Water-Park Vacation Homes
And Boomer Roommates

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.)

Boomer roomies

As baby-boomer women near retirement, more are expected to consider living with a friend or purchasing a place with a pal, says a Boston Globe article.

The article cites an AARP study of women conducted last year. Nearly half of those between the ages of 45 and 59 surveyed said they considered living with a friend as they aged an attractive possibility. Women are more apt to feel comfortable living with a friend than men, the Globe says -- and they are more likely to outlive their spouses.

Women who live together can pool their money -- particularly important in light of high housing costs -- and sharing a space can combat loneliness. "Women have significantly less [financial] resources than men," the Globe quotes University of Massachusetts gerontologist Ellen Bruce as saying.

"It's nice to have somebody else in the home," says a 68-year-old woman profiled by the Globe who put in $350,000 to purchase  a home with an in-ground swimming pool with a friend. The residence would have been unobtainable for the woman if she had tried to buy it alone, the Globe says.

Housing-market jitters hit remodeling sector

With the U.S.'s sluggish housing market, and credit more difficult to get, the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University is predicting that American consumer spending on home remodeling will remain flat for the next three quarters, says the Chicago Tribune.  The predictions will be included in the center's "Leading Indicator for Remodeling Activity Report," which is expected to be released tomorrow.

"Housing market jitters" may be keeping Americans from making significant investments in their homes, with consumers now pursuing needed fix-it projects (such as repairing a leaky roof) or "utilitarian" improvements such as organizing the garage instead of projects aimed at making their home "the best house in the neighborhood," the Tribune says.

When asked whether "current economic conditions make me feel good about investing in my home," 66% of the center's respondents said they disagreed or weren't sure, the Tribune says.

Now that the housing market has taken a particularly gloomy turn, will consumers' desire for well-appointed and super-sized homes be dimmed? Will Americans reject McMansions and embrace smaller and perhaps, more practical, homes instead?

The Architectural Record doesn't think so. An article on the trade journal's Web site says that regulations imposed by local municipalities may make it harder for Americans to get a McMansion -- or at least, build a new one. More than 300 communities in 33 states have moved to restrict teardowns (the practice of knocking down smaller, often older, homes to make way for new -- and usually -- larger ones) and have imposed limits on the size of homes. For instance, Boulder County, Colo., where median house size has risen from 3,881 square feet in 1990 to a whopping 6,290 square feet in 2006, may require homeowners and developers who want to build McMansions to purchase credits from a county clearinghouse or from homeowners whose homes meet certain size restrictions.

A vacation home by the water -- slide

For vacation-home buyers who want a waterfront property but can't afford an oceanfront or lakefront home, there's another option -- buying a condo at a water park. For those truly interested in waterfront properties, the idea may sound less than ideal, but developers are having luck in selling such properties to vacation-home buyers, especially to families, says a New York Times article.

Often, the condos available at such properties are condo-hotels, which allow owners to rent out their units when not in use, the Times says. Resorts that have water parks tend to have occupancy rates that are 26% higher than non-water-park resorts, with room rates that are $69 higher on average, the article says. Such parks can be found across the U.S., at resorts in Kissimmee, Fla.; Rehoboth Beach, Del.; Pigeon Forge, Tenn.; near Telluride, Colo.; and in the Wisconsin Dells area -- the "water park capital of the world." Most water-park resorts are close to metropolitan areas, the Times says. The newspaper attributes the rise of such vacation-home properties to the popularity of water-park vacations at hotels. There were 50 U.S. hotels with indoor water parks in 2002 -- at the end of this year, there will be 184, the Times says.

Low prices and new-home building trigger foreclosures

The San Francisco Bay Area has a lower share of homes lost to foreclosure than other California locales -- the state ranks third for foreclosures in 2007, after Ohio and Michigan -- but the region does have 25 foreclosure "hot spots" -- where more than eight out of every 1,000 homes were turned over to lenders this year, says an article in the San Francisco Chronicle. The story notes that ZIP code 94531 in the Antioch area has the highest foreclosure rate -- 271 homes out of every 1,000 were foreclosed this year, the Chronicle says. Antioch is also the spot with the biggest housing-price drop in the region: 15%, the Chronicle says.

While foreclosure had the biggest impact in Bay Area locales that have experienced large price reductions, areas that have plentiful new-home construction and entry-level home prices -- below $500,000 -- have also been subject to high foreclosure rates, the article says. For instance, in areas where the median home price was less than $500,000 in July and August -- including Antioch, East Oakland, Oakley and Brentwood, homeowners' chance of losing their homes to foreclosure was five times higher than in other Bay Area neighborhoods, the Chronicle says. Spots with the highest prices -- such as Calistoga, Ross and Brisbane -- saw the lowest foreclosure rates, the article says.

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

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