Miami Condo Sales Highest for April Since 2005
And total Miami-area home sales in April were the highest for that month since 2006, according to DQ News. "The overall median sale price rose slightly from March but fell short of a year ago for the 43rd consecutive month amid near-record-high levels of investor and cash buying." In other words, markets are working - falling prices stimulated April sales to a five-year high (six-year high for condos). If we measured home sales like we car sales - in terms of unit sales - the real estate market would look a lot better.
11 Comments:
" If we measured home sales like we car sales - in terms of unit sales - the real estate market would look a lot better. "
not if you are selling at a loss.
"we lose money on every sale but make up for it in volume" is hardly the path to prosperity.
For a home selling at a loss, that's only bad from the seller's side. Low prices are a great deal for the buyers - that's why condo sales are the highest for April in six years. And even for the sellers losing money, if they're buying something else, they getting a great deal on the next purchase.
They would necessarily have to get a great deal - just to break even.
But what if that "something else" they buy isn't residential housing (which is still losing value)? What if they buy gasoline or food?
For a home selling at a loss, that's only bad from the seller's side. Low prices are a great deal for the buyers - that's why condo sales are the highest for April in six years. And even for the sellers losing money, if they're buying something else, they getting a great deal on the next purchase.
Low prices are fine for buyers if the trend reverses but not so fine if the housing slump continues and the shadow inventory brings on even more housing units that will driver prices lower. While I appreciate your attempt to see everything from a positive point of view ignoring reality is not a good approach for someone who seeks to appear independent and objective.
sure, you get a great deal if you buy cheap, but that is not a sign of a healthy market.
name any other market in the world you would call healthy is the sellers were all transacting below cost?
the sellers getting hosed are mostly builders.
but even so, the "great deals" you discuss are not going to be available to many owners forced to sell. if you sell at a loss, then you have no money with which to go take advantage of a deal.
you'll wind up still owing on a house you no longer have. you have debt and no money for a down payment.
i understand your argument that low prices are needed to drive transaction and clear the market and agree that it needs to happen, but taking the next step and saying that it's "a lot better" as a result is going too far.
money is being lost hand over fist. it's still a terrible market in miami, it's just not stagnant anymore.
it will turn around at some point, but with rates about to rise, i would not count on that being soon.
"sure, you get a great deal if you buy cheap, but that is not a sign of a healthy market."
Actually, this is healthy. Real estate prices needed to reach a point where the market will clear. Increased volume at lower prices is an indication that that is happening. Many of the policies that the government has pursued with regard to housing have only served to delay that process. Yes, sellers are being forced into realizing a loss, but that indicates that they are finally coming to grips with the real value of their property. Others who either sat out the property bubble or who are just now starting families and buying houses will enter the market at a more sustainable level.
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che-
as i said, i understand the need for a market clearing price and agree that this has to happen.
i think we are disagreeing on a semantic issue.
if you are very sick and have a 104 fever, that is "healthy" according to this logic. you are going through the process of an intense immune response to kill off some foreign infection. this is a good sign, it means you are fighting it off. if your temperature did not rise like that, you might die. you'd certainly have a more difficult time fighting off the illness.
but you would not describe someone with 104 fever as healthy, would you?
the market needs to go through this process to become healthy again, but like our feverish example, it is not healthy yet. it is lying delirious in a sickbed.
Just imagine if reasonable financing was available. Numbers would likely exceed all time highs if lenders weren't so stringent.
Just imagine if reasonable financing was available. Numbers would likely exceed all time highs if lenders weren't so stringent.
You mean if lenders were more reckless.
morganovich,
I guess Japan is an example of a healthy market selling stuff below cost(or so we're told) and gouging the domestic buyers. The imports to the US were actually cheaper than buying it in Japan. So guess what someone did? They imported it back to Japan and made a tidy profit. I remember an article about someone (an American?) doing this with cordless phones.
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