NEVER TRUST STATISTICS: A LA Times headline last week said and I quote, Homebuyers heat up market, and quote an Association President. Other outlets said that the news for January was not so good. Technically, the statement is true, because pending sales rose 22.9% from December. However, it is not prudent or professional to compare December sales to January sales. Those are different ponies. January will normally always be higher than December. Common sense. The important fact to me is that 2014, January sales were down 17.5% from January, 2013. That is a slowdown. In other news the Commerce Dept. reported last week that new home sales surged in January on a seasonally adjusted basis, highest level since July 2008. Robert Shiller of Yale no less and Nobel Laureate no less, had a lot to say after the latest report from S&P/Case-Shiller was released. The Case-Schiller Index has always been more accurate than other efforts because they do not work with median prices of closed or pending sales. They track houses in 20 different cities in the US of A. I have always respected their Index, but now they are hooked up with Standard and Poors. S&P is under investigation for juggling their ratings. Shiller said and I quote, My instinct is that this momentum will dissipate, but we wont see a reversal this year. I think it will still be up. If I were buying a home right now, I would think, if I want it, fine, because it is not expensive. And mortgage rates are still low by historical standards. Its not a horrible time to buy a house, not at all.” Prospects, this man is Yale so listen up and get APPROVED by your friendly State licensed loan broker and look over houses now. Agents get this info out to your clients. Finally, Redfin said that more homes across their 22 markets faced competition. 58.3% multiple offers in January and 52.8% in December, but prospects that is way below the 70.4% in 2013. Also, all cash offers were at 8.8% in January way below one year ago. Time to buy another home. Have one already, buy a rental. Have a rental, 1031 Exchange it into 2 or more rentals
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 01:27:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015