What Home Buyers Want in 2007
And Housing Hot Spots

Here's a look at what's new in real-estate markets across the U.S. from around the Web. (Some links may require registration or subscriptions.)

What home buyers want in 2007

Looking to sell your house this year? You may want to check out the list of what home buyers want -- and don't want -- in their next home. The list was compiled by real-estate author Mark Nash and published by the Cincinnati Post. Among the features on buyers' must-have lists are garages with upscale storage systems, heating, air conditioning and flooring; not one, but two home offices; heated outdoor surfaces to melt snow and ice; and second laundry rooms in the master bedroom, the article says. Out of vogue is marketing a property "as is" -- it scares away buyers; incentives like free cars -- buyers prefer price cuts instead; vessel sinks -- too hard to keep clean; and stainless-steel refrigerators that look, well, steely and cold, the article says.

Mobile-home owners to millionaires

Residents of Briny Breezes, Fla., a trailer-park town in Palm Beach County, may be sitting on a gold mine. The owners of nearly 500 mobile homes on 600 feet of oceanfront and 1,100 feet of Intracoastal Waterway property have been offered money to sell to a developer that hopes to build 900 multimillion condo units, a marina and a luxury hotel, according to an Associated Press article published by WashingtonPost.com. One couple, who purchased their mobile home for $155,000, stands to gain nearly $1.5 million, the article says. Some homeowners are eager to cash in, while others are hesitant to give up a life one resident describes as "Club Med" -- complete with jaunts in the community pool, shuffleboard at the clubhouse, and bowling night, the article says. While the sale of the community has been approved for $510 million, two-thirds of the residents -- who each own shares in the town (which is run like a corporation by a board of directors) according to the size and location of their property -- must approve the sale by today, Jan. 10, for it to go through, and homeowners won't receive payment or be required to move out until 2009, the AP says.

Prices rise in Connecticut countryside

Home prices are on the rise in Connecticut's Litchfield County, according to a Courant news article. In at least 13 towns there, median sale prices rose at least 40% between 2000 and 2004, the article says. The country locale, home to "blueblood estates, artists' and writers' colonies and dairy farms," is beginning to attract professionals from "stock traders to advertising copywriters," the newspaper says. For example, in the town of Goshen, once the province of dairy farmers and loggers, housing prices have jumped 96% to a median price of $373,000, the article says. What's behind the housing boom? The article cites three main causes: the Internet -- which has given some working professionals the choice of working just about anywhere; Hartford, Conn., commuters squeezed out from other higher-priced markets and in search of less expensive homes; and retirees relocating full time to their weekend retreats.

Area in Arizona is an 'outright bust'

For Tucson, Ariz., area individuals and professionals looking to sell a home, the picture is dismal, says an article by the Explorer, a weekly Arizona community newspaper. For instance, at one open house where no prospective buyers showed up, a local real-estate agent added false names to the sign-in sheet; one frustrated home seller started a blog to attract buyers; and another cut his asking price, the paper says. Inventories of homes for sale are 66% higher than they were in 2005 and residential properties are taking an extra seven months to sell versus last year, the article says. The paper describes the metro area as being in the second stage of a housing correction that typically includes three phases: "denial" -- where home sellers refuse to drop prices, "acceptance" -- where sellers reduce their asking prices, and "consolidation," where individuals "view housing as a shelter and not an investment" and "inventories will retreat and prices will stabilize."

South Koreans invest in U.S.

South Koreans are on a home-buying spree in several U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Atlanta, according to an International Herald Tribune article. Their purchases are spurred by a May 2006 Korean policy that allows individuals to invest as much as $1 million overseas, the relative strength of the Korean won and the sagging U.S. housing market, the newspaper says. South Koreans' investment in U.S. residential real estate is expected to total $2 billion in 2006, up from $1.27 billion in 2005, the article says. Much of the spending -- either for homes to use themselves or as long-term investments -- will be in Los Angeles, whose Korean population is one of the largest outside the Asian nation, the article says. This year, the country may allow each citizen to invest as much as $3 million abroad, and the spending cap may be lifted totally by 2009, the paper says. Los Angeles is seeing a "mini-construction boom" in Koreatown, as U.S. and Korean developers build properties to lure the Korean won, the Tribune says.

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