Tactics for Creating 'House Lust,'
Renting When You Can't Sell

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.)

Stimulating 'House Lust'

As sales lag, home builders are pulling out the stops to woo buyers and "create house lust, " according to an article by the Washington Post. Home models lost their importance during the housing boom, but now that consumers are less apt to buy, builders are turning to them again as marketing tools and are investing dollars to beautify kitchens, dining rooms and family rooms and even showcase finished basements with sports bars, pool tables or exercise rooms, the Post says. The approach is a calculated one -- models for first-time buyers may include children's rooms, while ones designed for baby boomers might have an entertaining area with a full-size bar, the newspaper says. Some builders go to great expense to decorate their models -- one builder cited by the paper spends about $250,000 (for homes starting in the upper $700,000s) to stage a model, while another budgets about $450,000 for a 10,000-square-foot house, the paper says.

If you can't sell, lease

The Miami housing market is tough, but the lodging sector is proving to be more profitable for area homeowners, says the Miami Herald. As residential properties sit on the market, owners are leasing out their homes to cover their housing costs, the newspaper says. "A house I couldn't give away for $550,000, I'm now renting it for $5,000 a week," says one homeowner quoted by the Herald. Property listings are up at home-rental sites, with Miamihabitat.com reporting a 40% jump in inventory this year, and rentalo.com noting a 400% rise in the number of listings for South Florida vacation properties from last year. The trend is also affecting the hotel industry -- Miami-Dade-area hotels experienced a 5% decline in overnight stays last year, and some resorts are reconfiguring their units to create "apartment-style accommodations," the Herald says.

Tool belts for gals

Why get a guy to do it when you can do it yourself? That is the mantra of some female homeowners these days, as they begin to tackle more home-improvement fixes themselves, says the Orlando Sentinel. Catering to these women is the Web site BeJane.com, an online community for handywomen that features how-to information and photos, plus forums where readers can share their questions and tips. Launched in 2003, the site now has 35,000 registered members and has 90,000 unique monthly users, the Sentinel says. Visitors to the site can look up projects by room (e.g., kitchen) or topic (e.g., floors) or read a profile of a "Featured Jane," a do-it-herself homeowner.

Buyers in Beantown

The outlook for home sellers is improving in the Greater Boston area, as homeowners begin to cut prices to induce sales, says the Boston Globe. Homes prices are expected to bottom out a year from now, according to the newspaper. Areas closer to the city are faring best in terms of sales, with places like Brookline seeing a rise of 10% in pending sales from a year ago, a drop of 21% in the number of condos on the market and a dip of 27% in the number of single-family homes up for sale, the Globe says. Especially experiencing renewed interest from house hunters is Arlington, Mass., where the number of single-family homes on the market has fallen 50% from a year ago, the paper says, as sellers price their properties more appropriately and negotiate with buyers, the Globe says.

Sales lag for Lake Superior

The housing-market downturn has softened demand for recreational properties along Lake Superior, says a Star Tribune article. In Cook County, which borders the lake, new home construction is down -- building permits fell from 241 in 2004 to 36 during the first five months of this year. Home resales in that county dropped from 290 seasonal and recreational properties in 2004 to 253 in 2006. Residential sales in Lake County, which neighbors Cook County, hit a high in 2003 at 261 and slipped to 231 in 2006. Factors behind the slowdown are the soft real-estate market in the Twin Cities and prices that have become out of reach for many buyers in recent years, the paper says. Yet, despite the slow sales, prices haven't budged, the Tribune notes.

-- Ms. Kim is a senior editor at RealEstateJournal.com.

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