Follow Me on Twitter

Has the real estate market hit bottom? Is it time to buy?

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Recent reports on the real estate market have been pretty encouraging and, in fact, many are suggesting the real estate market has hit bottom or is even beginning a recovery.  Some of the current stories I’ve seen are:

Stocks spike on recovery hopes- CNNMoney.Com - ”The report is basically telling [...]

The real estate market continue to show positive signs; Sales up in 39 states

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

The good news about the real estate market keeps coming! Don’t get too excited yet, I don’t know that the worst of it is over yet, not sure if the “fat lady has sang” yet or not, but at least the reports lately on the market have been encouraging.

[...]

Mortgage rates rise again this week; housing market may be bottoming out

Dennis Norman

According to Freddie Macs weekly mortgage market survey mortgage rates increased slightly this week from the prior week. The survey shows 30 year fixed rate mortgages averaging 5.25% with 0.7% in fees and points, up from 5.20% the week before. Last year at this time, the 30 year rate averaged 6.52%.

Rates [...]

Has the Florida real estate market hit bottom? Is it time to buy?

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Florida is definitely a state that has felt the impact of the declining real estate market.  It has been one of of the top four states in number of foreclosures, biggest declines in values and a few other statistics a state would just as soon not be associated with.

[...]

House prices in many metropolitan areas are now undervalued: Time to buy?

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

According to a report issued by IHS Global Insight,  house prices in the first quarter of 2009 declined in 199 of the 330 metro markets they monitor.  At just over 60% of the metros this represents a huge decrease from 4th quarter 2008 when 312, or almost 95% of the metros, showed [...]

Existing home sales in U.S. increase 2.9% in April – Prices hold steady

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Yesterday the National Association of REALTORS(R) released its existing home sales report for April showing a slight increase in sales of 2.9% over March. 

Sales for April were at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 4,680,000 homes which is down 3.5% from last year, which means in year over year numbers things are improving because last [...]

Jobs created by stimulus plan don’t pay enough to buy a home

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

According to a new study by the Center for Housing Policy despite declining home prices, many of the jobs created through the federal stimulus package do not pay enough to afford a home. 

 The study, Paycheck to Paycheck: Wages and the Cost of Housing in America,  This new study compares housing [...]

The US Housing Bubble: How did we not know? Final Post of the series

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Monday I started this little diatribe, or rant,  on the housing bubble and am going to wrap it up today. This is part three so if missed them you should read part one  and part two first.

OK, now to pick up where my rambling left off…

In fairness to Greenspan, a government [...]

The US Housing Bubble: How did we not know? Part 2

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

I started this little diatribe on the housing bubble yesterday and continue on today. To read part one of this story from yesterday please click here.

OK, now to pick up where my rambling left off…

As bad as it makes me feel that I did not see the bubble and [...]

The US Housing Bubble: How did we not know? Part 1

Dennis Norman

 By: Dennis Norman

I realize the “housing bubble” has been written about way too much and people are probably getting tired of hearing about it, especially after all the financial pain it has caused so many; particularly investors and developers.  However I came across a couple of interesting things today that got [...]

New Home Sales Level Off in February

By: Dennis Norman:  

This morning the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes in March decreased 0.6 percent from February and is 30.6% less than a year ago.

A decline of less than 1%, following last February’s increase of 4.7% in sales I think again shows the market is perhaps [...]

Existing home sales fall 3% in March

By: Dennis Norman

Today the National Association of REALTORS(R) released its existing home sales report for March showing sales in the U.S. dropped 3% from February and were down 7.1% from last year.

The Northeast saw the biggest drop in sales coming in 8% below February and the Midwest fared the best coming in with numbers the [...]

First quarter 09 foreclosures up 23.63% over year ago

RealtyTrac(R) released it’s Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report for the first quarter of 2009 showing nationwide foreclosures are up 23.63% from the first quarter of 2008. [...]

Economists now agree with me: Real Estate Market may be near bottom

I’m pleased that within the last couple of days, some real economists that are actually paid for their opinion of the market, have come out and stated that housing my be near the bottom; Something that I first suggested over two weeks ago in a post on this site and then again four days ago in another post. [...]

Fed Reserve Board: Real Estate Market may be stabilizing

Today the Federal Reserve Board, in it’s monthly Beige Book, said about Real Estate and Construction that “housing markets remained depressed overall, but there were some signs that conditions may be stabilizing.” [...]

Pending home sales up for February

By: Dennis Norman

Yesterday the National Association of REALTORS(R) issued their Pending Home Sales Index report for February which showed, for the U.S., a 2.1% increase over January.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said “Pending home sales have a way to go for there to be a meaningful increase, but recent increases in shopping activity [...]

Good news…home sales up for February

By: Dennis Norman

Dennis Norman

Yesterday the National Association of REALTORS(R) released its existing home sales report for February and it contained some good news.  According to the report existing home sales in the U.S. increased 5.1% in February over January although the rate is still down 4.6% from the same time last [...]

Don’t let headlines influence your investment decisions

By: Dennis Norman

This morning I received a press release from Move, Inc., the company that operates Realtor.Com for the National Association of REALTORS(R), with a headline that read “One in Five Americans Plan to Buy a Home Despite Economic Conditions.”  After all the bad news about housing I have seen I was elated to [...]

When the going gets tough the tough get CREATIVE!

By: Dennis Norman

Dennis Norman

I think of myself as a pretty clever and creative guy.  Having been a real estate investor since 1979 I have had to deal with tough market conditions on several occasions…including 18% mortgage rates back in 1981. 

During those periods of tough market conditions I worked to come up with some [...]

The media continues to reek havoc on the real estate business

By: Dennis Norman

Dennis Norman

Robert Stevenson, a Fox-Pitt Keltonhome-builder analyst says 2009 is a “bad time to buy a home”. Stevenson said he thinks this year will turn out to be a “bad time to buy a home”.  “While some suggest that now is a great time to buy a home given low mortgage rates [...]

Beware: Interest rates are not fixing the market so that means prices will probably come down further

By: Dennis Norman

Four days ago on the Real Estate Consumers News blog I wrote a post stating I did not think low interest rates will prove to be long-term fix to the housing market and in fact nothing more than short-term “life support”.  Today CNNMoney.Com published an article which stated “Unfortunately, the low interest [...]