Market Trends and Condition

The government announced this week that new home construction tumbled in April. Housing starts fell 10.6% in April to an annual rate of 523,000 units. That’s down from a revised level of 585,000 units in March. And, it’s well below the 563,000 units that had been predicted by analysts.

Huge backlog of distressed properties means any housing recovery is a long way away. Read the whole article here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43175612/ns/business-personal_finance/

Don't just drink the Kool-Aid, do your due diligence and have a plan for your real estate business as it a crazy world right now.

Why is this important? It shows the activity of businesses and their purchasing orders which tend to lead hiring activity. Not a good way to begin the second quarter. You can read the entire msnbc.com article here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43165931/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy/

One of the hidden gems that speak directly to us as real estate investors is a short snippet from the Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said recovery in the housing market had a long way to go.

"We've got several more years to go. Again just realistically I think it's going to take time still to heal that"

Anyway, be careful out there and go make some money.

A Harvard University study just released had some interesting statistics about renters. The number of renters who spend more than half their income on rent is at its highest level in 50 years.

10.1 million people, about 26% of renters, spent more than half their pre-tax income on rental housing in 2009. With most experts recommending that you not spend more than 30% of income, this is a significant number and it isn’t likely to drop in the near to intermediate future.

Investors have been feasting on lower priced foreclosures, and spending a lot of cash to acquire them. Cash deals accounted for 35% of all home sales in March. While the number of sales of homes in the $100,000 to $500,000 price range was down more than 14% in March, the number of sales under $100,000 was up by around 10%. So, it’s clear that investors are taking homes off the market. However, the news is still indicating that many more foreclosures are in the wings.

This is a little info from JGREER on how to truly learn your market quickly and not burn out your agent by wasting their time pulling comps for every property you are interested in.

JGREER Wrote:

Burnt Out your Realtors?

So have I and now I know how to keep them Happy to work with me by not wasting their time, REPEAT, DON'T WASTE THEIR TIME. I began pulling the sold and pending listings of Single Family Homes every 20 Days to see exactly what homes are selling for. Categories make it easy by having my Agent send me 3 emails for the city I am in. There are 3 separate emails I receive for each city to view in the last 90 Days what properties have sold and how long it took them to sell.

Email #1 0-20 DOM
Email #2 21-50 DOM
Email #3 51-90 DOM

We all know the over supply of foreclosed homes. But what we all need are buyers. Even if you are selling to an investor, they need an end buyer to take the inventory off their hands so you can sell them another property. The end user market is soft and may get softer. Read the entire cnbc.com article here:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43111762

I just hope we don't go into extra innings!! What I'm talking about is the foreclosure mess. Read the whole msnbc.com article here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43099849/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy/

No matter what you believe, I think we can all agree that this is a mess of unimaginable proportions.

Investor interest in U.S. multifamily properties continued at a healthy clip at the beginning of 2011, as investment sales dollar volume jumped 40% in the first quarter over the same period last year. More deals closed than in any quarter since mid-2005, according to CoStar Group data. You can read more at the link below.

This headline is what we have been predicting since 2008 as the housing crisis gripped us. Different parts of the country could recover a year sooner or later but 2014 has been our target. Negotiate the market carefully and play it smart. This is a tricky market. You can read the whole story here:

http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-18/housing-in-u-s-may-not-reco...