Guy Adams

Real estate Web site Zillow.com said Wednesday that its traffic had grown 67 percent in the first six months of 2009 compared to the same time period in 2008, with an average of 8.3 million unique users visiting each month.

The company also announced that it had 35 percent more for-sale listings on the site in the first half of 2009 compared to the same months the previous year.

"Home prices continue to drop in many areas, mortgage rates change constantly, and people have a lot of questions about their homes and their local markets. This is driving record numbers of people to visit and engage on Zillow.com," Zillow COO Spencer Rascoff says.

Source: Zillow.com (07/01/2009)

Some housing experts say the next logical step for helping home owners with negative equity is loan forgiveness.

Home owners with no equity stake and no likelihood of having one anytime soon are increasingly likely to walk away. Some theorize that curbing that trend is the only thing that will stabilize the market.

The nonprofit Milken Institute has devised a plan that would use Fannie Mae to refinance underwater loans with government money. Under the plan, a private lender would provide the money for the value of the home and the U.S. Treasury would issue a second, interest-only loan for the portion of the current mortgage that is underwater. Every year the home owner keeps current with payments, the Treasury would forgive a portion of the loan.

The institute estimates that this would save 1.5 million homes from foreclosure or abandonment and cost taxpayers between $75 billion and $100 billion.

Ken Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at UC Berkeley, approves that plan, but urges returning some of the appreciation to the original lender as a reward for patience.

"The idea that these loans are worth face value is a fiction," says Richard Green, director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate. "If we don't deal with [reducing] the balances, we're not really dealing with the problem."

Source: Los Angeles Times, Tom Petruno (06/27/2009)

Shortages of both skilled workers and quality materials during the housing boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s is contributing to a surge in construction defects, some housing experts say. Some municipalities also fell behind inspecting and certifying new homes.

Criterium Engineers, a national building-inspection firm, says that 17 percent of homes built in 2006 had at least two significant defects, up from 15 percent in 2003.

Construction defect insurance claims have declined in the last couple of years, "but the ones that are being filed are pretty severe in terms of the total damage alleged," says Paul Amirata, vice president of claims for France-based Axa Group, one of the world's largest business insurers.

Buyers of homes built during the boom should consider getting a thorough inspection by a building inspection engineer and reviewing purchase and warranty contracts carefully with an attorney, experts advise.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, M.P. McQueen (06/30/2009)

Avoid products that emit formaldehyde or other toxic gasses. Plywood, particleboard and carpets sometimes contain volatile organic compounds (VOC's) that diminish indoor air quality. To prevent contamination from VOC's, air your carpet and furniture out before bringing them in the house. You may also want to consider implementing proficient ventilation systems. For best results, make sure old air is cycled out of your home and new air takes its place. This may seem like common sense, but open windows and doors during warmer months. You may also want to consider installing bathroom and kitchen fans that allow contaminated air to escape the room. Finally, if you really want to move air through your house, experts recommend buying a heat recovery ventilator (HRV). Heat recovery ventilators are composed of two separate systems. One collects and disposes of old indoor air. The other system collects clean, outdoor air and distributes it throughout your home.

Mold is one fungus that's hard to beat. If moisture and oxygen are present on organic substances, there's a good chance mold will be there too. If you have water damage in your home, reduce the potential for mold growth by drying the damaged areas within 24 hours.

Finally, plant plants! Vegetation dramatically reduces indoor air pollution in your home and office. Recent research from NASA shows that plants draw in polluted air, transfer it to their roots and then convert it to food. Dracaena, Massangeana and Spathiphyllum are some of the more effective plants that adapt this method of conversion. For more information on how to diminish indoor air pollutants and create a safe and healthy atmosphere for your family, contact me today!

Echo boomers, the children of baby boomers, will be the salvation of the housing market, Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies predicts.

In its annual state of the nation's housing study, the center says that the 75 million Americans born between 1979 and 1995 will mean plenty of demand for housing units.

"There will be 5 million more echo boomers than there were boomers when they first started swelling housing markets," says Eric Belsky, executive director of the Joint Center.

Belsky predicts that once the job market turns around, the housing market will recovery quickly because inventories are close in balance between supply and demand.

But the study warns that while echo boomers will increase demand significantly, they may not drive up prices much because their real incomes are lower than those earned by people a decade older when they entered the job market.

"While fundamentally we see what could be the foundation for long-term recovery, we still have to get through today's challenges," says Nicolas Retsinas, director of the Harvard center.

Sources: CNNMoney.com, Les Christie, and Reuters, Lynn Adler (06/22/2009)