The Market is Looking Up…
Posted by Jim…unless you are unemployed. The recovery we are witnessing this fall is spotty and inconsistent; I think this will be the way going forward. Houses are selling briskly if properly priced, and I do not mean at fire-sale prices. Anyone who has tried to buy a bank deal knows the room is full of aggressive buyers with bushels of cash. In fact, one-third of transactions as of late do not involve a mortgage.
This shows two things; first, there is enough liquidity in the system, and second, the banks continue to make life difficult for good borrowers. The latter is main reason there is a twenty-one month inventory for homes priced over one-million. That part of the market will remain semi-comatose until the lending community becomes convinced the free-fall in prices has been arrested.
December 15th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
The realty group reported 10,282 active and contingent listings as of yesterday on Median Priced homes, the smallest total since April 2005. At the current rate of sales, that represents about a three-month supply — normally a signal that sellers can start to name their terms after a period in which buyers had the upper end. The percentage of resale houses selling for more than $800,000 stood at 9.2 percent in November, up from 5.7 percent a year ago.
If foreclosures, lay offs and interst rates don’t spike we may see some equity gains in property value by the end of 2011, alomost a year earlier than I first guessed.
Cheers, I just found your blog and have enjoyed reading it; thank you.
Jason