Weekly Roundup: Renters, new market stats, dropping loan rates, foreclosure purchase risks, credit misconceptions, kitchen trends, and more

Renters don’t stay put for long in the financial district

New York magazine explores world of platonic urban cohabitation i.e. roommates

Housing signals mixed in metro region

Four things to bear in mind when buying an apartment for your kids

19 percent more building permits issued in 2012 than in prior year

Committee ranks Upper East Side tops for kids, Bay Ridge beats all other Brooklyn neighborhoods

Request for proposals to redevelop Lower East Side sites signals end of bitter renewal squabbling

Foreclosures in region higher in December than a year earlier

Estate in the Hollywood Hills finds friendly buyer but at greatly reduced price

Legendary rocker

Weekly Roundup: Inventory stress, historic low rates, family matters, new kitchen trend. More!

State gives into developers’ concerns about requiring offering plans to be digitized

There is nothing like a closing

Long Island City is starting to turn the corner

Renters indirectly stuck with lion’s share of property taxes

Industry casts skeptical eye on real estate brokers serving on their building’s board

Real Deal tackles rent vs. buy by Manhattan neighborhoods

New kind of report slices and dices rents by neighborhood and building type

Although half of 2007’s peak, residential construction mushrooms

Inventory shortage is causing unseasonable stress

Some of the priciest apartments

Weekly Roundup: Sales volume, borrowing sag

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.

Actor is lookin’ at selling his townhouse in Greenwich Village

His Honor adds to collection, picking up a notable Southampton estate for a rumored $20 million

Magically, three young actors invest £24.5 collectively on luxury properties

It’s loss actually for actor-singer

All-cash buyers propel resales, but volume remains slack

Number declines of homes listed for sale in June

Growth recorded in

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

U.S. homeownership rate dips below 2000 level

The Census Bureau reports that 2.7 percent of owners’ residences were vacant in the last quarter of 2009, while the national vacancy rate for rental housing was 10.7 percent.

For homeowner vacancies, the current rate was not statistically different from the fourth quarter 2008 rate of 2.9 percent or from the rate last quarter of 2.6 percent.

But the homeownership rate of  67.2 percent for the current quarter compares with 67.5 percent in 2000 and 66.9 percent in 1999. And it was lower than the previous quarter’s rate (67.6 percent).