Real Estate News

Big game kicks off buying season
Tax credit deadlines make finding the right agent crucial
By Mary Ellen Podmolik
The Chicago Tribune
January 29, 2010

The Super Bowl is a little more than a week away and in real estate circles, it's not just about the big game but the kick-off to the spring home buying season.

It's a coin toss whether this year's housing market will be appreciably different than last year; 2009's sales were relatively flat compared to 2008. It's also unclear whether the market will come earlier than it has in the past, as home sellers and buyers try to benefit from the extended and expanded home buyer tax credits before they expire.

New-home sales: ‘The industry has been basically obliterated’
By Alby Gallun
Crain's Chicago Business
February 01, 2010

Local new-home sales inched higher in the fourth quarter, but homebuilders will remain stuck in their slump until the economy recovers.

Chicago-area builders sold 584 homes in the fourth quarter, up 3.9% from 562 in the year-earlier period, according to a recent report by Tracy Cross & Associates Inc. It was a positive end to an otherwise awful year for local developers, who sold just 3,753 units in 2009, down 41.0% from the year earlier and 88.7% from the market’s peak in 2005.

Ten Tips For First-Time Home Buyers
What you need to know about shopping for foreclosures, saving on homeowners insurance and more.
By Asher Hawkins
Forbes
January 29, 2010

If ever you were looking for proof of the old adage that market busts offer buying opportunities to smart investors, the housing market these days is providing it.

When A Homeowner's Best Move Is Turning Over The Keys
Moving out of your own home is sometimes the smartest financial move.
By Stephane Fitch
Forbes
February 01, 2010

If the lousy economy has got you struggling to make your mortgage payments, there's a good chance you've entertained at least a passing fantasy about turning in the keys and closing the door on your housing woes.

You wouldn't be alone. Some 27% of the 250,000 homes sold in November were unloaded at a loss, according to Zillow.com. What's more, 21% of owners of single-family homes with mortgages--a total of more than 12 million families--were sitting on "negative equity" last fall, Zillow says.

Kanjorski & Calvert Lead Congressional Effort Urging Federal Regulators to Address Growing Commercial Real Estate Market Concerns
Posted on Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski Website
February 1, 2010

Today, Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (D-PA), Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises, and Congressman Ken Calvert (R-CA), along with 77 of their House colleagues, sent a bipartisan letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke about the growing concerns that deteriorating conditions in the commercial real estate (CRE) market may threaten an economic recovery.

Congress Worries About Commercial Real Estate
By Cyrus Sanati
The New York Times
February 01, 2010

There is growing concern in Congress that the shaky $6.7 trillion commercial real estate market could implode, delivering a major blow to the economic recovery. A bipartisan group of 79 House members led by Representative Paul E. Kanjorski, Democrat of Pennsylvania, and Representative Ken Calvert, Republican of California, sent a letter to the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve on Monday urging them to take a more active role in keeping the commercial real estate market from turning into a disaster.

“The growing bubble in the commercial real estate industry has the potential to infect our economy and slow a recovery,” Mr. Kanjorski said in a statement.

Home Prices Stabilize Further, But More Drops May Be in Store
By Luke Mullins
US News and World Report
January 26, 2010

Although home prices continued to stabilize in November, real estate experts believe we have another 5 or 10 percent of declines in store before values finally hit bottom. Home prices in 20 major cities declined 5.3 percent in November 2009 from a year earlier, a significant improvement over the 13.3 annual drop posted in July, according to the most recent S&P/Case-Shiller home price report.

New home sales hit 9-month low
CNN Money
By Blake Ellis
Janaury 27, 2010

New home sales plunged to a 9-month low in December, according to a government report issued Wednesday.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of new home sales dropped 7.6% to 342,000 last month, compared with a revised rate of 370,000 in November, the Census Bureau said.

Analysts surveyed by Briefing.com had expected December sales of new homes to hit an annual rate of 366,000.

"This is not a very encouraging number," said Mike Larson, a real estate analyst with Weiss Research. "You've got aggressive competition from banks and lenders trying to unload foreclosures, and many people are going to the existing home market because that's where the bargains are."

Existing-Home Sales Plunge
By Justin Lahart
The Wall Street Journal
January 26, 2010

Home sales plunged in December, raising fresh concerns over the housing market's ability to recover when government support winds down.

Sales of previously owned homes fell 16.7% from November to a 5.45 million annual rate, the National Association of Realtors said Monday, after a looming tax-credit deadline pushed buying decisions into previous months. The drop brought the pace of sales down to the lowest level since August.

The government's first-time home-buyer tax credit was initially scheduled to end Nov. 30, and there was a race to finish deals before it expired. But the tax credit was eventually extended until spring, complemented by an additional tax break for repeat buyers.

The Housing Market Isn't as Bad as New Numbers Indicate
By Kelly Evans
The Wall Street Journal
January 24, 2010

The housing market isn't yet in the clear, but it's also not as weak as Monday's home-sales report might suggest.

The National Association of Realtors is expected to announce an 11.6% drop in December existing-home sales to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.78 million, according to economists polled by Dow Jones.

The large drop is exaggerated by the initial Nov. 30 expiration of the government's first-time home buyer tax credit, which previously boosted sales by some 28% from August through November to an annualized rate of 6.5 million units, the most since early 2007.