Glad to have you back.
It was a mixed week in terms of the Housing Market, but at this point, we'll take a mixed week vs an abysmal week!
The good news first; The Pending Home Sales Index For February was released by the National Association or Realtors, or NAR (and "reflects contracts and not closings, which normally occur with a lag time of one or two months). The numbers showed a rise of 2.1% from January (but a drop of 8.2% from February 2010).
The "other" news, as we will call it, came from S&P, and the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices for March. This is a case of when the title tells the story; "Home Prices Off to a Dismal Start in 2011". In summary, their large 20-city composite showed a 3.1% drop from January 2010 to January 2011, with San Diego and Washington D.C.as the only two markets to record "positive year-over-year changes".
What to make of these numbers. If I said I knew, I'd be lying. We have a comment submitted to us by Paul Gabrail, co-founder of Select Investment Group, a Cleveland, Ohio real estate investment firm, who says that, "there aren't enough positives in the housing numbers to outweigh the anchors holding values down, which include oversupply of recent years' new construction, the oncoming supply of foreclosed homes that have been held back since October by banks, and the unemployment and income numbers that we are experiencing. Bottom line, housing values still have further to drop."
Construction numbers come out on Friday, so maybe we'll get a clearer picture of where things are headed as we approach mid-year.
Have a Great Week, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !
Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
HomeRun Homes Blog http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Website http://www.lease2buy.com
