Archive for the 'Pennsylvania Articles' Category

Realtors in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania expect house and condo auctions to benefit from the recent increase in the number of jobs in the metro area. The region posted its biggest year-over-year job increase in almost three years. Although the increase was less than the national average, housing market observers are optimistic that the rise will benefit the housing industry.

Most housing market analysts believe that an improvement in the employment market will help buoy the nation's housing market. Among local analysts, the same belief is reportedly prevalent, with most of them expecting that the more employed people there are; the more people there will be to purchase properties at Philadelphia foreclosure auctions and at non-foreclosure sales.

The recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that there might just be some additional potential buyers at Pennsylvania home auctions as non-farm employment in Philadelphia rose by 9,100 in February 2011 to reach more than 2.6 million compared with January 2011. Compared with February of last year, the increase was around 19,200, representing a jump of 0.7%. Although the increase was less than 1%, the annual rise was actually the largest for the area since April of 2008. However, the rate of increase was still below the 1% jump recorded nationwide.

Home sellers and realtors selling properties at home and condo auctions in the areas of Philadelphia, Wilmington and Camden metro regions are hoping that the rise will result in increased buying activities in the residential market. Meanwhile, for the Greater Philadelphia metro region which covers Philadelphia, Montgomery, Chester, Bucks and Delaware counties, the job increase between February of this year and February 2010 was around 22,500.

Residential sellers at foreclosed houses at auctions in these counties have welcomed the BLS report which showed that 3,600 jobs were added to the hospitality and leisure industries, while 6,700 more people were employed at the health service and education sectors. Most housing market analysts believe that the jump in employment will precipitate increased selling and buying activities in the residential market in the coming months.

Although distressed properties at house and condo auctions are expected to increase in almost all regions of the U.S. throughout 2011, analysts believe that improvements in the job market will help keep the housing market stable. In Philadelphia, residential market observers and residents are expecting that the additional jobs will make the recovery of the residential property market much faster than initially projected.

For those seeking foreclosure investing tips, the most common one that they will get from real estate agents in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is to market to young people and invest in properties in the downtown part of the city. The number of young residents living in this part of the metro has increased considerably in the past few years.

The number of foreclosed properties at home auctions in Philadelphia, in Pittsburgh and in the rest of the state has not been as high as in most U.S. regions. However, Pittsburgh has had its own economic and housing industry problems, with the city facing budget concerns and pension shortfalls. However, the metro area is getting revitalized by the flood of young people relocating to downtown dwellings.

The young demographic has been some of the most active buyers in foreclosure auctions in Pennsylvania and some of the most avid renters in various parts of the state as their capacity to buy and rent their own homes increases. In downtown Pittsburgh, around 19% of the population is accounted for by people aged between 25 and 29. These people are filling up apartments, condominiums, lofts and other residential properties in the city.

Foreclosure investing tips from local realtors emphasize the impact of this group on the residential property market of the city. It has been estimated that almost 1,300 rental properties and condominiums have been built in the downtown area in the past decade, a number that is projected to increase even further in the coming years.

Realtors are hoping that sales of properties at foreclosure auctions will also benefit from the surge in the number of young people moving into the city as confidence over homeownership improves. According to realtors, most of the young residents who have made downtown Pittsburgh their home are attracted by the culture and the business environment of the place.

Those who offer foreclosure investing tips to would-be developers and landlords in Pittsburgh are betting on further improvements in the downtown's property market. According to them, the city is changing from being known as a steel town to a place where the young enjoy the outdoors and the great opportunities offered by local businesses.

Hundreds of properties are being offered at Pittsburgh foreclosure auctions, including properties that can be converted into rental units. This scenario is just one possibility that real estate market analysts are considering after the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania reported that the state is currently facing a rental housing shortage.

A recent forum held in Cranberry, participated in by the alliance and other housing market experts, explored various suggestions for solving the for-rent property shortage in the state. According to some forum attendees, although home auctions in Pennsylvania offer a lot of properties that can be used as rental houses, enough supply cannot guarantee that the problem of affordability will be solved.

During the forum, representatives from the alliance have stated that renovating rental houses that are already in existence can help solve the rental housing shortage of the state. According to Housing Alliance officials, there is no need to build new rental homes as the stocks are already available and even home foreclosures auctions have enough supplies that can provide the required rental dwellings needed by most cities of Pennsylvania.

However, the main question that forum attendees tried to address has more to do with offering rental dwellings that low income families and state residents can afford and less about lack of property supplies. Pittsburgh foreclosure auctions, for example, have enough houses that can be converted into rental residences. The question is; can these properties, once converted into rental housing by their buyers, offer a rental rate that low income families can afford?

The suggestion by the alliance to focus on existing apartments and rental dwellings was welcomed by most forum attendees since a lot of apartment buildings in the state were built pre-1950s and it would be reasonable to upgrade them to cut down the shortage instead of building new apartments. Most attendees also stated that the state government should focus most of its efforts on helping landlords renovate their units to provide additional rental dwellings to various cities in Pennsylvania.

Furthermore, supporters of the alliance's recommendation stated that renovation projects will provide the state with a lot of economic activities and will offer significant savings. They also added that major cities are in need of subsidized for-rent homes and further assistance for homeowners who have lost their properties to Pittsburgh foreclosure auctions and other city auctions.

A number of homeowners who are facing foreclosures and are about to lose their properties to Philadelphia home auctions were allegedly targeted by Gennaro Rauso, former owner of D&B Property Investors, a firm that specializes in providing real estate management services.

The Pennsylvania county of York is not as battered by foreclosures as other counties in Florida and California, but the number of houses entering repo homes lists in the county has been increasing.

The city of Philadelphia is being looked upon by other cities as a model for its foreclosure prevention program, but despite the city’s esteemed efforts, it has not prevented the rise in evictions that resulted from recent foreclosed home auctions.

In Pennsylvania, 37,000 homeowners got their foreclosure notices last year making a 127 percent increase from ’07 and 50 percent more than the national average. Of these, 10,800 went into repossession, almost twice of 2007’s 5,500.