Report says housing market recovery to be led by demand by investors for rental property

dennis-norman-st-louis-realtor-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

What cities have had the best recovery of the real estate market?

st-louis-realtor-dennis-norman-best-market-recovery-citiesFinally, after several years of writing depressing things about the real estate market and housing industry, I’m getting to write some positive things lately! Well, to keep the party going, today I have a list of 10 towns in the U.S. that are leading the U.S. in terms of a housing market recovery according to the “Top Turnaround Town Report” from REALTOR.com.

Seven of the top ten markets are in Florida, but the number 1 turnaround town in the U.S. according to the report is Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona where the inventory of homes for sale has fallen almost 50 percent in the past year while prices increased almost 27 percent during the same period. See the complete list of top 25 towns below. Continue reading “What cities have had the best recovery of the real estate market?

Groping Toward a Housing Recovery

Dennis Norman St LouisLast week I got to hear a presentation by Brendan Lowney of Economic Advisors, aptly titled “Groping Toward a Housing Recovery“, which I think is a perfect way of describing our current housing market, so perfect, I borrowed it for the title of this article. Mr. Lowney began his presentation with a very sobering statement, saying “it’s really hard to overestimate the severity of the downturn that we’re in. This is much worse than anything we saw in the ’70s or the early
’80s, if people remember, and it’s really akin in many ways to the Great Depression, and within the housing sector, it’s a very good analogy.” Continue reading “Groping Toward a Housing Recovery

Slow, Steady Housing Recovery Expected Ahead

Dennis Norman

At the National Association of REALTORS® Conference and Expo in New Orleans today, “a slow, steady recovery” was predicted for the housing market despite ongoing challenges.

Lawrence Yun, National Association of Realtors® chief economist, said that he expects “continuing improvement of underlying fundamentals of the current market in coming years.” Continue reading “Slow, Steady Housing Recovery Expected Ahead