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Posts Tagged ‘case-schiller index’
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
 In the Case-Schiller report data released this morning, US home prices continue to show improvement in August. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Schiller index showed a seasonally-adjusted 1 percent improvement in August over the previous month. 16 of the 20 cities in the index saw their prices rise. Only four–Cleveland, Las Vegas, Charlotte, and Seattle–saw their home prices decline.
While the numbers are still down compared to last year, the continued upward trend is a nice change from last winter, when all cities saw their prices decline for several months on end. Many believe that the housing market is now turning around. However, the prices are down significantly. The average price today is equivalent to 2003 levels. In Detroit, they are at the same levels they were at in 1995. Compared to last August, prices are down 11.3 percent. As a result, many of the problems we have seen recently in regards to underwater homeowners and foreclosures seem likely to continue in the near future. As the New York Times said, in many places, it’s as if the housing boom never happened.
Tags: Case-, Case-Schiller, case-schiller index, cities, home prices, housing market, real estate, Standard & Poor's, The New York Times, US
Posted in Consumer News, Industry News | No Comments »
Friday, August 28th, 2009
 There was some good news for the housing market this week. New home sales increased more than expected in July, up 9.6 percent from June, and at the highest levels since September of 2008. Sales were up to 433,000 versus the 395,000 adjusted figure from June. Analysts, meanwhile, were only expecting sales to increase to 390,000 from the originally reported 384,000 in June. However, new home sales are still down 13.4% from a year ago. Most of the increase appears to be attributed to the Northeast, with a 32.4% increase in July, and the South, with a 16.2% increase.
The Standard & Poor’s Case-Schiller index posted its first quarter over quarter increase in three years, rising 2.9 percent in the second quarter compared to the first. The price index fell 15.4% in June, compared to a revised 17% drop in May, indicating that the rate of decline in home prices appears to be slowing.
Tags: case-schiller index, good news, home price, home prices, housing, housing market, new home sales, Standard & Poor's
Posted in Industry News | No Comments »
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
 The Wall Street Journal released the results of their monthly forecasting survey of economists. Of interest to the reverse mortgage industry: the economists expect housing prices to continue to decline. Even more worrisome, they expect the 10-year treasury bond, one of the factors upon which the CMT HECM interest rate is based, to nearly double to 4.40 by December 2010. Housing starts are also expected to be a low value this year. The majority of respondants don’t expect the Case-Schiller index to rise until Q1 or Q2 of 2010. Yet, there appears to be a discontinuity between the expected performance of the economy and the expected performance of the housing market. In other words, 92% of the economists believe the economy can sustain a recovery while housing prices are still falling, and given that many see the recession ending soon, it seems like they predict that will be the case.
While predictions are nothing but predictions, a severly increased 10-year treasury bond rate and falling home prices would not be good for the reverse mortgage industry, disqualifying more customers and reducing the amount borrowers are able to receive for their homes. All that can be done now is to wait…
Tags: case-schiller index, economic, economic forecasting, economist, economists, home price, home prices, housing market, interest rate, predictions, reverse mortgage, reverse mortgage industry, reverse mortgages
Posted in Industry News | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
 Home prices in Phoenix have fallen dramatically since 2006. About a month ago we reported that housing prices had dropped record levels in January. But February provided a little better news. The Case-Schiller Index, which follows the housing prices of 20 metropolitan areas, dropped again in February. But the drop of 2.2% was not a record for the first time in months, including the double digit decline of 18.6 percent versus last year.
And while some markets such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Miami have lost around half their value in recent months when compared to levels during the boom, other markets have not been hit as badly. Furthermore, sales in 10 states, including California, have increased.
The average price of a home in the United States has fallen from $230,000 at the height of the boom to $175,000.
Tags: boom, bust, case-schiller index, housing, housing prices, Phoenix, real estate
Posted in Consumer News, Industry News | No Comments »
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