Home Prices Show Upward Movement

March 25, 2009 Leave a comment

  
In a news release published today by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), they find that house prices across the U.S. ticked up 1.7% between December 2008 and January 2009.  The FHFA monthly index is calculated using purchase prices of houses backing mortgages that have been sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.  For the nine Census Divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes from December to January ranged from -.9% in the Pacific Division to +3.9% in the East North Central Division.  Pennsylvania is located in the Middle Atlantic division which showed prices moving up 1.5%.

As indicated in a recent post (The Distant Drums),  there are signs of some positive things happening in the real estate industry.  In Lancaster County, sales jumped 10% from January ’09 to February ’09.  In addition, interest rates dipped below 5% for thirty year fixed rate mortgages this past week.  Does this mean we’re out of the woods?  Probably not.  But we’re certainly moving in the right direction.  I anticipate over the next couple of months we’ll be hit with some mixed signals.  To borrow a metaphor used quite often during March Madness, a team is usually not as bad as a fifteen point loss indicates and not as good as a fifteen point win would suggest.  The key to thriving in the real estate game is to remain calm and think clearly while all around are losing their heads.

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Federal Housing Finance Agency Shows Real Estate in Lancaster, PA a Good Investment

March 2, 2009 1 Comment

 

You go Lancaster!!!!

Image Courtesy of Flickr

Let’s here it for Lancaster County!  We’re taking names and kickin’ some butt.  YaaaHooo!

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) just released their “All-Transactions Home-Price Index” which compares the fourth quarter of 2007 with the fourth quarter of 2008 and it shows that Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is faring better than most other real estate markets nationally.  While the national appreciation rate dropped 4.5% for that period, Lancaster showed an increase of 1.6%.  Their study is based upon purchase prices and refinancing appraisal amounts for the last quarter.

Before I get too caught up in myself, let’s take a step back and look at national home price surveys in general.  It seems like every every government agency, financial institution, REALTOR® organization and corner coffeehouse has their own version of what real estate prices are doing.  Let’s face it, if you crunch the numbers long enough and add a touch of this and a pinch of that, you can make statistics back-up anything you’re selling.  In fact, my analysis of the the local data supplied by the Keystone MLS for the month of December actually showed Lancaster County’s prices taking a dip.   But that’s not the point.  Regardless of what formula or methodology is utilized by any of these entities, they are all basically showing the same thing: when you compare Lancaster County versus other areas of the state and country, we’re more than holding our own.

So the next time you hear a news report or read a newspaper about how home prices in Las Vegas are plummeting by the hour; remember, the old adage definitely applies, “All real estate is local.”

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