Move-up Buyers Optimistic About The Housing Market & Almost Half Planning to Buy a New Home

Optimistic About The Housing Market

Homeowners are feeling pretty optimistic about the housing market and in fact, in a survey conducted by Pulte Homes, almost half (43%) of the move-up buyers indicated they are planning on buying a new home within the next five years.  Over three in four (76%) of move-up buyers feel they can sell their current home within years at a price that would permit them to buy a new home.

According to the survey, the need to downsize is a common reason why homeowners decide to purchase a new home.  Other reasons given for deciding to buy a new home include: Continue reading “Move-up Buyers Optimistic About The Housing Market & Almost Half Planning to Buy a New Home

Housing is cheap and can be an extremely attractive investment opportunity!

Dennis Norman, St Louis REALTOR - Investing in Real EstateBetween interest rates falling to record lows and home prices falling back to levels from 8 years ago, the housing market is starting to look like a very attractive investment opportunity.

One of my favorite companies that produce a home price index and monitor the market is RadarLogic and their RPX Composite Price Index. They published some data to illustrate just how attractive housing has become as an investment (granted, they are trying to stir up interest in their new RPX Futures you can invest in, but the data I think supports investing in residential real estate as well.)
Continue reading “Housing is cheap and can be an extremely attractive investment opportunity!

HUD Report says housing market continues to remain fragile

St. Louis REALTOR, Dennis NormanHUD released its U.S. Housing Market Conditions report for the 2nd quarter of 2011 which stated “housing data for the second quarter of 2011 indicate that the recovery in the housing market continues to remain fragile.” This did not come as a surprise, but what I did find a little surprising was the report showed that the market for new homes performed better than that for existing homes. The number of new homes sold rose in the second quarter and the year-over-year median sales price of new homes was up slightly. In contrast, the number of existing homes sold in the second quarter fell and the year-over-year median sales price of existing homes was down. Continue reading “HUD Report says housing market continues to remain fragile

Survey shows over half American adults think housing recovery is years away

UGH…

According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive® on behalf of Trulia and RealtyTrac, 54 percent of American adults believe that recovery in the housing market will not happen until 2014 or later. In a previous survey, six months ago, 42 percent of American adults said they thought the market would turn around by 2012 or had already turned around, but now only 23 percent think this will happen. Continue reading “Survey shows over half American adults think housing recovery is years away

An overview of the 2010 Housing Market

Dennis Norman St LouisHUD just released it’s “2010 Overview of U.S. Housing Market Conditions which gave a recap of the housing market for 2010. I’ve previously reported on most of the data and information that HUD included in the report however I thought this report did a good job of giving a complete and concise look at the market for the year so I wanted to share it. Continue reading “An overview of the 2010 Housing Market

Where is the housing market headed in 2010?

Dennis Norman

Will the Bears or Bulls prevail in 2010?

As the real estate market is beginning to show signs that we are “bottoming out” and that the down-slide is leveling off the discussion has become what the rest of 2010 holds in store. Some say we are entering a Bull market and expect prices to increase from the depressed levels they have reached citing the greatly increased affordability of homes and record low interest rates; others say we are entering a Bear market and that over-supply in the market, largely a result of record foreclosures, will continue to beat prices down.

Here’s what the “Bulls” say:

  • Home prices are at levels significantly lower than their peak levels during the “boom” and affordability is at the lowest level in years.
  • Interest rates are at record lows and, while obtaining financing is currently somewhat of a challenge, lenders are expected to ease up on their lending policies and make financing more readily available. The government is already pushing a rule change for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to have them loosen their underwriting guidelines.
  • Richard DeKaser, Contributing Economist to The Kiplinger Letter, in a recent article cited three reasons why he felt supported being optimistic, or “Bullish”, on the housing market:
    • Affordability – it now takes 18 percent of the typical household income to afford a home, compared with a long-term average of 26 percent.
    • Consumer confidence – says that consumers are beginning to take on expensive, long-term commitments.
    • Credit conditions will ease up – The Fed Reserve’s April survey of senior loan officers show banks were reporting “essentially no change” in their underwriting standards on mortgages over the past three months. (so I guess since it didn’t get worse that is good)

Here’s what the “Bears” say:

  • The recent upward spike in home sales is, for the most part, nothing more than the temporary and artificial market that was created by the government’s home-buyer tax credit program.
  • While recent reports have shown that the rate of increase of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures has decreased over the past couple of months, we are still at record levels of both which will continue to flood the market with foreclosures and REO’s.
  • Even during the recent uptick in home sales brought on by the expiring tax credits, home prices still dropped in many markets. This shows there is still some uncertainty about home values in the market place, which, coupled with the downward price pressure caused by foreclosures, will continue to put heavy negative pressure on home prices.
  • The rate of unemployment is still high and our economy still has many challenges: off the charts spending and debt by the Federal govt, States and Cities struggling to balance budgets not to mention the international issues brought on by lagging economies in Europe and China, Greece’s financial issues and so on.

So what it is, a Bull or a Bear coming our way?

Remember, I’m in the real estate business, I WANT it to be a bull. But….here’s what I see coming…

Sorry!

The St. Louis Real Estate Market Bubble and Burst; St. Louis County hurt the worst in the area

Dennis Norman

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

Has the real estate market bottomed out? Is this the recovery? I don’t think so…

Dennis Norman

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Doing what all normal people do at 4:30 am on a Monday, I was scouring the Internet reading real estate news when I ran across an interesting article by Richard Stoyeck titled “Is Real Estate Coming Back Now?”

I’ll cut through the chase and give you Stoyeck’s answer to the question posed in the title of his story; “It will be in our opinion several years before we can get back to a vibrant real estate market.” If you have been reading this blog for a while then you know I have concerns about the housing market as well and don’t see any sort of quick recovery and in fact have questioned some of the recent optimistic headlines about the market. Continue reading “Has the real estate market bottomed out? Is this the recovery? I don’t think so…

Deutsche Banks’ Weaver says housing market has not hit bottom yet

Dennis Norman
Dennis Norman

Before the sub-prime mortgage implosion Karen Weaver warned of the coming crisis. Karen Weaver, the Global Head of Securitization Research for Deutsche Bank, said last month that she expected home prices to continue to drop through the 1st quarter of 2011. She also predicted that nearly half of the homeowners with mortgages would end up being underwater on their mortgages.

Yesterday Ms. Weaver said that in spite of the recent positive news on the housing market that she had not changed her position and is still predicting home prices to fall another 10 percent before finally reaching bottom. Ms. Weaver said “serious delinquencies are still rising rapidly in mortgages, unemployment reached a new cycle high, inventory in most parts of the country is elevated and in some areas affordability is backtracking.” Continue reading “Deutsche Banks’ Weaver says housing market has not hit bottom yet