AP: "The National Association of Realtors said Monday that sales of existing homes grew 5.1 percent to an annual rate of 4.72 million last month, from 4.49 million units in January. It was the largest sales jump since July 2003. . . . Sales had been expected to fall to an annual pace of 4.45 million units, according to Thomson Reuters."
The median price is 15.5% lower than last year.
See Calculated Risk's "More on Existing Homes Sales" for more analysis.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Existing Home Sales
Posted by Harriet at 10:14 AM
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24 comments:
Well, looking at this graph from calculated risk, it seems that it's not unusual for existing home sales to increase by that amount this time of year and then either plummet or stagnate:
http://tinyurl.com/c2uuxs
Also, keep in mind that 45% of those were distressed sales.
Now, now NoVA Watcher - Shhhh
The boys at the NAR don't want us little folk to know that 45% of the Sales were distressed/REO/Short Sales.
They think we are all stupid, like my Agent that just phoned me & told me we can't lowball a Short Sale that a Bank has an 'already approved amount'
yeah right...
Oh & someone else is going to put on Contract on it on Wednesday - !!!!
Good, let them be the Knife catchers.
There's a hundred more better & cheaper deals out there right now !
So everybody, what would you do if you discovered what appears to be evidence of fraud in the course of real estate searching.
Check out 9637 Parkwood Dr. Kensington Md. - currently listed as a shady FSBO (take over paymnets, creative financing, no need to deal with banks). Sold for 600K in 2007 to one Christine Kong, then sold for 1.2M in 2008 to an individual with a West African name. There is no record of a subsequent sale, but the current "owner" selling it is not that individual. Where it gets most interesting is that a google search on Ms. Kong indicates that she is a VP for some organization that helps a religious sect to immigrate from West Africa. She appears to have made multiple Real Estate purchases around that time frame.
It looks likely that she sold to a sham individual, profited 600K on this property. If there ever was an African buyer, he took off.
Should I let it drop? Report to MD attorney general's office? FBI? Makes me sick that people like this were out there making millions and nothing will be done. On the other hand, I have hit the limit of what I can do.
EP
I'd report it.
Hell yeah, report it.
Existing home sales fall 4.6%
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/03/existing-home-sales-fall-46/
a couple of sold prices on latest 22207 sales to share-
Jeff B (or was it J/F?), the bank-owned Cherrydale SFH just off Lee Hwy which you had driven by and looked sold for full price at $489K.
Tom, your neighbor's 3/2 colonial w/o parking on 19th St that was jam packed at an OH sold for $635K, or $4K below listing.
Ace, Tom, the Yorktown Blvd home got 4 offers and went under contract in 4 days indeed got full price at $775K.
Cara, the cute 'German Tudor/Cape' home of an owner/agent which originally listed at $869K over a year ago sold for $730K or $20K below the final listing price.
all of the prices info are from sawbuck reality. i'm not sure if any seller subsidy is reflected or not but i'd guess yes.
Eponymous,
FBI Mortgage Fraud.
There's a link on the left-hand side for reporting crime. Please do report it. I've done so in the past and gotten a call back with a thank you.
MM, thanks, it shows what good taste you have!!
Thanks MM. Looks like 22207 continues to be doing just fine!
Arlington continues to have the states lowest unemployment at 3.4%. Whats up with Williamsburg? Unemployment is 19.5%???
http://www.sungazette.net/articles/2009/03/20/arlington/news/nw663.txt
One of the reasons Arlington unemployment is so low is that if you live there and lose your job, you quickly become a former resident due to your high mortgage payment!
Some more FOXES guarding the hen house...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/22/AR2009032201335.html
Local Realty Executive to Direct FHA
David Stevens, of Long & Foster, is expected to be chosen to run the Federal Housing Administration.
David Stevens, of Long & Foster, is expected to be chosen to run the Federal Housing Administration.
David H. Stevens, president of Long & Foster, the Washington real estate firm, is expected to be selected today to run the Federal Housing Administration.
Though the Obama administration declined to confirm the appointment yesterday, sources said Stevens has been undergoing the required background checks. These sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not have the administration's permission to speak publicly.
If confirmed by Congress, Stevens would be the only FHA commissioner in recent years with a strong background in single-family home mortgages. After more than two decades in the financial services industry, Stevens has overseen every aspect of home financing, from originating mortgages to selling them on the secondary market. That experience appealed to the administration, the sources said......
Buyers remorse yet?...
This is what's called a dead cat bounce.
If you think 22207 is doing well, look at 22205 in central part of Arlington. Recent multiple offers and over askng price for houses on Nicholas St, Potomac St, Patrick Henry Dr, Lebanon St, Ivanhoe St. In 22205 there are 27 houses under contract and 41 for sale. In 22207 many multiple offer, including on houses in Tom's neighborhood at 16th St, Stafford St, Utah St and Nelson St.
FHA is becoming a force in the "normal" real estate market and is being positioned to take over from Fannie and Freddie and become the middle class place for mortgages. As less riskier loans have been taken into the pool, Wall St is going to start paying attention to FHA. Dave Stevens is going there to take FHA to the next level. They tried mortgage insurance for eveyone, now mortgage insurance for the middle class is the new game.
Interesting, Anielark.
I must say, I'm not surprised to see 22207/22205 doing so well, for the many reasons I've mentioned before, but mainly for the most important reason: location. Yep, that still matters, folks!
Hello?
Inventory and existing sales don't matter? It may or may not be a dead cat bounce, but I can't imagine ignoring these numbers entirely.
Go to the NVAR/MRIS inventory link and look at the graphs. It may well be that the moratorium is in evidence or that the @#$% has yet to hit the storm. Perhaps it's a bunch a knife catchers out there buying; but, for now anyway, the inventory is dropping.
Median is down. No doubt. It's the reo's that are being bought. Isn't this the normal course of events? I've heard that a large number of reo's will be coming on the market in the next few months.
Perhaps this will drive the median lower, but I believe they will be absorbed on the lower end.
As far as the "expensive" neighborhoods; yes, there will be foreclosures. There always have been. I live in one myself. Will prices drop further? I don't have a crystal ball but I would guess yes. Will some of these reo's fall further? I have my doubts.
It's interesting and amazing to see some here express disdain for buying an reo.
Indeed, Arlington is doing "so well" it is almost as if medians aren't down 20% from peak and sales aren't at decade lows.
Go Arlington!
va_investor
expressing disdain for buying REOs?
I think you're misinterpreting there. T has expressed such disdain, basically arguing that the costs of fixing up an REO can make it similar in price to an already move-in ready place, and therefore unfairly change the perception of home prices in an area.
Other than that, what people are refering to in terms of the REO sales is what Calculated Risk keeps saying. Which is that owner-to-owner sales are way, way down. Buyers are absorbing the REOs, but REO's are also absorbing the buyers. Which means that when the REOs do dry up, as they must as some point, the sales rate will slow to a trickle unless the regular sellers are prepared to drop their prices to meet the market.
Now, from the field, I must say out in Burke it looks as if regular sellers, at least of THs are pricing absolutely appropriately. There's a definite rhyme and reason to the pricing such that you do get what you pay for. If this is how markets look towards the end of the REO waves then I think calculated risk is being overly pessimistic about turnover thereafter.
Leroy, medians down 20% from their peak? Not in my neighborhood!
"Tom said...
Leroy, medians down 20% from their peak? Not in my neighborhood!"
Tom - FWIW, I have tracked a combined (annual) median for all months sales in a few zips, including 22207. As far as I can tell, your zip is down a total of -0.5% from the 2006 peak.
Tom - I should say thats through 2008. Your zip has had 2 bad months in 2009, however, I dont want to say its down 13% thus far because it had a few bad months last year, along with a few good months (hence being down only -0.5% in total).
CRT,
Or, we could look at the monthly extremes - the highest median that I could find (didn't really look very hard, sorry) for 22207 was May 06 @ $882K. Last month? $605K.
So it's a 31% decline if my math is right.
Just a different perspective, I guess.
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