Our guest blogger today is Raphael Bostic, Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research
As consumers flock to the shopping malls this holiday season, have you thought about shopping for…data?
I’m a numbers guy. To me, data can tell a story about what’s happening in the real world and that, in turn, can drive our decisions on a whole host of issues. Obviously, this holiday season finds a lot of folks worried about the economy and the housing market. Never before has there been a greater demand for economic and housing data among state and local leaders, businesses, researchers and even students. But now, this kind of data is only a click away!
Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) unveiled a new website that consolidates a wide variety of economic and housing market data at the regional, state, metropolitan area and county levels. Using information from the Census Bureau, Labor Department, State and Local governments, housing industry sources, as well as HUD’s own field economists, the new website employs interactive maps that allow visitors easy access a variety of reports – from a region-wide look at employment and housing activity to individual county-level figures on population trends, rental activity and vacancy rates.
This is a powerful new tool that’s easy to use and offers the public a remarkable look at their local economic and housing markets. This is precisely why this site will be so helpful to state and local leaders, developers, the real estate industry, and the general public who need the latest available data on their markets.
To view the reports mentioned above for a each region of the country, or for particular states, metropolitan areas or even counties, visit hud.gov/datamap.
Don’t look now but people are buying homes again. REALTOR Magazine’s October 25th issue reported that existing home sales increased in all four regions of the country, for the month of September. Here are some facts that should get you excited…
• The rate of increase ranged from 5% in the West to 14.5% in the Midwest
• Northeastern home sales were up by 10.1%
• Southern residential purchases sprang up by 10.6%.
• Interest rates are the lowest in recorded history @ 4.35%.
• Novice homebuyers flexed their muscles and purchased 32% of all homes sold in September.
• Investors captured an 18% share of the market.
• The remaining 50% were snapped up by “repeat buyers”—perhaps “down-sizers” and “up-graders”.
In fact, the average monthly mortgage payment, for recently purchased housing is several hundred dollars lower now–than 5 years ago. To put it another way, buyers can get more house for the money now, than they could 5 years ago—during boom times.
Is this something that potential home buyers are aware of in your market?
We are pleased to annouce Chase Real Estate is now a Local Listing Broker (LLB) for HUD Homes throughout the Chicagoland region.
Watch for upcoming seminars regarding purchasing HUD homes.
Great for homebuyers and investors!
Following a sharp drop in the months immediately after expiration of the home buyer tax credit, pending home sales have modestly risen, according to the National Association of Realtors®.
The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator, rose 5.2 percent to 79.4 based on contracts signed in July from a downwardly revised 75.5 in June, but remains 19.1 percent below July 2009 when it was 98.1. The data reflects contracts and not closings, which normally occur with a lag time of one or two months.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, cautioned that there would be a long recovery process. “Home sales will remain soft in the months ahead, but improved affordability conditions should help with a recovery,” he said. “But the recovery looks to be a long process. Home buyers over the past year got a great deal, and buyers for the balance of this year have an edge over sellers. For those who bought at or near the peak several years ago, particularly in markets experiencing big bubbles, it may take over a decade to fully recover lost equity.”
Yun added, “Affordability could reach a generational high in the second half of this year because of rock-bottom mortgage interest rates, helped partly by the Fed’s very accommodative monetary policy. The loan underwriting standards are tighter, but home buyers can improve their chances of getting a loan by staying well within their budget.”
