It’s been a rough five and a half years for the American homeowner. Since the housing bubble reached its peak in early 2007, Americans have watched helplessly as $7 trillion in housing wealth evaporated.
At many points during this ugly plunge, pundits have erroneously called the “bottom” of the housing market – saying things could finally get no worse. And then they got worse………………………………………..Full Article: Source

It’s been a long time coming, but America’s housing market finally seems to be normalising. Construction has been so low since the beginning of the bust that many markets are experiencing increasingly tight conditions.
That’s supporting rent increases, and that, in turn, is putting a floor under home values and leading to an uptick in construction. The question is: how large an uptick?……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Confidence among U.S. homebuilders jumped more than forecast in May, reaching a five-year high that signals an improving outlook for construction. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of builder confidence rose to 29, the highest since May 2007, a report from the Washington-based group showed.
The gauge exceeded the highest projection in a Bloomberg News survey in which the median estimate was 26. Readings below 50 mean more respondents said conditions were poor………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like a rented apartment. That may be the mantra of U.S. households for the next three years, according to a new study released Tuesday by the Demand Institute division of the U.S. Conference Board.
Most Americans still hope to own a home, the study found — but that home will be smaller than the MacMansions of the housing boom………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Real estate agents, who spent the six-year U.S. housing collapse coaxing buyers off the fence, are now hunting for sellers as home inventories hover near lows last seen in 2005.
A scarcity of properties signals the housing market’s uneven recovery as purchasers trying to take advantage of record affordability run up against homeowners choosing to stay put in properties that aren’t worth as much as they owe………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Housing prices are going through the roof in Canada. The real estate market there is one of the hottest in the developed world. In Toronto, prices increased 10 percent in March alone. The average detached house in the city costs more than $600,000.
That has economists and the government worried that Canada is experiencing a housing bubble that’s about to burst………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Canadian existing home sales jumped 11.5 percent in April from a year earlier, boosted by a hot Toronto market, but modest price gains nationally and sluggish activity in Vancouver suggest the country’s housing boom may be cooling.
The latest data showed a growing divergence between Toronto and Vancouver, which have both seen bidding wars and foreign investment spur a post-recession property boom………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Canada’s banks, ranked the soundest on the planet by the World Economic Forum, aren’t immune to collapses triggered by falling housing prices, according to the government official implementing new mortgage rules.
Previous failures of Canadian financial institutions were due to bad real estate lending and sharp falls in housing prices, and these can happen again, Vlasios Melessanakis, manager of policy development at the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, wrote……………………………………….Full Article: Source

MRV Engenharia & Participacoes and PDG Realty SA Empreendimentos & Participacoes led a plunge among Brazilian real-estate companies after reporting first-quarter profit that fell more than forecast.
MRV lost 15 percent to 9.43 reais at the close in Sao Paulo, the biggest decline on the BM&FBovespa Real Estate Index, which retreated 4 percent. PDG, the country’s largest homebuilder by sales, fell 9.8 percent to 3.67 reais, making it the worst performer this year on the benchmark Bovespa index………………………………………..Full Article: Source

European commercial-real-estate markets are struggling with a sharp increase in problem mortgages just as more European countries slip back into recession. A growing number of landlords, hit with falling rents and occupancies, are defaulting on loans, and it is happening not just in the most-troubled parts of Europe but in big centers like London and Frankfurt.
Values already are down nearly 20% since their 2007 peak across Europe, according to CBRE Group Inc. Meantime, billions of euros of commercial mortgages are coming due, but little capital is available for refinancing………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Uncertainty in the real estate sector is keeping the Indian home buyers away, according to a survey. “While property still remains the preferred choice of investment of nearly all the Indians, as high as 92 per cent, they are pretty scared of trading in the property market now,” real estate market tracking news portal Track2Realty’s survey titled `Home Buyer’s Satisfaction Index’ said.
The survey further said that buyers are looking at other options including infra bonds for investment………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Rentals for office buildings in Beijing rose 48 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, while average monthly office rentals increased 12.64 percent quarter-on-quarter to 277.57 yuan per square meter, reports China Securities Journal, citing DTZ.
Monthly rents in some top office buildings hit 1,200 yuan per square meter, equivalent to similar office buildings in Hong Kong. The long-term nature of the property curbs on the residential market was the main reason for the flow of investments into commercial properties, according to the report………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Sales of new private homes in Singapore rose in April to a near three-year high, government data showed Tuesday, as transactions exceeded 2,300 units for an unprecedented third straight month amid resilient demand in the city-state’s property market.
The data come after National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan on Monday warned of further policy steps to cool “pockets of hot activity” in the property mass market—especially the emergence of “shoebox” apartments of 500 square feet or smaller—even as Singapore’s overall real-estate sector appears to be moderating in the wake of government intervention………………………………………..Full Article: Source

At last we can see some improvement in the property market in Sydney and to a lesser extent in Brisbane and the Gold Coast. The reason is definitely the lowering of interest rates. It is too early to say by how much the properties rose, but the effect is definite.
The migrant intake must grow by at least half a million people per annum. It is impossible to run a huge continent with 23 million people. It does not matter whether Prime Minister Gillard or Tony Abbott will rule the country. With migration rising there will be more need for accommodation and we must build more………………………………………..Full Article: Source