Real Estate Trends

  Existing-home sales in the Northeast, the Midwest, the West, and the South have all come down for the month of September, says the National Association of Realtors’s (NAR) housing stat. Three out of the four regions (except the Midwest) have, however, sold more homes compared to the numbers they sold a year ago. Total existing-home sales (single-family homes, townhomes, co-ops, and condos) have come down from 5.49 million in August to 5.38 million in September (calculations based on seasonally adjusted annual rate) marking a downtick of 2.2%. The decline notwithstanding, the year-over-year…

Play it any way you like it but Austin is not in a real estate bubble. Its property market is encouragingly poised. Housing demand is just where you would like to see it and inventory is pretty stretched. While the Austin market is not as big as Houston or Dallas, it has witnessed a near 100% spurt in home prices over the last 10 years. Austin Board of Association of REALTORS data Based on data plucked from the Austin Board of Association of REALTORS, HomesUSA.com has conducted an analysis that says new homes…

Existing-home sales in the Northeast, the Midwest, and the South have registered second consecutive month of growth, says the National Association of Realtors’s (NAR) housing stat. Only the West has exhibited a decline in the number of existing homes sold in August. Total existing-home sales (single-family homes, townhomes, co-ops and condos) rose from 5.42 million in July to 5.49 million in August (calculations based on seasonally adjusted annual rate). Year-over-year overall sales have seen a spike of 2.6%. Despite looming economic certainty, buyers are finding the prevailing interest rates irresistible, if the statement…

There is an interesting insight into the homes on the market in the South Bay area. For the Santa Clara County, between the years 2014 and 2018, 90 out of 100 homes on the market in April and first half of May got sold. Compare this to 2019, when for the same period, only 33 out of 100 homes on the market sold. We are talking a drop of some 63%. No mean stat! Just goes on to prove that buyers have become choosy. They are not averse to waiting and while it…

Only time will tell if the summers’ slowing sales in California are a momentary pause or a sign of a permanent change in the market. According to the latest data provided by CoreLogic, home sales barely increased for July 2018 above July 2017, following two months of lower home sales. The slowing volume of sales does not, however, mean that housing prices have dropped. In California, home prices are volatile from month to month, with July 2018 prices dropping 0.8% over June 2018. However, when compared year to year, prices are up, and…

Are California homebuyers getting squeezed out of the state? In early August, the California Association of Realtors (CAR) released its’ housing affordability index for the second quarter of 2018. The major takeaway offered by CAR in the report is that the combination of increasing housing prices and rising mortgage rates have reduced the home buying affordability in the state to the lowest level in 10-years. In the first quarter of the year, 31% of California homebuyers could afford a home in the state, but by the end of the second quarter, it fell…