Hope you've had a great week!
A few key Housing numbers were released this week, and I'd like to review them with you here today since they deal with two very important factors; Home Prices and Home Sales.
In terms of Home Prices, both the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices and the FHFA Monthly House Price Index were released this week. The S&P Indices, which provided data through December 2010, showed that the, "U.S. National Home Price Index declined by 3.9% during the fourth quarter of 2010.", and that the, "National Index is down 4.1% versus the fourth quarter of 2009, which is the lowest annual growth rate since the third quarter of 2009, when prices were falling at an 8.6% annual rate." The FHFA Index didn't fare well, either, with a 0.8 Percent drop in the Fourth Quarter of 2010, as well as a drop of 3.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009 to the fourth quarter of 2010.
Chris "CD" Dowell of RE/MAX Best Associates, says that, "A high percentage of home buyer are investors. They're not worried about list price when making offers. They're looking at market value." Similarly, Paul Gabrail from Select Investment Group, says that many thought that, "because we saw short term leveling of prices a few months ago that the problems were over. Yet, we still have 9%+ unemployment, over leveraged borrowers, and banks are still increasing their foreclosure filings, which lead to lower prices because of oversupply."
In terms of Home Sales, Existing-Home Sales Rose Again in January, as per the National Association of REALTORS®. Existing-home sales figures, which marks, "the third consecutive month with a pace that is now above year-ago levels". New Residential Sales in January 2011 were 12.6 percent below the revised December rate, and 18.6 percent below the January 2010 estimate.
In summary, as Gabrail says, "some of these hotter markets are even worse - 13%+ unemployment, one in 10 houses behind on their mortgage and houses sitting empty and on market for over 1 year. It's all supply and demand and there is no demand when unemployment is 9%, so we have both extremes: Low demand and over supply."
Do you have any comments on the Housing numbers release this past week? We'd love to hear from you.
Have a Great Weekend, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !
Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
HomeRun Homes Blog http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Website http://www.lease2buy.com
