In a paper delivered to Congress last week, Ben Bernanke and his staff describe the complex and interdependent issues hampering today’s housing market.

Policy makers are challenged to find measures that “adapt the existing housing stock to the prevailing tight mortgage lending conditions” such as encouraging the conversion of foreclosed properties to rental properties and a housing finance system that is both less restrictive than the current environment without becoming as lax as during the prior decade.

Updated facts about mobile home parks now available from the Vermont Department of Community Affairs include: 

• The number of individual lots in the state fell to 7,194 in 2011.
• The number of vacant lots is 310 (or 4.3%).  
• The number of VT's mobile home parks rose to 248 in 2011, with the addition of Ledgewood Estates in Bolton containing five individual lots currently for sale to the residents and 3 Depot Street Mobile Home Park in Fair Haven-a three lot park currently bank-owned and for sale.
• The median lot rent is $302.

Read more about Vermont's mobile home parks.

A recent report shows that homeowners who received foreclosure mitigation counseling were nearly twice as likely to obtain a mortgage modification and at least 67 percent more likely to remain current on their mortgage nine months after receiving one. This not only helped stabilize the homeowners who would have otherwise lost their home, but also saved servicers considerable time and expense.

The largest migration to Vermont  came from New York, followed by Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Florida and Connecticut, according to an article in yesterday's Burlington Free Press based on U.S. Census Bureau 2010 American Community Survey estimates. The article explained that of the recent movers to Vermont,