Good R.E. News...Again!

From the WSJ: Home Prices Could Jump 9.7% in 2013, J.P. Morgan Says

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. expects U.S. home prices to rise 3.4% in its base-case estimate and up to 9.7% in its most bullish scenario of economic growth. Standard & Poor’s, which rates private-issue mortgage bonds, on Friday said it expects a 5% rise in 2013.

Read more at http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/12/some-bullish-2013-house-price-forecasts.html#0qFHh8dwh82KtMom.99

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/12/some-bullish-2013-house-price-forecasts.html

And he goes on to say;

At the beginning of the year, the consensus was that house prices would decline for at least another year. When I posted The Housing Bottom is Here in early February, many people were surprised. How views change!
Read more at http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/12/some-bullish-2013-house-price-forecasts.html#0qFHh8dwh82KtMom.99

 

However I would like to that yours truly actually put his money where his analysis leads him...

From Crudewire Friday, January 6, 2012

Back to Reality

Or is it vituality? Anyway;
Ever the contrarian I closed on a 100 yr. old house last Dec.14th. It's taken every last ounce of time and energy over the holidays to try and get it livable.  ...

BTW going long real estate deserves explanation;
First of all it's the right house ...got it at 44 % of the 2007 price of the clone next door.
Secondly it's 10/15 min walking distance to the train, high school, library etc.
Thirdly the town is fun and growing.
Finally she would have left me if I didn't.

Fun With R.E Market Values

Go to the link;
 http://www.standardandpoors.com/indices/sp-case-shiller-home-price-indices/en/us/?indexId=spusa-cashpidff--p-us----

Lots of fun to be had on this site.ie

Go to  "Download Data " box
and     "Home Price Tiered Index Levels"
click    "non seasonally adjusted"  ,  open in Excel
 at the page bottom choose location tab " New York Commuter"




   

Pump It Up

From Assoc Press;

Housing Revival

"Fed purchases of mortgage bonds have helped revive the housing market by pushing down the rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage last month to a record 3.31 percent.
New-home sales rose 17 percent in October compared with the prior year, while existing-home sales increased 11 percent. Home prices gained 3 percent from a year earlier in September, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city home-price index.
“Pent-up demand, rising home prices, low interest rates and improving customer confidence motivated buyers to return to the housing market,” Douglas Yearley Jr., chief executive officer of Toll Brothers Inc., the largest U.S. luxury-home builder, said in a Dec. 4 earnings call."

And today we can expect a little fuel for the fire....

Fed Seen Pumping Up Assets to $4T in New Buying

By Joshua Zumbrun and Catarina Saraiva on December 11, 2012

The Federal Reserve will amplify record accommodation tomorrow by announcing $45 billion in monthly Treasury buying that will push its balance sheet almost to $4 trillion, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Forty-eight of 49 economists predict the Federal Open Market Committee will purchase Treasuries to bolster an existing program to buy $40 billion in mortgage bonds each month. The panel pledged in October to continue that plan until the labor market improves “substantially.”
“It’s going to be massive and open-ended in size,” said Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. in New York and a former New York Fed economist.

I have to admit it's getting better....

from Calculated Risk

"There has been a shift from foreclosures to short sales. Foreclosures are down and short sales are up in all of these cities. In most areas, short sales far out number foreclosures, although Minneapolis is an exception with more foreclosures than short sales.

The overall percent of distressed sales (combined foreclosures and short sales) are down year-over-year almost everywhere. In the cities listed below, distressed sales are down about 25% from a year ago.
Read more at http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/#PmfRI7gu6esLgrrD.99 "

More work to find the bargains..

click to enlarge

And from the builders...

It IS a local market

as just confirmed by the sale of a luxury Hong-Kong 6,683 sq. foot apartment in the Gehry-designed Opus Hong Kong in Mid-Levels East, at a price of HK$455 million, which translates to HK$68,000 per square foot, or just under $8,800: a new all time record for Asia.