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

How to Know We Have Hit Bottom

10 Signs of a Bottom in Housing:

 10 Noteworthy observations and signs include:

Source: http://www.infotube.net/blog/2009/07/10-signs-of-a-bottom-in-housing.html

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

Housing To Rise

The Housing Market Hits the Bottom http://www.huliq.com/4745/81119/housing-market-hits-bottom

According to Real Estate Professionals and most of the major indices, the beleaguered housing market has finally hit the bottom or is only weeks away from being at the bottom of the market.

The mood in the Real Estate Industry seems to be on an uptrend. A recent survey conducted by HomeGain.com showed that almost half of Real Estate Agents who took part in the survey expect home prices to stop falling and begin increasing in the next six months. The majority of these Agents (85 percent) said that the homes in their areas had dropped in value in the last twelve months. However, the last couple of months they have definitely seen an increase in activity and sales.

Distressed Real Estate entrepreneur – Sam Zell – agrees with the survey. He is forecasting that the housing market will bottom out this summer because the drop in building is starting to impact supply. Zell recently said that “the U.S. will recover and recover first around the world because we have a culture and we have an environment where we face up to reality quickly and effectively.”

Related articles

• Sam Zell calls bottom for residential real estate, says GM is done (dailyfinance.com)
• U.S. housing may be nearing bottom: Case-Shiller index (financialpost.com)

Bernanke Sees Bottom

Houston the recession has landed!

More and more signs point to a new start. Just like we do not know we have been in a recession until after the fact, we also do not know we are out until after the fact.

Bernanke  to a Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C.:

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke offered his view that the economy may be bottoming out and is likely to turn upward later this year. With signs that suggest some tentative signs that final demand, especially demand by households, may be stabilizing. Consumer spending  grew in the first quarter. In coming months, households’ spending power will be boosted by the fiscal stimulus program, and we have seen some improvement in consumer sentiment.

The housing market, has shown some signs of bottoming. Sales of existing homes have been fairly stable since late last year, and sales of new homes have firmed a bit recently. The increased affordability of homes appears to be contributing more broadly to the steadying in the demand for housing. In particular, the average interest rate on conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgages has dropped almost 1-3/4 percentage points since August, to about 4.8%. With sales of new homes up a bit and starts of single-family homes little changed from January through March, builders are seeing the backlog of unsold new homes decline-a precondition for any recovery in homebuilding.

The housing market is beginning to stabilize and that the sharp inventory liquidation that has been in progress will slow over the next few quarters.

Bottom

U.S. housing sales are near a bottom, the chief economist of Freddie Mac, Frank Nothaft, said on Saturday.
He noted that Federal Housing Administration lending is up sharply, with FHA loans at the largest share of the U.S. housing market since 1942, and mortgage rates are at a 50-year low.

Seeking Bottom

A recent survey amongst Realtors say we are very near the bottom. Source: Inman News (subscription)

Housing Bottom?

Stephann Cotton of Cotton & Co. explains that a recent survey on buyer confidence shows that 34% of those polled expect a housing-market bottom within six months and 65% see a bottom within 12 months. Kelsey Hubbard reports. (March 23)

Pending Home Sale Volume Up 6.3 % in December

Foreclosed properties are driving this index that tracks signed contracts to purchase existing homes. The index jumped in December