Housing Rebounds, Sky Green - Motley Fool

Try not to step in it today, housing bubble watchers. Once again, the real-estate cheerleaders and compliant 'journalists' out there will be trying to put lipstick on the pig with the bogus headline of the day. It will read 'Housing Rebounds,' 'Home Starts Up,' or some other nonsense.

Don't fall for it.

Quick Take: Housing Rebounds, Sky Green [Fool.com] March 20, 2007

Media Watch: Front Page - Who's Raising The Rent?

Interesting exposé of the REI and the SMH by ABC's Media Watch, who are increasingly moving to the right these days in their reporting.

Media Watch: Front Page - Who's Raising The Rent? (26/02/2007)

Housing costs dim appeal of bright city lights

Shared equity schemes are one of the weakest things you can do in terms of reducing land speculation and land bubbles, but we are coming to expect more and more such neo-liberal policies from a Labor party without any real ideas.

Poor housing affordability in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane had forced an increasing number of first-home buyers to flee the city or remain in regional areas, said Simon Tennent, the association's executive director of housing and economics.

Improved job opportunities in many regional areas - highlighted by the lowest national unemployment rate for 30 years - has encouraged this trend.

'The attraction of the bright lights and the big city, like great job opportunities and that sort of thing, has faded somewhat over the past few years,' Mr Tennent said.

Despite recent weakness in parts of the Sydney housing market, it remains one of the most expensive cities in the world relative to average incomes.

Federal Labor's housing spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, said on Friday that a Labor government would consider a federal role in shared equity schemes to assist people on low incomes to enter the housing market.

Housing costs dim appeal of bright city lights

Seeking Curbed-Cost Appeal, Builders Cut Homes' Price And Size

Why doesn't NSW 'Labor' do affordable housing on state-owned lands instead of selling them off to the highest bidder in an asset sale to try to reduce its half-billion dollar deficit?

Now that overheated markets such as Miami are cooling fast, Related's talking up another kind of product: affordable homes.

Miami-based Related, the nation's largest condo developer, has trotted out a rebranded "affordable housing division," to build condos for buyers priced out of the market.

The firm has presold 497 of 500 loft condos in a planned downtown Miami high-rise. They're priced from $159,000, about half the median price of existing condos. That's a fraction of the price of many new condos, which often now go unsold.

Related expects to make a return of around 15%. That's about half what its luxury units typically fetch, but the company's not complaining.

"You make less money, but the demand for this type of housing is so great that the volume you can do justifies the concession on the returns," said Oscar Rodriguez, senior vice president of Related's affordable housing division.

Yahoo! Personal Finance