If you want to know if new home starts are going higher, watch the active market listings. Residential housing reported higher numbers for November today. What do homebuilders know about housing that surprised the stock market today? Home prices are getting less bad: How? Inventory is down. While the foreclosures are clogged somewhere in...
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In August 2011, the United States Federal Housing Finance Agency offered its “Request for Information” (RFI) for REO Asset Disposition including a transition to a rental-based solution, soliciting ideas from the private sector, academia, and research groups on the handling of the existing REO inventory. From the August release: The Federal Housing Finance Agency...
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Housing trends in the mid-sized US markets behave differently than housing trends in the major metropolitan areas. Markets like Pittsburgh never witnessed a huge bubble or burst during the housing run-up and crash. Because of the differences, Altos Research is now publishing a monthly 20-City Mid-Cities Report to capture and report those nuances. The...
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“What’s going on in New York? Got that question about 27 times while I was in the Big Apple last week. The answer? Not much. Our June 2011 National Housing Report showed the New York MSA as one of the two, along with Las Vegas, (out of 26 metros reported) with falling prices smack...
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Like ‘em or not, the market needs these investors to clear the housing ongoing housing glut. From the article a Sacramento Bee article today – “Real estate scavengers flip foreclosed homes in Sacramento area”: “Eighty percent of these homes will be flipped within a year. Typically, they will fetch about $30,000 – or 20...
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Questions galore about “The Catfish Recovery” in last week’s webcast. The good people at Business Insider covered the event and posted our favorite image: Here are the main takeaways and responses to a few comments. If you’re expecting a smooth, consistent 3-5% annual growth rate in housing, you’ll be waiting a while. It just...
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NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index for March moved higher, counter-balancing the discouraging Case-Shiller numbers reported yesterday for February and reflecting our early-year observations (see: “Whew! Seasonal uptick in housing prices” from February 4 and “Is Spring Springing?” from March 4). Shadow inventory, defaults, demand, and economic growth remain huge challenges over the next few...
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This big highlight from our March 2011 Real-time Housing Market Report (available for download here): While the headline pricing metric 90-day rolling average still shows monthly declines, week-over-week data are beginning to show signs of improvement, indicating a good start to what is, typically, the strongest sales period of the calendar year. Here’s what...
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New listings hitting the market this year are down sharply so far, and the trend is markedly different from the tax credit years. Why? The bears will reach for the easy “it’s a double-dip” answer, but seems there are other factors at play. In 2009-10, sellers priced more optimistically – setting their initial ask...
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Home prices based on price level, not just geography, tell a whole bunch about the housing market. Two key market indicators – Days-on-Market and Price Reductions – vary widely when comparing the top and bottom quartiles. Top-end sellers are on the market longer, but take fewer price reductions: The difference in list prices between...
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