Immigration and the Housing Market

There are many hot topics right now and immigration is definitely one of them. The history of immigration starting around 1600 shows us the United States has been a country that always received immigrants. Several organizations have done research on the impact immigrants can have on housing demand. Let’s look at some of those results:

 Research done by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) in 2012 states: “Assuming net immigration of 1.2 million (the low end Census Bureau projection for 2010) persists for 10 years, the model estimates that after 10 years new immigrants will: account for close to 3.4 million US households occupy more than 2 million multifamily units and more than 1.2 million single family homes account for more than 900 thousand homeowners”
The Research Institute for Housing America also projects “that from 2010 to 2020 immigrants will count for over one-third of the growth of homeowners and over one-quarter of the growth in renter households.”
 For those looking for local data, a research study performed by AS/COA and Partnership for a New American Economy, provides an interactive map showing “the net change in a county’s immigrant population from 2000 to 2010 and the corresponding effect on median home values.”

 Bottom Line, if we look at the conclusions made by multiple sources, we see that they agree that immigrants will revitalize less desirable neighborhoods and support the housing market. Each group is seeking greater economic opportunities just like the immigrants in past decades that came to United States.

How To Raise a Family of 4 in a 1,200 sq. Foot Home

Written by y Katherine Marinko for Treehugger: 

 Living in a small house doesn't have to be a battle against lack of space, but rather requires a certain lifestyle adjustment, at which point it becomes wonderful.

 The house that I live in with my husband and two children is small. At 1,200 square feet, it is considerably smaller than the average family home in North America, which measures 2,800 square feet in the U.S. and 2,000 in Canada.(continued)

How FICO Changes Will Increase Homebuyers Odds for Mortgage Approval

DailyFinance.com has a good explanation of some major changes in the way the all important FICO scores are being calculated by the three major credit reporting companies.

Mortgage applications with borderline FICO numbers are frequently avoided by lenders, often unfairly. 

According to The Wall Street Journal, of the 106.5 million consumers with a collection on their report, 9.4 million had no balance. Those 9.4 million American won't be penalized under the new credit-score system. 

Unpaid medical bills will now carry lower weight compared to non-medical debt going to collections. "The median FICO score for consumers whose only major derogatory references are unpaid medical debts is expected to increase by 25 points," according to FICO's release on the new model.

Where 100+ Experts Say Home Prices are Headed

Today, many real estate conversations center on housing prices and where they may be headed. That is why we like the Home Price Expectation Survey. Every quarter, Pulsenomics surveys a nationwide panel of over one hundred economists, real estate experts and investment & market strategists about where prices are headed over the next five years. They then average the projections of all 100+ experts into a single number.

  

The results of their latest survey(Via Keeping Current Matters)

• Home values will appreciate by 4.6% in 2014.
• The cumulative appreciation will be 19.5% by 2018.
• That means the average annual appreciation will be 3.6% over the next 5 years.
• Even the experts making up the most bearish quartile of the survey still are projecting a cumulative appreciation of 11.2% by 2018.

Individual opinions make headlines. We believe the survey is a fairer depiction of future values.