More people are flocking to the South, according to a list from Penske Truck Rental on the top moving destinations from last year.

Atlanta once again tops the list, which was compiled through online consumer truck rental reservations by Penske from 2011.

“As this list indicates, U.S. residents continue migrating primarily toward warm weather areas,” says Don Mikes, Penske’s vice president of rental.

Here are the top places the company says people are moving to:

Atlanta
2. Phoenix
3. Orlando, Fla.
4. Dallas/Fort Worth
5. Chicago
6. Houston
7. Denver
8. Seattle
9. Sarasota, Fla.
10. Charlotte, N.C.

Source: Penske Truck Rentals

With affordability at an all-time high, the number of investors and international buyers taking advantage of bargains has reached a record number in all-cash purchases — and some experts predict that number will only grow higher.

A record 33 percent of existing-home sales were made to cash buyers in February, the National Association of REALTORS® recently reported. The proportion of cash deals could hit 40 percent by the end of this year, predicts Thomas Popik, research director for Campbell Communications in Washington, which conducts monthly surveys of 3,000 real estate brokers.

“Lenders have only been willing to lend to the cream of the crop in terms of credit scores,” says Walter Molony, an NAR spokesman. “As a result, you’re seeing a depressed level of traditional buyers.”

But it’s not just investors moving in: Many of these cash deals are also coming from a growing number of international buyers. About 55 percent of international buyers paid cash for their U.S. homes, according to an April 2010 report by NAR.

The Cash Buyer Advantage?
Cities where about half of all purchases were done with cash include Detroit, Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix, in which prices have dropped considerably and foreclosure rates remain high, says Oliver Chang, a housing market analyst with Morgan Stanley.

Short sales and foreclosures accounted for 59 percent of last year’s cash sales, according to a report by Morgan Stanley.

“You buy the house at a discount with cash. Then you flip it almost immediately to the first-time home buyer who’s using a mortgage, simply because they were not able to buy at the foreclosure sale,” Chang says.

Lenders increasingly reject mortgage applications for foreclosed properties because appraisals are often too far below the agreed-upon price or the transactions take too long to close, says Popik.

With tightened lending standards, cash purchases can provide buyers with more leverage and allow buyers to close properties more quickly.

Mike Simmons Troy, a Detroit real estate investor, says that if a house is listed at $40,000 and a buyer offers $35,000 cash, “nine times out of 10, the bank will take the cash.”

Source: “Cashing in on Bargains,” Detroit Free Press (April 10, 2011)

Understanding the tenets of title insurance is especially important considering the turmoil in the real estate industry.

Title insurance is intended to protect the insured from improper titling, including defects in foreclosure proceedings, forgery, or impersonation or cases in which no title is legally conveyed. Other defects are partial, such as a neighboring fence or garage encroaching on the insured person’s property.

The title insurance industry recently set down strict guidelines for when and if they will insure a title to a property on which there has been a foreclosure.

The buyer should be equally vigilant, insisting on a 60-year search and paying for an owner’s policy as well as the lender’s policy that the bank will demand.

Source: Washington Post, Harvey S. Jacobs (11/27/2010)

The tightly built, tiny home is one small segment — no pun intended — of real estate sales that is doing relatively well.

For instance, the Tumbleweed Tiny House Co., which designs and builds homes that are less than 500 square feet, has gone from selling 10 blueprints to 50 blueprints a year. The Tiny House Blog attracts 5,000 to 7,000 visitors a day. A new firm, Little House on the Trailer, has sold 16 houses this year for $20,000 to $50,000 each.

Contractor Stephen Marshall, who owns Little House on the Trailer, says, “A lot of families are moving in with one another. A lot of young people can’t afford to move out. There’s just a lot of economic pressure to find an alternative way to provide for people’s housing needs.”

Source: Associated Press, Terence Chea (10/29/2010)

Under Fannie Mae’s new lending guidelines, which will take effect Dec. 13, securing a mortgage will become easier for some borrowers and more difficult for others.

These new rules will allow buyers to use gifts and grants from nonprofit groups for their minimum 5 percent down payment. Freddie Mac is also considering similar new guidelines, according to spokesman Brad German. Borrowers previously were required to contribute a minimum 5 percent down payment from their own funds, with additional down payment money permitted from a gift.

These new rules are “definitely going to help upgrade buyers and young couples who for whatever reason don’t have enough money and are getting some from their families,” said Edward Ades, the owner of broker Universal Mortgage. The gift rules apply only to single-family principal residences and cover mortgage amounts in excess of 80 percent of the property’s value. The loan balance also has a limit of $729,000 in high-cost areas like New York City and $417,000 in other areas.

At the same time, Fannie Mae is cracking down on debt-to-income ratios, with the maximum ratio for those seeking a conventional mortgage set to drop from 55 percent to 45 percent under the new guidelines. Fannie Mae is also increasing its scrutiny of payment histories on revolving debt, and buyers who have missed a payment will have 5 percent of the total balance added to their ratios.

Under the new rules, borrowers who have gone through foreclosure will be excluded from obtaining a Fannie-backed loan for seven years, an increase from the previous limit of four years.

Source: The New York Times, Lynnley Browning (11/21/10) © Copyright 2010 Information Inc.

Hanley-Wood’s ProSalesOnline.com identifies seven trends that the magazine’s editors believe will have the biggest impact on housing in 2011.

1. Big builders are wringing the extras out of construction costs and dropping the national average cost-to-build 36 percent to $52 per square foot.

2. Starting in 2011, Energy Star will ramp up its efficient design and quality installation standards. To get Energy Star certification, builders will have to install the right insulation, HVAC systems, and other features related to energy efficiency correctly every time.

3. Sheds are the next evolution. As homes get smaller, a separate shed will become a popular home addition.

4. There are 81 million “Echo Boomers” who were born from 1981 to 1999, compared to just 78 million Baby Boomers born from 1946 to 1964. These children and grandchildren of Boomers will drive home-building for years.

5. By 2015, demographers say, more than two out of every five households occupied by Generation Y people born between 1981 and 1999 will be WINKs (women with incomes and no kids).

6. Make room for the “Sandwich Generation” – Baby Boomers living with both their kids and their parents. These families like having two master suites, a second cooking area, and lots of storage.

7. Baby Boomers want to keep working and continue to live where they have always lived. They want a first-floor master bedroom near the washer and dryer and lots of convenient storage.

Source: ProSalesOnline.com (October 2010)

Some of the country’s biggest real estate investment trusts, ranging from Simon Property Group Inc. to Kimco Realty Corp. to Nationwide Health Properties Inc., raised their quarterly dividends this month.

More commercial property companies are expected to follow suit in the weeks and months to come. The higher quarterly payouts reflect the better occupancy levels and higher rents, which are boosting the income pool for dividends.

That is a stark contrast from the last few years, when REITs were busy slashing or suspending dividends to preserve cash and ride out the recession. Since the first of this year, dozens of REITs have reversed course.

Brad Case, vice president of research and information at the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, confirms, “The operating fundamentals in commercial real estate seem to be getting better in the major markets in general.” This week, he will make his bullish case about real-estate stocks at the REIT World conference in New York.

While conditions are indeed improving, dividends still are not as lucrative as they were at the height of the market in 2005 and 2006. Mike Kirby, director of research for Green Street Advisors, reasons that most REITs are trying to be conservative.

Source: Wall Street Journal, A.D. Pruitt (11/17/10)

State attorneys general are increasing the pressure on lenders to modify more mortgages in order to settle their multi-state investigation.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who is spearheading the 50-state probe, told the Senate Banking Committee this week that the attorneys general won’t settle without a standardized loan-modification agreement among lenders and servicers.

Miller also said that the attorneys general would like to penalize lenders that don’t fix their loan-modification systems.

Those close to the investigation say the attorneys general hope to wrap up the probe in December.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Vanessa O’Connell and Victoria McGrane (11/17/2010)

The National Association of Home Builders said Tuesday that its monthly survey of builder sentiment rose to 16, the highest level since June.

“Though the gains have been incremental, the fact that builder confidence has improved over the past two months is encouraging,” says Bob Jones, chair of the trade organization.

The index dropped to 13 in August and September, the lowest level since March 2009. It rose to a revised reading of 15 last month, but continues to reflect a grim industry outlook.

Readings below 50 are considered negative. The last time the index was above 50 was in April 2006. Many observers don’t expect things to improve much in 2011.

“The market is not going to have a significant improvement going into next year,” Ticonderoga Securities analyst Paul Przybylski says. “It’ll probably be 2012 before we get off the bottom.”

Source: Associated Press, Alex Veiga (11/16/2010)

Despite record-low interest rates, an increasing number of Americans can’t afford to buy a house.

The nation’s two largest mortgage lenders, Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp., have raised the minimum required credit score on FHA-insured loans to 640 from 620.

Requiring a 640 credit score excludes about 15 percent of FHA borrowers, FHA commissioner David Stevens said.

Such a high limit will further delay a recovery in the real estate market, says Ron Phipps, president of the National Association of REALTORS®.

Source: Bloomberg, Jody Shenn and John Gittelsohn (11/17/2010)