Thinking of Buying a Home or Investment Property, Now Could be the Time

A Strong Rental Market Makes It A Good Time to Buy

The cost of renting is going up in markets across the country, as the number of available rental units shrinks. According to investment research firm Marcus & Millichap, apartment vacancies fell 0.8 percentage points to a national vacancy rate of 4.4 percent in 2012, almost half that of the recession high, which saw vacancy rates of around 8 percent. Effective rental prices increased nearly 5 percent in 2012 and are expected to increase at similar rates in 2013. Prices may rise even faster than average in major markets with low vacancy rates like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Fueling Factors
The rising cost of rent is fueled by several key factors that make the trend likely to continue for the foreseeable future. During the recession, construction of many new rental developments was put on hold, causing the number of completed units to fall by over 50 percent. While rental unit completions are on track to match pre-recession levels in 2013, the dip translates to fewer units available now. The recession hit young people especially hard, to the point where 31 percent of households had young adults aged 20 to 34 living with parents. As those young adults find jobs and seek independence, and since financial companies tightened up their lending practices, demand for apartments should remain strong.

 

A Good Time to Buy
While the rental market is on a clear upswing, housing is still in recovery mode. Home prices and sales have stabilized since they hit bottom, but median sale prices remain almost $50,000 below pre-recession highs. Relatively inexpensive homes, low interest rates and increasing rents make it a good time to buy—especially because landlords can increase rent price each year according to the direction of the rental market. When home prices increase, homeowners build home equity that becomes profit if they decide to sell.

Housing: Best recovery bets

Charleston, S.C.


Median home price: $192,000

Value lost since 2006: 14.1%

Forecast gain through 2011*: 2.9%

Lovely, historic Charleston has a lot going for it but, for decades, growth wasn't one of them.

The core city lost population for decades until things started turning around in the 1960s. Since then the number of residents has increased to 100,000 from a low of about 60,000.

Economically, the city has ridden a tourism surge; it has added large numbers of hotels, bed-and-breakfast inns and restaurants over the past 40 years. And there has also been a jump in tech jobs.

Job losses have been a problem lately, however, with an unemployment rate of 10.2% in December, higher than the national average.

After recording modest home price declines over the past three years, Charleston is poised for a comeback, according to Fiserv and Moody's Economy.com. Prices will climb an average of 2.9% between now and September 2011.

Reprinted from CNNMoney.com

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/real_estate/1002/gallery.Housing_recovery_bets/8.html

Tis' the Season in Columbia to Decorate the State House Tree and Impeach the Governor ...

Oh the things we worry about in South Carolina ... As published on Yahoo! this morning.

While the legislature worries with such pressing issues as impeaching Gov. Sanford and the residents of South Carolina worry about jobs and unemployeement benefits, those walking by the State House in Columbia worry about the pressing issue of the Christmas Tree.



It wasn’t long after the state Christmas tree was in place in front of the Statehouse in Columbia Monday that Benita Jacobs was walking by as she talked on her cell phone.

“Well, the bottom of it, everything’s coming off, all the green limbs are coming off of it. And it looks kinda shabby looking. Looks like Charlie Brown,“ she said, referring to the cartoon in which Charlie Brown picks a small, pitiful tree with very few branches or needles.

LaTina Morris also complained, shaking her head in disbelief that the tree is so much shorter than in previous years. It’s also missing a lot of branches at the bottom in back and on the sides. “I can’t believe they’re putting that up,“ she said.

It’s not the first time there have been complaints or problems with the state Christmas tree. In 2003, the Columbia Garden Club had just taken over the responsibility of decorating the tree and members wanted it to really sparkle. When a company donated 40,000 CDs, the club used those to decorate the tree.

They did sparkle, catching the sunlight as they spun in the breeze. But the wind also sent some of the CDs flying off the tree and smashing on the sidewalk. So the club pulled them off and redecorated.

The next year, the club wanted to use a South Carolina-grown tree. It found a beautiful one in Horry County, but it was a different kind of tree than what’s normally used. The limbs on this tree grew up instead of out, so when workers cut off the bottom branches so it would fit in the ground, all the greenery around the bottom of the tree was gone. The tree looked butchered, with some calling what happened the “Columbia Chainsaw Massacre”.

So what happened this year? The club had been buying the state tree from North Carolina, but found a less expensive grower in Pennsylvania. There aren’t many places that grow trees large enough, so there aren’t many choices.

They found a suitable tree, but the grower bundled it for shipment the same way he does smaller trees, with netting that surrounds the tree. That broke off some of the branches, leaving the bare spots that passersby were complaining about.
This tree is also shorter than previous ones. The state tree is usually taller than the Confederate Soldier Monument that it stands in front of, but not this year. Jane Suggs, with the Columbia Garden Club, calls it a “recession tree”, since it is smaller and was less expensive.

After the 2004 incident, the Columbia Garden Club brought in smaller trees and placed them around the base of the larger tree. Since they were the same kind of tree, they blended in, filling in the gaps and making the tree look full and symmetrical. They’ll do the same this year.

It should be noted that the Columbia Garden Club and the South Carolina Garden Club pay for the state Christmas tree, not taxpayers. The Columbia Garden Club decorates it, with members volunteering their time and energy. The club also spent $6,000 on an electrical box for the tree’s lights and $1,500 for a new stand that’s built to keep the tree in place in hurricane-force winds.