San Jose, CA – Between September of 2005 and December of 2006 permits to build new homes went down 28%, as home sales have dropped and prices have started to fall. In the last 50 years there have been seven other declines in building permits of 25% or more, and every single one has been followed by a recession, the most recent being the 1990 recession.

San Jose, CA – According to a U.S. Census Bureau report released in October, the cost of renting rose even faster than the cost of buying a home between 2000 and 2005. Over those five years, rents rose 20.7% as compared to an 18.75% rise in homeowner costs (these are nationwide averages, the increases for both in some areas such as California have been much higher).

In January, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will stop evicting tenants in foreclosed homes. Instead tenants will be able to stay on as renters. Both Fannie and Freddie were taken over by the government last year and have changed some policies to help slow the tidal wave of foreclosures and evictions. By allowing tenants to stay on, the blight of abandoned foreclosed homes will be lessened, and families who rent will not be uprooted from their schools and communities.