Weisenthal acknowledges the poor performance posted in today’s Case-Shiller index but decides that once the data is “unpacked” that “housing is bottoming.”
Read the article here.
Comments »A New Post Crisis Low: Home Prices Drop 2% in Q1
Despite a jump in prices last month a new low has been hit. Signs of hope are out there as fewer cities see new lows.
They say NYC is usually the last to get hit; so we are either in a bottoming process or forbid i say another new leg down.
Comments »FHFA Housing Price Index Leaps 1.8% vs Consensus of 0.3%
New Home Sales: Prior 328k, Market Expects 339k, Actual 340k
Existing Home Sales Rise 3.4%
“U.S. home resales rose in April to their highest annual rate in nearly two years and a falloff in foreclosures pushed prices higher, hopeful signs about the pace of recovery in the still-struggling housing sector.”
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A New Phenomenon: The 1% Buys Up Low End Real Estate
Foreclosures Slow in April
Housing Starts: Prior 699k, Market Expects 680k, Actual 715k or up 2.6%
Building permits down 7%
Comments »GARY SHILLING: Home Prices Will Plummet 20% From Here
Gary Shilling says home prices are still expensive compared to renting. If you buy, beware as he predicts a 20% decline in prices.
Comments »FL Supreme Court to Decide Over a Case That Could Undo Hundreds of Thousands of Foreclosures; Banks Should Be Worried
“(Reuters) – The Florida Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Thursday in a lawsuit that could undo hundreds of thousands of foreclosures and open up banks to severe financial liabilities in the state where they face the bulk of their foreclosure-fraud litigation.
The court is deciding whether banks who used fraudulent documents to file foreclosure lawsuits can dismiss the cases and refile them later with different paperwork.”
Comments »U.S. Mortgage Applications Tick Up 1.7%
So Far So Good: Onslaught of Foreclosures Has Yet to Materialize
“The number of homes entering the foreclosure process rose in March, up 8.1 percent, according to a new report from lender Processing Services, but the volume is down more than 30 percent from a year ago.
Analysts had expected this number to skyrocket immediately following the $25 billion settlement between banks and state governments over fraudulent mortgage servicing….”
Comments »Census Data: Homeownership Rate in U.S. Declines to 65.4%, Lowest Since 1997
Is There a Long-Run Upward Trend in Housing Prices?
Mark Thoma writes about a debate between Calculated Risk and Robert Shiller on the long-term trend of housing prices…Some nice graphs are presented.
Read the article here.
Comments »Manhattan Apartment Buildings Hit Peak Prices as Investors Look to Supply Rental Market
Low rates and rising rents are a good formula for investors in rental apartment buildings…
Comments »Surprise: Bidding War Home Buyers Resurface
“A new development is catching home buyers off guard as the spring sales season gets under way: Bidding wars are back.
From California to Florida, many buyers are increasingly competing for the same house. Unlike the bidding wars that typified the go-go years and largely reflected surging sales, today’s are a result of supply shortages….”
Comments »Finding Bullish Evidence in a Bad Headline Case Shiller Price Index Report
“On the surface, today’s Case-Shiller was pretty meh.
House prices dropped nearly 3.5% year over year, and there was barely any sequential gain. In fact, the sequential gain was behind expectations.
But actually there are some big signs of a turnaround happening, and a continuation of a positive trend.
New Deal Democrat at The Bonddad Blog observes:
In today’s report, only 7 of the 20 metropolitan areas made new lows on a seasonally adjusted basis. Six of the 13 metro areas showing seasonally adjusted gains in this month’s report bounced off a low set just last month, so it could be noise. But once the price increases two or more months, there is more confidence that the corner has been turned.
Here is the number of cities that have already hit bottom in each monthly 20 city Case-Shiller report since last June:
June 2011 – 1
July 2011 – 2
Aug 2011 – 3
Sept 2011 – 3
Oct 2011 – 4
Nov 2011 – 6
Dec 2011 – 7
Jan 2012 – 13
Presumably some of the 6 cities that bounced off their January lows this month will resume their decline – but on the other hand, not all of them. In short, the trend the Case-Shiller index may have bottomed in January! Failing that, the trend is for it to make an overall bottom within a few months. I would venture by the end of summer.
What’s more, that sequential gain from January to February is the first one since last Spring.
The housing bottom may be close or here.”
Comments »New Home sales Fall 7.1% in March
Case Shiller Home Price Index Shows Widespread Declines
Setting the Record Straight: The Housing Bubble Lie
Let’s get something straight: we did not have a housing “bubble”, in the usual sense of the word. The mainstream narrative of crazed, greedy, irresponsible homeowner-wannabes driving prices unsustainably high, causing the still ongoing crash is wrong. Yes, we had a housing “bubble” in one sense; prices soared way beyond reality because excess demand fueled irrational bidding wars. The lie deals with why we had a housing bubble. The lie matters because like all problem-defining narratives, it shapes the policy solutions offered. So let’s take a look at the lie.
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