Posted on 08/18/2011 7:21:41 AM PDT by Free Vulcan
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Sales of existing homes fell 3.5% in July to an eight-month low, with a high cancellation rate again taking its toll on an already troubled market, according to data released Thursday.
The National Association of Realtors said sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.67 million...Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a 4.99 million annual rate.
The numbers for the second straight month went against the increase in pending home sales, again showing the difference between agreed and closed transactions.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Housing starts were equally crappy. All ends of the home sales pipeline stink. As of right now the American housing market is basically dead.
That first stimulus worked so well that we need to do it again.
To me? This is the best indicator of the economy. If things are looking up, people will look around and trade up. They will bite off the mtge to make it possible. Here, the White House is boasting a recovery for their propaganda. Reality? where the rubber hits the road? Crapppola.
Its all about future expectations, and that conman, Obama, doesn’t create a rosy future!
The regs are a reaction to the amount of bad paper the banks already passed off to Fannie/Freddie.
The US Treasury is not a bottomless well to prop up Fannie/Freddie and their paper. The first rule of losses in finance is to stop doing that which causes you losses, and in F&F’s case, that means to start getting real tight about what paper you will buy from these fraudsters running mortgage lending operations.
And in the middle of this, Fannie Mae wants to start playing landlord, and renting their houses. Not only has the gubmint trashed the housing markets they are going to try and trash the rental markets as well.
Bad craziness...
no worries, man! you can rent a foreclosed home from Uncle Sam!
Something to consider is how demographics influence the market. In addition to the contraction from over the top pricing and supply being way too large is the largest buying group (baby boomers) are not looking to go up, but are looking to downsize. IOW, we can get back to pricing based on 1/3rd of income paying the mortgage principal, interest, taxes and insurance and still have a drag because the numbers moving up don't match the numbers moving down.
Bank of America is stalling to refinance their own existing mortgages. Asking repeatedly to supply information they already have etc.
” As of right now the American housing market is basically dead.”
I know several real estate brokers. They say the same thing. They can rent homes but selling them, even compared to last year, is a dead market.
Good time to snap up properties on the cheap for renting out, if you’ve got the cash.
Here is a reason that Fannie/Freddie should not be associated with govt in any way. Let the private market create it's own secondary market that way if a lender starts passing off bad loans to it the private company can stop doing business with that bank, or risk going out of business.
It’s be very odd when homes prices are nearly the same price as a new high end pick up truck.
What chaos...
Stalling to foreclose and stalling for shortsales. They are pushing the problem down the road.
It's awful out there. Don't spend anything in anticipation, wait until the money is actually in your hand or live with the regrets.
And that includes me. I was ready to buy a 2012 Hyundai Accent SE hatchback to replace my old Honda Civic HX CVT coupe, but now with the increasingly bad economy, I've indefinitely postponed that because I need to conserve liquid assets in case I have to use it to get me through potentially really bad times.
What is interesting is that I’m seeing the same houses that have been on the market a year, still unsold and 8 out of 10 times with the price unchanged.
That is a very valid suggestion. The boomers had children, and then there were immigrants and I think they offset the losses by the baby boomers. Either way if the economy was healthy, prices would be firm. I like your bankers prudence returning to the marketplace (1/3 equation, beats ninja)
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