Real Estate Market View 6/16/2009: Housing Starts

New Housing Starts and Permits moved forward in May from the lows set in prior months.  Housing starts increased 17.2%  to an annual rate of 523,000 units according to the Commerce Department.  Additionally, New Building Permits rose 4% the largest gain since June of last year.

These are encouraging numbers, inparticular if we can continue to see Building Permits increase over the next few qtrs.  Since Building permits indicate future growth, that will certainly be a positive sign.

Real Estate Market View 6/2/2009 – Pending Home Sales

The National Association of Realtors announced today that Pending home sales for April were up 6.7% from March.  This is the third month in a row that pending sales have increased.  Slowly it seems that we are creeping out of the bottom of the real estate market.

Additionally, we see that 30yr mortgage rates are beginning to increase from their prior lows.  Once again we want to riterate that housing really has bottomed and while prices might still decline slightly, the risk is more to the upside than down.

Real Estate Market View 5/28/2009 – Florida Home Trend

A small trend is forming in existing home sales in Florida.  We have reached the eighth consecutive month where sales activity have increased year over year.  In April we saw the following for Florida

Existing Single Family Home Sales 18% increase (yoy)

Existing Condo Sales 21% increase (yoy)

On the alternative side we continue to see a decrease in sales price for existing single family homes with a 31% decrease (yoy) and condos prices a 41% decrease (yoy)

On the National front the pace of sales for existing single family homes creeped up slightly in April from March by 2.9%.  However, as has been the case, prices continue to drop nationally as well, with latest S&P/Case-Shiller Index showing home prices dropping 18.7% in March.  While this number is still negative it is slightly slowing from prior months.

In summary the best measurement at this point is inventory on the market.  The more we can reduce the inventory on-hand the quicker we should see a substantial and sustainable recovery.

On a side not 30 year fixed rate loans are beginning to slightly creep back up from their historic lows.

As mentioned in prior posting the bottom in the market is and the time to buy is now!

Daily Market Sip 4/28/2009

The Florida Senate is considering joint resolution Bill # 532 related to among other things the reduction in the maximum increase in tax assessment for commerical or residential rental property to no more than 5% or the average annual percentage growth in revenue derived from the property for the preceding 3 years.

This would be a huge benefit and catalyst to getting the real estate market moving again.  The Florida House has passed the bill and now the Senate is in final debate.  Here is a link to the Bill currently in the Senate.

Florida Senate

Daily Market Sip 4/23/2009

The March numbers on existing home sales was released this morning.   Existing homes sales dropped 3% to 4.57 million units compares with a revised # of 4.70 million units in February.  This drop in March was actually lover than the consensus # of 4.65 million.  Additionally, there was a slight rise in sales price with a slightly lower drop in existing homes on the market.

3 STRATEGIC TIPS FOR KNOWING HOW TO BUY IN THIS MARKET

TAMPA, FL, April 17, 2009 – Cristan Fadal, Senior Associate with CENTURY 21^® Fisher & Associates in Tampa, provides three key strategic steps all buyers should consider when preparing for a new home purchase in this market.

 

“Many of the clients we work with are initially unprepared for the entire buying process and it takes some education and time to really help them understand and prepare for what lays ahead” states Fadal.

 

Fadal suggests the first step is establishing your purchasing power.  “One of the worst situations for any buyer is finding the perfect house only to learn they can not secure the necessary financing” states Fadal.  If you have not done so already, locate a lender to at least get pre-qualified, if not pre-approved.  A pre-approval letter goes much farther in this market than just an offer.  Also there is greater due diligence taken by lenders in this market, so the underwriting process can take much longer than in the past, start the process early.

 

“Helping our buyers clarify their “wants and needs” is the second critical step to finding the right property in the least amount of time” says Fadal.  He suggests that buyers write down specifics such as square footage, lot size, bedrooms/baths, amenities and location to name a few. This list can then be utilized to do more refined market scans, thus reducing the search process.  “With the vast inventories in today’s market, the selections are endless, the more specifics we have the easier the process will be for buyers in the long run” states Fadal

 

Finally, Fadal recommends utilizing an experienced Real Estate Agent that is knowledgeable about the locations and property types a buyer is most interested in.  “While some buyers may believe they can do it all online, using an Agent can cut their search time in half as well as keep them in the know before the masses find out” says Fadal.  Additionally, it is more likely than not that your Agent has already seen the property you might find online, thus giving you an added perspective before time is wasted going to see the property in person.

A BOTTOM HAS BEEN REACHED IN RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE

TAMPA, FL, April 7, 2009 –Cristan Fadal, Senior Associate with CENTURY 21^® Fisher & Associates in Tampa, sees all the elements of a Residential Real Estate bottom in the South Tampa Market.

 

“With the convergence of historically low interest rates, a massive drop in prices and plenty of availability, it has become a buyer’s perfect storm” states Fadal  “At the beginning of the year we saw a nice increase in inquiries, but the telling sign has been the conversion of these inquiries into actual offers and contracts” states Fadal. 

 

The CENTURY 21 Fisher & Associates office is located on Davis Islands in the heart of South Tampa.  While in the past it was rare to even see one home available for under $300K on Davis Islands, at the present time there are around a dozen.  This being said the properties are getting scooped up about as fast as they are placed on the market.

 

“One thing which we have also seen is sellers basically throwing in the towel and reducing their price to just get the property sold” says Fadal.  “What many sellers have finally realized is that while they may try to hold out for a slightly higher price on their existing home, they themselves are missing out on opportunities to buy their next home at these reduced prices, while at the same time locking in an unusually low fixed rate mortgage.”

 

CENTURY 21 Fisher & Associates works with a variety of mortgage lenders which are assisting their clients in evaluating their current financial situation including; current mortgage rates, future trends of rates and overall opportunity costs.

 

“While prices in this market can always fall a bit further, for them to drop another 20 or 30% is unrealistic” says Fadal.  “The savvy buyer is working with a skilled agent and taking a strong proactive approach to negotiating the best deal possible”.

 

Century 21 Real Estate LLC (www.century21.com) is the franchisor of the world’s largest residential real estate sales organization, providing comprehensive training, management, administrative and marketing support for the CENTURY 21 System.  The System is comprised of more than 8,300 independently owned and operated franchised broker offices in 56 countries and territories worldwide.

Daily Market Sip 4/1/2009

Well we have kicked up the new month with slightly positive data on the housing front.  The National Association of Realtors has reported a slight uptick in Pending US Home sales for the month of February.  The index was up 2.1% from a January reading of 80.4.  As we have reported in February in our monthly newsletter, we have certainly seen a pickup on the housing front.  As we continue this year the market will begin to accelerate.  As the numbers continue to improve we will begin to see the stock market react in kind, as well as general business setiment

Additionally, mortgage rates hit a new low for an average on 30 yr fixes at 4.61%.  Much of this drive lower has in turn caused a rush in refinancing for existing property owners.

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.