The supply of homes for sale this spring is so depleted that one of the nation’s valuation firms predicts that the inventory drought will reduce total home sales this year as shortages drive up prices and buyers fail to find properties they can afford, according to the latest analysis from Pro Teck Valuation’s Home Value Forecast. “The lack of inventory … Read More »

Donald Trump’s rise through the GOP primaries and a surprise victory in November unmasked a deep and widespread angst over the quality of nation’s economic recovery. While national numbers on job growth and income levels have looked encouraging to national journalists and Washington-centric politicians, from the perspective of corner cafes and assembly line floors in heartland states, the picture has … Read More »

February is a critical month, a time when the spring market is opening in warmer states and is just weeks away in the upper Midwest and New England.  In a typical year, it is a month when the best stagers are booked, painters are busy, landscapers are trimming hedges and sodding lawns of homes soon to be listed, and agents … Read More »

January is the month when real estate markets traditionally take a breather to restock their shelves for the spring season. In the final quarter of 2016 record demand powered by concern over interest rates and rising prices encouraged buyers to clear the shelves of depleted supplies and strong sales continued into the new year. An analysis of the January market … Read More »

Last year was not a great one for the housing economists who forecast home sales.  Most, include NAR[1] and Fannie Mae[2], predicted that existing homes sales would end up south of a 3 percent increase over 2015.  In fact, sales did a little better, rising 3.2 percent for the best sales year since 2006.[3] This year, experts are low-balling sales … Read More »

  The good news about January home sales is that the year over year rate reached the highest they reached an all-time high, an annualized total that was a little bit higher than it was last November. The bad news is that the serious problems facing the residential real estate economy grew even more serious during the slowest month of … Read More »

The real estate economy in the year just past broke records as well as hearts.  As soaring values left homeowners with more equity than they’ve seen in a decade, there’s not much good news in store for thousands of frustrated buyers who couldn’t find a home to buy last year. December’s data from the nation’s leading monthly market reports paint … Read More »

August brought even worse news for first-time and move-up buyer as chronic inventory shortages grow even, inflating home prices even more.  A double whammy of unaffordable prices and shrinking selections of homes for sale continue to handcuff the housing recovery. “Hopes of a meaningful sales breakthrough as a result of this summer’s historically low mortgage rates failed to materialize because … Read More »

Like the blind men with different interpretations of the same elephant, September forecasts by economists at the nation’s largest housing GSEs emphasize differing outcomes from the same forces shaping the nation’s housing economy. After July’s disappointing existing sales report, which NAR’s Lawrence Yun attributed in part to chronically low inventories, Fannie Mae lowered its existing sales forecast for 2016 from … Read More »

Is it just the end of the buying season or are home sales hitting a wall? A growing consensus of economists foresees a flattening in sales growth—or even year-over-year declines in the months to come-for the balance of the year and even into next year.  Sales may have reached a ceiling for the season. A combination of rising prices, slow … Read More »