National Market

In a recent blog on WSJ.com, Nick Timiraos sees favorable trends that should boost the national housing market in 2013.  These indicators include:

• The shadow inventory of foreclosed property sales is shrinking.
• Rising prices in homes and rents may create urgency and boost demand.
• Housing inventory should hit bottom, leading to an increase in new construction.

Like last year, we are still faced with challenging conditions on the lending front.  New lending regulations, coupled with stricter loan requirements, will limit the number of buyers that are able to take advantage of historically low interest rates.

The housing rebound in ...

The national news has been dominated recently with the looming “fiscal cliff” of automatic tax increases and spending cuts.  Along with income taxes, capital gains taxes are also slated to increase significantly in 2013.  The effect of these potential tax increases will have impact on real estate investment.

A recent article by Scott Saunders, of Asset Preservation Inc.,  highlights a strategy by real estate investors that wish to preserve the favorable capital gains rates that are currently being realized.

“Fortunately, for investors selling investment real estate, there is a small window of opportunity in December to take advantage of the ...

A recent report by Joyce Rosenberg of The New York Times, with additional comments by Howard Pankratz of The Denver Post, cites improvements in the overall real estate market.  The report, presented on March 11^th of this year, details improvements in several markets around the country.  Factors such as the recent gains seen in the stock market, a slightly lower unemployment rate, a rise in the number of new jobs, have made buyers more secure about investing in a home.  Ron Thorne, a Denver real estate agent, was quoted in the article saying “We’ve had multiple showings of ...

From The Wall Street Journal, Kelly Evans, 9-21-2011

One clear aim of the Federal Reserve is to bring about lower mortgage rates that will make housing more affordable and allow more homeowners to refinance.  The difficulty is, however, that there is a marginally decreasing relationship between long-term Treasury yields and mortgage rates.  The lower the yields on mortgage-backed securities go, the less inclined investors are to hold these securities.  This puts upward pressure on rates.

Although mortgage rates are at historic lows, these low rates have not been enough to trigger a massive refinancing boom.   It is apparent that tight ...

From Bloomberg News, September 9, 2011

US mortgage rates tumbled to the lowest level in 40 years as stagnant growth and concern over Europe's debt crisis deepened.  The average rate for a 30-year fixed loan dropped to 4.12%, according to Freddie Mac.  This is the lowest rate on record that this agency has on record, since 1971.  The average 15-year rate fell to 3.33%.

from “Economists’ Optimism Building Steam for ’11,” Jeannine Aversa and Christopher S. Rugaber for The Associated Press, The Denver Post, Dec 17, 2010.

“Growth ‘has improved as the year is coming to an end.  I’m feeling more optimistic that the economic recovery will evolve into a self-sustaining expansion in 2011,’ said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.”  Experts seem to be in agreement that new government reports published this week and looking at layoffs, factory production, and consumer spending along with current Congressional plans for tax-cuts indicate that 2011 will herald more improvement in our economy.  The ...

from “Countering the Critics,” Brian Summerfield for Realtor, Nov/Dec 2010.

Home Ownership Matters is the theme of a newly (September, 2010) launched, National Association of Realtors campaign.  The campaign has these objectives: to present facts about home ownership’s benefits to the U.S. economy and society; to preserve federal home ownership incentives, such as the mortgage interest deduction, while championing sensible reforms for the FHA and the secondary mortgage market; and to help the public understand the value proposition of responsible, sustainable home ownership.  In response to the possible withdrawal of home ownership tax incentives, the NAR is ...

from “A Better Bubble in California,” Johannah Cornblat for Newsweek, Nov 22, 2010.

Cornblat reports the latest idea coming from housing analysts is that each regional market has to hit its rock bottom before it can begin a slow recovery.   Particularly interesting is that states which expedited foreclosure and resale transactions--like California--are currently experiencing notable market recovery, whereas states which process foreclosures at an average of 6 months per property rate--like Florida--are still heavily entrenched in a bogged down market.

from “Analyst Predicts Housing Rebound,” Aldo Svaldi for The Denver Post, Nov 18, 2010.

Svaldi passes on good news from Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.  Yun says we will likely see higher mortgage rates, relatively flat home prices, and a consequential rebound in home sales this coming year.  In the market’s favor: the expected addition of 1.5 million jobs in 2011, a resulting decline in foreclosures, the new affordability of quality homes, strict underwriting guidelines creating solid loans and leading to a stronger lending environment, and interest rate increase creating buyer urgency for ...

from “Market View, A Comparative Study of the Premier Rocky Mountain Resort Communities,” Yellowstone Club, 3rd Quarter 2010.

Recently the Yellowstone Club Sales and Marketing Team conducted research in seven Rocky Mountain luxury ski-resort markets to determine the local market trends through the 2nd and 3rd quarters 2010.  The report discusses the significant price corrections that have taken place in the ski-resort market since 2007.  The Yellowstone team met with expert realtors in each market and these teams pulled together statistics and observations that reflect market conditions.  Each market had its own way of analyzing and presenting its data, and ...