BusinessWeek has named St. Albans Vermont's "most affordable" suburb.
"Housing prices across the nation are being flattened by the worst economic crisis in decades," Prashat Gopal writes, "but it's still not necessarily easy to find affordable suburbs.
A recent study by the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) shows first-time homebuyers reached their highest market share on record during the past year.
The number of first-time buyers rose to 47 percent of all home sales, up from 41 percent in the previous year's study.
An independent review of VHFA’s single-family home loan portfolio shows property values increased by 24 percent compared to values at time of purchase.
The median increase in individual home values in VHFA’s portfolio was 14 percent.
“During this recession we’ve heard a lot about homes dropping in value, but properties in VHFA’s portfolio are doing well. This is evidence of the fiscal strength of the Agency,” said Executive Director Sarah Carpenter.
We noticed that Vermont's largest city ended up on two lists at CNN.com recently.
Burlington ranks #4 on CNN's list of cities with the lowest number of foreclosures: 1 in 8,006 housing units.
Elsewhere on the site, the Queen City's listed as having the 23rd highest rental rates anywhere in the country.
According to the quarterly National Delinquency Survey conducted by the Mortgage Bankers Association, Vermont is faring better than most states in terms of delinquencies and foreclosures.
Only six states have a lower rate of serious delinquency and only 15 have a lower rate of loans in foreclosure, as of June 30, 2009.
This survey is estimated to cover approximately 85 percent of all first-lien mortgages outstanding.
The Center for Research on Vermont is presenting a free seminar for data professionals this month: Research-in-Progress Seminar #222: "Counting Vermont in the 21st Century: The 2010 Census and Changes to Data on Our State and Communities."
Today's Wall Street Journal article "Vermont Mortgage Laws Shut The Door on Bust — and Boom" examines Vermont's low rate of foreclosure and attributes it, in part, to banking regulations and land use practices.
Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) (formerly the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight [OFHEO]) announced its first quarter 2009 home sale appreciation index in May.
This is a good data source because it measures true appreciation — meaning same house price changes — instead of tracking median sales prices.
Vermont
Excerpt taken from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's "Multifamily Property Managers' Satisfaction with Service Coordination" report:
A recent study evaluated the level of satisfaction among property managers with the provision of service coordination that links residents of HUD-assisted, multifamily housing to needed supportive services.
The Center for Housing Policy today released a report that shows Burlington, Vermont, is the 33rd most expensive metropolitan area in the country for housing rentals.
For homeownership, Burlington ties with Sacramento, Calif., as the 56th most expensive in the nation.
(San Francisco takes top "honors" on both lists.)