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Home Prices Drop Significantly in March 2011, NAR is Optimistic Posted: 21 Apr 2011 04:57 AM PDT March 2011 was not a good month for the real estate industry in the United States. Home prices dropped 5.9 percent year over year to $159,600 compared to March, 2010 as even as volume increased slightly in over the same period of time according to a new report from the National Association of Realtors. Interest rates remain at historic lows, albeit artificial lows, as inflation is ramping up in all other categories of the American economic experience. Yet the National Association of Realtors is optimistic. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, was optimistic. “Existing-home sales have risen in six of the past eight months, so we’re clearly on a recovery path,” he said. “With rising jobs and excellent affordability conditions, we project moderate improvements into 2012, but not every month will show a gain – primarily because some buyers are finding it too difficult to obtain a mortgage. For those fortunate enough to qualify for financing, monthly mortgage payments as a percent of income have been at record lows.” However, I would take anything coming out the National Association of Realtor’s with a grain of salt. If you don’t believe me, read this optimistic report in the New York Times WAY BACK in 2006… As median sales prices for existing homes slipped to $225,000 from $230,000 in July — pushing them 1.7 percent lower than in August 2005 — sales fell and the backlog of unsold homes continued to rise, the report said. The last time prices fell from their year-earlier level was in April 1995. David A. Lereah, chief economist for the Realtors association, said the price drop was a taste of what the market should expect in the coming months. But he predicted that prices would probably improve next year. “We’re in for a ride right now,” Mr. Lereah said. “This is the first of many price corrections for the remaining months of the year — for at least the next three or four months.” So we have seen national home prices fall from $230,000 to $159,600 and all the while the National Association of Realtors has been telling us their has never been a better time to buy. Now the organization is looking to raise it’s dues $40 per member to fund increased lobbying in Washington to help convince the government to play a more active role in helping Realtor’s sell more homes. Last year the government did so. They gave away billions of dollars to get the market moving. This year those people who got the tax rebates have seen that money disappear as the market repriced the homes to where they should have been. Folks, markets are very powerful. We have seen real estate go through a bubble and now we are hopefully near the bottom. It has been a wild and painful ride for many and my heart goes to those families that have suffered. But when getting guidance to buy real estate, find a trusted local real estate agent and do not listen to the National Association of Realtors. They have one purpose, to help their member agents sell as many homes as possible. Their chief economists have always sugar coated the markets and their lobbyist are doing everything to keep the velocity of homes being sold high as agents only make commissions if a home sells. Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published. Home Prices Drop Significantly in March 2011, NAR is Optimistic Related posts: 9.6 Percent Drop in Home Sales Nationwide in February 2011 Remember that housing recovery that was supposed to happen this... Real Estate Agent’s Commissions Down 50 Percent According to Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist at the National Association... FHA Expecting Higher Home Prices in 2015 To Dig Itself Out of It’s Financial Hole When you see the news later today everyone will be...

Atlanta Home Prices Fall To 1997 Levels Posted: 21 Apr 2011 04:34 AM PDT A year ago the housing market in Atlanta was being propped up by your tax money via a tax rebate program. Today the market is in free fall with home prices dropping nearly $15,000  from last years levels. This means that the median home price in Atlanta is under $100,000, or about what you would have bought the home for in 1997. What is even worse is that homes sales volume is also dropping from the previous anemic levels of last few years. When you do not have buyers you do not have a market. The only good thing that is coming from this intense adjustment is that pricing is finding it’s true bottom. Instead of creating artificial demand by giving away tax payers money we are now finding out at what point buyers will make decide they have a good chance of getting a fair price on a home. Let’s hope we find that bottom quickly and Atlanta home buyers can build from here. We’re back to almost 1997 levels,” said Steve Palm of housing data firm SmartNumbers. “It’s pretty bad and it’s not going to get better either.” The volume of home sales in the area also dipped — by 6.5 percent compared to the same month a year ago — according to the data released Wednesday. Palm said getting the housing market in better shape hinges on the economy, which he believes has not turned the corner. In a speech to the Atlanta Press Club on Wednesday, Gov. Nathan Deal said this of the housing market, “It is truly one of the most troubling parts of our economy.” It is a situation, he noted, that affects local governments more than the state, which gets a small percentage of the taxes paid by homeowners. via the AJC Thanks for reading this post. If you would like to see more articles like this, please come visit The Real Estate Bloggers. where it was originally published. Atlanta Home Prices Fall To 1997 Levels Related posts: Let The Market Determine Home Prices, Not Government For the past couple of years I have turned into... The Real Estate Double Dip Is Here We have talked about the United States real estate market... FHA Expecting Higher Home Prices in 2015 To Dig Itself Out of It’s Financial Hole When you see the news later today everyone will be...

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