Analysis Topic: Housing Market Price trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Tuesday, April 03, 2012
Where Would Warren Buffett Invest Today? / Housing-Market / US Housing
Jason Simpkins writes: If Warren Buffett was going to invest in anything right now, where would he put his money?
At first, that question may be difficult to answer. But if you think about Buffett's classic investment approach - focusing on real assets with a reliable return and prizing valuation - it gets a little easier.
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Monday, April 02, 2012
Falling UK Mortgage Interest Ratesm, Should Borrowers Rejoice? / Housing-Market / Mortgages
The Bank of England base rate has remained at an all-time low of 0.50% for three years, the longest hold for 60 years.
Moneyfacts research shows that as the current economic climate took hold three years ago the average deposit needed for a mortgage rose to 40%. Currently it hovers around the 25% mark, thanks to an increase in higher loan-to-value deals.
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012
U.S. House Prices Index Maintains Downward Trend / Housing-Market / US Housing
The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller Home Price Index held steady in January. Among the 20 metro areas that the index tracks, eight metros reported increases in prices (Seattle, Tampa, Miami, Washington, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Dallas, and Denver) during January, while it was unchanged in Boston and Las Vegas, and fell in the remaining metros.
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Saturday, March 24, 2012
U.S. Housing Market New Home Sales Show Disappointing Performance / Housing-Market / US Housing
Sales of new single-family homes fell 1.6% to an annual rate of 313,000 in February. The level of single-family home sales is up 12.6% from the historical low of 278,000 registered in August 2010 (see Chart 1). Sales of new homes rose in the Northeast (+14.3%) and West (+8.0%) but fell in the Midwest (-2.4%) and South (-7.2%).
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Friday, March 23, 2012
New Wave of Foreclosures Will Sink the U.S. Housing Market Rebound / Housing-Market / US Housing
David Zeiler writes: The long-anticipated housing market rebound will hit a speed bump this year as the number of foreclosures rises again.
With January's mammoth $26 billion settlement between five major banks and a group of state attorneys general, foreclosures that had been held up for a year or more are now moving forward.
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Friday, March 23, 2012
The U.S. Housing Market's Biggest Hurdle / Housing-Market / UK Housing
Shah Gilani writes: Forget about optimistic headlines on the housing market.
Whether it's record low mortgage rates, improvement in the Case-Shiller Index, higher housing starts, or any other report, the headlines don't tell the whole story - and the story matters.
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Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Keep Tabs on the Short End of the U.S. Interest Rate Curve / Housing-Market / US Interest Rates
The 10-year Treasury note yield was trading at 2.39% as of this writing, up from 1.96% on March 6 and 2.04% on March 12. The focus has been on the long end of the yield curve in the last few trading days. Moving over to the short end, the effective federal funds rate has moved up roughly seven basis points since early January (see Chart 1).
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Sunday, March 18, 2012
U.S. Foreclosure Fraud Settlement Documents Highlight Lawlessness of the Banks / Housing-Market / US Housing
On Monday, the settlement between five major banks and the federal and state governments of foreclosure-related fraud charges was filed in federal district court in Washington, DC. The agreement must be approved by the court to take effect.
The settlement, reported to be worth $25 billion, was announced February 9 and hailed by President Obama as a serious rebuke to the banks and boon to distressed homeowners. (See: “Obama administration brokers pro-bank mortgage fraud settlement”).
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Thursday, March 15, 2012
Real Estate 4 Ran$om: Role of Speculation in the Financial Collapse - Patience and Finance / Housing-Market / US Housing
This is an Australian produced film, but the principles carry.
I would not focus on land to the exclusion of financial assets like stocks, and other vehicles for producing income and capital gains, that allow speculators to game the system.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Bank of England Losing Control of Mortgage Interest Rates, Perversely Bullish for UK Housing Market? / Housing-Market / UK Housing
The Bank of England last week kept the UK Base interest rate on hold for a third year at 0.5%. The tax payer bailed out and supported banks answered by again announcing a series of mortgage interest rate hikes to take place over the coming months towards 5%, or ten times the official base interest rate.
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Sunday, March 11, 2012
Evolving Global Financial Crisis, Selling "Foreclosed Homes" / Housing-Market / US Housing
The government is preparing to package and sell foreclosed homes. We do not know what discount to the current market there will be but you can guess it will be 20% or more. This event will cause home prices to trend lower dependent on whether the houses are put up for sale or rented. These homes will only be available to big buyers such as hedge funds and others with enormous amounts of capital. It is expected that the homes will be sold in lots of 5,000 to 10,000 and the minimum bid would be $1 billion. This is corporatist fascists busy at work.
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Thursday, March 08, 2012
Is a House Ever a Good Investment? / Housing-Market / US Housing
Vedran Vuk, Casey Research writes: Recently, my parents were considering purchasing some real estate. As the financial professional in the family, they asked me, "What do you think? Will it go up in value? You know… not now, but eventually?" I've heard the same thing over and over again. In response, I shared my opinion: "Would you pay the current market price to live there even if its value never increased?" If the answer is yes, buy the property." Essentially, is the house worth it as a home, not as an investment?
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Wednesday, February 29, 2012
America's Credit and Housing Crisis: New State Bank Bills / Housing-Market / US Housing
Seventeen states have now introduced bills for state-owned banks, and others are in the works. Hawaii’s innovative state bank bill addresses the foreclosure mess. County-owned banks are being proposed that would tackle the housing crisis by exercising the right of eminent domain on abandoned and foreclosed properties. Arizona has a bill that would do this for homeowners who are current in their payments but underwater, allowing them to refinance at fair market value.
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Wednesday, February 29, 2012
U.S. House Prices Continue to Maintain Downward Trend / Housing-Market / US Housing
The Case-Shiller Home Price Index (HPI) slipped 0.5% in December on a seasonally adjusted basis. The level of the index is the lowest since January 2003 (see Chart 2). Of the 20 metro areas, Phoenix (+1.5%), Miami (+0.2%), Tampa (+0.2%), Dallas (+0.2%), Portland (+0.1%), Denver (+0.1%), and Charlotte (+0.1%) recorded increases of varying sizes in December. Among the other metro areas that showed decreases in home prices, the largest declines were in Detroit (-3.5%), Atlanta (-1.3%) and Chicago (-1.1%), while San Francisco was the only metro area to show a nearly steady reading.
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Monday, February 27, 2012
Has the U.S. Housing Market Finally Bottomed? / Housing-Market / US Housing
Martin Hutchinson writes: It was the most atrocious bubble in U.S. history pushing tens of millions of Americans into financial misery.
Even today, the last of the lawsuits have yet to be filed.
But five years later it's finally coming back.
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Saturday, February 25, 2012
U.S. January New Home Sales Moving Sideways But Record Low Number of Homes for Sale Raises Expectations of New Construction / Housing-Market / US Housing
Sales of new homes slipped 0.9% to an annual rate of 321,000 in January. Purchases of new homes have moved around 311,000 to 324,000 for the last four months. Combined sales of new and existing homes have risen in the last three out of four months, largely due to the relatively strong performance of existing home sales.
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Thursday, February 23, 2012
U.S. January Existing Homes Sales Many Housing Market Positive Developments / Housing-Market / US Housing
Sales of all existing homes – condominiums, townhouses, and single-family homes – rose 4.3% to an annual rate of 4.57 million homes in January, up about 35% from the 3.39 million low of November 2008. Sales of all existing homes plunged 52% between January 2005 (7.1 million units) and November of 2008 (see Chart 1). Sales of single-family existing homes increased 3.9% to an annual rate of 4.05 million units, marking the third increase in the last three months. Sales of existing homes advanced in all four regions of the nation, with the West (+8.8%) recording the largest gain among the four regions.
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Sunday, February 19, 2012
U.S. Housing Busts and Obama's Report To Congress / Housing-Market / US Housing
The 2012 Economic Report of the US President published by the Whitehouse for the Congress contains a startling chart in chapter 4 "Stabilizing and Healing the Housing Market". Red = The Great Unwind: start 2007; Blue = New England bust: start 1989; Orange = California bust: start 1990; and Green = The Great Depression: start 1930. What does comparing housing busts in US history suggest?
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Friday, February 17, 2012
Obama's Housing Market Refi Program Won't Work Because the FHA is Insolvent / Housing-Market / US Housing
Shah Gilani writes: In his State of the Union address last month, President Barack Obama outlined a plan to let homeowners, especially those underwater, refinance older mortgages to take advantage of today's low rates.
While serious political impediments stand in the way of the Obama refi plan, one reason it won't work is that it relies 100% on the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).
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Friday, February 17, 2012
U.S. Housing Market Starts, Jobless Claims, and Wholesale Price Index – Mixed Bag / Housing-Market / US Housing
January Housing Starts: It is a Multi-Family Story
Total housing starts increased 1.5% to an annual rate of 699,000 in January. The entire gain came from an 8.5% jump in starts of multi-family units to an annual rate of 191,000. New construction of single-family units slipped 1.0% to 508,000.
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