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Housing prices are soaring and there appears to be no end to the advance. Prices are now accelerating at the fastest rate in over 15 years. A combination of lockdown-related bottlenecks, limited labor availability (thanks to over-the-top unemployment payments that give potential workers incentive to just stay home) and, most significant, massive printing of money out of thin air by the Federal Reserve. In a monthly sentiment survey of builders, they reported higher costs for lumber, steel, gypsum and copper, some of which have hit record highs this year. Not to mention the limited labor. Construction employment stalled in April...

In hopes of promoting the narrative of a US housing recovery, one recurring thesis has been that as Millennials get older and start families, they will eventually leave their parents' basement and buy a house or shift from renting to owning. So far the facts have refused to corroborate this, and according to the latest "Housing Vacancies and Homeownership" report released on Thursday, the dream of owning a home just became even more distant. The reason: after staging a feeble rebound in late 2015, the US homeownership rate just tumbled from 63.5% to 62.9%, tied for the lowest print going...

The S&P Case-Shiller repeat sales house price indices were released this morning. The U.S. National Home Price Index rose 3.2% in the third quarter of 2013 and 11.2% over the last four quarters. Call me crazy, but the recent expansion of house prices (red) looks faster than the rapid expansion during the housing bubble (orange). The recent rapid expansion of house prices coincides with the unprecedented monetary stimulus by The Federal Reserve. csindices112613 The big winner from August to September? Bankrupt Detroit! And in the LPS house price report from yesterday, bankrupt Modesto showed a good gain. Other winners in...

The latest house price data (the S&P Case-Shiller index) shows a clear downward trend for the most recent six months, as shown in the graph below: The next graph shows how this year's data fits in with the long-term trend.  It is clear that the house price bubble, which began in 1997 and peaked in 2006, has not yet finished popping: How We Got Here The black stars in the above graph highlight 1951 and 1997, the two years when Congress changed how the capital gains tax applies to home sales.  The first change produced 46 years of wealth...

The prospects in the global real estate sector are “dismal,” with a downturn that could last eight years, the International Monetary Fund warned Wednesday. The IMF sees problems both in the “bust” countries, such as the United States, Spain and Ireland, and the “rebound” economies, such as the Asia-Pacific region, most Scandinavian countries, and Canada. In the United States, residential investment remains severely depressed compared with past cycles, which the report said could be partly explained by the pattern in house prices and outstanding household debt. Making matters worse, the U.S. states where the house price bust was more pronounced...

New RealtyTrac numbers show that in April there were well over 300,000 foreclosures and the figure in on track to be higher in 2010 than in 2009. Several research firms say that underwater mortgages have moved above 11 million. The National Association of Realtors found that “in the first quarter, 91 out of 152 metropolitan statistical areas showed higher median existing single-family home prices in comparison with the first quarter of 2009.” But some cities posted double-digit drops for the period. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the NAR data for the first quarter along with Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment levels...

MOKENA -- The foreclosure crisis has hit home for the Triezenbergs of Manhattan Township. Mark and Tia Triezenberg and their five young children, including one with severe disabilities due to autism, must leave their home by Aug. 29. The foreclosure, one of many nationwide and locally (see sidebar), caps a troubled couple of years for a family that saw its income soar with the home-building boom and plummet with the recession. "This is like Pearl Harbor," Mark said during an interview at a Mokena restaurant. "Only a few people saw this coming." The Triezenbergs still don't know where they will...

A survey of seven major housing markets found that less than half of all attempts to sell a home in 2009 had, as of last Wednesday, resulted in a sale. The analysis, conducted by Redfin Corp., a Seattle-based brokerage that operates in nine states, shows just how tough the housing market has become–and just how many sellers are unwilling to lower their prices. The survey looked at how the 500,000 homes that were listed for sale last year in seven of the nation’s biggest counties had fared. Around 47% of those listings had sold by last week, while just 4%...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of previously owned U.S. homes took a record drop in July to their lowest pace in 15 years, suggesting further loss of momentum in the economic recovery. As the National Association of Realtors issued the report, Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans warned that the risk of a double-dip recession was higher than six months ago although he did not think output would contract, describing the recovery as ongoing but modest. Existing home sales dropped a record 27.2 percent from June to an annual rate of 3.83 million units, the lowest since May 1995. June's sales...

After a very long search I have been offered a job in southern CT. I'm nowin the process of finding a place to live down there but I am arguing with members of my family about the merits of buying a large house from a distressed buyer at a discount price (more than we need but they argue "a good investment") or a smaller house for very short money perhaps even for cash to reduce housing cost as much as possible. The argument seems to come down to the following: a large house will sell for more than a small...

WASHINGTON | Thought the housing crisis was over? Not quite. Despite four years of falling prices and recent signs that they were finally bottoming out, homes are expected to lose still more value in many metro areas during the next year. Parts of the country already pummeled by the housing crisis, like Las Vegas, Phoenix and Miami, will be hit hardest. But even some places that have rebounded or held up relatively well - including New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. - will suffer, too. That's the conclusion of economists who have been reducing their estimates for home prices...

House Prices Are Still Too High And They're Going To Tank -- Ritholtz Henry Blodget Jun. 30, 2010, 11:47 AM We had Barry Ritholtz on TechTicker yesterday. He's still a big bear on housing...(go to the site of to article to view a video) We're on our way to a second leg down in housing prices, says Barry Ritholtz, writer of The Big Picture a founder of investment research firm Fusion IQ. Why? In short, because house prices are still too high. Even after a plunge of more than 30% from the 2007 peak to the 2009 trough, house prices...

HOUSING BOTTOM? NO, THE MOTHER OF ALL HEAD FAKES From The Business Insider, July 31, 2009: Housing bears immediately tried to poke holes in the surprisingly good numbers in the May Case Shiller report. The most widespread bear argument, that the rise was just seasonal, is weak: Even the seasonally adjusted numbers were the best in three years. Two other arguments, however, are more persuasive. Whitney Tilson of T2 Partners calls the May numbers "the mother of all head fakes." He--and the two analysts below--think house prices will resume their decline in the fall. We're in that camp, too... Bear...

WASHINGTON — Sales of existing homes fell for a sixth straight month in September and the median sales price dropped on an annual basis by the largest amount on record, further documenting a lukewarm housing market. The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of previously owned homes fell by 1.9 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted sales pace of 6.18 million units, the slowest sales rate since January 2004. The median price of a single-family home fell to $219,800 last month, a drop of 2.5 percent from the price in September 2005. That was the biggest year-over-year price...

The housing boom of the last five years has made many homeowners feel like very, very smart investors. As the value of real estate has skyrocketed, owners have become enamored of the wealth their homes are creating, with many concluding that real estate is now a safer and better investment than stocks. It turns out, though, that the last five years - when homes in some hot markets like Manhattan and Las Vegas have outperformed stocks - has been a highly unusual period. In fact, by a wide margin over time, stock prices have risen more quickly than home values,...

The Law of Unintended Consequences "There has been widespread denial that there could be anything like a real estate 'bubble,' even given recent activity. Yet, anyone with a pulse can see wild speculation taking place all around them." --William F. Hague, President, W.F. Hague Investments Question: Why has the Fed allowed a housing bubble to develop? Answer: Because they didn't have any choice. The past several years of low interest rates have allowed households to extract cash from inflated property via cash-out refis, home equity loans, and sales; and to use lower interest rates to reduce monthly mortgage payments and...

Zoom, zoom. Inland Empire home prices continued their climb in February, with five of the biggest percentage increases in the state recorded by local cities, according to a report by the California Association of Realtors. Adelanto (up 81.8 percent from February 2004), Hesperia (up 67.4 percent), Twentynine Palms (up 64.2 percent) and San Bernardino (up 54.5 percent) paced San Bernardino County, while Norco (up 55.7 percent) led Riverside County. Most of those cities were "affordable" alternatives to the Riverside/San Bernardino area, which had a median price for a single-family existing home of $342,120 and is itself the "affordable" alternative to...

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) - A new U.S. Census report on California's fastest-growing cities and towns draws a portrait of a vast inland migration as residents relentlessly search for a cheaper place to call home.</p> <p>Whether to suburban Sacramento's Lincoln in the north or the Inland Empire's Beaumont and Murrieta in the south, thousands, statistics show, have taken eastbound highways to the hills and valleys of Central California.</p>

Disillusioned investors have turned from shares to housing. A bubble, anybody? FOR all the newspaper space devoted to stockmarkets, households around the world have far more of their wealth tied up in property than in shares. American households' shareholdings briefly surpassed the value of their houses in the late 1990s. Now they have about $11 trillion-worth of shares (held directly or in mutual funds), compared with almost $14 trillion in housing. In other countries, housing is even more important. In rich countries as a whole, individuals own $23 trillion in equities, but perhaps $40 trillion in property. Property is thus...