Analysis Topic: Housing Market Price trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Thursday, June 30, 2011
Chinese Homebuyers Throw a Life Raft to the U.S. Housing Market / Housing-Market / US Housing
Jason Simpkins writes: From New York to Honolulu, Chinese homebuyers are swooping in to help salvage the U.S. housing market.
Indeed, California, Florida, New York, and even Hawaii have seen a marked up-tick in home sales to Chinese buyers who are exporting their country's real estate boom to the United States, according to Bloomberg News.
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Thursday, June 30, 2011
U.S. Housing Market Few Positives Remain Inadequate / Housing-Market / US Housing
The National Association of Realtors reported an 8.2% jump of the Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) in May to 88.8. The PHSI when advanced by two months tracks sales of existing homes closely (see Chart 1).
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Wednesday, June 29, 2011
U.S. House Price Indexes Stability? / Housing-Market / US Housing
Latest reports on home prices are somewhat encouraging. The Case-Shiller Home Price Index (HPI) of April edged down 0.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis and advanced 0.7% on a seasonally unadjusted basis from March. The seasonally adjusted drop of the Case-Shiller HPI is smallest since July 2010.
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Monday, June 27, 2011
Why U.S. House Prices Are Still Falling / Housing-Market / US Housing
In October 2007, CNBC's Diana Olick called me about Countrywide's so-called plan to modify mortgage loans scheduled to reset to higher rates. Subprime borrowers with a strong payment history would be able to refinance and possibly get prime FHA loans. Current paying borrowers with credit issues would be offered Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans under a new expanded program.
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Friday, June 24, 2011
Disappointing Trend of U.S. Home Sales Leaves Housing Sector at Top of Fed’s Watch List / Housing-Market / US Housing
Sales of new homes fell 2.1% in May to an annual rate of 319,000. The level of home sales is still close to the recession/record low of 278,000 registered in August 2010. Sales of new homes plunged nearly 27% in the Northeast, held steady in the Midwest, fell in the West (-3.5%) and rose in the South (+2.4%).
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Thursday, June 23, 2011
Dr. Copper and the Chinese Housing Market Bubble / Housing-Market / China Economy
The mighty Dr. Copper; the only metal has a suffix attached to his name, for his accuracy predating equity prices for years. In the past 30 months or so, copper had a fantastic performance, almost quadrupled its price from December 2008 lows. But recently, this is becoming more of a story about emerging market infrastructure spree than acclaimed shortages.
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Wednesday, June 22, 2011
U.S. Existing Home Sales Decline, Housing Market Slump Continues / Housing-Market / US Housing
Sales of existing homes fell 3.8% to an annual rate of 4.81 million units in May, the lowest level since November 2010. As shown in Chart 1, the sales mark of existing home sales remains close to recession lows after two years of an economic recovery. On a regional basis, sales of existing homes fell in the Northeast (-2.5%), Midwest (-6.4%), and South (-5.1%) but held steady in the West.
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Friday, June 10, 2011
How the Housing Market Can Save the U.S. Economy / Housing-Market / US Housing
Shah Gilani writes: Everyone knows that the U.S. housing market caused the current economic funk.
But here's the irony: The American housing market - a principal actor and victim of a bubble that burst, causing the worst recession since the Great Depression - may now be in a position to save the U.S. economy.
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Friday, June 10, 2011
UK Property Sellers Inflated Asking Prices Risks Chasing After House Prices Downward Spiral / Housing-Market / UK Housing
The UK housing market depression continues as Labours election bounce has long since evaporated, many home owners relieved that the house price crash had stopped during early 2009 had put their plans to sell on the back burner as they envisaged a return to the 'norm' of rising house prices, this expectation continued even after the coalition government took office and announced unprecedented spending cuts and tax rises during mid 2010, and scheduled to start from April 2011.
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Thursday, June 09, 2011
Hope for First-time Home Buyers as Mortgage Products Treble / Housing-Market / Mortgages
The number of mortgage products available to first-time buyers has almost trebled since June 2009. There are currently 183 deals designed for those taking their first steps onto the property ladder, compared to just 62 in June 2009.
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Monday, June 06, 2011
U.S. House Price Crash Worse than the Great Depression, How Much Lower Will they Go? / Housing-Market / US Housing
I noted in January that the housing slump is worse than during the Great Depression.
The Wall Street Journal noted Tuesday:
Read full article... Read full article...The folks at Capital Economics write in with this gloomy tidbit: “The further fall in house prices in the first quarter means that, on the Case-Shiller index, prices have now fallen by more than they did during the Great Depression.”
Friday, June 03, 2011
How to Fix the U.S. Housing Market / Housing-Market / US Housing
Shah Gilani writes: If this week's economic reports showed us anything, it's the fact that two years into what's supposed to be an economic recovery, the U.S. housing market remains on life support.
But here's what those reports didn't tell you: If the housing market isn't fixed soon, it's going to drag the rest of the economy down into a hellish bottom that will take years, if not decades, to crawl out of.
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Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Case Shiller Home Price Index Confirms U.S. Housing Market Concern / Housing-Market / US Housing
The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller Home Price Index of 20 metro areas slipped 0.2% in March. This is the ninth consecutive monthly decline after the index posted gains in the second-half of 2009 and first-half of 2010. The temporary gain of the Case-Shiller Home Price Index was largely due to the first-time home buyer program which expired in April 2010.
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Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Jim Chanos isn't Bearish Enough on China Housing Market / Housing-Market / China Economy
Legendary short seller Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates appeared on Bloomberg Television this afternoon with Carol Massar and Matt Miller. Chanos said that his "dramatic" bet against Chinese real estate may not be bearish enough and that "the bubble is really on the other side of the world."
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Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Rebound of New U.S. Home Sales is Impressive, But Level Remains Close to Record Low / Housing-Market / US Housing
Sales of new single-family homes rose 7.3% to an annual rate of 323,000 in April after an 8.3% increase in March. The record low sales mark of new single-family homes is 278,000 seen in August 2010 (see Chart 1). Essentially, sales of new homes continue to bounce around the record low reading after seven quarters of economic growth.
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Wednesday, May 18, 2011
U.S. Housing Market Starts Continue to Hover Around Cycle Low / Housing-Market / US Housing
Housing starts fell 10.6% to an annual rate of 523,000 in April. Construction of single-family homes (-5.1%) and multi-family homes (-24.1%) declined in April. Starts of both total and single-family units (394,000) in April are little different from the cycle low (see Chart 1). Starts of new homes fell in the Northeast (-4.8%) and South (-23%) but advanced in the Midwest (+15.7%) and the West (+3.7%). The large supply of unsold homes and distressed properties continues to hold down construction of new homes.
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Tuesday, May 17, 2011
US and UK Housing Market Outlook / Housing-Market / US Housing
House prices globally tend to follow cycles lasting around 16 years: patterns of 12 years of rises followed by 4 years of declines (at a steeper rate than the rises). With US house prices having peaked in 2006 and UK house prices 2007, cycles suggest a new bull market should now emerge. So do historical measures support this?
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Tuesday, May 17, 2011
U.S. Housing Market is Still Sick / Housing-Market / US Housing
Everyone is curious about the state of housing in the US. My friend Gary Shilling recently did a lengthy issue on housing as it is today. I asked him to give us a shorter version for Outside the Box, and he graciously did. And you want to know what Gary thinks, because he is one of the guys who really got it right early, from subprime to the bubble and the price collapse, and has been right all along. No one is better. This very readable edition is full of charts and fast reasoning.
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Friday, May 13, 2011
US Housing Market Final Stage (REO) Foreclosures Target Six Million By 2014 / Housing-Market / US Housing
A Bank Repossession (REO) is the final stage of the foreclosure process that typically requires three foreclosure notices in USA. The REO is the point at which the bank throws you out on the street; but when the media report “X” many foreclosure filings in a month, that’s a mix of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd (final) stages.
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Tuesday, May 10, 2011
U.S. Housing Market Adjusted CPI, Gold, and Deflation Theory / Housing-Market / Deflation
I am a firm believer that housing prices belong in the CPI. I have discussed this at length before, and in light of reported inflation (as measured by prices but certainly not credit), it's time to take another look at a CPI adjusted for housing prices.
Here are a couple of chart from my friend "TC" that show the relation between the CPI, a Case-Shiller adjusted CPI, and the Fed Funds Rate. For more on the rationale behind the following charts please see What's the Real CPI?