Sales are on the upswing as first-time homebuyers jump in - enticed by a temporary $8,000 tax credit - and investors snap up foreclosed properties. And some homeowners who can’t wait any longer for prices to rise are finding ways to move on.   Baltimore Sun

1. Las Vegas, -41.4 percent
2. Vero Beach, Fla., -39.8 percent
3. Merced, Calif., -37.7 percent
4. Cape Coral, Fla., -36.8 percent
5. Houma, La., -34.6 percent
6. Port St. Lucie, Fla., -33.3 percent
7. Warren, Mich., -32.3 percent
8. Vallejo, Calif., -31.9 percent
9. Modesto, Calif. -31.8 percent
10. Stockton, Calif., -31.8 percent

Source: CNNMoney, Les Christie (01/27/2010)

Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for NAR, said the increase in pending home sales wasn’t entirely due to the tax credit.

“Based on the demographics of our growing population, existing-home sales should be in the range of 5.5 million to 6.0 million annually,” he said.

NAR projects 2010 existing homes sales to rise 10.8% to 5.7 million compared with 5.15 million in 2009. New-home sales are forcasted to rise 42% in 2010 to 561,000 from 394,000 in 2009. Home prices are expected to rise about 4%, according to Yun’s forecast

http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20091124_realestateoutlook.htm

The following is an article originally posted with housingtrendsenewsletter.com that  I wrote it in an attempt to illustrate the necessity of selling lifestyle value in today’s real estate marketplace.

It is so easy to get caught in a “greed trap”. Selling rising home prices, or multiple offers to insert a scarcity driver to motivate the buyer.

Here is an attempt to sell lifestyle:

I watched a very special movie last night called Marley and Me. I can only describe it as a journey of a couples life that was joined together with the addition of Marley the Dog.

The story was peppered with plenty of important symbols of one family’s journey played out through children, spouses, career, choices and their three homes. Each home relocation changed over time.

With the first home symbolizing the family’s humble yet scattered focus. Their second home was more contemporary and symbolic of having arrived. While their third home although not nearly as contemporary was stately and representative of their mutual direction and goals.

As such a home represents their lives. During the movie, ownership if not stated was certainly implied. Swims in the pool, surprise parties, football games out on the front yard, as well as destroyed couches by Marley. We viewers always assumed home ownership.

Today we hear about the housing crash. We listen to new home figures like it is the stock market. Of course we did the same thing when the market was overheated. But we do not live in a market. We live in a home.

Its where we share love, we have children and raise good citizens. Walk down the street of any home in America and there is a story. And that story has little to do with home prices going up or down. Instead you would hear about Little League and dance recitals. SAT’s and first dates. Billies Touchdowns and if Aunt Meg is going to bring that pie again for Thanksgiving. Triumph and despair. Love and heartbreak. The home is where the heart is as they say.

It is mom throwing out your favorite pair of jeans, and little Katie picking all the Orange blossoms off the small orchard in the backyard. “It was for a special project”, she says. Or your discovery of the giant man size hole in the backyard, dug out to reach China.

That is home ownership. Not lousy news. Or good news. And these things most likely only happen with ownership. Sure we aren’t interested in paying for something that will not pay us back somehow. But real estate always inches its way up on average. And here is a news flash. Put your money on the fact that in another ten or twenty years we will get another sky is falling economic calamity. We always do.

By that time you could be enjoying your baby going off to College. And the heartbreak of the quiet orderly room that once housed a teenager. Clamoring for memories of your baby who has just flown the nest.

Today you know that with tax breaks and newly created tax incentives now is the best time to buy a home in years. Interest rates and home prices are historically low. Look at your Realtor’s listings of homes for sale.

Those those textual representations and two dimensional pictures are poor representations of lives lived. And now they are willing to give you a turn at that structure that served their family and absorbed their story  for all those years. The good news is that it has never been a better and more affordable time to take them up on that offer than now.

Sell The Story

So that was my attempt at selling lifestyle in front of greed. Futurepace them as NLPers would say. Paint their future portrait. Put all their dreams,hopes, and aspirations into that picture. Instead of selling market timing and put them into a home, not a house.

Home sales nationwide are now up nearly 37% from their bottom in January, data Monday showed, though they are still 16% below the peak in autumn 2005. At the current sales pace, there is only a 7-month supply of homes on the market and in some areas there are bidding wars.

“This could be a once-in-a-generation opportunity for real estate investment,” said Wong, whose Calgary, Alberta-based fund has already invested $5 million cash and will spend millions more in the U.S. Southwest over the next several months.

International investors bought 154,000 homes and condos in the 12-month period ending in May, down nearly 10 percent from 170,000 for the same period a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors reports.

Much of this activity is thought to be because of the weak dollar and low interest rates that are even attracting buyers from all over the world seeking 2nd homes.