Brodie Stephens- Broker Associate Selling Homes in Folsom | Placerville | Pollock Pines | El Dorado Hills | Elk Grove | Roseville | Rocklin

The Wall Street Journal

The nation’s average home size, which peaked at 2,500 square feet in 2007, is expected to shrink to 2,152 square feet by 2015, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

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http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2012/01/18/the-new-american-home-continues-shrinking/

California saw the third-lowest yearly housing permit total and the worst yearly total on record for single-family units in 2011, according to the California Building Industry Association (CBIA).

CBIA said a total of 47,015 permits were issued statewide last year for new homes, apartments, condominiums, and townhomes, up 5 percent from 2010 when 44,762 permits had been issued. The 2011 total still was down 28 percent from 2008, which had held the distinction of the third-lowest total on record with 64,962 permits issued. Records began being kept in 1954 with the lowest yearly total set in 2009 with 36,421 permits issued.

According to statistics compiled by the Construction Industry Research Board (CIRB), homebuilders pulled permits for a record-low 21,420 single-family homes in 2011, down 16 percent from 2010. Multifamily permits totaled 25,595, up 33 percent from the previous year.

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Building permits for single-family homes rose 1.8 percent in December to a rate of 444,000 units compared with November, according to a joint release by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.  Single-family housing starts rose 4.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 657,000.

An estimated 611,900 housing units were authorized by building permits in 2011. This is 1.2 percent above the 2010 figure of 604,600.  Approximately 606,900 housing units were started in 2011. This is 3.4 percent above the 2010 figure of 586,900.

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The San Francisco Chronicle

Banks may seize more than 1 million U.S. homes this year after legal scrutiny of their foreclosure practices slowed actions against delinquent property owners in 2011, RealtyTrac said.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/12/BUPF1MOFAU.DTL

• In coming weeks, federal policy makers could roll out pilot programs to further test the concept of renting out single-family homes.
• There are two different types of programs that officials are likely to consider.  Under the first, the Federal Housing Administration could sell properties in bulk to investors who agree to rent them out.
• A more likely option for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be to set up pools of properties in which third-party investors would take a stake.  Investors could be responsible for handling maintenance and day-to-day operation of the rental pool, with Fannie and Freddie sharing in some of the returns.

Read more about the pilot programs at http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2012/01/12/six-questions-on-foreclosure-to-rental-programs/.