Weekly Roundup: Rates rather stable. Much more!

Here’s your chance to catch up with news included to inform, enlighten and perhaps even entertain you. To read about The Big Apple, check out the other of today’s posts and look for Out and About early next week.

RUTH FORD’S BUTLER BENEFICIARY CLEANS UP

PINK TOWNHOUSE WHERE NINA LIVED WITH MOM AND ARTISTIC DAD IS ON THE MARKET

LATE MAGAZINE MAGNATE’S TOWNHOUSE IS LISTED FOR $15.3 MILLION

HOME VALUES FALLING IN MANY REGIONS AT ACCELERATED RATES, ACCORDING TO JOURNAL ANALYSIS

SHADOW INVENTORY CONTINUES TO FALL, BUT AT A PROGRESSIVELY SLOWER RATE

CLEAR CAPITAL REPORTS THAT PRICES IN Q4 WERE DOWN BUT UP

CONSUMERS’ INTEREST IN

Harvard housing report sees ‘eventual’ recovery

A sustained recovery for housing still faces an uphill climb, says Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies in its annual report released yesterday.  To compare Harvard’s analysis with a variety of others, check out my forthcoming newsletter Friday afternoon.

“Although there are some signs of improvement or at least steadiness in new construction and sales, housing starts stand near 60-plus year lows, and any life in home sales is coming from distressed foreclosure sales, temporary first-time buyer tax credits and low interest rates that moved higher in recent weeks.” notes Center Director Nicolas P. Retsinas.  Adds Executive Director Eric S. Belsky: “The best that can be said of the market is that house price corrections and steep cuts in housing production are creating the conditions that will lead to an eventual recovery.  For now, markets remain under considerable stress.”

The Harvard University campus.

Meanwhile, the number and share of households spending more than half their incomes on housing continues to remain at elevated levels.