Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of July 12, 2010 MARKET RECAP We may have been early, but we still think we are right. We're speaking of the impending recovery in the housing market. It's a contrarian opinion, given all the recent chatter and teeth-gnashing over delinquencies, foreclosures, shadow inventory, vacancies, and what not. But the number of data gatherers jumping aboard the better-times-ahead bandwagon is growing. John Burns Real Estate Consulting, for one, sees better times, according to Housingwire, which reports that the company sees the housing market approaching its next up cycle. Burns & Co. lays out a persuasive argument for a return to housing prosperity: improving job growth, record-low new construction, record-low mortgage rates, and the best afforda... 07/11/2010

Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of July 5, 2010 MARKET RECAP We've always taken pride in going against the crowd (namely, by accentuating the positive), but we must admit that this past week has been difficult, especially after digesting the bleak news on foreclosures. On that front, RealtyTrac reported that homes in the foreclosure process sold at an average 27 percent discount in the first quarter of 2010, as almost a third of all transactions involved properties in some stage of mortgage distress. The low-lights of RealtyTrac's report show that home foreclosures set a record for the second straight month in May, with increases in every state. Bank repossessions climbed 44 percent from a year earlier and will likely set a record in the second quarter. The average pric... 07/05/2010

    Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of June 28, 2010 MARKET RECAP The housing market is playing out close to what we had anticipated post-April 30, so we weren't surprised to hear that existing-home sales slipped in May, posting a 2.2 percent drop to an annualized adjusted rate of 5.66 million units. The consensus opinion called for sales to increase to 6.07 million units, due to an anticipated push to close by June 30, so the unexpected slip was disappointing. The good news was that the median sales price, at $179,600, remains 2.7 percent above last year's median price, while inventory tightened to an 8.3-month supply. The slip in existing-home sales was nowhere near as disappointing as the tumble in new-home sales, which hit their lowest level since 1963. Whereas the c... 07/01/2010

Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of June 21, 2010 MARKET RECAP Some people are just unsure of where they're going. We'll slot homebuilders into this category. After posting steady gains over the past few months, the National Association of Homebuilders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index tanked five points to 17, which means homebuilders have turned sour once again. The mood change is understandable, given that housing starts sank to their lowest levels in five months. The numbers are hardly encouraging: starts fell 10 percent in May from April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 593,000 units. The good news is that compared to the same time last year, starts are up 7.8 percent. The drop should have been anticipated. In the previous two months, improvements were driven ... 06/20/2010

Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of June 14, 2010 MARKET RECAP The week was light on housing and mortgage data, which was a good thing; most of what was released offered little cheer. For instance, Capital Economics reported that 2.5 million households are going through the foreclosure process, while 5.4 million households have missed at least one mortgage payment. Capital Economics also expects another three million homes to be added to the foreclosure rolls by the end of 2011. In short, Capital Economics is calling for a housing-market double-dip. Problems persist aside from the above mentioned, to be sure. According to more than a few sources, housing prices are under pressure. ZipRealty, for one, has noted that more than 43 percent of home sellers cut their home's li... 06/13/2010

    Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of May 31, 2010 MARKET RECAP Is news really news if it had already been anticipated? We're referring to April's housing numbers, which everyone anticipated and which surprised few. Existing home sales rose 7.6 percent compared to March's numbers to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.77 million units while sales of new homes soared 14.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 504,000 units. Under more conventional circumstances we'd be tempted to break out the bubbly on such a bullish report, but we all know why sales spiked in April – impending expiration of the federal homebuyer tax credits. The credits were a useful band-aid, to be sure, but they were no panacea. As we've stated in past editions, they simply moved demand ... 05/30/2010

Keeping you updated on the market! For the week of May 24, 2010 MARKET RECAP A popular investing aphorism states that markets must climb a wall of worry in order to advance. If anyone has had more worries than most in recent years, it's the homebuilders. Over the past two months though, they seem to be worrying a little less. The National Association of Homebuilders reported its housing market index – a measure of industry confidence – rose three points to 22 last month, posting its highest reading since August 2007. Homebuilders are still far from euphoria: readings below 50 indicate negative sentiment about the market. The last time the NAHB's index was above 50 was in April 2006, and we saw how the ensuing four years played out. Perhaps the fact that homebuilders remain somewhat gua... 05/23/2010