Trulia released a new Buy vs Rent Index on June 3, 2010. Los Angeles scored a 17 on the Price-to-Rent ratio when comparing the cost to rent vs the cost to buy a 2 bedroom condo, apartment or townhome. This places Los Angeles on the lower to middle end of the scale, a position that signifies that Los Angeles may be a little bit more expensive to own than to rent but it still might make financial sense to purchase. The average price in this index to rent in Los Angeles was $2,460 and the average purchase price was $491,055. It is important to note that rent and average sale prices were determined exclusively by what is currently listed for rent and sale on Trulia.com.

Download the index from Trulia.com

View the original article and the responses of Trulia users here

By Greg Robb, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Home prices in 20 major U.S. cities fell a not-seasonally adjusted 0.4% in January compared with December, according to the Case-Shiller home-price index released Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s.

Prices rose in only in Los Angeles in January. Only four cities had experienced rising prices in December.

The rebound in housing prices seen last fall is fading, said David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P index committee. “We can’t say we’re out of the woods yet,” Blitzer said.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, prices rose 0.3% in January.

Prices were down 0.7% in the past year. This is the closest the index has been to a positive print since January 2007.

Compared with a year ago, prices were lower in 11 of the 20 cities, led by a 17.4% drop in Las Vegas.

In Charlotte, Las Vegas, Seattle and Tampa, prices hit new lows following the financial crisis.

For the 20 metropolitan areas in which repeat sales of homes are tracked in the Case-Shiller index, prices were down 32.6% from the peak in 2006. Prices are now back to levels seen in the summer of 2003.

Falling home prices have eroded Americans’ wealth. In response, households have increased their savings and cut back on spending.

View the original article on Marketwatch.com

Matthew O’Keefe discusses the Los Angeles Real Estate Market-

California Real Estate: Improving From The Bottom Up
By: Susan Yara

If California is an indicator of the US real estate market, then the tide could be turning.

Just ask realtors like Matthew O’Keefe. As the sales director at Gibson International Realty in Los Angeles, he’s feeling the frenzy that has become the real estate market with first-time home buyers taking advantage of the government tax credit, near-record low interest rates and many buyers seeking deals with the abundance of foreclosed homes.

“I’ve seen my business increase about 300 percent since May,” says O’Keefe, a realtor for six years. “Every year I’ve done better and better, and this year I thought I would be in a difficult situation, but this is going to be my best year ever.”

And it’s a trend across the state. According to the California Association of Realtors, CAR,  home sales are now 38 percent higher on a year-to-date basis compared to 2008 and it’s due in large part to the number of distressed properties on the market. In the last 12 months more than 500,000 homes were sold throughout the state and about half involved foreclosed properties.

Read more of the original article HERE

Article courtesy of CNBC.com