Alan J. Heavens of The Inquirer chats Monday, May 7, about real estate and home improvement.

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Alan J. Heavens of The Inquirer will chat Monday, April 23, about real estate and home improvement.

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Alan J. Heavens of The Inquirer will chat Monday, April 9, about real estate and home improvement.

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Alan J. Heavens of The Inquirer will chat Monday, March 26, 2 p.m., about real estate and home improvement.

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Alan J. Heavens of The Inquirer will chat Monday, March 12, about real estate and home improvement.

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I spent part of this morning at a summit on housing and related matters at Penn's Annenberg Center.

There is a story in Saturday’s Inquirer summarizing  aspects of the Obama administration’s efforts to get the real estate market  on course.

The White House, which sponsored Friday’s summit, provided a list of the key aspects of the administration’s plan, which you can read at http://goo.gl/SMaJT

Coincidentally, the administration published its February housing scorecard Friday. It includes an appeal to Congress to approve measures needed to refinance "underwater loans" of three million Americans through FHA, as well as the $15 billion Project Rebuild, designed to fund rehabbing of houses abandoned through foreclosure and rescue commercial enterprises.

You can check out the scorecard at http://goo.gl/8soKd.

The administration said more than 5.7 million modification arrangements were started between April 2009 and January, including nearly 1.8 million trial modification starts through the Home Affordable Modification Program.

As of January, more than 950,000 homeowners received a permanent HAMP modification, saving more than $530 on their mortgage payments each month. Homeowners in HAMP permanent modifications have saved about $11 billion to date.

A couple of weeks back, I reported that Pennsylvania’s attorney general would receive $70 million as the state's share of the $25 billion settlement over questionable foreclosure processing.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan mentioned it again Friday, and I asked him if he’d heard if the state would use some of it to resurrect the state’s Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program, which has not been in the budget this year or last.

The secretary didn’t know, but it has been brought up in budget hearings, there is some legislative support for it and a number of advocacy groups are backing it as well.

Meanwhile, forebearance on mortgages for unemployed borrowers is up to 12 months for Fannie, Freddie and FHA loans, and Bank of America and Wells Fargo has followed suit, Donovan said.

Forbes has published its annual list of the nation’s most expensive ZIP Codes.

In the event you aren’t eager to scroll down the list of 500 ZIP Codes to find yours at http://goo.gl/G501 (use the search form, it saves time) I’ve done the work.

The list is choked with ZIPs in Calif., N.Y., northern N.J., Hawaii and Conn. The eight-county area is represented by just two ZIPS — both in Pennsylvania. The closest Jersey comes is Barnegat Light, which is in Ocean County.

No. 99 is Gladwyne (19085) in Lower Merion Township, with a median income of $159,905, and a median price of $1,559,668 that was 14 percent higher than the previous year. Houses, of which there were 12 for sale when the survey was done, spend an average 191 days on the market.

At 149 is Villanova (19085) in Radnor Township, with a median income of $159,538; median house price of $1,286,475, which is 10 percent lower than last year. Houses, of which there were 97 for sale, spend an average of 201 days on the market.

Philadelphia has made a list that doesn’t appear to come with insults like heaviest, rudest, ugliest, or "corrupt and contented."

This time, Philadelphia is ranked fifth on a list of 10 cities in which the population segment 65 and older grew the least between 2000 and 2010 — just 4 percent.

All right, that does sound a bit like a put down, but New York City is on the list, too, albeit at the top. And the Big Apple is tied with St. Louis, of all places.

Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Providence, R.I., Milwaukee and Detroit are on the list, too. New Orleans is as well, but the city did take a direct hit from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The demographics, analyzed by the Urban Land Institute’s John K. McIlwain and J. Ronald Terwilliger, confirm the continued move from chilly Northeast and Midwest to warmer climates, but not to New Orleans, for the reason stated).

Tampa also was on the list. Most seniors who move to Florida head to Orlando or Jacksonville, with increases of 29 percent and 31 percent, respectively, and not Tampa or Miami.

Don’t cry for Philadelphia, however. Census data show that the growing heart of Philadelphia — Center City — continues to attract young professionals and empty nesters, despite the real estate downturn.

Raleigh, N.C., was at the top of the list of metro areas seeing huge increases in its over-65 population — 60 percent. Los Angeles was No. 1 in the actual number of seniors moving in — 199,000.

The full Urban Land Institute article appears on The Atlantic Cities Place Matters website: http://goo.gl/yMmHx. 

Alan J. Heavens of The Inquirer will chat Monday, Feb. 27, about real estate and home improvement.

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