Tryin’ to Understand the Economic Crisis

July 27, 2009 Leave a comment

 

Everyone and their brother has an opinion or theory on how the country got into this economic situation.  Some people blame Wall Street, the financial institutions and banks; other people take direct aim at REALTORS®, builders and mortgage companies; still others impugn the American consumer and their fixation with obtaining easy money with no strings attached.

I found this short video enlightening, insightful and explains the economic predicament about as well as any that I have read, heard or seen.

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Existing Home Sales Rise – Again

July 26, 2009 Leave a comment

The NAR building and U.S. Capitol

Image via Wikipedia

The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) reported on Thursday of this past week that existing home sales for the month of June increased for the third month in a row fueling speculation that the housing downturn is starting to reverse direction.  Excerpts of NAR’s press release¹ follow:

Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – increased 3.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million units in June from a downwardly revised pace of 4.72 million in May, but are 0.2 percent lower than the 4.90 million-unit level in June 2008.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, is hopeful about the gain.  “The increase in existing-home sales occurred in all major regions of the country,” he said.  “We expect a gradual uptrend in sales to continue due to tax credit incentives and historically high affordability conditions . . . “

Much of the fuel for the fire of homes sales has occurred in the first-time homebuyer market which has accounted for 29 percent of transactions according to an NAR survey of its practitioners.  With the $8,000 tax credit deadline of December 1, 2009 (4½ months away) fast approaching, it will be interesting to see if this segment continues to stoke sales numbers.

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Lancaster’s Real Estate Market Improves

July 10, 2009 Leave a comment

The gap between the 2008 and 2009 real estate markets in Lancaster County is down to a razor’s edge.  On Wednesday of this week, the front page of the Intelligencer Journal ran the following story:

Market Here For Housing Gets Better ¹
Numbers for pending home sales improve

The housing market in Lancaster County continued to rebound in May, creeping ever closer to 2008′s level, local Realtors reported Tuesday.

The number of pending home sales here was down only 2.5 percent from the May 2008 figure, the smallest gap so far this year, according to the Lancaster County Association of Realtors.

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