Another Real Estate Market Rollercoaster Coming
Posted:
Thursday, December 29th, 2011
Category:
Real Estate License
Up here, down there; up this month, down the next. It’s still a rollercoaster ride out there, and it’s not the grades of aspiring agents taking up real estate courses that we’re talking about. It’s the real estate industry on its sixth year since the home prices began their big slide.
The market is in a kind of holding pattern from which it is finding it difficult to break out, says Lawrence Yun, the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors. ”We’re still bouncing along the bottom in terms of new homes,” is how Robert Dye, chief economist at Comerica Inc. in Dallas, puts it.
According to the Commerce Department, housing permits (the telltale sign of imminent construction) tellingly slumped 5 percent in September to a five-month low, but construction starts jumped 15 percent, riding a 51 percent rebound in the inconstant multifamily category.
Meanwhile, purchases of new U.S. houses topped forecast in September as a result of buyers in some parts of the country availing themselves of discounted prices like in Florida where some individuals are consider getting a Florida real estate license. The increase in home sales reflected the rising demand in the West and South. In other parts of the country, however, sales dipped because of competition from a glut of distressed, previously owned houses.
CNNMoney has reported that at the close of September, sales of new homes increased although they remained sluggish through the month. New-home sales are seen as the traditional bellwether for both the housing market and the overall economy. (Coincidentally and not surprisingly, they also pace the demand by aspirant agents for real estate courses and real estate continuing education leading to a real estate license.)
A monthly report from the Census Bureau Sales showed a 313,000-unit annual sales rate in September, 5.7 percent over the revised estimate for August. Sales, however, were 0.9 percent less than the 2010 figure. New-home sales have hovered over the 300,000 mark for many months now, a far cry the annual rate of 1.4 million units of the boom years before the 2006 housing debacle.
Some 163,000 new homes (at $204,400 median sale price) were added to the market by the end of September. That made up a 6.2-month supply going by the prevailing rate of sale.
Meanwhile, home prices sustained five months of modest price gains through August, but they remain lower on a year-over-year basis. The S&P/Case Shiller index, a gauge of home prices involving 20 major cities, reported that prices gained 0.2 percent in August.
The modest gains notwithstanding, some sectors of the real estate industry are holding out high hopes for a recovery. Online real estate schools, like top provider Agentcampus.com, are more than ready to accommodate renewed demand for real estate courses and real estate continuing education leading to a real estate license.
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