Hot Housing Markets

Accidental landlords Amy and Lawrence LeVine are having trouble unloading their one-bedroom condominium in uptown Chicago, within walking distance from jogging and biking trails off Lake Michigan. They would love to put in a renter, rather than take a loss on the sale, but their condo association already booted out their one and only tenant due to a rental time-limit clause in the association's bylaws.The unit has been back on the market now since February 2010, sitting empty ever since their renter had to leave. "We were breaking even on the rent," says Lawrence, "but our renter would've liked to have stayed. We would have liked that too."

The LeVines are in an increasingly common predicament. Existing condominium and co-op sales fell 28.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 460,000 in July from 640,000 in June, and are 24.0 percent below the 605,000-unit level in July 2009, according to recent data from the National Association of Realtors. The median existing condo price nationally was $176,800 in July, down 1.7 percent from a year ago. The heavy supply makes it a good buyer's market.

This may be tough news for a condo owner to hear, especially given tales of homeowners associations causing some homeowners to lose their homes. However, there is hope for condo owners or those looking to buy a condo.

Burlesque revivalist Dita Von Teese on Monday filed a lawsuit against her former landlord, whom she says "went on Mel Gibson-like anti-Semitic tangents, personally attacking [Von Teese's] Jewish managers and business partners" when she sought the return of her $5,000 security deposit.

Von Teese, who lived for four years in the nearly 1,600 square foot, three-bedroom, three-bath single-family residence a block off Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, claimed in the lawsuit that she followed move-out procedure, complete with a final walk-through with landlord Lallubhai N. Patel.

She claims that Patel initially agreed to return the security deposit during the walk-through attended on her behalf by her business manager Eric Foumberg, but later reneged, saying thsome walls needed repainting and all the woodwork needed to be refinished (The floors do look very shiny in the listing photos).

It is very common for landlords to keep all or part of the deposit to repair items that are damaged beyond "normal wear and tear." If you think you haven't caused excessive damage to your rental, see steps that you can take in "Six Ways to Make Sure You Get Back Your Security Deposit."

This would be something to read in the disclosure forms when buying a home: Seven bodies were buried on this property.

That probably isn't the exact wording on the legal documents for the buyers of 1426 F St. in Sacramento, but that's what they had to know before the home was recently auctioned to winning bidders for $215,000 -- a more than 50 percent drop from the $500,000 price the home sold for in 2005.

Maybe it was the falling housing market or the spookiness of owning a home used by a serial killer, but the former Sacramento boarding house owned by Dorothea Puente took a long time to sell after going into foreclosure in 2009, and having a last reported for-sale price of $335,750.

Puente started taking in disabled tenants in 1985. In 1988 police found the bodies of seven people buried there. Puente was convicted of three murders and is in state prison.

Why did the house sell now?

National housing prices showed modest increases in 17 cities tracked by The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, according to its Tuesday news release. A look at the top 20 markets shows that home prices in Chicago, Detroit and Minneapolis rose by 2.5 percent in June, just ahead of the 1 percent national average increase, while Las Vegas was the only city to show a decline. Phoenix and Seattle were both flat.

Although housing prices appear to have rebounded from critical lows, other recent housing indicators, such as the expiration of tax credits, homeowners with conventional loans sliding toward foreclosure, and the influx of past homeowners now renting and likelihood of underwater homes to increase show that the housing crisis is not yet behind us.

The national housing market may be in the doldrums, but Manhattan real estate is holding its own, at least for now.

Sales figures for July show that median prices on New York City apartments are up and inventory is down. And with the median sale price at $900,000, there doesn't seem to be a lack of money to spend on real estate. That contrasts with the national numbers for July, which show existing home sales fell 27 percent and new home sales fell 12.4 percent in July.

No one would argue that Manhattan's real estate market is not like the rest of the nation's. But experts are still asking: Can Manhattanites sustain this uptick in sales?

On the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the winds of change are still blowing in the Big Easy. The affordability of housing in the New Orleans area is worse than ever, due to the enduring damage of Hurricane Katrina. Thanks to the high costs of rebuilding apartment buildings and insuring them -- in a place where most residents are still poor renters -- New Orleans' rents are unaffordable for many. The median rent for a two-bedroom apartment has risen from $661 pre-Katrina to $982 per month. Many former residents have moved to the relatively affordable suburbs

Not long after University of Chicago systems administrator Vanessa Matthews, 49, separated from her husband, she experienced grave economic hardship. Not only did she lose her estranged husband's income, which had helped pay the $2,539 mortgage payment on the couple's duplex in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, but her mother -- who was renting the first-floor unit from her -- lost her job and couldn't pay the rent.

"Things had gotten pretty bad," says Matthews, who purchased her home seven years ago with a mortgage amount of about $250,000. "It was unbelievable to me that the banks weren't willing to work with me. I had never been late on my mortgage."

If she lost the house, not only would she have to find a new home -- but her mother and three teenage foster children would have to find a new place to live, too.

Matthews, who is African-American, is not alone. African-American and Latino homeowners have a disproportionate share of foreclosures nationwide compared with their percentage of homeownership, according to a new study conducted by the Center for Responsible Lending.

"Even though African Americans are 9 percent of the nation's homeowners, they make up 26 percent of the clients in the program," says Erin M. Angell Collins, a spokesperson for NeighborWorks America, the Congressionally created nonprofit that runs the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program. Latinos make up 8 percent of the nation's homeowners, a decrease from 11 percent in 2009, but 21 percent of the NFMCP program clients are Hispanic homeowners, Collins says. "They are in all stages of foreclosure or about to enter into foreclosure."

Why is housing discrimination of any kind still happening, and what can be done to prevent it?

Foreclosures in North Carolina are on pace to set a new record of 70,000-plus filings in 2010, eclipsing last year's record of 63,289. By the end of July there were already more than 40,000 filings, according to data analyzed by the North Carolina Justice Center.

Foreclosure activity slowed a tad in 2009, after lenders suspended some foreclosure efforts and as new state laws took effect -- including one that allows county courts to extend foreclosure sale dates to give homeowners more time to work with their lenders.

One out-of-work couple, Loraine and Kerry Slope, tried working out a loan modification with their lender to save their Charlotte home, reports the Charlotte Observer, but the growing interest rate, late fees and penalties on their $197,000 mortgage swelled the amount owed to $219,000, and they lost the home to foreclosure in May.

Although the Slopes' dreams didn't pan out, there could be hope for struggling North Carolina homeowners who are on the verge of losing their properties.

Who doesn't enjoy driving through a housing development and picking out the fantastic, the ugly and the over-the-top homes? If you're reading HousingWatch, the odds are even better, no?

Well, Top Ten Real Estate Deals is on the prowl for the "most unusual or quirky homes in the United States."

According to the website, what they're looking for are the 10 "most unusual or quirky homes in the United States." The site is looking for "homes that are truly different -- the kind of homes that make you say, 'Wow, look at that,' or, 'What were they thinking?,' or, 'I wish I were that brave,' " Jason Wakefield, web design director for the real estate website told NBC of Dallas-Ft. Worth. Of the houses that make the cut, the style and price can run the gamut.

But in today's tough housing market, weird might mean harder to sell. So how do potential candidates stack up in terms of value?

The head of the Philadelphia Housing Authority can relate better than most housing officials to the mortgage default problems facing many Americans. That's because Wells Fargo Bank has foreclosed on his $615,035 condominium in the upscale Naval Square development in Philadelphia. The amount in dispute is $386,685.22, according to Wells Fargo. As the PHA's executive director, Carl R. Greene is in charge of the country's fourth-largest public housing agency and is one of the city's highest-paid public officials. His salary is $306,370, and he received a $44,188 bonus last year. A spokesman for Greene said that he is involved in a dispute with his mortgage company. Greene, 53, has earned respect and praise for his efforts in reviving Philadelphia neighborhoods.

If real estate brokers in the U.S. are feeling upbeat about a recent run of good sales in the luxury end of the market, then their colleagues in London must be positively giddy over the recent sale of a $220 million penthouse in the city -- the highest-priced residential property ever sold in the U.K., or just about anywhere it appears. Ever.

The mystery buyer, believed to be (take your pick) a Russian oligarch, a Middle Eastern sheik, or a Nigerian oil mogul living it up on rising oil prices, will be the proud owner of a two-story, six-bedroom spread at One Hyde Park, a new development with park views, bulletproof windows, a panic room and, according to the developer's website, "ultimate perfection," when it comes to amenities and decor.

Even compared to some recent eye-popping sales in New York -- recall Mexican uber-billionaire Carlos Slim's $44-million contract for a Fifth Avenue townhouse -- the London price is a whopper, and reflects a return of super-rich buyers looking for trophy homes, brokers there say, while the overall market remains wobbly.

Sounds like a familiar story if you look at real estate on this side of the pond.

Everyone wants a deal and to get money off the listing price and Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban sure did that with their recent New York City penthouse purchase. They saved $2.5 million on their Chelsea apartment, paying $10 million for a $12.5 million listed property.

And that's not the only bragging right this married duo got with their new home. There is a suite component with these digs, giving it something no other New York building offers.

Homeowners aren't the only ones getting hit by the real estate recession. RE/MAX Partners, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla. franchise of real estate company RE/MAX L.L.C., is closing its doors after five years of deteriorating home sales. The largest RE/MAX brokerage in Florida, it experienced a 29 percent drop in business after the April expiration of the federal homebuyer tax credit. Also contributing to the decline were the aftereffects of Hurricane Wilma. Management is trying to help relocate the firm's more than 160 agents to other RE/MAX offices.

Back in 2006 former 'NSync singer Joey Fatone flaunted his colossal Orlando, Fla. mansion to the MTV community on their hit show "Cribs," where he allowed cameras to take a gander at his lavish lifestyle.

Come Sept. 11, Fatone isn't going Chapter 11, but he does plan to auction off the home that he has currently priced at $6.5 million. The starting bid is $3.7 million. The listing price was raised from a previous $5.5 million to match the appraisal price.

But in today's Orlando real estate market, is this a fair price?

It doesn't take much to scare off homebuyers these days, especially when it comes to open houses. The New York Times reports that New York City apartment sellers who ask buyers to remove their footwear before touring a property sometime risk turning them off before they even have a look around. Open houses gain most of their power from first impressions, and many buyers simply don't like the idea of having to bare their holey socks or ripe-smelling feet before considering what, after all, may be a multimillion-dollar purchase. Typical reasons cited for wanting open-house attendees to take off their shoes? Soft wooden floors susceptible to heel marks, and young children who crawl around on the rugs where people walk. Step off!