Real Estate History
Banks are once again being pressured by the government to make loans to low income families.
Government Can’t make this stuff up. After going into a massive recession, caused in part from sectors of the banking industry being heavily influenced to give out sub-prime loans to those who couldn’t afford them, whether through CRA or red-lining laws, Obama is now urging banks to start lending out to low-income families to buy houses. This government influence into banking risk analysis procedures largely got us into the mess we are in. Those who don’t learn from history, are doomed to repeat it?
San Diego MLS home listings
March Home Prices Best In 7 Years
Home Prices Increase
The real estate tracking company CoreLogic, just reported this morning that their home price index jumped 1.9% from February to March. But, the big news was that the index for March 2013 was 10.5% higher than the year ago period! This was the biggest increase for the home price index since March 2006. Read more 
U.S. Homeownership Rate Falls
U.S. Homeownership
Well, for most people. Today’s real estate news was about the good home price appreciation, announced in the release of the Case Shiller 20 city index. on a number of TV and radio news reports that I heard during the day, not one that mentioned the increase in the case Shiller index said anything about the announced news today from the Census Bureau that announced the US homeownership rate dropped to its lowest level since 1997! Read more
Home Sales for March Improve
March pending home sales improve
The National Association of Realtors just announced that pending home sales increased in March 2013 to the highest rate since April 2010! Home purchase contracts signings rose in the South, West and Midwest, and were unchanged in the Northeast.
Home purchase signed contracts were 7 percent higher than the March , 2012 figures. Read more
U.S. New Home Construction Hit 5 Year High
New Home Construction Jumps
Today the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing new home construction in March hit its highest rate in almost 5 years! New home starts in March were up 47% from the same period last year, the largest year-over-year growth since 1992! Read more
S&P/Case Shiller – Home Prices Climb
S&P/Case Shiller – Home Prices Climb
Bob Schwartz, San Diego real estate broker
The S&P Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas was released this morning. This is probably the most respected report in the industry but it does trail most of the other housing industry tracking reports.
Today’s report showed that for December U.S. single-family home prices not only improved, but, showed the biggest yearly gain in more than six years! Home prices in the 20 cities jumped 6.8 percent year-over-year! Read more
Buying A Home Today
Buying A Home
Housing prices fell more than usual because they rose more than usual before the crash. Overbought leads to oversold, which leads to overbought. This golden roller coaster is great fun for those who get on and off at the right times. For many in-the-know, today could be one of those ‘right times’ to buy a home. Read more
Home Short Sales and Fannie Mae
Home Short Sales
In mid-2012, in an effort to reduce taxpayer loss and deter fraud, Fannie Mae implemented a new valuation practice and began countering short sale offers at prices Fannie Mae believed to be closer to market value.
Many REALTORS® have reported that since this practice went into effect, the counter offers issued by Fannie Mae are above market value and are preventing short sales from closing. Read more
Home Prices Strongest in Seven Years
Home Prices Strongest in Seven Years
In the just released quarterly report by National Association of Realtors® A growing number of metropolitan areas had higher median home prices in the fourth quarter, and the national home price showed the strongest year-over-year increase in seven years!
The median existing single-family home price rose in 133 out of 152 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) based on closings in the fourth quarter compared with the same quarter in 2011, while 19 areas had price declines. In the third quarter, 120 areas showed increases from a year earlier, while in the fourth quarter of 2011, only 29 metros were up. Read more
Home Prices Increase Most in 6.5 Years!
Home Prices Increase
A report today by CoreLogic, showed that home prices in December increased by 8.3% when compared to December 2011! This marked the biggest annual gain in home prices since May 2006.plus, the home price increases were extremely broad-based with 46 of the 50 states showing increases in December. Read more