All the Real Estate News That’s Fit to RE-Print™
Welcome to our weekly edition of Hot Real Estate Investment News.
Good news and optimism for the real estate market continues.
The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices are in, home prices are up for the sixth straight month, October marks the 12th consecutive month of monthly home value increases, and pending home sales surge.
Home building (housing starts) rose to its highest level in more than four years in October. And the nation’s delinquency rate fell in October, decreasing 7.19 percent from last year.
Here are the real estate investing related news items that caught our attention this past week. We hope they help you stay up-to-date with your real estate investment strategies and inspire some profitable real estate deals for you.
Home Prices Rise for the Sixth Straight Month
According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
Data through September 2012, released Tuesday by S&P Dow Jones Indices for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices showed that home prices continued to rise in the third quarter of 2012.
The national composite was up 3.6% in the third quarter of 2012 versus the third quarter of 2011, and was up 2.2% versus the second quarter of 2012.
Complete details, including charts and graphs, are here…
See also:
Case-Shiller Indices Up in September, Momentum Slows
Despite another month of home price improvements, the housing sector stumbled in September as prices fell in five of the 20 cities covered in the monthly Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.
FHFA’s Index Continues to Register Price Increases
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported home prices continued to climb higher in September, with prices gaining by 0.2 percent from August.
October Marks 12 Months of Home Value Increases
Krista Franks Brock from DSnews.com reports:
“October marks the 12th consecutive month of monthly home value increases, according to Zillow, which reported a 1.1 percent increase over the month.
Home values were up even higher on an annual basis, climbing 4.7 percent over the year and representing the greatest increase since September 2006.”
Pending Home Sales Surge to Five Year High
From CNBC Real Estate Reporter, Diane Olick:
“Buyers are coming back to the housing market in ever greater numbers, as an industry index measuring contracts to purchase existing homes surged 5.2 percent in October from September.
The monthly gauge of pending home sales from the National Association of Realtors was also revised higher in September and is now up 13.2 percent from October of 2011.”
See also:
Housing Demand Rose in October
“The housing market saw demand hit its highest level in 2½ years in October, according to an index released Thursday that tracks the number of buyers who signed contracts to purchase previously owned homes.
The figure is the latest sign that the housing market has emerged from a deep funk last year.”
Delinquency Rate Falls After Spiking in September
From Esther Cho:
“After suddenly jumping 7.7 percent in September, the nation’s delinquency rate fell in October, according to “first look” data from Lender Processing Services (LPS).
The delinquency rate stood at 7.03 percent in October, a decrease of 4.91 percent from September and 7.19 percent from last year.”
From Thanksgiving Week:
Home building at 4-year high
From Chris Isadore at CNNMoney:
The pace of home building rose to its highest level in more than four years in October, according to a Census Bureau report. Builders started construction at an annual pace of 894,000 homes last month, up 3.6% from the pace in September….
See also:
More Good News as Housing Starts Surge
October Housing starts rose 3.6% to 894,000, a four year high. Starts were strongest in the West with a 17% gain followed by the Midwest with a 6.5% gain; starts fell in the South (-6.5%) and the Northeast (-2.5%).
There is another side to the housing statistics that is quite different than the side heralded in the mainstream media. Read this article from an insider.
http://usawatchdog.com/over-20-million-houses-sitting-vacant-fabian-calvo/
Over 20 million homes are sitting empty because the big banks cannot afford to foreclose on them without cratering prices and becoming MORE insolvent. Their holding these homes off the market manipulates prices upward. This may provide temporary opportunities for investors but it could also turn on a dime if they release more of this inventory to foreclosure. That could cause prices to drop 20, 30, 40 or 50% very quickly.
On the other hand, the entire financial system could collapse any second and ownership becomes 90% of the law and everyone will get a “free” house. Which would make buying on credit right now a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Or hyperinflation could kick in and if you hold assets in physical gold & silver, you’d be able to pay off your mortgages for pennies on the dollar.
Real estate has been very good to me. I continue to look for more properties. But the US financial system is so close to total collapse that there has never been a more dangerous time to play this game. Times are NOT normal. The market is being spectacularly manipulated. The rewards could be huge and the losses could be disastrous. Research alternative news sources in addition to mainstream news sources or you may invest with partial information.