Posted on 05/08/2007 11:04:17 AM PDT by Hydroshock
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Home prices are expected to finish down for the year, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said Tuesday, which would mark the first drop since the group started tracking values in 1968.
NAR projects a 1 percent decline in the median price of an existing single-family home, to $219,800. The group, in a forecast made a month ago, had previously been expecting a 0.7 percent decline. Prior to that, it had expected a gain of 1.2 percent.
CNN's John Vause tells how China's decision to invest its foreign reserves could boost mortgage costs. (May 5) Play video
The number of home sales is also expected to dip from 6.48 million in 2006 to 6.29 million in 2007, a drop of 2.7 percent.
Prices of new homes, at a median of $246,400, are expected to remain steady.
Big drop in speculation According to Lawrence Yun, a senior economist for NAR, speculative investing in real estate, which contributed to abnormal price growth for several years, has all but disappeared in the present market.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
There sure has been a lot of murder/suicides lately....might take a while to reach 500 million.
As for the post plague economy, I thought it was an improvement for the common man (those who survived), as it created a scarcity of labor (a higher percentage of serfs died as compared to land barons).
This scarcity a labor helped to bring down the feudal system, freeing laborers to sell their labor to the highest bidder.
The death of so many and the subsequent bankruptcy of many land owners, brought down the price of real estate.
That, in addition to higher wages for the masses, enabled people to buy and own their own farms, instead of being serfs.
The black death may have had more to do with creating the Renaissance than any other event.
And would have even contributed to the eventual birth of the American Republic.
This is just the beginning. By the end of the summer it will be worse, and I expect negative to flat housing prices to roll on into 2008-9.
Oddly, the real estate market is holding firm and even nudging up a little in NYC. With the dollar down against the Euro, all those $5 mil apartments are looking like bargains to Europeans and Asians.
High values aren’t necessarily a bargian for homeowners. If you’re staying in the same market, you gain nothing when you sell, and actually lose if you’re moving up in house. Meanwhile, brokers and government leaches get a massive raise for providing the same services. How is this a good deal for the owner?
Still way too expensive; still makes Wall Street look like a checking account savings rate; still ain’t gonna “burst.”
Oh my God!!!! The national average of something is going down. Does that mean it is going “down” every where? No. It is going up in some places and down in others.
And, apparently, it is going down in more places than it is going up in the other places. And why would that be? Because, it was probably somewhat artificially high in those places in which it is now going down the most - speculative buying made it higher than a more normal market can sustain.
This is not “news”, this is simply the economy at work, doing what it’s supposed to do - adjusting prices based on newer market conditions.
Geesh!!!!!!!! The drive-by media doing it’s usual worse!!!!
If you are 75 years old....1968 seems like yesterday.
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