According to the RE/MAX National Housing Report for June 2011, the month is the fourth straight for rising home prices and rising transaction volumes this year[1]. Despite a year-over-year price drop of 4.9 percent, median home sales prices are on the rise and show a 7.4 increase over May. Highest increases occurred in the northeast, and the average time on the market was 90 days – the “lowest number posted since September 2010.”
The year-over-year price drops indicate that in many markets, buyers are on the move – and making their moves – because of the serious discounts available on desirable properties. For example, in Santa Clara county in California, sales rose 14 percent in June, helped along, in large part, “by investors paying cash,” according to DataQuick, an analytics firm[2]. While Santa Clara prices remained largely flat over a year ago, the surrounding areas declined even as sales volumes climbed by double digits over the previous month.
Given that most experts believe that the commonly-accepted 5-month shadow inventory projection is optimistic to say the least, do you think that now is the time to buy, or are you waiting for the bank properties to push prices down even lower?
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[1] http://www.dsnews.com/articles/re-max-reports-increase-in-prices-and-sales-june-2011-07-14
[2] http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_18478420?source=rss
All Real Estate is local! The answer to your question lies in local market conditions. New Yori/New Jersey, for instance, was the number two performing market nationally however, NJ also has a freeze on foreclosures due to the Robo-signing scandal that is expected to last until at least November.
This just bolsters my opinion that what is needed to get the economy and the housing market back on track is to KEEP PEOPLE IN THEIR HOMES WHEREVER POSSIBLE! The problem is the banks are experiencing windfall profits from short sales and foreclosures on a number of levels that they do not enjoy from modifying these loans. What is needed is this, reasonable underwriting standards for modifications, either incentives to modify equal to or greater than the incentives to short sell or foreclose, and to keep as many people in their homes as possible, then short sell (vs. foreclosure) on the rest with adequate relocation money for those who cannot modify, something equal to one year’s rent (because landlords don’t understand what is happening and won’t take these folks!.
Let’s face facts, the banks, with the help and encouragement of government, created this mess. They deliberately and knowingly misled the public. They committed numerous crimes, including but not limitd to Truth in Lending violations, RESPA violations, Fair Debt Collection Act violations, perjury and fraud. THEY and only they are responsible for creating the mess and THEY AND ONLY THEY should be responsible for cleaning it up. And my proposal is the one that is most fair to all who are effected, including the general public who have seen their nest egg (in the form of their home equity) erode day by day while the criminals profit!
uzanne is right real estate markets are local. With regards to Santa Clara County. I have heard that high end homes are selling well. As investors are speculating that these will go up when Facebook puts out its IPO and the brokerage houses and stock sellers use the money they make to buy homes. On the other side Cisco a company located in Santa Clara County is going to being downsizing 5,000 jobs.