U.S. real estate prices grow by double digits. Phoenix metro area reports 49% annual increase in values. About half of the U.S. metro areas included in a National Association of Realtors home-price report had double-digit annual price from fourth-quarter 2004 to fourth-quarter 2005. The association's report, which covers 145 metropolitan statistical areas, shows a record 72 areas with double-digit annual increases in median existing single-family home prices. Six areas posted price declines. The previous record for areas showing double-digit price appreciation was 69 metros in the third quarter of 2004, the association announced today. The biggest single-family price increase in the nation was in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area of Arizona, where the fourth quarter price of $268,400 rose 48.9 percent from a year earlier. Next was Cape Coral-Fort Meyers, Fla., at $293,100, up 48 percent from the fourth quarter of 2004. Orlando, Fla., with a fourth-quarter median price of $261,800, was up 42 percent in the last year. Median fourth-quarter metro area single-family prices ranged from $63,800 in Danville, Ill., to nearly 12 times that amount in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area of California where the median price was $747,000. The second most expensive area in the United States was the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont area at $718,700, followed by the Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine area (Orange County, Calif.) at $699,800. Click here to read more.
Home prices posted solid gains in 2005. Nearly half of the 145 metro areas surveyed recorded double-digit gains. How did your town do? Single-family home prices finished 2005 with gains of more than 10 percent for the year, according to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors. The median home price in the United States jumped 13.6 percent last year, thanks mostly to big increases over the first three quarters. By the fourth quarter, when the pace of increases slowed, the median home sold for $213,900. Half the homes sold for prices above the median and the rest below. About half of the markets surveyed -- 72 of 145 -- showed double digit increases. Click here for a table showing all 145 markets. Click here for a table showing the condo market. Or you can click here to read more.
Best Places to Live 2005. Click here to read more.
Hot home markets to cool down...how will your home fare? Price forecasts for 379 metro areas for 2006. If you've recently gambled that Las Vegas housing prices would continue to rise this year, you may be on the losing side of the bet. According to the latest housing price forecasts from Fiserv Lending Solutions, a provider of mortgage and consumer lending services, Las Vegas real estate will tumble a whopping 8.2 percent in 2006, the largest predicted fall among the 379 metro areas studied. Fiserv forecasts a significant stagnation in housing prices for the United States in 2006 -- median home prices overall will inch up only 1.5 percent this year. And many metro areas will experience drops, including some of the largest, and most expensive, ones such as New York (down 2.43 percent), Los Angeles (down 3 percent) and Washington (down 1.9 percent). Phoenix, one of the fastest-growing areas the past couple of years, is another town too hot not to cool down. Fiserv predicts an increase of just 3.3 percent. Some of the metro areas that have lagged over the past few years, however, may play a bit of catch-up. Fiserv forecasts Houston, where the median home price stands at a modest $145,000, to grow by 6.1 percent. San Antonio (median price is $138,000) should do even better, rising 8.3 percent. Memphis, where prices average $129,000, should see a rise of 7.8 percent. Click here to read more.
Bernanke sees more hikes coming. New Fed chairman tells Congress that some action needs to be taken to keep prices in check. New Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Wednesday that he sees the need for more interest rate hikes in order to keep prices in check. In his first appearance before Congress as head of the central bank, Bernanke said in prepared remarks that the economy is in danger of overheating and causing an unacceptable increase in prices. The term "monetary policy action" is the way the Fed normally refers to raising or lowering short-term interest rates. Referring to the last meeting of Federal Open Market Committee under his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, which raised interest rates by a quarter percentage point for the 14th straight time, Bernanke added, "The FOMC judged that some further firming of monetary policy may be necessary, an assessment with which I concur." The FOMC is the Fed's policy-making arm. Click here to read more.
Fed's Bies warns on mortgage, real estate lending. Regulators worry that banks' risky mortgage lending practices could mean lots of defaults if there is a downturn in the housing market. Regulators are concerned about heavy commercial real estate exposures and risky mortgage lending practices at U.S. banks, Federal Reserve Board Governor Susan Bies said Thursday. "There are certain rapidly growing business lines in banking operations that are placing pressures on risk-management systems," Bies told a financial services industry conference as she outlined guidance regulators have issued on commercial real estate and so-called nontraditional mortgage lending. In discussing the guidance on exotic mortgage products, such as interest-only loans, Bies repeated that government regulators were concerned risk-management practices had not kept pace with the risks that these widely available loan products could present. She also cautioned those risks could be "heightened by a downturn in the housing market." Bies said that in the past such products were normally offered to higher-income borrowers only, but they now were being extended to low-income borrowers in the subprime market. Click here to read more.
Extreme home selling. As the market slows, home sellers are throwing in sweeteners to move properties...dual-mode toilets, anyone? Everybody wants something for nothing, and as housing markets slows, homebuyers are starting to get just that. Sellers, reluctant to drop home prices, have been finding creative ways to move product. The trend is especially evident among developers and homebuilders who have to act much more decisively than individual homeowners who have the option of sitting tight. Click here to read more.
~Tina Jan~
Coldwell Banker Kivett-Teeters
1655 E. Sixth St.
Beaumont, CA 92223
Work: 951-845-5520 Ext. 105
Fax: 951-845-4916
Cell: 909-446-2666
Toll-Free: 1-877-TINAJAN
tina.jan@coldwellbanker.com
www.tinajan.com
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