About Real Estate: Prices are rising in many large housing markets
Sure, home values are down in many areas. But they#146;re higher in several big cities across the U.S., as well as in some smaller communities.
Q. I keep reading all these doom-and-gloom stories about how bad the real estate market is. Isn#146;t there anywhere where prices are going up?
A. Yes, but you sure couldn#146;t tell it by reading most newspapers and magazines or by watching the evening news.
The average price of a U.S. home in the first quarter of this year was down 4.6 percent from a year earlier, according to a recent report from the National Association of Realtors. But Kiplinger#146;s Personal Finance magazine recently culled several real estate data sources to pinpoint 10 cities where prices rose in 2010 and, in most cases, should continue to grow this year.
All of the areas listed in the report have a population of at least 500,000, but prices are climbing in many smaller areas, too.
Home values in Washington, D.C., jumped 5.6 percent last year, thanks largely to its stable government workforce and the number of big private-sector firms headquartered there. Values in Detroit, which have fallen a staggering 58 percent from their 2006 peak, rebounded 3 percent in 2010 and could keep climbing this year if its massive foreclosure backlog declines and the auto industry regains traction.
Prices in Syracuse, N.Y. #8212; where a diversified economy and slow but steady employment gains shielded it from the sharp declines that hit most other urban housing markets in the past several years #8212; climbed 2.6 percent in 2010 and likely will show more improvement in the months ahead. Values in Honolulu are up about 2 percent from a year ago.
Home prices in San Diego rebounded 1.6 percent in 2010, but future growth could be hobbled by the area#146;s large number of foreclosures. It#146;s the same story about 50 miles east of there, in the first-time buyers#146; mecca of Riverside, Calif., where prices rose a modest 1.5 percent last year but might even drop in 2011 because its number of foreclosures on low-down-payment loans is increasing.
Other metropolitan areas that have posted gains in home values in the past year include the San Francisco suburb of Oakland, Calif., up 1.3 percent, and Cambridge, Mass. (1.2 percent). Prices are also up about 1 percent in Houston and Oklahoma City, thanks partly to an uptick in hiring when gasoline prices moved higher earlier this year.
Q. What are #147;riparian rights#148;?
A. They are the rights that give property owners the ability to use a river or other body of water that is on their land or runs alongside of it.
For example, many farmers have riparian rights to use a stream that cuts through their property to irrigate their crops. Similarly, owners who are fortunate enough to have a beachfront or lakefront home often have the explicit legal riparian rights in their grant deed to swim in the water or perhaps even fish or boat in it.
Q. A neighbor who lives across the street from us is constantly holding yard sales, sometimes two or even three weekends per month. Most of the stuff he sells is really cheap, crummy items that he purchases at other yard sales or swap meets and then marks up the price by a buck or two. The sales pull a lot of #147;undesirables#148; into our area and cause massive traffic and parking problems on our narrow street, but he has rejected my requests to either cancel the sales or at least cut the number of them back. What can we do?
A. First send your neighbor a polite letter, preferably certified, that briefly recaps the problems that his yard sales are causing and asks him to cut them back to a more reasonable number.
If he again rejects your request, call your city district attorney#146;s office or local police department to determine whether there#146;s a local ordinance that limits the number of yard sales that a homeowner can have each year. Many cities and counties across the U.S. now limit an owner#146;s right to have such sales to once, twice or three times annually.
Should such an ordinance exist in your area, get a copy of it and mail it to your neighbor along with a note asking that he begin to obey the law. Call local authorities if he still won#146;t comply: A stern warning from a government attorney or a ticket for creating a #147;public nuisance#148; from the cops may be a powerful tool for the man to get the sales under control.
I had a similar problem in my neighborhood several years ago, but our town didn#146;t yet have such an ordinance in place. But because my neighbor was having giant yard sales nearly every week, the city attorney determined that my neighbor was operating an #147;ongoing business enterprise#148; and sent him a letter demanding that he pay for a business license, get insurance, start charging sales taxes and the like.
My neighbor decided that all the red tape and costs involved simply couldn#146;t justify the meager profits he would make by continuing the weekly events, so the nuisance some yard sales soon came to a halt.
The window to appeal your annual property-tax bill is closing fast, and our new #147;Fight Your Property Taxes and $ave#148; booklet can help by providing several simple but effective strategies to win a reduction that may save hundreds of dollars each year.
Ÿ For the booklet #147;Straight Talk About Living Trusts,#148; or #147;Fight Your Property Taxes and Save,#148; send $4 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to David Myers/Trust, P.O. Box 2960, Culver City, CA 90231-2960
$PHOTOCREDIT_ON$© 2011, Cowles Syndicate Inc.$PHOTOCREDIT_OFF$