Daily Market Sip 3/31/2009

The Case-Shiller index was just released this morning at 9am.

In general we have seen a drop in single family home prices of 19% from Jan’08 to Jan’09 nationwide avg.  As we take a more focused view into the Tampa area we see a 25% year-over-year drop in single family home prices and a 4% drop month-over-month (Dec’08 to Jan’08).

While the drop in prices were a little larger than expected, there  is some positive news on the housing front.  Earlier in the month we saw that Existing home sales actual rose in February.  As we continue to work off the extra inventory we should begin to see home prices stabilize in the coming months with a slight up tick towards the end of the year or early next year.

Daily Market Sip 3/1/2009

 

While the national housing market continues to fall, in both prices and units sold, we are seeing an upturn in the local South Tampa market.  In particular we see a number of buyers contacting our office, inquires on active listings as well as actual offers.  While we are in no means out of the woods, this type of activity is a positive sign.  Additionally, mortgage rates in late December and early January dropped below 5%, which in turned created a big jump in mortgage refinancing.  The thought is if rates can get back below 5% on a 30yr fixed  we should continue to see healthy buyers entering the market  and work off the excess inventory.   This reduction in interest rates again is quite possible since the newly revised Treasury plan will have the government buy another $200-$300 billion of mortgage paper from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, thus freeing up these entities to write new mortgages.  Finally, in the newly passed “Stimulus” bill new homeowners or those that have not owned a home in the past three years will receive an $8,000 tax credit if they purchase between December 31, 2008 and December 31, 2009.