By: Boyce Thompson

What can you say about the fickle economic forces that drive the home building industry? Markets that were among the healthiest six months ago have lost favor, due to weakness in the oil and gas sector of the economy. They’ve been replaced in some cases by unexpected markets that have worked through job losses and foreclosures to reach a much brighter place.

Twice annually, Builder works with Hanley Wood Market Intelligence to compile a list of the healthiest housing markets in the United States, based on forward projections for the metrics that drive housing production–jobs, price appreciation, population growth, and income growth. The projections come from Moody’s Economy.com.

Earlier this year, markets in Texas and the Carolinas dominated the list looking at 2011 market-level forecasts, thanks to growth in the oil economy in the case of Texas, and strong population growth in the case of the Carolinas. Both regions also had on their side a recovery in home prices as they worked through foreclosure issues.

Economic conditions in the oil patch aren’t quite as favorable today. And some bloom has come off the rose in the Carolinas, where home prices in some markets have double-dipped. As a result, our forward-looking view of the 20 healthiest markets is a little different today.

A lot has happened in the housing market since we last compiled this list in February. We had a double-dip in home prices. Only a small improvement in employment occurred on a national basis. And the long-vaunted housing recovery, which most housing economists pegged for late this year, hasn’t materialized.

Rising home prices, job gains, and improvement in median incomes will drive the healthiest markets over the next year and a half. Moody’s projects that permit activity may double in some of the very hottest of these markets, as the long-awaited housing recovery takes hold.

Markets that benefit from military spending, or major universities, once again crowd the top of our list. Some markets hit the trifecta with military bases, big universities, and strong private sector employment. But several of the state capitals that appeared on previous versions of the list have dropped to the bottom due to fiscal problems that resulted in layoffs.

Here, without further ado, are the 20 healthiest housing markets based on forecasts through 2012. Though permits weren’t used to produce the market health calculations, we’ve included forecasts for total housing permits in 2011 and 2012 to give you a sense of how big the market is and how much it’s expected to grow over the next 18 months. See the Rankings! 

Source: Builder Online

Healthiest Housing Markets: Mid-2011 Update

2: Fort Collins-Loveland, Colo.

Health Index: 89.4

2010 Population Forecast: 299,630

2011 Total Building Permit Forecast: 1,004

2012 Total Building Permit Forecast: 1,650

The word is out about Fort Collins, which is regularly ranked among the best places to live in the country. Moody’s projects that the number of households in Colorado’s fourth most populous metro region will grow a hefty 2.7% next year, the highest on our Top 20 list.

Many new residents will be drawn by the prospect of jobs. Employment is projected to grow 2.6% next year, lifting median incomes 3.3%. Colorado State University is the biggest employer here. Most of the new jobs in recent years have come from the education and health services sectors. But high-tech firms such as Hewlett Packard and Eastman Kodak also employ thousands of people.

Housing production will receive a boost from these strong demographic forces. Moody’s projects that permit levels will rise 50%.

Read the full article here!

Where is home square footage the biggest? The largest homes tend to be out West, according to Realtor.com data, which reveals the median square footage of homes for sale in September. Here are the top five states with the biggest homes for sale from last month:

1. Utah
Median home size: 2,305 square feet
Median lot size: 10,019
Median price: $219,900

2. Colorado
Median home size: 2,126 square feet
Median lot size: 10,202
Median price: $275,000

3. Wyoming
Median home size: 2,052
Median lot size: 21,780
Median price: $226,500

4. Montana
Median home size: 2,040
Median lot size: 73,616
Median price: $250,000

5. Texas
Median home size: 2,031
Median lot size: 9,583
Median price: $174,900

Source

By Les Christie

Home prices have taken such a beating and demand for rental units has increased so much that it’s now cheaper to buy a two-bedroom home than to rent one in most major U.S. cities.

According to real estate web site Trulia, buying was cheaper than renting in 74% of the country’s 50 largest cities in July. In just 12% of the cities, including New York, Seattle and San Francisco, renting was cheaper. In the remaining 14% of cities, renting was less expensive but close to the cost of buying.

In addition to a continuing decline in home prices, rock-bottom interest rates have added a lot of weight to the buy side of the scale. The overnight average rate for a 30-year fixed was just 4.19% on Monday, according to Bankrate.com. A 15-year fixed averaged just 3.43%.

Add in the tax perks of home ownership and for those who can afford it (and who can actually qualify for a loan), it certainly is a buyer’s market.

“It’s a personal decision, of course. But if you have a steady job and you are planning to stay for seven years or more and have enough cash to put 20% down and enough left over for seven or eight months of expenses, you’re better off buying in most places,” said Daisy Kong, a spokeswoman for Trulia.

Source

By Tom Hacker Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

Under conditions that specify the former Agilent Technologies campus will house a tech-based manufacturing, research and product development center, Loveland city councilors late Tuesday approved its sale.

The $5 million agreement seems to pave the way for rapid development of the Aerospace Clean Energy Manufacturing and Innovation Park, or ACE, a project that brings NASA and a statewide manufacturing group together.

“Our goal is to move as fast as circumstances permit,” said Bill Murphree, senior vice president of Cumberland & Western Resources LLC, buyer of the property from the city.

“The sooner we get moving, the better,” he told councilors.

The deal came just three weeks after Kentucky-based Cumberland & Western emerged as the city’s pick to develop ACE at Agilent, in the 812,000 square feet of building space suitable for expansion on 130 acres. The city acquired the property from Agilent in June.

The closing on the sale is scheduled for “mid- to late December,” Murphree said.

Partners in the project, NASA and the Colorado Association for Manufacturing and Technology, project that as many as 7,000 jobs will result in Loveland and another 3,000 in the region.

Those jobs would be with manufacturing companies who would convert patents controlled by NASA, federal laboratories and universities into new technology products.

A key piece of the purchase and sale agreement is a deed of trust specifying the property will be used “for technology-related research, development, manufacturing” and that the emphasis would be on “aerospace, clean energy, bioscience … and similar sectors of existing, emerging and new high-technology.”

That component locks Cumberland & Western, for five years, into concentrating on the development of Agilent as a tech manufacturing center instead of some less-desirable use.

“Our vision is to rejuvenate good-paying jobs for our citizens,” Mayor Cecil Gutierrez said.

Murphree replied: “Aerospace and clean energy are very timely and very appropriate” uses for the campus.

The company’s decision to buy the Loveland site, at the northeast quadrant of Taft Avenue and Southwest 14th Street, was based as much on “intuition and gut feel” as a detailed analysis of the site and the project planned for it, Murphree said.

“We were looking for a place with an upward trend, not a downward one,” he said. “You’re going to be a significant beneficiary of the problems that other parts of the country are dealing with.”

Cumberland & Western, based in Bowling Green, Ky., has made commercial real estate purchases nationwide with similar technology uses in mind.

A 2.1 million-square-foot, modern manufacturing plant in Macon, Ga., abandoned by the Brown & Williamson tobacco company, is one example.

Murphree said Loveland city officials made such strong first impressions on him and fellow Cumberland & Western executive Buddy Steen that their decision was an easy one.

“We always ask, ‘Are the people we’re involved with people that we want to do business with?’” he said. “The answer was yes. … You continue to delight us.”