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Title: Pending Sales of US Existing Homes at Near Two-Year High
Source:
Bloomberg
URL Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012- ... s-hold-near-two-year-high.html
Published: Mar 26, 2012
Author: Timothy R. Homan
Post Date: 2012-03-26 12:57:59 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 1281
Comments: 3
The number of Americans signing contracts to buy previously owned homes held in February near an almost two-year high, a sign that the real estate market may be stabilizing. The index of pending home purchases fell 0.5 percent to 96.5 after a 2 percent increase the prior month, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. January’s reading of 97 was the highest since April 2010. The median forecast of 41 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a 1 percent rise. Residential real estate is recovering even amid the threat of more foreclosures, which are weighing on property values. A pickup in hiring, growing incomes and mortgage rates near a record low are making houses more affordable, driving demand. “Demand is gradually improving,” said Yelena Shulyatyeva, a U.S. economist at BNP Paribas in New York. “It’s really a problem of oversupply in the housing market. A lot will depend on how fast the foreclosures are being processed.” Stocks held earlier gains after the report. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 1 percent to 1,411.31 at 10:13 a.m. in New York after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank needs to maintain monetary policy accommodative to spur hiring. Estimates for February pending home sales in the Bloomberg survey ranged from a drop of 1.5 percent to an increase of 5 percent. Pending home sales are considered a leading indicator because they track contract signings. Purchases of existing homes are tabulated when a contract closes, typically a month or two later, and made up about 93 percent of the housing market last year. Compared with a year earlier, February pending home sales climbed 14 percent. Three of four regions saw a decrease in pending home sales, today’s report showed. That included a 3 percent decline in the South and a 2.6 percent drop in the West. The Midwest climbed 6.5 percent. Sales of previously owned houses held in February near an almost two-year high, the real-estate agents’ group reported last week. Purchases dropped 0.9 percent to a 4.59 million annual rate from a revised 4.63 million pace in January that was faster than previously estimated and the highest since May 2010. Even with the decline last month, January and February sales of existing homes marked the strongest start to a year since 2007. “The spring home buying season looks bright because of an elevated level of contract offers so far this year,” Lawrence Yun, the association’s chief economist, said in a statement today. “If activity is sustained near present levels, existing home sales will see their best performance in five years.” Home foreclosures remain a concern for builders. Filings fell 8 percent in February, the smallest year-over-year decrease since October 2010, as lenders began working through a backlog of seized properties, RealtyTrac Inc. said this month. “February’s numbers point to a gradually rising foreclosure tide,” Brandon Moore, RealtyTrac’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. “That should result in more states posting annual increases in the coming months.” To hold down borrowing costs like mortgage rates, Fed policy makers last week said they will continue to swap $400 billion in short-term securities with long-term debt to lengthen the average maturity of the central bank’s holdings, a move dubbed Operation Twist. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke today said that while he’s encouraged by the decline in unemployment, the central bank still needs to keep interest rates low to make further progress. Recent “better news” on the economy has also included a “slight bit of encouraging news here and there in the housing market” and strength in manufacturing, Bernanke said in response to audience questions following a speech in Arlington, Virginia. New-home purchases decreased 1.6 percent in February to a 313,000 annual rate, the slowest since October, the Commerce Department said last week. That pace is hurting some builders. KB Home, the Los Angeles-based homebuilder that targets first-time buyers, fell the most in almost nine months after it reported a decline in orders and government data showed new-home sales dropped in February. “We are seeing signs that the overall housing market is stabilizing and beginning to recover,” Jeffrey Mezger, president and chief executive officer of KB Home (KBH), said in a March 23 statement. “The pace of the recovery is uneven, however. We expect that the housing market in general will gradually strengthen as the economy continues to advance.”
Survey Results
Start of Year
Fed Policy
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
You're talking out your ass. From The U.S. Housing Market's Biggest Hurdle, Whether it's record low mortgage rates, improvement in the Case-Shiller Index, higher housing starts, or any other report, the headlines don't tell the whole story - and the story matters. The real story is that the housing bubble was inflated by cheap and abundant mortgage financing and a sustainable recovery is only possible if that story has a second chapter. But, that's not happening. From U.S. Housing Market New Home Sales Show Disappointing Performance, Thanks for playing, goebbels jr.
To: mcToejam, rat-boy, drippy, Alzheimer Fred, whitesands, t-bird, Obama's deportation to Kenya is pending too, don't hold your breath!
Obama's watch stopped on 24 May 2008, but he's been too busy smoking crack to notice.
You guys are so immature and silly with your pipe dream fantasies. Obama seems to have actually served a national purpose by bringing all you idiots out of the woodwork.
Almost every country in the Middle East is awash in oil, and we have to side with the one that has nothing but joos. Goddamn, that was good thinkin'. Esso posted on 2012-01-13 7:37:56 ET
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke today said ... the central bank still needs to keep interest rates low to make further progress.
The number of Americans signing contracts to buy previously owned homes held in February near an almost two-year high, a sign that the real estate market may be stabilizing.
Forget about optimistic headlines on the housing market.
Sales of new single-family homes fell 1.6% to an annual rate of 313,000 in February. The level of single-family home sales is up 12.6% from the historical low of 278,000 registered in August 2010 (see Chart 1). Sales of new homes rose in the Northeast (+14.3%) and West (+8.0%) but fell in the Midwest (- 2.4%) and South (-7.2%).
loonymom, ming, e-type jackoff, goober56, wreck, cal-CON, rabid dog, dummy DwarF, biff, harrowup the communist, and meguro. You're on the "a waste of human flesh" list. Brian S[ocialist], you're a propagandist moron. ALL of you can piss off.
#2. To: Brian S, *Ron Paul for President* (#0)
Pending home sales
"We (government) need to do a lot less, a lot sooner" ~Ron Paul
#3. To: hondo68 (#2)
Obama's deportation to Kenya is pending too, don't hold your breath!
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