Today's rental market continues to grow more competitive, with national vacancy rates for rental housing hitting their lowest point in 10 years in the first quarter of this year, U.S. Census Bureau data says. "A shift from owners to renters has caused rental vacancies to keep going down even more," says Jed Kolko, chief ... Continue Reading »

By Justin T. Hilley Buying is more affordable than renting in 98 out of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas -- even in New York, Los Angeles and Boston, according to real estate company Trulia's rent vs. buy index. The index is based on asking prices for rental units and homes for sale on the company's ... Continue Reading »

Most of Washington's initiatives to staunch the flow of foreclosures glutting the housing market have been woefully inadequate. (We're looking at you, HAMP, HAFA and HARP). But a new idea put forth by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke might actually make a dent in the bank-owned backlog: Allow renters to move into ... Continue Reading »

Someone once told me that you're not a true New Yorker until you've had one really bad roommate experience. If we're going by that criterion alone, then this means I'm a true New Yorker about six times over. From messiness, to weird habits, to downright creepiness (ever had a roommate who preferred watching TV au ... Continue Reading »

Is it possible that the housing crisis is really just a problem caused by our state of mind, not the state of the economy? Is the thing stopping people from buying houses nothing more than their perceptions? Apparently, to some extent, yes. We are having what, if economists talked like this, could be described as an ... Continue Reading »

"Baywatch" queen Pamela Anderson -- and for the record, we're Borat-size Pamela fans -- is either giving the website Vacation Rentals By Owner (VRBO) a major publicity boost or the businesswoman in her (the only Malibu mom we've ever seen reading The Wall Street Journal at Little League games) sees a way to put her empty ... Continue Reading »

During the Great Depression, people who were forced to live in their cars were known as "Ford families." Today, they go by the far more impersonal name of the "vehicular homeless," and you can count 45-year-old Carey Fuller and her two daughters, 8 and 17, among them. The Fullers (pictured above) became homeless in ... Continue Reading »

They don't make Hollywood pairings very often that outlast that of Warren Beatty and Annette Bening's, so we're sending some good karma their way in their plans to lease out a Beverly Hills home they own for $27,500 a month. What do you get for that much? Six bedrooms and eight bathrooms in a 10,500-square-foot ... Continue Reading »

What if you could buy a house for $25,000 in a neighborhood that wasn't a battle-scarred slum and rent it out for $750 a month as soon as the ink was dry on the deal? Where are these deals that let you recapture your investment in just three years and from then on enjoy a steady monthly income from the property? If ... Continue Reading »

WASHINGTON -- U.S. builders spent slightly more in September on home construction, partially offsetting losses in public schools, roads and government offices. Construction spending rose 0.2 percent in September from August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $787.2 billion, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. ... Continue Reading »

We totally trust Simon Cowell's sharp eye for picking the best and his even-sharper tongue for dismissing anything short of it, so are paying close attention to the house that sources say he recently bought in Beverly Hills' Trousdale Estates. It wasn't an active listing, but sources say he paid about $13.5 million for the ... Continue Reading »

A brush with fame -- or infamy -- may have its place, but apparently it doesn't gain much in the way of real estate currency. The price of the 6,800-square-foot Tribeca townhouse rented by former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn for the duration of his state-mandated stay in New York year just dropped from $13.995 ... Continue Reading »

Earlier this summer, we asked whether America was becoming a nation of renters. Statistics would seem to bear that out: Construction of single-family homes grew by 9.4 percent in June, the Wall Street Journal reported, but construction of multi-family homes with at least two units increased at triple that rate. ... Continue Reading »

Need any proof that 10 years after 9/11 the neighborhoods around Ground Zero have enjoyed a resurgence? Here's a five-story work-live townhouse in Tribeca available for lease at $35,000 a month. The 4,500-square-foot apartment at 155 Duane St. includes a fully equipped duplex office with up to seven workstations and a ... Continue Reading »

Jennifer Aniston's real estate dabblings make us feel like we're playing "Where's Waldo?" She pops up in the most unlikely places -- like this 1,700 square-foot rental in the Hollywood Hills. She's presumably sharing the rent on the $20,000 a month home with new beau actor Justin Theroux. The move to a rental comes ... Continue Reading »