The Phoenix housing market is on fire, driven by strong economic growth, once in a generation affordability levels, and a surge in investment activity that far surpasses the levels during the housing boom. Once considered to be ground zero of the housing market collapse, Phoenix has orchestrated a dramatic turnaround in recent months and...
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For the question contest in April, the leaders were: 1) Bill (Calculated Risk) 2) Liye Ma 3) (4 way tie) Billy Forney (Finished 2nd in March) 3) Eggert Ólafsson 3) Makesh Pravin 3) Rik Osmer Congratulations to all. For fun I’ve added a monthly question contest on the right sidebar. It takes a Facebook...
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A year ago, Dave Altig asked Just how out of line are house prices?. Dr. Altig’s post featured both a price-to-rent graph and a real house price graph originally from the NY Times based on Professor Robert Shiller’s work. The price-to-rent ratio graph Dr Altig presented seemed to show that house prices were getting...
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From economist Tom Lawler: The Ryland Group, the 8th largest US home builder in 2010, reported that net home orders (including discontinued operations) in the quarter ended March 31st totaled 1,357, up 40.5% from the comparable quarter of 2011. The company’s sales cancellation rate, expressed as a % of gross orders, was 18.0% last...
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The solid new home sales report this morning is further confirmation that the recovery for the housing industry has started. New home sales are up about 17% from the weakest three month period during the housing bust. That is a significant improvement, even if the absolute levels are still very low. The debate is...
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I’ve spoken many times on my radio show about how fear is used to move us. Well, recently I spotted a great example. Just last week I wrote about how a mortgage “expert” was predicting a “death spiral” in the housing market. That was last week. This week, the National Association of Realtors is...
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There will be a two day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) this coming Tuesday and Wednesday. I expect no changes to the Fed Funds rate, or to the program to “extend the average maturity of its holdings of securities” (scheduled to end in June), or to the program to “reinvest principal...
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From the BLS: Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary Regional and state unemployment rates were little changed in March. Thirty states recorded unemployment rate decreases, 8 states posted rate increases, and 12 states and the District of Columbia had no change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Forty-nine states and the...
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Form the MBA: Refinance Applications Up, Purchase Applications Down in Latest MBA Weekly Survey The Refinance Index increased 13.5 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 11.2 percent from one week earlier. … The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 75.2 percent of total applications from 70.5 percent the...
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