By Dennis Norman, on December 27th, 2012  A panel of 105 professional economic forecasters from all around the country expect home prices to increase 3.1 percent in 2013, according to the December 2012 Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey. Forecasters are more optimistic about home prices than they were just three months earlier when they predicted 2013 home prices would only increase by 2.4 percent. If the experts are correct, then home prices in 2013 will be increasing at nearly the “pre-bubble” average of 3.6 percent per year (see chart below).
Something else I found very interesting in the report was that most (55 percent) of the forecasters felt there would be no impact on home prices if the Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID) was changed as is being discussed in negotiations by politicians trying to avoid the fiscal cliff (see chart below). Many housing groups, including the National Association of REALTORS, have fought vehemently for the MID over the years saying any change to MID (which has been in existence since 1913) would negatively impact the housing market, however this group of forecasters doesn’t seem to feel that way. For what it’s worth, I have often questioned whether changing, or even eliminating, MID would actually have a negative impact Continue reading “Forecasters say home price increases to be at "pre-bubble" levels next year; no impact by change in MID“
By Dennis Norman, on December 4th, 2012 During a presentation today, National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) chief economist, David Crowe, PhD., said he felt the housing market was recovering, although it was a “fragile” recovery and cautioned that it could be “affected both directions by the recent election results”. As you have heard me talk about so much, Crowe reminded us that real estate is very local and said that he felt there has been “no consistent national trend for some time” as the recovery has been from “relatively small and disparate” locations for about a year now. He did go on to say though that there are now enough locations experiencing a recovery that it is now showing in the national numbers.
One of the things Crowe reviewed was the relationship between house prices and income, looking at the historical trend, where things went during the peak and where we are now. On a national level, the relationship between home prices and income peaked at 150 percent above the historical norm but had now returned to the “norm”. In Missouri, the home price/income ratio peaked at a little over 130 percent and is now back down to the historical normal as well. Continue reading “Home Builders Say New Home Market Improving; Missouri Home Price/Income Ratio Back to Normal“
By Dennis Norman, on November 21st, 2012  I’m sure I’m not the only person in St. Louis that has thought about what it would be like to move to New York, Los Angeles or even Paris or Madrid. If you are another dreamer like me, you will enjoy the widget below that will let you see what your money will buy you in terms of housing (gas, a movie, McDonalds combo meal and a few other things as well) in 30+ international destinations.
I don’t want to burst your bubble, but I should warn you however, it’s going to be an eye-opener and you are going to see just how affordable it is to live in St. Louis. For example, in St Louis $250,000 will get you a very nice home, depending on location you can get a 2,000 – 3,000 square foot home pretty easy and gas prices are about $3.25/gallon. In Paris, for $250,000 you will get a 149 square foot home (well, small room actually) and will pay $8.54 for a gallon of gas. Aha, St. Louis is looking better by the minute, right? Continue reading “Want to know how your St Louis home stacks up to other cities around the world?“
By Dennis Norman, on May 16th, 2012 According to a new report, The Shifting Nature of U.S. Housing Demand, by The Demand Institute, average home prices will increase by up to 1 percent in the second half of 2012. By 2014, home prices will increase by as much as 2.5 percent. From 2015 to 2017, the study projects annual increases between 3 and 4 percent. Since the real estate market is very local, it is not surprising that the report says this recovery will not be uniform across the country, and the strongest markets could capture average gains of 5 percent or more in the coming years. Continue reading “Report says housing market recovery to be led by demand by investors for rental property“
By Dennis Norman, on March 21st, 2012  A report released this morning by CoreLogic shows that the current residential “shadow” inventory as of January 2012 was 1.6 million units, equivalent to a 6-months’ supply, and approximately the same level last reported in October 2011. The shadow inventory is down from a year ago though, when it was at 1.8 million units, or an 8-months’ supply. Currently, the flow of new seriously delinquent (90 days or more) loans into the shadow inventory has been offset by the roughly equal flow of distressed sales (short and real estate owned), according to the report.
“Almost half of the shadow inventory is not yet in the foreclosure process,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Shadow inventory also remains concentrated in states impacted by sharp price declines and states with long foreclosure timelines.” Continue reading “Report shows For Every Two Homes Available for Sale, There Is One in the "Shadow"“
By Bob Sargent, on November 18th, 2011  Over the past few years many people that had never faced financial trouble found themselves in foreclosure, doing a short-sale or deed in lieu or filing bankruptcy as a result of the burst of the housing bubble, record unemployment and a weak economy in general. People in this situation, many of whom were homeowners for years, were forced to lived with relatives or friends, or rent until they were able to get through their financial crisis. Now, many of these folks have been able to get back on their feet and want to buy a home again but don’t know when, or if they will be able to get a home loan again due to their past. Continue reading “How long after a foreclosure or short sale do you have to wait to get a home loan?“
By Dennis Norman, on September 16th, 2011  National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) President, Ron Phipps, wrote a letter to Shaun Donovan, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury Department and Edward DeMarco, Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency with suggestions on how to improve the Real Estate Owned (REO) asset disposition programs for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA. NAR, like many other housing related associations and organizations, submitted letters in response to the government’s request for information on how to deal with the REO problem. Continue reading “REALTORS offer suggestions to the Fed on how to deal with the REO problem“
By Dennis Norman, on August 15th, 2011  Last week, The Washington Post published an article by Kenneth Harney which said “if you take mortgage interest tax deductions, the next 100 days could have significant financial implications for you, thanks to Congress’s new federal debt ceiling plan……the compromise legislation created an unusual mechanism — an evenly split, 12-member bipartisan supercommittee — that could call for major cutbacks on real estate write-offs by Thanksgiving.”
The question is, would doing away with the mortgage interest deduction put the final nail in the coffin for the housing industry? Read on to hear two opposing opinions on the topic. Continue reading “Does the Mortgage Interest Deduction Help The Real Estate Market?“
By Dennis Norman, on July 18th, 2011 A report just released by Zillow.com shows that current home sellers who purchased their homes “after the bubble” (2007 or after) are overpricing their homes by more than sellers that bought during the bubble (2002-2006) or before the bubble (pre-2002). According to the report, current sellers that bought post-bubble are overpricing their homes by an average of 14.1 percent, compared with sellers that bought during the bubble that are overpricing their homes by an average of 9.3 percent and the sellers that purchased pre-bubble are overpricing by 11.6 percent. Hmm, notice a theme? On average, ALL sellers are overpricing their homes in the current market. Continue reading “Homeowners that bought since 2006 overpricing the most when they resell“
By Dennis Norman, on July 7th, 2011
A recent survey conducted on behalf of Money Management International (MMI), the largest nonprofit credit counseling agency in the U.S., showed that the majority of Americans still view home ownership as the “American Dream“. The survey found that 81 percent of people still put a lot of value in owning a home however the number of people who rent has increased from 34 percent to 38 percent since December. Continue reading “Owning a home still the ‘American Dream’“
By Dennis Norman, on July 6th, 2011
“FHA still could serve 95 percent of its historic targeted market even if the maximum FHA loan limits were reduced by nearly 50 percent.”
Last week, George Washington University released a report, “FHA Assessment Report: The Role and Reform of the Federal Housing Administration in a Recovering U. S. Housing Market,” in which it revealed that the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) current loan limits are larger than necessary to serve its targeted market of first-time and low to moderate income borrowers. The study finds that the Obama Administration’s current proposal to reduce the higher end of FHA’s loan limits would have a small impact on its current market share and that larger changes are needed as FHA phases out its recent role as lender of last resort. Continue reading “George Washington University Study Finds That FHA Loan Limits Are Too High“
By Dennis Norman, on June 9th, 2011  Robert Shiller I’m doing this article as I attend a presentation by Robert Shiller, Yale Economics Professor and Co-Founder of the S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Indices at the S&P Housing Summit 2011, as he discussed “Unusual Factors Influencing the Outlook for the U.S. Housing Market. So it may be a little choppy, but here are the highlights of his presentation “live”: Continue reading “Robert Shiller on the Housing Boom and Bust and where home prices are headed“
By Dennis Norman, on January 27th, 2011
 - Dennis Norman
The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for December shows an increase of 2.0 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a 4.2 percent decrease from a year ago. Continue reading “Home sales activity increasing modestly“
By Dennis Norman, on January 26th, 2011 Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data for December 2010 showing an increase of 17.5 percent from the month before, but a decrease of 7.6 percent from a year ago.
The seasonally-adjusted new home sales rate for December was 329,000 homes, a 17.5 percent increase from November’s revised rate of 280,000 homes. The supply of new homes on the market decreased from an adjusted 8.4 month supply in November to a 6.9 month supply in December. The median new home price increased for the month to $241,500 whopping 12.0 percent increase from $215,500 the month before and an increase of 8.5 percent from a year ago. Continue reading “New home sales close out 2010 on the rise; predicting increased sales in 2011“
By Dennis Norman, on December 23rd, 2010 Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data for November 2010 showing an increase of 5.50 percent from the month before, but a decrease of 21.2 percent from a year ago.
The seasonally-adjusted new home sales rate for November was 290,000 homes, a 5.5 percent increase from October’s revised rate of 275,000 homes. The supply of new homes on the market decreased from an adjusted 8.8 month supply in October to a 8.2 month supply in November. The median new home price increased for the month to $213,000 from $197,200 the month before and down from $218,800 a year ago. Continue reading “New home sales and prices increase in November“
By Dennis Norman, on November 26th, 2010 Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data for October 2010 showing a decrease of 8.1 percent from the month before, but a decrease of 28.5 percent from a year ago.
The seasonally-adjusted new home sales rate for October was 283,000 homes, a 8.1 percent decrease from Septbmer’s rate of 308,000 homes. The supply of new homes on the market increase from an adjusted 7.9 month supply in September to a 8.6 month supply in October. The median new home price decreased for the month to $194,900 from $226,300 the month before and down from $215,100 a year ago. Continue reading “New home sales fall in October; Down 30 percent from year before“
By Dennis Norman, on October 27th, 2010 Dennis Norman Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data for September 2010 showing an increase of 6.6 percent from the month before, but a decrease of 21.5 percent from a year ago.
Continue reading “New home sales rate up over six percent in September; down over 20 percent from year before“
By Dennis Norman, on September 24th, 2010 Dennis Norman Last month I reported that July’s new home sales rate of 276,000 homes was the lowest rate on record. Subsequently the Commerce Department revised July and changed the sales rate to 288,000 homes raising July to the second-lowest home sales rate on record. Today, the numbers for August came out and they are no better….the new home sales rate for August is being reported by the Commerce Department as 288,000 homes, the same as July. Continue reading “No Improvement in New Home Sales in August“
By Dennis Norman, on August 31st, 2010 Dennis Norman Naturally, no sooner than I finish writing my post this morning about the Case-Shiller report on home prices in which I actually got to report somewhat “positive” news, my bubble is burst. RadarLogic, another company that has their own home price index that I like, came out with a report saying the Case-Shiller report was too optimistic and that their (RadaLogic) home price index was a better reflection of home values. Continue reading “Dueling Economists: Home Prices Up or Down?“
By Dennis Norman, on August 25th, 2010 Dennis Norman The good news is May’s new home sales rate of 267,000, which was the lowest sales rate on record, was revised upward to 281,000. The bad news is June’s sales rate of 330,000 was revised downward to 315,000 and now new home sales for July were reported at 276,000 the new lowest rate on record. Due to the dismal sales, the inventory of new homes on the market increased from an 8 month supply in June to a 9.1 month supply in July.
Continue reading “New Home Sales In July Drop to All-Time Low“
By Dennis Norman, on July 26th, 2010 Dennis Norman Yes, the headline is correct….New home sales in June were up 23 percent from May, but unfortunately the revised May annual new home sales rate of 267,000 was the lowest rate of sale on record therefore even after a 23.6 percent increase it only brought June up to 330,000 new homes, a rate that is now the second lowest new home sales rate on record. June’s new home sales rate is 16.7 percent below a year ago.
There is some good news in the report; the inventory of new homes (seasonally adjusted) at the end of June is 7.6 months, a 20.8 percent decrease from May’s revised inventory of 9.5 months and is a 10.6 percent decrease from June 2009 when the inventory was 8.5 months.
My Mantra
As has been my long-running mantra, I don’t like “seasonally adjusted” numbers and “rate” of sales. Why, for one I can’t figure out how in the world they compute the numbers. Second, I just don’t think discussing  the “rate” of new home sales paints a realistic picture of the market. I think this holds especially true when we have artificial forces affecting the housing market such as tax credits as we have seen what an artificial “bubble” in the market this can cause.
Here is the raw data, the ACTUAL new homes sold- no fluff, no “adjusting”
- 30,000 new homes sold in June, an increase of 15.4 percent from May’s 26,000 new homes sold (revised) but is an 18.9 percent decrease from June 2009 when there were 37,000 new homes sold.
- 53.3 percent (16,000) of the new homes sold were in the South region- an increase of 23.0 percent from May.
- the west region had 5,000 new homes sold, a decrease of 16.7 percent from May’s revised sales.
- the Midwest had 5,000 new homes sold, an increase of 25.0 percent from May.
- The Northeast had 4,000 new homes sold, an increase of 33.3 percent from May.
- YTD – In the first six months of 2010 there have been 183,000 new homes sold, a decrease of 2.7 percent from the same time last year.
- Median sale price of new homes in the US in June was $213,400, a 1.4 percent decrease from May’s median new home price of $216,400 and 0.6 percent decrease from a year ago when the median new home price was $214,700.
- New Homes in the US in May have been for sale for a median time of 12.4 months since the homes were completed, a 12 percent decrease from May’s revised figure of 14.1 months.
My prediction for 2010
I’m encouraged by indications of some price stability we are seeing as well as decreasing inventory of new homes. I’m concerned about the new home permits and starts as they appear to be greatly outpacing sales and could lead to increased inventories and I’m also concerned about the underlying economy and general anemic behavior of the real estate market. Clearly this market is not going to fix itself overnight, nor this year even. However, having said that, I’m going to stick with, what I think is perhaps somewhat optimistic, prediction of 336,600 – 355,000 new home sales in 2010.
By Dennis Norman, on June 23rd, 2010 Dennis Norman Last month after the new home sales reports came out I had this to say:
“I’m very encouraged by home sales in March and April, both in new homes and existing home sales and, if it wasn’t for the fact the homebuyer tax-credit incentive expired April 30th, no doubt a factor that caused buyers to rush to buy, I would feel the market was turning. However, I have strong concerns that this recent “housing recovery” is the result of an artificial market created by incentives, leading to sort of a “sugar-rush” among homebuyers, and now that the sugar is wearing off, buyers will slow down.”
Unfortunately, my concerns were warranted it appears….Today The U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 300,000, a 32.7 percent decrease from the revised April rate of 446,000 and is 18.3 percent below a year ago.
The inventory of new homes (seasonally adjusted) at the end of May is 8.5 months almost a 47 percent increase from April when there was a 5.8 month supply.
My Mantra
As has been my long-running mantra, I don’t like “seasonally adjusted” numbers and “rate” of sales. Why, for one I can’t figure out how in the world they compute the numbers. Second, I just don’t think discussing the “rate” of new home sales paints a realistic picture of the market. I think this holds especially true when we have artificial forces affecting the housing market such as tax credits as we have seen what an artificial “bubble” in the market this can cause.
Here is the raw data, the ACTUAL new homes sold- no fluff, no “adjusting”
- 28,000 new homes sold in May, a decrease of 36.4 percent from April’s 44,000 new homes sold and also a 17.6 percent decrease from May 2009 when there were 34,000 new homes sold.
- 53.5 percent (15,000) of the new homes sold were in the South region- a decrease of 34.8 percent from April.
- the west region had 5,000 new homes sold, a decrease of 50.0 percent from April
- the Midwest had 5,000 new homes sold, a decrease of 16.7 percent from April.
- The Northeast had 3,000 new homes sold, a decrease of 25.0 percent from April.
- YTD – In the first four months of 2010 there have been 159,000 new homes sold, an increase of 6.0 percent from the same time last year.
- Median sale price of new homes in the US in May was $200,900, a 0.9 percent decrease from April’s median new home price of $202,900 and a 9.6 percent decrease from a year ago when the median new home price was $222,300.
- New Homes in the US in May have been for sale for a median time of 14.2 months since the homes were completed, slightly less than April’s revised figure of 14.3 months.
My prediction for 2010
I think this report shows that the housing market is still quite volatile, particularly new home sales, and consumers are still quite cautious. May is normally a good month for home sales and, as this report shows, sales have languished this month. Granted, some of the buyers that would normally be buying now may have pushed up the time-line to get the credits, so this may just be a lull from that, and YTD home sales are running slightly ahead of last year, so the sales numbers for June and July are going to reveal a lot. If new home sales for those months pops back up to the 37,000 – 38,000 range like they were last time last year then that would be encouraging and a sign the new home market is stabilizing. However, if new home sales for those months stay in the 20 something thousand range like May, then I think we are in for more pain.
As far as my prediction for new home sales this year I’m going to stick with my estimate of 336,600 – 355,000 new home sales in 2010.
By Dennis Norman, on March 25th, 2010 Dennis Norman The U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 308,000, a 2.2 percent decrease from the revised January rate of 315,000 and is 13.0 percent below a year ago. The inventory of new homes (seasonally adjsuted) at the end of February is 9.2 months a slight increase from January’s inventory of 9.1 months.
My Mantra
As has been my long-running mantra, I don’t like “seasonally adjusted” numbers and “rate” of sales. Why, for one I can’t figure out how in the world they compute the numbers. Second, I just don’t think discussing the “rate” of new home sales paints a realistic picture of the market. I think this holds especially true when we have artificial forces affecting the housing market such as tax credits and other incentives. This can create unseasonal bursts or declines in sales that don’t really have anything to do with the underlying fundamentals of the housing market.
Here is the raw data, the ACTUAL new homes sold- no fluff, no “adjusting”
- 24,000 new homes sold in February, a 9.0 percent increase from January”s 22,000 new homes sold and also a 17.2 percent decrease from February 2009 when there were 29,000 new homes sold.
- 45.8 percent (11,000) of the new homes sold were in the South region- the same number of homes sold in January in the South
- the west region had 8,000 new homes sold, an increase of 33 percent from February
- the Midwest had 3,000 new homes sold, the same as the prior two months.
- The Northeast had 2,000 new homes sold, a the same as last month.
- YTD – In the first two months of 2010 there have been 46,000 new homes sold, a decrease of 13.2 percent from the same time last year.
- Median sale price of new homes in the US in January was $220,500, an 8.3 percent increase from February’s median new home price of $203,500.
- New Homes in the US in January have been for sale for a median time of 14.4 months since the homes were completed; this number has been increasing every month.
My prediction for 2010
I hate to be so negative, but I just don’t like what I’m seeing in the new home market. Near record low interest rates, home buyer tax credits as well as beaten down prices just has not had much of a positive effect on new home sales. We are at record low numbers for new home sales and there doesn’t seem to be anything that is going to change this dramatically anytime in the near future.
In addition, I am concerned we may have a second “mini-bubble” coming. I say this because, as I wrote a few days ago, new home construction, even though at greatly reduced numbers from it’s peak, is still significantly out pacing new home sales. In February new home construction starts were at a seasonally adjusted rate of 499,000 home; 62 percent higher than the seasonally adjusted new home sales rate for the same period. Looking at just raw data (not seasonally adjusted) there have been 65,100 new homes started in the first two months of this year; 42.4 percent more than the 46,000 new homes that were sold in the same period. If this trend continues new home inventory is going to continue to grow and, if sales don’t increase significantly, we may very well find ourselves back where we started soon.
As far as my prediction for new home sales this year I’m going to stick with my estimate of 336,600 – 355,000 new home sales in 2010.
By Ted Gayer, on November 11th, 2009 Publishers note: If you have been reading our blog for a while you are probably aware we have been supporters and advocates of the home-buyer tax credit as well as the extension and expansion of the credit, which happened last week. We realize however, there are people that do not support the credits for a variety of reasons. I came across the article below which was written prior to passage of the extension of the credit by Ted Gayer. I think this is a well written piece and does present the “other side of the coin”…Ted agreed to allow us to publish it to show another point of view on the credits.
 Ted Gayer, Co-Director of Economic Studies, Brookings Institute Extending and Expanding the Homebuyer Tax Credit Is a Bad Idea
In an earlier piece, I argued that the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit was a poorly targeted subsidy that should be allowed to expire, as planned, at the end of November. Unfortunately, the President and Democratic Congressional leaders are moving toward extending the credit. Senator Dodd has suggested making the credit available to all home buyers (not just first-time buyers), subject to income requirements. Senator Dodd said he is working with Senator Isakson, who previously proposed a $15,000 tax credit to any buyer of a home. Continue reading “And now for the other side of the coin on the home-buyer tax credit“
By Charles Hugh Smith, on November 4th, 2009 Loose lending standards in government-backed mortgages is setting up the next wave of defaults and sharp declines in housing prices.
 Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds Beneath the hype that housing has bottomed is an ugly little scenario: lending standards are still loose and the low-down payment, high-risk loans being guaranteed by government agencies are setting up the next giant wave of defaults and foreclosures.
You might have thought that the near-demise of risky-mortgage mills Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would have cooled the supply of highly leveraged government-guaranteed mortgages–but you’d be wrong, for the Feds have compensated for the implosion of the Fannie/Freddie housing-bubble machines by ramping up their other two mortgage mills: FHA and Ginnie Mae. Continue reading “Setting Up the Next Leg Down in Housing“
By Debi Averett, on November 3rd, 2009 I posted yesterday on the Wall Street Journal article Report Sheds Light on Why Homeowners Walk Away. A couple of commenters on the WSJ article said why they were walking away from their mortgage, and I thought their comments were interesting enough to repeat. The first walker says that as a good borrower he is unable to have his loan modified, the second blames bank policies:
The banks (my lender is CITI) are unwilling to modify mortgages for the people able to pay. I suspect if the people underwater, but with money and good credit – you know, responsible people – were able to secure a more reasonable APR that made their monthly payments less painful, they’d more easily tolerate paying on that over-valued house. Continue reading “Why We’re Walking Away“
By Dennis Norman, on October 23rd, 2009
 - Dennis Norman
Due to the overwhelming demand for up to date information on the St. Louis housing market, as well as the positive response to our prior reports we have published, at St. Louis Real Estate News we will now be publishing “St Louis Real Estate Market Update Reports on a regular basis. We hope that you enjoy the information and we certainly hope the reports start having more positive news in them soon. If there is any data we are not including that you would like to see please let us know in a comment. Continue reading “St. Louis Real Estate Market Update – 3rd Quarter Report“
By Dennis Norman, on October 13th, 2009 Dennis Norman Statistics and reports are flying at us from every direction about the real estate market nowadays. Some reports say we have hit bottom, some even say the housing market has started a recovery others say worse times are ahead. Since I don’t think anyone can really tell us what the future has in store for the housing market I thought now may be a good time to look at history…at least short term history, to see where things stand at this point. Along the way we may see a trend or perhaps even feel like we can hazard a guess as to where things are headed in the short term, at least in the St. Louis housing market.
Since many analysts, including those at the National Association of REALTORS(R) use 2001 as a “base” year frequently for the housing market, I guess because it was a market that proceed the “boom” (or bubble, your pick) and was sort of a “normal” year in terms of market conditions. I figured if it’s good enough for real analysts it’s good enough for me so I have used date for the St Louis real estate and housing market from 2001 in my comparison with where we stand now. Continue reading “The St. Louis Real Estate Market Bubble and Burst; St. Louis County hurt the worst in the area“
By Dennis Norman, on August 28th, 2009
Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds By: Charles Hugh Smith:
In February 2007 I suggested a 4% mortgage delinquency rate could trigger a decline in the entire housing market. Since that proved prescient, we should revisit the analytic tool behind that call: the Pareto Principle.
There is a whiff of euphoria in the housing market, a heavily touted confidence that “the bottom is in.” It’s all roaring back–rising sales, multiple bids by anxious buyers, 3.5% down payments, low mortgage rates and the bonus of an $8,000 first-time home buyer credit (a gift from U.S. taxpayers). Housing Lifts Recovery Hopes (Wall Street Journal) Continue reading “Beware The False Bottom In Housing“
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