Daily Archives: February 25, 2014

Home prices slowing down: Case-Shiller | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate

U.S. home prices slowed down at the end of 2013, but posted the fastest calendar-year growth in eight years, according to data released Tuesday.

U.S. home prices ticked down 0.1% in December, declining for a second month, with 11 of 20 tracked cities posting drops, according to S&P/Case-Shiller’s composite index. After seasonal adjustments, home prices in December rose 0.8%, down a bit from 0.9% in November.

“Gains are slowing from month-to-month and the strongest part of the recovery in home values may be over,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “The seasonally adjusted data also exhibit some softness and loss of momentum.”

On a year-over-year basis, home prices rose 13.4% in December, the fastest calendar-year growth since 2005, supported by a low inventory of homes available for sale. However, December’s year-over-year growth is down from a recent peak of 13.7% hit in November.

Bloomberg

A home for sale in Princeton, Illinois, on Jan. 22, 2014.

Going forward prices may continue to slow down if inventories rise as more sellers become willing and able to place their homes on the market. Also, climbing mortgage rates could curb some demand, economists say.

But slower price growth isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Prices that run too high too quickly for an extended period would keep many would-be buyers from purchasing a home.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-prices-slowing-down-case-shiller-2014-02-25?siteid=yhoof2

Home price gains continue to slow | Bedford Corners NY Homes

Home prices fell for the second consecutive month in December in another sign of a sagging real estate market, according to a closely-watched barometer.

December prices declined 0.1% from November based on Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index.

Year over year, the index was up 13.6%, but that was less than November’s annual gain.

Home prices showed monthly gains in only six cities in the 20-city index — Dallas, Las Vegas, Miami, San Francisco, Tampa and Washington, D.C.

“The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index ended its best year since 2005,” says David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “However, gains are slowing from month-to-month and the strongest part of the recovery in home values may be over.”

The market was affected by cold weather in much of the country, strong gains in prices earlier in the year and interest rates that were higher than in the first half of 2013.

But the report adds more color to a picture of a slowing housing market. The National Association of Realtors reported last week that existing home sales for January fell to the lowest level in 18 months. And home building fell 16% in January from December, the government reported.

Some highlights for cities in the Case-Shiller Index:

• Phoenix showed a 0.3% drop in December, its largest decline since March 2011, ending a 26-month string of gains.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/02/25/dec-home-prices-case-shiller/5803101/

Is real estate still a good buy? | Armonk Real Estate

Buying a home is no longer a no-brainer, whether you are buying as an investment or to live in it.

That is the message to draw from current measures of value in many metropolitan markets.

The fundamentals have changed from six months ago, when some economists and analysts said that low prices and low mortgage rates made it a great time to buy a home in most of the U.S.

The latest thinking is a reflection of how far and how fast home values have climbed. In the year ended in November, home prices rose 14%, as measured by the most-recent S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite index.

Some markets, such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco, saw prices rise by more than 20%.

In general, “you can’t buy now and expect a big gain,” says Morris Davis, an associate professor in the real-estate department at the University of Wisconsin’s business school in Madison. “There’s more risk than there was.”

One widely tracked measure of housing costs is the average national home price divided by the average rent. That ratio stood at 14 in the third quarter, according to Moody’s Analytics, using the most recent data. That is above the average ratio of 12 between 1989 and 2003, which is considered a “normal,” preboom home market.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/real-estate-still-good-buy-193500720.html