Tag Archives: Home Prices

What do you do when you find out Santa Claus doesn't exist? That's the situation former vice presidential candidate/House Budget Committee Chair/potential presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) faces now that the study which provided him with the academic support for budget cuts (aimed principally at so-called entitlements) has been undermined. Harvard economists Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff in 2010 published a research paper which held that for countries with debt loads equivalent to or greater than 90 percent of annual economic output, ""median growth rates fall by 1 percent, and average growth falls considerably more.""

Overall Bay Area home sales were up month-over-month but down from a year ago, according to DataQuick's March home sales report for the region. Home sales-which include new and resale houses and condos-totaled 7,263 in the nine county Bay Area in March. The figure represents a 34.4 percent increase from the month before, but sales were still down 6 percent March 2012, according to the San Diego-based company.

Real estate sales have been weakening in California, but ForeclosureRadar found flipping activity in the state reached its highest level since September 2005. In March 2013, sales for distressed and non-distressed transactions decreased 12.9 percent from a year ago, according to a property report from the analytics firm. On the other hand, flipping activity, which ForeclosureRadar defined as reselling a property within six months, nearly tripled over a one year period ending in March after accounting for 5.2 percent of total sales.

While some might be rejoicing at the recent rising home prices and rising home sales seen across the nation, Fitch Ratings ""still views these gains cautiously."" In fact, the agency predicts price gains will slow and perhaps even reverse over the next year. Fitch expects a price ""trough in the middle of 2014"" but suggests inflation will keep prices from falling more than 3.5 percent.

As the rise in single-family rents slows and operating costs increase, Radar Logic stressed the need for institutional investors to focus on properties sold at steep discounts in order to yield a profit from rentals. While institutional investors tend to pay less for single-family homes compared to individual homebuyers since they buy in bulk, the discounts offered for properties vary widely, depending on the market, Radar Logic explained. In order to pinpoint markets where investors are finding the biggest discounts, Radar Logic tracked prices paid by large-scale investors in some 300 metro areas.

Despite a drop in new listings, home sales in Colorado continued to trend upward, the Colorado Association of Realtors (CAR) reported. Home sales, which include single-family residents, condos, and town homes, jumped 16 percent to 18,343 in the first quarter of this year compared to the same quarter a year ago.

Slightly more than half of Americans harbor at least one regret about their current home, according to Trulia's Real Estate Regrets survey. The top regret listed among homeowners is not choosing a larger home. Thirty-four percent of homeowners cited this regret in Trulia's survey. The second most common regret among homeowners is not remodeling more when they purchased their current homes.

Demand for distressed properties from investors is contributing to the recovery, not creating an artificial one, according to Pro Teck's Home Value Forecast for April. One of the catalysts driving the housing market rebound has been large investment funds, which are buying distressed single-family homes to be used as rentals. ""These funds have also been renovating homes, which has helped to improve the overall conditions of the surrounding neighborhoods and provided a positive injection of capital,"" said Tom O'Grady, CEO of Pro Teck.

Despite threats from the federal budget sequester, the nation's economy expanded ""at a moderate pace"" from late February to early April, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday in its periodic ""Beige Book. Activity in five Federal Reserve Districts--Cleveland, Richmond, St. Louis, Minneapolis, and Kansas City--was described as growing at a moderate pace, while in five other districts-- Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, and San Francisco--growth was notched slightly slower as ""modest.""

Housing continues to be a bright spot in the economy, contributing positively to GDP. In fact, Fannie Mae cited the sector as the most likely source of upside to our forecast in its April 2013 Economic Outlook. According to the GSE, residential investment--once a drag on the economy--has contributed positively or neutrally to the nation's economic growth for the past seven quarters. The GSE expects this trend to continue this year.