Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
Investors, get those check books ready, maybe it’s time to buy again? Adding to the list of recent positive reports on the housing market and home prices is the Housing Market Report that was issued this morning by Radarlogic. According to the report home prices increased in June from the previous month in 23 out of the 25 metropolitan areas tracked by their company.
Overall the composite for all 25 metros showed a 3% gain in price from May to June representing one of the largest monthly gains reported by RadarLogic since June 2000. There has been a trend of price increases reported for the 25 metro areas for the past few months. In fact, the increase in the Radar Logic Composite from February to June outpaced the house price gains over the same period during the previous threes years, and the increase in house prices from April to June was the largest since the beginning of Radar Logic’s date in 2000. 
Read more…
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
Today the National Association of REALTORS(R) published their Commercial Leading Indicator for Brokerage Activity for the second quarter of 2009 showing a decline of 1.3 percent to an index of 101.5, down from an index of 102.8 in the first quarter. At 101.5 the index for the second quarter of 2009 is 13.7 percent below the 2nd quarter of 2008 when the index was at 117.6. The index is currently at the lowest level since the first quarter of 1994.
In reviewing NAR’s report, it doesn’t appear any of the sectors have been able to avoid a slowdown, below is a recap by sector: Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
There just seems to be no end in site for the sickening numbers of foreclosures we are seeing take place in the housing market. While, from an investors standpoint, it seems like a “positive” in that foreclosures often present a good opportunity for an investor to purchase property at below-market prices however it’s really a double-edged sword though as foreclosures drag down property values, which hurts an investor. Read more…
By: James R. MacCrate, MAI, CRE, ASA
In the current unstable real estate market, we hear reports from the National Association of Realtors and many economists that the real estate residential housing market is stabilizing. This is based on several factors including recent price increases in several metropolitan markets, an increase in pending contracts of sale, and increase in overall residential market activity. This may very well be a temporary illusion that has been caused by an increase in incentives, concessions, and the federal tax credit. The Wall Street Journal reported that Toll Brothers, Hovnanian Enterprises and Lennar Corporation have provided below market financing and other incentives to increase the number of sales. If adjustments are made to the transaction prices for these incentives, concessions and federal tax credit, one would clearly see that the market value as defined by the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice has not really increased at all.
The typical definition of market value as defined in appraisal reports for federally regulated institutions is summarized as follows: Read more…
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
The good news about the real estate market keeps coming! Don’t get too excited yet, I don’t know that the worst of it is over yet, not sure if the “fat lady has sang” yet or not, but at least the reports lately on the market have been encouraging.
According to the latest report released today from the National Association of REALTORS(R), existing-home sales in the second quarter showed healthy gains from the first quarter in the vast majority of states.
Existing home sales (including single-family homes and condos) by state rose 3.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.76 million units in the second quarter from a rate of 4.58 million units in the first quarter. While an improvement over first quarter, the second quarter numbers are still 2.9 percent below the 4.90 million-unit pace from the second quarter of last year.
In all, thirty-nine states showed sales increases in the second quarter from first quarter and nine states had higher sales numbers for the quarter than a year ago. Read more…
Dennis Norman
According to Freddie Macs weekly mortgage market survey mortgage rates increased slightly this week from the prior week. The survey shows 30 year fixed rate mortgages averaging 5.25% with 0.7% in fees and points, up from 5.20% the week before. Last year at this time, the 30 year rate averaged 6.52%.
Rates on 15 year fixed-rate mortgages held steady at 4.69%, 5/1 ARM’s held about the same at 4.75% and 1 year ARM’s rose slightly to 4.80%. This time last year these arms were 6.07% and 5.27% respectively.
“Bond yields rose slightly higher this week on market optimism that the economy may be stabilizing somewhat and mortgage rates followed those yields,” said Fronk Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.
“Other economic reports confirm that the housing market may indeed be bottoming out. New home sales rose for the third consecutive month in June to an annual pace of 384,000 homes, the most since November 2008 and the number of new houses on the market fell to the lowest amount since February 1999, according to the Department of Commerce. Sales of existing homes also showed a three-month gain to 4.89 million, the most since October, 2008, and the share of distressed homes fell to 31 percent compared to almost half at the beginning of the year, the National Association of Realtors reported.
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
The National Association of REALTORS(R) has been reporting and tracking a “Housing Affordability Index” since January 1989. The index looks at whether or not an average family (an income equal to the median income) can qualify for a loan to buy a median-priced home.
The Housing Affordabiity Index for June was at 159.2 meaning that a family with an average income has 159% of the income they need to afford an average house. This is down from the revised index for January of this year of 176.9 which makes January the month housing was the most affordable since the National Association of REALTORS(R) began this index 20 years ago. Median home prices have increased 10% since January, rising from $164,200 to $180,600 in June, which has led to the degradation in affordability.
Of the four regions in the U.S. the Midwest is leading the way in affordability with an affordability index of 188.50. The Northeast is the least affordable region coming in at 127.9.
By: Dennis Norman
Today the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices report was released which showed that, although still negative, the annual rate of decline of the 10-City and 20-City Composites improved for the fourth consecutive month in 2009.
The 10-City and 20-City Composites declined 16.8% and 17.1%, respectively, in May compared to the same month last year. These values are improvements over April’s data, which showed annual declines of 18.0% and 18.1% respectively. After 16 consecutive months of record annual declines, beginning in October 2007 and ending in January 2009, the indices have now shown four consecutive months of improvement in annual returns.
“The pace of descent in home price value appears to be slowing” says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s. “To put it in perspective, this is the first time we have seen broad increases in home prices in 34 months. This could be an indication that home price declines are finally stabilizing,” he added. Read more…
By: Dennis Norman
- Dennis Norman
The new home market continue to shows some life coming back to it which should be encouraging news to investors. This morning the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000, an 11% increase from May.
While the sales numbers for June are still down 21.3% from a year ago, it is still a vast improvement from May’s year over year numbers which showed a 33% decline from a year ago.
Median prices for new homes decreased from $221,600 in May to $206,200 for June. Homes in the $150,000 – $299,999 range continue to dominate sales with 56% of the sales for June falling in this price range.
Perhaps the best news in the report is on the inventory of new homes. Inventory declined again to 281,000 homes which represents an 8.8 month supply based upon current sales rate. This is the lowest inventory we have seen in a long time and is a very positive sign to me. Read more…
