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Drilling Into “National” Home Price Stories Economics Written by Jonathan Smoke    05.29.2007 While continuing the theme from yesterday’s post, today I also wanted to acknowledge the newest set of national pricing data. The initial S&P/Case Shiller price indices for March were released yesterday. As covered by Paper Money, the March 2007 S&P/Case-Shiller index... No comments for this item Read more...

Which Way Are U.S. Home Sales Headed? Real Estate Written by Jonathan Smoke    05.29.2007 Nationally, new home sales were up in April. Existing home sales were down in April. Were new home sales an aberration? Or a result of significant incentives from builders to prime the slow-so-far spring selling season? Here’s some direct honesty: We don’t know where this national market is heading in the short-term. No comments for this item Read more...   Neither Supply Nor Demand Will Help the Average Builder This Year Economics Written by Jonathan Smoke    05.25.2007 Last Thursday, NAHB released the May report from David Seiders, the Chief Economist of the NAHB. This exclusive report echoed many of the same observations and conclusions highlighted in the May 14 “Eye on the Economy” column in the Nation’s Building News. The most critical observations covered very negative conditions in both supply and demand that are weighing heavily on new home sales in 2007 and will continue to wreak havoc at least for the remainder of the year. No comments for this item Read more...   Shared Appreciation Mortgages Come to America! Mortgage Written by Bill Russell    05.23.2007 Business Week’s Hot Property blog on May 17 pointed me towards some news I was happy to hear. A company in the US, REX & Co., is now offering a form of Shared Appreciation Mortgage to the US public. A shared appreciation mortgage lets you sell a percentage of your home’s future appreciation (or depreciation) to a third party for cash. Having this option is good for everybody involved. No comments for this item Read more...   A Lack of Intelligence Put Us in This Mess Real Estate Written by Jonathan Smoke    05.22.2007 I have an interesting argument that I’d like to share with our growing community of fellow housing geeks: the lack of intelligence and disciplined decision making contributed to the bubble conditions that took markets too high too quickly and have now left us in a mess. Here’s the rationale. Two things mixed together to create the perfect storm for the massive run up in housing in many markets from 2002-2005: investor speculation and innovation/lax credit standards in financing. No comments for this item Read more...   Housing Intelligence Is Not an Oxymoron Market Research Written by Jonathan Smoke    05.20.2007 Housing intelligence is not an oxymoron, or at least it shouldn’t be. I’ve spoken to several clients lately who were lamenting that the market has changed and seat-of-your-pants guess work won’t cut it anymore. It’s ironic that it takes a bad market to get people to respect the value of intelligence. Who knows how much was wasted and how much opportunity was left on the table during the boom by developers and builders going with gut rather than doing research? No comments for this item Read more...   The Toll of Subprime Exposure Builders Written by Jonathan Smoke    05.10.2007 In the MarketBeat blog yesterday afternoon, David Gaffen posted the following comment on Toll Brother’s second quarter earnings release: “There’s an interesting little note out of Toll Brothers today, saying that subprime lending problems are, in fact, hurting the luxury home builder, if in a roundabout way. Despite the small percentage of Toll’s customers who use subprime loans, ‘the impact of stricter lending standards arising from problems in the subprime market is negatively affecting affordability at lower price points,’ the CEO said. But of course, everything is contained, as some want people to believe.” No comments for this item Read more...

More... Spring Selling Season Declared a Bust Read Call Transcripts to Keep Up New Home Sales Impacted More Than Existing The End Is Near? Does Homeownership Lead to Unemployment? Are Futures Being Bought or Sold? New Index on Radar Screen The Futures of Housing

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