Category: US Housing
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Concern Over Falling U.S. Housing Market Existing Home Sales / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
Sales of all existing homes fell 9.6% to an annual rate of 4.88 million units in February, after three consecutive monthly gains, while that of single-family units also declined 9.6% to an annual rate of 4.25 million units. Sales of existing homes declined in all regions of the economy, with the Midwest (-12.2%) recording the largest drop.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
U.S. Housing Starts Plunge in February, Outlook Remains Gloomy / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
Starts of single-family units fell 22.5% in February to annual rate of 479,000, virtually identical to the 477,000 low seen in April 2009. New construction for single-family units fell 11.8% to annual rate of 375,000 in February, which is close to the historical low of 360,000 registered in January 2009. Essentially, construction of new homes has failed to rebound from historical lows despite a recovery that is seven quarters old.
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Monday, March 14, 2011
How Real Estate Came to Own Us / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Douglas_French
Cheap money, buyer tax incentives, lack of new supply, nothing seems to keep home prices elevated. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Index fell 1 percent in December. Prices fell in every market excepting Washington, DC, where the business of doing the people's business continues to expand seemingly without end.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
U.S. Housing Market Developments Suggest Persistent Unease / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
The Mortgage Bankers Association's Mortgage Purchase Index moved up 12.5% to 194.4 during the week ended March 4. On a monthly basis, the Mortgage Purchase Index has declined 3.3% in February following a nearly 8.0% drop in January. Of late, the link between mortgage applications for purchases of homes and actual sales appears to be weak (see Chart 1). Combined sales of homes rose slightly in January [Sales of existing homes advanced in January (+2.7%), while sales of new homes plunged (-12.6%)].
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
U.S. Housing Market, More Trouble in Squanderville / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Mike_Whitney
Bob, Frank and Freddie all bought identical houses in the same neighborhood in 2004. Each man paid $300,000 for his home.
Bob paid the whole $300,000 in cash. Frank put down 10% (or $30,000) and took out a $270,000 mortgage. Freddie paid $0-down on a 100% mortgage.
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
U.S. Home Improvements Lift Residential Construction Outlays / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
Construction spending fell 0.7% in January after a 1.6% drop in the prior month. During January, the 5.3% jump in residential construction spending was largely due to home improvements (+10.5%, see Chart 7), with new construction of single family-units (+0.9%) posting a small gain and that of multi-family units declining (-2.9%). Non-residential private sector construction spending posted a significant drop (-6.9%).
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Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Pending U.S. Home Sales Index Points to Likely Weakness in Home Sale / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) of the National Association of Realtors fell 2.8% to 88.9 in January, after 3.2% drop in December. These back-to-back monthly declines bode poorly for sales of existing homes in the near term. The PHSI has a 1-2 month lead on actual sales of existing homes. Sales of existing homes rose 2.7% in January.
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Friday, February 25, 2011
Sales of U.S. New Homes Decline in January to Erase Gains Posted in December / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
Sales of new single-family homes fell 12.6% to an annual rate of 284,000 in January after nearly a 17% jump in December. Effectively, the level of new home sales is back to the November 2010 mark. The record low is 274,000 established in August 2010. Regionally, sales of new homes fell in the South (-12.8%) and West (-36.5%) but advanced in the Northeast (+54.5%) and Midwest (+17.1%).
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
U.S. House Prices Continue to Move Around Cycle Low / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller Home Price Index fell 2.1% in the fourth quarter following a 3.3% decline in the prior quarter. The level of the index is close to the bottom registered in the first quarter of 2009 (see Chart 1). Price gains from the first-time home buyer program were only a temporary lift.
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Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Geithner's Failed Makeover of the U.S. Housing Finance Market / Politics / US Housing
By: Michael_Pento
To counter the increasing demands that government reduce its micromanagement of the economy, last week the Obama Administration offered a fig leaf in the form of a white paper entitled "Reforming America's Housing Finance Market." In addition to marking the official end of the Bush era "ownership society," where increasing the level of home ownership was a national priority, the document contains a recommended regulatory overhaul of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (together known as Government Sponsored Enterprises "GSE's"), that intends to bring the share of government owned home loans from the current 95% to 40% over the next 5-7 years.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Obama Proposes Fannie & Freddie Reforms as U.S. Housing Market Continues to Languish / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Money_Morning
Don Miller writes:
Three years after the housing market collapsed, efforts to clean up the financial mess created by Fannie Mae (OTC: FNMA) and Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) - the government agencies that largely inflated the bubble - remain stuck in limbo as Washington policymakers bicker over the details.
Meanwhile, the market continues to suffer through the aftermath.
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Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Commercial Real Estate No Longer the U.S. Economy's Achilles Heel / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes:
While many analysts had it pegged as the next big threat to the U.S. economic recovery, the commercial real estate (CRE) market is actually on the mend.
No doubt, fallout from bad loans will continue to pose challenges to banks for the next several years. But on the whole, commercial real estate seems to have finally found a bottom.
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Sunday, February 06, 2011
U.S. Mortgage Crisis: Where Does The Homeowner Stand? / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Stephen_Merrill
Over the past several years, the real estate industry in the United States has undergone a near collapse. House prices have been reduced so far by 25% nationwide due to the bursting of real estate bubble. The only vibrant part of the real estate market in the present economic recovery is the millions of foreclosed homes being sold to bargain hunters.
Some smaller States, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Alaska, have managed to avoid a big downturn in prices and hope to continue to do so. The big States most affected by the real estate disaster though, California, Michigan, Nevada, Florida, have lost more than one-half on home values in many major cities.
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Wednesday, February 02, 2011
U.S. Housing Bear Market Resumes in 2011 / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Clif_Droke
An oft-repeated maxim is that real estate is one of the best long-term investments. For the better part of the last 60 years or so this certainly held true. In a typical “long wave” or 60-year Kress cycle, real estate benefits almost from the start of the inflationary leg of the long wave and prices tend to increase even after the 60-year cycle of inflation/deflation peaks, and real estate prices can continue to increase in the ensuing dis-inflationary years of the cycle. It’s mainly during the final “hard down” part of the cycle -- which is defined as the final 8-12% of the cycle -- that the real estate market struggles under the weight of deflation.
Friday, January 28, 2011
The Best Time in History to Buy a House / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: DailyWealth
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud writes: Right now, is the best time in history to buy a house in America.
Today, I'll show you why… based on a few cold, hard facts.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Sales of New U.S. Homes Rebound from Historical Low / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
Sales of new single-family homes increased 17.5% to an annual rate of 329,000 in December after holding steady during November. The magnitude of the jump in sales of new homes is impressive but it is important to note that home sales are recovering from a historically low level. Sales of new single family homes stood at an annual rate of 280,000 in November, which is close to the historical low of 274,000 recorded for August 2010. Putting things in perspective, the peak of new home sales was 1.389 million home and it occurred in July 2005.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
U.S. Home Prices Remain a Challenge, Near Term Improvement Unlikely / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
The Case-Shiller Home Price Index fell 0.5% in November marking the fifth consecutive monthly price decline following gains in the each of the three months of the second quarter. On a year-over-year basis, the index has declined 1.6% in November after a 0.8% drop in October. Moving back in time, the Case-Shiller Home Price Index posted year-to-year gains in each month during the February-September 2010 period, reflecting the positive influence of the first-time home buyer credit program.
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Tuesday, January 25, 2011
U.S. Housing Market into the 2020's / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Tony_Caldaro
From time to time we have been reviewing the historical housing market index, provided by Case-Shiller, in an attempt to identify historical patterns. Since the historical index is not provided in nominal terms (inflation included), but real terms (inflation excluded), this has been a difficult task. Everything we track, in OEW terms, is quoted in nominal prices. After several attempts over the past few years we feel we have identified enough historical patterns to offer an educated projection for the US housing market going forward. We present the history of US housing prices using a chart courtesy of Steve Barry/Barry Ritholtz. This chart displays the past 120 years of US existing home prices in real terms, with a dashed line forecast by Robert Shiller of Case-Shiller.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Sales of Existing U.S. Homes Soar in December, Partly From Distressed Sales / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
Sales of existing homes rose 12.3% in December to an annual rate of 5.28 million. Purchases of single-family homes increased 11.8% in December to an annual rate of 4.64 million, the highest since August 2007, excluding the hikes recorded when the first-time home buyer program was in place during several months of the 2009-2010 period.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
U.S. Housing Starts Decline in December, But 2010 Closes With a Few Positives / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Asha_Bangalore
Starts of new homes fell 4.3% to an annual rate of 529,000 in December. Although builders broke ground for the construction of new multi-family units (+18%) in December, single-family starts declined 9% to an annual rate of 417,000. The level of housing starts is close to historical lows (see Chart 1) and the January Home Builders Survey (Composite index has held steady for three straight months) suggests that builders are not optimistic about the near term outlook for home building activity.