Housing data

The Vermont Economy Newsletter released its annual housing affordability analysis yesterday.

Art Woolf, the report's author, states

The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has published its Housing Market Profile for Q4 2010 for the Burlington/South Burlington area.

Some highlights:

Today's story on the front of the Burlington Free Press, "Census sense: Housing, population data in Chittenden County crisscross," tells us what a lot of people working with housing data already knew: Numbers can be difficult to interpret.

Writer Joel Banner Baird ponders housing numbers that seem to be growing faster than population.

According to last week’s release of Census 2010 results, no Vermont county was spared the population growth slowdown that occurred in the state during the past 10 years.

In fact, three counties (Rutland, Windsor, and Essex) lost population in the most recent decade.

Vacancies figures for Vermont released yesterday might give a false impression of the amount of available housing in the Green Mountain State.

New numbers from the 2010 U.S. Census show Vermont has a 20.5 percent vacancy rate. While that number may be accurate, the devil's in the details: That statistic includes Vermont's substantial stock of "vacation" homes — units that may, in fact, have no one living in them year-round, but are also unavailable for sale or rental.

The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) reported to Congress yesterday "worst case housing needs" grew by more than 20% from 2007 to '09. That figure represents a growth of 1.2 million households.

On average, closing costs rose 37% in 2010, according to Bankrate.com's annual survey of the closing costs for a $200,000 home purchase mortgage.

Home buyers faced increased origination fees from lenders and increased fees from third parties for items such as appraisals and title insurance.

"Location, location, location" has long been held as a primary factor in real estate sales. Turns out the same might be said for successful home loans.

New research from Ohio State University reveals low-income homeowners who get their mortgages from a local lender — within 10 miles of their new home — were less likely to default on their loan than borrowers who go with more distant lending institutions.

Chip Sawyer from the Center for Rural Studies (CRS) at the University of Vermont appeared on TV and radio yesterday, talking about the release of the 2010 Census numbers. (See our post from yesterday: "Census: Vermont population up 2.8% over past decade.")

Vermont’s total population is 625,741, according to the first set of data released from the 2010 Census.

This represents an increase of 2.8% from the count in 2000 — a dramatic slowing of the population growth rate compared to the 8.2% growth between 1990 and 2000. Only six states grew more slowly than Vermont between 2000 and 2010.