Posts Tagged ‘bottom’Housing Perspective: May Pending Home SalesDespite markedly higher interest rates and problematic new appraisal guidelines, homebuyers are still stepping back into the market. The National Association of Realtors said yesterday that pending home sales, which measure new purchase contracts signed, rose in May for the fourth consecutive month. According to Bloomberg, the 0.1% gain from the prior month barely edged [...] Housing Perspective: June Homebuilder SentimentHomebuilders remain cautious, as rising mortgage rates and persistent unemployment weighed on hopes for a speedy recovery in the battered housing market. Today’s National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of builder confidence fell to 15, down from 16 last month, according to Bloomberg. Analysts expected the reading to come in at 17. The NAHB [...] Housing Perspective: March Pending Home SalesThe National Association of Realtors, or NAR, released its Pending Home Sales Index today, which showed continued strength in broad housing market data. The report, which measures signed contracts — often viewed as a leading indicator for future sales — came in at 84.6, up from 82.0 last month and the 83.7 reading in March [...] The Five Questions You MUST Ask Your RealtorBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. As a growing number of economists, pundits and real-estate professionals assure us the housing market’s worst days are over, prospective home buyers need a trusted advocate to make sure they don’t end up on the wrong side of someone else’s trade. More often than not, that [...] Housing Perspective: February Case/Shiller Home Price IndexFebruary’s Case/Shiller Home Price Index was released today, showing continued price declines across the country. According to Bloomberg, home prices slid 18.6% from the previous year — a steep drop to be sure, but less severe than January, which saw a record-setting 19% decline. With recent “positive” news on existing home sales, new home sales [...] Housing Perspective: March Existing Home SalesEconomic data is inherently backwards looking. Forecasts, estimates and any other prediction of the future is a stab in the dark likely based on an esoteric predictive model and a bunch of educated guesses. And of all the economic phenomena, the hardest of all to predict is the cusp, the turning point. Nevertheless, despite the [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: Beware The False Bottom in HousingBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Residential real estate is about to get very weird. In the coming months, housing-market data is likely to show price stabilization in many of the country’s hardest hit areas. Pundits, government officials and real-estate professionals will loudly proclaim the worst of our real estate woes are [...] Banks Rev Up Foreclosure MachineBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. For almost 2 years, we’ve been told government-backed loan modification efforts and foreclosure moratoriums would help ease the pain of the ongoing housing crisis. It’s not working. Despite recent calls to the contrary — this morning’s came courtesy of real-estate mogul Sam Zell — residential home prices are still in free [...] Keepin it Real Estate: The Stabilization FallacyBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Despite recent reports to the contrary, the impending stabilization of the housing market is a myth. While declines in certain markets are coming to an end, real estate, in general, is still in freefall. Last November, amidst a great deal of media fanfare, Fannie Mae (FNM) [...] Housing Perspective: February Pending Home SalesFollowing a pattern set with both existing home sales and new homes sales, pending home sales bounced in February, up 2.1% from the previous month. The National Association of Realtors’ released its monthly index that tracks the number of signed contracts, showing a gain to 82.1, from 80.4 in January. A reading under 100 indicates [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: Housing Recovery? What Housing Recovery?By ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. This week, 2 data points led optimistic market-watchers to declare the bottom in the housing is nigh: Indeed, one widely read trader-writer proclaimed, “The oversupply of housing that so plagues the market at present will be a figment of our memory a few months hence.” The [...] Housing Perspective: February Existing Home SalesIf you bought a house in February, it’s a 50/50 bet you picked up a foreclosure. The National Association of Realtors released data this morning indicating almost half of all transactions last month involved a bank owned home. Sales jumped 5.1% from January, to an annualized rate of 4.72 million. Prices, however, continued to decline [...] Housing Perspective: March Homebuilder SentimentConditions in the world of building new homes remains poor to quite poor. The National Association of Homebuilders (or NAHB), the industry lobbyist group, released its monthly builder confidence index this morning, which registered a near-record low reading of 9. Sentiment was unchanged from last month, which matched analysts expectations. The builder group is hopeful [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: How to Play the Housing ReboundBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. There isn’t an economic forecaster or media pundit alive who isn’t angling to be the first to (correctly) call the bottom in housing. Many have tried; they all have failed. But what happens when one’s right? At some point in the future, broad home price indicators [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: How Good is Zillow?By ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Americans finally get it: Home prices are falling. This may seem like a preposterous statement, what with the entire global financial system in disarray after the collapse of the US housing market, but we Americans are stubbornly optimistic people, content to ignore calamity as long as we [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: Capitulation Now!This post first appeared on Minyanville. Finally, housing is starting to act like a market searching for a bottom. Well, sort of. In former boom states like California, Arizona and Florida, distressed sales are driving the local real-estate markets. After a near-complete evaporation of buying activity last year, buyers have been brought off the sidelines [...] Housing Perspective: December New Home SalesBy RYAN TAYLOR The Commerce Department reported a 14.7% drop in the seasonally adjusted rate of new home sales in December. Builders unloaded just 482,000 homes, the lowest number since 1982, while the median price slipped 9.3% from December 2007 to $206,500. Tough to find a silver lining in this release, the numbers pretty much [...] Housing Perspective: December Existing Home SalesBy AUSTIN NELSON The National Association of Realtors released figures on existing home sales for December, showing an “unexpected” rise in sales volume for the month. Across the US, data showed a 6.5% increase in volume month over month. The surprise increase was bittersweet however, as median home price declined almost 3% month over month [...] Housing Perspective: January Home Builder SentimentBy RYAN TAYLOR Just when you thought the market for new homes couldn’t get any worse, it did. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo January builder sentiment index dropped to 8 from 9. While the homebuilders were setting records for new home sales in 2005 and 2006, they’re now setting records for the [...] Housing Perspective: November Pending Home SalesBy ANDREW JEFFERY It should come as no surprise that with headlines screaming financial Armageddon and the stock market making new lows seemingly every day, last November wasn’t exactly a great month for the housing market. This morning, the National Association of Realtors, or NAR, released its Pending Home Sales Index, which measures signed contracts [...] Housing Perspective: November Housing StartsBy AUSTIN NELSON Housing starts in the U.S. fell to their lowest levels since the government started keeping statistics on the subject in 1959. The drop is staggering — almost 20% since October — and is another stark indication of the current state of the U.S. housing industry, not to mention the economy as whole. [...] Housing Perspective: December Home Builder SentimentBy RYAN TAYLOR It’s still a lousy time to be selling new homes. The National Association of Home Builders, or NAHB, shared its sentiment index for December, which remained at a record low of 9. The index is based on 426 residential developers nationwide; a reading below 50 reflects negative sentiment. In addition to the [...] Housing Perspective: October Pending Home SalesBy AUSTIN NELSON Nationwide pending home sales were down 0.7% in October, according to the National Association Of Realtors (NAR). Pending home sales are those under contract but not yet closed, and the index is viewed as a predictive measure of actual sales that will occur the following month. Month-over-month, seasonally adjusted data show the [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: Treasury Tries to Re-Inflate Housing BubbleBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is hoping he’s found the magic bullet to solve the US housing market’s seemingly never-endless woes. He hasn’t. By throwing around the weight of recently nationalized mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), the Treasury Department is considering a plan [...] |