More Good Real Estate News

Home sales in Washington state rise in 3rd quarter

The number of existing homes sold in Washington increased in the third quarter compared with the previous three months, the Washington Center for Real Estate Research reported Tuesday.

The federal first-time homebuyer tax credit helped sales increase 15.6 percent, according to the center at Washington State University. Sales also were 2.6 percent higher than a year ago, the center said.

UCLA sees 16% home-price gain in 2010

The Orange County California forecast is based largely on predicted job growth. However, Cal State Fullerton only sees a 2% home price gain. First American CoreLogic (Santa Ana HQ pictured left) predicts that Orange County house prices will be up 9.5% next August from this past summer.
Lasner

Dallas-Fort Worth home sales climb 11%

Pre-owned home sales in North Texas were up 11 percent in October from a year ago – the first year-over-year gain since September 2008 and the best sign yet that the local housing market has turned the corner.

Real estate agents sold more than 6,300 single-family homes through the Multiple Listing Service last month, according to numbers released Monday by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University and the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems.

Florida’s Existing Home, Condo Sales Rise in 3Q 2009

Sales of existing single-family homes in Florida rose 33 percent in third quarter 2009 compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the latest housing statistics from Florida Realtors®. A total of 44,345 existing homes sold statewide in 3Q 2009; during the same period the year before, a total of 33,311 existing homes sold. It marks the fifth consecutive quarter that Florida has seen higher existing year-to-year home sales, according to the state association.

Statewide sales of existing condominiums in the third quarter rose 56 percent compared to the same time the previous year. This marks the fourth consecutive quarter for increased statewide sales in both the existing home and condo markets compared to year-ago levels.

Las Vegas home sales on the rise

With home sales on the rise, prices beginning to stabilize and a reduction in inventory, experts say this is a pretty good economic indicator of consumer confidence.  The greater Las Vegas association of realtors says single family homes sales were up 30 percent last month, compared to the same time last year. And nearly three quarters of the properties sold were on the market for less than 60 days.

The median home price in southern Nevada is now 139-thousand dollars -that’s up a thousand bucks from September to October.

“Probably about 80 percent of our sales over the last 12 to 18 months have been comprised of first time home buyers and investors. And the extension of the federal tax credit should push that number up in the future,” said Rick Shelton, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. 13 Action News

Marin County Prices and Mortgages

Bob Ravasio reports over at his Marin real estate blog that mortgages are as low 4.85%  in the Bay Area. Bob also rips into the sensationalization of a recent SF Chronicle article that said Marin County homes are down 26%. Which is a twisting of the facts.

As Bob tells it:

Thank goodness it’s not true.
While there was more information in the body of the article, for those who read that far, it made it clear that the reason average sale price has gone down so dramatically  is that more low priced condos are selling relative to single family homes. These tend to be much lower value, driving the average down on a much smaller base.

Average sale price is a terrible barometer of what is going on in the short term, yet because it is the easiest to explain or analyze, it is the statistic that gets used all of the time.

Survey finds things lookin’ up

Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® “Housing Beat” survey :

• 9 % of member brokers are seeing an increase in closings, 26 percent are experiencing more pending sales (homes under contract but not yet closed), although many of those contracts are for foreclosure properties
• 1/3  of brokers are seeing more open house and Web site activity, and 54 % are seeing much more flexibility from banks in responding to short-sale inquiries
• 90 % are experiencing more activity with first-time buyers
• 22 % reporting the same for move-up buyers
• 14 % for high-end buyers
• 72 %  believe that the original allocation of government funds to provide credit relief to banks was necessary, although most qualified their responses with a strong tone of frustration by noting that the disposition of the funds has been poorly managed with minimal favorable impact on local markets.

hile all we hear is about market declines these prices have gone up. Your positive real estate has found by way of Zillow that 30 of the 163 metropolitan statistical areas covered, either showed gains in the median value of homes in the area or values stabilized.

Here are the 10 areas where values increased:
* Ithaca, N.Y., 5.6%
* State College, Pa., 4%
* Jacksonville, N.C., 3.9%
* Winston-Salem, N.C., 3.4%
* Bay City, Mi., 3.2%
* Rochester, N.Y. 3.1%
* Greenville, S. C., 2.8%
* Anderson, S.C. 2.7%
* Burlington, N.C., 2.6%
* Spartanburg, S.C., 2.0%