Pending Home Sales Surge In Lancaster County

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pending sales of homes in Lancaster County soared 27.1 percent in October, a new report says.

Pending sales numbered 413 last month, up from 325 in October 2011, according to the Lancaster County Association of Realtors.

With the October figure, pending sales here have increased for 13 consecutive months.

The tally also marked the highest October pending sales since October 2006.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/787043_Pending-home-sales-surge-here.html#ixzz2DeXHILA8

In San Francisco, High-Rises By The Bay

The San Francisco Peninsula (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ROUGHLY two decades ago, during an earlier Internet start-up boom, many entrepreneurs and fast-typing coders and engineers set up shop in a still-gritty area of this city:  South of Market Street.

The young tech crowd rented — and sometimes bought — in commercial buildings in this former warehouse area, converting them into “work-live” spaces where they operated their nascent companies and slept (once in awhile).

The boom-and-bust cycles in the tech sector move quickly, and the pace of constant reinvention and innovation is relentless.

The same is true of tastes in real estate.  Today a new generation of tech dreamers is back in the South of Market area.  But this time they are breathing life into a start-up wave not previously seen in San Francisco:  high-rise condo living.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/21/realestate/in-san-francisco-glass-and-steel-condos-rising-by-the-bay.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&hpw

The Most (And Least) Livable States

Editor’s note:  Another poll showing the top ten and bottom ten states.  Pennsylvania does not appear on either list but several states around us make one or the other.  Some surprises and some expected results.

A new poll suggests that today’s relatively affluent states are likely to still be among the best places to live in the future. But residents in those states often are less optimistic about the future than those in poorer states.

Check out the results here: http://money.msn.com/investing/the-most-and-least-livable-states

Pending Home Sales Up 28.9% In Lancaster County

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pending home sales grew by 28.9 percent here in April, the Lancaster County Association of Realtors said Friday.

Last month saw 495 pending sales here, up from 384 in April 2011, according to the Realtors group.

With the April surge, pending home sales in Lancaster County have climbed in 11 of the past 12 months, including the last seven in a row.

“We’re going in the right direction, and that’s exciting stuff,” said Quentin Miller, LCAR president. “I’m cautiously optimistic about the trend. This is the best we’ve seen in years.”

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/651268_Pending-home-sales-up-28-9–in-Lancaster-County.html#ixzz1vWZ0jWNT

Lehigh Valley Housing Market Continues To Rebound

The Lehigh Valley housing market continued to rebound in April, with sales and prices up from a year ago.

A total of 466 homes sold in April in Lehigh and Northampton counties, up 24.9 percent from the same month a year ago, according to the Prudential Patt, White Real Estate HomExpert Market Report. The median sale price was $170,000, up 6.3 percent from a year ago and up 8.4 percent from the median sale price in March.

April was the tenth consecutive month of year-to-year sales increases and it was the second straight month of price increases. If the sales pace and price trends holds, it will mean the local housing market bottomed out last year.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-home-sales-april-20120521,0,518533.story

24/7 Wall Street’s Best And Worst Run Cities List

Image via Wikipedia

Editor’s note: No city in Pennsylvania made either list.

According to 24/7 Wall Street the best run city in America is Virginia Beach, VA.  This city of 439,172 residents has a Aaa credit rating, a low crime rate, a low poverty rate and 93.1 percent of the adult population have graduated from high school.  These among other factors catapulted Virginia Beach to the top of the list.  Irvine, CA and Madison, WI rounded out the top three.

On the other end of the spectrum (definitely the list you DO NOT want to be on) is Miami, FL.  This city of 400,892 people has a high crime rate, a high poverty rate and a very low percentage of adults who graduated from high school (68.2 percent).  Other members of the wall of shame are Detriot, MI, Newark, NJ. and Cleveland, OH.

Census: Housing Bust Worst Since Great Depression

WASHINGTON—The American dream of homeownership has felt its biggest drop since the Great Depression, according to new 2010 census figures released Thursday.

The analysis by the Census Bureau found the homeownership rate fell to 65.1 percent last year. While that level remains the second highest decennial rate, analysts say the U.S. may never return to its mid-decade housing boom peak in which nearly 70 percent of occupied households were owned by their residents…

Read more: http://www.ydr.com/business/ci_19055810