homesmillbrae.com » Bump http://homesmillbrae.com Thu, 20 Oct 2022 03:48:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 Higher-End Homes Finally Selling Again http://homesmillbrae.com/1914/higher-end-homes-finally-selling-again/ http://homesmillbrae.com/1914/higher-end-homes-finally-selling-again/#comments Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:59:50 +0000 http://homesmillbrae.com/1914/higher-end-homes-finally-selling-again/ Continue reading →]]> “While there’s still a risk that the fiscal cliff will derail the housing recovery, the balance between supply and demand suggests that, if anything, the risks around our forecast of a 5 percent increase in house prices next year are on the upside,” notes Paul Diggle of Capital Economics.

The shift in the sales mix is also largely due to a drop in the number of distressed homes for sale. Foreclosures and short sales made up just 22 percent of home sales in November, according to the Realtors, the lowest share in five years. Much of that is due to a lack of supply on the distressed side, as investors continue to compete for these properties to take advantage of the still-lucrative rental market.

The Realtors claim the distressed share of sales will continue to decline in 2013, due to fewer seriously delinquent loans, but banks are now ramping up foreclosures of long-delayed delinquent loans, so there could be another bump in that supply before it finally falls dramatically. Bank repossessionsjumped 11 percent month-to-month in November and saw the first annual increase since 2010, according to RealtyTrac.

Overall, the supply of all homes nationally is at its lowest level in 7 years,, just 4.8 months’ worth at the current sales pace.

(Read More: Best US HousingMarkets for Buyers and Sellers)

“With the homebuyer affordability index near multi-decade highs combined with decent job creation at the same time renting has gotten more expensive — all lead to a continued improvement in sales,” writes Peter Boockvar of Miller Tabak. “This said, sales are still 30 percent below the bubble highs and are still where they were in 1998, both pointing to the degree of possible improvement ahead but also evidence of the damage that was done where historically the pace of recovery takes time.”

(Read More: New Nightmare forHome Builders: Not Enough Skilled Workers)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100331527

]]> http://homesmillbrae.com/1914/higher-end-homes-finally-selling-again/feed/ 0 Election and Housing: Is Your Home’s Value Better Off? http://homesmillbrae.com/1831/election-and-housing-is-your-homes-value-better-off/ http://homesmillbrae.com/1831/election-and-housing-is-your-homes-value-better-off/#comments Tue, 06 Nov 2012 08:10:25 +0000 http://homesmillbrae.com/1831/election-and-housing-is-your-homes-value-better-off/ Continue reading →]]> Are we better off today than we were four years ago? That is the constant question on the eve of yet another tight presidential race. From the perspective of home prices, the answer is, as always, it depends on where you live. Some cities are faring far better than others, and some believe that home prices are not entirely finished correcting.

0212f house yard 200 Election and Housing: Is Your Homes Value Better Off?

According to the widely watched SP/Case Shiller Home Price Indices, home values in the nation’s ten largest cities were down 2.4 percent from January 2009 through August 2012 seasonally adjusted. For the top twenty cities, they are down 3.7 percent seasonally adjusted.

These two composites, however, are still both off nearly 30 percent from the peaks in the summer of 2006.

Remember, also, that we saw a bump in home prices in 2010 from the Obama administration’s home buyer tax credit. Home prices on the 20-city composite were up 1.5 percent in August 2010, not seasonally adjusted, from January 2009, but then of course they dropped again, and we are still, today, below that level of the tax credit surge. (Read More: Home Prices Rise, but Analysts See Pressure Ahead.)

So can an incumbent president win a second term when home prices are lower than they were when he took office? I asked SP’s David Blitzer:

“Our data go back to 1987 for the 10-City Composite, so there are a couple of hints — Bush-1 took office with the index at 77.99 In January 1989; in November 1992 it was 77.09, and he lost. In August 1992 (comparable to August 2012, our latest data point) the index was 77.76, also down by the slightest amount. Clinton, who was re-elected saw home prices rise from an index of 76.56 to 78.23 during his first term — up 2.2 percent over four years. The Clinton increase points out how large the price moves in the 2000s were. In the Carter years inflation was running close to double digits so home prices were most likely rising in nominal terms.”

(Read More: Cities With the Most Affordable Homes.)

While SP/Case-Shiller’s top ten and top twenty city composites are basically flat since President Obama took office, the national quarterly index is up 2.6 percent not seasonally adjusted, and consumer confidence in home prices is higher than it has been.

“Consumers’ average home price change expectation is 1.5 percent, consistent with recent periods and marking nearly a full year in which home price expectations have been positive,” according to Fannie Mae’s National Housing Survey, released in early October. “Thirty-seven percent of those surveyed expect home prices to go up in the next year, the highest level since the survey’s inception in June 2010.”

Confidence is up and national home price statistics are up, but 10.8 million, or 22.3 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage, owe more on that mortgage than their home is currently worth, according to CoreLogic. An additional 2.3 million borrowers have less than 5 percent equity in their homes, making it very difficult to move up or even out.

Still, all real estate is local, so take a look to see where you might be:

-By CNBC’s Diana Olick; Follow Her on Twitter @Diana_Olick and Facebook.
Questions? Comments? RealtyCheck@cnbc.com 

Click on ticker to follow real estate news:

Election and Housing: Is Your Homes Value Better Off?

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/49694810?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

]]> http://homesmillbrae.com/1831/election-and-housing-is-your-homes-value-better-off/feed/ 0 Foreclosure Sales Centered in Few States, So Why Should We Care? http://homesmillbrae.com/646/foreclosure-sales-centered-in-few-states-so-why-should-we-care/ http://homesmillbrae.com/646/foreclosure-sales-centered-in-few-states-so-why-should-we-care/#comments Thu, 26 May 2011 16:11:17 +0000 http://homesmillbrae.com/646/foreclosure-sales-centered-in-few-states-so-why-should-we-care/ Continue reading →]]> Page 1 of 4 | Next Page
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Earlier this week, when we got the report of a bump up in sales of newly constructed homes, I cautioned that the home builders are still facing huge competition from distressed properties (foreclosures and short sales). Today we have some new numbers showing just how big and how widespread that competition is. 

Foreclosed properties made up 28 percent of all home sales nationwide in the first quarter of this year, according to RealtyTrac.

That’s up slightly from Q4 of 2010, but not the record 29 percent we saw a year ago. More than 107,000 bank-owned (REO) properties sold, which is actually a drop from the previous quarter and a bigger drop (36 percent) from a year ago. Foreclosed properties sold at a 35 percent discount to their non-distressed counterparts.

So here we have fewer selling but making up a larger share of total sales. That’s not particularly healthy. We need to get more of these properties sold, because as I showed you on the blog Tuesday, there are hundreds of thousands of them and millions more in the potential pipeline.

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Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/43182211?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

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