FHA: Tighter guidelines could spark double dip
Posted on March 12, 2010 at 8:39 amThe boss of the Federal Housing Administration has told lawmakers that moves to hike the minimum downpayment on mortgages the agency insures could crush the nascent residential real estate recovery. But one lawmakers called foul on the FHA’s rationale.
Any steps that would sharply restrict the number of borrowers who are eligible for FHA-backed loans, such as higher down payments, would also limit the new business that the FHA desperately needs to help offset rising losses.
“It’s that sort of rationale that got us into the problem in the first place, that we need to be chasing the borrowers to prop up our system,” says Rep. Scott Garrett (R., N.J). “That’s what got us here in the first place.”
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The meaning of all of that: Some media is the whack
Posted on March 11, 2010 at 1:43 pmGrant Hammond channels his inner Public Enemy and says now is not the time to believe the hype that Nashville’s real estate market is back to boom times.
So imagine Grant as Chuck D, teaching the bourgeoise and rocking the boulevard. Some say he’s negative, but they’re not positive:
Pending sales, ah pending sales, how I love thee. The month over month increase of 24.63% represents the single largest increase in pending sales since March of 2005. This is significant in that pending sales are a pure indicator of future closings and future closings directly lead to inventory reduction (in a balanced market). Could this renewed activity be a result of the tax credit or perhaps pent up demand finally being released? Yes, but neither I nor anyone else is going to be able to tell you the mixture until much further down the road. By comparison, in 2009 pending sales only increased by 13.26% in the first month of the year.
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Housing’s recovery petering out
Posted on March 5, 2010 at 8:26 am
Robert Shiller says there are “real clouds on the horizon” for the housing market and that the government programs set to expire this spring will likely have to be extended so that sentiment and spending can feel its way toward more normal levels.
It’s not just a question of a double dip. It’s a question about whether the economy can be vibrant for years to come.
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The rise of Nashville’s negative-equity homeowners
Posted on February 23, 2010 at 2:07 pm
First American CoreLogic says 11.3 percent of Middle Tennessee’s mortgaged homes were in negative equity at the end of 2009. That’s up from less than 10 percent on Sept. 30, but still well below Tennessee’s average and the national number. The latter sits well north of 20 percent.
Local home prices won’t go much higher
Posted on January 29, 2010 at 8:05 am
That’s the conclusion you could take from a report compiled by IHS Global Insight and PNC Financial Services that rates the over- or undervaluation of the housing markets of more than 300 U.S. cities. On the list, we’re listed as slightly cheap and in the same neighborhood as peer cities such as Charlotte, Austin and Raleigh.
There are only so many vulture investors out there
Posted on January 27, 2010 at 11:21 am
Commenting on a Zillow report on the state of the foreclosure resale market, Diana Olick raises a fine point. The deep-value opportunities out there now exist because the housing market’s fundamentals were all out of whack a few years ago. So how will we handle a market based entirely on much worse fundamentals?
[T]he looming question is how these numbers will change as foreclosure moves away from being just a big problem in the former housing boom markets to a more national problem based entirely on job losses, rather than faulty mortgage products.
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Another reason to worry about home prices
Posted on January 25, 2010 at 9:38 am
Calculated Risk passes on some info on the trend in apartment rents. Property owners in various parts of the country are piling on the incentives and lowering rents. That in turn is adding to the pressure on home prices.
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Nashville ‘never reached bubble status’
Posted on January 7, 2010 at 7:38 amThe numbers guys at Altos Research say Middle Tennessee’s home prices have held up nicely relative to some other cities in the region. Ahem, that would be you, Atlanta.
A warning sign for home prices
Posted on January 4, 2010 at 7:22 amThe team at Altos Research says we shouldn’t look for house prices to bounce back strong this year.
[H]ere’s the spookiest part of our price trend analysis – the Price of New Listings and the Price of Listings Absorbed trends are now inverting. This means that new sellers are listing their homes at price below those homes that are exiting each week – a clear sign that seller confidence is fading.
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No double dip for home prices
Posted on December 30, 2009 at 7:40 amSpeaking about the latest Case-Shiller home price index, the head of S&P index committee says we don’t have to worry about home prices falling again once the tax breaks and other government help disappears.
Given that the current Fed policy has been in place for some time and that everyone seems to agree that the next move is a small shift to tighter money which will most likely begin sometime in 2010, I doubt there will be enough volatility in the economic environment to cause a double dip in home prices.
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Overpriced but with a little bit of justification
Posted on December 28, 2009 at 8:04 amWe missed this Forbes list a few weeks ago, but think it’s worth passing on. The Nashville MSA tied for 10th among large cities when it comes to how overpriced our homes are. The silver lining: We’re sixth in the subset of expected price appreciation.
Nashville’s housing market just put the U.S. in the rear-view mirror
Posted on December 22, 2009 at 8:23 amTwo months ago, First American CoreLogic data suggested that Middle Tennessee home prices were set to trail the national average in the year ahead. Now that a few more numbers have cycled through, behold:
In Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, home prices, including distressed sales, declined by -4.68 percent in October 2009 compared to October 2008. This compares to September’s year-over-year HPI, which was -7.32 percent. Excluding distressed transactions, year-over-year HPI for October is -2.69 percent, compared to September which was -5.40 percent.
In October 2010, the index is projecting that the 12-month appreciation for Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin home prices, including distressed sales, will be 2.21 percent.
Home sellers as desperate now as in August
Posted on December 10, 2009 at 7:30 am
The homebuyer tax credits have helped the headline numbers of late — see yesterday’s eye-popping year-over-year gain — but research by Trulia shows Nashville-area home sellers are still lowering prices with the same frequency and to the same extent as four months ago.
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Southern home prices up in October
Posted on December 8, 2009 at 11:24 amIntegrated Asset Services says homes in the South and West rose in value in October, but aren’t convinced that means a whole lot given what might be coming our way next year.
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How to spend the holidays in Williamson
Posted on at 8:11 amOn the heels of publishing November sales numbers that looked a little bit like the good ol’ days, Williamson County of Realtors President Karen Baker says buyers will soon be hitting the open houses on the way home from the mall.
With the holidays approaching, we anticipate more buyers to be utilizing their vacation time to visit houses for sale and begin the process of making offers that will reflect in the 2010 closings.
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