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Pending home sales rise in July; Down 19 percent from the year before

Dennis Norman

After hitting all-time low in June, pending home sales increase 5.2 percent in July

The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for July shows an increase of 5.2 percent in the index in July (seasonally adjusted) which is 19.1 percent below July 2009.

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Home Sales Plummet in July to Record Low

Dennis Norman

Beginning last November I have written several articles about the “sugar-rush” effect of tax credits and other stimulus on the housing market and voicing my concern that these things are short lived (like a sugar rush on a child) and after the sugar wears off there is a crash….Well, as expected, here it [...]

Pending Home Sales Hit a new Record-Low in June

Dennis Norman

NAR Pending Home Sales Index at Lowest Level Since Index Began in 2001

At dropping 30 percent in May as a result of the rush to buy a home before the April 30th tax credit deadline, the National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for June shows a further decline of 2.6 percent in [...]

Housing Market Outlook and Forecast

Dennis Norman

This week I attended an event at the St. Louis Association of REALTORS® in which Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the National Association of REALTORS® was the featured speaker and gave his take on the housing market as well as his housing market outlook.

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Closing of Tax Credit Induced Home Purchases Prop-Up Market in June

Dennis Norman

Last month I said that I expected to see some elevated numbers in the existing home sales report for May and June since this report would reflect the actual closing of the home purchases from buyers that raced to buy before the April 30th home-buyer tax credit deadline. Even though Congress has [...]

Investors; Do you want to know where the home-buyers are?

Dennis Norman

Where and how people search for their next home has changed dramatically over the past decade and we continue to see changes in the behavior of home-buyers constantly.  Unfortunately I talk to many investors that are not keeping up with the times and, particularly if they are not using a real estate agent [...]

Foreign Purchases of US Residential Real Estate Nearly Doubles

Dennis Norman

I may be getting desperate to find something good to write about with regard to the Housing Market, but nonetheless I found some good news today! According to a report titled “Foreign Investment in U.S. Real Estate” that was released recently by the National Association of REALTORS®, investment in residential real estate [...]

Pending Home Sales Index For May Drops to Lowest Level In History of Index

Dennis Norman

There was no question in my mind that home sales would plummet after the April 30th deadline to buy a home and qualify for the home-buyer tax credit passed, the only question was how bad? Today the National Association of REALTORS released it’s Pending Home Sales Index for May showing a decrease of [...]

Home Sales Fall Slightly in May; Still Propped-Up By Tax Credit Deals

Dennis Norman

May and June Sales Expected to Remain Elevated as Buyers Rush to Close By June 30th Deadline for Tax Credits.

The deadline to buy a home and qualify for the home-buyer tax credit was April 30th so it’s not surprising we saw pending home-sales increase dramatically in March and April as buyers rushed to [...]

Pending Home Sales Increase In April as Buyers Rush to Beat Tax Credit Deadline

Dennis Norman

Today the National Association of REALTORS released it’s Pending Home Sales Index for April showing an increase of 6.0 percent in the index from March (seasonally adjusted) and a whopping 22.4 percent increase from April 2009. This comes on the heels of a 5.3 percent increase in March and an 8.3 [...]

Existing Home Sales Increase In April As Tax Credits End

Dennis Norman

Sales increased for second consecutive month-

With the home-buyer tax credits ending April 30th, it’s not surprising that we saw an increase of home sales in March, and now in April, as buyers rushed to buy before the deadline to have a congract of April 30, 2010. According to the latest report from [...]

First Quarter Home Sales Up From a Year Ago in many Metro Areas

Dennis Norman

According to a report issued by the National Association of REALTORS, a growing number of metropolitan areas are experiencing price gains from a year ago, while most states have seen healthy gains in home sales from the first quarter of 2009.

Highlights from the Metro report for the first quarter of 2010:

91 out of [...]

Pending Home Sales Continue On The Rise In March

Dennis Norman

Today the National Association of REALTORS released it’s Pending Home Sales Index for March showing an increase of 5.3 percent in the index from February (seasonally adjusted) and a whopping 21.1 percent increase from March 2009. This follows an 8.3 percent increase in February so it is definitely creating a nice [...]

Existing Home Sales Jump in March – Market shows signs of leveling off

Dennis Norman

According to the latest report from the National Association of REALTORS(R), existing home sales in the US in March increased 6.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 5.35 million units in March from a revised level of 5.01 million units in February, and increased 16.1 percent from a year ago when the [...]

Will renting become the next American Dream? Could it create a new niche?

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Home Sales Jump In February

Dennis Norman

Today the National Association of REALTORS released it’s February Pending Home Sales Index showing a increase of 8.2 percent (seasonally adjusted) in the index from January and a 17.3 percent increase from last year.

Here are highlights from the report:

January”s pending home sales index (seasonally adjusted) was 97.6 (the index is based upon 100.0 [...]

Investment-Home Sales Fell 15.9 Percent in 2009

Dennis Norman

According to a Survey conducted by the National Association of REALTORS (NAR), investment-home sales dropped 15.9 percent in 2009 to 940,000 sales from 1,120,000 in 2008. For comparison purposes, primary residence home sales rose 7.1 percent in the same period.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said, “Investment buyers primarily seek rental income, with six in 10 [...]

February Existing Home Sales Vary By Region and Price

Dennis Norman

According to the latest report from the National Association of REALTORS(R), existing home sales in the US in February decreased 0.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 5.02 million units in February from a revised level of 5.50 million units in January, however this does represent an increase of 7.0 percent from [...]

Pending Home Sales Drop In January; Weather Named as Cause

Dennis Norman

 Today the National Association of REALTORS released it’s January Pending Home Sales Index showing a decrease of 7.6 percent in the index from December, 2009 to January 2010 (seasonally adjusted) and a 12.3 percent increase from last year.

Here are highlights from the report:

January”s pending home sales index (seasonally adjusted) was 90.4 (the index is [...]

Existing home sales drops in January

Dennis Norman

According to the latest report from the National Association of REALTORS(R), existing home sales in January decreased 7.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 5.05 million units in January from a level of 5.44 million units in December, however this does represent an increase over a year ago when the rate was [...]

Realtor Pending Home Sales Index shows Real Estate Market Leveling off

Dennis Norman

Today the National Association of REALTORS released it’s December Pending Home Sales Index showing an increase of 1.0 percent in the index from November (seasonally adjusted) and a 10.9 percent increase from last year.

Here are highlights from the report:

December”s pending home sales index (seasonally adjusted) was 96.6 (the index is based upon [...]

December home sales plummet but 2009 finishes stronger than 2008

Dennis Norman

NAR’s “seasonally-adjusted” numbers show sales down 16.7 percent for the month…2009 finishes with 5,156,000 homes sold…My projection for the year was 5,143,000 homes….missed it by 13,000 (2/10 of 1 percent) hmm..not bad for a “non-economist” :)

According to the latest report from the National Association of REALTORS(R), existing home sales in December decreased 16.7 [...]

Let’s play ‘spin the data’

Dennis Norman

Or should I say “It’s all in the headline”?

So what am I talking about? The pending home sales data that was released by the National Association of REALTORS today, of course. Actually I could be referring to any data on the housing market whether new home sales, foreclosure rates, interest rates, existing home [...]

‘Actual’ Existing home sales drop 5.2 percent in November; Up 4.2 percent from a year ago

Dennis Norman

NAR’s “seasonally-adjusted” numbers show sales up 7.4 percent for the month…”actual” numbers show a 5.2 percent decrease….Sales up 44 percent from last year, lest we not forgot last year was the worst in over 10 years…

According to the latest report from the National Association of REALTORS(R), existing home sales in November increased 7.4 [...]

Pending home sales rise for ninth consecutive month

Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist, NAR

Is the increase real or have the tax-credits created an “artificial” market that cannot be sustained?

Today the National Association of REALTORS(R) issued their Pending Home Sales Index Report for October showing pending sales in the U.S. rose again for the ninth consecutive month – marking the longest streak since since [...]

Reports and headlines say home sales increased 10.1 percent in October, up 23.5 percent from a year ago; I say up 6.6 percent for the month and almost even with last year

Dennis Norman

National Association of REALTORS Report:

According to the latest report released today from the National Association of REALTORS(R), existing home sales in October jumped 10.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 6.10 million units in October from a revised level of 5.54 million in September, and are 23.5 percent higher than the 4.94 [...]

Commercial Real Estate Forecast Uncertain according to NAR

The recent deep economic downturn has had a pronounced impact on commercial real estate sectors, but credit availability is the big unknown that will determine how soon commercial markets recover, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said some initial movements earlier this week in commercial mortgage-backed securities are encouraging. “The [...]

Commercial real estate market feeling the pain; commercial loan defaults on the rise and expected to continue according to NAR

A severe ongoing credit crunch in commercial real estate lending is hampering recovery, according to a commercial market update at the 2009 REALTORS® Conference & Expo. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun shared insights into the commercial markets and the current lending environment during the “Economic Issues and Commercial Real Estate Business Trends Forum” here today.

Yun [...]

Only market doing OK are lower-price homes according to Realtors; Inestors think twice about trying to flip anything more expensive..

Reduced home prices and the first-time home buyer tax credit have helped dramatically boost the lower end housing market, according to a residential market update yesterday at the 2009 REALTORS® Conference & Expo.

Lawrence Yun, National Association of Realtors® chief economist, said home sales continue to be dominated by lower priced homes. In fact, NAR data [...]

Home buyer tax credit extension update; House Passes Bill…On to President for approval

Dennis Norman

UPDATE 11/06/09 5:14 p.m. – Thanks to Denis T who was commenting on this post, click here to go to the IRS site with information on the new tax credits.

UPDATE 11/06/09 1:00 p.m. – I just heard that a short while ago President Obama signed the bill into law.  IT’S OFFICIAL!  So if you are in [...]