The total amount of inventory in January dropped from December. This goes against the housing market’s seasonal trends. Across the 34 cities we track, inventory decreased to its lowest point in three years. Currently, there are about 89,000 homes listed on the MLS across the 34 geographically diverse cities we track. This is a decrease of about 47 percent from the peak in September 2010, and 19 percent from January 2012.

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<iframe src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/movotoblog/2013/02/market-update/state-of-housing-market-2012-01-inventory.html" height="400px" width="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"/></iframe></br><a href="http://www.movoto.com/blog/market-trends/state-of-the-market-feb-2013/" target="_blank">State of the Market: Inventory Falls to Lowest Point in Three Years</a> By <a href="http://www.movoto.com">Movoto Real Estate</a>

At the same time that inventory fell, the monthly list price per square foot marginally increased from $169 in December to $173 in January. A year ago this figure was $155. Two years ago the price per square foot sat at $162. Essentially homes on the market today are more expensive than in the past two years.

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<iframe src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/movotoblog/2013/02/market-update/state-of-housing-market-2012-01-price.html" height="400px" width="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"/></iframe></br><a href="http://www.movoto.com/blog/market-trends/state-of-the-market-feb-2013/" target="_blank">State of the Market: Inventory Falls to Lowest Point in Three Years</a> By <a href="http://www.movoto.com">Movoto Real Estate</a>

What does this mean for home buyers—especially first-time home buyers? It’s bad news. Today’s home buyers are paying for the mistakes of past homeowners.

To understand why this is, you need to understand the typical home-buying cycle, and how it’s been screwed up.

The Seven-Year Itch

The typical homeowner stays in a house for five to seven years. In a normal market, people who purchased houses between 2006 and 2008 would now be selling those houses and moving into new homes.

This cycle, however, has fallen apart, meaning that first-time home buyers have almost no homes to purchase and increased competition among the ones that are on the market.

How did the market get this way? Five to seven years ago, the housing industry was inside an unprecedented housing bubble. And then the bubble burst. Homes people purchased lost significant value, and many home buyers ended up paying more for a home than it was worth.

Fast forward to today, and we are still feeling the effect of the bubble’s collapse.

The Troubles of Being a First-Time Home Buyer

Because the five-to-seven-year-homeownership cycle is broken, first-time home buyers are having a difficult time locating property. While the reasons for this can be traced back to the housing bubble, there are six specific problems.

1. Those who purchased homes five to seven years ago aren’t rushing to sell their property. Why? Like most sane people, homeowners want to recover some of the money they invested in their property. They are waiting for the market to improve before putting their home up for sale.
2. Those homebuyers who can afford to sell fear not being able to purchase a new home, so they aren’t selling. (Remember standing around at the high school dance wondering who’s going to be first to ask a girl to dance?)
3. Banks, like underwater homeowners, are keeping properties in foreclosure off the market until prices increase. Instead, lenders are favoring loan modifications and short sales.
4. Though inventory is low, there are homes for sale. The problem is they are higher-quality homes being sold by homeowners who purchased their properties more than seven years ago. This means they are outside of most first-time home buyers’ price range.
5. First-time home buyers will need to look hard to find a deal. Since the market crash, private equity companies have purchased large amounts of foreclosed homes, which typically sell at a 15-percent discount. First-time home buyers are now competing for normal sales.
6. For now, investors are in love with real estate. First-time buyers who need to finance their purchase will qualify for a fixed purchase price, and it is unusual for them to have the financial strength to go beyond that price. Investors have cash (that’s why they’re called investors, remember?) and a slight price increase is OK for them if it wins the deal.

California leads the way in Top Ten Cities with Major Inventory Level Drops

The top 7 major metros with the biggest year-over-year drop in inventory are all California:

1. Sacramento -75.11%
2. Oakland -66.77%
3. San Francisco -61.41%
4. Long Beach-56.19%
5. San Diego -49.34%
6. Los Angeles -48.68%
7. Fresno -47.62%
8. Portland -43.18%
9. Denver-39.02%
10. Houston -35.02%

The lesson for January is that the market is stacked against most first-time home buyers, at least until someone gets on the dance floor.

This post was written by David Cross

+ David Cross is a writer for Movoto and former journalist. He attended Ohio State and Florida State universities.

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<iframe src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/movotoblog/2013/01/som/state-of-housing-market-2012-12-inventory.html" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="400px" scrolling="no"></iframe></br><a href="http://www.movoto.com/blog/market-trends/january-2013-state-of-the-market-inventory-is-down-way-down/" target="_blank">State of the Housing Market</a> By <a href="http://www.movoto.com">Movoto Real Estate</a>

According to Movoto Real Estate data, throughout 2012 there was a steady decline in the number of homes on the market. By December, inventory declined 27% from the same month of the previous year for our 35 city sample.

Typically, the market follows a seasonal pattern. The number of available homes rises in January and reaches a high point during the late summer and early fall. Inventory drops during the colder months of the year, reaching a low point in December. In 2012, inventory pretty much only went done.

During the final month of 2012, inventory dropped by 9,551 homes, or by about 9 percent. At the end of November there were 105,077 homes available, while in December there were 95,526. For comparison, in 2011 inventory dropped by about 8 percent between November and December. In 2010, inventory dropped by about 5 percent between November and December.

Why was there a lack of inventory? Homeowners have been reluctant to sell their homes, either because they are underwater or they believe prices will continue to increase. In addition, there has been an increase in investor demand coupled with a decrease in bank foreclosures.

When these factors are viewed together, they help explain why home prices in 2012 climbed upward.

Median Price Per Square Foot

Prices are up about 10% year-over-year for our 35 city sample.

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<iframe src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/movotoblog/2013/01/som/state-of-housing-market-2012-12-price.html" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="400px" scrolling="no"></iframe></br><a href="http://www.movoto.com/blog/market-trends/january-2013-state-of-the-market-inventory-is-down-way-down/" target="_blank">State of the Housing Market</a> By <a href="http://www.movoto.com">Movoto Real Estate</a>

Normally, the median price per square foot reaches its annual high point in the warmer months, the peak season of the housing industry. For example, in April 2011 the median price per square foot topped out at $180, and in June 2010 this figure reached $161 before falling. In 2012 the median price per square foot reached $172 in November.

What was the cause of this price increase? As we mentioned above, the biggest reason for the price increase is simply the fact that there are fewer homes available now than in both 2011 and 2010. This led to an increase in home-buyer competition for what limited inventory remains.

Unless this trends changes, in 2013 the housing market will continue to see more of the same–fewer, more expensive homes on the market.

Las Vegas Tops List of Best Places to Sell a Home

Las Vegas is the best place to sell a home, according to SpotProperty’s, the data analytic arm of Movoto Real Estate, latest analysis.

Sin City moved up three spots to take the No. 1 position because of an increase in the price per square foot of homes. In December the median price per square foot for a home was $344, an increase of about 28 percent compared to the same time in 2011.

Meanwhile, San Diego climbed up the ranks thanks to a significant change in the number of days a home remained on market. In December a home in San Diego sold in 51 days, which represents about a 29 percent decrease in time compared to the same period a year ago.

Rounding out the top three is Phoenix. The Valley of the Sun remains a strong area for home sellers, but the city fell one spot because of gains made by Las Vegas and San Diego.

Overall, the makeup of the top-10 list remained relatively stable compared to Fresno, which climbed from the 12th position to the sixth.

The Top Ten Cities For Sellers:

1. Las Vegas (+2 change in standing)
2. San Diego (+2)
3. Phoenix (-1)
4. Mesa (-3)
5. Los Angeles (+3)
6. Fresno (+ 6)
7. Oakland (-2)
8. San Francisco (-1)
9. Portland (-3)
10. Long Beach (0)

SpotProperty’s analysis examines some of the country’s largest cities to determine the top areas for home sellers. The metric uses a combination of market statistics, which includes a city’s median list price and median days on market.

This post was written by Chris Kolmar

+ Chris Kolmar is the Chief Economist at Movoto. He enjoys developing new real estate tools, reading about real estate, and Diet Coke.

Recently, Movoto Real Estate looked at some of the country’s biggest cities to learn which metropolitan areas have seen the largest decrease in inventory over the past year. The majority of these cities (six of 10) were clustered in California.

The 10 cities with the largest decline in inventory were:

1. Sacramento
2. San Jose
3. Las Vegas
4. San Francisco
5. San Diego
6. Fresno
7. Los Angeles
8. Boston
9. Seattle
10. Denver

Sacramento

The Sacramento real estate market has seen the largest drop in inventory since this time last year. On October 1, 2011 there were 3,525 homes available on the market. Since then Sac-Town has seen a 72 percent decrease in inventory. Today, there are 982 homes on the market.



 
This tremendous drop in inventory has led to an increase in the median list price. A year ago a home listed at $137,000. Twelve months later this number has risen by 42 percent, and now stands at $195,000.

San Jose

The Bay Area is among the hardest hit in the lack-of-inventory game, and San Jose helps lead the pack. In the past year there has been a 62 percent decline in the number of homes on the market. In October 2011 there were 1,721 homes on the market. Whereas today there are 642 homes available for would-be home buyers.

This decline has caused an increase in list price. List prices in San Jo’ have spiked 20 percent in the past year, going from $499,900 a year ago to $600,000 today.

One bright spot is that the percent of distressed properties in The Capital of Silicon Valley is at 13 percent. While this is nowhere near the 32 percent this figure reached a year ago, it means there are still deals to be had for frugal home buyers.

Las Vegas

The Sin City housing market is anything but lucky. In the past year inventory has dropped 59 percent. Today there are 3,675 homes on the market. A year ago there were 8,895 homes.



 
If we examine the Las Vegas housing market, it leans toward sellers. Homes are taking about two and a half months to sell and prices are much higher than 12 months ago. During the past year, the list price of a home in Las Vegas skyrocketed by 46 percent, increasing by $55,100. A year ago a Las Vegas home cost $119,900. The current list price is $175,000.

San Francisco

 
The City by the Bay has seen a 58 percent drop in inventory in the past year. This comes as no surprise to anyone who’s been keeping track of the San Francisco housing market. At the start of October, there were 1,822 homes on the market. Today there are 761.

In addition to low inventory, San Fran has few, if any, distressed properties on the market. Today only one percent of the properties are distressed. This is bad news for home buyers looking for a deal, as properties that go on the market will be luxury homes.



 
Of course, this says little of the cost to live San Francisco. The median list price has increased by 29 percent, going from $659,000 to $849,000. This is a $190,000 increase–good news for sellers, bad for buyers.

San Diego

 
San Diego’s inventory dropped by half in the past year. While a year ago there were 3,474 homes on the market, there are now 1,731. As with other cities on this list, San Diego has seen an increase in list price and a decrease in the area’s percentage of distressed properties.



 
At the moment the median list price for a San Diego home is $545,000, up from $391,900 a year ago. This comes in at a 39 percent increase.

At the same time, the percentage of distressed properties is at a low of 4 percent. Twelve months ago this number hovered around 14 percent. While San Diego isn’t as bad as San Francisco, a low percentage of distressed properties means there are few deals to be had.

Fresno

Inventory in Fresno has dropped by 48 percent in the past 12 months. Today it stands at 739, while a short year ago this number stood at 1,416 homes.



 
In conjunction with the decrease in inventory, the city’s listing price has increased by 18 percent. Today the median list price is $187,000—a year ago it was $158,888. Again, low inventory is not a strong indicator of a buyer’s market.

Los Angeles

 
Los Angeles homes for sale dropped by 42 percent in the past year, going from 4,223 homes last year to 2,374 homes.
 

 
At the same time, the percentage of distressed properties decreased. A year ago 23 percent of the homes on the market were distressed. Today this number hovers around 11 percent. This means that many homes that sold in the past year were distressed. While 11 percent is not a low number, many of the best home deals have probably already been found.

Boston

Inventory in Beantown is down by seven percent compared to a month ago, and 40 percent compared to a year ago. At the moment, there are 1,220 homes on the market. This is a slight drop compared to the previous month when there were 1,139 listed homes. One year ago there were 2,026 homes on the market.



 
As with many other cities, Boston’s percentage of distressed properties is lower than normal. Right now this number is at 2 percent, the same as it was a month ago. Last year the percent of distressed properties was at 3 percent.

Seattle

 
Compared to a month ago, Seattle’s inventory has remained roughly the same, increasing by a modest 1 percent. At the moment, there are 1,899 homes on the market. Last month there were 1,878 homes.



 
Still, compared to a year ago, this number has fallen drastically. The home of Starbucks saw a 37 percent decrease in inventory in the past 12 months. There were 3,011 homes on the market at the beginning of October last year and there are now 1,899 homes on the market.

In addition to low inventory, the percentage of distressed properties is low—2 percent at the moment.

Denver

 
The Denver real estate market has seen a significant drop in inventory in the past year. Today there are 2,532 homes on the market, down from 3,763 a year ago. This represents a 33 percent decrease in inventory.
 

 
Along with a drop in inventory, there has been a drop in the percentage of distressed homes on the market. A year ago 4 percent of the homes in Denver were distressed. Today 2 percent of homes in The Mile-High City are distressed. This means that frugal home buyers might have a difficult time finding a home deal.

Proof can be seen in the increased listing price of a home in the area, up 18 percent in the last year, and the increased median price per square foot, up 11 percent in the same time frame.

This post was written by David Cross

+ David Cross is a writer for Movoto and former journalist. He attended Ohio State and Florida State universities.

Source: Flickr user El Frito

If you’re considering buying in San Francisco, you might want to rethink your plan. Fog City is facing what we at Movoto Real Estate like to call one huge friggin’ housing bubble, with numbers falling across the board for potential home buyers. (A similar thing is also happening in nearby San Jose.)

The bubble’s presence translates to a number of things–none of them good for buyers–for the San Francisco real estate market:

• a steady drop in total inventory

• increases in the median price per square foot

• and the continued decline of available foreclosures and short sales

Your best bet is to hunker down and wait for the imminent burst, unless you’re looking to sell. In that case we’d advise you to take advantage of the bubble.

Where Did All the Homes Go?

Total inventory in San Francisco is down 72 percent from two years ago, with 2,075 homes on the market in 2010 compared to only 578 homes today.

Inventory has also affected the median days on market, which dropped 52 percent in the past year. The average number of days a home spends on market rests at 30, while exactly a year ago that number was 63 days on market.

Understandably, homes are selling more quickly nowadays because there are fewer homes to go around.

Slim Pickings for the 99 Percent

The market percentage of distressed properties is by far the largest problem for anyone trying to move to the city–the number has dropped so ominously low that it’s becoming impossible to find an affordable home in the city.

Whereas two years ago distressed properties were at 14 percent, short sales and foreclosures now make up only 2 percent of the total market. That’s an 85 percent decrease since 2010.

In other words, there are virtually no properties in the city for people with the average income to buy. The best option–really the only one at the moment–is to rent if you want to relocate.

San Francisco, the Rich Man’s City

The median listing price is one of the few housing market numbers on the rise, and risen it has. The latest data shows that the median list price for San Francisco homes is currently at $819,000–an increase of more than $200,000 since last year.

The median price per square foot is at $585, up 13 percent from a year ago when it was $499 per square foot. The gap between the increase in list price and price per square foot means that current market inventory falls in the “luxury” category.

The $800,000-plus price tag for a home seems all the more absurd considering the median household income in SF County is only around $70,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

So unless you happen to be a billionaire, you should probably steer clear of shopping for a new home in the city. Even then it would be an unfortunate way to spend your piles of money.

This post was written by Kristin Crosier

Kristin Crosier is a staff writer for Movoto and a graduate from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She also enjoys editing (oddly enough), and has a Minor in Professional Editing.

The value of having professional photos taken for your house listings has been thoroughly documented. A well-composed photo using professional quality equipment can make a huge difference in how potential buyers perceive your listing, as the Wall Street Journal reported two years ago.

But recently, the photographic spotlight has been stolen by an application created for the amateur photographer. Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook in April in an epic (and oft-derided) 1 billion dollar deal, has 50 million users and counting. With its simple interface and roster of filters, Instagram is making artistic photography accessible to anyone with a smartphone.

Businesses are quickly capitalizing on the possibilities of the application, including real estate companies like Century21. With the right filter, any house photo can be transformed into an object of nostalgic desire.

So which Instagram filter will sell your house? It depends on what your house looks like, and who you’re selling to.

Normal

Hashtagged as #nofilter, this default setting is preferred by those concerned with an appearance of authenticity. #nofilter is a bragging right. It implies that your subject is aesthetically blessed enough not to need digital manipulation. This non-filter will appeal to cynics and those who have been burned in the past by misleading real estate photos.
House style:

• Any. Just make sure to emphasize the fact that you didn’t use a filter.

Toaster

This sepia filter is best suited to homes with a rustic feel. Houses with natural wood siding would fit well with this filter’s gold and brown tones. Toaster can evoke memories of warmth and comfort for those suffering through the tough winters of temperate climates. It can be used to “fake” a sunny day, if your photo was taken on an overcast one.
House style:

• Adobe
• Log houses located in any region where cowboy culture has a niche.

 Inkwell

The classic black and white filter. The high contrast adds an understated elegance and emphasizes strong lines. You might use this filter if your house’s exterior color is underwhelming, or if your original shot had poor lighting.
House style:

• Modern
• Post-modern
• Any other style in which form trumps color scheme.

Nashville

This filter renders crisp images with a purplish tint. The top border has tiny numbers in the style of an old-school film strip. Use Nashville if your target audience includes creative types who like to imagine their lives as a movie.
House style:

• Sunset Boulevard-style French mansions.

1977

Another retro filter with a crisp, Polaroid-esque white border. This filter will appeal to anyone familiar with the art of shaking a fresh Polaroid to make it develop. With its washed-out colors, pictures with the 1977 filter resemble vacation snapshots faded by the sun.
House style:

• Ranch
• Lake houses reminiscent of family vacations

The Verdict

There are at least a dozen more filters available, but these five provide a good introduction to the possibilities of Instagram marketing. Instagram’s currency is nostalgia, and there’s no more fertile breeding ground for nostalgia than houses. People are more likely to invest in something if it reminds them of their childhood home or something they saw once in a movie. With apps like Instagram, photo manipulation is now accessible with a tap of the screen.

This post was written by Kate Folk

Kate Folk is a writer for Movoto. She's from Iowa and now lives in San Francisco. She also writes fiction.

That’s a large chunk of change that will make a gaggle of 20-somethings rich. It also means these newly minted rich will have more to spend on housing.

Using a conservative analysis we estimated that Facebook’s coming out party will increase property value in trendy Bay Area neighborhoods and cities by $1 to 2 billion.

“Competition to buy listed homes in desirable Bay Area zip codes is already discouraging for the average home buyer.” said Mark Brandemuehl, VP Marketing & Business Development at Movoto. “The Facebook IPO will only add to the millionaires competing to buy a small number of homes and it seems inevitable that prices will be driven up.”

An Expert Opinion

To come up with our estimate, we asked Carole Rodoni, president of Bamboo Consulting a Bay Area real estate expert, how the Facebook IPO would affect the area. Her response, unsurprisingly, was that property prices in hip areas will spike, and that overall property prices will rise.

Rodoni estimated that property value in fashionable areas will increase anywhere from 5 to 10 percent. This is on top of the area’s typical appreciation. She expects this mini housing bubble to last between a year and 18 months.

To be clear those trendy areas are:

• Pacific Heights;
• Noe Valley;
• South of Market Area in San Francisco;
• Hillsborough;
• Atherton; and
• Palo Alto.

Rodoni calls these new renters and homebuyers “shuttle babies” because they prefer to move back and forth between areas. It also means these shuttle babies are looking to move to areas “that you can walk and within four blocks you get your whole life.”

By prayitno

How the Math Works

To figure out how Rodoni’s estimate would translate into a dollar amount the Movoto team divided the trendy Bay Area locations into two parts, cities such as Hillsborough and neighborhoods in San Francisco.

For the cities, we used Census data to calculate the number of owner-occupied households in the area. After learning this figure, we used housing data to calculate the 75th percentile of current home list prices–or, the most valuable homes on the market, which the wealthy are more likely to purchase. We then applied the estimated 5 to 10 percent price increase to homes priced at the 75th percentile and above.

For the San Francisco neighborhoods we used a similar process. We estimated the number of owner-occupied homes and then followed the same method.

A Comparison with Google

One way in which Realtors are gauging how this latest IPO will impact that area is by looking at previous high profile startups going public. A common example would be Google.

In this case, however, any comparison is difficult, mostly because the housing market is vastly different from when the search engine expert hit the stock market.

In the early 2000s, the East Bay saw a tech blowup and the government began a push for homeownership. This made getting a loan much easier, but also fueled the bubble market.

“Everybody wanted to get into the real estate business rather than owning real estate as a home,” Rodoni said. “What happened was from 2000 to 2005 we had this euphoric real estate market.”

The difference is this latest IPO generation aren’t trying to game the system. “These people are wealthy; they have money,” she said. “They are not going to try to day trade real estate.”

Will The Facebook IPO Create a Mini Housing Boom?
by: Movoto

This post was written by David Cross

+ David Cross is a writer for Movoto and former journalist. He attended Ohio State and Florida State universities.

Movoto.com is bringing the market to you!

Want a custom market trends widget on your local real estate market for your blog or website? Well, look no further because Movoto has widgets! 

Introducing our new Movoto Market Trends widget to add to our growing set of real estate tools for the web-savvy buyer and real estate agent. Read more about it on the San Francisco Chronicle’s website, but check out this brief excerpt:

Movoto’s Market Trends widgets are available for over 2,000 cities in Movoto’s 30 state coverage areas. The widgets provide customized graphs of monthly homes for sale inventory and median list price of all homes in a local real estate market. Graphs can be customized to show a specific city, different real estate market statistics and from 6 months to 2 years of data.

 

To build your own custom Movoto Market Trends widget, visit www.movoto.com/tools/market-trends. It’s fast, easy, and will give your real estate blog or webpage an added touch of local relevance and color.  Give it a whirl and let us know how you like it!

This post was written by Lauren Tyson

Lauren is Movoto's resident Social Media Manager. She takes real estate, Facebook, and mustaches very seriously.

Photo: http://www.dsnews.com/articles/housing-recovery-starts-in-2011-says-panel-of-industry-experts-2010-05-21

When will the housing market recover?

Whether you’re a homeowner, real estate agent, real estate company, bank, politician, or just someone who’d like to buy a home sometime soon, that question is one that just about everyone’s asked at one point or another over the last few years.

Truthfully, we here at Movoto aren’t sure when any sort of recovery will finally occur, but we do have a possible road map to a housing recovery, courtesy of U.S. News.

Please keep in mind that this may or may not be a good plan; it’s just simply a plan among many being currently thrown about. But if we were to follow this outline, the steps would follow as such:

More Jobs and Further Economic Growth

This may be a “duh” statement, but high unemployment, particularly among 25- to 34-year-olds, is going to prevent a housing recovery. Economic recovery has to happen long before housing can correct itself. Simply put, “the pace of job growth needs to double before it translates into the broader economic growth needed to bolster a housing recovery.”

Clear Up Foreclosure Processes

Lenders robo-signing foreclosure paperwork, court delays in select states, government probes into mortgage-lending practices, and other factors have caused foreclosures to slow down and backlog to increase. Until processes are made clear and lenders are completely sure about how foreclosures should be properly processed, a housing recovery will elude the country.

Speed Up Foreclosures Processes

The U.S.’s shadow inventory needs to hit market. According to a professor of real estate finance at George Mason University by the name of Anthony Sanders, “The longer this goes on, the longer the foreclosure inventory will perpetuate and the longer we’ll be stuck in a rut.” Unfortunately, when these homes in shadow inventory hit the market, home prices will continue to tank. Sadly, this is what it will take for a recovery to happen.

Bank of America strategist Chris Flanagan put it this way:

“The implications of what we’re seeing is that you have to have prices go down before they go up,” he says. “At a minimum, things need to make it through the pipeline. Having it sit there is a dead weight on the economy and it ultimately creates more downside potential because of the backlog.”

Decrease the Inventory

The only way for inventory to be reduced is to lower prices so more people will buy homes, a tactic which “should help boost prices in the long run, and price appreciation is good for the housing market”. But bankers and servicers don’t want to decrease prices too much, because they might take big losses — and stick taxpayers with the tab.

Have Monthly Rents Increase

Finally, after the economy and jobs market right themselves, the last step would be to turn home renters into homeowners by increasing their monthly rent. More families will buy homes if you make renting cost more than buying. At this moment, it’s already cheaper to own than buy, but with the economic volatility currently plaguing the country, they have no interest in buying. That would change once the U.S.’s economic situation improves.

———————–

Stephanie Huskey is the resident real estate blogger for Movoto and she personally thinks the housing recovery won’t happen until the government implements conservative policies and gets out of the real estate business. (Again, that’s just me.) Interested in getting her advice on your blog? She’s currently seeking guest blogging opportunities so she can share her knowledge with new communities! You can find her over here at Elance.com.

This post was written by Stephanie

Stephanie Huskey is the resident real estate blogger for Movoto.

What Austin didn’t realize was that, by building a home this size, he was joining the tiny house movement.

And make no mistake, it is a movement.

Homes under 500 square feet are beginning to catch on here in America, due in large part to their low monthly costs, small environmental footprint, and overall low cost (many people who own a home this size have no mortgage). In this article, we talk about 5 small pieces of novelty real estate that are sure to capture your heart in a big way.

That being said, here are the 5 homes we’ve highlighted, from largest to smallest.

Photo: http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/5-tiny-homes-youll-love-big-time.html

Name of Property: Z-Glass

Designer: Tumbleweed Tiny House Co.

Takes Up: 370 square feet

Cost of Building It Yourself: $26,000

Cost of Construction Plans: $595 to $795

Notable Information: Can choose any sturdy, long-lasting exterior finish (rolled hot steel siding pictured); home features small fireplace, washer-dryer combination, tankless water heater, dishwasher, full-size range with oven and built-in microwave, and air conditioner option.

Photo: http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/5-tiny-homes-youll-love-big-time.html

Name of Property: Shotgun Shack

Owned By: Gary and Debra Jordan

Takes Up: 320 square feet

Location: Siloam Springs, AR

Building Cost: $20,000

Notable Information: Monthly expenditures total $125 for lot and combined $130 for utilities; house includes kitchen/dining area with full-size appliances (refrigerator, stove, oven, microwave, and stackable washer and dryer), living room with built-in couch/full-size guest bed, master bedroom with full-size bed and dresser, loft bedroom, shower, toilet, and sink.

Photo: http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/5-tiny-homes-youll-love-big-time.html

Name of Property: Painted Lady

Builder: Tiny Texas Houses

Takes Up: 312 square feet

Location: Round Top, TX

Building Cost: $95,000

Notable Information: Low taxes and energy costs ($35 to $45 per month in summertime); built using “Pure Salvage Building” techniques; house features six-color exterior, unique stained-glass windows, front and back porches, king-size Murphy bed, loft area, built-in couch/bed, Sub Zero fridge, under-counter freezer, two-burner induction cooktop, microwave, bathroom river-rock floor, and shower walls constructed from late-1800s galvanized interlocking roof shingles.

Photo: http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/5-tiny-homes-youll-love-big-time.html

Name of Property: Bodega

Designer: Tumbleweed Tiny House Co.

Takes Up: 261 square feet (Studio/1BA) or 356 square feet (1BR/1BA)

Cost of Building It Yourself: $22,500 (261 sq ft); $29,500 (356 sq ft)

Cost of Construction Plans: $695

Notable Information: Both sizes sport a dishwasher, full-size range with oven, built in microwave, and tankless water heater; the 261-square-foot model includes a full bath, kitchen (equipment above), fireplace, loft bedroom, and washer-dryer combination; the 356-square-foot features a loft bedroom and actual bedroom, as well as a closet equipped to fit a stackable washer and dryer.

Photo: http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/5-tiny-homes-youll-love-big-time.html

Name of Property: XS House

Designer: Tumbleweed Tiny House Co.

Takes Up: 65 square feet

Ready-Made Cost: $38,997

Cost of Building It Yourself: $16,000

Cost of Construction Plans (Download): $99

Notable Information: Has to be built on a trailer; only space enough for one person; house features two closets, built-in desk and couch, loft bedroom big enough for queen-size matress, stainless steel fireplace, optional small air conditioner, shower, small water heater (which provides only enough heat for a 5-minute shower), fridge, stainless steel counter, under-sink hot plate, and a low-flush toilet like an RV’s.

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Stephanie Huskey is the resident real estate blogger for Movoto and she’s not sure she could live in any of these super-small homes. (Her current apartment is around 930 square feet, which is about as small as she wants to go.) Interested in getting her advice on your blog? She’s currently seeking guest blogging opportunities so she can share her knowledge with new communities! You can find her over here at Elance.com.

This post was written by Stephanie

Stephanie Huskey is the resident real estate blogger for Movoto.

Photo: http://www.bamaremodeling.com/

While it may be true that remodeling activity suffered a decrease in 2011′s third quarter, it conversely reached a new record high back in September.

Those two statements may seem to contradict each other, but they really don’t. It turns out that, year-over-year, September 2011 saw a remodeling activity rate increase of 34%, according to the most recent Residential BuildFax Remodeling Index. Throughout the country, every region saw an increase in remodeling — 2.9% in the Northeast, 4.6% in the West, 4.9% in the Midwest, and a notable 9% in the South.

What are Americans choosing to remodel the most? The breakdown comes out looking like this:

1. Roof (21.4%)
2. Deck (7.9%)
3. Bathroom (6.9%)
4. Garage (6.1%)
5. Kitchen (4.8%)
6. Basement (2.9%)
7. Office (1.7%)
8. Sunroom (0.7%)

So why the resurgence in remodeling? Basically, it boils down to economic and financial reasons. Many Americans don’t have the funds to move, so they instead choose to refinance their mortgages (thanks to “the historically low interest rates, now under 4.0 percent for 30-year fixed rate mortgages”) and use that extra money to renovate their home in order to up the comfort and habitability quotients, and possibly even the overall value of their home. (Although there are some renovations that aren’t worth the cost.)

BuildFax’s Vice President of Research and Development, Joe Emison, explains it this way:

“Mortgage rates continue to be near record lows, and as homeowners from coast to coast refinance, they are continuing to update their current home and invest in their properties. … The data from BuildFax show that homeowners are not only doing important ‘maintenance’ projects, such as fixing their roof, but also taking on projects that add to the ‘livability’ of their homes by adding decks, remodeling their bathrooms and updating their kitchens. These are immediate fixes they will enjoy and that potential buyers look for.”

What’s more, expect this trend to continue for a while — the Federal Reserve says interest rates will stay low until 2013.

Sounds like a good time to fix that roof.

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Stephanie Huskey is the resident real estate blogger for Movoto and would like to wish all her American readers a very safe and happy Thanksgiving! Interested in getting her advice on your blog? She’s currently seeking guest blogging opportunities so she can share her knowledge with new communities! You can find her over here at Elance.com.

This post was written by Stephanie

Stephanie Huskey is the resident real estate blogger for Movoto.