect that increasing foreclosures could add stock to the housing market also is giving developers pause along with declining home sales nationwide. PEOPLE LIVING IN GLASS AND OTHER HOUSES ARE GLUED TO TV What
they're watching is programs related to real estate, notes
USA Today in Realtor magazine. For example, HGTV's viewership
rose 11 percent year-to-year in the first three months of 2008.
Nine of its top-10-rated shows among the target 25- to 54-year-olds
are real estate based. Property Virgins IF IT'S AN OPEN HOUSE, SOMETIMES YOU NOW CAN PARTY TOO Home-baked cookies are out. Designer drinks, opera singers and Cinco-de-Mayo theme parties are in. Despite sluggish home sales in most of the country, some - some, please note - Realtors and developers are sinking money into open-house parties that they hope will draw crowds and an eventual buyer, the Wall Street Journal observes. Realtors have always tried various tactics to make homes more appealing during open houses by, for example, hiring experts to "stage" the home, arranging furniture and accessories to look stylish and inviting. These days, while some Realtors and developers have abandoned or scaled back on open houses, others see swanky and creative parties as key to capturing sales. QUESTION: CAN YOU TOP THIS. ANSWER: NO. (SORRY) Would
you even want to? Once he has moved into the new single-family
residence he is building for himself in Mumbai, India, Mukesh
Ambani will have one of two options when he needs to step out
for a TWO MORTGAGE BROKERS RECEIVE THE WAGES OF SIN The brokers and a title attorney have been sentenced to multiple years in prison for their parts in a $37 million mortgage scam, according to the Miami Herald in Realtor magazine. America's Best Mortgage Services broker Richard Crowder got 11 years for luring buyers to a fraudulent no-money-down financing scheme to purchase 17 condos complexes called Continuum and Point of Aventura, both on Miami Beach. His accomplices, title attorney Gary Mills, owner of Four Star Title, and former Wachovia loan officer Karen Lynn Sullivan, got 46 months and 50 months in jail respectively. Officials charged that Sullivan would draw up phony closing documents showing the would-be buyers already owned the units, then she would help get fraudulent home equity credit lines. The money was used to make down payments on first mortgages for the same units and pay the fees and commissions. LOCAL GOVERNMENTS ARE STARTING TO BOOST PROPERTY TAXES Faced with revenue shortfalls, local governments across the U.S. are raising property-tax rates, notes the Wall Street Journal. For example, Spring Valley, N.Y., approved a 9.7 percent increase in the property-tax rate to balance its budget. A number of fast-growing suburbs around Washington, D.C., have raised rates, while Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton has proposed a 17 percent increase in the property-tax rate to close a budget gap. MANY REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS AROUSE SUSPICION About one in five suspicious activity reports that banks file with federal regulators over concerns about a residential real estate transaction show signs of money laundering or tax evasion, according to a new Treasury Department report, says Inman News. The report found evidence of money laundering or "structuring" - transactions involving incomplete or falsified records - in 20 percent of suspicious activity reports involving residential real estate transactions between 1996 and 2006. The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) also detected a steep increase in the incidence of filings that might involve money laundering after 2004, to more than 50 percent. Last month, FinCEN reported that banks filed 52,868 suspicious activity reports involving suspected mortgage fraud in 2007, up 42 percent from 2006. But money laundering in residential real estate is likely to be a bigger problem than those numbers suggest, the report said, because banks are less likely to detect money laundering and file suspicious reports than when they are victimized by mortgage fraud schemes. RENTALS OFTEN ELUDE THOSE WHO LOSE THEIR HOMES The housing slump has created another type of pain: the suffering of people who find themselves navigating a tight rental market after losing their home to foreclosure, observes the Wall Street Journal. Hundreds of thousands of former homeowners have been scrambling to find a place to rent. Yet rental properties are in short supply in many markets, pushing prices higher. And some landlords are imposing tougher credit requirements on people who have gone through foreclosure. Since only about one-third of rental properties are single-family houses as opposed to apartments, it can be hard for foreclosed homeowners to find an equivalent, affordable place to rent, says William Apgar, senior scholar at Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. And though hundreds of thousands of houses and condos have gone back to the banks that loaned money on them, few of these properties are being offered to tenants because lenders don't want to be in the property-management business. So they sit vacant. RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION HITS LOWEST LEVEL IN 5 YEARS The U.S. Census Bureau says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of residential construction spending dropped 19.7 percent in March compared with the same month last year, to $451.4 billion, according to Inman News. This rate is a projection of a monthly spending total over a 12-month period, adjusted to account for typical seasonal fluctuations in construction activity. The March spending rate on private residential construction projects was the lowest since it dropped to about $442.7 billion in March 2003. This rate had dropped for 23 consecutive months, from February 2006 to January 2008, before rising slightly in February 2008. The March 2008 rate was about 36.1 percent below the record peak of $696 billion in February 2006. SOMEHOW THE LUSTER OF HOME OWNERSHIP HASN'T FADED Despite the slowdown in the housing marketing, Americans remain confident about homeownership, according to AOL and the Zogby International research firm in Realtor magazine. If forced to sell their home today, 50 percent of those surveyed in a poll would buy another home rather than rent. About 31 percent of participants feel their home is worth more than it was a year ago, and 56 percent believe their home will be worth the same or more in five years. Despite their confidence, those surveyed were concerned about their economic situation. Thirty percent say they have no cushion and work paycheck-to-paycheck to pay their mortgages. More than 22 percent say they would lose their homes if they lost their jobs, and 30 percent know someone who is facing foreclosure. IT'S NOT ONLY GOOD FENCES THAT MAKE GOOD NEIGHBORS A new real estate survey finds more than half of homeowners - fully 58 per cent - see twosomes without tots as ideal next-door denizens, followed closely by retirees at 54 per cent (survey respondents weren't limited to one answer), reports Canada.com. Also popular among the suburban set are singles, with 38 per cent support, and pet owners at 28 per cent. Students are listed among the worst neighbors (46 per cent), with most respondents saying their presence devalues bordering properties by as much as 10 per cent. Others on the laundry list of undesirables include unrelated persons in shared housing (37 per cent), families with teenagers (37 per cent) and families with young children (20 per cent). "You can choose your friends but not your neighbors," observes Shaun DiGregorio, general manager of realestate.com.au, the website that conducted the survey. A RECORD NUMBER OF VACANT HOMES ARE FOR SALE The
homeowner vacancy rate rose to a record 2.9 percent in the first
quarter from 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter, about one percentage
point higher than normal, reports the Wall Street Journal. THE NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS JUST RENTING LEAPS UP New research from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies finds that the current housing situation not only adds to the number of households competing for low-cost rentals but also threatens renters living in foreclosed properties with sudden eviction. "Today, investor-owned one- to four-family rental properties account for nearly 20 percent of all foreclosures," notes Nicolas P. Retsinas, director of the Joint Center. "Moreover, because many of the high-risk home purchase and home refinance loans now in default are concentrated in low-income and minority communities, the fallout from foreclosures is hitting the same neighborhoods where many of the nation's most economically vulnerable renters live." A report on the research finds that the share of households owning a home is declining, while the number of renter households jumped by nearly one million last year to more than four times the pace of renter growth over the 2003-2006 period. In addition, monthly rents last year reached a record high of $775. AGING GRACEFULLY IN PLACE IS MADE EASIER Makers of appliances and bath fixtures are finding new ways to ensure their wares age gracefully along with their users, says the Wall Street Journal. Among the innovations: stoves that monitor pots to prevent them from boiling over and appliance control panels with adjustable typefaces. Controls are being revamped to be easier to operate for arthritic hands as well as minds that aren't as sharp as they once were. Safety is taking a higher priority. Appliance makers are moving controls to the front of stoves for easier access, and levers are replacing knobs on sink fixtures. Delta offers a faucet that turns on and off when you tap it anywhere on the spout or handle. The technology, which the company calls Touch2O, came out last year in a high-priced line, but now Delta offers faucets with it that sell for about $500. To accommodate older backs, some manufacturers are promoting dishwasher drawers that can sit directly below the kitchen counter or even on top of it. The same principles of putting work at a more comfortable height are evident in new refrigerator and oven designs. Stumbling on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night could become a thing of the past. Lutron Electronics offers a motion-sensor lighting-control system that can be programmed to turn on night lights when a person gets out of bed. And Kohler's solution for the nighttime bathroom visit includes a toilet with an electric-blue night light and a motorized seat and cover that rise with the touch of a button. Now, if they could only make those visits unnecessary, they'd really be on to something. COULD HOME PRICES IN THE U.K. PLUMMET They could drop by around 30 percent over the next couple of years if more interest-rate cuts don't come quickly, a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee said, reports the Wall Street Journal. David Blanchflower, a well-known policy dove, said he believed that the bank's key rate, now 5 percent, is still restrictive, and that "aggressive action" is needed to prevent the U.K. economy from falling into recession. "In my view, a correction of approximately one-third in house prices does not seem implausible in the U.K. over a period of two or three years if house price-to-earnings ratios are to be restored to more sustainable levels," Blanchflower said. "I am not suggesting that such a drop will necessarily occur, but it may." Data from housing-valuation company Hometrack, published Monday, showed that house prices were down 0.9 percent in April from a year earlier, marking their first annual drop since February 2006. On a monthly basis, prices declined for a seventh consecutive month. Plus ça Change On a hilly plateau that effectively forms a village from 86th to 96th streets between Central Park and Third Avenue and up to 98th Street from Fifth to Madison avenues, Carnegie Hill received its name only in the early 20th century. But its history goes back half a millennium, according to Carnegie Hill Neighbors, which cites Carnegie Hill News and the Architectural Guide to Carnegie Hill. What follows about the section of Manhattan that might be called the upper Upper East Side is excerpted at length from those sources. Now noted for its historic architecture, Carnegie Hill once was dotted with dwellings made of bent trees, the homes of the Wechquaesgek Indians. Those gave way in the mid-17th century to Dutch farmland, which was divided and sold in parcels beginning in the 1800s, when the erection of private wooden houses signaled the beginning of the today's community. Four of those wooden dwellings are preserved in Carnegie Hill, surrounded by the more permanent structures that followed, including survivors from the age of rowhouses in styles ranging from Neo-Grec to Renaissance Revival, many early 20th century mansions beginning with Andrew Carnegie's pioneering move, and finally luxury apartment buildings. In upper Manhattan near the East River, blueberry fields bisected the forests and provided food for both animals and the Wechquaesgek Indians. They called the place where they lived Manahatta, meaning hilly island. In the center of these hills, at about 94th Street and Park Avenue, stood an Indian village called Konanda, a name that translates as "the place near the sand," overlooking Hellgate Bay and the sandy point then extending along the mouth of the Harlem Creek into the East River. There, some 60 men, women, and children lived in houses made of tall, bent trees covered with bark, with one hole in the center for ventilation. The village, bordered on a little brook fed by a spring, was situated on a branch of the footpath that went down the present Madison Avenue and across 96th Street into Central Park to meet with the Weckquaesgek Path, which led to the south end of the island. Around the time that the Dutch acquired the island of Manhattan in 1626, the area along the East River encompassing what is now known as Carnegie Hill was considered particularly choice farming land: The curve of the East River protected the land from the intense cold and wind during the winter, and the terrain itself was relatively flat and easy to cultivate. What today is Carnegie Hill and its surrounding area can be traced to at least 1677, when it belonged to one Peter Van Ogliensis. His farm extended from what is now about 82nd Street to about 94th Street and from Harlem Commons (Fifth Avenue) to the East River. The area was known as Waldron Farm after a Dutch patent conveyed the land to Baron Resolved Waldron, who owned it until he died in 1705. In 1811, when Carnegie Hill was still very much under cultivation, there were only two major thoroughfares in the upper part of the island - the Boston Post Road on the east side and the Bloomingdale Road on the west. An east-west road that would later become 86th Street connected with them, and the only traffic on Fifth Avenue was the drovers, who used the old dirt road to travel down to the Bowery. According to records provided by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the lots of the two joined clapboard houses that survive on East 92nd Street were sold from a small remaining portion of Abraham Duryea's land in 1834 and 1835, but the houses themselves were not erected until 1859 and 1860. These wooden houses at 120 and 122 East 92nd Street, a third at 160 East 92nd Street (built around 1852-53, and a fourth at 128 East 93rd Street (1866), are the oldest buildings in Carnegie Hill and the only link to a time when the area from was known as Waldron Farm. In 1834, the New York and Harlem Railroad ran from lower Manhattan to Yorkville; it ultimately was extended to Harlem and beyond, precipitating growth in the Carnegie Hill area. In the mid-19th century, there were squatters' settlements along Fourth Avenue as well as breweries and piano factories. By 1875, much of the open railroad track was lowered and partially covered at street level. After the turn of the century, the railroad switched from coal to electric power, alleviating the noise and pollution, and the thoroughfare was renamed Park Avenue. The most notable buildings in Carnegie Hill in the late 19th century were churches and charitable institutions - the New York Magdalen Asylum, "affording an asylum to erring females," at Fifth Avenue and 88th Street; the St. Luke's Home for Indigent Christian females at Madison Avenue and 89th Street; the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Beloved Disciple, subsequently the Reformed Church of Harlem and since 1950, the Roman Catholic Church of St. Thomas More, on 89th Street between Madison and Park avenues; the New York Christian Home for Intemperate Men on 86th Street between Madison and Park Avenues; and the Immanuel German Evangelical Lutheran Church, which moved to the southwest corner of 88th Street and Lexington Avenue in 1885. Among the earliest large residences in Carnegie Hill were those built for the brewers whose businesses were nearby. George Ehret, who by 1877 owned the largest brewing business in the United States, built a house on the southeast corner of Park Avenue and 94th Street in 1879. He was followed by Jacob Ruppert, whose mansion on an open lot at Fifth Avenue and 93rd Street was an isolated structure surrounded by small farms when it was built in 1881. Neither building now exists. Scattered farmhouses, two-story brick building, and a few rows of brownstones erected by developers were interspersed with squatters' shacks, which also lined the edges of Central Park. After several false starts, elevated railroad lines on both Third and Second avenues were in operation by 1891, triggering building activity on the side streets between Madison and Third avenues and on the avenues. Rows of brownstones were developed on speculation and, as speed was the driving factor, the houses followed a fairly standard set of plans aiming for uniformity. The ornamentation used was dependent on the whim of the builder and his notion of what would sell, which tended to change every decade or so, as one architectural style followed another in popularity. Among the first rowhouses in Carnegie Hill were 12 on the south side of 95th Street east of Lexington Avenue, all of which survive, though many have lost their stoops, and another group on the north side of 94th Street, only one of which has been modernized. Carnegie Hill is unique in having many groups of rowhouses that were designed by professionally trained architects and that are distinguished by their attention to detail. Among these are six brownstones on the north side of 93rd Street between Fifth and Madison avenues and five red-brick houses on the east side of Madison Avenue between 91st and 92nd streets., and Renaissance Revival. (Now, a proposal to join and expand three rowhouses has sparked a firestorm of neighborhood opposition.) Though much of Carnegie Hill was developed by 1898, squatters still lived on Fifth Avenue, and a riding academy was on the corner of 90th Street when Andrew Carnegie purchased the land between 90th and 91st streets. In December 1902, Carnegie moved into the mansion at 2 East 91st Street, which would serve as his residence for the last 17 years of his life. Evincing the same foresight that had made him a phenomenally successful entrepreneur, Carnegie used options to buy much more land on 90th and 91st streets than he needed for his own mansions. This strategy allowed him to sell the extra lots to acquaintances to ensure that his surroundings would consist of fine homes as aesthetically appealing as his own but less ostentatious than Fifth Avenue's Millionaire's Mile to the south. As a result of his precautions the Hammond (1903), Burden (1905), and Otto Kahn (1917) mansions at 9, 7, and 1 East 91st Street are counted among Carnegie Hill's architectural treasures. The Carnegie mansion initiated a change in building trends in Carnegie Hill. Rowhouse construction virtually stopped; instead, elegant townhouses were built for the wealthy, who began to pour into the area. These residences, which in many cases rivaled mansions in other parts of the city, were designed in a number of revival styles popular at the time. Construction of these fine houses continued until the Depression, although the last large residence, the William Goadby Loew house at 56 East 93rd Street (now the Spence School), was completed as late as 1932. The most recent trend in Carnegie Hill is the luxury apartment building, which began to appear shortly after the Carnegie mansion and burgeoned after World War I. The high-ceilinged luxury apartment building, stretching for half a block and with only one or two apartments to a floor, wood-paneled rooms and other amenities normally found only in private residences, signaled a new way of life for upper-income families. Over time, major alterations have changed the facades of some of the houses in Carnegie Hill, particularly those dating from the 19th century. Stoops have been removed, ornamental details have been cut away, and, in several cases, entirely new facades have been applied. The lower floors of many of the rowhouses on Madison and Lexington avenues have been converted to storefronts. Larger townhouses have frequently been converted into institutions, especially private schools. In fact, Carnegie Hill has the largest concentration of private schools in the city. Nevertheless, most changes have been well done, and the neighborhood retains its unique residential character. Carnegie Hill
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huge.
The supply has shrunk modestly in Boston and Denver over the past
year. But the number of for-sale signs continues to rise swiftly
in the Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; San Francisco;
and Washington areas. The biggest gluts are in Florida. Prices
are coming down fast. One hitch for house hunters, though, is
that mortgage lenders have become much more restrictive with loans.
And even buyers who can get financing still face a tricky question:
Should I wait for a lower price. During the boom, home prices
rose far faster than incomes. Home prices as measured by the S&P/Case-Shiller
national index shot up 74 percent in the six years through 2006,
while median household income rose 15 percent. In most of the
country, "we're getting a return to normalcy"
in the relation between home prices and incomes, says Richard
DeKaser, chief economist at National City. But, he adds, prices
may overshoot on the down side. Economists at Goldman Sachs say
home prices are likely to level off by late 2009. They also point
to improving affordability. 
(Sundays,
10 ET/PT), which premiered last fall with a focus on first-time
buyers, has hit peak viewership (about 1.5 million) in the past
few weeks. This summer, Bravo will revive Million Dollar Listing
and Flipping Out, which did well in their first seasons. "Looking
at big, beautiful houses is real-estate porn," says Andy
Cohen, Bravo's production chief. "We're wary
of the real estate market. But we have the most affluent audience
on cable, and we program for them." TLC has dropped Property
Ladder, and Date My House replaces one of the Saturday time slots
of Flip That House, the viewership of which has dropped significantly
from its peak of 1.8 million in fall 2006. TLC plans a late-spring
rollout of Your Place or Mine, a novel game show that offers home
makeovers. "People are looking at homes in different ways,"
says TLC's says chief programmer Brant Pinvidic. "A
couple of years ago, selling a house was considered the quickest
way to get rich. Now it's, 'How much could I sell
it for?' It's more a question mark rather than an
exclamation point. We want to be reflective of our audience and
continue to adjust. But this is a genre we'll always be
in." 
quart
of milk: He can copter from his rooftop helipad, or he can exit
at street level, 550 feet below. As Forbes recounts, it's a big
house. Originally it was planned to have 45 stories, but the Ambanis
decided they wanted more headroom. So, when completed in early
2009, the house will stand 27 stories covering 400,000 square
feet. No zoning (or neighbor) problems; it's in the business district.
The cost, originally set at $1 billion, is approaching $2 billion.
Ambani, head of petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries, can
afford it: FORBES ranks him the fifth-richest man in the world,
at $43 billion. The home's amenities include: separate gym for
each family member, six stories of parking, four stories of open-air
gardens, a ballroom covered with crystal chandeliers, a 65-seat
theater, a spa, a swimming pool and an ice room. The ice room
has you sitting while snow drifts onto your head, a nice way to
escape from the Mumbai heat. Good luck picking out a housewarming
gift. 
According
to new Census Bureau data, the vacancy rate has jumped nationwide
and in cities, suburbs and rural areas since the housing slowdown.
From 1995 until the fourth quarter of 2005, the rate held between
1.5 percent and 2 percent. About 2.2 million vacant homes were
for sale in the first quarter, up from 2.1 million in the fourth
quarter. Economists say the rising vacancies indicate that home
prices won't stop falling and home builders can't ramp up construction
until the glut of vacancies can be worked down. "It's the
worst piece of housing news that we've heard in the past couple
of months," said Patrick Newport, U.S. economist at Global
Insight. "It means home prices will continue to drop at least
for the remainder of the year." In addition, a record 4.1
million vacant homes are for rent, with the rental vacancy rate
rising to 10.1 percent in the first quarter. The rental vacancy
rate wasn't statistically different from the first quarter of
2007 but exceeded the fourth quarter's 9.6 percent. 
