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housing market: Home Sales Rise, Housing Recovery in Sight - 12/29/11 02:34 PM
The number of Americans who bought previously occupied homes rose last month. But the National Association of Realtors says it overstated about 3.5 million sales during and after the Great Recession, showing the housing market remains much weaker than previously thought.
The private trade group says sales rose 4 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.42 million. That's below the roughly 6 million sales a year that economists say are consistent with a healthy housing market. But it's ahead of 2008's revised sales, now considered the worst in 13 years.
The nearly 4.2 million homes sold last year … (0 comments)
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housing market: Aggressive Home Selling Strategies - 10/02/11 09:53 AM
Selling a house in an extremely competitive market is possible, especially if a seller is prepared to take action to help facilitate attracting a buyer. In a housing market where 'for sale' signs are springing up like mushrooms after a downpour, it's not enough to hire a real estate agent who only puts a sign in the yard, enters the information about the home on the local multiple listing service (MLS), and waits for a potential buyer to find the home.
In a buyer's market, it is imperative that sellers be more cognizant of the choices and actions they take prior … (4 comments)
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housing market: U.S. Home Equity Value At Lowest in Generations - 06/17/11 02:12 PM
Home values are way down since the housing market hit its peak in 2006. The S&P/Case-Shiller Price Index, which is a measure of the home values in 20 metropolitan statistical areas is down by nearly a third since the market peaked. Although home prices were briefly buoyed by the 2009 and 2010 home buyer tax credits, they have now hit double dip territory, at least according to Case-Shiller. Different measures of home prices have yet to show a double dip, but they are all trending downward.
Since 2001, the average home equity has declined from 61 percent to 38 percent as … (2 comments)
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housing market: House Affordability in U.S. Rises to Record Levels - 05/31/11 02:12 PM
According to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) report released recently, nationwide housing affordability during the first quarter of 2011 rose to its highest level in the more than 20 years it has been measured.The HOI indicated that 74.6 percent of all new and existing homes sold in the first quarter of 2011 were affordable to families earning the national median income of $64,400. This eclipsed the previous high of 73.9 percent set during the fourth quarter of 2010 and marked the ninth consecutive quarter that the index has been above 70 percent. Until 2009, the … (0 comments)
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housing market: The Housing Market Is Caught In A Liquidity Trap - 05/13/11 02:33 PM
For all the attention policymakers have placed on the Fed's actions over interest rates, the cost of borrowing is far from the problem.
Money is cheap. So the assumption is that people, banks and companies will spend more, therefore helping the economy grow.
But that doesn't always work. Sometimes cutting the rate of interest, even to zero, won't necessarily pull an economy out of a recession. British economist John Maynard Keynes called this the liquidity trap -- when virtually everyone becomes so risk averse that banks would rather sit on their cash than offer credit. And even if banks start lending … (1 comments)
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housing market: Home Prices Are Down But Home Insurance Remains High - 01/12/11 04:29 PM
If you’re a homeowner, chances are your house is worth less than it was five years ago. But you could still be paying more to insure it.
Despite the deep housing bust of the last few years, the cost of rebuilding a damaged home — in other words, what you pay insurance for — has not changed much, according to industry experts.
That means that unless you have reduced coverage or increased your deductible, chances are you are paying as much or more to insure your home as before the housing bust.
In this topsy-turvy housing market we’ve seen in … (2 comments)
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housing market: Good News for the Housing Industry- Fewer ‘underwater mortgages’ & FHA Rescues Homeowners - 08/10/10 11:23 AM
A smaller percentage of U.S. homeowners were saddled with "underwater mortgages" in the second quarter as more homes entered the foreclosure process even as price declines slowed, real estate website Zillow.com said Monday 08/10/10. Fewer homeowners with so-called underwater mortgages, where the amount owed on the mortgage exceeds the home's value, is indeed a positive for the housing market as it could mean fewer defaults and foreclosures down the road.
The percentage of American single-family homes with mortgages in negative equity fell to 21.5 percent in the second quarter from 23.3 percent in the first quarter and 23 percent a year ago, according to the … (2 comments)
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