Anticipation about the Commerce Department’s housing figures–released today–ran high all week. Some had hoped the data would show the housing decline was turning around; most expected it wouldn’t. Investors were so confident the home sales results would be bad that the dollar fell Thursday against the euro for the fifth consecutive day–its longest period of decline since October, Bloomberg reported. And sadly, the naysayers were correct. According to the Commerce Department, new home sales not only fell from last month but hit their lowest point in 12 years (12 years!). New home sales have plummeted 34.4 percent over the last…

Homeowners across the country are finding a new way to combat sinking home values–voluntary reassessments. According to The New York Times, homeowners can request downward assessments, which seem to be most pronounced in areas where the housing decline has had the greatest affect. Take, for example, Arizona. The state’s home market was one of the first to peak, with the Arizona Republic reporting building industry layoffs as early as May 2006. Housing prices in Phoenix dropped 8.8 percent in 2007, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. As a result, in the state’s largest county, Maricopa County, a large amount of the…

It’s Christmas Eve and, as such, I’m home in the suburb where I grew up–fresh off a conversation with a few of my oldest friends (since 5th grade and counting) about buying property. Lea, who lives in Washington, D.C., is toying with the idea of buying a condo. I just refinanced mine in Chicago. Colleen is resigning herself to the fact she will never be able to afford San Francisco property. We used to talk about boys; now it’s mortgage brokers. But–despite numerous reports in recent months of the housing market slumping downward for what seems like an endless period–they…

As the year draws to a close, many members of the housing industry–developers, brokers, real estate agents–are crafting their budgets for 2008. Property managers are no exception. And, according to U.S. Census Bureau information, keeping costs down might soon be even more of a pressing concern for residential property managers. Rent appears to be contributing less to new apartment budgets: The median asking price for all new privately financed, nonsubsidized, unfurnished rental units in buildings with five units or more in the first quarter of the year was roughly $102 lower than the asking price in the previous quarter, the…

Starting Dec. 31, The Washington Post will cost 50 cents–an increase from the 35-cent price it has been sold for since 2001. The hike doesn’t necessarily mean the news is getting more costly to produce–but it does mean yet another U.S. paper is seeing the effects of the housing decline, which has been dragging down classified ad revenue for months. Citing reduced advertising and circulation, the Post‘s newspaper operations revenue dropped 1.1 percent to $72.5 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 30. A 22 percent revenue increase at its Kaplan education division was the Post‘s saving grace, offsetting some…

Yesterday’s news contained an item about a Chicago-area company that had just completed the first phase of its housing auction series. The properties up for bid included single-family homes, unused land, apartments–more types of housing than you might expect. Although the word "auction" may conjure up images of a 4-H club–or bankruptcy, some of today’s housing auctions involve neither. Of course, RealtyTrac announced today that U.S. home foreclosures had risen 68 percent in November from a year earlier, according to Bloomberg; and so there clearly are bankruptcy-related auctions. (So many, in fact, that one company has launched an auction Web…

School funding, which is traditionally based on property tax revenue, has taken a hit as the housing industry has declined. A big hit. Nearly half of all property tax revenue is used for public elementary and secondary education, according to the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Decreased residential building and increased mortgage loan defaults have meant less money for schools than they might have hoped this year. Take, for example, Lee County in Florida. Recent numbers indicate school impact fee collections fell by more than $23 million this year–which won’t be easy to replace. Foreclosures, which have hit a high…

Jerry Howard, chief executive of the National Association of Home Builders, told CNNMoney.com last week that overbuilding was a key reason for the current housing decline–and he’s not kidding. At the end of October, there were 191,000 finished homes hanging out on the market, 14 percent more than last year, according to government data. The number swells to 500,000 if you include new homes about to be built. That gives us a housing supply of more than eight months–and a declining home price. As the housing supply grew, demand shrunk, and new home median price fell a record 13 percent…

According to a press release issued this week by ForSaleByOwner.com, real estate agents and brokers will collect $55 billion in commissions during 2007–a $19 billion increase from 2000. Really? During the housing slump? Well, housing figures always need to be looked at twice if they’re compared to numbers from several years ago–and 2000 predates the residential boom that we’re currently seeing a correction from. So perhaps, yes, agents and brokers are up in comparison. But you’d be hard-pressed to say they’re doing well. (Believe me–I just refinanced my mortgage, and if I even so much as made eye contact with…

Forbes has released its list of the biggest home sales of the year–and the top five were all in New York City. It’s been an unusual year for housing, but an even more unusual year for housing in New York. As the rest of the nation saw home prices and values drop, New York’s real estate market stayed stable and strong. According to ABC News, 2007 was a record-setting real estate year for Manhattan. Developer Harry Macklowe bought an entire floor in the Plaza Hotel (except for one apartment) during its conversion to private housing for $60 million, the new…