Maybe the U.S. Housing Market has Bottomed-Out?
March 24, 2009 by David
Filed under Real Estate
This could be the great news everyone is waiting for regarding our incredibly bad real estate market. The early indications are no where near definite or even mildly conclusive and is at best circumstantial. However, it is the first good news on the nationwide housing market we gave seen in ages.
First, the media is reporting over the past few days some good signs of a recovery in housing, sales and construction stats. The media is also full of stories about lots of foreign investors buying homes in the U.S. Just this morning ABC’s Good Morning America reported the National Association of Realtors reports existing home sales for February 2009 were the best since July 2003.
GMA also reported “housing vultures” (including many foreign investors) were buying homes in high numbers (sometimes 100 homes at a time in bulk) and the investors were going on real estate tours of the U.S. Investors from places such as Australia, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China and of course U.S. Investors too.
Next I would like to report on personal experiences in my area in Arizona. First, we have noticed far more Realtors with buyers touring the neighborhood recently. On another personal level we have seen a noticeable uptick in traffic going to a real estate website we run FreeMLSlisting.com.
In fact, a check of yesterdays traffic data reveals more visitors on Mar 23 2009 vs any other day on the chart, which covers a few months of web site visitor activity. Looking at more statistics supplied by Google we noticed an important statistic had its best day yesterday since Nov 3 2008.
Please keep in mind the upbeat information is by no means conclusive or proven to be statistically valid but nevertheless it certainly is quite encouraging to the nationwide war on foreclosures and the real estate market to say the least.
As additional evidence the housing market may be at a bottom there is news in the media yesterday that 30-year fixed rate mortgage loans are at their lowest interest rate level in 57 years.
The last time we had mortgage rates this low was way back in the year 1952. We are seeing the cheapest home mortgages most of us have ever seen, or probably ever will see in our lifetime.
Many banks and mortgage lenders are offering new 30-year term fixed-rate loans for as little as 4.875%, with no points and loan fees of under $1,000. There are also a growing number of loans at 4.375% to 5.0% rates, with one or two points.
I find those to be amazingly bullish statistics which should help the U.S. housing market recover, where home financing loan costs are extremely important.
A little more indication the housing market may be improving.
Went to The Good Egg Restaurant yesterday for breakfast and for the first time in years I heard a Realtor at the table next to me talking with a client he invited for breakfast about buying a house.
In addition, I see more and more Realtors driving aroung my area over the past several weeks, combined with what looks like less home for sale signs in my neighborhood.
I am seeing more and more real estate activity on the local level.
Plus, I notice the number of MLS listings is lower and sales are increasing.
This all bodes well for the housing market. However, there is still ongoing worries in particular the price per square foot which is still weak and declining from what I can tell.
Thank for the great information and the article on the housing market bottoming out is dead on thanks again I have bookmarked this blog its a great resource.
Hello Dr. Green
Thanks for speaking at the FEFE conference. Would you be up for allowing my students to blog with you when I get to the housing lessons? I am a business teacher from the state of MT and we aren’t seeing too many affects on the home front.
Shelly