West Leading the Way Out of Recession

Pending home sales rose 3.2 percent from June to July, with a surge in sales in the western U.S. outweighing declines in the Northeast and Midwest, the National Association of Realtors said today. Pending home sales were up 12.1 percent from June to July in the West and 3.1 percent in the South, but fell 3 percent in the Northeast and 2 percent in the Midwest regions. All four regions saw a year-over-year increase in pending home sales, led by the West (20 percent) and followed by the South (12 percent), Midwest (8.1 percent) and Northeast (4.7 percent).

California home sales have been up year-over-year for 13 months, and it seems to be leading the US out of the housing slump.

Shiller Chills and Get Positive

Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index shows that prices are actually starting to rise again in some parts of the country. Cities like Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Minneapolis and San Francisco all have home prices on the rise.

“This is the first time in almost three years that we’ve seen price increases,” says Yale University professor Robert Shiller, who helped design the home price index. “So when we see a break in the downward trend that’s definitely encouraging news.”
“Well, I think the worst is probably behind us — the worst pace of decline,” he says. “We were going down at 2 percent a month for a number of months in a row nationally. That was really something. Now home prices relative to rents or construction costs are back at normal levels.”

Many Realtors are seeing multiple offers making some speculate that we have reached a housing bottom.

“Well, I think it very much depends on what city you’re in,” says William Wheaton, a housing economist at MIT. “There are really two types of markets right now.”

Wheaton notes that in states with 50% drops like Arizona, California and Florida that indeed we may be at a bottom.

“If you’re in a market like California, where prices have fallen 50 percent and transactions have picked up and you ask your friendly professor ‘Is this the bottom?’ I would say pretty much so,” Wheaton says.” If you could buy a house [for] 50 percent of what you could a few years ago, I’d say go ahead and buy it.”

Source: NPR

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.

U.S. Foreclosures Decreases 6%

RealtyTrac, reports in its just released May 2009 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report that foreclosure filings-default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions-were decrease by 6% from the previous month.
California posted a 4% decrease in foreclosure activity from the previous month.

Default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions in Florida were all down from the previous month.

Related articles:

• Foreclosures Slow 6 Percent in May (abcnews.go.com)
• U.S.home foreclosures fall in May (thestar.com)

Florida Housing Rebounds First

Housing Predictor says Florida is turning itself out of the Housing doldrums first instead of California.

In previous real estate depressions California has been the first state in the nation to signal a turn around in the housing market. But higher home and condo sales in Florida that have lasted for more than a half year and increasing buyer inquiries signal the Sunshine State is making a turn for the better in real estate.

Record population growth in Florida may contribute to the more promising market after nearly a four year slow down in home sales, which started after the state was battered by a series of hurricanes and the financial crisis. As a result home sales turned sluggish in Florida before any where else in the country.

However, nearly two-thirds of all sales are foreclosures and short sale properties, many of which are not counted by real estate agents since they are sold at auction or by banks directly to home buyers. The new trend demonstrates better times are on the horizon for housing markets troubled by the credit crisis.

More banks in many Florida housing markets are beginning to make mortgages, especially locally based lenders, and nearly a fifth of all sales are owner financed.

Housing Predictor forecasts more than 250 local housing markets in all 50 states, and regularly tracks markets from coast to coast. Search foreclosures, check your market forecast and other real estate news at http://www.housingpredictor.com

California? Affordable Housing Returns

But as John Burns says get it while the gettin is good. As rates are so low they won’t last much longer. 59 % of California households had the monthly income to buy an entry-level home. This is comparing the 4th quarter of 2008 to the 33% a year earlier. This says the California Association of Realtors’ First-Time Buyer Housing Affordability Index.

$48,900 was the minimum qualifying income and is a number 42% lower than a year earlier when households needed $83,700 to qualify for a loan on an entry-level home.

At 76 percent, the High Desert region was the most affordable area in the state, while the San Luis Obispo County region was the least affordable in the state at 44 percent, followed by the Los Angeles County region at 46 percent.