State Houses

"Housing Slump Pinches States in Pocketbook" (NY Times, Apr. 7): "State tax revenues around the country are growing far more slowly this year and in some case falling below projections, a result of the housing market slowdown that has curbed voracious spending on real estate, building materials, furniture and other items... Nowhere is the downturn more apparent than in Florida, where tax revenue is projected to drop this year for the first time since the energy crisis of the 1970s... Those events not only threaten revenue streams for things like building materials and labor, but also affect spending on big-ticket items like cars and furniture, which many homeowners financed with home equity lines of credit... In one hint of how much Floridians were relying on property wealth during the real estate boom, 16 percent of new car purchases here were being made with home equity loans in 2006, compared with 7 percent nationally... In California, the percentage was even higher — about 30 percent, said Art Spinella, the firm’s president... Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada, the chief beneficiaries of the housing rush, are also expected to suffer disproportionately from the slump. From late 2005 to late 2006, existing home sales fell by 21 percent in California, 27 percent in Arizona, 31 percent in Florida and 36 percent in Nevada, the steepest drop in the nation... others expect the revenue lag to last two years at most, because with the exception of industrial Midwestern states like Michigan and Ohio, the economy remains relatively healthy.... Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman who has expressed worries about the housing market, has said he believes there is a one-in-three chance the economy will slip into recession in 2007.

Michigan's House of Representatives is fielding a bill that would provide property tax relief from the state's "pop-up tax".

Massachusett's Sec. of State is urging to Legislature to make foreclosures a little bit less automatic for those facing the possibility of losing their homes by forcing mortgage lenders to get permission from a local judge before seizing a foreclosed home.

Here's some in-depth info on Northern Colorado's housing market, primarily Mar. 2006 vs. Mar. 2007.

Las Vegas developer Jim Noteware takes a personal read on the direction of the Las Vegas residential real estate market in a series of essays.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason for the confusion, denial and dismay is that few local participants have previously been through anything like our current situation. The Las Vegas residential market has been so strong for so long that few know how to interpret and respond well to the new market signals they are receiving. Some are overreacting; some are not reacting at all. Very simply, few know how to behave and plan for the future when the old rules do not work as before... Three primary causes can be ascribed to the current real estate softness: overbuilding, media confusion and now, of course, buyer skepticism.

Yahoo and RealtyTrac have teamed up to beef up the search giant's foreclosure feature on its real estate page, which prominently features its mapping tools, including an option for a map-based search for foreclosures.

The Economist worries about overreach from legislators, many of whom are eager to score points with their constituents suffering from the sluggishness of the housing market in their home districts. In its characteristically dry tone, the magazine smacks at America's homeownership "fetish": Populist politicians may well make much of the contrast between a second house in the Hamptons and no house at all. Instead, they should stop making a fetish of homeownership. That people are free to borrow to buy their own home, should they wish, is fine. That politicians should encourage homeownership for its own sake is not. That they foster it with tax breaks, as they do in America, is daft.

CNN/Money link the housing slowdown to sluggish auto sales.

HUD is fielding more complaints, a 65% increase in 2006 vs. 1996.

For fiscal 2006, HUD said the basis of 40% of the complaints was disability, 39% was race, with familial status and national origin each accounting for 14%. Other reasons for complaints included sex, religion and retaliation. Complainants most often alleged discrimination in the terms and conditions of the sale or rental of housing, or refusal to rent.

HUD believes that this upsurge in complaints has resulted from its outreach and education efforts. Nonetheless, its staffing has been reduced by 20% since 1993.

In Austin, New Urbanism is arriving in the form of affordable homesteading at the cite of the city's extinct Robert Mueller Airport: Homesteaders adventurous enough to settle this new territory can register – through April 30 – to become one of the "Mueller Pioneers," the first 340 households to stake a claim at Mueller. Already, more than 4,500 Austinites enticed by the future New Urbanist community – on a 711-acre site east of I-35 near 51st Street that today looks like, well, an abandoned airport – have registered to receive information about possibly living at Mueller.