Category: US Housing
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Sales of New U.S. Homes Rebound from Historical Low / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
Sales of new single-family homes increased 17.5% to an annual rate of 329,000 in December after holding steady during November. The magnitude of the jump in sales of new homes is impressive but it is important to note that home sales are recovering from a historically low level. Sales of new single family homes stood at an annual rate of 280,000 in November, which is close to the historical low of 274,000 recorded for August 2010. Putting things in perspective, the peak of new home sales was 1.389 million home and it occurred in July 2005.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
U.S. Home Prices Remain a Challenge, Near Term Improvement Unlikely / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
The Case-Shiller Home Price Index fell 0.5% in November marking the fifth consecutive monthly price decline following gains in the each of the three months of the second quarter. On a year-over-year basis, the index has declined 1.6% in November after a 0.8% drop in October. Moving back in time, the Case-Shiller Home Price Index posted year-to-year gains in each month during the February-September 2010 period, reflecting the positive influence of the first-time home buyer credit program.
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Tuesday, January 25, 2011
U.S. Housing Market into the 2020's / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Tony_Caldaro
From time to time we have been reviewing the historical housing market index, provided by Case-Shiller, in an attempt to identify historical patterns. Since the historical index is not provided in nominal terms (inflation included), but real terms (inflation excluded), this has been a difficult task. Everything we track, in OEW terms, is quoted in nominal prices. After several attempts over the past few years we feel we have identified enough historical patterns to offer an educated projection for the US housing market going forward. We present the history of US housing prices using a chart courtesy of Steve Barry/Barry Ritholtz. This chart displays the past 120 years of US existing home prices in real terms, with a dashed line forecast by Robert Shiller of Case-Shiller.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Sales of Existing U.S. Homes Soar in December, Partly From Distressed Sales / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
Sales of existing homes rose 12.3% in December to an annual rate of 5.28 million. Purchases of single-family homes increased 11.8% in December to an annual rate of 4.64 million, the highest since August 2007, excluding the hikes recorded when the first-time home buyer program was in place during several months of the 2009-2010 period.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
U.S. Housing Starts Decline in December, But 2010 Closes With a Few Positives / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
Starts of new homes fell 4.3% to an annual rate of 529,000 in December. Although builders broke ground for the construction of new multi-family units (+18%) in December, single-family starts declined 9% to an annual rate of 417,000. The level of housing starts is close to historical lows (see Chart 1) and the January Home Builders Survey (Composite index has held steady for three straight months) suggests that builders are not optimistic about the near term outlook for home building activity.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
U.S. Home Builders Survey Suggests Stalled Home Construction / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
The survey of The National Association of Home Builders for January indicates stalled home building activity in January (see Chart 1). For three straight months the composite index has held at 16. The index measuring traffic of prospective buyers moved up slightly (12 vs. 11 in January), while the index tracking current sales has held steady for four months at 16.
Friday, January 14, 2011
If Shiller’s Chart Is Right US Housing Market Has 50% to Fall: BubbleOmics Disagrees / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Andrew_Butter
There has been a kind of pause in house price angst in USA over the past year, the “good news” is that “only” one million homes were physically repossessed in 2010 which is about the same as 2009. The bad news is that outside of the temporary respite achieved by “Foreclosure-Gate”, the trend is still up.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
U.S. Housing Slump Worse than the Great Depression / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Washingtons_Blog
Zillow's reports: The Zillow Home Value Index has now fallen 26% since its peak in June 2006. That’s more than the 25.9% decline in the Depression-era years between 1928 and 1933.
November marked the 53rd consecutive month of home value declines, with the Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) falling 0.8% from October to November, and falling 5.1% year-over-year.
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Wednesday, January 12, 2011
The Allure of Real Estate / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: MISES
Fred Buzzeo writes: These days everyone is sitting at the edge of their seats waiting for a real-estate recovery. Indeed, during the past ten years, everyone has become a real-estate addict. It is hard for me to walk down the street without someone telling me that the market has "hit bottom" or that the market is on the "rebound."
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Why Falling U.S. House Prices 2011 Will Not Stall U.S. Economic Recovery / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
U.S. housing prices still have further to fall -perhaps a lot further.
In fact, depending upon the circumstances, the additional price declines could be quite steep.
But here's the shocker: That decline won't necessarily cause a "double-dip" recession.
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Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Critical Mass in U.S. Real Estate Market: Comments From Steve Moyer / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: JD_Rosendahl
I love getting emails from those who read my blogs because I keep getting well thought out comments and/or questions from readers. Yesterday was a particular treat for me, as my good friend and fellow blogger (Steve Moyer) at SafeHaven and The Market Oracle sent in some comments regarding my pet topic (Critical Mass).
Thursday, December 30, 2010
‘Unexpected’ U.S. Home Price Decline is a Serious Reason to Worry About Economy / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Mac_Slavo
The Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller index’s most recent report shows that home prices across the country are sliding. For economists, this is yet another unexpected decline. For readers of non-mainstream news, analysis and opinion, this was to be expected.
Monday, December 27, 2010
U.S. Housing Market Foreclosure Gate Distraction / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Mike_Stathis
Over the past few months we have heard about a variety of questionable practices from banks looking to seize the homes due to chronic mortgage delinquencies. Each day more drama is added to the picture. It has become the center of focus for many media hacks who want to exploit the frustration and anger they have with Wall Street and Washington.
Friday, December 10, 2010
U.S. House Prices Continue to Fall, Down Over 80% in Gold and Silver / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Mark_B_Rasmussen
Median prices declined 3% from 11/09.
The peak was 63 - 64 months ago. The historical peak to trough real estate prices is 46+ months. 01/10 was the low for the 4.5 yr. decline that began in the summer of 2005. It really is “different this time”.
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Thursday, December 09, 2010
U.S. Mortgage Rates Rise toward 5 per cent / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: LiveCharts
National average mortgage rates are on the rise in the United States as jobless claims are improving and the economy appears to be improving.
The national average 30-year fixed rate Thursday (December 9) morning is 4.91 per cent according to Bankrate.com, compared with an average mortgage rate of 4.66 per cent on Thursday last week.
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Tuesday, December 07, 2010
U.S. Housing Market Lags Economic Recovery, Robust Growth in Hiring Key to Revival / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
The current recession/recovery phase has many records for history books. Here is another one. In the post-war period, the housing market nearly always led the economic recovery. Housing market troughs, as measured by the trough of real residential investment expenditures, occurred prior to the onset of the overall economic recovery. Chart 1 plots real private residential investment expenditures and the shaded regions denote recessions as identified by the National Bureau of Economic Research.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, December 03, 2010
U.S. Housing Market Update, Affordability Index, Pending Home Sales Index / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
Home prices and mortgage rates are at historical lows, which makes homes most affordable. In fact, the Housing Affordability Index of the National Association of Realtors scaled a record high mark in October - 184.2 (see Chart 1). Historically, readings above 120 have been viewed as a seller's market. The chain of economic events of the past three years has modified this perception and the housing market is currently a buyer's market. However, buyers do not have the wherewithal to take advantage of the sweet spot in the housing market with affordable homes and low mortgage rates.
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Thursday, December 02, 2010
Strength in Residential Construction Spending is Entirely from Improvements / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
Residential construction outlays increased 2.5% in October after a 0.6% gain in September. The headline number is impressive and the increase in residential construction outlays should add to GDP growth in the fourth quarter. However, it should be noted that the entire gain of these outlays in October was from home improvements and not from new residential construction (see Chart 3).
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Wednesday, December 01, 2010
The Rise and Fall of the U.S. Home Ownership Myth / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Douglas_French
The idea that "a man's house is his castle" is attributed to American Revolutionary James Otis from 1761, and his idea was that government should never be permitted to breach its walls. It is a good thought, in context, one that sums up a dogged attachment to the right of private property.
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
U.S. House Prices, Tip of Iceberg of Housing Market Woes / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller Price Index fell 0.8% in September after a 0.5% drop in August. In the third quarter, house prices, as measured by the Case-Shiller Price Index have dropped 3.4% after a 2.6% gain in the prior quarter. From a year ago, this price index declined 1.5%. The house price picture is disappointing and worrisome. The brief gain in house prices in the second quarter reflects the impact of the first-time home buyer program much like the situation in 2009 when the program was put in place (see Chart 1).