Tag Archives: housing bubble

Navigate the New Rules of Real Estate

Posted on April 22, 2013 | Leave a comment

The Housing Horizon
One thing is certain, says Jed Kolko, chief economist and head of analytics for real estate site Trulia.com: “The rebound is real.” After U.S. home prices hit rock bottom in the first quarter of 2012 (plummeting nearly 30 percent since early 2008), they rose over the next nine months, according to the Case-Shiller home price index. The National Association of Realtors recently reported that the median existing home price in February was $173,600, up 11.6 percent from a year ago. And fewer listings are languishing, which means buyers are making choices faster. The median time it took to sell a house in January was 108 days, down from 119 days in January 2012, per realtor.com.

“When any housing recession recovers, it goes like gangbusters,” says real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran. “But this is the fastest comeback I’ve seen.”

Have values rebounded in Southern California? Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisals.com for your value questions.

Celia Chen, a housing analyst with Moody’s Analytics, expects to see continued growth for the next few years. If you’re ready to buy a home, this is a good time to do it, she says. But in today’s post-bubble market, how should we define “ready”?

“Home ownership makes sense only if you can buy toward the future you want for yourself and your family,” says Ilyce Glink, head of the financial website ThinkGlink.com and author of Buy, Close, Move In! “You shouldn’t buy a one-bedroom condo if you want to have kids in the next five years. If you’re looking to retire but the thought of monthly payments keeps you up at night, you’re far better off skipping the mortgage—even if interest rates are at 3 percent. And whoever you are, you should plan to be there for a minimum of 10 years.”That means staying not just in your home but also in the town and region. Think about the area schools and amenities, and how they’ll align with your needs over the next decade. Consider the stability of your current job, as well as your career prospects if your company were to close or lay off employees. In today’s job market, many workers find themselves having to relocate for new opportunities. In that scenario, a home—especially one that’s underwater or tough to sell—could become a millstone. During the Great Recession, the number of long-distance moves sank to record lows in part because many job seekers were trapped in a frozen housing market.

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Here We Go Again? Boom Times Are Back, And So Are The Pitfalls

Posted on April 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

WASHINGTON — They’re back after barely a decade: escalation clauses in real estate contracts, “naked” contingency-free offers and lowball-priced listings designed to pull in dozens of bidders and turn routine sales transactions into auctions.

These are all techniques last seen with frequency during the frothiest months of the housing bubble in 2004-05, when prices were rising at double-digit rates, buyers thought they couldn’t lose money in real estate, and mortgage financing was available to anybody who could sign a loan application.

Want to know if the value is there or if the property will appraise. Contact the appraisers at www.scappraisalscom for your appraisal questions. Also want to wave the building inspection? Contact the appraiser at www.scappraisals.com for your cost-to-cure questions.

Now they are reappearing in some of the hottest sellers’ markets from coast to coast — the byproduct of severe shortages in houses listed for sale combined with strong demand by qualified purchasers.

Nationwide, according to surveys of 800-plus local markets by Realtor.com, inventories are down by 16 percent from year-ago levels. But in the hottest areas, listings are down by double or even triple that and prices are moving up fast.

Buyers, meanwhile, are out in droves, scanning newspapers and online realty sites for the latest listings, and signing up for alert services provided by realty firms.

In the San Francisco Bay area, for example, agents say that realistically priced new listings are attracting dozens — sometimes even hundreds — of shoppers to open houses and stimulating bidding competitions with 30 to 50 or more participants.

Bidding wars are also increasingly frequent on well-priced listings in Washington and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs, much of California, Seattle, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Richmond, Boston and parts of Florida, among others.

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Will 2013 Be the Year to Buy a Home?

Posted on March 7, 2013 | Leave a comment

Bidding wars. Buyers paying cash. Homes selling for more than asking price.

Are we entering another housing bubble? No. But prospective buyers in many markets may be shocked at the competitive nature of the home-buying process these days.

Need an appraisal? Contact the appraisers at: www.scappraisals.com

The number of homes for sale fell to a 13-year low in January, leaving would-be buyers chasing a shrinking supply of homes just before the spring selling season.

“On a national scale, the market is clearly rebounding,” says Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. “It’s not that the prices are crazy, but the buyers outnumber the available homes for sale.”

There was an average of 4.8 months of supply of existing homes for sale in the fourth quarter, according to the National Association of Realtors (that is, it would take 4.8 months to sell off the inventory at the current pace).

Six months’ supply is closer to normal, says Celia Chen, a housing economist with Moody’s Analytics, an economic research firm. In 2010, it went as high as 10 months. “Prices are starting to rise as a result of the strong demand relative to low supplies,” says Ms. Chen.

That said, prices still are about 30% below their peak, she says. And the reasons for the slim pickings aren’t good news. Lenders are taking their time putting bank-owned properties on the market, in part to keep prices up.

Plus, prospective sellers are waiting until prices rise before listing their homes for sale. About 11.9 million homeowners are still underwater—that is, they owe more on their mortgage than the home is worth—according to estimates from Moody’s Analytics.

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Tag Archives: housing bubble

Navigate the New Rules of Real Estate

Here We Go Again? Boom Times Are Back, And So Are The Pitfalls

Will 2013 Be the Year to Buy a Home?

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