1. Home sales in Southern California increased in June by 7.5% compared to last year, according to DQNews. The median home price in June increased by 5.3% on an annual basis, to $300,000, the highest since June 2010 when the "market got a final big boost from expiring homebuyer tax credits."
2. The Commerce Department reported today that housing starts increased in June to 760,000 units on an annualized basis, which is the highest monthly count since October 2008. June housing starts were 7% higher than the May level of 711,000 units, and 23.6% above the 615,000 starts in June of 2011.
Reality check time.
ReplyDeleteVange,
ReplyDeleteAll I can tell you is I have a witnessed a dramatic tightening of the market and run-up in prices in Phoenix in the past yr. The Phoenix market is hot, biggest problem is lack of inventory. It would be great for the banks to release some of that Az shadow inventory right now.
All I can tell you is I have a witnessed a dramatic tightening of the market and run-up in prices in Phoenix in the past yr. The Phoenix market is hot, biggest problem is lack of inventory. It would be great for the banks to release some of that Az shadow inventory right now.
ReplyDeleteSorry but from what I see real prices are not going up any time soon. The only hope for housing is another massive bout of liquidity that takes the currency lower. But I doubt that new liquidity will replicate the previous price action because there is a massive amount of inventory waiting for a price increase that will allow borrowers to walk away even.
And you have to ask yourself this question. If the housing market was so healthy why is FHA providing cheap 4% down mortgages to middle class borrowers?
I wonder when Mark will point out that the existing home resale number disappointed.
ReplyDeleteExisting-home sales decreased 5.4% from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.37 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. It was the weakest report since October 2011, but sales were still 4.5% above the same month a year earlier.
The results were worse than forecast. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected home sales to rise by 2.0% to an annual rate of 4.64 million. May's sales pace was revised upward to 4.62 million sales per year.
Frankly, it is interesting how all the positive data is quickly brought to the attention of readers of this blog while the negative is usually (but not always) ignored.
Very optimistic news on the market, hopefully it will flow over to the Texas Market
ReplyDeleteMario Sanchez