Analysis Topic: Housing Market Price trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
U.S. GDP Miss Far Bigger Than Announced, Real GDP is 0% / Housing-Market / US Economy
By: Mike_Shedlock
The Advance Estimate for Q1 GDP came in at 2.2%, down from 3.0% in the previous quarter, and below most mainstream media estimates of 2.5%.
However, my friend BC notes ....
The GDP deflator is reported to have averaged 1.2% annualized in the past 2 qtrs. Had the trend rate from '11 persisted, the deflator would have subtracted 2.6% annualized from real GDP, resulting in a 2-qtr. growth of real GDP of 0%.
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Friday, April 27, 2012
Another U.S. Housing Market Indicator Pointing to a Turnaround / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) of the National Association of Realtors increased 4.1% to 101.4 in March, the highest since April 2010. The PHSI reflects contracts not actual closings of sales of existing homes and typically lead actual sales by 1-2 months.
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Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Is This the U.S. Housing Market Bottom? / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Money_Morning
Don Miller writes:
Analysts, government officials and certainly homebuyers are spending hours trying to figure out if we have reached the housing market bottom.
Yesterday's (Tuesday's) data would seem to suggest the bottom is a bit bumpier than most people think.
According to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 cities, home prices declined 3.5% from a year ago, while the 10-city composite slipped 3.6%. That meant fresh new post-bubble lows for home prices.
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Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Improving U.S. Housing Market? / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
Sales of new homes fell 7.1% in March to an annual rate of 328,000, hold your breath and don’t be disappointed. The level of sales would have been much lower if the sales of new homes of February had not been revised to an annual rate of 353,000 from the earlier estimate of 313,000 and January’s sales was 318,000 and not 329,000 as the report shows today. Essentially, there were upward revisions of new home sales from December (small upward revision) through February, which has changed the recent trend of new home sales. The 6-month moving average of new home sales has risen to 331,000 in March, up 13.7% from a low of 291,000 in October of 2010 (see Chart 1). So, the good news is there is a small pickup in sales of new homes.
Monday, April 23, 2012
UK Mortgages Fixed Interest Rates Plummet / Housing-Market / Mortgages
By: MoneyFacts
The average rate of a five year fixed mortgage has decreased over the past year, from 5.59% to 4.86% today.
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Saturday, April 21, 2012
U.S. Housing Market Sector – Why the Fed Depicts it as "Depressed" / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
The National Association of Realtors published existing home sales data for March; it was down. But, the strength of January home sales gave a lift to the quarterly read. Housing starts data for March show a drop in new homebuilding activity but the first quarter average shows a gain of 10.5%. New home sales numbers will be published on April 24. Sales of new homes fell in January and February, a sharp increase in March sales will be necessary to give a boost to the quarterly average. These numbers need to be viewed in a historical context to evaluate the current status of the housing sector.
Monday, April 16, 2012
UK 95% LTV Mortgage Availability Doubles in a year / Housing-Market / UK Housing
By: MoneyFacts
The number of mortgage products offering maximum loan-to-values of 95% has more than doubled over the past year, from just 27 to 61 today.
Deals with a maximum LTV of 90% have also increased to 316 today compared to 228 this time last year, an increase of 43%.
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Friday, April 13, 2012
Could U.K. House Prices Fall Again By Another 20%? / Housing-Market / UK Housing
By: Andrew_Butter
Personally, I thought the bounce of house prices in UK starting April 2009 was an illusion. Three years later, they still didn’t go down so I started to think I obviously got that wrong, although there is still a niggling doubt in the back of my head.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Outlook for the Busted U.S. Housing Market, Cheapest Prices in 40 Years / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: LewRockwell
Addison Wiggin. writes: A little more than a year ago, a very successful professional investor declared, “If you don’t own a home, buy one. If you own one home, buy another one, and if you own two homes, buy a third and lend your relatives the money to buy a home.”
Tuesday, April 03, 2012
UK Interest-only mortgage house arrest / Housing-Market / Mortgages
By: MoneyFacts
There has been a sudden surge in lenders reducing the LTVs on interest-only mortgages to just 50%, placing them firmly out of the reach of the majority of borrowers.
Lenders cite this as ‘prudent’ borrowing but anyone who currently has an interest-only mortgage at a higher LTV than 50% needs to consider their limited options quickly.
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Tuesday, April 03, 2012
Where Would Warren Buffett Invest Today? / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Money_Morning
Jason Simpkins writes:
If Warren Buffett was going to invest in anything right now, where would he put his money?
At first, that question may be difficult to answer. But if you think about Buffett's classic investment approach - focusing on real assets with a reliable return and prizing valuation - it gets a little easier.
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Monday, April 02, 2012
Falling UK Mortgage Interest Ratesm, Should Borrowers Rejoice? / Housing-Market / Mortgages
By: MoneyFacts
The Bank of England base rate has remained at an all-time low of 0.50% for three years, the longest hold for 60 years.
Moneyfacts research shows that as the current economic climate took hold three years ago the average deposit needed for a mortgage rose to 40%. Currently it hovers around the 25% mark, thanks to an increase in higher loan-to-value deals.
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012
U.S. House Prices Index Maintains Downward Trend / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller Home Price Index held steady in January. Among the 20 metro areas that the index tracks, eight metros reported increases in prices (Seattle, Tampa, Miami, Washington, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Dallas, and Denver) during January, while it was unchanged in Boston and Las Vegas, and fell in the remaining metros.
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Saturday, March 24, 2012
U.S. Housing Market New Home Sales Show Disappointing Performance / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
Sales of new single-family homes fell 1.6% to an annual rate of 313,000 in February. The level of single-family home sales is up 12.6% from the historical low of 278,000 registered in August 2010 (see Chart 1). Sales of new homes rose in the Northeast (+14.3%) and West (+8.0%) but fell in the Midwest (-2.4%) and South (-7.2%).
Friday, March 23, 2012
New Wave of Foreclosures Will Sink the U.S. Housing Market Rebound / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes:
The long-anticipated housing market rebound will hit a speed bump this year as the number of foreclosures rises again.
With January's mammoth $26 billion settlement between five major banks and a group of state attorneys general, foreclosures that had been held up for a year or more are now moving forward.
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Friday, March 23, 2012
The U.S. Housing Market's Biggest Hurdle / Housing-Market / UK Housing
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes:
Forget about optimistic headlines on the housing market.
Whether it's record low mortgage rates, improvement in the Case-Shiller Index, higher housing starts, or any other report, the headlines don't tell the whole story - and the story matters.
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Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Keep Tabs on the Short End of the U.S. Interest Rate Curve / Housing-Market / US Interest Rates
By: Asha_Bangalore
The 10-year Treasury note yield was trading at 2.39% as of this writing, up from 1.96% on March 6 and 2.04% on March 12. The focus has been on the long end of the yield curve in the last few trading days. Moving over to the short end, the effective federal funds rate has moved up roughly seven basis points since early January (see Chart 1).
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Sunday, March 18, 2012
U.S. Foreclosure Fraud Settlement Documents Highlight Lawlessness of the Banks / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Barry_Grey
On Monday, the settlement between five major banks and the federal and state governments of foreclosure-related fraud charges was filed in federal district court in Washington, DC. The agreement must be approved by the court to take effect.
The settlement, reported to be worth $25 billion, was announced February 9 and hailed by President Obama as a serious rebuke to the banks and boon to distressed homeowners. (See: “Obama administration brokers pro-bank mortgage fraud settlement”).
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Thursday, March 15, 2012
Real Estate 4 Ran$om: Role of Speculation in the Financial Collapse - Patience and Finance / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Jesse
This is an Australian produced film, but the principles carry.
I would not focus on land to the exclusion of financial assets like stocks, and other vehicles for producing income and capital gains, that allow speculators to game the system.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Bank of England Losing Control of Mortgage Interest Rates, Perversely Bullish for UK Housing Market? / Housing-Market / UK Housing
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Bank of England last week kept the UK Base interest rate on hold for a third year at 0.5%. The tax payer bailed out and supported banks answered by again announcing a series of mortgage interest rate hikes to take place over the coming months towards 5%, or ten times the official base interest rate.