“Geez, it’s almost there. If we could just get another 851,489 houses for sale in the market, we’ll have it juuuuuust right…” We released our February National Housing Report yesterday – “US Home Prices Already Climbing in February,” in which we highlight the role of declining active market housing inventory in this year’s home...
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Yes, home prices are down… Back in October… …but getting less bad because inventory is down and still declining. The foreclosure pipeline is clogged in Florida, while New York and New Jersey still have their robo-signing hangovers: The constrained supply is also keeping days-on-market in check – sellers are still able to unload their...
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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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Affordability measures price, but Capita per Inventory measures housing demand relative to supply, and isn’t that the point? RIM’s Playbook tablet, originally priced at $499 is now selling for $200. Very affordable compared to Apple’s iPad at $499-800+. But which tablet do you want for Christmas? And that’s the point – affordability doesn’t mean...
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Is the housing market bifurcated or should all supply be considered part of a single housing market? Evidence is mounting that the market is the market – REOs and non-distressed properties cannot be isolated. From Friday’s DSNews article – “Heavy Distress Sends Las Vegas Home Prices to 15-Year Low” - Foreclosure resales – homes...
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[08/15/11: Author "told-you-so" update - We saw rising home prices in Phoenix from foreclosure activity much earlier this year.) From HousingWire: “Rise in REO value cuts Freddie Mac holding expenses by 90%” “The decrease in REO operations expense was primarily driven by an improvement in both REO holding period write-downs and disposition losses as REO...
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With the S&P/Case-Shiller Index released today, everyone is aflutter with talk of a double-dip in house prices. Remain calm. These are January numbers. It’s almost April. More recent figures exhibit more positivity for the 2011 housing market. Here’s how – Since 2008, as the active housing inventory (the number homes available for sale) rose...
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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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A question we hear every day – “What about the shadow inventory? How are housing prices affected?” with lots of talk about the foreclosure pipeline in judicial states like Florida. (For the uninitiated, “judicial state” means that foreclosure proceedings go through the court system, which considerably slows the clearing the distressed housing market.) Here’s...
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