The sales of existing homes dropped 4.1 percent last month, down 11 percent from July of 2005. But truthfully, the news could have been worse. Last week,
mortgage rates dropped a little, providing some hope a sales rebound might ensue.
The trend, for now, is so clear that some builders have soured on condos and are turning their units into apartments. And potential condo owners are fueling the cycle. They seem to be sitting on the sidelines, waiting to see where the market is going -- so they need apartments to live in for the short term.
The National Association of Homebuilders this week released a report about the condo-to-apartment trend. The association's Web site said:
"We are in the midst of a solid comeback on the rental apartment side of the multifamily housing market," said NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders, who noted that during the last three years, condos have made up a rising share of multifamily housing production.
"At the same time, thousands of existing rental units had been converted to for-sale units to meet what seemed an insatiable appetite for condos," said Seiders. "As a result, the supply of rental units is very tight at a time when the demand pendulum is swinging back to rentals," said Seiders.
By the way, I am told by inkies that newspapers profit when home sales are down, because real-estate agents have to advertise more and longer to move houses.
Most/Least Affordable Housing
The National Association of Homebuilders also reports:
In the nation's most affordable major housing market of Indianapolis, 87.4 percent of homes sold in the second quarter were affordable to families earning the area's median household income of $65,100. The median sales price of all homes sold in Indianapolis during that time was $120,000, which is up from $113,000 in the previous quarter and equivalent to the median sales price for Indianapolis homes sold in the final quarter of 2005. [See the entire survey here.]
Also near the top of the list for affordable major metros this time around were Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich.; Grand Rapids-Wyoming, Mich.; Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y.; and Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pa., in that order.
Five smaller metro markets outranked all others in terms of housing affordability during the second quarter, including Springfield, Ohio, as well as four Michigan locations: Bay City, Lansing-East Lansing, Saginaw-Saginaw Township North and Battle Creek, respectively.
Also maintaining its previous standing on the HOI was Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif., which was the nation's least-affordable major housing market for a seventh consecutive quarter. There, just under 2 percent of new and existing homes sold during the second quarter were affordable to those earning the area's median family income of $56,200. The median sales price of all homes sold in the area during the period was $521,000.
Other major metros at the bottom of the housing affordability chart included Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, Calif.; San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif.; New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J.; and Stockton, Calif., in that order.
Among metro areas smaller than 500,000 people, every entry at the bottom of the affordability chart was located in California, starting with Salinas as the least affordable and followed by Merced, Modesto, Santa Cruz-Watsonville and Santa Barbara-Santa Maria, Calif., respectively.
Here is some related content that the NAHB released along with the study:
Survivor Plans to Separate by Race
The next generation of CBS' "Survivor" TV show will separate its "tribes" by race. CBS.com reported:
Jeff Probst is back as host of "Survivor: Cook Islands" and spoke with "The Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith about the controversial new season, which premieres Sept. 14. ... [See the preview video online.]
Smith asked Probst whether the new way of dividing the "Survivor" contestants was a good idea for a reality show.
"Well, that's probably one of the reasons it will be interesting and controversial, maybe, as you say. I know, from where I sit, I found it to be one of the freshest ideas we've had going back to the beginning of this show in season one," said Probst.
Smith asked him if this new twist was taking the reality show too far.
"I think at first glance, when you just hear the idea, it could sound like a stunt. Especially with the way reality has gone, it wouldn't be unusual. But that's not what we're doing here. The idea for this actually came from the criticism that 'Survivor' was not ethnically diverse enough," he said. "Because, for whatever reason, we've always had a low number of minority applicants apply to the show. So we set out and said, 'Let's turn this criticism into creative for the show. I think it fits in perfectly with what 'Survivor' does -- it is a social experiment. And this is adding another layer to that experiment, which is taking the show to a completely different level."
How did the new players react when they were told they would be divided by race?
"The reaction was mixed. (Contestant) [Yul] wasn't sure. [Yul] was concerned we were going to turn this into something that would show stereotypes and reinforce them," Probst said. "On the other hand, you have people like Rebecca, who said, 'I don't really care how you divide it because I know that I need a certain amount of people to be on my side to help me get through this.' Ultimately, to win this game, you're voting people out that are then on the jury that have to come back and vote for you. So, the person who wins is actually going to do the best job of merging with all different ethnicities."
Smith asked Probst if he thought the tribal divides would divide the viewing audience as well.
"I think it's very likely," he said. "In fact, our original idea was simply to have the most ethnically diverse group of people on TV. It wasn't until we got to casting and started noticing this theme of ethnic pride that you're alluding to. So, yes, I think it's very natural to assume that certain groups are going to have audience members rooting for them simply because they share ethnicity. At the end of the day, I think it will come down to what it always comes down to: who do I like?"
Separation Pacts Get Generous
The South Bend (Ind.) Tribune dug around on a local story and turned up some stuff that you might keep in mind for future stories in your own news organization.
The paper started asking about a retiring local school superintendent's terms of separation from the district that had employed her. The superintendent was retiring before her contract, and had brokered a separation agreement that proposed allowing to let her keep some of the equipment that she'd used in her job, all of which was owned by the district. The proposal included allowing her to keep the car, computer equipment and cell phone that the district had given her to use in her capacity as superintendent. The newspaper found that the equipment, collectively, was worth something in the neighborhood of $11,000.
It turned out the school cannot give away stuff worth more than $5,000, but along the way, the paper learned some valuable facts: namely, that it is a common practice for superintendents to walk away with loads of cash -- especially when they leave before their contracts expire.
The Resignator
Oh yeah -- you have to play with this. It is an automated resignation-letter generator.
Choose your mood/tone, fill in a few blanks and the Resignator generates just the right letter of resignation for you. My editor, Meg Martin, and I got an early morning laugh out of this one.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas,
edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites,
as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes
directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be
provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends
upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors
and inaccuracies found will be corrected.
When public officials are forced out, they often get generous...
