Home Sales

Home Sales Continue To Soar In September

Despite the troubling economy one thing that continues to flourish is home sales. Home sales soared in the month of September by the largest amount in more than 26 years and the tax credit for first-time owners certainly played a part.

The month of September showed tremendous results with a jump of 9.4 percent bringing home sales up nearly 24 percent since January. The problem is we may be nearing the end in rise of home sales if Congress decides to not extend the credit of up to $8,000 for first-time buyers. As of right now that deadline is set for November 30.

What the market is finding is many people are jumping the gun on finding a house prior to the deadline just in case it is not extended. After all, $8,000 is a huge savings on a first home. This is what has contributed to a nationwide sales rise of 5.57 million last month. This was by far the strongest month that could have been predicted.

Home sales are not the only positive in the real estate market as the inventory of unsold homes fell nearly 8 percent to 3.6 million. This number is less than an eight-month supply considering the way homes are being sold today.

Las Vegas and Southern California are seeing incredible competition for low-priced foreclosures. Real estate agents are finding multiple offers on homes before a single one is finally accepted. The more aggressive the better nowadays.

Between the tax credit and the low-priced foreclosures or short sales, the market is booming in this area. It is not out of the ordinary right now for an agent to write five different offers for a single buyer on different properties to ensure they get one of them.

With all of this said, unfortunately economist’s fear we are not out of the woods quite yet with the real estate market. There is no question that home sales and housing construction has raised. However, it is believed that prices will resume their descent. The sales price last month was down an incredible 9 percent from last year and is even lower than the median in August at just $174,900.

Unemployment and foreclosures are the primary reasons for the low prices. Unemployment is at 9.8 percent and is expected to jump to 10.5 by next year. What’s worse is that 3 million households are currently three months behind on payments or are in foreclosure.

A dilemma many are facing is buying a home and then potentially losing their job. Few can sit back and confidently say they will have a job a year from now. For this reason, some are hesitant to make an offer on a home with the fear they may lose their job because of the economy.

There has been talk about extending the tax credit through June 30 as well as including all home buyers. This would deliver a blow of an estimated $16.7 billion. As expected, realtors and homebuilders are in favor saying the tax credit is what is getting the housing market back in the right direction.

Despite this, some analysts believe the tax credit is now as crucial as it may seem on the housing market. One problem that can arise from a tax credit extension is that some of the 1.5 million applications for the tax credit are fraudulent. There have been questions on the legitimacy of some 100,000 claims for the credit including illegal immigrants and 580 people under 18.

As sales continue to rise, the next couple of months will say a lot about what direction the real estate market will head depending on whether there is a tax credit extension or not.

Home Sales

Coachella Valley Sees 17.4% Increase In Real Estate Sales For July

Once again the numbers for sales in the Coachella Valley region saw increases by 17.4% for the month of July. This marked the second month in a row that there were double digit gains with as much as 23.3% rise for single-family, condos and new construction homes. With the median price all the way down to $180,000 compared to $274,000 just a year ago, it is no surprise sales continue to increase.

This is the perfect time to be looking if you are a first time buyer with cash, quality credit, and the incentive to capitalize on federal and state tax credits. Houses within the $100,000 to $200,000 range are hotter than ever with people bidding left and right. In addition, there has been an increase in the high-end market as well with homes above $417,000 gaining interest. One thing is for sure; sales are most relevant where foreclosure has been around. There was a total of 965 new and resale houses and condos closed in the Coachella Valley with a majority coming from resale single-family homes.

In Indian Wells, sales rose as much as 100 percent in the higher-priced market. There were a total of 16 sales with one reaching $3.8 million for the single sale. What you are seeing is homes above $417,000 have more and more people looking for purchase loans with an increase of 15.1 percent.

As expected, real estate agents are in heaven. The last year has been a terrific year to be a real estate agent with homes flying off the market. Some believe the bottom has long passed in terms of sales. Now it is a matter of getting prices to get out of the getter which could be awhile still.

There is no question the realistic pricing for homes has sales increasing month after month in Coachella Valley. Homes in the $800,000 range are having terrific success, but homes between $1 million and $2.2 million are beginning to see offers and deals land as well.

What is falling is the inventory on bank-owned property. Riverside County saw 58.7 percent of homes that resold were foreclosure resales. However, this is still the lowest this number has been since April 2008.
Although there have been signs of hope for the future, many still believe it is too soon to say the real estate market has gotten out of the bottom. With the continuing increase of job losses and foreclosures, it is just too soon to say the market is on an incline.

What is troubling is not knowing what the high level of mortgage defaults will do. The lender can potentially approach the foreclosure process or begin to move toward a short sale or loan modification. Instead of dropping homes into the sales market right away, banks are holding onto properties unusually long. It appears banks are trying to protect pricing of homes with the hope that holding onto homes will begin to increase the overall price.

So for now, it is difficult to say whether the bottom has been reached or if there is more to come. As soon as the job market begins to improve and foreclosure inventory decreases we will know the market is on an incline.

Home Sales

Home Sales Continue To Rise In California

Any sign that the economy is beginning to get back on the right track is encouraging and that is just what is coming from the state of California. For the 11th consecutive month, home sales in California rose. From the month of April to May there was a 3 percent rise, which contributed to the more than 22 percent rise from the same time last year.

In California alone data has shown the total number of homes that have been sold in California totaled at 39,051 in May. With these totals, the number of houses sold has increases for 11 consecutive months as sales of $500,000 plus homes have also begun to make a comeback.

Not only are home sales continuing to increase, but the median home price is starting to go up as well. There was a 4 percent increase from April to May with the median home price in May set at $230,000 in California. While this is signs of improvement, the downside is that this year’s median price in May was still down more than 32 percent from May 2008.

Everyone knew it would be a process to get through the hectic economy and real estate market. Although no one anticipated it to get this bad or take this long, little signs are beginning to show through the dark and gloomy cloud of the recession.
Read more

Home Sales

Should You Be Impressed By The Home Sales Volume Increase Of 38 Percent?

In the state of California, the Multiple Listing Service median for a single-family home increased over a one-month period.  However, the year-over-year median for May fell a tremendous amount at 30.4 percent.  With that in mind, is there really any room to be excited about the increase of 38 percent?

What you need to look at first is some of the numbers.  For instance, the Palm Springs region has shown a 46 percent decrease from May of 2008 with housing selling at $152,860 versus the $283,480 in 2008.  While the sales prices drastically took a dive, the sales volume rose by 38.2 percent.

Similar to Palm Springs was the region of Victorville/Lancaster, which reported even lower median numbers with a 47 percent drop from May of 2008.  On the contrary, sales volume there increased as high as 96.2 percent.

People that could never afford to purchase a home are finally being able to find the right fit for them.  Affordability for first-time-home-buyers has never been as high as it is today.  Sales for existing single-family homes for the ninth consecutive month remained above the 500,000 level.
Read more