Search for information not just on real estate in Monterey Bay California, but also for local events & attractions, loan information and market statistics. I’ve gathered a wealth of information here to help you with all of your real estate needs – from all the latest property listings to great information for both home buyers and sellers.
Pending Home Sales Index Rises from One Year Ago
A monthly index that tracks pending sales of U.S. resale homes rose in September compared to a year ago, while falling on a month-to-month basis, the National Association of Realtors reported today.
Also today, NAR released its latest forecast report for 2011 and 2012, revising up an earlier prediction for U.S. real gross domestic product growth in the wake of third-quarter GDP data released today.
Third-quarter data showed a 2.5 percent rise in GDP, compared with 1.3 percent in the second quarter. NAR expects U.S. GDP growth of 1.8 percent for the full year in 2011, with 2.3 percent GDP growth in 2012. A previous NAR forecast, released last month, anticipated U.S. GDP growth of 1 percent this year and 1.3 percent in 2012. Actual U.S. GDP rose 3 percent in 2010 and declined 3.5 percent in 2009.
NAR's Pending Home Sales Index, which measures real estate sales contracts signed but not yet closed, increased 6.4 percent year over year, to 84.5, in September. On a monthly basis, the index declined 4.6 percent. The index typically represents about 20 percent of all existing-home transactions. An index score of 100 is equal to the average level of sales contract activity in 2001, which was the first year examined by the trade group.
The index rose on an annual basis in all four U.S. regions. The Midwest saw the greatest increase, up 12.3 percent to 71.5. The region also saw the greatest month-to-month index decline, down 6.2 percent.
In the West, the index jumped 5.6 percent on a year-over-year basis in September, to 105.8 -- the highest index value of any region. The region also saw the smallest monthly index drop, down 2.1 percent.
In the South, the index rose 5 percent year over year, to 91.6. On a month-to-month basis, the index slipped 5.5 percent in the region.
The Northeast saw a 4 percent index increase compared to a year ago, to 60.6, and a monthly decline of 4.7 percent.
In its latest economic forecast, NAR projects 4.955 million sales of resale homes this year (up 1 percent compared to 2010), and 5.169 million existing-home sales in 2012 (up another 4.3 percent), with the existing-home median price falling 4 percent this year, to $165,900, and rising 2.6 percent in 2012.
Sales of new, single-family homes, meanwhile, are forecast to fall 4.7 percent this year, to 307,000, and to rise 21.3 percent next year, to 372,000. The median price of a new home is projected to rise 1.8 percent this year, to $225,000, and jump 3.5 percent in 2012.
The interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is not expected to change much. The rate was 4.7 percent in 2010, and NAR forecasts a rate of 4.5 percent for the full year in 2011, and 4.7 percent in 2012.
NAR forecasts the unemployment rate to average 9 percent in 2011, and to improve to 8.7 percent in 2012; last year's unemployment rate was 9.6 percent.
Just in time for the holidays: Mortgage rates reached new all-time lows this week, pushing home buyer affordability even higher, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey.
"Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages have been at or below 4 percent for the last eight weeks and now are almost 0.9 percentage points below where they were at the beginning of the year, which means that today's home buyers are paying over $1,200 less per year on a $200,000 loan,” Frank Nothaft, chief economist at Freddie Mac, said in a statement. “This greater affordability helped push existing home sales higher for the second consecutive month in November to an annualized pace of 4.42 million, the most since January.”
Here’s a closer look at mortgage rates for the week ending Dec. 22:
Source:Freddie Mac
New-home construction and building permits — a future gauge of construction — surged last month, slowly helping to pull the new-home market out of one of its worst years for home building.
Builders broke ground on more homes in November, a 9.3 percent increase over October, reaching the highest level since April 2010, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Year-over-year, new-home starts were up 24.3 percent in November.
Home construction increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 685,000 homes in November. However, while it’s an improvement, the rate is still below the 1.2 million home pace that economists consider healthy for the new-home sector.
November’s increase was mostly driven by construction of multi-family homes with at least two units, which soared 25.3 percent in November. Construction of single-family homes increased 2.3 percent for the month.
Building permits jumped 5.7 percent in November, the highest increase since March 2010, with the increase mostly driven by apartment construction permits.
Meanwhile, for the third consecutive month, builder confidence in the new-home market continued to edge up, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index for December. The index is at its highest point since May 2010.
While the index reached 21 in December, it is still far below 50, a reading which indicates more builders view conditions as good rather than poor. The index hasn’t reached that point since the housing boom in April 2006.
“While builder confidence remains low, the consistent gains registered over the past several months are an indication that pockets of recovery are slowly starting to emerge in scattered housing markets," Bob Nielsen, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, said in a statement. "However, the difficulties that both builders and buyers continue to experience in accessing credit for new homes are holding back potential sales even in areas where economic conditions are improving."