(Credit Kirstina Sangsahachart/Palo Alto Daily News)

Not quite boats or houses, the “floating homes” of Docktown are home to at least 60 households in Redwood City, Calif., a city that is trying to balance the interests of the community and the landowner of the property.

A task force will meet on Thursday night to help determine the future of the 100-acre property, 20 acres of which are owned by Redwood City and the remainder of which a private landowner hopes to develop into condominiums.

Orelene Chartain, 65, has been a resident of Docktown for four years but has been active in the yacht club for 13 years. She and her husband, a 70-year old retired contractor, downsized to their floating home after their children grew up. The home was a “fixer-upper,” she said.

PHOTOS: Docktown Marina Residents Live in ‘Floating Homes’

“I’m a sailor. Our whole family sails and we love the water,” she said.

The Chartains live in a two-story “floating home” with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and all the amenities of a traditional home. The home has electricity, a sewage system and a dishwasher, washer and dryer.

After years of management by a private operator, Fred Earnhardt, Earnhardt’s tenancy ended in February and operations were handed over to Redwood City, which owns the water that flows through the marina, three months ago.

Now the city wants to offer Docktown residents a one-year licensing agreement, after previously living month-to-month, but residents are pushing for a longer-term solution so they won’t be evicted, as first reported by the San Jose Mercury News.

“We feel that by signing this agreement we may be giving up some of our floating home rights,” said Chartain, a certified public accountant.

Chartain said she pays property taxes to San Mateo County, but she and the other residents are treated as owners of vessels instead of homes.

“We’re happy about the year agreement, but we’re not happy about the fact that it’s not a lease. It’s a licensing agreement and they can ask us to leave at any time.”

The ideal situation for Docktown residents, Chartain said would be for the city to build another, innovative marina, like those in Amsterdam, to which they could move.

“We envision a state-of-the-art floating community where people would look at Redwood City as a leader and be proud of what they’ve done with the resources around them,” she said.

The residents pay berth fees for their vessels of about $6 per lineal foot plus live-aboard rent of $325 a month. In turn, the city can provide residents with water, electricity and connection to a sewage system.

Chartain said she is not complaining about the fees, though some residents do. Though there are affluent pockets of Redwood City, Chartain said Docktown residents represent a diverse demographic, including venture capitalists, taxi drivers, hairdressers and medical doctors.

She said the city has already improved the area, some parts of which were previously “derelict.”

“We are happy to see improvements and we realize they need money to do that,” she said.

Docktown residents try to do their part in helping keep up the area and say they are conscious of the environment around them. They plan a trash pick-up four times a year in the water, helping remove debris after heavy rainfall.

Chartain is part of the 15-member task force that will meet for the first time on Thursday to study the area and hopefully help residents, the city and the landowner come to an agreement about its future.

The private landowner did not immediately return a request for comment.

“My position as a person on the task force is to try to find common ground and come up with a win-win situation for everybody,” Chartain said.

The city hopes to come up with a plan for the area in a year, but Chartain said that is “optimistic.”

Bill Ekern, community development director for Redwood City, said the city is not permitted to offer residential leases due to the charter that gave the city the land.

Ekern recognizes that if Docktown were to shut down, the residents would have few or no places to go.

“The problem is that people have immobilized their boats or built structures on the water that cannot be moved. In the San Francisco Bay, there are fundamentally no places where people can live on the water. It’s a very, very limited amount. Each of the marinas allow a limited number to live there. It becomes problematic.”

Chartain said the closest livable marina is near AT&T Park in San Francisco, on the other side of the bay.

“If we were able to get a spot there, it would mean disrupting our lives,” she said, explaining that all of her accounting clients live in Redwood City and she hopes to retire in a few years. “Being 65, it’s not a time in my life when I want to do a new start.”

As Docktown’s new operator, the city is still determining how much it costs to manage the neighborhood. But Ekern says, “We’re not making money.”

The city also has not determined the exact number of residents. Chartain said there are about 60 live-aboard vessels, but the city has said there are about 145 slips, or berths, available.

Ekern uses his public works staff for maintenance of the area and they have a marina manager to resolve certain issues.

Before the city and the landowner come up with another plan, Ekern said he hopes residents sign the one-year licensing agreement.

“They’re afraid about losing their homes. That’s right now outside of our control. I can’t guarantee anybody that you can stay, because I don’t have an agreement that allows you time to stay,” he said.

ABC News’ Paula Faris reports:

The country is in the midst of a home-buying frenzy with Americans feeling confident enough to take advantage of record-low mortgage rates, and the 2 million Americans currently selling their homes are looking to cash in big time.

According to the Case-Shiller house price index, home prices across the U.S. are surging — they rose 10.9 percent in the last year to highs last seen at the end of the housing bubble.

“The prices seem to be right in line for where buyers are willing to buy and sellers [looking] to sell,” Phoenix real estate agent Sheri McComb said.

ABC News’ “Real Money” team talked with the McDougalls, whose home is on the market in Phoenix, just one of a handful of cities seeing the biggest bump.

In Phoenix, prices are up more than 22 percent from just a year ago. Scott McDougall said he was optimistic about selling his home and finding a house closer to his daughter’s college.

“The market’s been so good,” he told ABC News today. “We’ve been looking at the market right now. If you’re priced right, I mean, we’ve seen houses go in a matter of days. … We definitely want to act and get into a good home soon.”

Those increased home values are equaling more equity as well — meaning that some homeowners will now be able to refinance, a move they may not have been able to make till now.

But even in a hot market, there are still ways to put more money in your pocket, McComb  said.

Here are four tips from Redfin, an online real estate brokerage company:

1. Listing earlier in the summer is better. May and June are the best months. You’ll get more money compared with listing later in the year.

2. List on a Friday. Studies have shown that a home gets toured nearly 20 percent more, which means you’ll hopefully sell it faster and for slightly more money.

3. Use a professional photographer. Sellers who did had a higher sale-to-list ratio.

4. Don’t forget the details. By cleaning out the clutter — buying a new faucet or new doorknobs as well as replacing an outdated TV — “Real Money” was able to help one family increase the value of their home by nearly $25,000.

Home prices in cities around the country surged 10.9 percent in the past year to highs last seen at the end of the housing bubble.

Prices around the country rose the most since April 2006, though in most places they are still well below their peak in 2006, according to the Case-Shiller house price index, which includes data through March 2013.

Phoenix, San Francisco and Las Vegas had the biggest jump in home prices, with increases of more than 20 percent compared with a year ago.

The housing market, while apparently on the road to recovery, is not yet fully healed.  A large number of homes are still in some stage of foreclosure and investors rather than first-time home buyers make up an outsized chunk of the housing market.

Many economists though are still confident that we are on the way to a healthy market.  “This is not a bubble,” says economist Diane Swonk.  ”We are regaining lost ground which is a game-changer for most households since their home is what they rely on for wealth.”

Stan Humphries at Zillow.com warns that homes will not seem as cheap once mortgages rates start moving up.

Still the rise in home prices could be among the factors contributing to resilience in consumer spending despite a tax hike at the beginning of the year.  As home prices rise consumers feel confident to spend on other items like a new car.

The housing market in cities including Seattle and Charlotte is pushing back into positive territory after a couple of months in decline.  Prices were up 3 percent in Seattle compared with a month ago, and 2.4 percent in Charlotte.

See how your city is faring:

Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices and CoreLogic

(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The U.S. residential real estate market continues to recover with prices rising for the 13th month in a row, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, released Tuesday morning.

The seasonally adjusted 20-city home price index rose 1.2 percent month-to-month in February, the 13th consecutive gain.  In January, the index rose 1 percent.

“For the 65 percent of households that own their home, rising prices boost wealth,” said Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist with High Frequency Economics.

On a year-over-year basis, the index increased 9.3 percent, up from 8.1 percent in January, the strongest since prices began to slow in 2006, O’Sullivan said.

“More broadly, the plunge in home prices was a key factor behind the deep recession and slow recovery, and a turnaround in prices will help boost the recovery through wealth and confidence effects.  Rising prices may also encourage procrastinators who have been considering buying to move more quickly, and should also eventually encourage banks to start easing up again on mortgage lending standards.”

The four cities with the highest year-over-year price increases were Phoenix, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Atlanta.

“Atlanta recovered from a wave of foreclosures in 2012 while the other three were among the hardest hit in the housing collapse. At the other end of the rankings, three older cities – New York, Boston and Chicago - saw the smallest year-over-year price improvements,” said David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a statement.

Stan Humphries, chief economist of online real estate marketplace Zillow, said home values are “clearly rising at an unsustainable pace” but the report was not wholly reflective of nationwide trends.

Last week, a report by Zillow indicated the rate of home value appreciation was slowing.

“As these incredible price increases continue, there is a serious risk of future affordability issues once interest rates begin to rise. This report needs to start being taken with a grain of salt,” he said. “The appreciation rates we’re currently seeing in the Case-Shiller composite are not broadly reflective of what’s happening in the national housing market right now. It is overly skewed to quickly rebounding markets -particularly in the Southwest and on the West Coast – and is being boosted by a shift in transactions away from foreclosure re-sales. It is not helpful information for consumers.”

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

U.S. home values continue to appreciate, according to a new study released today, but the rate of appreciation is slowing.

The Zillow Home Value Index rose to $157,600 as of the end of the first quarter, up 5.1 percent from a year ago and up 0.5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012.

The index is the median value for a given geographic area, on a given day, and includes the value of all single family residences, condos and coops, whether or not they sold within the period. It is seasonally adjusted.

U.S. home values in March rose for the 16th consecutive month–although the rate of appreciation slowed for the second consecutive month. Home value appreciation in the first quarter was 0.5 percent, versus 2.1 percent for the quarter before.

Historically, housing markets enjoy value appreciation of about 3 percent a year, according to Zillow’s chief economist, Dr. Stan Humphries. Zillow compiles and analyses real estate data from some 350 U.S. markets.

Markets that have seen the greatest appreciation in home values include five metros that showed year-to-year appreciation of more than 20 percent: Phoenix (up 24 percent), Las Vegas (up 23.3), San Jose (up 22.1), San Francisco (21.4) and Sacramento (20.1).

Markets that saw a decrease in appreciation include New York (down 0.3 percent) and Chicago (down 1.4 percent, the biggest drop of any in the study). St. Louis and Charlotte also saw modest drops.

Those drops, Humpries tells ABC News, can be attributed in part to the fact that Chicago and New York are in states where foreclosures require judicial review–a time-consuming process that, he says, ”impairs recovery.”

Over the past year, says Humphries, the national housing market has rebounded strongly, even though “the sometimes dramatic run-ups during these months were never expected to be sustainable. Recent slowdowns are indicative of a market that is slowly finding its natural level.”

Looking forward, he says, he expects annual value appreciation to continue to slow, as more inventory comes up for sale. But pockets of very rapid appreciation, he says, will remain “a troubling sign of volatility and a potential future headache, as affordability is compromised and homes begin to look much more expensive to average buyers.”

Already, he tells ABC News, “San Jose and San Francisco are starting to look expensive again. Prices there are back above their peak levels. Palo Alto and Cupertino are at or near peak levels again.”

Las Vegas and Phoenix, by contrast, remain “extraordinarily affordable,” he tells ABC, still down about 60 percent from their peak.

He says the two have similar “demand profiles,” with both markets having a large number of retirees and second-home buyers. Both are priced low enough to attract speculators–not buyers looking to “flip” homes, but buyers wanting to enjoy positive cash flow by buying
depressed properties for rental income. With rents trending up 5 percent year to year, he says, buyers in these two markets “are chasing opportunity.”

A new Gallup poll out this morning finds 51 percent of Americans expect home prices to increase in their area, up from 33 percent last year and above 50 percent for the first time since 2007. Also, 63 percent say their home is worth more than when they bought it, up from 53 percent in 2012. Home prices in some parts of the country are soaring. Sellers are in a stronger position than they were in a year ago.

Apple shares fell below $400 for the first time since late 2011, with fresh concerns over weakening demand for iPads and iPhones. Apple is the largest smartphone maker in the US, but trails Samsung overseas and faces stiffer competition for other products from Google, Amazon and Microsoft. Investors fear Apple may have lost its innovative edge. Cirrus Logic, which makes audio chips for the iPhone and iPad, warned of lower quarterly earnings because of decreased demand from one unnamed customer. The speculation is that “customer” may be Apple. Its stock price has plunged from $700 last September to just over $400 now. Apple’s shares dipped as low as $398 after the Cirrus report before recovering late yesterday close at $402.80, down nearly 6 percent.

Speaking of cutting-edge innovation, Google is starting to distribute its new Internet-connected glasses, seen as the next breakthrough in mobile computing. Google has picked 8,000 people who entered a contest. The winners will have to pay $1,500 apiece for a test version of Google Glass. The company also took an unspecified number of orders from computer programmers. Wired.com reports Google is barring anyone deemed worthy of a pair of its Google Glass computer eyewear from selling or even loaning out the highly coveted gadget.

Intel, Microsoft, and Apple have made the switch to cleaner greener energy. The EPA’s Green Power Partnership released an updated list of the Top 50 organizations that are choosing to use electricity from clean, renewable sources. “We applaud the leadership demonstrated by organizations that are helping reduce carbon pollution and spur the growth of clean, American-made energy sources by increasing their use of renewable energy,” said EPA Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe. Intel continues to top the list, using green power to cover 100 percent of its electricity load. Microsoft moved into second place by increasing its green power use to more than 1.9 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) annually. Apple Inc., new to the Top 50 list, ranks number 10 with 85 percent of its nationwide electricity now coming from green power.

Weak earnings from Bank of America, negative economic reports from Europe, and worrying signs for Apple all dragged the stock market lower. The Dow Jones index fell 138 points yesterday. The Nasdaq was down 60. Stock futures rose this morning suggesting a fourth volatile day in a row for Wall Street. New quarterly earnings reports from Morgan Stanley, Verizon, Google and IBM may influence the direction of the stock market today and tomorrow. The price of oil fell to near $86 a barrel today in Asia. Economic data from Europe suggested global demand for energy will remain subdued. Cheaper oil could lead to more price cuts for US motorists and cheaper energy for businesses

Richard Davies Business Correspondent ABC News Radio abcnews.com Twitter: daviesabc

(Credit: Getty Images)

Despite ultra-low interest rates, an analysis by Zillow indicates that homeowners paid more for their homes in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to relative to median income levels than they did from 1985 through 1999.

This was the case for homeowners in 24 of the 30 largest metropolitan areas analyzed by real estate website Zillow, led by New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Zillow’s chief economist, Stan Humphries, warns that historically low mortgage rates are creating the “illusion” of home affordability, especially in light of stagnant income levels. So, while people are paying more of their income for homes, in terms of real dollars they are now paying nearly 37 percent less per month compared with the pre-bubble period.

“While home values have risen over the past year, wages haven’t kept pace,” Humphries said.

As a result, the typical home now costs three times the median U.S. annual salary, up from 2.6 times the median annual income in the pre-bubble period. This is in light of the fact that interest rates will begin to rise in the next several years, he said.

Last Thursday, Freddie Mac said the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.54 percent for the week ending April 4, down from 3.57 percent the previous week and 3.98 percent last year. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.74 percent, down from 2.76 percent last week and 3.21 percent a year ago.

“Once mortgage rates climb to more normal levels, housing is going to seem quite expensive again, as homebuyers will have to spend more of their incomes to buy a home. Looking forward, home values will have to either remain stagnant, while incomes catch up, or it’s quite possible that some markets we could see home values declines,” Humphries said.

The regions with the largest difference between their pre-bubble and fourth quarter 2012 price-income ratios included San Jose, Calif., at 52.1 percent more, Los Angeles, at 48.8 percent more, and Portland, Ore.,  at 45.4 percent more.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index climbed 8.1 percent in January compared with a year earlier and prices rose in all 20 cities tracked by the index.  Even New York, where prices had been lower in recent months, showed an increase.

Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Francisco posted the highest annual increases; they were also among the cities hard hit by the housing bust.

Home prices have been moving higher partly because there’s a lack of properties for sale in many areas, leading to stiffer competition among buyers.  However, according to recent report from the National Association of Realtors, the inventory of homes for sale is growing a bit, showing a market that is slowly returning to normal.

Home prices across the country are still well below their peak at the height of the housing bubble in August 2006. They are only back to where they were in August 2003.  So many who bought homes at the height of the bubble may still owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.

There are still 10.4 million such “underwater” homes in the country, according to CoreLogic.  But as home prices tick up, more homes move into positive equity.  By late last year 200,000 additional homes returned to positive equity.

Image credit: Coldwell Banker Commercial Schlitt Murphy

A relic of the 1960s Cold War nuclear scare is a real life bomb shelter in Ft. Pierce, Fla. It’s recently gone up for sale and could be all yours for just $499,500.

Real estate broker Hoyt Murphy thinks there’s a good chance the listing will eventually be sold as a repurposing project. “We’ve called it the ultimate man cave,” Murphy told ABC News, though he admits it would likely take a “pretty creative person with some pretty deep pockets” to take on the remodeling.

The structure is located alongside the Florida Turnpike and was originally built by AT&T in 1967 to serve for shelter and to maintain communications in the case of any catastrophic event. It was built with the Cuban Missile Crisis, just 100 miles away, a fresh memory.

In the mid 1980′s, AT&T decommissioned the shelter. It was sold to a group of Florida investors in 2005 and they’ve just put it up for sale.

Murphy said the 7,700 square foot, partially above ground bunker has 30 inch thick concrete walls and is by far the most unique property he’s handled in his 30 years in the business. “You mow your roof with a tractor… You could even build another house on top of it,” said Murphy.

But there has been some interest in the listing. Murphy said one group, the South Florida Survivalist Network, came to take a look at the shelter. Another contacted him about possibly using the structure for antique car storage. After six months on the market, Murphy said the word is only just starting to get out.

Home prices in major cities across the country rose 7.3 percent in 2012.  Of the 20 cities tracked by the index only New York saw a slight drop in prices — New York’s real estate market is very different from the rest of the country.

Though home prices are increasing, they are still back to about 2003 levels.  So a lot of people who bought homes at the height of the bubble likely have not recouped what they paid for their home.

Homes are usually Americans’ biggest investment and an increase in home prices adds significantly to household wealth.  As prices move up they add to the general economic recovery.

The housing market though has yet to completely return to normal; there are now too few homes for sale and a spurt in homebuilding is needed to get the market truly back on track.

A separate report from the government this morning shows that sales of new homes jumped to their highest level since July 2008. Sales surged 15.6 percent in January to a 437,000 annual pace, according to the Commerce Department.

New homes make up a small chunk of the housing market but have an important ripple effect on the economy through construction jobs and sales of home furnishings and appliances.

Taken together these two reports show a healing housing market.  As analysts at the research firm Capital Economics pointed out, “put simply, the housing recovery continues to accelerate.”