Homeownership Rate Climbs From Lowest Level Since 1995

[Purveyor]

By Prashant Gopal - Nov 5, 2013
The U.S. homeownership rate climbed from the lowest level in 18 years, signaling that the real estate rebound is drawing in more buyers.

The share of Americans who own their homes was 65.3 percent in the third quarter, up from 65 percent in the previous three months, the Census Bureau reported today. The prior level was the lowest since the third quarter of 1995.

Rising real estate values are removing negative equity, helping homeowners avoid foreclosure, while also luring would-be purchasers into the market before prices and mortgage rates go higher. The pool of eligible buyers is expanding as U.S. employment improves and families who lost properties during the recession repair their credit and seek another chance at owning.

Americans whose properties were repossessed were once “homeowners by choice and now they are renters by chance,” Richard Smith, chief executive officer of Realogy Holdings Corp. (RLGY), owner of brokerage brands Coldwell Banker and Century 21, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “They will repair their credit and be back in the market as homebuyers. We don’t grow up in the country aspiring to be renters. We aspire to be owners.”

Home prices jumped 12 percent in September from a year earlier, the 19th straight annual increase, Irvine, California-based CoreLogic Inc. said today.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-05/homeownership-rate-climbs-from-lowest-level-since-1995.html

[leftstreet]

1. Institutional investors - record highs

24 October 2013
Home purchases by institutional buyers reached a record high in September and all-cash buyers accounted for almost half of sales as investors responded to rising demand from renters.

Institutional purchases accounted for 14 percent of sales, according to a report today from RealtyTrac. That was the highest share since the real estate data firm began in 2011 to track transactions by that group, which it defines as buyers of 10 or more homes a year. All-cash sales rose to 49 percent from 40 percent in August and 30 percent a year earlier, a sign that rising mortgage rates since May have kept some people out of the market and that smaller investors are stepping up purchases.

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Wall Street’s influence on the residential real estate market is growing as the biggest investors, Blackstone Group LP (BX) and American Homes 4 Rent (AMH), have together bought about 60,000 homes across the country to benefit from low prices and rental demand from millions of former home owners who have lost properties through foreclosures.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-24/families-blocked-by-investors-from-buying-u-s-homes.html