Real Estate

New Home Sales Crash Back To Reality Of Higher Rates

The Census Bureau reported December new home sales of 536,000 (seasonally adjusted annual rate). This was a 10 percent drop from the revised November numbers and well shy of expectations. Unadjusted new home sales (38,000) were flat year-over year. The average price of a new home contracted in December 2016 was $384,000 while the median price posted at $322,000, near the highs for 2016. So what happened to the lofty expectations of higher new home sales? In a word it it was an AFFORDABILITY problem. The real estate pundits who were expecting higher mortgage interest [...]

Why Home Builders Can’t Meet Housing Demand

America's home builders are having a difficult time meeting housing demand, or so they say. While access to credit is cited as a factor that is holding back builders, that's only a partial cause of builders' reluctance to put their money where their optimism index mouth is. As NAHB chief economist, Robert Dietz, explains it builders are finding it more difficult and expensive to develop land. Home builders should be thanking the The Federal Reserve for this warped, manipulated landscape, but most builders will likely avoid the discussion. The first rule of fight club is [...]

By |2021-04-21T11:25:23+00:00January 11th, 2017|Development, New Home Sales, Real Estate, Spin Cycle|1 Comment

New Home Sales Rise In November To 592,000 (SAAR)

New home sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 592,000 in November. Census Bureau numbers showed the average price of a new home contracted in November was $359,900, down from the average price of $376,800 seen last year. The median price of $305,400 was also lower than last year's median of $317,000. New home sales have been surprisingly strong for most of the year, posting double-digit increases compared to last year. Census revised previous months sales slightly lower, but all things considered new home sales have been fairly strong prior to the interest [...]

NAR: Existing Home Sales Up 5.9 Percent In October

Existing home sales increased 5.9 percent year-over-year in October. Numbers from the National Association of Realtors put existing home sales for October at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.60 million in October, a two percent increase from the previous month. This is welcome news from NAR, but it is also important to remember that this was before the spike in mortgage rates we have seen during the last month. "The good news is that the tightening labor market is beginning to push up wages and the economy has lately shown signs of greater expansion. [...]

By |2016-11-22T21:30:36+00:00November 22nd, 2016|In the Press, Markets, Mortgage Rates, Real Estate|0 Comments

Mortgage Rates Rip To Highest Level Since July 2015

Katy Texas mortgage rates rose to their highest levels since July 2015 as we ended the week. That new home you may have been looking to purchase just became more expensive. Unless you already had a mortgage rate locked in, higher rates likely means higher home payments or diminished expectations. As Friday came to a close, mortgage brokers were discussing the wreckage of higher yields and looking at a new interest rate landscape, at least in the short term. Mortgage News Daily explained the closing of the week in the mortgage market... "The most prevalent [...]

Single-Family Permits Flat In October As Housing Starts Jump

Single-family permits fell flat in October. That's the news from today's Census numbers on October construction starts and permits. The unadjusted single-family permits data show 60,500 new single family permits for October 2016, virtually unchanged from last year's 60,300 print. Headline numbers for housing starts show a huge 23.3 percent YoY increase, and a 21.7 percent increase in single-family starts during October. Not seasonally adjusted, single-family starts rose almost 25 percent year-over-year. It certainly appears we will see more new home sales revisions in the months ahead. If homebuilders actually did put more inventory on [...]

Texas Housing Market Meets The Fed’s ‘Game of Thrones’ Economy

The latest issue of Tierra Grande is out, and it contains more examples of the Federal Reserve's fingerprints on the Texas housing market. This new batch of evidence is contained in an article titled 'Game of Homes - The Supply-Demand Struggle'. What is thoroughly entertaining is that the two Dallas Fed employees (both recent college graduates apparently) working on this latest missive appear to completely ignore their employer's responsibility for the distortions in the Texas housing market while making a complete mockery of the economics profession. Collaborating with a PhD from TAMU, they lay out [...]

By |2016-11-20T13:26:48+00:00October 23rd, 2016|Economy, In the Press, Politics, Real Estate, Spin Cycle|0 Comments

Debt, Deficits & Housing – The Smoke & Mirrors “Recovery”

Many among the status quo have defended the last 8 years as a productive "recovery" from the abyss of financial armageddon unleashed by our criminal banking sector. The efficacy of the recovery depends on the person responding to the question. For the vast majority of the U.S. population, there has been no recovery, but instead a steady decline. If you have been paying attention to the early release of season 5 of 'House of Cards', speaking of the email data dump exposing our corrupt political machine for all to see, the reasons behind the phony [...]

Fed Looks At Texas’ Affordable Housing Problem, Fails To Look In The Mirror

The Federal Reserve can be commended on one thing. They never cease to provide entertainment in terms of their complete ineptitude and functional obsolescence. The Fed continues to show no remorse for the damage they have inflicted on the general population and their destruction of what was formerly known as the U.S. housing market. The latest comedy from the Fed comes courtesy of the inaugural report from the Dallas Federal Reserve Community Outlook Series titled 'The Scarcity of Texas Affordable Housing' In this fun-filled trip down the rabbit hole, the Fed examines the problem of the lack [...]

New Home Sales Decline From Summer Peak, Median Price Lowest Of 2016

The Census Bureau reported a 7.6 percent decline for new home sales compared the election-year surprise we saw for July. Compared to August of last year, new home sales were still 20.6 percent higher than last year. It appears super low mortgage rates continued to provide some lift to the new home market. What did not rise in the latest Census report is the median price of a new home contracted in August. The median price of a new home fell to $284,000, down from $300,200 last year. The average price of a new home [...]

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