CNNMoney.com just ran an article listing the top 10 cities in which to buy a rental home. They provide average home prices currently and the current 2011 average gross rental income. Here they are in their listed order:

1. Las Vegas – Home price of $130,000 with gross average rent of $922. While Las Vegas has the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, apparently the people are staying and they need to rent.

2. Detroit – Average home price is $97,800 and the average gross rent is $681. Home prices are down around 37% from their peaks in Detroit. A falloff of another 3% in prices is predicted over the next three years.

While the big news for a long time has been the slide in home prices, there has been a similar slide in remodel project prices and project sizes as well. “Professional Remodeler” Magazine does continual research and data gathering on remodel projects and pricing. There has been a shift in the last few years to smaller projects and spending less on remodeling.

For the first time since 2007, less than half of remodelers said that their average job price has declined from a year ago; 45% to be exact. This compares to 75% last year stating that their average project price was down from the year before. Projects are still much smaller than in years past due to:

- fears of further declines in home values.

In the first half of 2011, foreclosure filings fell 29% compared to the first half of 2010. They were down 25% from the last half of 2010. Through June 30, 2011, 1.2 million homeowners, or one in every 111 households, received a foreclosure filing according to RealtyTrac.

Second quarter filings were at 608,235, the lowest quarterly total since the end of 2007. But, these numbers aren’t due to any improvements in the economy, unemployment, the housing market, or consumer sentiment. It’s all about bank backlogs and the aftermath of the robo-signing scandal. Banks have pushed foreclosures to the back burner while they improve their processing on the legal side.