May

San Diego Home Prices

San Diego real estate double dip

The just released Case-Shiller home-price index showed that home prices fell in 18 of 20 cities in March. The only two cities to show slight increases were Washington, D.C., and Seattle.

The Case-Shiller home-price index is now below its April 2009 mark. What this is saying is that home prices have given back all gains they showed from May 2009 through June 2010. This confirms that the U.S. housing market is in a double-dip downturn. Read more

May

Memorial Day 2011

May

Housing Market Outlook

Karen Weaver, head of market strategy and research at Seer Capital Management LP, talks about the outlook for the U.S. housing market. Weaver talks with Carol Massar and Matt Miller on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart.” (Source: Bloomberg)

See my 8-19-10 post: Was There A San Diego Real Estate Recovery? & my 11-17-10 post San Diego Home Sales Take Huge Fall , where I said “The evidence presented in this and other recent San Diego real estate reports seem to indicate that we have already entered into a ‘double-dip’ in San Diego home values.

Los Angeles real estate lawyers

May

Home Prices – Home Sales Drop

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) just reported that existing-home sales slipped in April, although the market has managed six gains in the past nine months.

The national median existing-home price for all housing types was 5.0% below April 2010 prices. Distressed homes accounted for 37% of sales in April, down from 40% in March; they were 33% in April 2010.

Single-family home sales slipped 0.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.42 million in April from 4.44 million in March, and are 12.6% below the 5.06 million pace in April 2010. The median existing single-family home price was 5.4% below a year ago. Read more

May

San Diego Real Estate – A Bottom … Not A Reversal

When the San Diego real estate market hits bottom, it will be just that, a bottom, not a reversal. Don’t believe that home prices will spike up and shoot back up to pre-bust levels any time soon! I find that highly doubtful even if the economy were healthy in other sectors because who is going to fuel this reversal? Will it be the people who have foreclosures and short sales on their credit history, or another group of salivating sub-prime buyers?

Credit is tightening up to the point that home buying is truly back to where you actually have to put 5 to 20% down and have a decent credit rating. That will restrict the pool of available buyers considerably, which will prevent another ridiculous up-ride on the home price roller coaster.

The “bottom” will be the new median home price, according to what the local marketplace and income levels dictate, with modest year to year appreciation.

Until the ‘real’ bottom is reached in the San Diego real estate market, expect many false upward spikes driven by people looking at only one set of data and incorrectly timing the best time to buy.