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       Data from the University of New Orleans shows home sales in the five-parish North Shore region climbed slightly in the first nine months of 2010. The numbers indicate a slight nudge for the market that saw a slowdown in activity during the height of the national economic collapse.

       UNO’s Institute for Economic Development Director Ivan Miestchovich said the trends through the first three quarters of 2010 signal upward momentum in the single family housing market and a slowdown in the rate at which home prices in the region are falling.

       Between January and September, 3,019 single family units were sold in the North Shore region compared with 2,845 in the same span of 2009. Average prices fell just less than 3.5 percent, or from $200,426 in 2009 to $193,435 last year.

       The report also provides an overview of economic trends along the Interstate 12 corridor, which includes St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Livingston, Washington and St. Helena parishes.

       The region lost 3,430 jobs, or 2.3 percent, between the first quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010. Tangipahoa Parish accounted for the largest share with 1,395 jobs, followed by St. Tammany with 1,170 jobs.

       Those job sectors with the largest jobs losses were construction (1,051) retail (997) and manufacturing (986).

       During the same time frame, industries adding jobs on the North Shore were health care and social assistance (594) and professional, scientific and technical services (154).

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       Here’s a contrarian view for you.  Credit Suisse says the fears about housing are well overdone.  In their analysis they cite 6 different bullish factors that should help to bolster house prices in the USA:

• The government now owns or guarantees about 70% of US mortgage debt ($11.5trn), thus any knock-on impact from a fall in house prices should be much lower than in 2007-2008 and the flow of foreclosure onto the market can be managed well (recall that since April 2009, 3.1 million trial loan modifications have been made).
• Valuation is extremely cheap on all measures (price to income, price to rent, affordability index, rental yields).
• Delinquency ratios, charge-off and foreclosure rates seem to have peaked.
• Housing starts are about 1m below trend demand of housing units – based on household formation and replacement demand. The question is: What is the level of excess inventory? The number of unsold new and existing homes have fallen by 63% and 14% from the peak, respectively; if we then assume half the foreclosed property becomes vacant (i.e. half of the 2.3m homes currently foreclosed), this amounts to 2.7m homes, which should take 2 ½ to 3 years to absorb.
• Distressed sales (short-sales, foreclosures and REO sales) are less than a third of the total, after peaking at almost half in 2009.
• Housing as a proportion of GDP is now just 2.2%, compared with a long-run average of 4.5%.

Click Here for the Source of the Information.

Newly built properties can offer fewer hassles, higher efficiency, and increased customization

       As the mortgage crisis continues to inundate the market with distressed properties, today's house hunter has no shortage of cheap, foreclosed homes to pick through. But despite all those deals in the previously-owned home market, consumers shouldn't overlook the potential benefits of buying a new home. "New homes usually sell higher per square foot then resale homes," says Jack McCabe of McCabe Research & Consulting. "But their selling points, I think, are pretty strong." To help consumers better understand the advantages of new home buying, U.S. News spoke with a handful of experts and compiled a list of 9 reasons to choose a new home over a resale:

1. Customization: Many home builders allow buyers to participate in the process of designing their property, which helps create a living space specifically tailored to the consumer's tastes. New home buyers, for example, can often decide where their bathroom might go, choose their favorite type of flooring, or pick the color of the exterior paint. Buyers moving into a subdivision can sometimes even pick the lot they like best. "There is a lot of flexibility for [new home buyers] to kind of put their personal signature on the product," says Patrick Costello, president of Forty West Builders. "Those kind of things you can't do with a used house—it's just not possible."

2. Building Envelope: Building codes have mandated increasingly higher energy efficiency standards since they began to address the issue in the late 1970s, says Kevin Morrow, senior program manager for the National Association of Home Builders' green building programs. "The most recent International Energy Conservation Code came out in 2009 [and] required roughly 17 percent more efficiency than the codes of three years prior," he says. "So using that as sort of a gauge to how newer homes should perform from an efficiency standpoint compared to older homes, it's pretty clear that just as homes meet code, they are going to be more efficient."

Newly constructed homes use energy more efficiently in two ways, Morrow says. First, they tend to have a tighter-sealed building envelope that helps prevent conditioned air—cool air in the summer, warm air in the winter—from escaping. Features that create this envelope include higher-efficiency insulation, doors, and windows. "Gone are the days of the single pain window … now I think you are starting to see triple- and quadruple-paned windows," Morrow says. "These are windows that are designed to really minimize the transfer of heat either from warm to cold or vice versa, and they of course will help the building envelope."

3. Green Appliances: The more energy-efficient mechanics of the house also help reduce utility bills for new home buyers, Morrow says. Newly-constructed homes often include green systems and appliances—like high efficiency stoves, refrigerators, washing machines, water heaters, furnaces, or air conditioning units—that homes built years ago might not. "The conditioning equipment is usually considered to be one of the larger energy consumption devices, but certainly those kitchen appliances matter," Morrow says. Existing homeowners can always retrofit their property or buy higher-efficiency appliances, but doing so requires a potentially significant expense.

4. Fewer Repairs: The features of newly constructed homes should also hold up better than those of existing homes, which may have experienced years of wear and tear, says Evan Gilligan of Mandrin Homes. "People will buy [previously-owned] houses and then the carpet needs to be replaced or it needs to be repainted, or it needs new appliances, or the flooring is shot," Gilligan says. "When they buy a new home in today's market, it really is new."

5. Less Maintenance: At the same time, today's new homes are engineered specifically to minimize maintenance requirements. For example, Costello says his company uses composite products for a home's exterior trim instead of wood, which could rot or need repainting. "You buy a used house you don't know what you are getting, you might have to do a lot of maintenance," Costello says. "We are trying to look down the road and make things as easy as possible for the homeowner so they can enjoy living there and not have to be saddled with maintenance."

6. Warranty: In addition, builders often agree to take care of the repair work that becomes necessary in your newly constructed home for at least the first year. “A new home is generally fully warrantied by the builder for a minimum of a year and most of all the other components are warrantied for extended periods,” says Jack McCabe. So if your roof starts leaking or the heater breaks during the warranty period, your builder will pick up the tab for the repairs. “When you buy a resale home, even if you have a home inspection done, it still does not turn up hidden defects that you don’t find out about a lot of times for two years,” McCabe says.

7. Fire Safety: Newly constructed homes often include fire safety features that may not be present in properties built years ago, Gilligan says. "We use fire retardant in our carpeting and in our insulation," he says. In addition, all newly constructed homes are required to include hard-wired smoke detectors. These devices can provide better protection than battery-operated smoke detectors, which can fail to perform if their battery runs out, Morrow says. "Hard-wired [smoke detectors] run on the electricity of the house and then have a battery backup for if the house power goes out," he says.

8. Concessions: Especially in today's sluggish housing market, buyers may be able to squeeze more concessions out of a home building company than an individual seller. That's because individual sellers often have an emotional attachment to their property that can blind them to its true value. "People usually think that their home is worth more money than it is," McCabe says. At the same time, builders often have greater financial wherewithal to absorb a loss on a sale than individuals. "I'll put it to you this way: a $30,000 hit [spread] over 30 lots hurts a lot less than a $30,000 hit on one existing house," says Christopher Rachuba of Rachuba Home Builders. "So I think [buyers] may get more bargaining [power] that way."

9. Financing: New home buyers may be able to take advantage of mortgage financing perks made available through their builder. "New home builders, in many cases the larger ones, have their own mortgage companies or they will offer paying points or closing costs and buy down certain rates for you," McCabe says. "The seller of a resale home is generally not going to do that for the buyer."



Click Here for the Source of the Information.

       With the latest extension of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) set to expire on Sept. 30, the House by a vote of 329 to 90 on July 15 approved legislation (H.R. 5114) that would provide a five-year extension for the program.

        Prior to House passage, NAHB sent a letter to members of Congress expressing support for congressional efforts to enact a long-term extension of the NFIP to ensure that the federally backed flood insurance program remains available, affordable and financially healthy.

       “With the NFIP having recently experienced several short-term authorization lapses that have caused severe problems for our nation’s already troubled housing markets, NAHB is pleased that H.R. 5114 provides for a long-term reauthorization through fiscal year 2015,” the letter said. “The five-year extension included in this legislation will ensure that the nation’s real estate markets operate smoothly and without delay.”

       NAHB is urging the Senate to pass a similar long-term extension of the flood insurance program.

       Established in 1968, the NFIP offers affordable flood insurance to home owners and businesses in flood plains and other low-lying areas that otherwise might not be able to obtain coverage.

       More than 20,000 communities nationwide participate in the insurance program, which currently covers about 5.5 million policyholders.

       To view the legislation, click here and type the bill number in the box at the upper center of the page.

For more information, e-mail Scott Meyer at NAHB, or call him at 800-368-5242 x8144.