WASHINGTON - Sales of new homes posted the biggest increase in five months in August, raising hopes that the steep slide in the housing industry may be leveling off.I'm not really sure what this means.. but hopefully people keep on doing stupid things and having their houses foreclosed on so I can get a ZO6...
Sales of new single-family homes increased by 4.1 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.05 million units, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. It was the biggest increase since an 8 percent gain in March.
The August rise followed a 7.5 percent plunge in sales in July, which had registered the third straight decline.
The gain was far better than the 3 percent decline economists had been expecting and could signal that housing is beginning to level off after a steep slide. However, the price of homes sold in August fell to $237,000, down 1.3 percent from August 2005. It was the biggest year-over-year price decline in more than three years.
From 2001 through 2005, housing enjoyed five consecutive years of record sales, propelled by the lowest mortgage rates in more than four decades.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Real-estate update
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I wish I understood any of what was going on with house prices. I also don't fully understand any of these national housing estimates.
My boss just put his house on the market and it sold in 3 days, and just bought himself a bigger better house.
Sure the house is out of my price range, but I'm sure it's within his.
Anyway, the point is. I really want to move out of my shit apartment, and started thinking about buying a house. Now I can't afford much but I figure why throw my money away on rent, when I'm finally somewhat financially stable enough to buy something small. At least to start.
But I read these types of stories and don't know what to think. Maybe if I wait it out I can get that same house i'm lookin at that's $150 for like $100? Is that the direction shit's headed?
Steve.
If I knew the answer to that question, I could make a lot of money. The answer is - who knows.
My feeling is that the current pricing is unsustainable and a price collapse is inc. I just don't know how long it's going to take before the prices drop. The extent of the drops will be very geographically dependent. For instance, in a city like Phoenix, which is not overly desirable and there is lots of new construction, I think there will be a big price drop. In San Francisco.. not so much. That'll always be expensive as hell.
Thing is.. the really low interest rates is part of what helped drive the prices up. I bought mine at 5%, which in the big picture is incredibly low for a mortage. It would suck to wait for prices to drop just to find interest rates at 8 or 9%.
I really don't know what the best thing to do is.. I sort of lucked out, but it does suck to just pay rent. I'm not the expert on this shit.. I just regurgitate some of what I learn from John.. he's a real-estate broker.
Steve,
I don't know the Spokane WA market, but it hasn't been in the news as far as huge price run ups, or being a risk for huge price drops.
You can never go wrong with owning a home, if it is a long term housing goal. If you are purchasing for a short term or speculative goal....great financial risk.
Consult a knowledgable real estate broker in your market. Interview you friends about their real estate broker, interview several real estate brokers before hiring one.
John............who is at a foreclosure/default servicing conference in Chicago right now!
That's one of my biggest problems right now. Who knows what i'll be doing or where i'll be a year from now. Renting leaves that door open and buying seems to cement you in place.
I may just rent some more but upscale it a bit, ie rent a house or duplex.
Anyway thanks for all the advice, glad I could steel away a post and make it about me. :)
Steve.
Post a Comment