Watching the decline of a once vibrant neighborhood is always saddening but its particularly so when the decline is due to a rash of foreclosures that, with a little bit of foresight, could have been prevented. That’s why NAR’s new neighborhood stabilization project comes at an especially important time: it actually gives associations of REALTORS® some resources to help their members do something to restore a neighborhood facing decline before foreclosures turn it into a wasteland.

A couple of weeks ago I got a good look at how NAR’s program works when I spent the morning with Mabel Guzman, ABR, president-elect of the Chicago Association of REALTORS®, who showed me around two neighorhoods that are teetering between success and failure. The neighborhoods are among about two dozen in Chicago that have seen a rise in foreclosures and vacancies, so they’re seeing more homes getting boarded up and at risk of vandalism.

But there’s hope for those neighborhoods because households and investors have a sense that they have a future. Here’s why: her association has been working with the city and the city’s nonprofit partner to plan how the city can purchase a critical mass of the foreclosed properties, fix them up, and, with the help of REALTORS®, get them back on the market before the neighborhoods get so downtrodden that households will no longer want to buy there.

Where is the city getting its program money?—from the federal government. Congress made $6 billion available to cities through economic recovery legislation for the sole purpose of buying, rehabbing, and reselling foreclosed properties.

The key point to this program, at least in Chicago, is that REALTORS® are involved both in the planning of the program and in the selling of the properties. All too often in the past, at least in many cities, programs like these have mixed success because REALTORS® aren’t brought in to play a role. As Brian Bernardoni, government affairs director of the Chicago Association of REALTORS®, told me, cities and nonprofits understand how government programs work but they don’t know how to move property. REALTORS® know how to move property.

In Chicago, this involvement with the city didn’t come by accident; the association was aggressive in making sure it was at the table when the city and its nonprofit partner received the money and starterd planning the program.

NAR is hoping to replicate the success in Chicago and in other cities that are getting involved by providing assistance to state associations so that they can help local associations be at the table when the city government in their area is planning how to spend their federal neighborhood stabilization money and how to resell the homes.

NAR’s program isn’t intended to give every association intensive assistance. Rather, it’s intended to give intensive assistance to state associations that have some of the hardest-hit foreclosure areas in the country. For other assiociations, it has available a comprehensive online toolkit that should provide just about everything they need to take the first steps to getting involved.

The video above explains how NAR’s program works, where to get more information, and whom to contact. I think it’ll give you a good understanding of how NAR’s effort fits into the massive federal effort to shore up neighborhoods before they decline too far into blight.

Congress helped keep home sales on solid ground when it extended and expanded the home buyer tax credit late last year. Given the federal budget deficit, you also have to say it acted reasonably by limiting the tax credit to just six months. (Deals in process by the end of April have until the end of June to close.)

The question markets now face, though, is whether short sales are going to limit the effectiveness of the credit.

When you consider that short sales comprise a significant share of markets today and can take months to close, you have to wonder if these transactions are going to pose a problem as the tax credit deadline nears.

One real estate professional I talked to in California says her market consists almost entirely of distressed sales. Many of these are REOs, which can sell fast, especially when the deal involves investors looking for bargains.

But short sales, despite signs of progress, remain another matter. According to practitioners and others I’ve spoken to, lenders are improving their short-sale processing and more improvements could be in the works as federal guidelines take effect in early April. (More about that.) But the transactions still take a long time. It’s not unusual for buyers, hoping to take advantage of the tax credit, to feel stymied by the uncertainties and delays of short-sale purchases.

To help you explore solutions for the issues at the root of delays, we brought together a real etate professional and a nationally recognized short-sale consultant, Scott Thompson of ServiceLink and Mortgage Resolution Services, for a free webinar on March 25. They won’t have all the answers, of course, but between the two of them they’ve seen enough deals to know of the main sticking points and they’ll have ideas on how to work through them.

The webinar is on Thursday, March 25, at 3 p.m., Eastern Time. To register, click here, and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

In real estate, the fewer things that stand in the way of transfer of clear title the better. Of course, as a practical matter, we accept that some properties come with some encumbrances. For example, we might buy a property that includes a utility easement. Because we accept the value of that easement, we buy the property and accept the restriction it places on our use of the property.

But what if the property comes with an encumbrance that provides no public good? That’s what buyers increasingly are facing because of the growth of private transfer fees. These are encumbrances imposed on the title of a new property by the developer to generate a future income stream, whenever the property is bought and sold.

Specifics will differ with each encumbrance, but in general, for the term of the restriction (up to 99 years, typically), the developer imposes a fee—say 1 percent of the purchase price—payable before there can be clear transfer of title.

Six states have already taken action against these fees, incuduing four that have banned them outright.

If these fees are something you think your state association of REALTORS® should look at, you should know that NAR is making free help available to them for drafting proposed state legislation seeking their ban. NAR has model legislation already available, but it also is working with a law firm to draft at no charge to the association proposed legislation to meet their state’s needs. State associations then have a solution to offer their lawmakers when they let them know of their concerns.

In the six-minute video above, Gerry Allen of NAR Community and Political Affairs talks about the growth of the fees, what states are doing to stop them, and how NAR’s assistance can help.

We’re planning the 2010 series and we want to hear from you. Have you been in the business for over 10 years? Are you a top producer? For May, we’re looking for the practitioner who’s mastered the open house. Do you throw over-the-top affairs? Attract crowds of lookers? Sell the property on the spot?

If this sounds like you, and you’d like to be considered for a 2010 Masters Series video, please contact senior editor Katherine Tarbox at ktarbox@realtors.org.

A recent report from the Urban Land Institute outlines a few important demographic groups in real estate going into the new decade. (The Teens? The Tens? Are we going to have another debate about decade labels after we failed to definitively resolve the last one?) 

Anyway, according to ULI, the following three generational groups will shape the fortunes of the housing market over the next 10 years:

1. Aging baby boomers (ages 55 to 64 years old): They will keep working, and many will be forced to stay in their suburban homes until values recover. Those who are able to move will choose mixed-age living environments that cater to active lifestyles. Walkable suburban town centers also will appeal to this group.

2. Younger baby boomers (46 to 54 years old): They are now entering their prime earning years but they will lack home equity and unlike the older members of their generation, they won’t be able to purchase second homes. This will likely curb the prospects for the second-home market.

3. Generation Y: They are larger than the baby boom generation (with a population of about 86 million). As they enter the housing market, they are less interested in homeownership than their parents were when they were young adults. “They will be renters by necessity or choice for years ahead,” says John K. McIlwain, author of the report.

(Note: The fourth demographic was not broken out by age, but rather by country of origin. ULI says the approximately 40 million legal and illegal immigrants will also factor into the fortunes of real estate in a big way.)

When reviewing ULI’s generational list, one major question comes to mind: Where are the buyers going to come from? If the characterizations above prove accurate, then many of the boomers are going to remain fairly stationary due to financial and employment insecurities, while members of Generation Y, the oldest of whom are now in their twenties, won’t be interested in the commitments involved with homeownership due to their age and income.

The answer may lie in a group ULI left off the list: the Gen Xers. This group, which numbers somewhere between 40-50 million, will be entering their peak earning years during this decade. Also, as they’re currently between their early thirties and mid forties, many of them are just beginning to consider homeownership—undoubtedly due in part to the fact that many of them have just started or will soon start families.

Sure, there will be some Generation Y and boomer buyers in the mix during the next decade, and not all Generation Xers will be anxious to purchase homes. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Generation X plays a bigger role in housing than any of these other groups. Plan your marketing and sales strategies accordingly.

Whether you are working with a Baby Boomer, Gen Xer, or someone in the Gen Y age range, it’s important to know what your buyers wants in a home.

While age demographics are still a driving factor in the type of home your buyer is interested in, and three presenters at the International Builders’ Show Wednesday said there is a tie that binds – today, less is more.

Saying goodbye to McMansions, Mary Dewalt of Mary Dewalt Design Group, Steve Lane of Denver-based KEPHART, and Ken Perlman of Sullivan Group Real Estate Advisors outlined the driving demand behind each generation and what features they want in their downsized home in the session “From Wow to Now: What Today’s Home Buyers Really Want.”

Baby Boomers (age 45-65):

They don’t see themselves as getting older, and they don’t want to compromise their active lifestyles. About 83 percent plan to work past retirement, and more than half of those are interested in starting a new career or business. This age demographic wants start-of-the-art… and low-maintenance everything! They are design savvy and look at catalogs such as Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, and Restoration Hardware. “They are really looking at their homes as a sanctuary,” said Dewalt. Downsizing is appealing to them, but Baby Boomers still want elements such as pet spaces and areas for memorabilia. Amenities, details, and outdoor spaces are also at the top of their lists.

Gen X (age 30-45):

Fueling the first-time buyer and move-up market, Gen Xers love social spaces. Most are willing to give up square footage for location. This generation has also waited longer to have children, and once they do have a family, the emphasis is being on “super-parent.” They are goal-oriented, career-oriented and often they are more attracted to minimalism than Boomers. But they still want amenities. A neighborhood’s walkability is huge for Gen Xers, as is community, outdoor space, sustainable elements, and kids’ spaces. They look at catalogs from IKEA, Pottery Barn and Chiasso.

Gen Y (age 11-30):

Don’t rule out Gen Y, they are taking over the pool of first-time buyers. And location, location, location is the name of their game. Seeking to eliminate their long commutes, Gen Y will give up living space for their community of choice – often urban areas and near public transportation. Think high-density and low-maintenance, said Lane, especially surrounding universities and high-tech business centers. They look at blogs for design tips, as well as catalogs from IKEA, Anthropologie, and Dwell. They are connected, social, and embrace green on a larger scale than Gen X and Boomers. These money-savvy buyers believe energy efficiencies will provide them with a greater return on their home investment in the long run.

For more coverage from the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas, also visit our Styled, Staged & Sold blog.

Are you on Facebook? Do you do business through it? If so, we want to hear about how you’ve leveraged this social network.

Specifically, we’re looking for your personal experiences with and insights on the following:

• What are the most important steps to take in creating a Facebook fan page for your business or brokerage?
• How can real estate pros be good “friends” on Facebook?

To share your ideas on these topics, contact Online Editor Brian Summerfield at bsummerfield@realtors.org.

During a session yesterday morning at the 2010 Inman Real Estate Connect conference in New York, Inman News founder and publisher Brad Inman pressed Sam Sebastian, Google’s director of local and business-to-business markets, about the search engine’s plans to buy Trulia. Sebastian would neither confirm nor deny, but did elaborate that Google is actively looking to acquire one to two small technology companies a month.*

Corporate M&A activity aside, lots of innovative real estate ideas and tactics were discussed at the event. A majority of the 2,000 practitioners and techies in attendance agree that 2009 forced them to do business differently and rethink their plans.

Some tech experts, such as New York Times Editor Sam Grobart, believe tablet PCs are the wave of the future. He noted that Bill Gates made this prediction in 2001, but expects that 2010 will actually be the year they take off with Apple’s long-awaited but yet-to-be-confirmed version of the handheld computer (which would probably irk Gates to no end).

In the coming months, watch out for more applications to integrate social media. Example of this include PegShot, which allows you to upload photos in real time while tagging information about location, and Nabewise.com, which gives users detailed information about neighborhoods.

The dire market has forced practitioners to think differently and drastically cut costs—Jonathan Kauffmann, principal broker/owner of Nest Realty, said his firm has scaled back in office space and now uses virtual assistants.

Also, Ken Baris, president of Jordan Baris REALTORS explained that his office hosted several property tax events in 2009, in which his associates helped their clients lower the amount they owed by as much as 20 percent. He also cultivated a deal with his local Lexus dealership to become the official car of his business. His associates receive a discount on the luxury cars and the dealership sends leads over to the office.

More insights from Inman Connect to come.

*This blog entry has been corrected from the original posting.  Google is looking to acquire one to two companies, not specifically real estate technology companies.

What does it say about a neighborhood or city if the people living there were more likely to rent the Coen Brothers’ satirical film “Burn After Reading” than the classic popcorn flick “GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra”? More to the point, could it be useful in determining local consumers’ tastes in other areas, such as residences?

The thought occurred to me as I was checking out a new feature on The New York Times Web site that allows users to search the top movie rentals of Netflix customers by zip code in 10 metro areas.

I tried it out by seeing which rentals were popular among citizens of New York. According to the map, a DVD with episodes of the critically acclaimed TV series “Mad Men” was popular (that is, somewhere in the top 20) among residents of Lower Manhattan and northern Brooklyn–and practically nowhere else. On the other hand, “Transporter 3,” a standard action movie, did not even crack the top 100 in those areas, but did very well in the city’s suburbs in northern New Jersey.

My question for real estate pros: Do you think this tool, or other ones like it, would be useful in your line of work? Why or why not?

HP is putting its products and services on the line to prove that print marketing is still essential to your success — and you could be the beneficiary, with a marketing makeover to start your 2010 off right.

In “The Marketing Makeover Challenge” from REALTOR^® Magazine and HP, five REALTORS^® will test their marketing prowess using HP printers, paper, design templates, and coaching. All the finalists will walk away with prizes valued at $1,000 — and one lucky winner will receive a prize package worth $4,000, including equipment and supplies from HP and tuition for NAR’s ePRO certification.

The challenge is for brokers and sales associates who currently use a non-HP printer that serves between one and 19 practitioners and staff. Finalists must be committed to a print marketing campaign and willing to work with REALTOR® Magazine and HP during the first quarter of 2010 to complete challenges and create blog posts about their experiences.

Tomorrow, Dec. 30, is the last day to enter. After that, the judges (including me) will begin the process of selecting our five finalists, so if you’ve been thinking about putting your name in the ring, do it now!