A recent survey released by Trulia, a real estate search engine, community forum center and reporter of market trends and data, found that a “crisis of confidence” exists among key groups of U.S. homebuyers.
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“Crisis of Confidence” — Good News for Qualified Buyers?
A recent report by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. concludes that “comfort and esthetic benefits far outweigh energy concerns” for homeowners, and that “very few homeowners assess the economic benefits of their investments by monitoring energy bills or calculating payback time.” However, two new surveys by major banks indicate that more Canadians may be coming around to the idea of paying for energy efficiency.
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Canadians Will Pay for Green Homes — If Investment Pays
Nationally, condominium inventory is at its highest levels, however, many metropolitan areas are starting to see the number of condominiums on the market decrease dramatically. This latest trend means higher prices are on the way, according to San Diego’s largest condo development company.
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Condo Trends: Bigger Units, Higher Prices Coming
First-time home buyers who want affordable homes may want to take a hard look at fixer-uppers, smaller homes and cheaper commutes to work to save on the costs of buying and owning a home.
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Affordability Options For First-Time Buyers
Quantifying evidence virtual staging really hits home with buyers comes from a couple of likely sources, but the findings do mirror data from focus groups and other studies on the subject.
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Digitally Enhancing Home Values, Sales
The results of a Harris interactive poll commissioned by Move.com reveals that potential home buyers value “green” building features more than luxury amenities. When given the choice of features like solar energy panels or energy-saving appliances, a whopping 49 percent considered them important, while only 31 percent rated luxury amenities as important.
Excerpt from:
New Homes: Changing Homebuyer Priorities Results of Recent Poll
If you want an independent, authoritative guide to where the economy is heading, check out the composite quarterly forecast of the members of the National Association of Business Economics.
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Real Estate Outlook: No Recession In Sight
Will a new U.S. President improve the housing market?
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Consumers Remain Nervous About Market
The Case Shiller Housing Price Index fell 15.3% year over year (yoy) last month, the largest drop in the survey’s existence. The biggest losers continue to lose big, with markets such as San Diego, Miami and Las Vegas posting the largest gains. Every market in the 20-market survey lost over the past month. Charlotte was the “winner” with only a .12% decline in prices yoy.
You can read the full release about the update here (PDF).
Here’s the graph courtesy of Standard & Poors:
Here are how the markets faired courtesy of The Big Picture:
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Case Shiller Index down 15.3%
Despite all the grim news about gas prices and recession, there are more than a few encouraging signs popping up in the national economy that aren’t getting a lot of attention.
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Real Estate Outlook: Encouraging News
The FRB’s April 2008 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices showed that:
In the April survey, domestic and foreign institutions reported having further tightened their lending standards and terms on a broad range of loan categories over the previous three months. The net fractions of domestic banks reporting tighter lending standards were close to, or above, historical highs for nearly all loan categories in the survey.
In other words, it’s a lot harder to obtain financing.
Chairman of the Federal Reserve said in a speech yesterday that the decline in home prices was different this time and more flexibility in solving the problem is called for.
In a 10-page speech, Mr. Bernanke said (is 10 pages double spaced supposed to be significant?) that some regions of the country including California, Florida, Colorado and parts of the Midwest have experienced sharp increases in the number of homeowners who are delinquent on their mortgages, despite data that does not reveal the classic causes of foreclosures, like higher unemployment rates.
Instead, much of the problem can be attributed to a decline in home prices, which, Mr. Bernanke said, can “reduce the ability and incentive of homeowners, particularly those under financial stress for other reasons, to retain their homes.”
(image of lightbulb turning on) Borrowers were allowed to have mortgages they could not afford and speculators have less incentive to hold on to their properties. Economic vulnerability is made even more precarious by the vulnerability of the GSEs. (Today, Fannie Mae Posted unexpected losses associated with credit performance).
Bernanke’s comments on GSEs
Separately, the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs)–Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–could do more. Recently, the Congress expanded Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s role in the mortgage market by temporarily increasing the limits on the sizes of the mortgages they can accept for securitization. In addition, because the GSEs have resolved some of their accounting and operational problems, their federal regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, has lifted some of the constraints that it had imposed on them. Thus, now is an especially appropriate time for the GSEs to move quickly to raise significant new capital, which they will need to take advantage of these new securitization and investment opportunities, to provide assistance to the housing markets in times of stress, and to do so in a safe and sound manner.
As the GSEs expand their role in housing markets, the Congress should move forward on GSE reform legislation, which includes strengthening the regulatory oversight of these companies. As the Federal Reserve has testified on many occasions, it is very important for the health and stability of our housing finance system that the Congress provide the GSE regulator with broad authority to set capital standards, establish a clear and credible receivership process, and define and monitor a transparent public purpose–one that transcends just shareholder interests–for the accumulation of assets held in their portfolios.
Bernanke actually says “Location, Location, Location”
There is significant locational disparity in the performance of housing markets across the country. Bernanke showed a very cool set of heat maps on a variety metrics.
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[Credit Spiral] Declining Home Prices Primary Cause Of Declining Home Prices
While the U.S. housing market suffers, a residential building explosion is continuing on the other side of the world. In fact, it is estimated that China’s building boom accounts for more than 100 billion square feet per year.
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New Homes: Chinese Housing Market May Produce Revenue for Sagging U.S. Building Industry
