A combination of high home prices and eroding affordability is expected to cut into housing demand and contribute to a weaker housing market in 2019, and 2018 home sales will register lower for the first time in four years, according to a housing and economic forecast released today by the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®’ (C.A.R.). C.A.R.’s “2019 California Housing Market Continue Reading
Case Shiller Study of US Home Prices Up 5.1% On Year To October.
US house and home prices are now back above where they were pre-crash. The various Case Shiller measurements of house prices are up 5.1%, 5.6%, on the year to October 2015. Which gives us a very interesting little lesson in something called the wealth effect. For as we also know today US consumer confidence has leapt to levels last seen in 2001. And we do have a theory about why these two might or Continue Reading
Neighborhood Features That Drag Down Your Home Value.
When it comes to real estate clichés, “Location, location, location” has all other contenders (including “Not a drive-by!”; “Cash is king!”; “Is that your checkbook or are you just glad to see me?”; and “Worst house, best street”) beat by a mile. Not only has it been in use since at least 1926 (according to the New York Times), but it’s utterly and inarguably true. More than any other single Continue Reading
Southern California Home Sales Fall in January.
Despite many promising factors leading into 2015, home sales in January fell sharply from December, a modest dip from a year earlier and the 14th month in the last 16 to post year-over-year declines. While a decline in sales is typical during the winter months, many experts were hopefully that the abnormally low mortgage rates would be enough to drive the market forward. Now many agents and Continue Reading
Pasadena Homes for Sale and Sold — April 2014.
Last month our opening sentence regarding the Pasadena real estate market was: “Wow! The real estate market looks great in our community based on the numbers from March and our experience in our day-to-day activities.” Since then we’ve heard from the National Association of Realtors and Janet Yellen of the Federal Reserve Board, both expressing concern that the national market is flat. They Continue Reading
U.S. Pending Home Sales down in September; Pasadena up.
Pending home sales in the U.S declined for the fourth consecutive month in September (and rose in Pasadena), as higher mortgage interest rates and higher home prices curbed buying power, according to the National Association of Realtors®. In addition there was growing insecurity over lawmakers’ inability to agree on a budget and that hurt consumer confidence. • The sales index in the western Continue Reading
Real Estate Market Trends — Slowing Increases?
We discussed real estate market trends and forecasts in a recent Great Real Estate post. Here's an article about those real estate market trends, taken in part from an article written by kenharney@earthlink.net. Home prices are not rising as fast in most metropolitan areas as they did earlier this year and much of 2012. Multiple-bid competitions — fierce in many places this spring and late last Continue Reading