Category: US Housing
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Thursday, November 22, 2012
U.S. Housing Market Outlook 2013 / Housing-Market / US Housing
Sasha Cekerevac write: One of the most often talked about parts of the economy is the real estate market sector. Because real estate is such a large and important part of the economy, naturally, many eyes are focused on whether or not this market sector can and will rebound from its deep decline.
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Wednesday, November 21, 2012
The FHA Is Just Another Thanksgiving Turkey Whose Time Has Come / Housing-Market / US Housing
Shah Gilani writes: In 2008, when mortgage-backed securities bled rivers of red ink from the slaughtered subprime housing market, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rolled over dead in their tracks.
Then, government geniuses scrambled to fix the crisis by pushing forward another sacrificial turkey.
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Monday, October 29, 2012
Impact on U.S. Housing Market Demand of Boomerang Students Returning Home / Housing-Market / US Housing
According to a study by the U.S. Census Bureau Multigenerational households on rise in U.S.
More than 4.3 million, or 5.6 percent, of the 76 million family households in the U.S. today are multigenerational households, or families living together that include a grandparent, parent and children as well as other family members, according to a study by the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Protect Yourself from the U.S. Dollar Crisis With Land Investments / Stock-Markets / US Housing
Porter Stansberry writes: In the last three years, precious metals have soared.
They're soaring in response to a prediction I've been making since 2008 – that the U.S. government will do everything in its power to prevent a deflation in asset prices. This includes the shameless printing of dollars in order to prop up our rotted banking system... which is the plan, according to the Fed's most recent statement, out last month.
Saturday, October 06, 2012
The Truth Behind the U.S. Housing Market / Housing-Market / US Housing
With yet another month of data, we’re seeing the continued recovery in the housing market. Research firm CoreLogic, Inc. (NYSE/CLGX) just reported that August home prices were up 4.6% from a year ago. This big increase in year-over-year home prices is the largest in six years.
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Thursday, October 04, 2012
Ben Bernanke's Misguided Focus on U.S. Housing Market is Like a Bad Joke / Housing-Market / US Housing
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: It's a little early for April Fools, but Ben Bernanke might just be a prankster at heart.
I say this because he recently told the Economic Club of Indiana in Indianapolis that the Fed's plans for QE3 would help create more economic activity and higher home prices. Then he added, almost as an afterthought, that this would help many more savers than it would hurt.
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Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Slowly Rising U.S. House Prices Positive for U.S. Economy / Housing-Market / US Housing
The Case-Shiller Home Price Index (HPI) of 20 metro areas rose 0.4% in July, marking the sixth consecutive monthly increase. An alternate price measure such as the CoreLogic Home Price Index shows almost a similar trend. However, it should be noted that these gains are occurring from extraordinarily low levels (see chart below) and the underlying trend is one of slight deceleration, which reduces the optimism rendered by the headline, somewhat.
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Thursday, September 20, 2012
US House Prices Bottom As BubbleomiX Predicted / Housing-Market / US Housing
Now The 1% Can Screw The 99%...Yippee!!It looks like US house prices have bottomed; this is the S&P Case-Shiller 20-City Index up to June 2012:
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Thursday, September 20, 2012
U.S. Housing Market Improvements Keep Trickling In / Housing-Market / US Housing
Housing market developments (starts and sales of existing homes) in August stand out amid a recent string of bearish economic reports. Builders broke ground for construction of new single-family homes at a brisk pace (+5.5%) in August. From a low of 478,000 starts in April of 2009, total housing starts have moved up 57%. Still, this is a long way from the historical high of 2.27 million units in January 2006.
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Monday, September 17, 2012
U.S. Housing Market Mortgage Rates Maintain Slow Decline Trend / Housing-Market / US Housing
Brent Wayne writes: Housing mortgage rates in September 2012 continue to maintain the slow decrease in rate amounts, maintain the historically low levels not seen for 60 years. Rates for a 30-year single detached house mortgage are being offered at an average 3.79 percent as of September 6, 2012. This low rate has held since May . Some loans are seeing 0.4 points added, but those with good credit are being offered the average rate without any major conditions.
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Sunday, September 09, 2012
U.S. Housing Market is the Most Awesome Opportunity in American History / Housing-Market / US Housing
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud writes: The situation we're facing today can be boiled down to a few very simple points... And the result is an awesome investment opportunity.
It is possibly the greatest investing opportunity in American history...
Sunday, September 02, 2012
How to Invest in the Resurgent U.S. Housing Market / Housing-Market / US Housing
While there are still many pockets of weakness in the housing market, there are now some positives beginning to emerge. We’ve seen plenty of companies reporting that the higher end of the housing market is certainly rebounding strongly. Last week, Toll Brothers, Inc. (NYSE/TOL) reported quarterly earnings that were the highest since 2008. The company’s CEO stated that it is currently seeing the most sustained demand since 2008.
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Thursday, August 23, 2012
Fixing the U.S. Mortgage Market Mess / Housing-Market / US Housing
Two landmark developments on August 16th give momentum to the growing interest of cities and counties in addressing the mortgage crisis using eminent domain:
(1) The Washington State Supreme Court held in Bain v. MERS, et al., that an electronic database called Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) is not a “beneficiary” entitled to foreclose under a deed of trust; and
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Friday, August 17, 2012
U.S. Jobless Claims Analysis / Economics / US Housing
Initial jobless claims rose slightly (+2,000) to 366,000 during the week ended August 11. Distortions from summer auto plant shutdowns are in the past now, with the level of initial jobless claims now standing close to the levels posted in the early part of the year.
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Friday, August 17, 2012
U.S. Housing Market Starts Fall, Take Note of Composition / Housing-Market / US Housing
Housing starts fell 1.1% during July to an annual rate of 746,000. This level is about 56% above the low (478,000) registered in April 2009. In July, new home building activity advanced in the multi-family sector (+12.4%) but declined in the single-family sector (-6.5%). Despite these mixed numbers, as Chart 1 indicates, there is a steady but small upward trend of total housing starts in place, with most of the gain occurring since early-2011.
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Friday, August 10, 2012
Will Speculators Rescue the U.S. Housing Market? / Housing-Market / US Housing
After the housing bubble burst there was sympathy for first-time home-buyers who had been enticed in by the easy loans and rising home prices and wound up in trouble.
But investors in single family homes came to be castigated as ‘flippers’, ‘suckers’, and worse. They had played a significant role in creating the bubble, signing contracts, often on multiple homes, making virtually no down payments, not intending to ever live in or even rent out the homes, but to simply flip them for a quick profit. Builders could hardly keep up with demand for a while, but wound up with wastelands of partially completed developments and condo projects, especially in the sun-belt states.
Friday, August 03, 2012
U.S. Housing Market Good News Keeps Rolling In / Housing-Market / US Housing
"Positive Housing News Keeps Rolling In," exclaimed the headline of a July 24, 2012, Wall Street Journal story by Steven Russolillo. The author found much to praise. One gloomy Gus could not help but conclude otherwise. Old Gus holds the house market at bay, one reason being the great unknown of what will happen to house prices when Fannie and Freddie are no more. The GSEs (Government Sponsored Enterprises) are still a massive presence in the home mortgage market. Their full faith is due to the implicit U.S. government guarantee.
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Thursday, July 26, 2012
Fall in New Home Sales Casts a Shadow on U.S. Housing Market / Housing-Market / US Housing
Sales of new single-family homes fell 8.4% to an annual rate of 350,000 in June following upward revisions to both April and May sales numbers. The level of new home sales in the second quarter (363,000) is above the first quarter mark (352,000) mainly due to the sharp increase in sales recorded in May.
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Friday, July 13, 2012
U.S. Housing Market: Share of Underwater Homes Trending Down / Housing-Market / US Housing
The recovery of the housing market is another major concern of the Fed in addition to the labor market. Three years of economic recovery is yet to result in a meaningful turnaround of the housing sector. One of the pressing issues is the prevalence of home mortgages with negative equity. Negative equity (often referred to as homes with underwater mortgages) means that homes are worth less than what borrowers owe on their mortgages.
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Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Case-Shiller U.S. Home Price Index – Confirms Improvements Reported Elsewhere / Housing-Market / US Housing
The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller Home Price Index increased 0.67% in April, marking the third consecutive monthly increase. This is the first sustained gain since the recovery began three years ago, excluding the gains seen when the temporary first-time home buyer credit program was in place during an extended part of 2009 and 2010. Among the twenty metro areas tracked, seventeen of them showed an increase in the home price index, while home price gauges of Boston, Detroit, and New York slipped.
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