Category: Home Prices
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Employment & Home Prices
The Employment Situation Report for November was unsettling at best. The economy, as reflected in job creation (or perhaps re-creation is a better word) from the massive layoffs in the spring, had been slowing recently. But it pretty much stalled last month. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported there were only 245,000 jobs added during…
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Growing Inventories
One might expect that the new era of low interest rates, the record low unemployment numbers, and spring flowers popping up everywhere would prompt a flood of home buyers into the market. One would be wrong. Both new and existing home sales were down in April. The decline in new home sales, down almost 7%…
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Cool Down
The hot California real estate market appears to be cooling down. Whether this is good news, bad news or merely yawn-inducing, probably depends whether you are in that market as a buyer, a seller, or not at all. Still, given the state’s role as a national trendsetter, it probably behooves everyone to pay attention. CoreLogic…
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Slower Appreciation Has Upside
The good news is that home prices are still going up. The better news is that it’s happening a little more slowly. All three of S&P Case-Shiller’s home price indices for August exhibited a degree of moderation in what are still strong price gains. The National Home Price Index (HPI) fell below 6.0% for the…
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Curve Ball
Home prices bumped up another 6.7% on an annual basis in February according to CoreLogic’s Home Price Index. This is 0.1% more than the January 2017 to January 2018 gain, and again raises the issue of when enough will be enough. When will prices reach a point where most buyers, especially first timers, won’t be…
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Prices Continue to Rise
The first March home price data shows month-over-month appreciation at the fastest pace in 11 months. The CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI) rose 1.6% compared to February, the largest gain since last April. After more than a decade of decline, the homeownership rate set a record low of 62.9% in the second quarter of…
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Jobs Return, Builders Don’t
We know by now that the housing inventory is the root of all evil, blamed for home sales that aren’t quite where they should be, the steady erosion of the homeownership rate, rising home prices, and rising rents. One factor underlying the current tight supply of homes is the lack of single-family construction, especially in…
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Rates, Prices and Hat Tricks
Commentary ~ January 29, 2016 This week the Federal Open Market Committee held its first meeting since they raised the fed funds rate. In its news conference after the two day event a spokesperson said they were closely monitoring both global and domestic economic developments and “assessing their implications for the labor market and inflation.” …
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Catching Up
Commentary ~ January 8, 2016 The bells have rung, the ball has dropped, and our two weeks of pretty much ignoring the world have ended. It’s 2016 and we are happily back to the grind. It was actually fairly quiet during the hiatus. The usual data was released, the usual year-end predictions rolled…