Hopeful Signs in the Housing Market
Housing Market Improvement
The National Association of Realtors released a report today on adjusted pending home sales. Pending home sales are when people enter into contracts to purchase homes. The good news is that this figure increased 3.3% from the prior month, unfortunately, the index itself was down 2.1% from the same period a year ago.
On a regional basis, the pending home sales increased in the South and in the West, though the index for both regions remains below its levels seen in July 2013. Read more 
Home Prices Move Up in January
Home Prices Move Up
In a report out today from CoreLogic, a real estate data collection firm, it showed that home prices in the United States increased in January after declining for the last three months of 2013. Read more
Monthly Housing Starts and Building Permits
Today’s release of the monthly housing starts and building permits data showed a 16% and a 5.4% drop, respectively for January 2014. This latest housing data was much worse than most economists had expected.
Actually, the declining trends in the housing market have been showing up over the past few months. The majority of economists have attributed the weakness to the severe winter weather, but myself and a small minority of economists believe it’s actually the modest increase in mortgage interest rates that are the primary culprit in the housing market slowed down. Read more
Home Sales Fall
Home Sales Fall in December
The National Association of Realtors just reported that pending home sales nationally fell to the lowest point since October 2011.
Although the Association tried to attribute the December decline to nasty weather conditions across the country, the fact remains that this was the seventh straight monthly decline for the index! Read more
Another real estate market bubble?
Real estate market bubble?
Recently many real estate cheerleaders have been hyping up the fact that investors have purchased over 20% of single family homes in recent months. (It must be a good time to buy because “investors” are buying the homes!) There was another time in history when investors made up 20% of single family home purchases: Read more
New Home Sales Jump
New Home Sales Increase Best in 30 Years!
The Commerce Department reported today that sales in October jumped 25.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 444,000 units. Sales of new U.S. single-family homes had their biggest increase in nearly 33-1/2 years. Read more
Housing Market Good News
Housing Market
A recent report showed building permits increased two months in a row, and home prices showed gains in both the Case-Shiller and FHFA indexes.
San Diego Home Prices – August 2013
San Diego Home Prices
Just released report shows: Home Prices Rise Further in August 2013 According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
The 20-city index climbed 1.3 percent in August over July and 12.8 percent over the past 12 months, its biggest annual gain since February 2006. All 20 cities posted gains from August 2012 with 13 of those at double-digit rates. Home prices accelerated in August over July in 14 out of 20 cities monitored in the S&P/Case-Shiller index
Las Vegas led the 19 other metros with a 29.2 percent annual gain in prices. San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles also posted annual gains of more than 20 percent. Read more
Mortgage Rate Increases Kill New Home Sales
New Home Sales
Just out – The Commerce Department reported U.S. sales of newly built home dropped 13.4 percent. That’s the lowest pace in nine months!
Up to this point, the new home sales rose 7 percent in the 12 months ending in July. Read more
Home Foreclosures Near 6-year Low
Home Foreclosures
RealtyTrac Inc. reported today that the US housing market is on track to finish the year with the fewest homes repossessed by lenders in the last six years!
Last month lenders 36,964 homes, this was down 31% from July 2012! Home foreclosures are projected to be approximately 490,000 this year, although the sound like a lot, it’s actually down approximately 27% from last year’s totals. Read more