Sales of Existing U.S. Homes Rise

As reported by Bloomberg.com - "Sales of Existing U.S. Homes Probably Climbed as Prices Fell":

Sales of existing U.S. homes probably climbed in July to the highest level in 10 months, signaling the housing crisis that crippled the world's largest economy is easing, economists said before a report today.

Purchases rose 2.1 percent to a 5 million annual rate, according to the median forecast of 64 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. It would be the fourth consecutive gain, capping the longest stretch of increases since 2004.

As noted in our previous post, "Housing Affordability", many factors are contributing to the immediate changing housing conditions:

Foreclosure-driven declines in prices, government credits for first-time buyers and near-record-low borrowing costs may keep stoking demand, helping the economy recover from the worst recession since the 1930s. Ongoing job losses are a reminder that more Americans will probably lose their homes, indicating a rebound will be slow to take hold.

'We've begun a recovery in home sales,' said Ellen Zentner, senior economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. 'This is the best time to buy a house if you can qualify for credit. We expect to see continued, but gradual, improvement.'

Do you think this trend of stabilizing home sales and prices will continue or is this just a minor positive blip in a gloomy housing future still to come?

Housing Affordability

As reported by CNNMoney.com - "Homes still affordable - really affordable":

Homes continue to be more affordable than they have been in nearly two decades.

The typical American family, making the nation's median income of $64,000 a year, could afford to buy 72.3% of all homes sold in the United States during the second quarter, according a quarterly report from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500).

That's off just a tad from the record 72.5% reached during the first three months of 2009, but up substantially from the second quarter of 2008 when only 55% of homes sold were affordable.

The measure of housing affordability was calculated as follows:

The NAHB judges a home to be affordable if a family making the metro area's median income could devote no more than 28% of their take-home pay toward housing costs.

Dramatically lower housing prices, Federal / local housing incentives and home buyer credits, and historically low interest rates have made a huge dent in housing affordability.

Are you buying?

Housing Recovery?

Interesting points regarding the U.S. housing market, the recovery, and housing regions where real estate should fare well.

Foreclosures Continue to Thrive as Moratoriums are Phased Out

As reported my CNNMoney.com - "Foreclosure plague: No cure yet":

Despite some positive signs starting to surface in select housing markets, foreclosures are still on the rise:

There were more than 360,000 properties with foreclosure filings -- including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions -- an increase of 7% from June and 32% from July 2008, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed homes. In fact, one in every 355 U.S. homes had at least one filing during July.

Nevada, California, Arizona, and Florida continue to lead the nation in foreclosures as some foreclosure moratoriums are phased out:

The worst hit areas continue to be in the "sand states," with California posting the highest number of total filings, 108,104, and Nevada posting the highest rate of foreclosure at one for every 56 homes.

The other hardest hit states are Arizona, at one filing for every 135 homes, and Florida, at one for every 154. Las Vegas, with one for every 47 homes, had the highest rate among metro areas. That's Sin City's 31st consecutive month topping the list.

The real estate shakeout continues ...