<p>Not bad for a real estate recession. Your results will vary by location, as usual. I’d take 4.7% annually for the long-term.</p>
<p>It’s official: The runup in home prices has run out of steam.</p>
<p>After appreciating 12% in 2004 and 13% last year, the nation’s housing value climbed only 1.17% in this year’s second quarter, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight reported today. That’s a 4.68% annualized gain.</p>
<p>That’s WONDERFUL news for the 35% of American families who don’t own their own homes - why, prices are only up 32% in three years! I’m sure their incomes have climbed equally quickly.</p>
<p>that’s is right mini, seeing that the wages have so kept up with everything else, allis just swell!!!</p>
<p>and i thought the economy was doing jsut peachy…now where did I read that…</p>
<p>“Results vary by location” – A LOT I suspect.</p>
<p>Home prices will be declining in many locales year-over-year by next Spring at the latest. And there’s a ticking time-bomb as lots of variable mortgages will readjust. It ain’t gonna be pretty.</p>
<p>“prices are only up 32% in three years”</p>
<p>Well, for the 3 million more households that own their own homes now than did in 2000 that certainly IS good news.</p>
<p>Prices here in So Cal have been ridiculous for some time now, where speculation has really been a factor. It’s beyond hope to wish for a soft landinng here.</p>
<p>My house lost $17K in value in one week, according to Zillow, or whatever that site is.</p>
<p>House prices went up way too fast, and now they are going to come down, although perhaps at not such a precipitous decline.</p>
<p>I wish they would come down around here- they are tearing down single family homes and building condos- so house assessments have continued to go way up
Not that I could sell it for that- unless I tore it down and built condos- they are going very nicely.
Home appreciation here is 19.7%
last year it was 16.3%</p>
<p>too bad wages don’t keep up with inflation let alone with housing costs
<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003241541_appreciation03.html[/url]”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003241541_appreciation03.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003149781_gradpay25.html[/url]”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003149781_gradpay25.html</a></p>
<p>Seattle is one of the markets that’s still “hot”, fwiw.</p>
<p>65% home ownership is outstanding. How many countries have a better rate?</p>
<p>Actually, it’s closer to 69% now. Was hovering at 65%, give or take a point, for decades, until record low interest rates bumped it up.</p>
<p>Rates are still not that high historically but in comparison to what people got use to, they’re going to take a big wet bite out of the market, to be sure. The lower interest rates made income lag less of an issue but now it’s going to matter, a lot.</p>
<p>NYT–accentuate the negative. If 25% were down that means 75% were still up. Hmmmmmmmmm.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/06/realestate/06home.html?ex=1315195200&en=08aafb08045d5caa&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/06/realestate/06home.html?ex=1315195200&en=08aafb08045d5caa&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss</a></p>
<p>I’m a real property assessor and an appraiser, so I know something about the value of property. Be careful when reading these types of articles; not everybody sees the same appreciation/depreciation even in the same locale, not to mention across the country. And be especially careful of the on-line valuation sites. In many cases these are not true indications of value and your results are skewed.</p>
<p>Certainly as every city has the hot areas and undesirable ones. Typically the best areas will do better than the worst ones–until a formerly “bad” area becomes “hot” and undergoes gentrification and renovation.
But the averages give a good snapshot of the trends and in most cities a rising tide lifts all boats–just some a bit more than others.</p>
<p>You don’t really want housing prices to go down. When they go up, and continue to go up, and people think they will always be going up, then everyone is anxious to buy, and comfortable to pay and borrow 100% of the cost paying interest only knowing that they will have equity in a year, and banks are happy to lend knowing they will have secure loans. </p>
<p>If prices start falling, buyers won’t jump in at the bargain prices. They will sit back and wait, and be afraid that prices will continue to fall. Lenders will stop lending 100% of value and will be reluctant to even lend 80% of value because they fear if prices fall further their loan will not be secure, so they may only lend 70% of current value which will make it impossible for most to buy a home because who can put down 30%. No, you don’t really want home prices to start falling.</p>
<p>Well home prices here in NE - ie MA have been falling - for several months now and no end in sight… the bubble has definitely burst!! Buyers market here these days - moreso in some areas than others.</p>
<p>Applications do ask country of birth - so… and the FAFSA info above is quite clear.</p>
<p>These figures are terribly misleading, and it pains me to hear them repeated so often. The reports are based on average selling price. Now consider the following:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>If a builder comes to town and builds bigger houses than the existing, the average will go up. Did your house? Can’t tell from the reports.</p></li>
<li><p>You bought a house for $400,000, put in $100,000 in remodeling etc. and then sold it for $500,000. The way the real estate industry reports, your price went up 25%. Do YOU feel richer?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The fact is that, nationwide, builders continue to build bigger houses than what exist (more profit) and people continue to put money into their current houses. That does not mean existing houses without any improvements have increased in price.</p>
<p>Seller beware. It is because of misunderstanding the published reports that so many unsold houses are on the market right now.</p>
<p>So, IMHO, 3% average price increase means the rest of us are losing value!</p>
<p>It takes lots of new homes to raise the average size in a a large market. Few cities actually have large numbers of new homes built. Also the NAR data is for exisitng homes which leaves out the new home price influences. </p>
<p>Yes, some improvements will add value while others maintain it. A small gain in the average price probably does not mean much to the individual but the increases of the last few years were certainly real and well above the statistical noise level. </p>
<p>The number of unsold homes is more due to investor flight than anything else. Most of the areas with long lists were hotbeds for investors the last few years.</p>
<p>Why so glum?? I’d buy your house unseen for whatever it was worth 3 years ago in 95% of the US–you ready to sell?</p>
<p>LOL Barrons - you would loose here - since 3 years ago they were off the wall. But in other places - you would be a winner I am sure…now maybe 15 years ago LOL…</p>