Showing posts with label US housing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US housing. Show all posts

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Home Prices Rose 9.3% in February!

Hopefully you all saw this morning’s news that home prices rose 9.3% in February which is the largest year over year gain since 2006 – that’s 7 years!  Additionally home prices increased 1% month from January 2013 month over month.  Read the latest Case Shiller report or here is a good summary from CNBC

Implications from today’s Case Shiller report from the Wall Street Journal (link on image below):
  • Prices set to rise further
  • Prices rising fastest in cities with job growth or the cities with the largest declines during the housing crisis
  • Home prices continued to increase in the winter of 2012/2013 despite general seasonal slowdowns.
It’s a GREAT time to be in real estate.

                                                            -x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Five Takeaways From the Latest Case-Shiller Report
 
Home prices rose by 9.3% in February from one year ago, the largest such gain in the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index in nearly seven years.

Tuesday’s report is the latest sign that the U.S. housing market has rebounded after home prices hit a bottom one year ago. The report showed broad-based home price gains, with all 20 cities that compose the index posting year-over-year price gains.

Here are five takeaways from Tuesday’s report:

1. Prices set to rise: Price increases are likely to continue because there are more buyers chasing fewer homes for sale. At the current pace of sales, it would take around 4.7 months to sell the inventory of homes for sale, which is near an eight-year low. This price growth is also being fed by improved affordability, rising household formation, higher rents and fewer foreclosed properties on the market. Come this summer, home prices could be at a boil in more markets unless there are more homes that hit the market. The big fears of years past—that a “shadow inventory” of potential foreclosures would swamp the market—have given way to concerns that there aren’t enough homes to sate rising demand.

2. Who’s hot: Price gains have been the most dramatic in markets with strong job growth and/or in markets that experienced some of the most jaw-dropping declines over the past seven years. Housing markets such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Atlanta fit the latter category. Prices have fallen by more than 50% from their 2006 highs, but they’ve since posted double-digit increases. Prices were up by 23% in Phoenix and by 16.5% in Atlanta from a year ago. The year-over-year gain in Atlanta was a record—the largest annual gain since the Case-Shiller series began in 1992. Meanwhile, housing markets such as San Francisco, Seattle, and Dallas are benefiting from job growth and higher incomes. Prices in Dallas were up by 7.1%, the largest such gain since the Case-Shiller series for that city began in 2001. Prices were up by 18.9% in San Francisco.

3. Who’s not: Prices are the most sluggish in the markets that have seen less dramatic declines and where there is still an elevated level of foreclosed properties. While New York home prices were only up by 1.9% from one year ago, it’s worth remembering that the New York metro also posted about half of the peak-to-trough decline as Las Vegas or Phoenix. The market has had less of a bounce, but it also has seen a less precipitous decline. New York and Illinois also have higher levels of “shadow inventory” of potential foreclosures because banks have struggled to repossess homes in the states’ judicial foreclosure system.

More In Home Prices

4. Overstating the bounce: The S&P/Case-Shiller index could have overstated both the magnitudes of the declines and the more recent rebound due to the way the index is constructed. Because foreclosed properties tend to sell at lower prices than comparable homes—in part because banks are less patient sellers and in part because the homes may not be as well cared-for—price declines can be amplified by a rising share of distressed sales. When the share of distressed sales falls, on the other hand, prices may look like they’re rising faster than they are. Other price indexes that don’t include foreclosures, such as a home-value index published by Zillow, showed that prices were up by 5.1% in March from one year ago.

“The appreciation rates we’re currently seeing in the Case-Shiller composite are not broadly reflective of what’s happening in the national housing market right now,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow. The Case-Shiller series, he added, “is overly skewed to quickly rebounding markets—particularly in the Southwest and on the West Coast—and is being boosted by a shift in transactions away from foreclosure re-sales.”

5. No winter holiday: Prices defied the seasonal slowdown. Normally, sales activity cools in the winter and prices take a breather. But that didn’t happen this year—home prices actually went up in December, January, and February. Prices in February rose by 0.3%, and after adjusting for seasonal factors, they were up by 1.2%. Look for an even larger year-over-year figure next month, when Case-Shiller reports on home prices for March. Why? The index hit its most recent bottom in March 2012, so the comparison is already likely to look good—even before considering the unusually strong winter.

Related: A Look at Case-Shiller, by Metro Area

Each specific market works in its own way but comes a point where we all are on the same wave. Our inventory is low, buyer's are wary waiting to see what happen, many can't find what they are looking for, who knows? it might just be too late for some but there are still good buys out there for the ready and willing buyer. Looks like, based on the statistics, that seller's market we have all been waiting for is not too far away. We must first pass over this transition period.

If you are thinking of taking advantage of this market before it is too late call me and let's get you ready in your new home. Considering selling, we need inventory, so call and let's create a marketing plan that will get your house SOLD!

Noemi Cardoso
William Raveis Real Estate
911 Main Rd
Westport MA 02790
Cell: 508-558-1945
www.DistinctiveHomes-NE.com
Noemi.Cardoso@Raveis.com



 

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Is It Time to Buy A Rental Property?

by The KCM Crew on November 14, 2012
 
Yesterday, we discussed rising rents and their impact on the long term housing expense of tenants. Today, we want to look at the opportunities that single-family rental units present for the small investor.

With house prices inching up and rents skyrocketing, this may be the perfect time to invest in single family residential real estate.

If you do, you won’t be alone. According to the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) 2012 3rd uarter Metro Area Report:
“Investors…accounted for 17 percent of all transactions in the third quarter.”
More than one out of every six houses sold are purchased by an investor. In the most recent MarketPulse Report by CoreLogic, their Principal Economist, Sam Khater, wrote on the subject in a story titled Roll Tide, or The Rise of the Single Family Rental Market. The major takeaways from the article are:
  • The single-family rental market remained very active in the late summer of 2012 with increases in demand, tightening inventory and rising rents.
  • Nationally, rental leasing volumes were up every month for two years. In August, they were up 7% over last year.
  • Supply was down 11% over the same period.
  • This tightness in supply has caused rents to increase.
  • Rent growth is expected to increase at a ‘strong clip’ late in 2012 and in 2013.
If a private investor is looking for a great hands-on opportunity, perhaps purchasing a single-family house to rent out makes sense. Check with your local real estate advisor to uncover the opportunities in your region.

If you are thinking of buying a home in Westport MA visit www.DistinctiveHomes-NE.com for a free list of homes for sale in Westport MA.

If you are thinking of selling your home contact me for a FREE Current Market Analysis and to learn about our Market Plan to get your home SOLD!

Noemi Cardoso
Local Office. Local Agents. Local Knowledge.
William Raveis Real Estate
911 Main Rd - Westport MA 02790
Cell: 508-558-1945
www.DistinctiveHomes-NE.com
Noemi.Cardoso@raveis.com

Thursday, October 4, 2012

The First Presidential Debate: Apparently, This Housing Crisis Is Over

Trulia Trends Real Estate Data for the Rest of Us

by Jed Kolko, Chief Economist - October 3rd, 2012

The candidates made just two mentions of housing: acknowledging the market is improving, and talking about policies designed to prevent the next crisis.

If I had a housing-debate bingo card, I would have tossed it out halfway through the debate. In the only debate focused solely on domestic policy, the candidates never mentioned foreclosures, refinancing, Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac. Instead, Romney gave a shout-out to “qualified mortgages” – which was definitely too obscure for my bingo card. What happened tonight? Two mentions of housing:

First, in his opening remarks, Obama said “housing has begun to rise.” He’s right: the housing market is in better shape today than when he took office in 2009. More surprising was that Romney didn’t argue. Romney did point out several ways that broader economic performance worsened during Obama’s presidency, but the housing market wasn’t one of them. Had Romney wanted to point to the ongoing pain from the housing crisis, he could have pointed to the stubbornly high foreclosure rate in many states or the fact that the market is still not even halfway back to normal. But he didn’t.

Second, Obama and Romney were more focused on preventing the next housing crisis than getting out of this one. They mentioned housing only in their brief debate over government regulation. Obama cited banks’ risky lending practices in the past as reason for why regulation is important for the future. Romney got into the weeds, agreeing that mortgage regulation is important and, in fact, blamed the continued uncertainty over the Dodd-Frank “qualified mortgage” rules for banks’ reluctance to lend today. (What is a “qualified mortgage,” anyway? Those will be mortgages meeting standards that automatically “count” as being within a borrower’s ability to repay, for legal and financial purposes.) Two cheers to the candidates for focusing on rules to prevent the next housing crisis.

But that was about it for housing. There’s a long list of what the candidates didn’t say about housing. Not a word about refinancing, principal reductions, selling government-owned foreclosed homes, or the mortgage interest deduction – all hot-button housing issues. Why wasn’t there more debate over housing? Three reasons:
  • The worst of the housing crisis is behind us. In almost every way, the housing market is improving: prices, sales, and construction are all increasing; vacancies, inventories, and delinquencies are all falling. Housing policy doesn’t feel as urgent as it did two, three, or four years ago.
  • Housing isn’t really a winning issue for either candidate. As the incumbent, Obama needs major housing policy successes to point to; as the challenger, Romney needs compelling fresh new housing ideas to put forward. Unfortunately, neither candidate has what he needs to make housing a winning issue for him.
  • Economic policy is the best housing policy. The housing market recovery depends on the broader economy. Jobs lead to housing demand; economic confidence leads to more lending and construction. Whichever candidate is better for the economy is almost certainly the better candidate for the housing market.
But the biggest news is that Romney didn’t argue with Obama’s claim that “housing has begun to rise” – and that both candidates were focused on regulations designed to prevent the next housing crisis. They’re clearly ready to put this housing crisis behind them.

If you are thinking of buying a home in Westport MA visit www.DistinctiveHomes-NE.com for a free list of homes for sale in Westport MA.

If you are thinking of selling your home contact me for a FREE Current Market Analysis and to learn about our Market Plan to get your home SOLD!


Noemi Cardoso
RE/MAX Welcome Home
Cell: 508-558-1945
Home Office (Westport) 774-264-9085
www.DistinctiveHomes-NE.com
noemi@DistinctiveHomes-NE.com

________________________________________________________________________________
 
Jed Kolko, Chief Economist
Jed Kolko, Chief Economist
Jed leads Trulia’s housing research and provides insight on market trends and public policy to major media outlets including TIME magazine, CNN, and numerous others. Jed’s background includes a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and more than 15 years of publications and research management in economic development, land use and housing policy, and consumer technology adoption.