Why California has Hit Bottom

California’s median price for an existing single-family house rose for the third straight month, a sign that the state’s battered real-estate market may be bottoming out.

California’s real-estate market, the nation’s largest, is seen as a barometer of the U.S. economy. Housing prices soared during the boom, and their plummet during the market’s collapse resulted in massive foreclosures and fueled the recession. Economists say the state’s housing market will lag behind the nation’s in recovering, so any indication of improvement in California bodes well for the rest of the U.S.

MP: Unit sales increasing in CA + Median home prices increasing in CA + Median number of days to sell a home decreasing in CA + Unsold inventory index (4.2 months) falling to less than 50% compared to a year ago (8.7 months) in CA + Fewer foreclosed properties among those being sold in CA = REAL ESTATE MARKET IN RECOVERY

Source: economist blog

Multiple Offers and Sales Abound

Just got off the phone with one of my Realtor buddies and this twenty year vet tells me he has more in escrow since 2005. Multiple offers are cropping up all over Southern California as first time home buyers are snapping up deals.

Home sales went up in May in several States. Ground zero of the real estate recession is California which ncreased 35.2% in May  California, compared with the same period a year ago.

“With affordability for first-time buyers at a record high, sales of existing, single-family homes continued to remain above the 500,000 level for the ninth consecutive month,” said C.A.R. President James Liptak. “Buyers are beginning to realize that the combination of favorable home prices, historically low mortgage rates, and first-time home buyer tax credits, may not align again for many years.

Alabama’s home sales up 9 percent

Alabama’s home sales in May rose nearly 9 percent, as the market began to feel a favorable impact from greater affordability and first-time home buyer credits, said a recent report.

According to the Alabama Center for Real Estate at the University of Alabama, 3,409 homes were sold in the state last month. That’s a nearly 9 percent increase over the previous month, but a nearly 26 percent drop from May 2008.

The center reported the Alabama Housing Affordability Index increased more than 15 percent for the first quarter of this year over the same time period last year, due in part to lower interest rates, a slight decrease in median home sale prices and an increase in median income.

Forbes Calls L.A. 5th Best City to Buy a Home

Los Angeles is the fifth-best American city to buy a house, Forbes magazine said in a new ranking of U.S. metro areas.

“While the majority of the nation’s housing markets are still working toward a bottom, some cities are boasting fundamentals that make them good places to buy a home now,” Forbes reported this week.

Denver is the best city to buy a home. Phoenix was ranked No. 2, followed by Boston, San Diego and Los Angeles.

Home Sales Rose in May

Home sales rose for the second straight month and inventory got trimmed. Home prices still show much lower values from a year ago, but part of that is due to more transactions on the lower-priced homes and fewer on the high-end. The rise in the national median home price should not be viewed as a genuine price gain yet since most if not all of the rise could be due to seasonal factors of more families with children entering the market this time of the year and they tend to buy non-distressed homes at higher values.

In the Midwest, existing home sales increased 9.0 percent

In the Northeast, sales increased 3.9 percent

The housing  data

Recovery

Recovery is creeping its head in a few metros according to The Brookings Institute:
McAllen, Texas is the only metropolitan area that saw growth in both employment and output during the first quarter of 2009.

Employment rose in New Haven, Conn. and Baton Rouge, while output also increased in Seattle, Austin, Virginia Beach, Washington, Richmond, San Jose, and Riverside.

Some 38 of the top 100 metro stopped declining in home prices over the past year. Many of these metros might attribute the stalled declines because of below-average employment declines, and lie in the less-affected parts of Pennsylvania and upstate New York and Sun Belt in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. They also exhibit below-average shares of REOs status due to bank foreclosure.

In other good news, Southern California home sales rose for the 11th consecutive month in May as sales of $500,000-plus homes started to come back.

New Homes Sales In US Up

Sales of new U.S. single-family homes rose in April.The Commerce Department said on Thursday that new home sales climbed 0.3 per cent in April from March to a 352,000 annual unit pace, while prices rose 3.7 per cent, the biggest monthly advance since November.

Vancouver home sales up 16.4 per cent in May

Home sales in Metro Vancouver jumped 16.4 per cent in May from a year earlier, according to figures compiled by the Canadian Real Estate Association.

That comes at a time when new listings in the region dropped by 35 per cent from a year ago, suggesting inventories are on the way down to pre-recession levels.

Housing Starts Jump 17.2% in May

Permits up also in May

Nationwide housing starts rebounded in May posting a 17.2% gain to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 532,000 units, according to U.S. Commerce Department. It was largely boosted by a double-digit gain in the volatile multifamily sector and also a substantial gain on the single-family. Interstingly all sectors of the Country was affected.

“Today’s report showing three consecutive months of gains in single-family housing starts and two consecutive months of gains in single-family permits is a very welcome sign that the market may be nearing a turning point,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe.

Single-family housing starts gained 7.5% in May, breaking the 400,000 mark for the first time since November 2008 to reach a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 401,000 units. Meanwhile, starts in the much more volatile multifamily sector posted a 77 percent gain following a nearly equivalent decline in the previous month, for a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 124,000 units.

Building permit issuance, which can be an indicator of future building activity, rose 4 percent overall in May

Vancouver real estate robust

Canada is back as May sales in Vancouver were 17 per cent above May, 2008, for the first year-over-year gains in months.

Most activity is among first-time buyers at the more affordable end of the market.In Calgary, for example, 70 per cent of resales in May were on homes priced under $400,000.

“First-time buyers are coming in to take advantage of the ultra-low interest rates we’re seeing right now,” Ms. Warren said.

“My last three buyers, all three lost their offer because they were in a bidding war,” the Re/Max agent said in an interview, adding she has been busier than she has been in months. “Anything up to $600,000 is flying off the shelves,” she said.

Source:http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/real-estate-recovering-economists-say/article1181681/

Next Page »