A major index that tracks home prices in 20 major metropolitan areas, called the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index, is reporting a modest increase in September. Their index shows prices rose 0.3% in September.
Obviously this is not a major increase and does not represent home prices in every market. But it is more positive news after yesterday's favorable report on increasing existing home sales.
Read the full article here.
Showing posts with label national housing picture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label national housing picture. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Should $8k tax credit be extended?
Update: Here's a new article from the Seattle Times that discusses the same $8k credit topic written about in the below blog post. Check it out.
This is the question of the moment. At least in real estate circles it is. The theory behind extending it and possibly expanding it is that the credit will continue to stimulate the housing recovery. On the other hand, it will obviously cost a lot of tax payer's money.
As a Realtor, I am definitely in favor of extending AND expanding the tax credit. On the ground, I see signs of market improvement and increased sales activity. However, we are not out of the proverbial woods quite yet. Perhaps allowing our politicians to spend at this rate will bite us later...and that's where I think I'm a bit shortsighted.
But in just speaking about what will help our housing market...I say give $15k to ANY home buyer for the next year. Now that's true stimulus.
Here's an interesting take on the impacts of extending or discontinuing the tax credit.
This is the question of the moment. At least in real estate circles it is. The theory behind extending it and possibly expanding it is that the credit will continue to stimulate the housing recovery. On the other hand, it will obviously cost a lot of tax payer's money.
As a Realtor, I am definitely in favor of extending AND expanding the tax credit. On the ground, I see signs of market improvement and increased sales activity. However, we are not out of the proverbial woods quite yet. Perhaps allowing our politicians to spend at this rate will bite us later...and that's where I think I'm a bit shortsighted.
But in just speaking about what will help our housing market...I say give $15k to ANY home buyer for the next year. Now that's true stimulus.
Here's an interesting take on the impacts of extending or discontinuing the tax credit.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
U.S. existing home sales up 2.4%
Apologies for the long blog layoff. An upswing in the Seattle real estate market means I have a bit less time for writing on the blog! But here we go...
The Seattle Times published an article this morning that existing home sales in the U.S. are up 2.4%. Because many of these sales are short sales or bank owned properties, the median sales price dropped to $173,000 for the national average. Read the full article here.
The western states saw an increase in home sales by 16%. In fact, this article from the Seattle Times mentions how hot the Seattle real estate market is for homes under $400,000. Seattle sales are down 33% from one year ago but up from March of 2009.
All this data is great but what does it mean? Well, it's still too soon to say we've reached bottom on either a national or local level. Three months of increasing sales is great, however it's only three months. I personally think we are starting to see signs of reaching the bottom in the lower priced tier (under $400k). Unfortunately, the pricier homes may still see a decline.
The Seattle Times published an article this morning that existing home sales in the U.S. are up 2.4%. Because many of these sales are short sales or bank owned properties, the median sales price dropped to $173,000 for the national average. Read the full article here.
The western states saw an increase in home sales by 16%. In fact, this article from the Seattle Times mentions how hot the Seattle real estate market is for homes under $400,000. Seattle sales are down 33% from one year ago but up from March of 2009.
All this data is great but what does it mean? Well, it's still too soon to say we've reached bottom on either a national or local level. Three months of increasing sales is great, however it's only three months. I personally think we are starting to see signs of reaching the bottom in the lower priced tier (under $400k). Unfortunately, the pricier homes may still see a decline.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Light at the end of the tunnel?
Let's hope it's not a train! The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that construction of new homes and apartments jumped 22.2 percent in February compared with January. This pushes total activity to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 583,000 units. This surge is good news to analysts who where expecting continued declines. However, construction activity remains 47.3% lower than a year ago...so February's gains must be viewed with some expectation of more housing troubles to come. All area's of the country posted increases in construction activity except the west, which has been hit hard by the slump in housing.
Read the full article here.
Read the full article here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
