Analysis Topic: Housing Market Price trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
U.S. Housing Starts Plunge in February, Outlook Remains Gloomy / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
Starts of single-family units fell 22.5% in February to annual rate of 479,000, virtually identical to the 477,000 low seen in April 2009. New construction for single-family units fell 11.8% to annual rate of 375,000 in February, which is close to the historical low of 360,000 registered in January 2009. Essentially, construction of new homes has failed to rebound from historical lows despite a recovery that is seven quarters old.
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Monday, March 14, 2011
How Real Estate Came to Own Us / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Douglas_French
Cheap money, buyer tax incentives, lack of new supply, nothing seems to keep home prices elevated. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Index fell 1 percent in December. Prices fell in every market excepting Washington, DC, where the business of doing the people's business continues to expand seemingly without end.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
China Housing Market Bubble Bust Could be Dubai X1000 / Housing-Market / China Economy
By: MISES
It's an eerily familiar story. Shortly before the American housing bubble burst, pundits across the globe argued that the world had reached a new plateau of economic growth, where the old rules of economics no longer applied — "this time it's different." The same has been said about the current boom in China, specifically with regards to its large degree of top-down state control over the economy, which somehow enables it to ignore the laws of economics.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
U.S. Housing Market Developments Suggest Persistent Unease / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
The Mortgage Bankers Association's Mortgage Purchase Index moved up 12.5% to 194.4 during the week ended March 4. On a monthly basis, the Mortgage Purchase Index has declined 3.3% in February following a nearly 8.0% drop in January. Of late, the link between mortgage applications for purchases of homes and actual sales appears to be weak (see Chart 1). Combined sales of homes rose slightly in January [Sales of existing homes advanced in January (+2.7%), while sales of new homes plunged (-12.6%)].
Monday, March 07, 2011
U.K. Tracker Interest Rate Mortgages Fall to All Time Low / Housing-Market / Mortgages
By: MoneyFacts
The average rate on a two year tracker mortgage has fallen to 3.40%, its lowest level since Moneyfacts started monitoring rates in 1988.
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Monday, March 07, 2011
Dubai Property Market Crash BubbleOmiX Update 2011 / Housing-Market / Middle East
By: Andrew_Butter
If you drive out on the highway towards Abu Dhabi past the Jebel Ali Free Zone, look on the right and you will see, partly covered in sand, the remnants of the billboards that used to declare, “Where the Vision of Dubai Get’s Built”.
I met a guy who claimed to have come up with that tag-line. He was a young American, very nice and very-very smart, based in New York working for a big-name branding company, with absolutely no clue of what Dubai is/was about. But he was making really good money, and that’s fundamentally what everything is about, in Dubai.
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Thursday, March 03, 2011
Fannie and Freddie Reform: Too Little, Too Late / Housing-Market / Market Regulation
By: MISES
David D'Amato writes: At the beginning of February, amidst Beltway budget clamoring and ahead of yesterday's statement from Bernanke, the Treasury issued a report to Congress announcing efforts to "wind down" Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The report, though conspicuously lacking in detail, sets forth three alternatives for reducing the role of the two government-backed companies, none of which actually prune the state's role in the housing market. Whatever route Congress decides to take, the fundamental problems that bedevil the present framework and caused the housing bubble (and resultant financial calamity) are left unaltered.
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
U.S. Housing Market, More Trouble in Squanderville / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Mike_Whitney
Bob, Frank and Freddie all bought identical houses in the same neighborhood in 2004. Each man paid $300,000 for his home.
Bob paid the whole $300,000 in cash. Frank put down 10% (or $30,000) and took out a $270,000 mortgage. Freddie paid $0-down on a 100% mortgage.
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
U.S. Home Improvements Lift Residential Construction Outlays / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
Construction spending fell 0.7% in January after a 1.6% drop in the prior month. During January, the 5.3% jump in residential construction spending was largely due to home improvements (+10.5%, see Chart 7), with new construction of single family-units (+0.9%) posting a small gain and that of multi-family units declining (-2.9%). Non-residential private sector construction spending posted a significant drop (-6.9%).
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Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Pending U.S. Home Sales Index Points to Likely Weakness in Home Sale / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) of the National Association of Realtors fell 2.8% to 88.9 in January, after 3.2% drop in December. These back-to-back monthly declines bode poorly for sales of existing homes in the near term. The PHSI has a 1-2 month lead on actual sales of existing homes. Sales of existing homes rose 2.7% in January.
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Monday, February 28, 2011
Timing the China Property Crash / Housing-Market / China Economy
By: Mike_Shedlock
Inquiring minds are investigating Analysis of the Chinese Property Bubble by Huw McKay, Senior International Economist, for Westpac Bank.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Sales of U.S. New Homes Decline in January to Erase Gains Posted in December / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
Sales of new single-family homes fell 12.6% to an annual rate of 284,000 in January after nearly a 17% jump in December. Effectively, the level of new home sales is back to the November 2010 mark. The record low is 274,000 established in August 2010. Regionally, sales of new homes fell in the South (-12.8%) and West (-36.5%) but advanced in the Northeast (+54.5%) and Midwest (+17.1%).
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
U.S. House Prices Continue to Move Around Cycle Low / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller Home Price Index fell 2.1% in the fourth quarter following a 3.3% decline in the prior quarter. The level of the index is close to the bottom registered in the first quarter of 2009 (see Chart 1). Price gains from the first-time home buyer program were only a temporary lift.
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Monday, February 21, 2011
Best Sources for UK Mortgages, Biggest isn’t always best! / Housing-Market / Mortgages
By: MoneyFacts
The UK’s largest lenders* have a three quarter market share, but only provide 145 (29%) of the top 500 mortgages.**
Just six of the top 50 two year fixed/85% LTV mortgages are offered by the largest lenders, equating to a mere 12%.
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Wednesday, February 16, 2011
UK Mortgage Market Improves as Higher LTV Mortgages Increase / Housing-Market / Mortgages
By: MoneyFacts
The mortgage market has seen a gradual increase in the number of products offering higher loan-to-values (LTVs), providing some relief to borrowers with limited deposits.
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Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Obama Proposes Fannie & Freddie Reforms as U.S. Housing Market Continues to Languish / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Money_Morning
Don Miller writes:
Three years after the housing market collapsed, efforts to clean up the financial mess created by Fannie Mae (OTC: FNMA) and Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) - the government agencies that largely inflated the bubble - remain stuck in limbo as Washington policymakers bicker over the details.
Meanwhile, the market continues to suffer through the aftermath.
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Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Commercial Real Estate No Longer the U.S. Economy's Achilles Heel / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes:
While many analysts had it pegged as the next big threat to the U.S. economic recovery, the commercial real estate (CRE) market is actually on the mend.
No doubt, fallout from bad loans will continue to pose challenges to banks for the next several years. But on the whole, commercial real estate seems to have finally found a bottom.
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Sunday, February 06, 2011
U.S. Mortgage Crisis: Where Does The Homeowner Stand? / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Stephen_Merrill
Over the past several years, the real estate industry in the United States has undergone a near collapse. House prices have been reduced so far by 25% nationwide due to the bursting of real estate bubble. The only vibrant part of the real estate market in the present economic recovery is the millions of foreclosed homes being sold to bargain hunters.
Some smaller States, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Alaska, have managed to avoid a big downturn in prices and hope to continue to do so. The big States most affected by the real estate disaster though, California, Michigan, Nevada, Florida, have lost more than one-half on home values in many major cities.
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Wednesday, February 02, 2011
U.S. Housing Bear Market Resumes in 2011 / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Clif_Droke
An oft-repeated maxim is that real estate is one of the best long-term investments. For the better part of the last 60 years or so this certainly held true. In a typical “long wave” or 60-year Kress cycle, real estate benefits almost from the start of the inflationary leg of the long wave and prices tend to increase even after the 60-year cycle of inflation/deflation peaks, and real estate prices can continue to increase in the ensuing dis-inflationary years of the cycle. It’s mainly during the final “hard down” part of the cycle -- which is defined as the final 8-12% of the cycle -- that the real estate market struggles under the weight of deflation.
Friday, January 28, 2011
The Best Time in History to Buy a House / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: DailyWealth
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud writes: Right now, is the best time in history to buy a house in America.
Today, I'll show you why… based on a few cold, hard facts.