You are here: Home / Archives for Economy

Where Homes Are Selling the Fastest – Seattle # 4!

July 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

flash

Since the Olympics start today, and we’ll be hearing about and watching very fast people, this seems appropriate.

The average number of days homes are spending on the market has dropped by nearly 10 percent nationwide in the last year, according to June housing data from REALTOR.com. The average U.S. home now spends 84 days on the market.

But in some housing markets, homes are selling even faster, spending an average of 45 days or less on the market before they sell. What’s more, many of these housing markets are having not only some of the speediest home sales but also some of the largest increases in median home prices compared to a year ago.

Here are seven metro areas that saw homes on the market for the fewest number of days in June, according to Realtor.com data:

  • Oakland, Calif.

Median days on the market: 24

  • Denver

Median days on the market: 33

  • Anchorage, Alaska

Median days on the market: 43

  • Fresno, Calif.

Median days on the market: 43

  • Bakersfield, Calif.

Median days on the market: 44

  • Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Wash.

Median days on the market: 45

  • San Francisco, Calif.

Median days on the market: 45

Find out what other markets are seeing speedy sales at 24/7 Wall St.

Source: “American Cities Where Homes Sell Fastest,” 24/7 Wall St. (July 25, 2012

Filed Under: Blog, Economy, Real Estate Updates Tagged With:

Same price major difference in cost

July 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

mortgage-ratesWith all the talk about housing prices, here’s a simple look at what has happened to housing cost. The cost to buy/own the same house has become substantially more affordable.

 Same price, major difference in cost

Filed Under: Blog, Economy, real estate financing Tagged With:

Is the Housing Crisis Over?

July 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

house-arrowupIt’s official: The housing market has reached bottom, at least according to 44 forecasters surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. Only three economists surveyed said they didn’t think the market had reached bottom yet.

The recent momentum in housing has plenty of economists and forecasters convinced that the worst is behind. According to many real estate indices, home prices are up, sales of existing and new homes are picking up year-over-year, and inventories of for-sale homes have fallen dramatically.

The decrease in for-sale inventory is the key and will likely help maintain the rise in home prices, Mark Fleming, CoreLogic chief economist, told The Wall Street Journal.

What’s more, the number of vacant homes is at its lowest point since 2006, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Now that the “bottom” has been reached, economists admit there’s still a long way to go for a full recovery. In particular, more than one in every four home owners with mortgages are still underwater, owing more on their loan than their home is currently worth. However, analysts note that rising home prices are chipping away at that number. Also, shadow inventory of unsold homes and foreclosures still threaten the momentum of the recovery as well.

“From here on, housing is unlikely to drag the U.S. economy down further,” JPMorgan Chase economists note. “It will instead reflect the strength or weakness of the overall economy: The more jobs, the more confident Americans are about keeping their jobs, the more they are willing to buy houses.”

Source: “Housing Passes a Milestone,” The Wall Street Journal

Filed Under: Blog, Economy, Real Estate Updates Tagged With: ,

Record low mortgage rates

June 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

mortgage-ratesThe latest Freddie Mac report shows all-time low mortgage rates, reports the Los Angeles Times. Lenders were offering 30-year fixed loans to credit-worthy buyers at 3.66% and the 15-year fixed mortgage at 2.94%, on average. Here are the specific figures for the week ending June 28, 2012.

Foreclosures were also down by 2% in the first quarter of this year as compared to the previous quarter, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Year-over-year, the rate fell by 8%. Overall, about 4.5% of all home loans were 60 days or more behind on payments, said the OCC, which is 10% lower than the previous quarter and 6% from one year ago.

Declining interest rates coupled with lower prices may encourage borrowers to purchase homes now rather than later, when the market begins to support higher sales prices. The National Association of Realtors expects the median existing-home price to rise 3% this year and another 5.7% in 2013.

Filed Under: Blog, Economy, Real Estate, real estate financing Tagged With:

The Cost of Owning a Home (Last 20 Years)

June 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Cost-of-a-Home

Notes from the report: Prices and mortgage payments are based on the median existing single-family home price, averaged from quarterly data to obtain annual prices. Mortgage payments are calculated using the interest-rate average for that year and assume a 20% downpayment and fixed 30-year term. Rent is the median gross monthly rent from the 2010 American Community Survey, indexed using the CPI for rent of primary residence. Income is median household income.

Sources from the report: JCHS tabulations of National Association of Realtors®, Composite Affordability Index (NSA) and Existing Single-Family Home Sales via Moody’s Analytics; Freddie Mac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey; US Census Bureau, American Community Survey; Moody’s Analytics, median household income estimates.

[via]

Filed Under: Blog, Economy, Real Estate, real estate financing Tagged With: , ,

Experts Say Housing Prices Are About to Turn

June 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Home-and-MoneyEach quarter, Pulsenomics surveys a

“distinguished panel of over 100 economists, investment strategists, and housing market analysts regarding their 5-year expectations for future home prices in the United States.”

Here are the results of their latest survey: Price appreciation/depreciation expected over the next five years:

2012:   -.4%
2013:   +1.3%
2014:   +2.6%
2015:   +3.2%
2016:   +3.5%

The average pre-bubble (1987-1999) annual appreciation was 3.6%

by THE KCM CREW

Filed Under: Blog, Economy, Real Estate, real estate financing Tagged With: ,

New Home Sales Hit A 2-Year High

June 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

real estate updateFor the month of May, new home sales came in at an annualized rate of 369K, blowing past expectations of 347K.

Derek Thompson at The Atlantic points out that compared to pre-crisis history, this number is pretty tiny and pathetic, and that’s true.

But upturns have to start somewhere, and the fact of the matter is that New Home Sales have just hit a two year high.

What’s more, this better-than-expected number comes against the backdrop of an economy that seems to be losing steam. If housing can make an a-secular recovery, that would be a major, timely lift for the economy.

new construction

[via]

Filed Under: Blog, Economy, Real Estate Updates Tagged With: ,

5 Projections of Where the Housing Market’s Headed

June 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

crystal-ballReal estate markets across the country are inching their way to a slow recovery after bottoming out, according to several real estate economists who spoke at a forum hosted by the National Association of Real Estate Editors.

National Association of REALTORS®’ Chief Economist Lawrence Yun, Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries, and National Association of Home Builders Chief Economist David Crowe shared their views on the direction of the housing market during the forum.

"Last year was the worst year on record for [new] house sales, for 60 years of housing-sale info," Crowe said.

But things are picking up, the economists note, despite several challenges still threatening that recovery. Yun says that appraisal issues are holding back up to 20 percent of home sales and that lenders’ tightened mortgage underwriting standards are likely holding back another 15 to 20 percent of potential home deals.

projectionsHere are some of the economists’ forecasts:

1. New-home market: The NAHB predicts a 19 percent increase in single-family housing starts this year over last (from 434,000 last year to a projected 516,000 this year).

2. Single-family rental market: This could be the next housing market bubble, Humphries warns. He expects this sector to cool as rental rates continue to increase and as home ownership looks more attractive to the public again.

3. Distressed home sales: The percentage of distressed homes sales is projected to drop by 25 percent in 2012 and 15 percent in 2013, Yun says.

4. Home price appreciation: Yun says it’s possible some markets may see a 10 percent rise in home-price appreciation next year due to an increase in demand, or a 60 to 70 percent increase in housing starts. Yun argues it won’t be both, however, but rather one or the other. He notes it greatly depends on whether lawmakers reach an agreement once again on the looming debt-ceiling deadline.

5. Home owners’ negative equity: About a third of home owners are underwater, owing more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth. As such, the housing recovery will likely be “stair stepped,” Humphries says. He says home owners with negative equity will gradually begin to list their homes as they see prices inch up, but when they do, that may temporarily swell the housing supply and cause a brief pause to the recovery.

Source: “Economists: 2012 Marks the End of a Long Bottom,” Inman News

Filed Under: Blog, Economy, real estate financing, Real Estate Updates Tagged With:

Harvard University: Echo Boomers to Drive Recovery

June 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

HarvardThe Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University just released their annual State of the Nation’s Housing 2012. In the report, Harvard explained that, starting this year and continuing over the next twenty years, the echo boomers (born in the late 1970s and early 1980s) will drive the housing market.

“After several false starts, there is reason to believe that 2012 will mark the beginning of a true housing market recovery.”

As we reported in our InfoGraphic on Friday, adults under the age of 35 have decided to stay at home with their parents instead of purchase their own home. As the Harvard report states, it is not because they don’t believe in the value of homeownership:

“Although young households have increasingly opted to rent in recent years, most still aspire to homeownership. The late-2011 Fannie Mae National Housing Survey found that 86 percent of renters aged 18–34 believe they will ultimately own homes. In addition, close to 70 percent of respondents to both the Fannie Mae survey and the University of Michigan Survey of Consumer Attitudes felt that it was a good time to buy. In fact, the monthly mortgage payments for the typical home currently compare more favorably to rents than at any time since the early 1970s.”

The report projected the impact of these echo boomers over the next two decades

Over the next 10 years…

“… the most important drivers of household growth are the size and age structure of the adult population. Assuming the economic recovery is sustained in the next few years, the growth and aging of the current population alone— including the entrance of the echo boomers into adulthood— should support the addition of about 1.0 million new households per year over the next decade.”

Over the next 20 years…

“Over the next 20 years, the echo boomers have the potential to spur new home demand to an even greater extent than their parents did beginning in the 1970s. The good news for housing production is that this new generation already outnumbers that of the baby boomers at the same ages. With even a modest lift from immigration, the echo-boom generation will grow even larger as its members move into the prime household formation years.”

As housing affordability reaches historic lows, we believe more and more of the echo boomers will take the plunge into homeownership

by Steve Harney

Filed Under: Blog, Economy, Real Estate Tagged With: , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »