Real Estate Talk

A GOOD NOTE FOR HOUSING

 

Several positive economic signals were received last week.
Ken Mayland of ClearView Economics states it this way 'The recession kind of came in like a lion and going out like a lamb."

GDP - Gross Domestic Product fell by 1.0% in Q2, compared with market expectation of a much larger 1.5%.
Business inventories appear to have hit bottom. This means that any upward turn in demand will create new jobs and stimulate the supply change from raw materials to finished goods. This will benefit the entire economy.
The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index rose by 0.5% in May to 139.8. This was the first increase since July 2006 (that's three years). Eight of the twenty metropolitan areas registered price increases for the month including: Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Washington, DC.
New Home Sales rose by 11.0% in June to 384K from an upwardly revised May level of 346K. Inventory of homes available for sale fell by 4.1% to 281K, causing the months' supply to fall to 8.8 from 10.2 in May and a record high of 12.4 in Januar y.

Foreclosures are stabilizing. It appears that foreclosures have stabilized in the hardest hit states, according to The Associated Press' monthly analyses of economic stress in more than 3,100 US counties.
AP's Economic Stress Index shows foreclosure and bankruptcy rates held steady in some states.
Arizona, California and Florida were among the first and most severely hit states with foreclosures are now holding steady at 4.1percent, 3.5 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.
While much of the nation has been high energy and crop prices have created a "safe zone" stretching from the Plains to Texas with Kansas and North and South Dakota suffering the least. The worst hit counties are in Indiana, Ohio and South Carolina, according to the Index.
Greenspan speaks - Finally, appearing Sunday on ABC television's "This Week", Greenspan declared the end of the economic downturn is near. He says the collapse of the financial system is "off the table" after the system teetered for a while. He also cited that the "cash for clunkers" program shows that confidence in the economy is picking up.

All-in-all this is good news for the economy and housing.

 

news by: Housing Matrix.